‘How long ago was that?’
‘About three hours, Signora.’
‘Did he give a reason?’
‘He said he and his wife didn't wish to be disturbed.’
‘That's funny. I'm his wife! Well, thank you.’ Madeline ended the call and thought to herself, I'm his wife in terms of the mission, anyway. She hurried back to the hotel, winding through the cobbled streets in the dusk light. Once inside the elevator she mentally and physically gained control over herself. She was not about to burst into the room, and make a complete fool of herself. Until now she had been able to separate her feelings from her work, and her associates, and she was determined not to discontinue now. As she reached their door, she heard laughter coming from inside the room. Quietly she opened the door, preparing herself for anything.
Madeline strode confidently through the door, to be confronted by Rick and Angela seated on the couch, champagne in hand. Rick's shirt was open. Madeline quickly composed herself and addressed the blonde.
‘Angela, lovely to see you again. Rick, we've been given the go ahead. Say goodbye. Let's go.’ Madeline crossed the room and retrieved her gun from inside the lid of her suitcase. ‘Angela, be a dear and lock the door as you leave.’ she stated as she checked to see if the pistol was fully loaded. Clicking the bullet clip into position, Madeline walked back out the door, slipping the gun into her waistband, as she went. It took Rick a second to recover.
‘I'm sorry, Angela. It was nice seeing you again.’ Madeline looked back through the open doorway, at the two of them on the lounge. Thinking of what might have occurred over the past three hours made her ill. She snapped at Rick, unable to keep the jealousy and the anger out of her voice.
‘Move it!’ She turned and left once more.
Rick, hearing the tone of her voice, jumped up, grabbed his gun and went to follow her. Remembering Angela, he stated bluntly.
‘I won't ever be calling you, so please don't call me again!’ With that he left the room, leaving Angela sitting on the lounge, in a state of total confusion.
‘You called me, you jerk!’ she screamed after him, but he was already out of the building and jumping into a taxi behind Madeline.
She looked at him. ‘I'm glad you got that out of your system. Now you won't be distracted, while we are working.’ He went to make eye contact, but she snapped her gaze out the side window. Despite her ice tone, and harsh words, Rick suspected, Rick knew she was hurt. He wanted to tell her nothing had happened, but perhaps this was exactly what Madeline needed to force her to open up to him, to force her to admit her true feelings for him. He decided to use Madeline's obvious jealousy to his advantage.
CHAPTER 12
It had been a long day one of many Gillian had had recently, so she was ready for bed. She walked into the bedroom. William was nowhere to be seen. After the fight that they had had, last night, and her talking to him earlier today, Gillian expected to find William waiting to reconcile. She had made her mind up, as she walked down the hallway, from the dining room, not to fall for his charm tonight. After all, she was still mad with him, over the infidelity accusations that had been filtering in through the press. That and the phone calls she’d receive from women who would call at all hours of the night, and when she’d pick up they’d respond, ‘Oh, you’re there. Sorry,’ and hang up. She had never been able to stay mad at William, but tonight she had decided her anger would last longer than its usual twenty-four hours. And she’d nearly made it.
William stood behind one of the French doors, waiting for Gillian to enter the room. In his mind, and many of his surrounding congressmen, she was a beautiful creature, and he wanted to get back on her good side. She was intelligent and an important part of his political team. In fact, William believed she was one of the main reasons he had been elected. William had been planning this evening all day, especially as Gillian had spoken to him, after the press conference. By speaking to him, Gillian had opened up the possibility for reconciliation, and William was definitely going to make the best of the opportunity.
As she reached the centre of the room, Elvis’ version of ‘Unchained Melodies’ began to play. She turned to face the source of the music. As she did so, the doors closed and William appeared from behind one of them, dressed in his navy satin lined bathrobe and matching pyjamas. Obviously she was not going to get the early night she had planned, and obviously she was right about William wanting to seduce her into forgiving him. He smiled and walked towards her. She pouted.
‘May I have this dance, Madame?’ he said, holding out his arms for her to take.
‘If you must.’ She rolled her eyes at him. He always picked the strangest times, to get intimate. But then again, it wasn't very often he joined her before midnight. He was a very busy man whose schedule was only interrupted out of dire necessity. And obviously, in his mind, reconciling with her was a necessity. Gillian smiled. At least I’m still important to him, she decided. At that thought her anger began to dissolve.
‘Oh, don't sound so enthusiastic...’
‘No, really, I'd be delighted.’ She smiled at him. This time, she meant it.
‘That's better, now there's just one thing you have to know...’
‘And that would be?’
‘I have to warn you, when I dip, I dip low, and I dip often.’ With that he took her in his arms, and twirled her around the room. When William danced he really performed for the audience, even if there was no one to really see. He covered the whole floor, and partook in a number of fancy moves. Something that was not widely known about him, was that in high school, thinking that he could meet girls easily, he took up ballroom dancing. Those six months really paid off. He met girls, and now he didn't make a fool of himself, when it came to balls he attended as part of his job.
As William got Gillian over the bed, he dipped her ninety degrees, and then dropped her onto her back, on the bed. He fell down beside her. It was Gillian's turn to lead. She rolled over, towards her husband, and went to kiss him.
‘Mum?’
‘Saved by the bell, Mr. President.’ she whispered.
‘Mum, will you come and tuck me in.?’ It was Rianna. She had been in bed for two hours, and chose now to want another kiss goodnight.
‘Ok sweetie, I'll be right there.’ Rianna left the room. Gillian looked at her husband once again. ‘Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back.’ He tried to kiss her. ‘Hold that thought.’ Gillian left the room, and went into her daughter's bedroom, two doors down the red carpeted hallway.
Rianna was sitting in her bed waiting for her mother. Gillian sat down on the bed beside her. ‘What's wrong honey?’
‘Is dad in trouble?’
‘No baby, what would make you think that?’ She looked at her daughter, with concern. For someone who was only ten years old, she worried a lot.
‘Suzy said Dad got a nasty letter, blaming him for something’ Rianna said, yawning.
‘Nothing is going to happen. It's just some mean people, nothing else. Okay?’
‘Okay, goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, baby.’ Gillian kissed her daughter on the head, waited until she had settled into sleep, thinking of how cruel children could be. Suzy was Senator Bowen's daughter. He was from the other party. She was twelve, and always picking on Rianna. She had probably told Rianna this to scare her. Gillian kissed her sleeping daughter and went back to her bedroom.
When she got there she discovered the music was no longer playing, and William was in bed, apparently asleep. She closed the doors behind her, crossed the room, taking off her satin robe as she did so, and got in beside her husband. After a minute, she rolled over and looked at his face. He was only just managing to keep his eyes closed. She blew across his cheek. William covered his face with the sheet, the movement of the fabric giving Gillian a brief glimpse of his bare shoulder and chest underneath.
‘Stop it Gillian, I'm not in the mood.’
‘Liar!’
‘Who are you calling a li
ar?’ William grabbed her wrists, twisted her onto her back, and began to tickle her. As she moved to escape his grip, she felt something hard under the centre of her back, at the same moment, the music once again filled the room. Gillian laughed as she pulled the remote from under her, and turned it off. William kissed her slightly above the navel.
‘I thought you said you weren't in the mood,’ she teased. William then made his way up her body, sliding the top of her lavender satin pyjamas, as he slid his hands along her sides. He kissed her between the breasts.
‘I lied...’ Then at the base of her neck. ‘Just don't....’ On her lips. ‘Tell my wife!’ He muttered the last of his statement as he kissed her lips, more passionately.
Gillian shoved him away from her, anger suddenly taking the place of the passion she had been feeling.
‘That’s not very funny, William.’ She said, straightening her pyjama top. ‘You know how I feel about that. I trust you, but I’ve been given so many reasons not to. And then you go and say something like that.’
‘Honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just trying to make a joke about the accusations.’ William began to reassure her with gentle caresses.
‘Well, it wasn’t very funny.’ Gillian said as seriously as she could.
‘I love you. And there’s no-one else I want in this entire world…’
Gillian cut him off. ‘Look at this. I was sent this in the mail.’ Gillian opened the top draw of her bed-side table and removed a photograph. The picture was of William and a blonde woman strolling casually, arm in arm, down a city street. On the back read ‘Thanks for the wonderful evening. Love Angela.’ William studied the photo, and began to laugh.
‘I don’t see anything funny about that.’ Gillian remarked, taking the photo from her husband.
‘It’s a hoax honey. Of that you can be assured. Someone has used a photo editing program to doctor that image.’ William countered.
‘Hoax? But who would do such a cruel thing?’ Gillian asked, still not totally convinced, ‘Seriously, who would go to the trouble.’
‘For someone proficient with a computer, and the thousands of photo editing programs available honey, it’d be no trouble at all. A quick cut and paste.’ William stated. ‘Any kid with internet access can download the new and improved ‘Photoshop’ or ‘Image-editor. And anyone who wants to cause problems, or and unthinking hack with a little time to kill could doctor the image and post it to you. I’m surprised your security team didn’t screen the incoming mail, stop this from getting to you’ William frowned.
‘If it is a hoax, why should you care if I see it or not?’ Gillian knew she sounded ridiculous, she knew that William was only trying to stop her suffering un-necessary angst such as this. She knew all mail entering the White House was screened for exactly this reason, among others; security, sorting and allocation to name a few others. ‘How can you be so certain it’s a hoax?’
‘Give it to me.’ William said, evenly. ‘I want to show you something.’ He took the photo as Gillian offered it. ‘Now look. This is San Fransisco. Remember the trip we took two months ago. And that,’ William stated, pointing to the woman, ‘Is you…or rather you are the base photo for the completed, doctored image. The body is yours, but the head belongs to this Angela woman. Look closely,’ He said, gesturing to the base of the neck. ‘You can see where they’ve cut and pasted the two images together. The skin-tone is close, but it’s not identical.’
‘How can you be so sure that’s me? My body?’ Gillian questioned.
‘Well for one thing, there has only ever been you. I haven’t been anywhere without you. And, honey, I’d know that body anywhere. Everything about that body.’ William smiled, gently running his right index finger down her arm. ‘Look closely at the photo.’
Gillian looked at the image. He was right. She even remembered when they had walked down the street, shortly after dinner. She looked into her husband’s patient amber eyes, as she deliberately tore the photo into thousands of pieces, and brushed them from the bed. ‘I’m so sorry’ she said, concern and genuine remorse tinting her voice, tears of regret welling in her nearly violet eyes.
William responded by taking her in his arms, and kissing her deeply. ‘Now where were we?’ he asked as he eased her down onto the mattress.
CHAPTER 13
The taxi pulled up in front of Club Fun and Madeline virtually threw herself out of it, before it had completely stopped. Not even bothering to see if her partner followed she crossed the pavement to the doors. Carefully, as she strode through the glass front door of the night-club, Madeline checked to see if the pistol was still positioned in the back waist band of her black pants.
Rick caught up to her as she stood in the centre of the dance-floor, scanning the room. ‘Well?’ he questioned, following her search of the room, as he attempted to blend into the crowd, moving to the techno beat that pumped through the club.
Madeline’s gaze ended on a door in the corner. On the front read 'Club Personale Soltanto- Staff only', but following a hunch Madeline strode over and silently opened it. Inside was a small, dimly lit, descending stairwell. Anger and frustration were replaced by professional requirement so she beckoned Rick to follow as she entered it.
Rick followed quickly and quietly. At the bottom of the stairs was another door, guarded by two men, each holding a semi-automatic weapon, by his side. Staying out of sight Rick fixed the silencer to his weapon, and fired two shots, killing the two men before they even knew he was there. Madeline stepped over the slain terrorists and tried the door-knob. It was locked. Taking a step back, she kicked it open. The swing of it allowed her to view the inner room, and the three men inside. Two were armed. She burst through the door, Rick closely on her heels. She fired two shots, taking out the two guards either side of the desk, the sound of her shots echoing throughout the office. They both fell, but one fired a shot before hers reached him. The bullet sailed past her and directly at Rick.
Madeline spun around to look at him. This action, gave their suspect the time he needed to flee out the back door of the office. With one glance she saw the bullet, too, had missed Rick, and whipping her attention forward she saw Teslovich exit the office.
Acting quickly Rick and Madeline raced through the open door, after him. The door led into a deserted alleyway. Madeline frantically spun in a circle, trying to locate their suspect. He was no where to be seen. Un-decided on what to do next, she turned and confronted Rick. ‘This is all your fault’, she accused, her voice slightly raised, ‘If I didn't care so much abo...’ Madeline's voice trailed off, realising she'd said, in her mind, too much. Before Rick could answer she ran back through the door, and into the office. Desperately she searched the room for something, anything. They'd come this far, just to lose the lead. This isn't happening, she thought.
‘Madeline, face it. There's nothing here. Let's go. Marcus will call us soon with more information. We'll pick up the suspect then. Teslovich won't escape twice.’ Rick said from standing in the open doorway.
‘He shouldn't have escaped once.’ she hissed as she forced herself past him and outside into the alley. She walked along it, to the main road and hailed a taxi. Not waiting for Rick, she climbed in and drove off. Rick decided to walk back to the hotel. It wasn't far and Madeline needed some space, a moment alone to calm down he decided. He began the short journey back to the hotel, walking slowly, being careful not to trip on the uneven cobbles, in the dark.
CHAPTER 14
It took Rick half and hour to reach the hotel. He could have stretched it out, but he needed to see Madeline. He was worried about her. Her actions at the club were very un-characteristic of her. He decided she had had enough time to recover and her near admission that she cared for him, in the alley, had really sparked his interest. It was the closest she’d ever come to admitting she had feelings for him. He felt badly deceiving her about his afternoon’s encounter with Angela, but her actions ended any regrets he had. Rick had bee
n waiting for nine years to hear Madeline admit that she truly cared for him, that she had finally forgiven him, and it looked as though, with a little persuasion, his wait would be brought to an end tonight.
He walked into the room, and seeing Madeline’s coat thrown roughly over the back of an arm chair, but no Madeline, he tried the bathroom door. It was locked. He knocked gently, but received no answer. Rick waited for what seemed like an eternity. It became apparent that Madeline was not coming out. He decided to go in. Using his shoulder, he forced his way into the room. Madeline, seated on the edge of the bathtub, looked up in surprise. He took one look at her, and realized that he had been right in hurrying back to the hotel after her.
‘Have you been crying?’ he asked, almost in disbelief.
Standing she answered defiantly, ‘No! I do not cry. Ever!’
‘Then why do you look like Alice Cooper?’ he stated angrily, more angry at the fact she had been crying, than that she was denying it.
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