For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend (16 page)

“So
what did the attorney find out?”

“That
the boy might have been innocent, but he was at the scene of the crime, with
the criminals who committed the crime, he was guilty in the eyes of the
law.
 
He told the young man that very
thing.
 
He suggested the kid plead guilty
and hope to get life without parole, rather than Death.”

“Wow.
 
That’s a heavy duty suggestion.”

“Yep.
 
Gina seems to think that’s what caused the
kid to kill himself.
 
He lost his hope.”

LaLa
shook her head.
 
“This is a mess, Dutch,”
she said.
  
“There’s no two ways about
it.
 
This is a mess.”
 
And then she stood up.
 
“I’d better go and see my girl.
 
She has got to be hurting.”

Dutch
stood up too, wiping away his tear.
 
“She
is.
 
That’s why I’m so grateful you’re
here.
 
To be with Gina.”

“And
you, too, Dutch.
 
You can’t beat yourself
up about this.
 
What’s done is done.
 
You need to concentrate on getting your wife
back.”

 
“Don’t worry, I will.
 
I’ll win her trust again.”

LaLa
smiled, but Dutch could see that it was a weak smile.

“What
about you?” he asked.
 
“What in the world
brings you to Newark?”

“I
told you.
 
I just needed to get away for
a few hours, that’s all.
 
I hope to be
back in DC by daybreak.
 
Just felt a need
to get away.”

Dutch
continued to stare at her.
 
He knew her
too well.
 
“What happened?” he asked her.

“Nothing
happened.
 
I wanted to get away for. . .”

“Is
it Crader?”

LaLa’s
discomfort began to manifest itself.
 
“He
hasn’t done anything wrong, if that’s what you mean.
 
He’s not cheating on me or anything like
that.”

“But?”

LaLa
hesitated.
 
Then she spoke.
 
“But he seems so distant.
 
And I know the office of president can do
that to you, but not like this.
 
I saw
you hold that office and you was very much so involved with Gina’s life, and
Walter’s life.
 
But Crader he . . . It’s
as if he barely spend any time with us at all.
 
It’s as if that job is now his mistress.
 
He’s never been good at balancing things, and he’s even worse at it
now.”

Dutch
thought about that.
 
“So what’s the
answer?” he asked her.

“I
don’t think I’ll really know until after he leaves office and all he’ll have is
Nikki and I.”

“And
your fear is that you and Nikki won’t be enough.”

LaLa
frowned.
 
And then nodded.
 
“That’s my fear, yes.
 
And I hate even bringing up my nothing
problems compared to yours.”

“Nonsense,”
Dutch said, putting his arm around her.
 
“Gina and I love you and Crader as if you two were our flesh and
blood.
 
I’m glad you came to us.”

They
stopped embracing.
 
“And don’t worry,
Dutch,” LaLa said.
 
“Gina will be
back.
 
I know she will.
 
She just need a little time to herself
probably.”

Dutch
smiled weakly and rubbed LaLa’s arm.
 
And
then silence ensued as they both thought separately about their own problems,
about each other’s problems, and then about each other.
 
And their closeness.
 
And the fact that Dutch was rubbing her arm
and she had her arm around him.
 
His
cologne. Her perfume.
 
Their genuine love
for each other.
 
And they both knew they
had better shift gears.

LaLa
began heading for the exit.
 
“I’d better
get over to Gina’s,” she said.

Dutch
escorted her to the front door.
 
“I need
to get some sleep anyway.
 
I’m due in
Vegas tomorrow.”

LaLa
looked back at
 
him as she walked toward
the door.
 
“Vegas?” she asked.

“A
three-day business trip unfortunately.
 
Seems a group of investors want me to consider more overseas markets for
Harber Industries.”

“Sounds
like more money to me.”

“Me
too.
 
That’s why I’m going.”

LaLa
laughed.
 
At the door, instead of kissing
on the mouth the way they usually did, they both opted for a hug only.
 

“Get
some rest, Dutch, and don’t worry.
 
Gina
will be home by morning.
 
I’m sure of
it.”

Dutch
smiled, told her not to worry too much about Crader either, and then she was
gone.
 
When he closed the door, only to
be met by the sound of silence in his home once again, he knew LaLa was
extremely optimistic.
 
Especially since he
knew that Gina coming back home, did not automatically translate into Gina
coming back to him.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

They
had progressed to fucking.
 
That was the
only condition Reyza Golan put on helping Jade.
 
He’d get her out of there, and get her in touch with the right
connections to fulfill her desire to rid her father of his wife, but if, and
only if, she’d let him fuck her every session.
 
No more oral sex.
 
That wasn’t
enough for him anymore.
 
He wanted to
fuck.

And
Jade, if it meant getting what she wanted, was more than willing to accommodate
him.
 

On
the morning that Dutch walked into the office of the facility director, they
were half-naked in Golan’s office, doing their thing.
 
It was the day after Dutch and LaLa had had
their conversation.
 
Gina did come back
home the next morning, as Dutch had ordered her to, but only on the condition
that he moved into one of the guest houses.
 
Which, as he predicted, meant that she was back, but not back with him.
 
But at least his family was home.

But
his business obligations didn’t stop just because he had personal
problems.
 
He still had trips to
make.
 
And after a series of meetings
with investors over a two-day period, meetings that were held at the PaLargio Hotel
and Casino on the Vegas Strip, Dutch rented a car and hit the road.
  
He drove the three-plus hours to California,
not only to clear his head, but mainly to visit yet another failure in his
life: his daughter.
 

When
he was told, by Dr. Forbes, that she was at that very moment in a one-on-one
therapy session with Dr. Golan, Dutch somehow knew this was his chance to see
just what that psychiatrist was really up to.
 
Golan’s glowing reports aside, Dutch was willing to bet the farm that
there was some subterfuge going on there.
 
He didn’t know to what extent, but something was wrong between those
two.

“Without
notifying him,” Dutch said to Forbes, “take me to his office.”

They
were in Forbes’ office, and he didn’t see the point of any unannounced visits
now.
 
“Perhaps it would be better if you
met with them after their session,” he suggested.

Dutch,
however, would have none of it.
 
“Take me
to his office,” he said.
 
“Do not
knock.
 
Do not announce me.
 
I want to go in.”

“But,
sir, what you’re asking is highly unusual.”
 

But
Dutch gave Forbes such a chilling look that he said no more and began walking
from around his desk.
 
As quickly as he
had forgotten whom he was talking to, he remembered.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said as he walked.

They
took the elevator upstairs, across the hall, and then into Dr. Golan’s
secretary’s office.
  
When she saw that
Dutch was with the director, she immediately stood up from her seat.
 
“Is he in?” Forbes asked her.

“He’s
in a session, yes, sir,” she replied.

“With
Jade?”

“Yes,
sir.”

“That’s
fine then,” Forbes said as he and Dutch walked on up to the office door.
 
Forbes, remembering that Dutch wanted the
visit to be completely unannounced, didn’t bother to knock.
 
But when he turned the knob to walk on in,
the door was locked, which surprised him.

“Is
that normal?” Dutch asked him.

“No,”
Forbes said, his curiosity piqued too now.
 
He looked at the secretary.
 
“Is
this door always locked?” he asked her.

The
secretary, who couldn’t stand Golan, was more than happy to answer.
 
“Only when Jade Harber is in therapy,” she
replied.

Forbes
looked at Dutch, and then he pulled out his master key.

Inside
the office, Jade, naked from the waist down, was riding Reyza hard.
 
He had his pants and boxers down along his
ankles as he slid her slender body back and forward along his rod.
 
His head was leaned back and his eyes were
closed and he was nearing his climax.
 
Jade was staring at him as she did him, as she couldn’t wait to get it
over with.
 
Having sex with him was like
watching a bad movie.
 
It felt endless
and a major waste of her time.
 
She
preferred oral, because he came a lot faster then.
 
But if fucking him was going to help her get
out of that place and get the connections she needed to do what she had to do
to get rid of Gina Harber once and for all, she was going to fuck him every
chance she got.
 

And
she was fulfilling her obligation marvelously, Reyza thought, as he began
sliding her faster and faster with no regard to how she felt about it.
 
He, in fact, didn’t even look at her as he
fucked her.

But
just when he thought he was in nirvana, his office door was opened and Luther
Forbes and Dutch Harber walked in.

As
soon as he opened his eyes and saw them, he jumped from his seat and dropped
Jade to the floor.
 
Jade scrambled to get
up, and he scrambled to pull up his trousers.
 
But it was like shooting the moon.
 
They were already busted.
 

Forbes
was outraged, but Dutch wasn’t.
 
He
didn’t know what to feel.
 
There was his
daughter, half-naked and about as cured as a wild boar could be cured of
wildness, and he knew it was all so useless.
 
She didn’t want to do it right.
 
She wasn’t interested in doing the work and getting herself better.
 
She wanted to play games with her life.
 
She wanted to pretend and scheme and plot to
get by in her life.
 
And she could go
down that road if she wanted to.
 
She
could chose manipulation and lies and deceit all she cared to.
 
But not with him.

Jade
tried to run to her father, to explain that it wasn’t her fault, that Golan had
put her up to it, but he didn’t want to hear it.
 
Nobody made Jade do anything she didn’t want
to do.
 
Including him.

He
walked away.
 
He could hear her calling
his name, and crying the way she could turn it on and off like a faucet, but
she could cry a river as far as he was concern.
 

He
didn’t look back.

On
the plane ride back to Newark, Dutch felt so alone and disappointed with the
way his life was headed that he began to wonder where it had all gone so off
track.
 
That decision he made to sleep
with Sam Redding all those years ago led to the birth of Jade.
 
He didn’t even know she existed until she was
a grown woman, and he was upset that Sam had kept that information from him.
Now, it all came full circle when he kept the same kind of information from
Gina.
 
Although he was trying to justify
his behavior, and pretend he was looking out for her best interest, it amounted
to the same thing: a betrayal.
 
He had
betrayed his wife.
 
She should have been
told, if not while she was fighting for her life, certainly after she was
recovered.
 
But he kept it to
himself.
 
Now the truth was eating him
alive.

His
cell phone began to ring.
 
When he saw
that it was Gina’s number, his heart soared.
 
And he answered right away.
 
“Hello?” he said.

“Hey.”

“Everything
okay?”

“Such
as it is, yes.
 
Your son wants to talk to
you.”

That
wasn’t exactly what he had wanted to hear, but he was always thrilled to speak
with his boy.
 
“Put him on,” he
said.
 
And she did.

“Hey,
Daddy.”

“Hey,
Champ.”

“Where
are you?”

“I’m
on my plane, high up in the sky.”

“Up
in the clouds?”

“That’s
right.
 
So what’s up?”

“Auntie
LaLa was here this morning.”

“Was
she?”

“Yes,
sir.
 
But she’s gone now.
 
She has to go back home to Nikki.
 
When I woke up, she was here.
 
I was so surprised to see her here.”

“Yes,
it is surprising.”

“Tomorrow
night is movie night,” Walt said, which, Dutch knew, was probably the main
reason why he wanted to talk.
 
“Mommy
promised me last time that you would be here.
 
She said you won’t be too busy and she said you’ll stay the whole time
this time.
 
You’re coming, aren’t you?”

Dutch
smiled.
 
“I wouldn’t miss it for the
world.
 
Yes, son,” he gladly said, “tell
your mother I will definitely be there.

It
was an uplifting thing.
 
The idea that he
could spend time with his family.

Early
the next morning, Dutch made his way from the guesthouse to the main house to
have breakfast with his son.
 

“Daddy!”
Little Walt yelled as soon as his father walked through the backdoor.
 
Then he jumped from his seat at the kitchen
table where he was having breakfast with his Nanny, and ran to him.

Dutch
was so happy to pick up his son, and smell him again, and hold him again that
he nearly squeezed him too hard.
 
“There’s my boy!” he said as he hoisted him up.

“Where
have you been?”

“I
was out of town, remember?
 
I spoke with
you yesterday from the plane.”

“But
I thought you was coming home last night.”

“I
did get back last night.
 
But it was late
at night.”

“Tonight
is movie night.”

“I
know.
 
Aren’t you excited?”

“I
can’t wait,” Walter said, and Dutch couldn’t agree with him more.
 

Walt
looked at Nanny.
 
“I get to stay up late
on movie night.”

Nanny
smiled.
 
“Aren’t you the lucky one.”

“Mommy
says I’m not lucky, I’m blessed.”

Nanny
nodded her head.
 
“And that you are,
young man.”

“Daddy,
you’re gonna be there too, aren’t you?”

“You
know I am.”

“Mommy
says you won’t be too busy.”

“And
Mommy’s right.”

“Good.
 
It’ll be me, you, and Mommy.”

“The
three musketeers.”

“What’s
that?” Walter asked.

“A
famous book written by a famous black man.”

“The
three . . .”

“Musketeers.”

The
chef, a young woman named Tammy, walked over to the center island.
 
“What would you like to have, sir?” she asked
him.

“Just
coffee for me, Tam,” Dutch said as he sat in Walter’s seat at the kitchen
table, and sat Walter on his lap.

“Finished
your breakfast?” Dutch asked, although it was obvious he’d barely touched it.

“Almost,”
Walter said.
 
“You smell good,
Daddy.
 
Like Mommy.
 
You smell like Mommy.”

Just
the mention of Gina had Dutch feeling homesick already.
 
“And how does Mommy smell?” he asked his son.

“Mommy
smells real sweet,” Walter said.

Dutch
remembered just how sweet she smelled.
 
Top to bottom.
 
And that wonderful
place between her legs.
 
“Have you seen
her this morning yet?” he asked his son.

“No,
sir.
 
She’s not a breakfast person like
us.”

Dutch
laughed.
 
“No truer words have ever been
spoken, young man.”

“Open
up, Daddy,” Walter said, with a helping of oatmeal on his spoon.
 
Dutch opened his mouth and allowed his son to
feed him.

“Now
your turn,” Dutch said, and Walter took a bite too.

Dutch
looked at his Rolex.
 
Gina was running
late.
 
“I’d better go and get her up,” he
said and stood up, sitting Walter back in the chair.