Free Dutch and Gina: The Power of Love by Mallory Monroe Page A

smiled.   “I miss you, too.”
    “So how did it go?”
    “How all of these fundraisers go: wonderfully lousy.   What about you?   How did your day go?”
    “It went okay.   Had a staff meeting and a few photo-ops with tourists, that sort of day.”   Then she hesitated.   “Robert Rand paid me a visit,” she said.
    Dutch frowned.   “Robert?   Did he?”
    “He did.”
    “And why did he pay my wife a visit?”
    Gina smiled.   He almost sounded jealous.   “He wants me to speak at his foundation’s dinner in Montreal.”
    Dutch thought about it.   “I see.”
    “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”
    “Generically, no.   The Rand Foundation does a lot of very impressive charitable work.   It’s a good organization.”
    Gina wanted to tell him about the meeting with the Texas governor Robert was facilitating, and his Helm Amendment request, but now was definitely not the time for that.   She wanted Dutch home, in her arms, when she even discussed it.  
    “I miss you,” she said again.
    “And back to you,” he said.  
    “Especially when I get in that bed and you aren’t going to be there.”
    Dutch closed his eyes.   Gina’s sleek, naked body floated through his mind.   “Yes,” he said.   “That would be something to miss.”
    Gina laughed.   “You are lousy at talking in code, you know that?”
    He had to laugh at that one as the elevator stopped and the doors opened.   “I’ll get back with you later,” he said.  
    “Okay, babe,” she said with a smile, and the call ended.
    Dutch handed the phone back to Crader.   “Get you some rest,” he said to his tired chief of staff just as Crader was about to get off of the elevator with Dutch.   Dutch was staying in the penthouse suite of the hotel.  
    “Sure you don’t need me for anything else?” Crader asked.
    “I’m good.   Get you some rest,” Dutch ordered again and Crader, relieved, remained on the elevator.
    Dutch greeted the secret service agents at the entrance of his hotel suite.   Then, as he was about to turn the knob, he remembered something.
    “Is the young lady they brought to my room still here?” he asked the older of the two agents.
    “Yes, sir,” the agent said.
    Dutch nodded, he wasn’t really up to any of Liz’s dramatics tonight, but what could he do?   He wasn’t about to turn her out into the streets in the condition she was in.  
    He entered the room and closed the door.
     
    LaLa came out of the movie theater feeling about as bad as she felt when she had gone into it.   She thought it would cheer her up, going to see the latest Tyler Perry release, but hearing the laughter and seeing the couples did nothing to help her mood.
    She got into her SUV and made her way home. Robert had asked if she wanted to join him for dinner tonight, but she had easily declined.   He was okay, as far as it went, but she wasn’t interested.   Not in him.   There was something too underhanded about him for her taste.   Too shady.   Besides, he wasn’t interested in her, she had already concluded.   Except in that you’re the First Lady’s best friend disgusting way.  
    She put a Fantasia Barrino tape into the stereo, strummed her fingers on the steering wheel, and made her way home.   It was an overcast night, but DC, as usual, was alive.   It was an easy place to be surrounded by crowds of people while feeling deeply alone.   Tonight LaLa felt that way.
    On her way home, however, she stopped through the drive-thru at McDonald’s, ordered a Big Mac, a large fry, a Chocolate Shake, and then went home.
    She stepped into her Georgetown home with a sense of purpose.   She dropped her shoulder bag, kicked off her shoes, and sat her food on her small kitchen table.    It was medication, she knew, and it was quickly becoming addictive.   Eat away the pain.   Forget about the heartache.   Forget about the ten pounds she’d already lost.   
    But that wasn’t what this trip to