Caught by the Chief of Staff (A Presidential Affair Book 2) Read online

  “Yes,” I whisper.

  Ding! My phone’s text tone chimes, making me gasp.

  “That’ll be the message now,” the voice says.

  UNKNOWN: [PICTURES]

  I open my text app. It’s picture after picture of Rick and other sailors and soldiers in various uniforms on some base in a desert. I don’t know much about where he is now, because he couldn’t tell me, and I was okay with that. I understand my place as a military wife.

  He looks happy in some. I always know he loves what he does. He’s smiling at something another man is saying to him.

  “I don’t understand what this means,” I say after I raise my phone back to my ear.

  “It’s to prove to you that I have access to him, and if you don’t do as I say, your husband will die in a friendly fire accident before the day is through,” the voice warns.

  “No.”

  “Yes,” they hiss like a snake.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I’m glad you’re finally listening.” They chuckle, but I do not find one thing funny about this situation.

  “What do you want me to do?” I ask again.

  “Leave him.”

  “W-what?” I gasp. I couldn’t have heard correctly.

  “You’re going to hang up the phone and go pay for your groceries,” the voice says, and I look over my shoulder, wondering who it is I’m talking to. They laugh again. “Don’t bother; you’ll never find me.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “That’s not for you to know.”

  “What am I to know?”

  “Nothing other than what I’m telling you to do right now,” the voice says. “Buy your items, go home, pack your bags, and after you tell your husband goodbye when he calls, you leave and never look back.”

  “He will never believe me.”

  “Then I guess you better make it believable. Or else you won’t like the consequences.”

  And then he hangs up.

  I look down at my phone and flip through the pictures of Rick, and in my heart of hearts, I know this is the last look of him I will ever have. I place my free hand over my still flat belly. I don’t know how I’m going to make this right for us, but I will. We’re going to be all right. Because we have to be.

  And then I do what I was told. Only I don’t select another quart of milk, because I won’t be home to drink it. I take my purchases to the counter and put them on the conveyor belt. The cashier takes one look at my baby socks and blanket and my copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting and guesses right away.

  “You’re having a baby,” she says with a sweet smile.

  “Yeah,” I whisper.

  “What a blessing. Congrats to you and your husband.”

  If only today had gone the way it started out, with so much joy and promise, but now it’s nothing but survival and heartache with some terror thrown in for fun.

  “Thanks,” I reply. I pay for my purchases and head for my car.

  I pull out of the parking lot on autopilot. I head to the apartment and let myself in. I don’t take my purchases out of the car; I don’t need to. Instead, I pull out the duffle bag from the closet and fill it with a handful of clothes. I don’t even care what I grab, just enough to get by. Nothing has meaning anymore.

  And then I sit on the sofa in the late-afternoon sunlight and wait. I don’t turn on the television or any lights; I just sit there and wait until the sun starts to set and Rick calls.

  “Hi,” I say when the Skype call comes through.

  “Hey, baby.” He smiles that panty-melting smile I love so much. “I miss you.”

  “I miss you too,” my voice cracks.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asks, and his voice is so full of concern that I can’t take it.

  “Nothing,” I start and then I shake my head. “Everything. I can’t do this anymore.”

  “What?” Rick breathes. “I don’t understand.”

  “Then I guess you better make it believable,” I hear the robotic words over and over in my head. I have to make Rick think this is believable, even as I break my own heart right along with his.

  “I can’t do this anymore, Rick.” Hot tears burn down my cheeks.

  “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t want to be a Navy wife anymore. I don’t want to be married.”

  “What?” he asks, and shock is written across his face.

  “I’m not cut out for this,” I tell him. “I don’t know if I was ever meant to have a family of my own. Maybe I was always meant to be alone.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Rick says. “Baby, just hear me out. We’ll get through this together.”

  “No,” I cry. “We can’t. I won’t be here when you get home.”

  “Don’t say that!” he shouts.

  “I’ll have an attorney send papers to you. Just sign them and move on.”

  “No!” he barks. “I won’t.”

  “You can do better than me, Rick,” I say sadly. I feel broken inside. “We both know that.”

  “No, I don’t know shit, and neither do you,” he says in a tone of voice he’s never taken with me before now.

  “I do,” I sob. “I’ve always known. Be safe, Rick. And be happy.”

  “I won’t be happy without you,” he pleads, and me neither. I won’t be happy without him, not ever again, but I’ll exist for my baby. That’s all I can do now. And Rick will live to see another day, to marry again and be happy, all because I’m walking away. “I love you, Cara.”

  “Goodbye, Rick.” And then I end the connection before whispering, “I’ll never love anyone but you.”

  And then I slip off the rings he was so proud to give me and I loved so very much, and I leave them on the coffee table along with the sim card to my cell phone so he can’t find me. I grab my duffle bag and my car keys, and I just drive. To where or what, I have no idea.

  I have absolutely nothing left.

  But this baby will have me, and that’s going to have to be enough.

  “POTUS and FLOTUS Take Midday Lunch Date. Hearts Swoon at the Romance”

  Chapter 11

  Taken

  Present day…

  I know exactly what I need to do. Or really, who I need to go to. If this was another time and place, I would appreciate the irony of the situation—that this morning I was avoiding him, hellbent on running away, and now I’m running to him.

  I clutch my phone in my hand so tight I’m afraid the glass will shatter, and then where will I be? I had just stopped the video. I’m going to be sick, but I can’t now. I have to get to Rick. If anyone can fix this, it’s him. I know we have a lot to atone for between us, but I also know I can trust him with this.

  My lungs burn with the air that isn’t filling them as I race from my small office in the First Lady’s offices to the presidential offices.

  “Stop, ma’am,” one of the marines who guards the offices says. “No one is allowed back here.”

  “I need to see Rick Donovan right away,” I tell him as I flash my badge. My voice is thread, and my hands shake. “It’s an emergency.”

  “Right this way, Ms. Donovan,” Gus, one of Jake’s Secret Service agents says from somewhere behind me, surprising both the sentry and me. Granted, I’m a little jumpy right now. “You can wait in his office. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

  “Can’t I just go to him?” I ask. “It’s important.”

  “No, ma’am,” he tells me gently. “He’s in a closed-door meeting,” Gus explains.

  “Oh okay,” I say. “Just… please hurry.”

  I pace Rick’s office while I wait for him. If he doesn’t show soon, I’m going to puke in his wastepaper basket. My stomach is turning over and over. Sweat beads my upper lip and my hairline. The room swirls around me while I struggle to get my bearings. The offending video on my phone plays in my brain on a loop.

  These things are time sensitive, right? And my baby. I can’t bear for her
to be away from me for one more minute. I need to get to her, but I don’t know where she is. I left her safe and sound at school just a few hours ago, and now she’s just… gone.

  “What the fuck could be so important that you’ve interrupted me during a closed-door meeting, Cara? Did you break a nail?” he seethes. I know he probably hates me again after my refusal of marriage last night. I hate me too. I did things he will never understand to protect him, to protect Rachel, and now it was all for nothing.

  “She’s go—” The words get stuck in my throat, and I can’t get them out.

  “Who’s gone?” he asks, his body instantly alert.

  “Our daughter,” I explain, holding out my phone with the video queued up. “Somebody took Rachel.”

  “Our daughter,” I explain. “Somebody took Rachel.”

  And poor Rick. He just found her, and now if something happens to her, it will gut him. I know he hates me, and I accept that he should, but Rick is a good man and an even better father than I could have dreamed he’d be. He is the way he is because of me and my actions, not because of him or who he is deep down.

  “What do you mean somebody took Rachel?” Rick asks after a pause.

  “She’s gone, Rick,” I answer in a panic. My belly is churning with acid and I know I’m going to be sick just saying the words. “Someone took her from the school.”

  I hold out my phone with the video queued up. Rick takes the little stack of glass and metal that hold our whole entire world in them.

  Rick takes the phone from my outstretched hand and I watch as he hits play, his face is blank until the video starts and I watch the tightening of his jaw, his fingers whiten around my piece of shit phone, it’s the only outward sign he gives that he’s upset. Rick is a fortress and I’m that little piggy’s straw house, one more gust and I’m toast.

  I clench my eyes tight and will the sounds of our daughter begging me to come get her away, but I can’t. I can only use them to harden my heart and steel my resolve to find her by any means possible.

  “I think I know who did it,” Rick says after a moment. He still doesn’t look at me; he just continues to scroll through the messages on my phone. He sees everything, and I’m okay with that. For the first time in almost ten years, I’m not hiding anything from him, and it feels so much better.

  “You do?” I ask, surprised. How could he know who did this? But even if he does, this is good. We can get her back right now. “Well, go get her. We have to get her back.”

  “I’ll get Rachel back if it’s the last thing I do,” he vows. God, I hope it’s not. He and Rachel need time to get to know each other after spending almost nine years apart. I don’t want anything to happen to either of them. I love them both, and I always have. If we get through this, maybe we’ll finally have our chance at the family we were denied years ago. But it’s too soon to let myself hope now. Now, I have to do whatever Rick says we need to.

  “Please,” I beg. I hope he knows I mean I need him to get our daughter back but also need him to come back in one piece as well.

  “I don’t know exactly who it is, but I think I know why.”

  “What? Why?” I question. I don’t understand. Why would someone want to hurt our little girl? Who could do something like this?

  “Someone is trying to blackmail the president, and the only way to get to him is through me.”

  And then I drop to my knees and promptly throw up in the wastebasket after all. I feel a handkerchief blot at my hairline before his strong hand gently grips my chin and turns my face toward him so he can wipe the corners of my mouth. It reminds me of how tender Rick could be when we were first together, before I ruined everything.

  “Thanks,” I whisper. My face heats with embarrassment as I realize the sexiest man I’ve ever known just watched me toss my cookies.

  “I think it’s time we have a serious talk, Cara.” Rick’s voice is low and rough as he warns me there will be no going back from this.

  “I know.”

  “No more lies,” he warns me.

  “I know that too.”

  And then he grips my upper arms softly, he holds me delicately, like I’m fragile, and helps me to my feet. But the sweet way he cares for me ends when he lets his hand slide down my arm to hold tight to my hand, and then he leads me to the gallows.

  It’s time to face my judgement.

  “Is the President as Squeaky Clean as He Claims?”

  Chapter 12

  Someone is always watching

  “I need you to do something for me, pretty girl,” Rick says, lifting my chin to face him, making me cringe. “It’s going to be really hard, but you have to do it.

  “W-what’s that?” I ask, knowing in my heart of hearts that he’s right. Whatever he’s going to ask me to do is going to be really hard, but then again, everything for the last nine years has been, and for my daughter, I’d walk through fire, so bring it on.

  “There’s my fighter,” he whispers as he looks over my features. Whatever he sees in my face, he approves of.

  “Whatever it is, I can do it.”

  “I need you to pretend like nothing is wrong.”

  “Except that,” I tell him. “I can’t do that.”

  “Cara,” he says, and I can tell it is with great patience that he does so. Ironic, because I’m about to lose mine.

  “I’m serious, Rick,” I snap. “Our daughter is missing.”

  “I know that,” he explains. “And we’re going to find her. But right now, the kidnappers think they have you in their pocket. That you’re afraid—”

  “Because I am afraid.”

  “So that you’ll continue to do whatever they ask of you,” he finishes. “So you have to pretend like nothing is wrong. Business as usual.”

  “But I can’t,” I breathe. Doesn’t he know that acting is not in my nature? I avoided him instead of pretending like nothing was wrong, and he saw through my bullshit the entire time. So will the kidnappers.

  “You have to, because someone is always watching, Cara,” he rationalizes as he holds up my phone in his hand. “These pictures and messages prove someone is always watching you and me both. Not to mention our daughter.”

  “They said I broke the rules, but I didn’t,” I tell Rick, hoping he’ll believe me. That I didn’t just throw all regard for our daughter out the window. “I told you to stay away.”

  “I broke them, honey, and for that I am so sorry,” he tells me. “I couldn’t let you push me away. I accepted Rachel’s invitation to dinner. I came back knowing you were trying to push me away again, and I didn’t want it. I wanted in your life and in Rachel’s. I didn’t give you a chance to say no.”

  “I knew better,” I cry.

  “I know,” he says gently. “But we don’t have a time machine. We can’t go back and change things now. We can only go forward.”

  “Okay,” I say. “What do we do?”

  “We’re going to get her back, but right now, we have a lot to talk about.” I nod in acceptance, because he’s right. We have a lot to clear the air. And I will do whatever we have to in order to get Rachel back. Rick clearly likes whatever he sees on my face, because he nods and says, “Let’s get out of here.”

  And we do.

  “Looks Like No Love is Lost Between Chief of Staff and Ex-Wife. Romance Shippers Heartbroken”

  Chapter 13

  Time to call in the cavalry

  “Are you ready?”

  “Sure,” I answer, and as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know I’m not ready. Rick kicks open the office door so hard it slams against the outside wall.

  “Get out,” he growls.

  “W-what?” I stammer.

  “I said get the fuck out,” he commands as he grabs my upper arm like a criminal and marches me through the building. “I know just what to do with a coldhearted bitch like you.”

  “Rick,” I whisper, but he stops me from speaking when he turns to me with a harsh look plastered over his h
andsome features.

  “I’ve heard enough out of you,” he says to me, and it feels like a kick to the stomach.

  He marches me out of the building and back through security. I hang my head low so they can’t see my face. Hopefully, they just assume I’m sad or that Rick finally caught me in whatever it is he thought I was doing. It’s honestly not too far of a stretch. Everyone who works around us—and hell, even the press—have been speculating about Rick and me for the last six months or so. Things had gotten so heated, the rumors so wild, that I bet they would believe anything at this point.

  Rick marches me through the parking lot. He pulls his keys from the front pocket of his slacks. The lights flash and the locks open with a beep when he hits a button on the key fob. He yanks open the passenger door with more force than necessary, and I cringe.

  “Get in,” he barks at me, and my body folds into the front seat against my volition. It’s as if I didn’t have any other choice than to follow his terse commands. “Buckle up.”

  And then he slams my door before stalking around the hood to the driver side. And then he pulls open his door and climbs in. I scramble to pull my belt across my body and buckle it when Rick shoots me an angry look as he buckles his own seat belt and throws the car in Reverse, backing out of his spot. Rick puts the Tahoe in Drive and peels out of the parking lot.

  I have done so much wrong over the last nine years; I have so much to atone for, especially with Rick, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why he is so angry with me now. I thought before we left the office that we were fine, but now he’s so angry. I’m kind of afraid of him.

  Before long, he heads toward our neighborhood. I wonder why we’re going home when we both know Rachel isn’t there. When he takes another turn and we end up in a neighborhood parallel to ours but not there yet, I wonder what he’s doing.

  “Rick?” I ask hesitantly as he stops for a red light.

  “Hush,” he responds harshly and pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and fiddles with it in his lap, popping open a little latch on the side and pulling the sim card out. He tucks the card in his breast pocket and slides another one in.