Chapter Fifteen
Ensconced in his parents’ guest room with Christina, Gonzo was wide awake. He stood at the window and stared out at the light snowfall that had covered the yard. Alex would be excited to wake up to snow in the morning. Gonzo’s parents had insisted on setting up the portable crib in their room so they could get up with him in the morning.
“Sleep in,” they’d told him and Christina, knowing they were upset and afraid.
Sleep in. Right. How was he expected to sleep at all when he was so churned up over Lori’s death and the suspicion that had focused on him—and Christina. They’d both had motive, the opportunity and the desire to see Lori permanently removed from their son’s life, said one of the talking heads on cable news, which had gleefully picked up on the salacious stories coming from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.
Except neither he nor Christina would ever kill anyone, least of all the woman who’d given birth to Alex. Sure, he didn’t like her very much, but she’d given them good reason not to like her. Starting with the day they’d met Alex when he was a couple of months old and found out she hadn’t bothered to give his son a name.
Lori certainly hadn’t endeared herself to his family, friends and colleagues when she came to the hospital after he was shot to stake her claim on Alex. Thankfully, he’d anticipated that possibility and had taken legal steps to ensure she couldn’t take his son away from Christina and his parents if he were ever injured on the job.
Standing in front of the window, wearing only a pair of flannel pajama pants, he was cold, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back to bed, where he would only lie there and spin.
“Tommy,” Christina said, her voice sleepy and sweet.
“I’m here.”
“What’re you doing?”
“Looking at the snow.”
“Come back to bed.”
He’d rather stay up and pace all night, but that wouldn’t help anything, so he joined her in bed.
“You’re freezing! How long have you been up?”
“I don’t know. Awhile.”
She held out her arms to him, and he snuggled up to her.
Shivering, she said, “It’s like snuggling with a polar bear.”
“Sorry.”
“I’m not. I love snuggling with you, even when you’re freezing.”
She was trying to take his mind off his worries. He knew that, but it wasn’t working.
“You know what the worst part of all this is?” he asked.
“What?”
“All these years I’ve spent doing the right thing, chasing down criminals, taking scumbags off the street, earning promotions and commendations and getting shot in the neck and nearly dying not all that long ago. And it’s like none of that ever happened. They just automatically assume, because I’ve had a beef with her, that I must’ve killed her.”
“I know, baby.”
“They just throw my name out there like it makes no difference whatsoever that it’s untrue. That all the good stuff I’ve spent my whole career doing doesn’t matter.”
“Would you consider talking to Darren? He was good to you after the shooting.”
“That would be risky with so many people pointing the finger at me.”
“So go on the record and say you had no reason to kill her. If your goal was to keep your son, that certainly wouldn’t be the way to do it. You could also say how insulting it is to have your decorated career as a police officer swept aside in a sea of accusations and innuendo when there’s no proof whatsoever that you had anything at all to do with Lori’s death.”
“You know, sometimes it’s very convenient to be sleeping with a political operative.”
Christina released the low, sexy laugh that he adored.
He wouldn’t have expected to smile, but she always made him feel better.
“I take that to mean you like the idea?”
“Yeah, I do. I want to talk to Andy first, and make sure I won’t be making anything worse.”
“You need to talk to a criminal defense attorney, not a family law attorney. Maybe Bill Springer will take your case.”
“Ha! Very funny. Can you imagine if I called him up and asked him to represent me?”
“It would give the reporters something else to talk about.”
“No defense lawyers, for now anyway. The one thing I know for sure after all my years in Homicide is that the minute you lawyer up, everyone thinks you’ve got something to hide. I’ll see what Andy says about talking to Darren and go from there.”
“Do you feel any better?”
“Yeah,” he said, “surprisingly I do.”
“I find it always helps to have a plan.”
“I find it always helps to have you. I don’t know how I ever would’ve gotten through everything that’s happened this year without you.”
“And I couldn’t have gotten through it without you.”
He caressed her face and kissed her. “We really ought to get married one of these days.”
“Any day you want.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep.”
“You don’t want the big white deal?”
“I just want to be married to you. I couldn’t care less about the big deal.”
“Let’s get past all this, and then we’ll get serious about making that happen.”
She rubbed soothing circles on his back. “I’m very sad about Lori. I wouldn’t have wished this outcome on her, no matter how much trouble she might’ve caused for us. But we both know the truth—that we had nothing to do with it—so we can’t let it suck the life out of us, you know? It’s a challenge we have to get through, but it’s not like when you were shot, and I didn’t know if you were going to live. That was something else altogether.”
“I know, honey. And you’re right. I need to calm the hell down. All the accusations in the world don’t change the truth.”
“No, they don’t. And tomorrow you can talk to Andy and maybe Darren and set the record straight.”
“I just hope it doesn’t do more harm than good.”
“So do I.”
* * *
Sam’s day began with a call from Lindsey at six. “Are you awake?” Lindsey asked, sounding chipper.
“Mmm, yeah.”
“Sam. Wake up.”
“I’m awake.” Sam opened her eyes, looked around at the loft and realized she was alone under the comforter. “What’s up?”
“I got DNA results for the semen found in Lori Phillips’s vagina. We’ve got a match for your guy Hughes, but there was a second profile. I’m running that one now against the database. Thought you’d want to know there was a second guy.”
“She had a busy last day, that’s for sure. Booze and coke and two guys.”
“Are you getting any closer to figuring this one out?”
“We’ve got a few leads to pursue today. We should know more by the end of the day.”
“The morning papers have banner headlines, tying her to Gonzo and rehashing the custody case.”
“Fantastic,” Sam said. “That’s just what we need.”
“At least they aren’t leading with Springer versus Farnsworth today.”
“There is that. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll check in when I get to HQ.”
“Tell your husband I said to have a good first day in the West Wing. Terry was up at four thirty because he was too excited to sleep. Thus my early arrival today.”
“I’ll tell him. See you later.” She ended the call feeling guilty that she’d almost forgotten this would be Nick’s first official day at the White House. It was probably more that she’d blocked it out. If she didn’t think about it, it wasn’t happening, right?
She’d no sooner had that thought when the vice president himself came up the stairs looking gorgeous and sexy in a dark suit with a white shirt and a red and blue striped tie. He was showered and shaved and breathtaking. A pang of fear struck her in the breastbone. Every woman in America would want him when they saw him on the news later in the day, because surely his first day would be big news.
For now, for this moment, he was all hers, and he came bearing her robe and a steaming cup of coffee. Sam sat up and let the comforter fall to her waist. She ran her fingers through her hair, straightening it. “You look good,” she said, letting her gaze roam from his face down the front of him.
“You look amazing,” he replied, his gaze fixed on her bare breasts. He sat on the edge of the lounge and leaned in to kiss her. “Morning.”
“Morning.” She took the mug of coffee from him and took a sip. “What time is it?”
He kissed her neck and made her squirm. “Six.”
“You’re leaving already?”
“Soon.” He cupped her breasts and toyed with her nipples until they tightened. “I might be enticed to going in a little later though.”
“You’re all spiffy. I wouldn’t want to mess you up.”
He cupped her cheek and ran his thumb over her lips. “I love being messed up by you.”
She offered a weak smile in return.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, why?”
“I know that look. Something is on your mind.”
She ran her hand over the silky length of his tie. “Other than the fact that every female in America is going to be lusting after my sexy husband today?”
“Stop it. They will not.”
“Nick, honey, trust me. They will.”
Bending his head, he went to work on her neck, kissing and nibbling, not hard enough to leave a mark but just enough to make her squirm. “What about all the guys who’ll be lusting after my sexy wife when she goes on TV this morning?”
“You smell so good.”
“Is that your way of dodging the question?”
She shrugged.
“Do I have anything to worry about where you’re concerned?”
“No,” she said forcefully, surprised he would ask such a thing.
“Neither do you. You have absolutely nothing to be worried about. Every woman in the world could throw themselves at me, and the only one I’d want is the one I was lucky enough to marry.”
Touched by his words, Sam took his hand and spun the wedding ring around on his finger, remembering the matching inscriptions on their rings that hadn’t been planned. “I was pretty lucky that day too.”
“We both were and we continue to be.” He nuzzled her neck some more, setting off a surge of desire they had no time to accommodate. “Last night was so hot, babe. I’ll be thinking about that all day today.”
“You’ve got more important things to think about today,” she said even as a heated flush overtook her face when she thought of the things they’d done.
“God, I love when you blush. It’s the hottest thing ever. Well, second only to the sight of your sweet pink ass—”
Sam kissed him to make him stop talking.
He came up for air laughing. “What? Am I not allowed to talk about—”
She kissed him again. “Shut up about it or it’ll never happen again.”
“Oh, it’ll happen again. As soon as possible, in fact.”
“Don’t you have a country to run? Go away and leave me alone, you sex-crazed beast.”
He kissed the end of her nose and then her lips again. “To be continued. Don’t you have somewhere to be at seven?”
Sam groaned at the reminder of her TV date with the chief. “Me and my big mouth.”
“I love your big mouth.”
“Somehow I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing here.”
“I could show you what I’m thinking about.”
“I don’t have time for one of your demonstrations.”
“All right, if you’re going to be that way and send me off to my first day at the White House with an embarrassing hard-on.”
“You did that to yourself.”
“Um, I believe your bare-breasted hair thing did it to me.”
“What bare-breasted hair thing?”
“You sat there, bare-breasted, and gathered your hair into a thing.” He spun his hand around.
“A bun?”
“Yeah that. Again, with the bare breasts. That’s really all it takes. In fact, thinking about that later will have the same effect.”
“Are you really thirty-seven or seventeen?”
“A little of both when it comes to you.” Seeming resigned to his fate, he stood and held her robe for her.
“If I get up, all bare breasted and whatnot, is that going to lead to other things we don’t have time for?”
“You’ll have to do it and see what happens.”
Sam placed the mug on the table next to the lounge and got up slowly. Though her body ached in quite a few places, she felt languid and satisfied overall. She loved watching his gaze heat as she stood naked before him. Then she turned and he wrapped the robe and his arms around her.
“You’re a sexy vixen.”
She laughed. “I like that word.”
“You dazzle me.”
“Right back atcha, Mr. VP.”
“We need to do something awesome for our anniversary.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I’m not sure yet. Let me think about it and get back to you.”
“I’ll await your reply.”
“Plan to take that week off, okay?”
“Can you do that?” she asked.
“I have no idea, but I’m doing it.” He pushed his hard cock against her bottom. “And doing it, and doing it and doing it for a whole week.”
“Nick?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Sometimes I still can’t believe I get to have this—you—every day for the rest of my life.”
He hugged her tighter and nuzzled his face in her hair. “Neither can I. I look at you and think, damn, I’m the luckiest guy in the history of the world.”
“I never thought anyone would feel that way about me. You may not know this, but I’m kind of a pain in the ass.”
“No! I had no idea.”
She pressed her elbow teasingly into his belly. “Hope you have an awesome first day at the White House.”
“It’s already an awesome day, no matter what else happens.” He held her for another minute or maybe it was two before he let her go.
Sam tied the robe around her waist, picked up the mug of coffee and took his outstretched hand. “You had to clean up all the clothes from last night, huh?”
“Of course I did. Do you know me at all?”
“You’re an anal-retentive freakazoid.”
“I’m neat. There’s a difference.”
“Freakazoid.”
“Speaking of anal...”
“Do not speak of anal. We have to go to work.”
“I want to speak of it.”
“No! There’re Secret Service agents at the bottom of the stairs and a boy sleeping in his room who’d be scarred for life if he overheard that. Now be quiet and behave like the second most important man in the free world, will you please?”
“I don’t like having to behave.”
She gave him a gentle shove toward the stairs. “Move it. I need to hit the shower and make myself presentable.”
“We’re going to talk about the A word later. I have needs,” he said with a teasing glint in his eye.
Needs that had been met in the past by someone else, not that he’d ever come right out and said that. He’d shrugged when she asked him if he’d done that before, and it had nagged at her ever since that he’d done it with someone else and not her.
He escorted her downstairs, past the agent outside Scotty’s door and into their bedroom, closing the door behind him. “Why did you just go silent on me?”
“Perhaps it was because you were attempting to have an inappropriate conversation that could be overheard by all the wrong people?”
“How is that conversation inappropriate? You went quiet. I want to know why.”
She turned to face him. “Because! It drives me crazy that you’ve done that with someone else and not me. But I don’t even know if I want to. I just know that I don’t want you to have anything with someone else that you haven’t had with me.”
He stared at her, an incredulous expression on his handsome face. “Samantha, for the love of God, I have never had anything with anyone else that could ever be compared to what I have with you.”
“You had that.”
“So what? Do you think I spend one second of my life thinking about people who never mattered to me a fraction as much as you do?”
“I don’t know. Do you?”
“Look at me, babe.”
It was easier to have this conversation with her back to him, but she did as he asked.
He looked her straight in the eye. “I don’t think about anyone but you. I think about you so much there’s no room for thoughts of anyone else.”
“But still, you want that.”
“I want that with you, because I think you’d love it, not because I’ve done it before and dream about the good old days.”
“I hate that you’ve done stuff with other people that you haven’t done with me.”
“Samantha! Baby, listen to me, I’ve never had anything like this before. Not even close.”
“You said you have needs.”
“I was joking because I love the way you get all red-faced when we talk about any kind of kinky sex.” With his hands on her hips, he tugged her into his embrace. “I can’t bear the thought of something like this bothering you so much.”
“It doesn’t bother me a lot,” Sam said, beginning to feel foolish for making an issue of it. “Just a little.”
“Please don’t let it bother you at all. If we get there, we get there. If we don’t, we don’t. You can’t possibly think that I find anything lacking in our sex life. For God’s sake, Sam, we’re like bunnies. There can’t be a more sexually satisfied husband in all of America than I am.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle at the emphatic way he said that.
With his hands on her face he gazed at her with those incredible hazel eyes that saw right through her. “You have nothing, and I do mean nothing to be insecure about where I’m concerned. I’m your slave, babe.”
Sam slipped her arms inside his suit coat and clung to him.
He wrapped his arms around her. “Please tell me you know that.”
“I do. Of course I do, and it’s silly of me to be worried about ancient history.”
“Yes, it is silly. How could you think I’m not entirely thrilled with every single thing about our life together? Well, except for the parts where you get shot at or pistol-whipped or run off the road. I could live without that shit.”
She smiled up at him. “So could I.”
Looking down at her, he said, “I don’t like knowing you have these insecurities. What’ll we do about that?”
“They’re not insecurities so much as a desire to experience everything there is to experience with you.”
“That we can do, as long as it’s not tied to some misbegotten notion that you have to live up to some expectations that I don’t have.”
“Okay.”
He held her for another minute. “Are we good?”
“We’re great. We’re incredible.”
“Yes, we are. We’re incredible exactly the way we are, and don’t you ever forget it.”
“I won’t.” She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Now go run the country while I get ready for TV.”
“I’ll see you tonight.”
“Yes, you will.”
“I love you so much, Samantha. I wish I had the words to tell you how much.”
“You just did a pretty good job. And PS, I love you just as much.”
He kissed her again and then let her go. “Be careful out there today.”
“Always am. Got far too much to live for to screw up, so don’t worry.”
“That’s like telling me not to breathe.”
“Be gone with you. I have to beautify.”
His phone chimed with a text that he glanced at. “Crap, it’s from Shelby. She’s sick and not able to work today.”
“No word about why she was at the ER?”
“No, that’s all she said.”
“Well, damn, that changes the day.”
“Not really. The agents can get Scotty to and from school, and they’ll be here with him when he gets home.”
“So now we’re relying on them to babysit?”
“He hardly needs babysitting. He’s thirteen.”
“Still, how warm and fuzzy to come home to his Secret Service detail.”
“Tell you what, I’ll suggest he go to Skip and Celia’s after school, and I’ll give her a heads-up that he’ll be coming if it’s okay with them.”
“That’ll work. I’ll check in with them too. I just hope Shelby’s okay. I’ll try to get a chance to call her.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get him up, and I’ll see you later at the reception if you can make it.”
Sam would never admit that she’d forgotten all about the reception. “Good luck today.”
“Thanks, you too.” He stole one more kiss on the way out the door.
Sam headed for the shower, her mind swirling after their conversation. It never failed to amaze her how different her second marriage was from her first. She and Peter hadn’t talked about the things she and Nick covered so effortlessly. Everything was on the table with Nick, and she loved that about their marriage.
She hurried through a shower, took the time to blow-dry and straighten her hair and chose a black suit with a cranberry silk blouse under it for TV. She shoved jeans, a sweater and her trusty hiking boots into a backpack to change into later. From the bedside table, she withdrew her service weapon, which she tucked into the waistband of her skirt, as well as her badge, cuffs and notebook, which she put in the backpack.
When she got downstairs, Scotty was finishing a bowl of cereal while watching Sports Center on Nick’s iPad.
“Wow, you look nice,” he said. “Why are you all dressed up?”
“Going on TV this morning with Chief Farnsworth.”
“Oh, hey, that’s cool. How come?”
“There’s been a lot of crap flying around since the Springer investigation, and we’re going to tell our side of it. Or try to anyway.”
“That’s a good idea.”
She ran her fingers through his hair. “It was my idea.”
“It’s a good one.”
“Unless of course it blows up in our faces.”
“Don’t let that happen.”
If only it were that simple. She downed a piece of peanut butter toast, then went back upstairs to brush her teeth and check her appearance one last time. In deference to her TV appearance, she slipped on her engagement ring and the diamond key necklace. She released a deep breath. Being on TV always made her incredibly nervous, but she was glad to do anything that might help take some of the heat off the chief.
Sam went downstairs where Scotty was putting the lunch Nick had made for him into his backpack.
“Nick told you Shelby is out today, so you’ll be coming home with the agents and going to Skip’s if it’s okay with them?”
“Yeah, he said he’ll text me after he talks to them.”
“Sounds like a plan then.”
“Is Shelby okay?”
“I think so. She didn’t say what was wrong, but I’m sure she’d be happy to hear from you if you text her later.”
“I’ll do that. Are we going to Nick’s reception at the White House? He ironed my work clothes for me.”
As Sam wondered what the heck time her husband had gotten up—or if his insomnia had kept him up all night—she hugged her son. “I hope to be able to go. I’ll let you know.”
“Okay.”
“Have a good day, buddy. I love you.”
“Love you too.” He paused before he said, “Hey, Sam?”
“Yeah?”
“Last night I told Nick that at some point, when it feels right, I’d like to call him Dad. Would it be okay if I did the same with you?”
The request hit her like a ton of bricks to the chest. “You wanna call me Dad?” she asked, making light of it so she wouldn’t bawl her head off.
“Sam,” he said impatiently. “You know what I mean.”
She went to him, because how could she not? “Yes, I know what you mean, and nothing would make me happier in the entire world than for you to call me Dad. I mean Mom.”
Scotty laughed. “You’re such a dork.”
“You’re a bigger dork.”
“Doubtful.”
“We’ll continue this conversation later, my friend. I’ve got TV people waiting for me.”
“I’ve got algebra waiting for me. I’d rather be you.”
“I’d rather be me too.”
Debra, one of Scotty’s agents, came into the kitchen. “Ready to roll?”
“Ready,” he said. “See ya, Sam.”
“I’ll walk you out.”