State of bliss, p.11
State of Bliss, page 11
part #1 of First Family Series, Book 6 Series
He popped a potato chip into his mouth. “You’d miss the things I bring to the table.”
“Like what?”
“You know.”
“I have no clue what you’re referring to.”
“Sure, you don’t. Do you need me to refresh your memory?”
“I might.”
He moved so fast, she had no time to prepare before she was slung over his shoulder as he headed for the bedroom. They were afraid to get busy anywhere else in the house during the day out of fear of long-range camera lenses from the beach.
“What have I told you about hauling me around like I’m a side of beef?”
“You’ve indicated that you quite like it.”
“No, I haven’t! I’m going to puke chicken salad all over you.”
“That’s sexy, babe.”
Standing next to the California-king-size bed, he let her slide down the aroused front of him. He brushed the hair back from her face and kissed her before she could continue her protest over the way he’d slung her about.
Truth be told, his strength was a huge turn-on, not that she’d ever tell him that. She was hardly a waif, but he made her feel weightless as he kissed her with the wild desire that had become such a critical part of her daily life. How had she lived before she’d had him to make her feel this way? His love had become as essential to her as oxygen, food and water. The old her, the pre-Nick her, would’ve laughed at such a thought. But as he undressed them both with impatience, she was overwhelmed with gratitude for him, for them, for their family and their chaotic, ridiculous life.
He eased her down onto the bed, hovering above her with his sexy hazel eyes full of love as he gazed at her. “Two years.”
“And ten lifetimes.”
His smile was a thing of beauty. “Remember when you said, ‘I do,’ to a lowly senator from Virginia?”
“That was a total hoodwink.”
Chuckling, he bent his head to plant a kiss between her breasts. “No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Best day of my life, bar none.”
“Same.”
“Whenever things are too much for me to deal with, which is often lately, I let my mind wander back to that day. That’s all it takes to make me feel better about whatever I’m dealing with.”
“I love that.”
“It was perfection, from start to finish.”
“Well, not completely…”
He knew she was referring to his mother’s attempt to crash the wedding. “It was perfection in all the ways that mattered, because at the end of the day, you were my wife, and we had forever to spend together.”
Before she could reply, he had drawn her nipple into his mouth, stealing every thought from her brain that didn’t revolve around him and this.
“Are you recalling why you can’t leave me for the chicken salad man?”
“Not quite there yet.”
He bit down on her nipple, making her gasp as she laughed, and then she moaned when he pushed inside her, stretching her to capacity. “Is it coming back to you yet?”
“Starting to,” she said breathlessly.
“I’d better be very thorough so you never forget again.”
“That would probably be for the best. That chicken salad is good.”
“My filet mignon is way better.”
Sam laughed so hard, she could barely function, and even in the midst of hilarity, he had her on the verge of orgasm so quickly, her head spun from love, amusement and desire unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
Nothing could compare to him, and he knew it.
Afterward, they stayed wrapped up in each other as their bodies cooled and their breathing returned to normal.
Nick raised his arm and reached for something on the bedside table. “Happy anniversary.” He placed a small, wrapped package on her shoulder.
“You expect me to function after that?”
“Uh-huh.”
She groaned, reached for the gift and turned onto her back. “You wore me out.”
“I had to make sure you weren’t fantasizing about the chicken salad guy.”
“You know there’s no one but you, and there’ll never be anyone but you.”
“Likewise, my love.”
“What is this?” she asked, tugging on the red ribbon that formed a bow at the top of a box wrapped in silver foil paper.
“As you may or may not know, the traditional second anniversary gift is cotton. I racked my brain trying to come up with something fabulous enough for my bride, but cotton wasn’t doing it for me. So I wrapped something fabulous in cotton.”
“Oh, I love fabulous things.” She tore off the paper, opened the jeweler’s box and pushed aside the soft cloth to find a platinum watch. “That’s beautiful.” The face was adorned with tiny diamonds.
“Read the engraving on the back.”
Sam took it out and tilted it toward the waning light coming through the blinds. Thank you for the best two years of my life. NDC
Her eyes filled. “I love it. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you.” He went up on his elbow to kiss her. “You’ve given me something I’ve never had before—a family to call my own. And despite all the unforeseen wrinkles—”
Sam raised a brow in his direction. “Is that what we’re calling the presidency? A wrinkle?”
“A very temporary wrinkle.”
Sam snorted out a laugh.
“As I was saying, despite the many wrinkles, I’ve never been happier or more content than I am since you and the kids came into my life. As long as I have you and them, I have everything I’ll ever need—and then some.”
“I love seeing you as a dad. I’ve never loved you more than I do when you’re with them. Your groove with Scotty is something to behold. Your sweetness with the twins and your guidance of Elijah… It’s so wonderful.”
“As is watching you be a mom.”
“I’m not as good at this parenthood gig as you are. I’m the one telling Scotty to sleep in and don’t worry about math.”
“You’re great at it. They know how much you love them. One of my favorite things ever was when you had to go to school to pick up Scotty. Telling the office people that you’re his mom made you cry.”
“That was the best. I was finally a mom. Not like I thought it would happen, but I couldn’t love him any more than I do if I’d given birth to him. Same with the twins and Eli.”
“Me, too. It’s amazing when you think about how we didn’t even know the three of them a year ago, and now they’re so much a part of us.”
“Life is strange and wonderful.” Sam leaned over to pull the bag she’d brought for him from under the bed. “What do you buy the leader of the free world? I asked myself. And the cotton presented a challenge for me as well.”
“What could it be?” He smiled as he pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and removed the heather-blue cotton T-shirt she’d bought him online.
On the front it said: I love you more. The end. I win.
She loved him all the time, but especially when he laughed. He’d had such a hard go of it with his screwed-up family that seeing him laughing and surrounded with love made her happy.
“I love it, babe. I’ll wear it all the time so you can read the message from me to you.”
“No, that’s not how it works. That message is from me to you. I am the winner of this fight.”
“I want to have this fight every day for the rest of our lives.”
“As long as you concede that I’m the winner of the fight.”
“I’ll concede to whatever you want as long as I get to have you and this and all the rest of it forever and ever.”
“Does that mean I win?”
Smiling, he kissed her and held her close. “It means we both win.”
Chapter Ten
At eleven thirty, they turned the bedroom TV on to watch the latest horror unfold on Saturday Night Live. Sam could barely stand to look. Yes, she knew it was a tradition for the comedy show to skewer the latest occupants of the White House, and she’d found it funny before those occupants were her and her husband.
“Here we go,” Nick said.
Once again, they were featured in the cold opening.
Sam took one look and screamed at the sight of the same actress who’d played her before, this time made up to be a big-boobed blonde with a dark spray tan and teeth so white they probably glowed in the dark. She wore a hot-pink bikini with a police belt around her waist and a gold badge pinned to the right side of the barely there bikini top.
“You motherfucker,” she muttered as Nick rocked with silent laughter.
And then the actor who played him came on the screen, wearing a banana-hammock bathing suit with a large bulge and an equally dark spray tan with the same sparkly white teeth that would be visible from outer space.
They landed on a single lounge chair on the sand, umbrella drinks on a table next to them.
“Not so funny now, huh?” Sam asked.
Nick had a slightly horrified expression on his face. “It’s, um…”
Then the actors started talking, and it got worse.
She rubbed tanning oil on him as she basically humped him from behind. “I’m so excited for our beach vacation.”
He moaned as she rubbed the oil into his shoulders.
“Those mean old Joint Chiefs can go bleep themselves.” She bit his neck. “They wish they were as sexy as you are.”
“I’m most definitely going to kill you for this,” Sam said.
“Who needs Joint Chiefs, anyway?” the Nick actor asked as he beat his chest. “I’m the commander in chief.”
“That’s right, baby. You’re the big boss, the big hoss, the main man.”
“Death won’t be good enough for you,” Sam muttered as her phone buzzed madly with texts. She could picture everyone she knew howling with laughter.
“How should we celebrate our second anniversary?” the Nick actor asked with a gleam in his eye.
He turned toward the camera to reveal the bulge in his teeny-tiny suit had gotten bigger.
“Oh my God,” Nick muttered.
“I have a few ideas,” the Sam actor said as she wrapped herself around him in a passionate embrace just as “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” by Jimmy Buffett started to play. The couple gyrated to the beat as they made out, hands all over each other.
They emerged from the revolting kiss to flash their bright white smiles as they said, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night.”
“I want a divorce,” Sam said.
He shut off the TV. “You do not.”
“No, I really do.”
“You’d miss me.”
She crossed her arms. “I don’t think I would.”
He cozied up to her, kissing her neck and making her melt. “Yes, you would.”
“Wouldn’t.”
“You’d miss the bulge in my banana hammock.”
“That’s the only reason I’m still here.”
His laughter rocked them both.
“I still hate you.”
“I hate me, too.”
“Good.”
Their phones went wild with texts.
“We’ll never be able to show our faces again,” she said on a moan.
“Eh, it’s funny.”
“No, it isn’t! It’s mortifying.”
“It’s really concerning how well they seem to know us.”
“Can’t you pass a law or something against SNL making fun of the president—and the first lady?”
“I wish I could, babe, but there’s this pesky First Amendment thing that would preclude such a directive.”
“Don’t be presidential with me. It’s annoying.”
He nudged at her crossed arms. “Let me in. It’s cold out here by myself.”
Only because she actually loved him more than she hated him, she yielded to allow him to cozy up to her.
“That’s better.”
“You’re going to pay for this for the rest of our lives.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Do you understand that any time I tell you to jump, you’re going to say, ‘How high, my warrior princess?’”
“It’s come to that, has it?”
“It came to that last Thanksgiving. It’s just gone nuclear.”
“Don’t say the word ‘nuclear.’ You’ll set off an international incident.”
“Don’t deflect. You’ll be my beck-and-call boy for the rest of our natural lives and into the next one. You got me?”
“I got you, babe, and I’m never letting go of my warrior princess.”
* * *
Vacation wasn’t what it used to be. That was for sure. Nick had been occupied since shortly after eight with a series of security briefings surrounding the situation off the coast of Alaska and the uprising in Niger.
Sam had spent the morning sipping coffee with a view of the ocean as she sifted through texts from literally everyone she knew, cracking up over the latest SNL skit. She was glad they were amused. She was mortified.
She’d hoped to see Nick before she left for her two appointments, but he didn’t return from the house next door in time.
If it seemed like everything that happened in the world was somehow his concern, that’s because it was. Sam couldn’t imagine having the kind of responsibility that he did, or having to make decisions that could affect millions of people. It was better if she didn’t think about what her husband had to deal with as she rode in the back of a Secret Service SUV to the first of her appointments in northern Delaware.
Despite the frivolity of the night before, she had her own concerns today and was dreading meeting with families who’d been further victimized by the very person who should’ve been helping them.
It made her skin crawl to think of Stahl taking missing-person reports from the distraught families of women he might’ve killed.
“I was surprised to hear you’re working today,” Vernon said, glancing at her in the mirror.
“I’m assisting in an investigation that has all hands on deck.”
“That sounds serious.”
“It’s the worst kind of serious. One of our own suspected of mass murder.”
“The guy who hit us?”
He was referring to Sergeant Ramsey. “No, the one who tried to kill me.”
“I’ve read about that son of a bitch.”
Sam appreciated his forceful tone. “How is it that some of the people who wear the badges and swear the oath do everything other than uphold the law?”
“Officers like us can’t understand that mentality.”
“I’ll never comprehend it. I worked closely with him for years. I detested the guy, and he detested me right back. But never in all that time did I think he was capable of the things we already know he’s done, let alone what we’re investigating now. We just thought he was a miserable coworker, not a psychopath.”
“It has you questioning your instincts because you didn’t see it.”
“Yeah, kind of.”
“Don’t do that. Psychopaths hide in plain sight. When I was with the FBI way back in the early part of my career, I worked on a unit that tracked a serial killer in the Midwest. Our team became subject-matter experts and ended up consulting on a number of other similar cases.”
“Wow. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t just land on your detail out of nowhere.”
Sam laughed. “I suppose that’s true.”
“He had a really cool career with the FBI and ATF before coming to the Secret Service,” Jimmy said.
“Don’t tell all my secrets at once, young Jimmy,” Vernon said. “I need to retain my aura as an international man of mystery.”
Sam and Jimmy laughed.
“All right, then, Mr. International Man of Mystery… Tell me what you know about psychopaths.”
“They tend to fall into four categories—narcissistic, borderline, sadistic and antisocial.”
“I can see Stahl in the last two—sadistic and antisocial. He seemed to take great pleasure in tormenting the people who worked for him, and no one liked him.”
“Not to mention what he did to you the second time,” Vernon said, glancing at her in the mirror.
“Not to mention.”
“Anyone who can do something like that to another person is a textbook psychopath,” Vernon said forcefully. “They also lack compassion and empathy, but can phone it in when needed, such as a police officer on the job doing the bare minimum while satisfying his psychopathic tendencies on the side. I think if you were able to go back to examine his childhood and life before he joined the department, you might see the signs were there.”
Sam made a note to have someone investigate Leonard Stahl’s earlier life. “Wouldn’t that have shown up in the due diligence the department did before they hired him?”
“If they did it,” Vernon said. “We’re talking thirty years ago, right?”
“Yeah, about that.”
“Who knows how thorough they were in vetting people back then, especially if they were desperate for officers? That tends to happen after times of unrest when people get to see the downside of policing or in cases of police behaving badly, which gives potential officers pause about wanting to join a department.”
She wanted to talk to Dr. Trulo about what sort of psychological tests had been given to prospective officers at the time Stahl was hired. Sam recalled a rigorous screening after she applied, but who knew what they did thirty years ago?
Her father would have known, and she wished more than anything that she could call him to ask. Since she couldn’t, she sent a text to Captain Malone. Question: What kind of psychological testing did you guys go through before joining the department?
He replied a few minutes later. Not much. Wasn’t as big of a thing back then as it is now. The department was vigorously recruiting when our group came in following a hiring freeze that had left them seriously shorthanded.
We need to do a deep dive into Stahl’s past, his childhood, etc. Especially in light of what Gonzo and Cruz learned yesterday.
Will ask someone to do that and report back.
Thanks.
Next, she texted Dr. Trulo. In light of the new info on Stahl, I’m wondering if there’s any insight from your end that might help us to wrap our heads around the possibility that a serial killer was working in our midst.
