Tate knew it was coming. The questions had been growing steadily hostile. Claudia had been nice at first. She asked Birch to tell about being the first vice president sworn into the White House since Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as our thirty-sixth president hours after the assassination of President Kennedy. She asked about the Mitchell family and what President Mitchell meant to Birch.

Tate had almost cheered as she stood next to Humphrey when Birch clearly stated he and Mitchell were complete opposites, but he’d been honored and humbled to serve as his vice president. They talked about living in the White House, the perks and downfalls of living the job every minute of the day, and what he does as a way to relax. But then Claudia started hinting at the failing economy.

“Should you relax when the economy is so unstable? The latest reports state that the dollar is on the verge of a complete collapse, which will grind our economy to a halt. Riots, complete financial ruin, people weren’t even allowed to pull their money from the banks . . . and you’re relaxing at night, living the bachelor life?”

Tate had sucked in a breath apparently loud enough for Claudia to hear. Claudia shot a smirk to Tate, and Humphrey had to put a restraining hand on her arm.

“I’d like to hear your sources on that information, Miss Hughes,” Birch stated with a clear challenge to his voice. “Because the dollar has shown no signs of weakening. In fact, our stock market is strong and overseas trading is on the rise. I’ve just negotiated three trade deals to benefit American’s ability to purchase necessities from foreign countries at a lower price by encouraging foreign investment in America.”

Claudia smiled and Tate shivered. “You know I cannot reveal my sources. You would be violating my first amendment rights. Are you advocating the stripping of American rights, Mr. President?”

Birch cocked his head to the side slightly as he looked at Claudia. “No,” he said easily, “I’m simply calling attention to the fact that you have no evidence that the economy is in trouble. I, however, can cite study after study as to the stability of our economy. So, let’s make sure we stick to the facts, Miss Hughes.”

“And the facts are you are too busy being involved in a romantic relationship with your press secretary, Tate Carlisle, to see the crumbling of the economy right in front of your face. Americans are angry, and they are scared. And instead of taking steps to keep their hard-earned money safe, you talk of limiting constitutional rights and focus on supporting a scandalous woman who should have been fired for such immorality as shown in this photograph.” Claudia paused for a second. In edits, this would allow them time to put the photo of Tate up on the screen. “Are you or are you not dating a woman who was fired from her previous job and who has earned quite the bad reputation for, let’s just call it, her personal life?”

Tate saw Birch relax. He didn’t get angry. But Tate gripped Humphrey’s hand so tightly that tears formed in his eyes.

“Yes, I am dating Miss Carlisle,” Birch said easily. The world swam in front of Tate’s eyes. This wasn’t part of the script. “And I’m ashamed of the cruelty perpetrated against a woman by some members of the media and people hiding behind social media. I find the way she has conducted herself with strength, class, and honor during such a vile invasion of privacy as being beyond question. How can you turn against one of your own sex for sharing an intimate act with a man she loved at the time? Are you saying every woman who has engaged in the act of making love has a bad reputation? I sure hope you are not guilty of, according to you, such immoral acts. Instead, the talk should be about such issues as supporting female small-business owners and equal pay, but instead you’re focusing on tearing another woman down over her personal life. That doesn’t make sense to me.”

Tate felt tears prick against her own eyes. Birch had just told the entire world she was his girlfriend while viciously tearing Claudia apart.

“And no self-respecting man would allow you to call the woman he loved such a disrespectful name.”

Tate lost her battle to the tears. They fell silently down her cheeks as she clasped her hands over her heart. She didn’t even realize a camera had panned over to capture her. She didn’t hear the makeup artists claiming it was the most romantic knight-in-shining-armor moment they’d ever seen. All she saw was the love on Birch’s face as he smiled encouragingly to her.

“I will say this, Miss Hughes. After seeing the horrific way Tate has been treated, I am encouraging Congress to finally pass a federal cyberbullying law. No woman, man, or child of any race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation should feel that they are not safe being the person they are for fear of online bullies. It’s time to stop letting hate and fear poison us—hatred of a woman who has done nothing to any of you, fear about this ridiculous notion that the economy is on the verge of collapse, and poison from people clearly pushing their own agendas. The American people will see through the lies and manipulation. I have faith in them even if you do not.”

Across the room, Tate saw Larry nod his head. She leaned over to Humphrey. “We need to make sure the tape is handed directly to Larry. We’ll have a word with him and remind him of the agreement that the broadcast is required to show unedited audio of the president. His complete answers must be included even if they try to limit the impact by placing graphs or stock video clips over him while he talks.”

All Humphrey could do was nod as he watched Claudia sputter.

Birch took control of the interview from then on. He talked about the great responsibility he faced as president. He talked about his hopes and dreams for the country and its citizens. He talked, for the first time, as if he were president. Sure, he’d had press conferences, but right now he was wearing the presidency to perfection. Power, confidence, and compassion rolled off him as he spoke about his hopes for the upcoming year. Claudia on the other hand, was reduced to simply nodding her head.

The producer gave the wrap-up signal, and Claudia turned a fake and somewhat wobbly smile toward the second camera. “What an amazing conversation with the President of the United States. Thank you, President Stratton. I’m Claudia Hughes and this has been The Claudia Hughes News Hour. We’ll see you tomorrow when I’ll be speaking with actor Kerra Ruby on her new role in this summer’s blockbuster.”

Claudia turned and held out her hand for Birch who shook it as Claudia provided small talk for ten seconds of airtime while the credits rolled.

“And cut,” the producer called. “Thanks, everyone.”

The crew swarmed Claudia and Birch, taking off microphones and removing strategically placed lighting. Tate took off across the library for Larry with Humphrey straight on her heels.

“Mr. Wilkinson,” Humphrey called out as Larry worked on shutting down some of the equipment. “I’m sure you’re aware this interview has been recorded for historical purposes by the White House. As per our agreement, we will not air such footage. However, I want your personal guarantee that you, and only you, will remain in control of the digital files for this interview.”

“Larry, you know how important it is that this interview is shown in full,” Tate said softly.

“I do. Why do you think I’m over here doing a crew job?” Larry said, keeping his head down as he worked. “I’ll be contacting you when I lose my job. But it needs to be aired.”

“Thank you. You always have a place on my team here. You’re the best there is at your job, Larry.”

Larry nodded and took off out the door with equipment under each arm.

“Will he do it?” Humphrey asked.

“Definitely. He knows a good story when it’s presented. I do feel we need to check in on him. I think he’ll get a pass after tonight’s surprise. But just in case, let’s have Brock check him tonight after our meeting and then someone else from the team tomorrow. I want to make sure he’s not threatened like Jeff was.”

Claudia stormed out a second later. She didn’t stop to say anything to Tate, and Tate didn’t care. She was just anxious to get Birch to herself. He’d put his election at risk to admit he was dating her. Polls, surveys, and interviews of citizens should all have taken place before he made it public. Tate smiled at him as he went around the room shaking hands and taking pictures with all of the crew and productions staff. He finally made it over to her and stopped.

He looked at her, and Tate smiled with tears in her eyes again. The amount of love and the emotions running through her was overwhelming. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Birch bent his head and placed an achingly sweet kiss on her lips. “Now, let’s go home.” He winked.

Tate laughed as Birch placed his hand at the small of her back and they walked from the room. Relief, love, and a sense of peace filled her. Even if she didn’t release the video of Claudia, the damage was done.

“I’m telling you, Epps is somehow involved,” Dalton said into the phone as he watched Epps head inside his house. “We need to talk to him. I’d do it myself, but with the wife there it would be better if it were the two of us.”

He heard Lizzy sigh on the other end of the phone. “Okay. I need a break from collecting all these fingerprints. Alex can use the time to catch up on scanning and running the ones I’ve done so far. I have the vice president’s and most of the cabinet. I still have secretaries of education, veterans affairs, and housing to run. But they’re not high on my list of suspects. I have to tell you something. In this meeting, Senator Epps and a couple of other congressmen and women were there to begin the meeting with a report of some sort. I ran their prints. None of them matched the partial from the rock.”

Dalton felt his brow knit. “Epps’s fingerprint didn’t match? Maybe the print of the rock was of another finger of his.”

“Nope,” Lizzy said over the phone. “I had a good five fingerprint from Epps. They are not even close to matching. I don’t know how Epps is involved, but I do know he’s not the one leaving orders for others to carry out.”

“Then we really need to have a talk with him.” Dalton looked at the house. What did Senator Martin Epps know?

It took Lizzy over an hour to get there. It was closing in on seven, and in his excitement over the interview, the president had asked them to be at the White House to watch the interview and subsequent fallout from the email Brent Eller was going to get in forty-five minutes instead of later that night. Brent, to his credit as a hard-nosed journalist in his past, had insisted on verifying the video before airing it. Humphrey had said the interview went well, but Humphrey was known to be the king of understatements.

Dalton snapped his head to the window when he heard someone tap the glass. Lizzy grinned back from under a ball cap pulled down so far he couldn’t see her face. He opened the door and got out shaking his head.

“I totally got you,” Lizzy smiled. “And don’t you think it’s risky having your car on the same street as Epps?”

“I switched the plate with a house around the corner with the same make car. I’ll return them when we’re done here.” Dalton filled her in as they walked toward the house.

“How are we going to do this?” Lizzy asked.

“When he entered his garage, I cloned the door with my opener.” Dalton pressed the button and the garage door opened. They kept their heads down and put black masks on the second they were off the street.

“I told you I heard the door,” Senator Epps called to his wife as he opened the door leading into the house.

Dalton moved so fast that Epps didn’t see it. His hand closed around Epps’s wrist as he yanked him into the garage. Lizzy closed the door and headed inside. From the garage, Dalton heard Mrs. Epps scream again. He should send her flowers or something for the number of times they scared her.

Epps struggled, but one punch to his jaw had his head snapping back and his knees buckling. “What do you want? I’ll give you everything, just leave my wife alone.”

“It’s good to see you again, Senator.”

The senator’s eyes bugged. “I signed up at the Freemasons just like you told me to last time you broke into my house. I swear.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. I want to know about the stolen bomb you and FBI Kirby were talking about.”

Epps was quiet for a moment. Then he stoically lifted his gaze to Dalton’s. “I’ve been expecting you. Are you going to kill me?”

“Now, why would I do that?” Dalton wondered.

“Because I know about the bomb, and I’m trying to expose whoever you are as the traitor you are.”

That got Dalton’s attention. “You’re telling me Kirby didn’t steal the bomb and destroy the biometric evidence proving genocide by the rebel leader?”

Epps gasped. “How did you know about that? Wait, who are you?”

“I’m the good guy, and Senator Epps, I’m beginning to think that you are, too.”

Epps nodded. “I am. Kirby came to me with what happened at Quantico.”

“Why you?” Dalton asked.

“Because I’d come to him with concerns about the past president and his staff. I was worried they were giving classified information to foreign leaders and rebels. They would say something in private like, ‘China could blow up any ship in the South China Sea and they would have the right to do so’ and then suddenly there were ships being blown up a couple months later. Then they used it as a reason to give in to China.”

“What have you found?”

Epps shook his head. “I need to know who you are. I can’t just tell you what I know.”

“Epps, you’re making me think I shouldn’t hurt you and then you go and say something like that. Look, I know Phylicia Claymore orchestrated the theft of the bomb and that Harriet Hills ordered a mercenary to wreak havoc in the South China Sea. Now you tell me what you know.”

Dalton hoped his instincts were right or he’d have to kill Epps after telling him so much.

“I knew it. President Mitchell defeated me, and everyone ignored me as being bitter when I brought my concerns to them. I knew something wasn’t right. Something happened in Syria. Do you know about it?”

Dalton nodded. He knew about it intimately.

“It was supposedly a diplomatic mission, but what in reality, it was a payoff. I don’t have proof, but Thurmond Culpepper, do you know who he is?” Dalton nodded again. “He gave this lackey a case that couldn’t be opened. I saw the kid try to open it, but it was locked. Thurmond said the informant had the key. Now, how in the hell is that possible? Well, I was leaving a meeting with the secretary of state, and I may have hung around a bit.”

“You were eavesdropping,” Dalton stated.

“Yes. I heard Thurmond send this kid to Syria to collect an ISIS leader with five million in the bag. Where did that money come from? Taxpayers? This kid was as green as could be. I knew there would be trouble. It was just luck that I was in a meeting with Sandra when Thurmond came in the next day and whispered in her ear. The meeting ended abruptly, and I was shown out.”

“But you didn’t leave?”

“No. I heard Sandra on the phone with some military commander. She told the rescue team to stand down. She refused to allow the military to go in and rescue the team after their helicopter had been shot down. They did anyway, and now that kid is gone. I mean, nowhere on the face of the earth can I find him.”

Dalton felt his breathing pick up. Sandra Cummings, the secretary of state, had issued him to stand down from the rescue. “What were you threatening Thurmond with at the Fourth of July party?”

“Who are you?” Epps asked again with amazement. Dalton didn’t answer. “Fine, I was going to go public with the helicopter and the missing bomb like that reporter did, who subsequently can’t be found either. I thought maybe Sandra had told Phylicia to steal the bomb. I had guessed it was Phylicia after her body was found in Africa. Frankly, I’m surprised I’m still alive. A lot of people have been disappearing.”

“Some, and some are just not wanting to be found. Senator, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

“Um, I don’t know,” Epps answered honestly. “Who are you?”

“I need you to back off because I’ll need you to bring all the evidence to Congress, and I can’t have you looking like an eavesdropping, bitter loser when you do. You understand the situation. It needs to be you as the face of the cleanup to make sure the correct message gets through. I’ll be in touch, Senator Epps. Now let’s get you back inside.”

Dalton walked Epps inside and collected Lizzy before walking out the front door. They didn’t say anything until they were back in Dalton’s car. “Sandra Cummings issued my stand-down order during the Blackhawk rescue.”

“Sandra Cummings?” Lizzy blew out a breath as Dalton drove her to the house where he had swapped plates. “I’ll have Alex run her prints. Could it be her? Could we have found the person in charge of Washington politics for Mollia Domini?”

“I sure hope so. Either way she’ll pay for leaving men behind and getting my team suspended for doing our jobs.”

Lizzy leaned over the console and placed a soft kiss on his lips. “I can feel it. The first crack and tonight the second crack. Mollia Domini is falling.”

“You know they won’t go down without a fight.”

Lizzy smiled slyly. “I’m always up for a good fight. Especially when I have you by my side.” Lizzy kissed him deeper this time. “I’ll see you at the tunnels.”