It is with regret that I assume this mantle of responsibility from my predecessor. My administration will do everything in its power to ensure that the person or people involved in this plot will be brought to justice and dealt with harshly. My wife Angela and I send our deepest condolences to President Hendricks’ family. He was a dedicated public servant who gave his all to preserve and protect the United States. May he be at peace tonight.
President Richard Hendricks was fifty-seven years old. He leaves behind his wife Ann, two children, and five grandchildren. We will continue to update this information as we receive it.’
“We need to make some calls.” Greg still looked uncomfortable and couldn’t make eye contact with either one of them. “I’m sorry I barged in like that.”
“It’s fine.” Jack wasn’t fooling anyone. He sounded pissed as hell. He gave Caroline’s shoulders a squeeze and took his phone out of her hand. “I may be a while, sweetheart.”
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.
“Do you want to call Katie and have her come back over?”
“No,” Caroline said. A phone call would suffice until they saw each other in the morning. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“You shouldn’t,” Jack said. “The president was killed, for God’s sake. How could anyone feel good about that?”
Caroline started to say something, then stopped. She knew exactly who felt good about it. He was probably happily packing up his belongings at Number One Observatory Circle as they spoke. But she knew Jack wouldn’t want to hear it. Not if she didn’t have anything to back it up. Creepy eyes and raw ambition did not an assassin make.
Jack kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry. I know you liked him.”
“It isn’t that,” Caroline said. “He was a nice enough man. I fear what this means. For everyone.”
“Don’t worry about that now.”
“I guess there isn’t much we can do about it tonight.” She knew her presence in the room would distract him from the difficult tasks he now faced. She also knew that she wasn’t going to get the answers she wanted from CNN. And she definitely knew she had no desire to sit on the couch next to Greg while going commando. She squeezed Jack’s hand. “I’ll head upstairs.”
“I’ll be up later,” he told her. “I know you’re upset but try to clear your head, okay?”
Caroline kissed him lightly on the lips. Not likely. “I’ll try.” She tried to smile at Jack’s chief of staff, who pretended to be focused on the television. “Good night, Greg.”
Greg nodded at her, still avoiding her eyes. “Good night, ma’am.”
She couldn’t go upstairs without addressing the elephant in the room. “Greg,” she started.
He looked at her. “Yes?”
“Just be happy your boss is getting laid on a regular basis. Don’t feel bad for interrupting us, given the nature of what’s transpired tonight.”
“Although you may have a reasonable gripe about us sullying the taxpayers’ office furniture,” Jack acknowledged. “I’d still prefer if you hold off on entering my office before waiting for a response first.”
“Those might be legitimate concerns,” Caroline said. “But we’re not going to deal with them right now. Other than that, no big. Okay?”
Greg reddened again. “Yes, ma’am.” He turned to Jack. “Sorry, sir.”
Jack’s expression finally softened. Apparently Greg was forgiven. “If it doesn’t bother the first lady, it’s not an issue for me. Let’s get to work.”
As Caroline walked back up the stairs toward their bedroom, she knew it would be a long time before Jack joined her. And she wouldn’t be able to sleep, either. Not while her mind was running wild.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Past
It was almost four o’clock when the door to their bedroom opened. Caroline had been laying on her side in bed for hours after watching another half hour of CNN and talking to Chrissy and Katie separately on the phone. She’d had a brief, terribly awkward conversation with Ellen, who had been scheduled to attend the event as a courtesy to the president but canceled after her daughter went into premature labor. Caroline didn’t want to think about what might have happened if Ellie had been there as well. She knew that nothing useful would start to develop until more facts started to come in. And even then, she wasn’t entirely sure that mainstream media reports would be accurate.
Jack cursed softly as he hit his knee on one of the chairs in the master bedroom, and hopped into the bathroom. He was trying to be quiet, which was cute. Caroline kept still, burying her face in the pillow to contain her giggles. He continued to curse, starting the water to cover up the sound of his voice. Poor guy. The water ran for a few minutes more before he padded slowly out of the bathroom. He slid into bed beside her, wrapping his arm around her waist, holding Caroline close to him as he nuzzled her hair. He was only wearing boxers, and she smiled. He loved curling up as close to her ass as possible.
She rubbed his hand. “How’s your knee?”
He groaned. “Thank God you’re awake. That hurt like a motherfucker.”
Caroline didn’t bother trying to hide her fit of laughter. The room wasn’t exactly dark but Jack always had a hard time adjusting his eyes when he came in from the hallway. “You could have turned the light on.”
“I was afraid I would wake you up.”
Her highly intelligent husband had impeccable manners but was often clueless. “Did you really think I’d be able to sleep?”
He kissed the back of her head. “I guess not.”
“How’d the rest of your night go?”
“Like shit. Are you prepared to go to the National Cathedral next week? I’m fairly certain we’ll be asked to attend.”
Caroline sighed. “I guess so. I really hate funerals. Especially for people I actually like.”
Jack held her tighter. “Were you okay up here by yourself?”
She turned to face him. She couldn’t keep her voice from shaking, and there was nothing to be gained by lying. “Not really.”
“You didn’t spend the entire time watching CNN, did you?”
“No. I talked to Chrissy and Katie. And I chatted with Ellen a couple of hours ago. Tried to go to sleep but I couldn’t. Ellie was supposed to be with him.” She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what I’d do if something had happened to her.”
He shuddered. “Then let’s not think about it.”
“I don’t want to think about it at all but…the president was a nice man.” She started to cry.
Jack pulled her into an embrace. “It’s okay, baby.”
Caroline wiped her eyes. “I feel guilty because I’m not even crying over him. I barely knew him.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Do we have enough security? Can our troopers be trusted?”
“I would trust them with all of our lives without reservation,” Jack said. “But Greg and I spoke with the head of our security team tonight, and we’re tightening things up to be safe. We’re sending a group of guys up to check on the safety procedures at camp.” He pressed a finger to Caroline’s lips before she could speak. “Don’t worry, it won’t change anything the girls are doing there. They probably won’t even notice a difference. And until we know how this all happened, I’d feel better knowing you had one or two more suits at your side.”
“So I don’t get to run free outside of official events?”
“Not for the time being.”
Caroline didn’t want to divulge that she felt safer that way. Expressing her fears would probably make him more uneasy than anything else that had happened. She had complained about her security constantly since they moved to Harrisburg. She even sneaked out of the mansion unescorted a couple of times at first, to taste freedom. Jack had gotten so upset about it that she agreed to compromise: she wouldn’t need to take her troopers with her if it was personal business. And she’d always let Jack or one of her staffers know where she was goi
ng. One of the many aspects of being high profile that she hated. She never realized how much she enjoyed basic tasks like running to the grocery store or taking a random painting class before. Now that her husband was governor all eyes were on her, even more so than before. Her privacy had slowly been chipped away since her last eighteen months in Congress.
“What about you?” she asked him.
“My detail will increase as well.”
Caroline ran her hands up and down his arms. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me. We’re merely taking precautions. There’s nothing to indicate that this was anything other than an isolated incident.”
“Against the President of the United States,” she said. “That’s a pretty big incident.”
He kissed her forehead. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Caroline wrapped her arms around his neck. The fear that had grown during the past few hours came crashing down on her. “I can’t lose you, Jack. I-” She started crying again.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
He’d dealt with her seesaw emotions before. Past losses tended to come back to her whenever tragedy occurred. She didn’t want to think about burying another husband. “I can’t live without you. I mean it. I’m not that strong.”
He wrapped her in his arms. “Nothing is going to happen to me. Or you. Or our children, or our friends, or anyone else we care about. I will never leave you.”
An empty promise, though he’d try his damndest to keep it. Even the most controlling of men couldn’t cheat death. “Hendricks was only a few years older than you. Anything can happen.”
One of Jack’s good friends from Wharton, Bill Neumann, suffered a heart attack and passed away during the gubernatorial campaign, and it affected Jack deeply. He’d been a few years younger than Jack, who responded by working out more, checking in with his doctor more regularly, and doting on Caroline even more often than he had before. At times it made her feel claustrophobic but she knew he meant well. And he’d managed to keep it up for the past three years.
“I’ll be fine,” Jack said quietly. “I’m in good health, I have an elite security team, and nothing is going to take me away from you.”
But Caroline knew from his tone of voice that he remembered what had happened to Bill, and the question of his own mortality had crossed his mind. He wouldn’t have talked to the troopers if it hadn’t. Maybe that was why he was so eager to prove himself in bed night after night. To show her he was young, virile, fully alive. He’d always had a blessedly high sex drive but she noticed a change in him ever since he turned fifty, right after he’d been sworn in as governor.
Caroline sniffled. She needed to take a step back. “I feel like such a codependent freak. You can’t make those kinds of promises, Jack. I know better than that.”
“I don’t want you to worry about this,” Jack said. “You have enough on your mind as it is. And you’re not codependent. You get attached. You live passionately. You believe in mutually supportive relationships, in the give and take between people. You lavish people with your kindness and affection even if you don’t know them. And you’re smart enough to appreciate what you have. It’s part of the reason I find you irresistible.” He grinned. “In other words, you’re a woman who loves too much.”
She wiped her eyes. He always knew how to make her laugh. “That last line sounds like something out of a dime store novel.”
Jack glanced down at the lacy nightgown she was wearing. “I remember seeing something like this in another dime store novel. Didn’t leave much to the imagination.”
Caroline giggled when he fondled her breasts through the silky material. “You have a one track mind, you know that?”
“You’re not pushing me away.”
She flopped on her back as Jack pulled up her nightgown and settled in between her legs. “Sometimes I think you must put something in my food. You make me horny all the damn time, even when it’s not even remotely appropriate.”
“Now is the perfect time to do this,” Jack said, trailing his tongue down her torso. “I want to forget all those phone calls I made, the difficult conversations I had. I want to bury myself inside you until I can’t see straight. I want to wake up next to you, remembering that you and you alone are the most important thing in my life. I want you to be reminded of how much I love you.” He grinned as he reached the apex of her thighs. “Still sans undies, I see. I believe I promised you a third round, Madame First Lady.” He started to kiss her clit.
“You’re trying to distract me,” Caroline said, spreading her legs even further.
He lifted his head up, but kept using his fingers, easing one inside her. “Is it working?”
“Mmm,” she said.
“I love you,” he whispered. He worked slowly, even slower than he had in his office. She wanted to tug on his hair and tell him that it wasn’t necessary, that all she wanted was him inside her…but his tongue, his hands, his breath felt so good. She still had difficulty concentrating. It took longer than it normally would because her mind was so unfocused. When she came, it wasn’t hard and fast but soft and comforting. Jack pulled up after he was finished, kissing his way up her body again until he reached her lips.
“Clear your mind,” he said. “It’s you and me tonight. No one else.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Let yourself be distracted. Let yourself feel good.”
“I’ll try.”
“I want to make love to you.”
She wasn’t going to complain about him using that phrase. Not now. Maybe not ever again. “Wasn’t that what you were doing earlier?”
His eyes were bright. “No. What we did in my office, what I did to you just now, that was nothing. That was fucking around. That was playtime.”
“Are you saying we won’t get to act out that scene with me bent over the desk?”
“Oh, we’ll get to that,” Jack said. “Very, very soon. And that won’t be playtime. We’ll see if you can handle it.”
Caroline closed her eyes, imagining how it would play out. “You drive me insane, Jack. All that reckless abandon. You don’t know what you do to me.”
“That isn’t what I want from you now. I want to feel close to you, as close as possible.” His voice was suddenly hoarse. “Please.”
He started to remove his boxers. Were his hands shaking? She ran her fingers through his hair to calm him down. “My darling. My Monty. I love you so.”
“I don’t want to think about anything but you right now,” Jack said. “You and me. You’re my heart, Caroline. Nothing else matters. Forget titles. Forget responsibilities. Forget the world. Just us. You will never, ever have to be without me.”
She pulled him on top of her. She loved the feel of his weight. It reminded her that even in his moments of vulnerability, he was strong. Hard. Hers.
“I love you, Mrs. McIntyre,” he said quietly.
Caroline closed her eyes as he entered her. “I know,” she whispered. “I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Fed
Caroline woke up howling his name, reaching for a warm, protective body that wasn’t there. When she remembered where she was, she wrapped her arms around herself and began to cry.
She wept in her cell often. Tried not to make it too loud or too obvious. It was never cathartic or healing but she did it anyway, as quietly as possible. A private act that she didn’t want to share with the men who spent their time monitoring her every move. She’d cry for her children, though it hurt too much to think about them for more than minutes at a time. For her friends, especially the ones she knew she’d never see again. For any number of dreadful things that had happened.
But tonight, she cried for Jack.
She didn’t sleep again for the rest of the night. Didn’t want to get up when the lights came on. She stayed curled up in a ball on the bed. For once she hoped to remain in darkness. It was easier
than confronting reality.
When he entered her cell Fischer yanked Caroline to her feet. “Another day in paradise,” he said.
Caroline glared at him. She had no more energy to hold her tongue. “Oh, I can’t wait to find out what you have in store for me today. I hope it involves more broken bones and psychological and physical torture, because that’s really been the highlight of my stay at this resort so far.”
“Your attitude is still sorely lacking. And you aren’t fooling anyone with your false bravado.” He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You can scream his name in your sleep all you want. He isn’t going to save you. Your white knight isn’t going to come in here and rescue his princess. So give it up.”
She shuddered as he pulled back. Were they even watching her at night, in the pitch black? Were they in her cell?
“I’ve got a little surprise for you. You enjoyed the last one so much that Mr. Murdock arranged for another visitor.” Fischer went back out into the hallway and shoved a trembling woman into the cell. “Enjoy.”
She gasped as the woman lifted her head up.
No. No, no, no.
This was not supposed to happen. They were supposed to be far away. In Minnesota, in Canada, in Europe, anywhere but here. Caroline fell to her knees on the floor, bringing shaky hands to the woman’s face. “Jenny?”
Jen looked around, confused. “Where am I?”
Caroline couldn’t think of an answer to that question that wouldn’t result in Jen recoiling in terror. “With me,” she whispered.
Jen locked eyes with her. “Caroline? What happened to you?
“Don’t worry about that. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Canada.”
“We got stopped in International Falls.” She started to cry. “I think Eric’s uncle sold us out. We never made it to Ottawa.”
Well, yeah. Caroline had figured out that much. And she was torn between a disturbing elation at seeing someone she knew, someone she cared about…and the realization that if Jen was here, it would not end well.
The Bellator Saga: The First Trilogy (Dissident, Conscience, and Sojourn) Page 56