DUTCH AND GINA: AFTER THE FALL Read Online Free Page A

world and so misunderstood that it ached him. But what could he do? She was a grown woman living the life she chose to live. And she had to live with the choices, good, bad, and ugly, that she had made.
    She began to leave, but in a lingering kind of way.
    She, in fact, looked back at him once more before she finally walked out of the door.
    Dutch walked over to the s ll open door, and watched her make her way across the grounds, a Secret Service agent now in full escort beside her, as her tall, exquisite body took her far away from him. Crader came over, and watched her too.
    “I do believe,” he said, both men con nuing to stare at Liz, “that you may be the only human being that woman genuinely cares about.”
    “I want you to become my new chief of staff, Cray,” Dutch said, causing Crader to look away from Liz and at the president. Talk about coming out of nowhere, he thought.
    “You mean you want me to take Max’s old job?”
    “Yes,” Dutch said, s ll staring at Liz’s departure.
    Then he exhaled. “I need you.”
    Crader swallowed hard. For a man like Dutch to admit he needed somebody had to have been a tough admission. And although Crader liked his life outside of Washington, he knew he wasn’t about to let Dutch Harber tell him that he needed him, and then turn him down. “I’ll be honored to serve as your chief of staff, sir,” he replied.
    “Good,” Dutch said, s ll staring at Liz, his mind seemingly a million miles away. “I’ll have Allison announce it at her daily presser. As your first unofficial duty, however,” he added, “I want you to phone my vice president and tell him to have his ass here tomorrow morning, 9am sharp.”

    “With pleasure, sir,” Crader said. And then added:
    “I take it you believe Wes Logan?”
    “I know Wes. If he says a scheme is in the works, a scheme is in the works. Get Shelly here tomorrow morning.”
    “Yes, sir,” Crader replied.
    Then Dutch le the gym, op ng to shower in the master bath instead, as he was now more anxious than ever to eyeball, and get inside of, that wife of his.

    TWO

    “More, Max,” Chandra Rice said with great exaspera on as she stood in the interroga on room at Quantico and drilled Max Brennan. “I need more.”
    “I told you all I know,” Max replied. He was seated at a long table inside the FB I’s training academy, with the Attorney General finally getting a crack at him.
    “You expect me to believe that some gotdamn Nanny masterminded that en re kidnapping?” Chandra asked.
    “I don’t expect you to believe anything. I knew Penelope Riley from the me she was a pediatric nurse caring for my sister’s sick child. That was why I recommended her to the president. Don’t blame me if your people didn’t vet her properly.”
    “We did vet her and you know it!” Chandra shot back, refusing to be the fall guy as some rightwing bloggers were a emp ng to make her out to be. “But the
    president
    hired
    her
    mainly
    on
    your
    recommendation.”

    “Bullshit! He hired her because his administra on ve ed her and determined her to possess the right stuff. He interviewed her on my recommenda on. He hired her on yours.”
    Chandra,
    as
    A orney
    General,
    was
    under
    tremendous pressure to search out and bring to jus ce every one of the conspirators in that botched kidnapping of the Harber child, especially the mastermind. She was convinced Max knew who that mastermind was.
    She began pacing the room, her nerves on edge.
    Max looked at her, a sneer on his face. He used to like Chandra. She was a black woman who grew up in privilege as he and Dutch had, but who knew how to keep her blackness quiet. She knew how to stay in her place and not upset people with it. Unlike that Gina, he thought angrily. She was black and she was proud and she didn’t care who she upset. It was almost as if she took pleasure in upending the established order. Why Dutch would want a woman like that Gina, who wasn’t even all that good looking on