THE PRESIDENT 2 (8 page)

“Has she been notified?” Max asked.
 
“His wife, I mean?”

“She believed it all along.”

“She believed it?” Dutch asked.
 
“Then why the hell wasn’t I told anything about this
belief
of hers?”

The secretary of state looked at the secretary of defense, who, in turn, looked to General Sullivan, the Joint Chiefs chairman.
 

“We had absolutely no proof yet, sir,” Sullivan said.
 
“No proof-of-life video, nothing.”

Dutch could barely take it all in.
 
“Do we know where any of these people are being held?”

“We still believe it’s around the Helmand Province, or possibly Kandahar, but these are only our educated guesses at this point.
 
We haven’t confirmed any of it.
  
What we advise you to do is to keep making it clear that the United States will not negotiate with terrorists while we continue to get more consistent Intel.”

Dutch, however, wasn’t as firm about their advice as they were.
 
“And what do you advise I do if these terrorists take to heart my repeated declaration that we will not negotiate with them?
 
What if they determine they have nothing to lose and start dropping bodies on us, dead American citizens, since we’re making it clear that we won’t negotiate their release?
 
What do you advise me to do then?”

All three men sat mute.
 
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Dutch said, waving them away.
 
“Okay, gentlemen, keep me in the loop, I don’t care how trivial the Intel at this point.
 
I don’t want to be blindsided.”

“Yes, sir,” the men said, stood, and left.

Max and Allison stood around Dutch’s desk, waiting for him to give instructions.
 
Although they were not even cabinet level appointees, everybody knew that Max and Allison were the real power center of the White House.

“You will have to cancel your appearance at the G-8 summit in Brussels,” Max said.
 
“At least until this hostage crisis is over.”

Allison agreed.
 
“The nightly newscasts are beginning to count the days that the students, and now they will add the businessmen, including a billionaire, have been missing.
 
America Held Hostage: Day Four
, is the way they’re playing it.
 
The same way they played it when Jimmy Carter had that Iranian Hostage drama that was one of the issues that may have brought down his presidency.
 
They’re trying to compare you to Jimmy Carter.”

“What else is new?” Max wanted to know.
 
“Dutch won reelection and they still try to compare his administration to Carter’s.”

“Is that why she wanted to meet?”
 
Dutch asked Max.

Max exhaled.
 
“She wouldn’t tell me at the time, but I’ve since confirmed, yes.”

“Set up a meeting.”

Max looked at Dutch.
  
“Do you think that’s wise at this point, sir?”

Dutch nodded.
 
“Set it up.”

“Here?”

“No.
 
In the residence.”

Max and Allison exchanged glances.
 
“Yes, sir,” was all Max could say to that.

Allison looked at Dutch.
 
“Is she going to be a problem, sir?”

Dutch just sat there.
 
Jennifer was so beautiful that she was one of those women most men automatically considered
got to fuck
material.
 
But she always thought of herself as so much more.
 
She married Ralph Caswell, a man in his sixties, because she was ambitious and wanted to be a billionaire’s wife, but also because Dutch, the man she claimed she really wanted, wasn’t making any moves in that direction.
 
But her heart, from what he’d since been told, was always with him.
 
Now, if he didn’t play to her tune, he knew she could cause major difficulties for his administration.

Not to mention for his new, fragile marriage.

***

That night, after dinner, Dutch and Gina were playing a game of Chess in the White House billiards room.
 
He watched her as she stared at the board, as her intelligent eyes seemed unable to quite know what move to make.
 
Max had advised him to keep her out of it, to meet privately with Jennifer and see what she has to say before he even mentioned it to Gina.
 
Jennifer, as Max well knew, was a selfish bitch who was never above making trouble for anyone, including the President of the United States.
 
This could get messy, Max had warned, and if Dutch didn’t want to add to Gina’s reticence about being in DC in the first place, he’d be wise to keep her out of it.
 

“Perhaps you’ll make your move before the end of the year,” Dutch said mockingly to her.
 

Gina smiled.
 
“Don’t rush the master,” she said as she continued to survey the board.
 
Then she glanced up at him, saw that look on his face she was beginning to know so well, and looked back down at the board.
 
“How did it go?” she asked him.

“How did what go?”

“Word around the House,” she said, to Dutch’s smile, “is that you had a meeting with the Big Three today, and that they had more bad news.”
 
She glanced at him again when she said this.
 
By his hesitancy, she knew it was true.
 
She stared at him.
 
“What is it, Dutch?”

“They still don’t know where the hostages are.”

“Yeah, I already worked that one out.
 
But what else?”

Dutch exhaled.
 
“In addition to the seven students, there are apparently four businessmen being held.”

Gina stared at him.
 
“Confirmed?”

Now Dutch was staring at the board.
 
He nodded.

“But--”

“And one of those businessmen is Jennifer Caswell’s husband.”

“Are you serious?
 
The billionaire?”

Again Dutch nodded.
 
“Yes.”

“Dang, Dutch.
 
This is getting out of hand.
 
Are your people up to the job?
 
What’s the Defense Secretary telling you?”

“They’re up to the job.
 
It’s a tough situation.”

“And everybody’s blaming you, but nobody’s blaming those silly rich students.”

“And now four not-so-silly businessmen.”

“Why would they even be over there?”

“A fact-finding mission, according to Gary.”

“In a war zone?”

“I know,” Dutch said.
 
“But there you have it.”
 
He stared at Gina.
 
And he knew he couldn’t take Max’s advice.

Gina quickly picked up on his concern.
 
“What is it?” she asked him.

“Are you busy tomorrow night?”

“No.
 
Why?”

“I have a meeting with Jennifer Caswell tomorrow night.
 
I want you to attend.”

Gina didn’t understand why, but she nodded.
 
“Okay.”
 
She expected Dutch to explain.
 
When he didn’t, she asked.

Dutch leaned forward over the board, his elbows on his knees, the V-neck sweatshirt he wore tight across his muscular chest.
 
“She and I used to be an item, Regina.”

Gina stared at him.
 
“An item?”

“Yes,” he said.

Gina’s heart began to race.
 
“When?”

“We first got together when I was a senator.
 
It continued during my first term as president.”

“What do you mean got together?
 
You and she were lovers?”

Dutch nodded.
 
“Yes.
 
But I broke it off after you and I became serious.”

“But I thought you were seeing Kate Marris at that time.”

Dutch placed both hands under his chin and began to rock unsteadily in his chair.
 
“I was,” he said, studying her reaction.

It didn’t take anything more than that for Gina to understand exactly what he was saying.
 
This man she now found so virtuous seemed to have been even more of a cad than she had assumed.
 
“Why did you feel the need to see two women at once?” she wanted to know.

“They weren’t . . . They were sex partners, Gina.
 
Nothing more than that.”

They stared deep into each other’s eyes, until Gina looked away.
 
Dutch’s heart broke when Gina looked away.
 
He hated that she had to know that side of him.
 

Gina looked at him again.
 
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked.
 
She was nobody’s fool.
 
Something more was at work here.

“Because I was seeing her just before you and I became an item--”

“Don’t say it like that!” Gina said snappishly, the stress of her new life beginning to show.

Dutch’s heart plunged.
 
“I didn’t mean it like that, Regina, you know I didn’t.
 
I never thought of you that way.”

“Just,” she said, not interested right now in his
but you were different
speech because she wouldn’t be at all sure if he hadn’t laid that same line on his other females.
 
She frowned.
 
“What were you about to say?”

“I was seeing Jennifer before you and I became serious, but the press may not see the difference.
 
They may assume I was cheating on you, which isn’t true.
 
But I want you prepared should those kinds of questions come your way.”

Shoes, Gina thought.
 
Shoes
!
 
“Was she in love with you?” she asked, her eyes narrowing as she studied her husband.

Dutch hesitated on this question, which disturbed Gina even more.
 
“It’s my understanding that she was, yes.”