State of bliss, p.5
State of Bliss, page 5
part #1 of First Family Series, Book 6 Series
“Is it strange that there were no pizza boxes to be found anywhere in a college dorm?” Gonzo asked.
“I thought so, too,” Freddie said. “Made me wonder if someone went through floor by floor looking for them or something and then got rid of them all together.”
“It’s a theory. Pass it on to the PG County detectives.”
“I’ll text the lieutenant.”
“Anything else on the social media?” Gonzo asked Cam.
“Not yet. Will let you know.”
“Thanks.” To Cruz, he said, “Let’s go talk to Gordon.”
* * *
The motorcade arrived at the house in Dewey Beach around four, with Sam and Nick looking perfectly respectable when the Secret Service agents opened the door for them. They’d been forced to wait until the agents had fully inspected the house ahead of their arrival.
“Who do they think is lying in wait in there?” Sam asked.
“Could be any number of people.”
His list of enemies had expanded exponentially in the four months he’d been president, a fact that terrified her if she allowed herself to think too much about it.
This was no time to be terrified, so she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and slammed the mental door shut on negativity so she could fully enjoy this time away with her beloved.
The house was just as she remembered it, with comfortable furnishings and seaside décor.
She walked to the sliding glass door and opened it to step onto the deck that overlooked the dunes, beach and ocean.
A sharp, cold breeze greeted her. “Yikes.”
Nick followed her and wrapped his arms around her from behind. “It’s not August anymore, Toto.”
“Nope, but it’s still gorgeous and perfect. You want to walk on the beach?”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
Nick went to notify Brant that they wanted to take a walk. “He said they need fifteen minutes.”
She could hear the frustration behind the words, so she went to him, put her hands on his chest and kissed him. “It’s fine. We can certainly entertain ourselves while they make sure no one is waiting out there to harm my husband.”
He put his arms around her. “Or my wife.”
“I’m thankful for everything they do to keep us safe. We have to let them have the time it takes to do that.”
“Yes, dear.”
“Could I please record you saying that so I can play it back any time I need it?”
“And how are you going to record anything on your antique flip phone?”
“My husband has an iPhone.”
“Now you want to borrow my phone to use it against me?”
She giggled as she hugged him, loving the silliness, the laughter, the ease of being with him that made this relationship different from all others.
“While I have you in such a good mood, I need to give you a heads-up that we’re being featured on Saturday Night Live again this week.”
Her good mood deflated. “Come on. No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Why? Why? Why?”
“Um, is that a rhetorical question?”
“I don’t hate you for being president, but I hate you for making me an SNL target.”
“You really hate me?”
“I really do.”
He put his arms around her, letting his hands slide down to cup her ass and bring her in tight against him. “I bet I could change your mind about that.”
She turned her face away from his kiss, which he then directed to her neck. “That’ll depend on how badly I’m humiliated by SNL.”
Damn if she could resist those neck kisses.
“All set Mr. President, Mrs. Cappuano,” Brant said from the front door.
Nick extended his hand to her. “Let’s walk, love.”
“I still hate you.”
“Duly noted,” he said with a chuckle.
They had the beach to themselves, except for the White House press corps, which had apparently accompanied them on their trip. Sam wanted to scream at them to leave him alone, for God’s sake, but she bit her tongue so she wouldn’t be the lead story around the world.
Nick tuned in to her outrage. “Just ignore them.”
“Easier said than done.”
“I know, but what do we care if they take pictures of us?” He put his arm around her shoulders. “Let the whole world see how much I love my wife.”
She put her arm around his waist. “And how much I love my husband.”
“Just no grab-ass, you hear me?”
“Buzz killer.”
“I’ll make it up to you later.”
“I’ll look forward to that. In the meantime, how is it still so freaking cold?”
“Supposed to get warmer in the next few days.”
“I can’t wait for that. I’m so over the cold.”
“The cold air feels amazing to me. Better than the stale White House air.”
“I’m sure it is.”
They walked until their faces were numb from the cold and then turned back, coming face-to-face with the gaggle of photographers and camera-people who were stalking them.
“Ignore,” he said under his breath.
“Ignoring. Since they’re in front of us, is this allowed?” Sam dropped her hand to squeeze his ass.
“Not allowed.”
“Just checking.”
“Don’t be fresh.”
“You like when I’m fresh.”
“Watch what you say. I’m sure some of them are accomplished lip readers.”
“For fuck’s sake.”
“Sam!”
“Whoops. Sorry.”
He shook with silent laughter.
“I’d like to remind you that I warned you way back at the very beginning that I’d be a political liability, and you chose to take me on anyway. Oh wait, was that when you were promising me one year in the Senate? Hmmm…”
“Are you angling for a”—he put his hand over his mouth—“spanking, by any chance?”
“Oh yes, please.”
“Knock it off. I don’t want photos of me with a”—he covered his mouth again—“boner on the front of every paper in the world.”
“Then quit talking about things that will cause that.”
“This walk was a terrible idea.”
“You might want to explain things to me ahead of time in the future.”
If there was anything more fun than sparring with her gorgeous, witty, sexy husband, Sam had yet to discover it. Even hunting down murderers couldn’t compete with him on the scale of the most fun she’d ever had.
As they walked up the beach to the path that led to their house for the next ten days, reporters started yelling questions at them.
“Mr. President, have you met with the new Joint Chiefs yet?”
“Do you have a comment on the statement issued by General Wilson?”
“Is it true that former Lieutenant Stahl has been connected with missing women?”
“Did you pay your mother’s bail?”
That last one had Nick going tight with tension.
His mother had made bail? That was news to Sam—and apparently to him as well.
“Don’t react,” she said through gritted teeth. “Just keep walking.”
They went up the stairs and through the sliding door that Brant opened for them.
“We’re in for the night,” Nick told him.
“Very well, sir. We’ll be next door and will have agents positioned around the perimeter. We took the liberty of lighting the fire for you. Please enjoy your evening.”
“Thank you. We will.”
The White House chef had sent meals for the next couple of days, with more shipments coming in a couple of days.
Sam was also determined to go out to dinner at least one night while they were there. She went to the fridge to find out what the chef had sent. “What do you feel like? Tenderloin with mashed potatoes and green beans, or shrimp and pasta?”
“Tenderloin for the win.”
“That got my vote, too.”
Per the instructions that had been affixed to the containers, Sam set the oven on 350 and put the meals in to warm for thirty minutes. Then she poured a glass of the rosé that Tracy had told her about. She’d added it to the food-and-beverage order she’d placed through the chief usher, Gideon Lawson, ahead of the trip.
She’d wanted Nick to have all his favorite things.
As she opened a bottle of Sam Adams for him, she glanced at him standing at the slider, looking out on the beach. His hands were in his pockets, but his shoulders told the true story of a man burdened by things no one else on earth had to deal with.
Sam put their drinks on the glass coffee table. “Come sit with me.”
He came over to join her.
She pointed to the floor in front of her. “There.”
When he was seated, she began to knead the tension from his shoulders. “I need you fully relaxed and not thinking about anything but me and us.”
“This is a good start.” After a moment, he added, “You heard what they said about my mother making bail.”
“I did, and we don’t care about her. What goes on with her is none of our business.”
“Right.”
She was painfully aware that this particular topic didn’t work like that for him. Sam hoped if she kept reminding him that his mother was nothing to him that he might be able to forget about her. Nicoletta had been arrested for prostitution and racketeering in Ohio more than a week ago. Since then, Nick had struggled with her being in jail when he could fix things for her with one phone call.
Sam had carefully encouraged him not to make that call. Everything involving his mother was like an emotional minefield that she had to tiptoe through to help steer him away from involvement with the woman who’d repeatedly broken his heart. If Sam had anything to say about it, she’d never get close enough to him to hurt him again.
“How do you think she made bail?” he asked. “I heard they froze her assets.”
Sam wanted to weep from the vulnerability in his voice as they talked about Nicoletta. It was like he had a whole separate tone reserved only for his mother—one filled with heartache. “Does it matter?”
“I guess not. I was just wondering.”
Sam rested her chin on the top of his head as she continued to massage his tight shoulders and neck. “I hate this for you. I hate everything about it.”
“I know, and that helps.” After a pause, he said, “Will you be annoyed if I want to know the details?”
Yes, she wanted to say, but that wasn’t what he needed to hear. “Of course not. I’m here to support you in any way that I can. You’re in charge of how you handle her.”
“It makes no sense to you. I get that.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense to me. And don’t forget, I’ve had my own mother struggles.” Things with her mother were much better these days after twenty years of silence between them after her parents’ divorce. Sam had sided firmly with her father, but had later learned there were two sides to the story, and her mother hadn’t been entirely to blame. “Nothing like what you’ve endured, but it hasn’t been easy.”
“True. Would you care if I asked Avery to make some subtle inquiries into how she posted bail?”
“I wouldn’t care if it gave you peace of mind to know the details.”
“Thank you for understanding and for sticking with me through all the bullshit.”
“I’ve provided a good dose of bullshit to this marriage, too.”
“Thank God all the bullshit is out there,” he said, gesturing outside their cozy bubble, “and never in here.”
“Never in here.”
“Come down here with me.”
Chapter Five
Sam moved from the sofa to the floor, sitting next to him as they leaned back against the sofa. “Nice fire.”
“I love the way it makes your cheeks rosy.”
“Does it?”
“Uh-huh.” He nuzzled her face. “So, so beautiful.”
Other men had told her she was beautiful, but when this man said it, he made her believe it. He didn’t see her flaws, of which there were many, in her opinion.
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I thought I’d be disappointed not to go to Bora Bora, but this is almost better.”
“Because you didn’t have to spend twenty hours on an airplane to get here?”
“That’s one very big reason, but we don’t need to go somewhere fancy to have a good time together. This is all we need.”
“And it doesn’t take twenty hours on a plane to get here.”
She bumped against him as she laughed. “At least you won’t have the media critiquing your carbon footprint.”
“There is that.”
When Sam’s phone rang, she ignored it.
“Go ahead and take that. It’s fine.”
She got up from the floor to retrieve the phone from the kitchen and took the call from Freddie.
“Hey.”
“Sorry to bother you on the getaway.”
“It’s fine. What’s up?”
“I wasn’t going to call you, but Elin said I should, that you wouldn’t care.”
“Elin was right. Are you okay?”
“I’m trying to wrap my head around having worked closely with a man who might be a serial killer. I mean, we haven’t proven anything yet, but we all know he’s capable.”
Sam wasn’t surprised that her kindhearted partner was undone by this latest development. “It’s disbelief on top of disbelief.”
“Yeah, exactly that. I didn’t think he could shock me any more than he already has. I read the report Malone filed with the info provided by his informant. It’s believed that Stahl was using the women as part of his various schemes to pin crimes on innocent people, such as Eric Davies. Tiffany Jones, one of the missing women, was used to entrap him and was never seen again after he was convicted.”
“Jesus.” Sam felt sick. “And Stahl had the perfect cover as a police officer.”
“Right. They’ve scheduled a hearing on the Davies case for a week from Tuesday.”
“That man shouldn’t spend another night in prison.” Evidence showed that Stahl had framed Davies for rape after he complained about Stahl’s treatment of him during a traffic stop years earlier.
“These things take a minute, as you know.”
“It’s sickening, revolting and every other word that means disgusting that I can think of.”
“And it’s going to make every hardworking police officer in America look like crap,” Freddie said, “the way it always does when something like this comes to light.”
“We just have to keep our heads down and do the job. That’s all we can do.”
“Do you think there’re others like him? Ramsey, for example. Was he running a criminal enterprise on the side while on the job?”
“There’re probably others, but the one thing I know for certain is that there’re more of us than there are of them, so try not to surrender to despair.”
“It’s hard not to when our job is to uphold the law, and people in our ranks are criminals.”
“I know, but what do we always say? The only things we can control are our own actions and how we react to the actions of others. By keeping our focus where it belongs, we’ll get through this.”
“Elin was right. I feel better after talking to you.”
“Likewise, my friend. Let me ask you a favor. I have to run down the families of two of the missing women. Would you mind taking a look at what you can find out about them beyond what’s in the reports?” She gave him the two names.
“No problem. Do you have a way to print there?”
“Yeah, Nick has a whole office set up here.”
“I’ll do it first thing and send it to you.”
“Thank you. Now go have a big drink and enjoy your evening with Elin. Tomorrow is another day.”
“Thanks for taking the call.”
“I’ll always take your call, grasshopper.”
“Have a good time at the beach. See you next weekend.”
“Call me if you need me this week.”
“I will. Later.”
Sam closed her phone and thought about their conversation. It was impossible for Freddie, who did the job with honesty and compassion, to understand the actions of someone like Stahl. Hell, it was hard for her to understand them, and she was far more jaded than her partner. She’d learned not to expect the best of people when she saw so much of the worst. That was part of her nature, while kindness and compassion were part of his. Those qualities made him exceptionally good at a difficult job, but made him question every choice he’d ever made for his career at a time like this.
“Is Freddie okay?” Nick asked.
“He’s reeling over the latest disclosures about Stahl.”
“As he would.”
Sam returned to her spot on the floor next to him. “He’s almost too good for this world sometimes.”
“That’s why we love him so much.”
“Indeed, but he takes things like this extra hard.”
“You said all the right things. I’m sure he feels better after talking it out with you.”
“He said he did.” She put her head back on Nick’s shoulder. “Why do people have to do stuff like this? I mean, at what point do they go from being innocent little children to people who would falsely charge a man with rape and then disappear the woman he used to secure the conviction, as well as a bunch of other women? When does that happen?”
“It’s hard to say, but if you ask me, that’s in them from the start, and life brings it to the surface.”
“I suppose. I’m glad it’s not in me. What a dreadful way to live.”
He moved her head from his shoulder only long enough to put his arm around her. “I’m glad it’s not in you either. You have just the right amount of kindness, compassion and meanness to be good at your job and your life.”
“Had to toss the meanness in there, huh?”
“It’s what makes you you, my love.”
“Hardy har har.”
“Freddie lacks that edge, so he suffers that much more when others inflict harm.”
