“Shut up and go to work.”
Sam laughed and stood to leave.
At the door, he gave her a tight hug.“I mean it.All bravado aside.Please don’t take any unnecessary chances.”
“I never do, and I never would.Too damned much to live for.”
“I love you.”
“I love you more, and don’t argue with me.I already won that fight.”
Nick laughed as she opened the door to find Terry O’Connor about to knock.
“Hi, Sam.Sorry to interrupt.”
“Hey, Terry.I was just leaving.See you guys later.”
Chapter Twenty
Nick watched her go, holding back the urgent desire to beg her not to.Stay, he wanted to say.Stay with me where you’re safe.Please.I need you.Don’t go.
“Mr.President.”
Nick realized Terry had been speaking to him.He closed the door and turned to his chief of staff.“I’m sorry.What did you say?”
“Are you okay, sir?”
“I… ah… Yeah.”He forced himself to shake off the dread of watching her walk away, headed for God only knew what.“What’s up?”
“How’d the meeting with Pierce go?”
Nick returned to his seat behind the Resolute Desk.“As expected.They want Sam off the streets and for Scotty to go to private high school.”
Terry sat in a chair next to his desk.“What did you say to that?”
“We told them Sam will continue in her job, and Scotty is going to Eastern with his middle school friends.Neither of those edicts was well received.”
“I’m sure they weren’t.”
“And then, after hearing that the Secret Service has extreme concerns about Sam’s safety, I had to let her walk out of here and go to work, because that’s what I promised her I’d do when I became president.But everything in me wants to forbid her from leaving this place for any reason.”
“Which, of course, you can’t do.”
“Right, so now I’m in a cold sweat about the possibility that everything from the drones to four new murders to the shooting yesterday could be a coordinated attempt to scare me so badly that I quit—or to scare her so badly she quits the force.”
“What?”
“Sam has a theory that the goal is to get to me through her, and at first, it sounds preposterous.That is, until you dig in a little and see how effectively it would work if something were to happen to her.I’d be out of here so fast, heads would spin, and they know that.Theyknowit.So they’re aiming for my Achilles’ heel.Or, they’re aiming to scare her off the job.”
“Who is it, exactly, that you’re referring to?”
“We’re not sure yet, but she’s got a long list of possibilities to consider.”
Terry sat back in his seat, seeming stunned.
“At this point, especially after the shit with the Joint Chiefs and Juan… What would’ve been ridiculous in another life is anything but in this one.”
“Wow.”
