DUTCH AND GINA: A SCANDAL IS BORN (22 page)

But Liz, LaLa and Christian were stopped in their tracks.
 
They could only stand and stare as the convoy of SUVs were flying off of the estate, one behind the other, in pursuit of a kidnapper.

It was only then, after the vast majority of agents were gone, and as a few ordered them to remain outside while they “re-secured” the home in case a bait and switch had occurred, Liz, in all of her audacity, walked over to LaLa.

“Listen,” she said.
 
“About what happened with Crader.
 
It really wasn’t what you think.
 
I mean, it was inappropriate, yes, it was, but it wasn’t like serious or anything
 
like that.”

LaLa stared at her, amazed. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked her. “Do you think I care about something like that at a time like this?
 
Get away from me!” she yelled, crying now, not for herself, but for that poor child.
 
Praying that that wonderful baby was not harmed.

“Come on, La,” Christian said, glaring at Liz, and pulled her into his arms.

Dutch, Gina, and Crader were in the same SUV as the agent in charge.
 
The agent already had his laptop out with their surveillance video posted.
 
Nurse Riley could be seen walking and then getting into a Honda Civic.
 
They had already run the plates-rented; were already coordinating with local police; helicopters were already in the air.
 
Fighter jets were on their way.

But the SUVs raced through the bedroom town, taking no chances, relying on no-one but their own speed on the ground.
 
And when the call came in that the getaway car had been spotted, they raced so fast that they almost end up airborne on two tires as they swerved around a corner to get where the sighting occurred.
 

Gina’s heart was racing even faster than the SUV was, and so was Dutch’s, as they both stared out at the blackness with a kind of fear that was lifelike in its intensity.
 
Never, not ever in their entire lives, had they been so scared.

And when the agent in charge yelled, “That’s it!
 
That’s the car!” and they looked and saw the Honda quickly surrounded by SUVs and helicopters buzzing overhead, they cried.

“Praise God!” they proclaimed and wanted to get out immediately.

But the agent wouldn’t allow it.
 
Not until the perpetrators were apprehended.
 
They even locked them, along with Crader, inside.
 
And just as he did, a male subject and then Nurse Riley bolted from the car and tried remarkably to make a run for it.
 
They were apprehended within seconds.

Dutch and Gina were then allowed out of the SUV.
 
They ran, with Gina outrunning her husband, to the car where their child was expected to be.
 
They didn’t see the child, but they saw the overnight bag.
 
Agents were going through it, in case of explosives, and once again Gina and the president were forced to stand back.
 
They had already broken every law on the books by allowing them there in the first place.

But as soon as the tactical team concluded that there were no explosives and the baby was pulled safely out, Gina broke free and ran to her child.
  

He was groggy, but he was alive.

“They gave him some sleeping concoction,” an agent said, with the vial in hand.
 
“We’ve got to get him checked out at the hospital, ma’am.”

Gina was more than ready to go.
 
But as soon as she turned, with her child in her arms, she saw Dutch leaned against the SUV, clutching his heart, dropping to his knees, and then falling out unconscious.

Gina stopped in her tracks.
 
She couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.
 
Dutch, her husband, the strongest man she knew, on the ground like that?

But it was only mere seconds because the Secret Service were on him, grabbing him up, putting
 
him in the ambulance that always had to be onsite wherever the president was, and took off to the hospital.
 

At the same time, the Secret Service, along with Crader, were grabbing Gina and Little Walt, putting them in one of the SUVs, and hurrying them to the same hospital.

But it was all a blur to Gina.
 
She just sat there, staring at her child, staring out of the window at the ambulance carrying her husband, and she felt as if there was some mistake.
 
All of their troubles were supposed to be behind them now.
 
After all that they’d been through, she thought it was over.
 
She thought they had won.

But this didn’t feel like a victory, she thought, as the sirens whirled, as the ambulance and SUV whisked first her husband, and her and her child, to a place she never dreamed, when this day began, would ever be their end.