Page 3 of State of Alert

“Sam?”

She looked up at him.

“Are you all right?”

“Nope. Not at all. The body in that bin was Juan Rodriguez.”

“Oh no.”

“And now I have to tell Nick that the man who took such a huge risk to protect him is dead, possibly because he took that risk.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Me, too, Vernon. Me, too.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, but thanks for asking. I appreciate it.”

She tried to find the fortitude she would need to do what had to be done, the same way she did in every new homicide investigation, but this was different. This one would hurt Nick, and that would hurt her, too. It would be better coming from her, she thought, as if anything could make this news more palatable for him. Nothing could.

After everything he’d endured before they were together, Sam wished she could wrap him in her love and protect him from ever being hurt again. She had no doubt he’d do the same for her if he could. But they were both painfully aware that life didn’t work that way. All they could do was love each other through the crisis of the moment, and that was exactly what she would do.

Harold, one of the White House ushers, stood ready to greet her at the door.

“Afternoon, Mrs. Cappuano. Are you home for the day?”

She wondered what the staff thought of a wife, mother and first lady who spent most of a Sunday at work. “Unfortunately, only for a few minutes, Harold. I’ll hang on to my coat.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is the president in the residence?”

“No, ma’am, he’s in the Oval.”

“Thank you, Harold.”

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

Sam made her way to the West Wing, nodding to the few people she passed on the way. They all knew her. She didn’t recognize any of them, which wasn’t unusual. Even on a Sunday, scores of people worked in the people’s house every day. She’d made a point of calling every member of the White House staff and as many of Nick’s team as she could by name, whenever possible. Occasionally, a new person wouldsneak by her, but she tried her best to make them all feel valued.

The residence staff was the best part of living in the White House. They went above and beyond to make the family comfortable in their home away from home.

Outside the Oval Office, she stopped to speak with Julie, the admin who guarded the gates. Sam was surprised to see her there on a Sunday and wondered if Nick’s team ever took a full day off. “May I please have a moment with him?”

“He’s in a meeting with the cabinet. Shall I arrange for him to leave the meeting?”

Sam thought about what Nick would want and made the decision based on how tortured he’d been waiting for news since Juan had disappeared. “Yes, please.”

“Yes, ma’am. If you’d like to wait inside the Oval, I’ll send him in.”

Sam was thirty-six years old and hated being called ma’am, but that was something she was learning to tolerate. Everyone called the first lady ma’am. The honorific was baked into the title, and it was pointless to expect people to call her anything else. Thankfully, she’d persuaded Vernon and his regular partner, Jimmy, to call her Sam when they were alone.

“Thank you, Julie.”

Sam opened the door to the Oval Office and stepped into her husband’s inner sanctum, the most famous office on earth, and took a seat on one of the sofas, hoping she’d done the right thing by interrupting the cabinet meeting.

She waited five minutes before he came in, stopping short at the sight of her, probably taking one look at her and figuring out why she’d called him out of the meeting. In deference to the weekend, he wore a navy V-neck sweater over a light blue dress shirt and gray dress pants.

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