Page 81 of State of Suspense

“I’m having a really hard time living with what could’ve happened to my family at the hands a scumbag I arrested.” He shook his head. “Willy Peckham is the worst of the worst. I wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night thinking about the worst-case scenario.”

“You’re doing all the right things to keep them safe going forward. No one blames you for what those assholes did.”

“I blame myself.”

“Nothing good will come of that. We both do jobs that other people could never handle, with built-in risks we try not to worry about until we have to. I have to think that at the end of the day, we’re doing more right than wrong.”

“I guess so, but I sure do wish I had the benefit of hindsight when I was deciding a career path.”

“You wouldn’t have gone into law enforcement?”

“No fucking way.”

“Really?”

“Really. You would have?”

“I can’t imagine doing anything else that would interest me the way this does.”

“Weirdo.”

Sam laughed. “Believe me, I know I am. Always have been. I used to follow my dad around, asking questions about his cases. My favorite day of the week was Saturday, when he’d take me to work with him.”

“That’s very sweet.”

“I’m not sweet.”

“If you say so.”

“I say so.” She got up from the chair, moving carefully as she still expected to be hit with pain whenever she moved, but was pleased to not experience the knife-sharp agony from earlier. Maybe needles were good for something after all.

Avery walked her to the door. “I’ll check in tomorrow.”

“Thanks for listening.”

“Any time.”

She walked to the elevator because she didn’t want to test her luck with the stairs. That damned shot needed to get her through tomorrow. After that, she’d be able to exhale again. She looked in on the sleeping twins and then went into their suite to find Nick and Scotty on the sofa watching a Caps game while Nick worked on his correspondence.

“How’s Shelby?” Nick asked.

He looked ridiculously sexy in those black-framed reading glasses. “Doing well.”

“That baby is so cute,” Scotty said.

“She sure is. They’re moving out this weekend.”

“Aw, bummer. I like having them here,” Scotty said.

“I do, too, but they need to get back to their own place.” Sam sat between them and leaned her head on Nick’s shoulder.

“Is that the signal for me to get lost?”

Laughing, she reached out a hand to her son. “Not even kinda. I wanted to talk to Dad about renting Ninth Street to Gonzo and Christina. Since the break-in at Shelby’s, they’ve been looking for something more secure for their family, and I thought of our place with all the Secret Service enhancements.”

“I meant to text you back about that earlier but got sidetracked,” Nick said. “That’s a good idea. It’s just sitting empty.”

“That’s what I said, too. I told him they could pay whatever their rent is now, and he was thrilled.”

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