Page 6 of State of Retribution

With Brant by his side, he trudged up the stairs to the residence, eager to see Sam and hopefully tuck the kids in if they were still up.

“Thank you for everything today, Brant.Please pass along my thanks to the other agents as well.We appreciate everything you do to keep us safe.”

“I’ll tell them, sir.We’re all thankful the incident was neutralized before anyone was hurt or worse.”

“I don’t like the feel of this.Not one bit.”

“I don’t either, sir.It’s unsettling, to say the least.”

“Can you please let me know that we’re on for normal operations tomorrow for Sam and the kids?”

“I’ll confirm that and call you when I know, sir.”

“After that, go home and get some rest.I have a feeling we’re in for some long days around here.”

“Yes, sir.I’ll see you in the morning.”

They parted company at the top of the stairs, where Melinda, one of the other agents on Nick’s detail, stood ready to take over.

“Evening, Mr.President.”

“Hi there, Melinda.”

“Are you home for the night, sir?”

“I am.”

“Very good.Thank you.Have a good evening.”

As if that was likely after this day.“You do the same.”As he walked down the red-carpeted hallway toward “home,” he tugged at his tie and released the top button of his dress shirt.He’d come upstairs to change out of the casual clothing he’d worn to the Egg Roll so he could address the nation about the day’s events looking like the president rather than a dad who’d been enjoying an event with his kids and hundreds of other children until terrorists came to call.

Today was supposed to have been one of the rare “fun” days, when he was able to entertain family and friends as well as the public for an annual event everyone enjoyed.Even the fun days sucked in this place.In the nearly five months since he’d become the president, Nick had worked hard to remain positive and optimistic, even in the face of never-ending challenges, relentless scrutiny and baseless accusations that took time and energy to defuse.

But this… This was demoralizing.

He looked in on the twins, who were already asleep in the bed they still shared.At some point, they’d decide to sleep in their own rooms, but they weren’t ready yet, and no one was interested in rushing them after everything they’d been through losing their parents so tragically.

The light was still on in Scotty’s room, so he knocked on the door and poked his head in.

His son’s smile was a balm on the wound of this day.“Hey.How’s it going?”

Nick shrugged.“Nothing new.My team is on it.Try not to worry.”

“What?”His tone was deceptively light.“Me worry about drones shooting my dad?And here I was afraid of plain old guns.I was so naïve.”

Nick went to sit on Scotty’s bed and gave Skippy the dog a scratch behind the ears that earned him a contented sigh from the dog.“I don’t want you to be worried about something happening to me.As we saw today, I’m very well protected.”

“They didn’t mess around.”

“No, they didn’t, and a lot of other things went right today, such as the jets that were scrambled to shoot down the unauthorized aircraft inside the zone of protection around DC.”

“Would they have shot down planes with people on them, too?”

At fourteen, he was too old for lies and deflection.“Yeah, they would’ve.Pilots know they’re not allowed to fly over DC without prior authorization, so the military would have to send jets to figure out what they’re up to and possibly shoot them down, which, thankfully, has never happened.”

“I can’t imagine having to do that, even if they were bad guys.”

“I know.I can’t either.But I don’t want you awake and afraid all night, you hear me?”

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