“The east room?” Sam asked.
“I prepared it when we thought Jade was coming to visit. It’s guest-ready, that’s the only reason.”
“I see.” Then Sam smiled. “So where’s Little Walt? Is he home?”
“He’s still at school. In Kindergarten.”
Good, Sam thought. “Oh, my,” she said. “Kindergarten already. They grow up so fast.”
“Too fast if you ask me,” Gina said with a smile. “What would you like to drink? I’ll fix it myself.”
Sam smiled. “That’s very un-First Lady-like of you.”
“Since I’m no longer a First Lady, that’s very real of me.”
Sam laughed. “Wine would be just what the doctor ordered.”
“Then wine it will be,” Gina said, walking toward the bar near the back of the room. “Dutch tells me you’re teaching at a junior college in California.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Love it?”
“Not really, but it pays the bills.”
“What do you teach?”
“Science since I do have a medical degree. But those kids don’t care. They don’t even bother to call me Dr. Redding. They’re only interested in getting their C and moving right along.”
“Ah, that’s sad. I loved college.”
So did I, Sam thought, before Dutch came along and impregnated her. “But it is odd, isn’t it?” she asked.
“What’s odd?”
“Labels. And how some stick and some don’t. The way you will always be called the former First Lady, while Dutch will always be called the president. Even though he’s no longer president, he’ll still be called by his title. President Carter. President Bush. President Harber.”
“That’s the official D.C. rule. You’re always known by the highest office you ever held there. It doesn’t get any higher than president. Although Dutch hates it. He’d rather be Mr. Harber any day of the week.”
“Oh, I forgot,” Sam said, realizing she had to make her move now.
Gina turned and looked at her. “What’s wrong?”
“I just remembered that I spilled coffee on my blouse earlier today and you know I’m a neat freak.” She was looking down at her blouse and the spill on it. “Will you excuse me for just a sec? I need to grab a blouse out of my suitcase and change.”
“Oh, sure,” Gina said. “Go right on up. Ramsey’s up there. He’ll direct you.”
And Sam hurried up. Ramsey was the problem. The last thing she wanted was for him to get nosy and start opening her suitcase and snooping around.
But there was no fear of that. He was already heading down by the time she was heading up, and he directed her to the east room. She hurried in, closing the door behind her, and immediately placed the large suitcase on the bed.
Then it was a matter of not taking too long, of getting in and out before Gina became suspicious. She opened the suitcase, gently removed the smaller suitcase that was inside, and began looking for a hiding place. She looked and she looked. She finally found it when she saw a small nook on the far side of the armoire. From the bedroom entrance, where her larger suitcase would be standing, the smaller one would be completely hid from sight.
She sat the smaller suitcase in that small corner, went to the bedroom door to make certain it could not be seen from the door, and then quickly removed her soiled blouse. She put on another blouse that was folded in the larger suitcase. After changing, she closed the larger suitcase, turned on the nightstand lamp for a better view, and sent the all-important text message to Max. C i 5 m was the coded message. Call in five minutes, was the meaning. Then Sam grabbed the larger suitcase, sat it by the bedroom door, and hurried back out and downstairs.
Gina was just sitting Sam’s glass of wine on the cocktail table, and was sitting down with her own drink by the time Sam made it back downstairs. “Are the accommodations adequate for you, Sam?” Gina asked her houseguest.
“More than adequate,” Sam replied as she retrieved her glass and sat down too. “It’s a gorgeous room.” Sam hadn’t given the room itself a second thought. She had no idea if it was gorgeous or not.
“Because if you would prefer,” Gina said, “or if you feel you need more privacy, we have unoccupied guest houses onsite.”
“Oh, no, please. Upstairs is perfect.”
Gina smiled. “I’m so glad you decided to call, Sam, really I am. Jade has been on my mind lately. And you know how Dutch feels about her. He’s very concerned about her.”
“So am I. It’s been a very difficult time. Nothing seems to work, and I’ve tried it all.”
“Sometimes prayer is all that’s left,” Gina said, “and that’s usually better than anything else we can try.”
“That’s true,” Sam said, although she felt guilty talking about something as sacred as prayer. She was in league with the devil now. She was the opposite of good now. She felt ashamed of herself. “I hope I’m not keeping you from anything,” she said, changing the subject.
“Not at all.”
“So you aren’t going back to work today?”
“I already phoned my staff and told them not to expect me at all this afternoon. I plan to remain home for the balance of the evening.”
“Not just on my account surely,” Sam said.
“I need the break,” Gina said. “I had lunch with my husband today, a wonderful morning with him, I feel great for a change. I can use this break.”
“Good.”
“But about Jade,” Gina said. “I’ve been hoping she can turn her life around. But Dutch seems to think she’s playing some kind of game. That she doesn’t want to turn around.”
“I don’t know why he would say that,” Sam said defensively. “She wants to make a change. Desperately.”
“Well good,” Gina said. “Because I always say you reap what you sow. If her heart is right, and she aim to do good, then good with happen for her. And she could use some good news after being in that place for so long.”
Sam’s cell phone began ringing. “I agree,” she said. “I think everybody will get what they deserve. You, me, everybody.” Sam said this as she pulled out her phone and looked at the Caller ID.
Gina found her pronouncement odd, as if she was casting some kind of dispersion on Gina herself. But Gina dismissed it. Sometimes Sam was as oddball as that daughter of hers. Maybe even more so.
“I need to take this,” Sam said. “It’s my sick friend’s son. If that’s okay?”
“Of course it’s okay,” Gina said. Why would she even ask it, she wondered.
“Hi, Rick, what’s wrong?” Sam looked at Gina as she spoke on the phone. It wasn’t Rick, but Max telling her exactly what to say, but Gina didn’t know that. “Really? Oh, my goodness, when did this happen? Well did they rush her to the hospital?”
Gina looked at her.
“Yes. Yes. And the doctors said what? Another stroke, Rick? Not another one! No, no, Rick, don’t you dare feel bad about calling me. I’m on my way anyway. I’m just two hours away. Right.. I’m in Newark and I’ll be there in no time. Don’t you worry about that. I want to be there with her. And with you. Right. I know she would want me to be there. So you just keep it together and I’ll see you soon. And Rick, she’s going to be just fine. Okay, son. Okay. Bye.” And Sam killed the call and immediately stood up.
Gina stood up too.
“I have to leave, I’m sorry,” Sam said.
“Your friend okay?” Gina asked as she pressed the button on the side table.
“Unfortunately, no. She took a turn for the worse. Another stroke, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. And she’s in Harford you said?”
“Yeah. Couple hours away.”
Ramsey entered the room.
“Do you think you need a driver, or,” Gina asked her, but Sam cut her off.
“No, no, nothing like that,” Sam said, walking toward the stairs. “I’m fine. I can drive. I’ll just head up and grab my suitcase.”
/> “Nonsense,” Gina said and turned to Ramsey. “Ms. Redding won’t be staying after all, Ramsey. Bring her luggage down, please, and put it in her car.”
“Right away, ma’am,” Ramsey said, and headed for the stairs.
Sam hated that Gina had moved so quickly to ring for Ramsey, but she knew it would look too suspicious if she fought it. “It’s right there as soon as you enter the bedroom, Ramsey,” she said.
“Very good, ma’am,” Ramsey said, as he headed upstairs.
Gina placed her arm around Sam’s waist as they walked toward the front door. “Maybe after you’ve spent some time with your friend, and if you still feel up to it, please feel free to come back over.”
“That sounds good, Gina, thank-you,” Sam said, although she wasn’t about to come anywhere near that place again. Gina wasn’t either, Sam thought gleefully.
And they walked, arm in arm, out to Sam’s car.
Upstairs, Ramsey entered the bedroom and saw the large luggage sitting just to the side of the door. He picked it up and was about to leave. But as he turned, he noticed that the nightstand lamp was on. As House Manager, he made being frugal a major part of his job. He therefore hurried over and turned it off. But as he was about to turn to leave again, he suddenly realized just how lightweight the luggage was compared to when he brought it into the house initially. It was unusually heavy, in fact, when he first got it out of her car trunk and brought it in. Had she forgotten that she had unpacked something and was about to leave it there?
He walked over to the closet to see if she had indeed unpacked some of her belongings. And that was when his trained eye saw something out of place. It was beside the armoire, in a corner, and was a smaller luggage that was an identical match to the larger one. And when he went and picked it up, and felt how heavy it was, he immediately realized that Ms. Redding had undoubtedly unpacked it and forgotten about it.
He retrieved it, sat the larger suitcase on the bed, opened it, and then packed the smaller suitcase back inside the larger one. He’d heard of quirky travelers who preferred to place their more valuable possessions in locked suitcases inside of suitcases, and since the smaller one was indeed locked, this may very well had been the case. But it didn’t matter what the intentions were. Ramsey knew it was a match with her larger suitcase and it most certainly didn’t belong where it was. Ramsey grabbed the larger suitcase, with the smaller one safely inside, and hurried back downstairs to return it to its rightful owner.
Dutch sat quietly in the conference room at Harber Industries as Marville and his men attempted to explain away their unusual cost overruns. But he was only half-listening. The bottom line was that their expenditures were unacceptable, and they would be the one to take the loss, not H.I., but he allowed them to explain. His mind, however, kept floating back to Gina.
He was so thrilled to be back on good terms with her that he could barely contain his joy. He hurt her, and he would always regret what he did, but she was willing to forgive him. That was the kind of woman he had on his hands. She was his gold standard. Despite her pain and anguish and great disappointment in him, she still had enough love in her heart for him to keep their family together. And Dutch was just as determined to never hurt her again. He would never make any decision that should be hers to make, without allowing her to make it first. It wasn’t that Gina had grown up, and he was finally seeing her that way, but Dutch had grown up. He ran that household, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he ran his household, but Gina, he thought with a smile, ran him.
“It’s hardly funny, Mr. President,” Marville said as he looked at a smiling Dutch.
Dutch looked back at him. “What’s that?”
“You’re smiling as if our distress is funny to you.”
Dutch wasn’t thinking about that man. “Excuse me,” he said and left the conference room. Marville looked at Lenora Perry, wondering what in the world was up with Dutch. But Lenora could only shake her head. She didn’t know any more than he did.
Dutch stepped out into the hall and telephoned Gina. Whenever she was this heavy on his mind, he phoned her. He could hear the smile in her voice when she answered.
“Well hello there,” she said.
Dutch smiled too. “Hope you aren’t working too hard.”
“Your hope is realized. I’m not working at all. I’m at home.”
“Home? When you left here I thought you were heading back to BBR.”
“I was. Then I received a phone call from Sam Redding. She said she wanted to talk to me about Jade.”
“Talk to you about Jade?”
“That’s what she said. Mother-to-mother.”
“That doesn’t even sound like Sam.”
“That’s what I thought, right. I mean who would have thought Sam could be sentimental? But I think she’s as worried about Jade as you are. Maybe more so.”
“I think you’re right. But I don’t know. They both need help if you ask me. Where is she now?”
“She was going to spend the night, but she suddenly had to leave. A friend of hers in Hartford had a stroke.”
“Oh my goodness.”
“Yes, so she took off. But she spoke as if she’s going to swing back through when she can, and have that conversation with me.”
“I don’t want you involved in their madness, Gina. Sam is a brilliant woman, but she’s never been a practical woman. And Jade is just . . .”
“Just what, Dutch?” Gina asked him.
“Crazy as hell,” Dutch said. “I hate to say it, but that young woman isn’t trying to get it together. And when people aren’t trying to get it together, you know what you have to do?”
“What?”
“Leave them alone.”
Gina sighed. “I hear you.”
“So if Sam calls you again talking about meeting up with her, you let me handle that.”
“Yes, sir,” Gina said.
Sam’s rental car, a Pontiac G6, stopped at the airstrip right near the small, private plane. Sam was still driving, Max was on the passenger seat, and Jade was in the middle of the backseat.
“Where is it?” Jade asked excitedly. “I want to be the one to press the button.”
“Not until we get on the plane and take off, Jade,” Sam reminded her. “That’s the plan.”
“But what if it doesn’t work,” Jade said, “and we’re up in the air? What if it doesn’t detonate? You can claim you forgot one of your bags and go and retrieve those explosives. And we can try it another day. But if we’re already in the air, we risk Gina finding that bag and implicating you. And we won’t get a second chance to get rid of Gina.”
Sam looked at Max. It was logical to her. “The hard work is done now anyway,” she said. “By the time they work their way through the rubble and find Gina’s body, we’ll be long gone, probably in Nebraska by then.”
Max hated diverting from any plan, but they were right. They had to make sure. If it didn’t explode, Sam could always go back to the Harber house and retrieve the smaller bag she left behind.
He pulled out the specially made cell phone and gave it to Jade. Then Sam gave Jade her personal cell phone. Jade excitedly phoned Gina.
“Put it on Speaker,” Max ordered as they waited for her to pick up. He wanted to hear that blast too. Sam wouldn’t admit it, but so did she.
And as soon as Gina answered, Jade could hardly contain her contempt. “Hello, Gina,” she spat out.
“Hi.” Sam’s name had come up on the Caller ID, which prompted Gina to answer. “Is this Jade?”
“No, it’s Spade. Of course it’s Jade. Who else would it be?”
“Your mother’s name came up on the Caller ID and I know you aren’t with her right now, that’s the only reason I asked.”
“Where is she?” Max mouthed.
“Where are you?” Jade asked. “Are you still at home?”
“Why would you need to know that?”
Jade sat upright. She was going to love saying it. “Because
this is the day that you die, bitch! This is the day that your sorry ass finally leave the face of this earth once and for all, bitch!” Then she grinned. “Bye-bye, cunt! See you in hell!”
And Jade pressed the button on the specially designed detonation phone Max had given to her. She pressed that button hard.
But as soon as that button was pressed, all three realized something was terribly wrong. They felt the car buckle and shift, and then the rear began to lift off the ground. Max, terrified, looked at Sam. Sam, terrified, looked at Jade through her rearview mirror. And Jade, terror seeping through her veins like liquid nitrogen, began to scream.
The car flew up like a cannonball in the sky, and burst into a fireball explosion. The sound itself was deafening for miles around. And the sight, from even further away, looked like a nuclear bomb had detonated and all that was left, still floating high and twistedly beautiful, was a big, round, mushroom cloud.
And the destruction that Max, Jade, and Sam wanted to visit upon Gina Harber, was visited upon them.
Every piece of them.
EPILOGUE
In the region of Chania, on the isle of Crete, a yacht fit for a king sailed languishingly slow across the Mediterranean sea as if it had nothing but time on its hands. Dutch was at the controls, steering aimlessly on purpose as the sun beamed across his handsome face and the wind pushed back his soft black hair. His Bermuda shorts were snug, his Hawaiian shirt was unbuttoned and wide open, revealing a hard, tanned chest and strong, ribbed abs, and he couldn’t seem to stop smiling as he steered the ship in a constant loop around the bay.
Crader McKenzie, with a fat cigar between his pearly white teeth, and in shorts and an open shirt also, sat beside his best friend, riding shotgun. Gina and LaLa, in big, floppy hats, sunglasses, equally short shorts, and sipping tsikoudias with a twist, sat behind their men like the women of leisure they’d been for these past few days. The children were back at the private villa they were vacationing in, with their nannies, the housekeeping staff, Crader and Dutch’s army of assistants, and Christian Bale, who personally appointed himself the official babysitter. Which only made the couples feel even freer. With Christian in charge, their children, they knew, were in excellent hands.
For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend Page 18