President's Girlfriend 07 - What He Did for Love (14 page)

“But it’s not about protection.  It’s about that fishbowl, that life, the vultures that circle us as if we were designed for their pleasure.  It’s about what happened to me at Jade’s house.  I still have nightmares, Dutch.”

Dutch rubbed her hands.  “I know, sweetheart.”

“I walked through that door and saw Jade standing there, and I thought everything was alright.  Then I heard those gun shots.”

Dutch wanted to pull her in his arms if it would stop her from re-living that awful day.  But he also knew she needed to retell it until it no longer held power in her life. 

“When I heard those gun shots,” she continued, “I thought Jade was in trouble.  I thought somebody was shooting Jade.  And I remember thinking how you were going to be so devastated to know that something had happened to your little girl.  I didn’t know it was me, that I was the one in trouble, until I started falling.  I still dream about that fall, Dutch.” 

She looked him dead in the eye.  “I can’t go back there.  You can’t ask that of me.”

Dutch closed his eyes.  He wished to God he didn’t have to ask her.  He wished to God this craziness hadn’t happened right now, when there was no way in hell he could walk away now.

He opened his eyes.  Gina had tears in hers.  And he knew he had to be firm.  It broke his heart, but he knew he could no longer ask her, he had to tell her.

“I have to go back, Gina.  There’s no two ways about it.  I have to.  And you and our son are coming with me.”

“But I told you I can’t.”

“I know what you told me.  But I’m telling you that you can, and you will come with me.  Now go upstairs and pack a few things.  They’re preparing my departure now.  I’ve got to address the nation.”

Gina felt as if she’d been hit in the gut.  She knew how Dutch could be when his mind was made up.  She was the only one who could change it, but it always required some epic battle before he would even consider changing.  And with the craziness going on all across this country, she had no heart for any fight.

She stood up, and walked out of the library. 

After she left, Dutch buried his face in his hands. 

“Lord, forgive me,” he said.

After another round of conference calls with his cabinet, world leaders, and Crader, Dutch walked out of his office with his entourage of agents, staff, and Birdie Camp.  The presidential motorcade was ready to depart and Air Force One was at the ready, too.  But when Christian came downstairs just as the entourage had emerged with word that Gina was not going, his sense of cool was about to reach its limit.

“What do you mean she’s not going?” Birdie Camp angrily asked Christian.  “The country needs her husband!”

Christian, however, directed his comments to Dutch.  “When I told her that you were ready to leave,” he said, “she told me that you can leave all you want, but she wasn’t going.”

“Oh, this is absurd!” Birdie declared.  “Our country is at war and she won’t stand by our president?”

Dutch looked at Birdie.  “Don’t you dare talk about my wife that way,” he said. “You and the staff get in the cars.  I’ll be there.”

Birdie was a powerful man in his own right, and he wasn’t too keen on Dutch Harber giving him any orders.  But he knew Dutch was right.  He had no call interfering in the squabbles of a couple, even the First Couple.

“Yes, sir, Mr. President,” he said and led the staff out of the house.

Christian remained beside Dutch.  “Get Little Walt,” he ordered him. 

But Christian had a ready comeback.  “She said  no, sir,” he said. 

Dutch looked at him.  “She said no about what?”

“Getting Little Walt.  She said she wasn’t going, and her baby wasn’t going either.”

Now Dutch had had it. Gina was taking this shit too far.  He hurried up the stairs, taking them two at a time, until he was hurrying down the long corridor that led to the master bedroom.  He knew this day would be trying.  As soon as he saw all of that destruction and carnage he knew it was not going to be a good day.  But he never dreamed his biggest fight would be with his own wife.

He threw open the bedroom door.  Gina was standing at the window, her arms folded.

“Enough is enough, Gina,” he said.  “Now let’s go!”

She turned to him.  “I told you I wasn’t going!”

“And I told you have to go!   Now I don’t wanna hear any more about it.  I know this is painful for you.  I know you don’t want to ever see that place again.  But I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave my family here without being here to protect them.  Now you get your shit together and get your ass downstairs, Gina, and I’m not telling you again!”

“You didn’t have to tell me this time,” Gina declared.  “I told you I wasn’t going, and I’m not going!”

Her obstinacy riled something inside of Dutch.  This day was ass-backwards already, and now his wife too?  He hurried to her, grabbed her arms, and slung her against the side wall, her back hitting the wall.

“Now you listen to me, Regina Harber.  I’m not fucking around with you anymore.  I have to be in DC.  That means you and Walter have to be there too.  So stop this nonsense and get your ass ready to go and get it ready now!”

He shoved her when she continued to just stand there.  But Gina wasn’t backing down.  “I’m not going!” she yelled.  “I said I wasn’t going and I’m not going and you can’t make me!  I can’t go, Dutch.  It’s too soon!”

“Okay, fine,” Dutch said as he headed for the exit.  “Stay here. 
Got
dammit!”  He began hurrying out of the bedroom.

At first Gina didn’t understand why he would give up so quickly.  That wasn’t like Dutch at all.  Then it clicked.  “Little Walt,” she said, and then she ran out of the room.

“He’s staying with me, Dutch!” she yelled as she ran down the hall and up to him.  “You can’t take him away from me!”  She slammed her fist into her husband’s back just as he was about to go into Little Walt’s bedroom.

Her lick barely stumbled him but he turned around with his hand raised, ready to slap the shit out of Gina.

But when he saw her recoil, and he realized what he was about to do to the woman he loved, he froze.  What in the world was he thinking?  She nearly lost her life in DC just a month ago, and he was angry that she refused to go back there?  And then, to add insult to injury, he was going to take her baby too? 

He dropped his hand, stared at her, and then pulled her into his arms.

Gina was in tears by the time Dutch embraced her.  Because she was torn too.  She knew he was stressed beyond measure already and he hadn’t even gotten to Washington yet.  And she knew that this pain was all because of her.

Both of them felt the sting of this sudden wrong turn on a day that started out so right.  They were laughing and joking earlier.  Now they were at each other’s throat. 

They stopped embracing.  Dutch felt embarrassed about his anger, which angered him even more.

“Kiss Little Walt for me,” he said as he kissed her on her cheek.  “I’ll give you a call when I can.”

Gina watched him as he headed down the hall, and then the stairs.  She leaned against the wall, closed her eyes, and cried.

When Dutch came out of his home, his staff and the Speaker were already seated in the waiting limousines.  The presidential limousine, however, was vacant.  The agent-in-charge walked up to Dutch as he stood at the top of the steps.

“She’s staying, sir?” he asked him.

“She’s staying,” Dutch said regrettably.  “That’s why I want you to triple security here.”

“I will, sir.”

“My wife and child will be here without me, and until I know more about the threat we face, I don’t want them leaving this estate.”

“Yes, sir.”

“My wife will battle you about that, but you have my orders.  She’s not to go anywhere until I get back here, or at least until the threat is averted.  I don’t care if you have to lock her in this house, you’d had better not disobey my order.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dutch is about to begin walking down the steps.  Then he remembered Jade and Sam.  “Oh, and make sure security is beefed up for my daughter and her mother.”

But the agent was ahead of him.  “That’s already been taken care of, sir.  Because of the unknown nature of the threat, we have them en route to the White House now.  For their own protection.”

“Did they have a problem with that decision?”

“None whatsoever, sir.  They didn’t resist at all.”

At least Jade and Sam accepted his help.

“When do you think you’ll be back, sir?” the agent asked.

Dutch didn’t even want to think about that.  “Soon,” he said as he began walking down the steps.  “I pray soon.”

Once he arrived at the limo, however, the agent opening the door suddenly looked behind him.

“Sir,” the agent said, motioning his head toward the top of the steps.

Dutch turned around.  Gina, holding Little Walt’s hand, was just coming out of the house.   When Dutch saw them, his heart rammed against his chest.

“Daddy!” Little Walt yelled as soon as he saw his father, and then he tore away from Gina’s hand.  He took off down the steps, with agents attempting to keep up with him, as he ran up and jumped into Dutch’s arms.

“Careful, son,” Dutch said with a smile as he gladly embraced him.

Then he looked up the steps at Gina.  She remained at the top of the steps.  She was terrified, Dutch could not only see it, but feel it, and she was torn.  Everything within her wanted to stay.  Everything within her wanted to stand by Dutch. 

Dutch knew what he was asking of her.  He knew what a major step this was for her.  He therefore placed Little Walt back on his feet and, with him, began walking up the steps.  When he was near enough, he reached out his hand to her. 

At first Gina just stood there, her entire body shaking.  Then she took his hand. 

As Dutch walked down the steps with his wife and son, he could feel something shift deep within him.  He loved Gina more, at this very moment, than he’d ever loved another human being in his entire life.  She was willing to face her fear, to go against her very nature, for his sake.  And knowing something that profound, and that incredible, humbled Dutch Harber.

Little Walt jumped into the limo first, while Dutch placed his arm around Gina’s waist, and guided her in.

CHAPTER TWELVE

LaLa sat on the couch in Crader’s West Wing office and watched as he fielded yet another call from yet another anxious governor affected by the rash of bombings.  When he hung up, she could see the tension all over his face.

“What do they want from you?” she asked him.

“Answers,” he replied as he leaned back in the chair behind his desk.  “Seems like this country is going to hell in a hand basket and they want to know why.  And,” Crader said as he stood up and walked over to the couch, “they also want Dutch.”

“Didn’t he give Birdie his resignation this morning?” LaLa asked him.

“He gave it to him, yes.  But it’s not effective immediately.  Dutch refused to take it back from Birdie because he still has every intention of resigning.  Just not right now.  He doesn’t feel he can leave right now, not with this craziness going on.”

LaLa shook her head.  “Will that man ever get a break?”

“No,” Crader said as he sat beside his wife.  “Dutch has paid his dues.  He stayed and guided this country even though his family was nearly destroyed by all kinds of events during his presidency.  But they need a steady hand right now.  And he’s the steady hand they want.”

LaLa stared at Crader.  “How does it make you feel,” she asked him, “that the country prefers Dutch?”

  Crader placed his hand on top of hers.  “Truth of the matter is, I prefer him too.”

LaLa laughed.

“I’m serious,” Crader said with a smile. 

Given the pressures he was under today, not to mention the pressures their marriage was under, LaLa was pleased to see that they were still able to smile.

“Dutch has been president for six years now,” Crader went on.  “He’s a known quantity.  I’ve only been V.P. for a fraction of his presidency.  They’re still getting to know me.”

“But you were a senator before.”

“The state of Florida knew me as their senator, and I was generally known in the country, but I wasn’t exactly a household name or anything like that.  But Dutch was a star even before politics, when he was a savvy businessman.”

“Was he a star because of his business acumen, or his bedroom acumen?”

Crader laughed.  “Probably both,” he said.  “He certainly knew how to, shall we say, entertain the ladies.”  Then he looked at LaLa’s dark hand in his light hand.  “But the country needs him right now.  They need to know that an experienced leader is on the job.  Look at all of the panic,” Crader said as he looked up at the flat screen television set on the wall of his office. 

LaLa looked too.  The sound on the TV was muted, but the scene, of a live MSNBC feed, was horrific.  Buildings were destroyed, men, women, and children were running around with smoke dust all over their clothes, confusion on their faces, and pain and heartbreak cloaking them like strait jackets. 

“It’s awful,” LaLa said.

“Yeah,” Crader said.  “And their government is clueless.  This is an awful day, La.  I’m pleased Dutch has agreed to come back.”  Then he looked at her.  “Have you heard from Gina?”

“No.  Why?”

“I just thought she might have told you how Dutch was handling all of this.”

“That’s why I didn’t try to phone her yet.  This has got to be traumatic for her.  The idea that he would have to leave her and Little Walt in New Jersey while he, once again, attended to the needs of the country he so loves.  But. . . she has to wonder if he loves the country more than he loves his family.”

“He has a duty to his country,” Crader said.  “I’m sure Gina understands that.”

“She does.  But. . .”

“But what?”

“But action speaks louder than words to women sometimes, Cray.  After his son was kidnapped and his near-heart attack, I thought he was going to leave office then.  But he didn’t.  And then Gina was gunned down when he was the target and . . . it still took him a month before he decided to resign.  And I know it’s not because he doesn’t love her.  But she has to wonder sometimes.”