THE PRESIDENT 2 (25 page)

“Why did your mother,” Gina said, careful to keep her irritation in check, “decide to bring this Caroline Parker to Washington with her?”

“To break up our marriage so that Caroline and I could be together again.”

Gina looked at Dutch, amazed by his clarity.
 
He even smiled, which caused her to smile, albeit nervously.

“And those two schemers,” he said with a laugh, “thought I was just that clueless.
 
They actually believe they’re getting one over on me.”

Gina laughed this time.
 
“So why did you let them come here, if you knew what they were up to?”

“Because I want you and me in a room with Caroline and my mother so that I can make it clear, with no misunderstandings, no second hand information, that they had better get any notions of undermining my marriage out of their pretty little heads.
 
We have enough demons to battle.
 
We aren’t battling them, too.”

Gina’s eyes narrowed as she stared at her husband.
 
And here she was, thinking she was unlucky when, because of Dutch’s love, she might just be the luckiest woman of them all.

But tears were in her eyes after he pulled her into his arms.
 
Because she just couldn’t see it.
 
Because she just knew that even a
come-to-Jesus
meeting with those two wouldn’t end it.
 
Not if that mother of his was involved.
 
Gina knew that witch, and unlike Jennifer Caswell who went away quietly, she was more than a force of nature.
 
She was evil.
 
And the forces of evil could be the most potent foe.

They were not out of the woods yet.

THIRTEEN

When Gina arrived at the breakfast table later that morning, she wasn’t at all surprised to see the two women staring daggers at her.
 
But what she was surprised to find was that Caroline Parker, even more than a decade after those photos she had seen of her were taken, was still a remarkably beautiful sight to behold.
 
Her heart that had soared when Dutch confessed his knowledge of their scheme and how it wasn’t going to work, came back down to earth a bit when she saw Caroline.

Caroline’s heart had the opposite effect.
 
Last night, after Dutch arrived at the White House with the First Lady and didn’t so much as acknowledge her when they walked by, she began to wonder if she stood any chance with that man.
 
But this morning, seeing Regina Lansing, not just after some ordeal, but freshly scrubbed and dressed in another one of those ridiculous African outfits she favored, her heart actually soared.
 
Because she believed that the odds of her taking Dutch away from this woman were excellent.
 
She believed she more than stood a chance.

“Good morning,” Victoria said when Gina finally joined them for breakfast.
 
Not that she could eat a thing.
 
She couldn’t.
 
But she, like them, wanted to get a firsthand look at her enemies.

“Good morning,” she said as the chef brought her the cup of coffee and toast she had ordered before she even arrived in the room.

“That’s all you’re eating?” Victoria asked as she patted her mouth with her napkin.
 
She and Caroline both were very petite women, and both appeared to have moved around more than ate the little food they did have on their plates.
 
“It seems painfully obvious that you generally eat more.”

Caroline smiled.
 
Gina chomped on her toast.
 
“So you’re Caroline?” she said.

“Yes,” Caroline said, surprised that she would put it that way.
 
“And you’re Regina Lansing.”

Gina simply looked at her.
 
So she wanted to play it that way, did she?
 
She could have corrected the wench.
 
Could have told her that no, I’m actually Regina
Harber
, the
First
Lady.
 
But she didn’t have the desire to even go there.

“Where’s the president?” Victoria asked.

“In a meeting,” Gina said, still remembering how welcoming it felt to have his arms around her all night; how wonderful it was to awake to the feel of his penis inside of her this morning.

“In a meeting already?” Victoria asked.
 
“My goodness.
 
Where has his manners gone?
 
The least he could have done was to say hello to his household guests this morning.
 
Especially after last night.”

They both glanced at Gina, as if begging her to ask about last night.
 
That was why she chomped again on her toast, and didn’t.

Caroline, in fact, was amazed at how she wasn’t asking her any questions.
 
Your husband’s long-lost fiancée suddenly appears and you aren’t interested?
 
Unless, Caroline thought a little less aggressively, Dutch had told her all she felt she needed to know.

Victoria, however, knew there was a button to push somewhere on this female, and she was determined to find it.
 
“Did he say when he would get back with us?” she wanted to know.

Gina thought about this.
 
“No,” she said, remembering nothing to that effect.

“Not a word?
 
I find that rather hard to believe.”

“Then don’t believe it.
 
But it’s a fact.”

Victoria didn’t like her tone.
 
In any other context a woman like her would be serving her, not sitting at a table with her, and would know the difference.
 
“I understand you endured a harrowing experience yesterday,” she decided to try.
  
“If the press reports are accurate.”

Gina stared at her, wondering where was she going with what she knew was ultimately a line of attack.

“According to those reports,” Victoria continued when Gina just looked at her, “you were visiting your brother, the murderer.”

Bingo
, Gina thought and actually smiled.
 
“Yes, I was,” she said.
 

“They commuted his sentence to life in prison, Caroline,” Victoria continued, “thanks to her friendship with the Governor of Texas.”

“Really?
 
I’m certain that didn’t help Dutch politically, a move like that.
 
When I was his woman, before he was even considering politics, I would have known better than to do anything that would shed an unfavorable light on him.
 
Especially having the sentence of a murdered commuted.
 
And then to visit him?
 
That’s just not done in our circles.”

“Precisely,” Victoria said, and looked at Gina.
 
“As I’m sure you are now aware, Caroline was the love of Dutch’s life before the plane crash.
 
They were deeply in love and were to be married.
 
Then tragedy struck.
 
But, fortunately for me and Dutch, who love Caroline, she’s back with us.
 
What it means for your future is an open question, of course.
 
Dutch and Caroline will have to come together and make a decision on that in the next few days.
 
But I just want you to know right here and right now that I will fight you with every breath in my body if you attempt, in any way, to obstruct the great love my son and Caroline have for each other.
 
I’ll not allow your hijinks to overshadow their great love because believe you me the American people will be squarely behind their union as vociferously as they oppose any relationship you might think you have with my son.”

Gina just sat there.
 
This woman sounded as if she was living in a parallel universe where Caroline could just pick up where she left off and Gina’s marriage to Dutch never happened.
 
It was so outside of anything common sensible that Gina didn’t even bother to respond to it.
 
She drank the last of her coffee, wiped her hands on the napkin, and stood to leave.
 
It was a stunned Caroline, however, who interrupted her decampment.

“Wait a minute,” she said and Gina turned toward her.
 
“I’m a little confused.
 
You do understand that I was Dutch’s fiancée?
 
The one he thought was dead?”

“Yes, I understand that.”

“Well, do you have any questions for me?”

Gina stared at her.
 
These people, Caroline and Victoria, were so accustomed to the world kowtowing to their every need, that they were utterly stumped when someone didn’t.
 
And Gina wasn’t about to.
 
If this wasn’t the White House, if Dutch wouldn’t end up taking a serious political hit for her actions, if Victoria wasn’t Dutch’s own mother, she would have kicked both their asses to the curb.
 

“No,” she said.
 
“Do you have any questions for me?”

Caroline looked at Gina as if she had just grown a third head.
 
“Why would I have questions for you?” she asked Gina.

“Why would I have questions for you?” Gina asked her.
 
Then smiled when Caroline was again taken aback, and left.
 

***

Later that day, in her office in the East Wing, she relayed everything that had happened to LaLa and Christian.
 
Neither one of them could believe it.

“Did you have questions for
her
?” LaLa asked.
 
“Where does that chick get off?”

“Oh, she’s a beautiful woman.
 
She’s got it going on all right,” Gina said, her arms folded, sitting behind her desk.
 
“You should see her.
 
Those pictures of her on the Internet do her no justice.”

“I heard she was a looker,” Christian said, “and that the president loved her so completely.”

LaLa elbowed Christian, but she needn’t have bothered.
 
Gina didn’t exactly want to hear any more talk of the president’s great love for that woman, but it was a fact.
 
He did, back in the day, loved her.
 
For Dutch to have asked the woman to marry him meant that she had something he liked well enough to make her his queen.
 
But that crown, Gina also knew, now belonged to her.