Dutch and Gina: The Power of Love (16 page)

Dutch smiled too, although the situation prevented any real joy.
 
“I miss you so much, and want to be by your side right now, but I need you to bear with me, babe, all right?”

“But this keeping up appearances just drives me bonkers.
 
But I’ll do it.
 
I’m just amazed that you can even think straight right now.
 
But I’ll hold the fort down here.”

Dutch smiled.
 
“That’s my girl.”

“And you keep it together for me.”

He nodded.
  
“I promise you I will.”

“And Dutch,” Gina said and he braced himself.

“Yes, dear?”

“I miss you more.”

Dutch smiled.
 
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
 
And he killed the call.
 

He leaned his head back, his heart filled with so much love for that woman.
 
Not because she had said that cute little line about how she missed him more.
 
But because she didn’t even ask if he was guilty of anything at all.
 
She was a treasure, a precious sapphire that he often felt he didn’t deserve.

Then he thought about Liz, and her awful end, and his joy turned, once again, to pain.

SEVEN

Although Gina was advised by Dutch’s people to continue business as usual around the White House, she couldn’t pull it off.
 
By midday she had called it a day and retired to the Residence where she spent the bulk of her time playing with Little Walt and talking on the phone with Jade, who was very distressed.
 
Christian and LaLa had wanted to hang out in the Residence with her, for moral support, but she had ordered them both to go home, and get some rest.
 
Because tomorrow, when Dutch returned, would probably be even more traumatic.

By nightfall, after she had put Walt to bed and had showered and gone to bed herself, she couldn’t resist any longer.
 
She clicked through the various cable news channels.
 
And the conversations by those know-it-all talking heads were startling.
 
They sat in round tables or one-on-one and pontificated as if they were in that hotel room when it all went down.
 
And Gina knew it was all a bunch of nonsense.

They wanted answers.
 
The president had scheduled a news conference for tomorrow afternoon, to be carried by every network known to man, but that didn’t lessen the speculation for one second.
 
And Gina just laid there and watched it.
 
She wanted Dutch so badly, but she knew the last thing he needed was for her to be crying on the telephone worrying him even more.
 

But she couldn’t believe the level of speculation so-called journalists were making.
 
They went from questioning why Liz Sinclair was in the president’s hotel room at all, to suggesting she may have been found dead in the president’s bed.
 
Then they shifted gears and began talking about end results, and if authorities could arrest a sitting president and charge him with murder, as if they believed that Dutch Harber, Gina thought angrily, could murder somebody.
  
It was surreal to Gina.
 
And terrifying too.
 

She turned over, looked at the picture of Dutch on her nightstand, his brilliant smile and big green eyes staring back at her, and all she could do was pray that this nightmare would soon be over.
 
There was a logical explanation for all of it, she was certain there was, and Dutch would explain it all when he returned.
 

But the waiting was a bear.
 

The waiting was unbearable.

LaLa King was drying off in the bathroom of her Georgetown home when she heard the doorbell ring.
 
She was, at first, surprised since people rarely came to her home this time of night.
 
But then she quickly put on her bathrobe and hurried to the door.
 

“Who is it?” she asked as she tied the sash.

“It’s me, La, open up.”
 

The voice of Crader McKenzie warmed LaLa’s heart.
 
She quickly opened the door.

“Crader,” she said, surprised and thrilled to see him.
 
She knew he was back in town, but he had spent almost all of his time huddled with Dutch’s political and legal staff and by the time he was able to take a break, she had already been ordered to go home.
 

“I know it’s late, but I wanted to see you.”

“Come in,” LaLa said, and Crader walked in.
 

As soon as the door closed, and they were toe to toe, Crader placed his hands in his pant pockets and looked LaLa in the eyes.

“I looked for you earlier, but Marge said you were ordered home.”

“I was.
 
Me and Christian both.
 
Gina believes tomorrow, when the president returns, is going to be Washington’s version of insanity.
 
She wanted us rested and ready.”

“Yeah,” Crader agreed, his eyes unable to shield his own fright.
 
He looked down, at the robe she wore, at her revealed cleavage, and he rubbed her arm.
 
“It will be brutal, I assure you.
 
That’s why I wanted to see you.
 
Make sure you were okay.”

LaLa stared at Crader.
 
Maybe it was the emotions of the scandal, maybe it was the fact that it was him, maybe it was that loneliness that had been creeping back into her life.
 
But for the first time in a long time she didn’t look at Crader McKenzie and see a cheater, a womanizer, a heartbreaker.
 
She just saw Cray, the good man she once believed was the love of her life.

And tears welled up in her big, brown eyes.

“Oh, La,” Crader said heartfelt as he moved up to her and pulled her into his arms.
 
“I know you’re Gina’s best friend and this is tough for you, but please don’t cry.
 
I can’t bear seeing you cry.”

“I’m okay.”

“It’s going to be okay, I promise you.”
 
Then he pulled her back slightly and looked at her.
 
“Dutch and Gina are going to get through this, you hear me?
 
You don’t know Dutch the way I do.
 
There’s not a stronger man alive.
 
He’ll get them through this.”

LaLa nodded her head.
 
“It’s just so much Gina has to go through.
 
And talk about strength, Gina has it in spades, too.
 
She’s a very strong woman.
 
But you should hear those people on those cable news shows.
 
They sound like judge and jury.
 
They sound as if the president murdered that woman!”

“I know,” Crader said, pulling her into his arms again.
 
He then walked her to the sofa, where they sat side by side, his arm still around her.

“And what about Liz?” LaLa asked.
 
“To die in some hotel bathroom.”

“Yeah,” Crader said.
 
He was no fan of Liz Sinclair’s, especially after his weakness for a beautiful body led him to have a sexual encounter with her, but what happened to her was still unbelievable.
     

 
“Her parents must be devastated,” LaLa added.

“Oh, I’m sure they are.
 
But don’t cry for them.
 
They’re about as ruthless as Liz was.”

LaLa leaned back, looked at him.
 
“What do you mean?”

“Dutch is planning to have a news conference tomorrow.
 
You know that, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well Ma and Pa Sinclair plan to have one first.
 
They’ve hired attorneys---”

“Already?”

“Already.
 
And they plan to insist the president murdered their poor, unfortunate daughter and they want justice and they want it now.
 
And they also, wink, wink, plan to announce the eventual filing of a wrongful death, billion dollar civil suit.
 
We just got word of that joke a couple hours ago.”

LaLa frowned.
 
“The president is a millionaire, yes, but he’s no billionaire.
 
Where is this billion dollars coming from?
 
And besides, how can they file a civil suit before any criminal charges have even been filed?”

“They can do it, but they won’t.
 
It’s all about publicity.
 
All about showing just how certain they are that the president is guilty.
 
It’s all bluster.”

Then he took her chin in his hand and lifted her face to his.
 
Their lips were a mere inch apart.
 
“And what I don’t want you to do is to worry your pretty little head over any of this.
 
You hear me, La?”

LaLa smiled.
 
She was accustomed to worrying about others.
 
She had forgotten what it felt like to have somebody worrying about her.
 
Especially somebody as gorgeous, as downright virile and sensual and enigmatic as Crader McKenzie.
  
“I hear you,” she said.

And when he should have removed his hand from her chin, or she should have looked away from those blazing blue eyes of his, they didn’t.
  
They couldn’t.
 
The nearness, the fact that they were both sex starved, and yes, the love they felt for each other, prevented either one of them from moving even a milliliter away.
 

And tears began to well up in Crader’s eyes.
 
“What I did with Liz,” he said, “was the single biggest mistake of my life.
 
I didn’t want her.
 
I wanted you.
 
And when I realized that you weren’t like all of those other women I’ve had in the past, who would forgive me anything, I was terrified, La.
 
The fact that I had ruined it with you over something I didn’t even think twice about, scared me shitless.”

LaLa would have smiled, but she couldn’t.
 
Crader had tears in his eyes.
 
His heart was on his sleeve.
 
He was revealing himself to her unlike he ever had.
 
She couldn’t smile even if she had wanted to.

“And that recognition that you weren’t going to let me get away with my usual sleeping around bullshit,” Crader went on, “was a wakeup call for me.
 
Because, in truth, I expected nothing less from you.
 
You’re different, La, and I knew it all along.
 
And that’s why I can’t go to bed at night without thinking about you.
 
That’s why I can’t wake up every morning without wishing you were by my side.
 
That’s why I haven’t had sex with another woman, not one, since you caught me with Liz that night.”