DUTCH AND GINA: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE

by Monroe, Mallory

  “You knew because you heard me in the mud room. You heard me talking to Allison on my cell phone before I even entered that living area. You had to have heard me, Jade! But you still didn’t warn me.”

  Jade knew this conversation was going no-where. She didn’t even want to face Gina again. She wanted her father! But he had insisted. “If you’re so certain I wasn’t in too much shock to warn you, then why are you here?”

  Gina wondered herself sometimes. “Because of your father,” she said. “He still loves you, and you will always be his daughter.”

  “That’s right, bitch, so don’t get it twisted,” Jade said with emphasis. “I will always be his flesh and blood. You’re just his wife. Wives come and go. A daughter stays forever.”

  Gina stared at this delusional chick. But she didn’t take the bait. She needed a few more answers from Jade. “Did you mean what you said to that reporter?” she asked her.

  Jade knew exactly what she was talking about. “What reporter?”

  “Did you mean it when you said I got what I deserved?”

  Jade swallowed hard. “I was just playing with him. I didn’t know he was recording me. I was just playing around.”

  “You call something like that play?” Gina asked her.

  “Yes! It’s no big deal. I know you want to break me and my daddy up with that accusation, but it won’t work. I was just playing when I said that.”

  Gina was so through with this young lady that she could hardly contain herself. She stood up. “Well, I’m not playing when I say this,” she said and Jade stood too and braced herself.

  Gina did not mix words. “You, Jade, are a vile, selfish person. I’m not playing when I say you need to get you some help and get you some help fast. I’m not playing when I say I’m not the bitch to play with, okay? I’m not the one, Jade. What you didn’t say that day I was shot, and what you said to that reporter later, will not be forgotten by me. It will never be forgotten by me.”

  “But if you don’t forgive me, Daddy won’t have anything more to do with me. He said so himself!”

  Gina couldn’t believe this woman. “You expected me to forgive you?” she asked her with incredulity in her voice.

  “Yes!” Jade said, equally surprised. “Why else would you be here? Daddy said he can’t forgive me until you forgive me. You’ve got to forgive me, Gina. You’ve got to!”

  Gina stared at her. The nerve of her! Even this meeting was all about what she wanted rather than what she did! “There is something wrong with you,” Gina said bluntly and began to head for the exit.

  But Jade would have none of that. Gina was her only hope to reconciling with Dutch. She ran to Gina. “You’ve got to forgive me,” she insisted as she grabbed Gina’s arm and turned her back around. “Don’t you understand? You’ve got to forgive me you black bitch!”

  As soon as Jade said those words, Gina looked Jade dead in the eye. And she didn’t see black. She saw red. And she slapped Jade so hard that Jade fell over a chair. The sound of the fall caused the door to fly open and Dutch ran in even before the agents could, and his heart was pounding.

  But Gina was still standing.

  “I’m alright,” she said, as Dutch stood there watching her, and then Jade. “I’m alright.”

  Gina stared at Jade a moment longer, as the Secret Service helped the young woman to her feet. She was Dutch’s daughter, and Gina knew she needed her father. But her days of cuddling Jade Redding, and of cutting her slack time and time again just because she hadn’t had a perfect life, were over. They were done.

  Gina turned, and walked away.

  Sam ran in and looked at her daughter. And the hatred she saw in her daughter’s eyes cut her short. “What happened?” she asked her.

  But Jade was in no condition to answer. She was screaming obscenities at Gina and everybody else. She was screaming uncontrollably. The agents holding her, all of whom were physically superior men, could barely hold on. Even Sam had never seen such a display from her.

  Dutch looked at his daughter. He stared at his troubled daughter as she wrenched and wiggled and kicked and screamed. Then he walked over to her, took her from the flustered agents, and pulled her into his arms.

  And it was only then did Jade stop fighting and calmed down. But she was still unhinged as she sobbed uncontrollably in her father’s arms.

  Later that same night, arrangements were made for the president’s daughter to privately become a temporary resident at Hammersmith Gardens, an emotional and behavioral resting place for the wealthy and well-connected, in Sunnydale, California.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Crader slammed LaLa against the wall and fucked her hard from behind. They were both naked in their bedroom at Blair House, and Crader was especially horny. He wanted LaLa bad.

  “All of you, baby,” he was saying as he fucked her. “I want all of you!”

  And LaLa begged him to take all. She couldn’t take their abstinence another second. She screamed as he pumped on her body and slapped against her ass in one of the hardest fucks he’d ever put on her. Crader’s teeth were clenched as he fucked her. All he could think about was the feeling of tightness and pleasure that overcame every inch of his body. LaLa made him feel alive. She made him feel as if he could never deserve somebody this special. But she was his. And the more he pumped, the more he felt he was showing just how pleased he was to know that she was his.

  LaLa’s arms were holding pinned against the wall as Crader’s pounding pushed her further and further against it. She loved the way he did her. She loved the way he whispered in her ears as his strokes kept firing at her in rapid, sensual succession.

  “Oh, La,” he said as he fucked her, “I’m so sorry, baby. I love you so much! I’m so sorry, La! Every time I ever hurt you, please forgive me. You’re the only woman I want. You’re the only woman I need!”

  He kept fucking her harder as he whispered to her. His erection kept expanding as his feelings for her were verbalized. And LaLa joined in the verbiage.

  “You’re the only man I want, Crader McKenzie,” she said as her vagina felt a hot flash of sensation with every stroke he put on her. “I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you!”

  “Oh, La!” he said one final time and then released at the same time that her organism reached its apex. Their bodies melded together in a rush of passion that caused them both to tremble. It felt as if they were crashing down, but onto a soft, sweet bed.

  Crader kissed her one last time, as he slumped against her. And she smiled.

  “Wow,” she said when his penis stopped throbbing, and he was done.

  And he kissed her again.

  Later, as they ate popcorn in bed and sorted through which DVD they wanted to watch, and as Baby Nicole sat between them playing with the DVDs, Crader said he had a confession.

  LaLa’s hand sat still inside the popcorn bowl, and her heart pounded against her chest. “A confession?” she asked him, terrified. Their marriage was already dangling by a threat. Why did he have to bring this up now?

  “What do you mean a confession?” she asked him.

  “A confession,” he said as if it was an obvious thing to say. He was looking to see which DVD Nicole was playing with. When he realized LaLa wasn’t moving at all, he looked at her. “What?” he asked. And then, just as quickly as he asked it, he understood. “Not that, La!” he said. “Give me credit for some good sense!”

  “Well I didn’t know,” LaLa said with a relieved smile. “You said you had a confession. What was I supposed to think?”

  “Given my track record, you have a point,” Crader admitted. “But no, I wasn’t talking about some new woman somewhere. I was talking about Chris.”

  LaLa’s heart squeezed at the mention of that name. “Chris?” she asked. “Christian?”

  “Yeah,” Crader said. There was a time he would have added, you know, your lover. But he didn’t go there. “I saw him.”

  LaLa didn’t understand. “He works in
the White House. I would have assumed you see him every day.”

  “I mean, he came to see me. To apologize.”

  “Oh,” LaLa said. “Did you accept his apology?”

  “I accepted it, but I wasn’t very nice about it.”

  “That’s your confession? That you weren’t nice to Christian?”

  “My confession is that I wanted to kick his ass again. But I didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Crader hesitated. “I thought about my wife, and my daughter, and I knew you wouldn’t like it. So I controlled myself.”

  LaLa smiled. “Now that’s the real confession,” she said to laughter from Crader. But then LaLa turned serious. “That still bothers you, doesn’t it? What I did with Christian?”

  “Yes, to be honest with you. But I’ll get over it.” He looked at her. “But now I know exactly how you felt when I was having my drama. I’m so sorry, La.”

  LaLa placed her hand on top of his. “All is forgiven, Cray. We have to move on.”

  He smiled. Then got back to finding just that right movie for his family to watch.

  “He’s not going to like it, Gina,” LaLa said to her best friend as they ate lunch inside a private room at a DC restaurant.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Gina replied. Although LaLa was eating, Gina was moving her food around on her plate.

  “It’s a miracle he allowed you to leave the White House long enough to come to this restaurant and have dinner with me. And you had to have sharpshooters on the rooftop and armed guards everywhere for him to agree in the first place.”

  Gina laughed. “Quit exaggerating.” Then her smile was gone. “But I get your point. I don’t know, La, it seems like we’re going to be here for years waiting for Dutch’s administration to make an arrest. He’ll probably fulfill his whole term before an arrest is made.”

  “I hear what you’re saying,” LaLa said. “But he promised the American people that he would remain as their president until the killers are brought to justice. There’s no way he can get out of a promise like that.”

  “I know. And that’s why I’ve got to put my foot down. Enough is enough. I’m going stir crazy here in DC. I didn’t want to come in the first place.”

  “I was stunned when they said you came with the president.”

  “It was only because the president was going all ballistic on my ass. You know how angry with me he can get.”

  “So you gave in because he was angry with you?”

  “I gave in because he was right. He was going to be under a lot of pressure and he needed his family with him. And you see the pressure he’s under. I don’t think there’s been a night when he didn’t get home before midnight . And then he’s up by five or six and back at it again. All for an American people that don’t give a damn about him.”

  “You know they’re blaming him for those terrorist attacks?”

  “Isn’t that a trip? I was upset about it, too. Dutch was even blaming himself for the timing of those hits, but I told him to don’t even trick that. But you know Dutch. He loves his country so much that he always places their needs ahead of his own.”

  “And ahead of his family’s needs sometimes, too.” LaLa was comfortable enough with Gina to say it. “Am I right?”

  Gina nodded her head. “You’re right. That’s why I’m going back to Newark. At least for a week or two so I can check on BBR and have some meetings and make sure my recommendations are being implemented. I was so pumped and ready to begin my life’s work again. Dutch had resigned, at least on paper, and I met with the staff and with Roman. I was back. Social justice here I come!” Then she smiled. “Remember what activists for the cause we used to be, La?”

  LaLa laughed. “Of course I remember. We fought hard to make BBR a success. Those were some good behind days. Some tough days, but some good days, too. But I still say it’s going to be an even tougher sell to get Walter Dutch Harber to let his Queen leave DC without him.”

  “Well, whether he lets me or not, I’m going back to Newark for at least a week to handle my business. I’d rather not battle him about it, but I will if I have to.”

  Gina said this and began eating her food. She knew she was exhibiting far more confidence in her decision than she actually had. But she planned to stand by her word.

  There was a long pause. Then LaLa looked at her. “Crader and I finally . . .”

  Gina looked at her. “You and Crader finally what?” Then she got it. She smiled. “You guys, shall we say, came together?”

  LaLa smiled. “Did we,” she said.

  “That’s good, La. I don’t know what he was waiting on.”

  “It had been so hectic and painful. But we agreed to just forgive each other and move the hell on.”

  “And what about his other child? The one he had with that Evelyn woman?”

  Now it was LaLa who was moving her food around on her plate. “I’ve accepted the child. We met privately once. But Crader’s decided to keep the baby out of the limelight until his vice presidency, or presidency when Dutch leaves, is over.”

  “You’re better than I am. If Dutch would have been the father---”

  “You would have left him?”

  Gina hesitated. “There was a time when I would have said hell yeah, what do you think? But now that I’m older and Dutch is my husband and the father of my son, I can’t say. It’s too complicated now.”

  LaLa nodded. “That’s why I had to accept the child, forgive Crader, and we move on. Because if we don’t we won’t make it.” Then she dismissed such depressing thoughts. “Anyway,” she said, “you didn’t tell me about your meeting with Miss Jade. How did it go?”

  Another depressing topic, as far as Gina was concerned. “Terrible,” she said. “I ended up slapping the heifer.”

  LaLa couldn’t believe it. “You slapped her?”

  “Yes, I slapped her! She stood up there calling me a b and telling me what I was going to do for her. That girl is certifiable, you hear me?” Then Gina calmed back down. “But she’s Dutch’s daughter. That’s why I felt so bad afterwards. She’s on her way to some place in California. Dutch said she put on quite a performance after I left.”

  LaLa frowned. “What do you mean she’s on her way to some place in California? What kind of place?”

  “A place where rich young ladies like Jade goes when they need some rest and therapy. That kind of place.”

  LaLa shook her head. “Her mammy should join her.”

  “Sam’s changed a lot, La. She realizes what a lousy mother she was to Jade. She’s standing by her daughter.”

  “And Dutch will stand by you, don’t you worry. He’ll pick you over that Jade any day of the week.”

  “But I don’t want that, La. I don’t want him choosing between us. I want him to have a relationship with his daughter. She needs him.”

  But LaLa had no sympathy for the likes of Jade. It was women like her that kept married women up nights. “Then tough,” she said. “She should act right if she need her father so badly. Because I’m with you. If she would have been all up in my face calling me a bitch, I would have slapped her down, too.”

  Gina laughed but remained concerned. Because it wasn’t that simple. They could talk all day and night about how tough they were, and how they would have slapped somebody down for offending them. But when their men misbehave they lose that toughness and get all confused and wonder what they should do. When they used to be so definite. My man mess up on me, and it’s over, they used to proclaim. Now they couldn’t even say what they’d do.

  “The First Lady is preparing to leave the restaurant now, sir,” the agent-in-charge alerted the president.

  Dutch was in the very busy Oval Office, seated behind the Resolute Desk, when the call came in. Allison Shearer and a handful of other aides and assistants, were also present.

  Dutch hung up the phone, grabbed his television remote, clicked on the flat screen against the wall, and braced himself.
That cable networks had a live feed covering the First Lady’s arrival and departure from the restaurant.

  The reporters were out in force. More than when she had first arrived at the restaurant. Dutch knew she was red meat for their feeding frenzy. She represented the first member of the First Family to be seen in a public place since the attacks were launched. And it had taken every ounce of courage within Dutch to even allow that.

  And then she and LaLa emerged. Dutch cared deeply about both of those women, but his eyes kept roaming back to his woman. To Gina. He was silently praying that she made it out of there without incident.

  “Mrs. Harber,” the reporters kept shouting. “Mrs. Harber!” Then one of them, a respected print journalist, managed to ask a question.

  “Very nice outfit, Mrs. Harber. Is that Versace, ma’am?”

  Dutch’s heart slammed against his chest. Please don’t answer that, he was silently saying to his wife.

  Gina apparently heard his silent prayer. She smiled as she and LaLa headed for their waiting limousine, and said nothing. She was no novice anymore. She wasn’t about to respond to any shouted-out question from the press, not even a fashion one.

  And it was soon clear how right she was.

  “How can you wear Versace, ma’am,” that same reporter shouted out, “when the country is under attack?”

  Gina almost stopped in her tracks. What the fuck, she almost verbalized. She expected them to say something crazy, but not that crazy. But she was an old hand at the tricks of Washington now. She kept smiling and kept stepping.

  Dutch sighed relief. “That’s my baby,” he murmured under his breath.

  But that didn’t stop the reporter. “How can you and Mrs. McKenzie eat at this fancy restaurant when the entire nation is grieving the loss of so many of our fellow Americans? Don’t you have anything to say to those grieving families? Or you just don’t care? Is it all about you, ma’am, or is it about the American people? Mrs. Harber, how can you walk away when the country wants to hear from their First Lady?”

  But Gina did just that. She kept on walking.