Page 41 of State of Alert

“What the hell, Sam? His mother has asked me to speak at his funeral next week.” After a beat, he said, “NCIS told you they specifically didn’t want me to know about this?”

“They did. They said it’s in your best interest not to know so you can say later that you didn’t. And if that turns out to be true, the only person on earth who knows you know is me—and maybe Uncle Joe.”

“Why does he know?”

“Because there was no way I could oversee a fakeinvestigation into a fake murder without his awareness and approval. He’s the one who said I needed to tell you.”

“I can’t fucking believe this.”

“I’ve been in a state of disbelief for hours. I wanted to tell you the second I knew, but I needed to wait until we were in person.”

“You did the right thing telling me and waiting until it was in person.”

“I hate this so much.”

“I’m so glad to hear he’s alive, but his poor mother.”

“They said it had to be believable.”

“What the fuck is going on that they brought you into this but not me?”

“They only brought me in because of my dual roles. Juan insisted I be told the investigation was a fraud. Joe said he thinks NCIS wants me to tell you, that they’re counting on that.”

“And I’m not allowed to do a goddamned thing to find out more about this without throwing you under the bus.”

“Something like that. Are they right that it might be in your best interest not to know?”

“It’s better for me not to know the details so no one can later say I tried to influence the investigation into the attempted overthrow of my administration.”

“Is it weird to be the chief executive of a government that has a million things happening that you’ll never know about at any given time?”

“Super weird and a little unnerving. Like you don’t know what you don’t know, and is the unknown gonna be the thing that takes you down?”

“I understand that fear on a much smaller scale. I worry all the time about things like Stahl’s madness or Ramsey taking down Joe and upending our lives.”

“Because, like me, Joe is responsible for what every single person under him does, even if he has nothing to do with it.”

“And people actually fight tooth and nail for your job?”

He offered a small smile. “Right? If only they knew the reality of it. No one would want it.”

“They’d still want it. For some reason unknown to me—and probably to you, too—people crave power.”

“I heard someone say once that if they had to choose between being the most powerful person on earth and never having sex again, they’d choose the power.”

“What would you choose?” she asked with a grin.

He leaned in and kissed her. “Luckily, I get to have both.”

Sexiest answer ever. “Let’s go to bed. This day has been endless.”

Glancing at his watch, he said, “I hate to tell you that it’s almost tomorrow.”

“Stop. I can’t.”

CHAPTER NINE

When they were settled in bed, facing each other, arms and legs intertwined, Nick released a deep sigh. “I’m so fucking relieved to hear Juan isn’t dead.”

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