Fatal Chaos

“I feel a nap coming on.”

“We can’t today. Freddie and Elin are coming out for the day.”

Nick moaned—loudly. “Whose big idea was it to have friends?”

“Not mine. That’s for sure.”

His chuckle made her smile. “You’ll have to make it up to me at bedtime.”

“What do you have in mind, Mr. Vice President?”

“All sorts of dirty things. In the meantime,” he said, nuzzling her neck and setting her on fire despite the cold water, “we need to talk about what we’re going to do if this thing with Nelson goes bad.”

“We have to talk about that now?”

“At some point, and now is as good a time as any.”

“If we’re going to talk about the possibility of you becoming president, you need to put my boobs away.”

He stuck out his lip in a little-boy pout. “I don’t wanna. They’re my favorite toys.”

“Boobs or doomsday. You can’t have both.”

“I hate this day, and it’s only ten o’clock.”

Sam laughed and patted his head as he tied her back into her bathing suit. “Why do you want to talk about this now when we’re trying to pretend it’s not happening?”

“I got a call yesterday from Brandon Halliwell,” he said of the Democratic National Committee chairman. “They’re making plans. Just in case.”

She eyed him warily. “What kind of plans?”

“Well, he asked me if I’ve thought about who I might want to be my vice president.”

Sam stared at him, poleaxed by the implications. “Come on. No way. What did you say, and why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”

“Because yesterday was a really great day at the beach, and I didn’t want to ruin it for you. I told him I haven’t given it a thought, and I don’t intend to unless I absolutely have to. He said I absolutely have to.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the party believes Nelson won’t be able to hold on to his presidency.”

“Please drown me right now. Hold my head under and keep it there. That’ll be a less painful way to go.”

He laughed, and then kissed her. “Maybe we could hold each other under and go together.”

“We can’t do that to Scotty, and besides, Brant would rescue us, that bastard.”

“Yeah, he would.”

“Could we fake our own deaths and take Scotty with us?” she asked, brightening.

“I like that idea. We could take over an island in the South Pacific and live off coconuts, rum and nonstop sex. I could totally get on board with that plan.”

“Scotty would miss his friends, baseball and video games. And the nonstop sex might annoy him too.”

Nick kissed her nose and then her lips. “And you’d miss your dad, your sisters and your squad.”

“How can this be actually happening? You were appointed vice president and could inherit the presidency. Is that even legal?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It would make me the ‘luckiest’ politician in history by getting to hold the two highest offices in the land without spending a single day on the campaign trail.”

“Yay for luck,” she said, profoundly depressed by the prospect. Sure, they’d known it was possible he could ascend to the presidency if he became vice president, but neither of them had ever thought it would actually happen—not like this anyway. “Maybe Nelson really had no knowledge of what his son was up to.”

“That’s entirely possible, but Halliwell doesn’t think it’s going to matter in the final analysis. It’s telling that the party is preparing for life after Nelson. It means his own supporters are turning against him, and the hearings haven’t even started yet.”

Sam closed her eyes, put her hands over her ears and began to chant. “Lalalalalalalala. Can’t hear you.”

He tweaked her nipples, which startled her out of her tantrum. “That’s no way for the potential first lady to behave.”

“Still can’t hear you. Lalalalalala.”

This time he kissed the protest off her lips, subduing her the way only he could. He kissed her until she had forgotten what she was protesting. Oh right. That. Ugh! “No matter what happens, one thing will never change and that’s you and me and us and this. We got this. No matter what. Tell me you agree.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“Samantha... I need this. I need you. Tell me.”

She gave him her best mulish look.

He tipped his head adorably, imploring her with his eyes and that face. Dear God, that face... She loved him more than anything, and there was, literally, nothing she wouldn’t do for him, which she proved beyond a shadow of a doubt when she said, “We’ve got this. No matter what.”

His arms banded around her as he rested his face against the curve of her neck, his nearness sending tingles to all her most important places. “It’s going to be okay, babe. I promise.”

He’d never broken a promise to her yet, so she held on to his assurances as tightly as she held on to him while he guided them over every wave that threatened to topple them. But deep inside, in a place she rarely allowed her thoughts to stray, she was afraid—deeply afraid of what was to come for him—and for them.

CHAPTER TWO (#u99104933-900c-57d2-b8bc-cf29aa606eb5)

LATER THAT NIGHT, gathered around a fire on the beach with Nick, her sisters and their husbands, as well as Sam’s partner, Freddie Cruz and his fiancée, Elin Svendsen, Sam tried to relax and enjoy the stories, the laughter, the endless flow of cocktails and the s’mores that Sam’s brother-in-law Mike made for everyone. They’d talked Freddie and Elin into spending the night on the pullout sofa in the living room, and she’d even gotten her straitlaced partner to indulge in a few beers. Scotty and his cousins had been sent to bed an hour ago.

With a full moon hanging over the beach, a sky filled with stars, a warm breeze blowing in from the ocean and most of her favorite people beside her or nearby, Sam should’ve been having the time of her life. But she hadn’t been able to shake off the feeling of foreboding from this morning, or forget what Nick had told her about the call from Halliwell. They had a policy of not keeping stuff from each other, but she wished he’d kept that bombshell to himself, at least until their vacation was over.

Apparently, she sucked at hiding her disquiet, because people had been asking her all day what was wrong, including her astute partner, who looked at her now with concern and dismay.

“Ah, screw it,” Sam said, startling the others with her outburst. “Tell them what you told me earlier.”

Nick glanced at her. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, you have to. If I have to be freaking out about it, everyone else does too.”