“Your sarcasm is noted and appreciated.”

  Nick put his arm around her as they walked along a trail that seemed to go on forever. “Look up, see the sky, smell the scent of evergreen, let it all go. Work is in good hands with Gonzo, Jeannie and the others. And you’re in good hands with me.”

  “I love being here with you and the kids. You know that, right?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “You guys are my favorite place in the whole world, no matter where we are. It’s just that I feel ‘off’ if I’m not also smack in the middle of a case that requires every ounce of my focus and attention to bring it to a successful resolution. It’s like I’m lost without that rush.”

  “You might need a twelve-step program to address this issue.”

  She elbowed him. “Stop. I’m being serious.”

  “So am I. You’re a thrill junkie, Samantha. You have no off switch when it comes to your work.”

  “I really don’t. I need it like you need fresh air and a view of the sky. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without it. I’d be like a balloon when you let the air out of it, flailing all about.”

  “I hope you know how proud I am, how proud we all are, of the work you do and how hard you fight for justice for your victims and their families. And now there’s the grief group, too. You’re making a big difference, Samantha.”

  “Thank you for the kind words, but it’s a team effort, and I have the best team ever. I just wish we could do even more than we already do. There’s so much to be done and only so many hours in the day.”

  “You’re doing more than enough.”

  “This stuff with Calvin Worthington and Carisma Deasly makes me wonder what else there is, you know? What’s been overlooked, causing families to suffer needlessly for years?”

  “You can’t save everyone, babe.”

  “And I know that. I really do, but we can sure as hell try, can’t we?”

  “Nothing has fallen through the cracks on your watch over the last two years.”

  “No, but there was stuff from Stahl’s watch that should’ve gotten more attention. That eats at me now that I know he ignored cases. How could anyone live with themselves after doing that?”

  “Don’t forget he’s the same person who tried to kill you—twice.”

  “Yeah, that’s true. Speaking of people who hate me, the union is fighting Ramsey’s firing.”

  “On what grounds?”

  “That his fingerprints could’ve been left in my office during the regular course of business.”

  “Even if the entire department can attest to the fact that he never had regular business with you, except for mouthing off at you in the hallways?”

  “Yep.”

  “Hopefully, that doesn’t go anywhere.”

  “I guess we’ll see.”

  The thought of that son of a bitch coming back to work was one she didn’t care to entertain.

  * * *

  Later that night, after the twins were asleep, Sam and Nick sat with Scotty, Eli, Harry, Lilia, Terry, Lindsey and Shelby to watch Saturday Night Live. Lindsey had driven up for the night but had to head back to work the next day because her deputy, Byron Tomlinson, was leaving in the morning to be the best man at his brother’s New Year’s weekend wedding.

  The show’s cold open began with a handsome dark-haired actor who bore a striking resemblance to Nick sitting at the Resolute desk, reviewing a huge stack of paperwork with intense focus.

  “Mr. President?”

  “Yes, Terry?”

  “Oh my God, I’m on SNL,” Terry said, “and they gave me a pot belly. What the hell?”

  “We’ve received reliable intelligence that the North Koreans are planning to declare war on Alaska.”

  “What’ve the Alaskans done to offend the North Koreans?”

  “We aren’t entirely sure, sir, but the Joint Chiefs are in the Situation Room, waiting to brief you.”

  The actor playing Nick looked to his right, obviously tuning out Terry as the camera panned to show a blonde bombshell actress playing Sam standing in the doorway to the Oval.

  “Am I disturbing you, Mr. President?” she asked in a breathy, sexy voice. She had a gun strapped to her waist and a gold badge pinned to her chest.

  Real Sam gasped as the others giggled. “Oh. My. God.”

  “Please disturb me.”

  “Um, Mr. President, the North Koreans…”

  Nick waved his hand to dismiss Terry. “Give us a minute.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Terry left the room, closing the door.

  Nick crooked his finger to bring Sam over to him.

  She sat on his lap behind the Resolute desk, and they kissed passionately.

  Real Sam groaned loudly. “Someone please shoot me right now.”

  The others roared with laughter.

  “It’s amazing how true to life this is,” Scotty said, earning a bop on the head from his father.

  As the kissing went on, the two actors began to gyrate to the tune “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas.

  “Stop it!” Sam said, screaming. “I can’t look!”

  The next scene showed Terry sitting in the Situation Room with a group of stoic military officers.

  “Is he coming?” one of them asked as the screen behind him shows bombs heading for Alaska.

  “Yes,” Terry said, “I believe he is most definitely coming.”

  They shifted back to the Oval Office, where the Nick and Sam characters were disheveled, blissed out and panting. In between gasps of air, they said, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

  “We can never show our faces in public again,” Sam said.

  Nick couldn’t stop laughing.

  Sam whacked him. “It’s not funny!”

  “Sorry, Sam.” Shelby wiped tears from her eyes. “But that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on that show.”

  “You can’t say that and be my friend, too.”

  “Welp, it was nice knowing ya.”

  Lilia and Harry were so weak from laughing, they could barely sit up.

  “Lilia, tell them that wasn’t funny.”

  “I wish I could, Sam,” Lilia said. “But that was funny.”

  “I hate everyone and everything,” Sam said.

  “Maybe if you could find some decorum when you’re around your husband, these things wouldn’t happen,” Scotty said.

  That set everyone off again on a fresh wave of hysteria.

  Nick put his arm around Sam.

  She pushed him away. “This is all your fault! If you weren’t president, we wouldn’t be dry-humping on TV!”

  “Ew,” Scotty said. “I’m so outta here.”

  “Right there with you, brother,” Eli said.

  “What’s a dry hump, anyway?” Scotty asked him.

  Eli led him from the room with his hands on Scotty’s shoulders. “We’ll talk about that later.”

  Moaning, Sam dropped her head into her hands.

  “I’ve never laughed so hard in my life,” Lindsey said. “I’m weak.”

  “They gave me a pot belly!” Terry said. “I don’t have a pot belly!”

  “It’s okay, honey.” Lindsey patted her fiancé’s flat abdomen. “I’ll still love you if you get a pot belly.”

  Sam’s phone rang with a call from Freddie. “What?”

  He and Elin were laughing so hard, they couldn’t speak.

  Sam slapped the phone closed. “I hate everyone.”

  “Even me?” Nick asked.

  “Especially you!”

  Their phones were blowing up with texts from family and friends full of laughing emojis.

  “I can’t,” Sam said. “I’m going to bed.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Nick said.

  “You’re not invited.”

  “Now, babe, none of this was my doing.”

  “All of it was! You’re the one who’s the goddamned president around here.”

  They left their friends laughing as they went into their room and closed the door.

  “I hate your guts to hell and back,” Sam said.

  Laughing, he put his arms around her from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. “No, you don’t.”

  “Right now, I do, and I expect that to last a week or two as everyone I know mocks me.”

  “They wish they were us.” He turned her to face him, lifting her chin to accept a soft, sweet kiss that made her knees weak even when she was mad with him. “We’re the luckiest people in the whole world because we have each other.” He kissed from her lips to her neck. “Wanna hump?”

  Sam couldn’t help the snort of laughter that burst from her.

  “There we go. We have to laugh at these things, babe. Remember what I always tell you—they can’t touch us unless we let them.”

  “It’s mortifying.”

  “But funny. And PS, I’d never let the North Koreans bomb Alaska while I humped you.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  “Are you ready to forgive me?” he asked, continuing to kiss her neck as he moved his hands over her back and down to squeeze her ass.

  “I need more convincing.”

  His hands wandered under her top and up to cup her breasts. “I’m very good at convincing you.”

  “You never have to try very hard.”

  “And thank goodness for that.” With practiced ease, he had her clothes off in a matter of seconds. As he backed her up to the bed, he pulled his shirt off and tossed it aside. “I’ve been dying for this for days. If that phone rings right now, I’m gonna let North Korea bomb Alaska.”

  Sam looped her arms around his neck and pressed her pelvis against his erection. “No, you won’t.”

  “I really would.”

  The one thing Sam could fully appreciate about vacation was the uninterrupted time with him that was so rare in their regular lives. Sure, that damned phone could ring at any moment, but in the meantime, she put everything else aside to fully indulge in the pleasure she could find only with him.

  He knew just where and how to touch her and was the only person in the world who could make her forget that mortifying skit so quickly. What did she care about that when she had the man himself making sweet love to her?

  If there was anything better than this, she’d yet to find it. Even with all the changes and upheaval they’d experienced lately, this was the one thing that never changed. They were always in perfect harmony.

  “Sam,” he said, his lips burning a trail over her neck. “I love you so much. You’ll never know…”

  She held him even tighter. “I know.”

  “No, you don’t. They haven’t invented the words yet.”

  “That, right there, is why I’ll forgive you for the stupid SNL skit.”

  “Don’t make me laugh when I’m being serious.” He kissed her for a long time, scrambling her brains while the rest of her tingled from the pending orgasm. “I don’t care if the whole world thinks we’re a couple of horny toads.”

  “You’re the horny toad. I’m just the long-suffering wife.”

  He pushed into her so hard, she gasped. “Are you suffering right now?”

  “Terribly. The sacrifices I make…”

  When he pressed his fingers to her core, he detonated an orgasm that had her seeing stars, moons and planets in several solar systems. She floated in a sea of bliss for a long time before she opened her eyes to find him watching her.

  “Welcome back.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Are you still suffering?”

  “Greatly.”

  Laughing, he kissed her and then gathered her into his warm embrace. “I get no credit for the sacrifices I make to satisfy my insatiable wife.”

  “Mmm, right.” She was so blissed out, she could barely form words. That was another of his superpowers.

  Somehow, she ended up under the covers and tucked into bed with him curled up to her. She was so comfortable, contented and delighted to be on vacation with her love that she slept like a dead woman.

  Chapter Seven

  Jeannie and Matt sat outside the house in Richmond for the hours it took for the U.S. Marshals to request and receive a warrant and then mobilize to conduct the raid in cooperation with Richmond police. In that time, Daniella Brown came out to get her mail and then went back inside.

  “You can confirm the subject is still in the house?” Chief Marshal Jesse Best asked. At six and a half feet tall with blond hair and intense brown eyes, he projected an aura of competency that put Jeannie at ease. She’d noticed in past encounters with the imposing marshal that he never wasted time with small talk.

  “I can confirm that she entered through the front door three and a half hours ago and hasn’t come out again. I can’t confirm that she didn’t sneak out the back in that time, but we’ve seen no other movement.”

  Jeannie called up dated photos of Daniella and Carisma and showed them to Jesse. In a normal investigation, there’d be age-progressed photos, but they’d never been done in this case. “This is who we’re looking for. The suspected kidnapper and the victim. They’re eleven years older now. Carisma would be twenty-four, if she’s even there.”

  “Got it. Are you coming?”

  “We’ve been ordered to stand down and turn it over to you.”

  “Huh,” he said, which was his way of expressing surprise that any law enforcement agency would give another credit for their bust.

  Anyone else would want to know why. Jesse Best wasn’t anyone else.

  He turned and walked away, armed with the info he needed to get the job done.

  “Sucks to have to take a back seat,” Matt said.

  “It does, but all that matters is finding Carisma and arresting Daniella. I don’t care who gets the credit.”

  Jeannie’s body was rigid with tension as she waited for the raid to go down with the stealth that made the marshals so good at what they did. Aiding state and local authorities in apprehending fugitives was part of the marshals’ mission, but they were primarily focused on protecting the federal judiciary and apprehending federal fugitives.

  Around eleven, she’d texted Sam to tell her the marshals would be going in sometime during the night.

  I can’t wait to hear what happens, Sam had replied.

  I’ll text you in the morning with an update.

  Call if you need me.

  Will do.

  Jeannie watched through binoculars as Best led his team toward the house, gesturing for other officers to cover the back. She’d wondered if they were going to bust in or knock on the door.

  Best answered her question when he knocked.

  The woman Jeannie had identified as Daniella answered, saw law enforcement on her doorstep and freaked out. When she tried to slam the door in their faces, Best had her cuffed in a matter of seconds. He stepped aside so his team could go in as Daniella continued to flail and scream.

  “Nothing says ‘I’m guilty of something’ than acting like that when cops show up at your house,” Matt said.

  “No kidding,” Jeannie said. “I’m sort of relieved she acted that way. That tells me we nailed it.”

  “You nailed it. I’m just along for the ride.”

  Jeannie gasped when one of the marshals came out holding an infant. Another was right behind with a toddler in each arm. The children were turned over to local authorities.

  “Oh my God,” Matt said. “What is this? Who are those kids?”

  “I have no idea,” Jeannie said, shocked. She’d heard nothing about Daniella having children of her own.

  Daniella’s screams pierced the quiet neighborhood.

  Yet another marshal emerged from the house, carrying a young woman.

  Jeannie was out of the car and walking toward them before she made the conscious decision to go. She had to know. Flashing her badge to the marshal, she asked the woman, “Are you Carisma Deasly?”

  The odor coming from the woman, who was emaciated, couldn’t be described in mere words.

  “Yes,” the young woman said as tears streamed down her face. “It’s me.”

  “She was chained to a bed in a back room,” the officer carrying her said. He had tears in his eyes.

  Jeannie blinked back her own tears. “Your mom has never stopped looking for you, Carisma. Would you like to speak to her?”

  The young woman nodded. “Please.”

  Jeannie made the call and handed the phone to her, noting how weak she seemed.

  “Mama, it’s me. Carisma.”

  Her mother’s screams could be heard through the phone.

  * * *

  Jeannie arranged for MPD Patrol to transport LaToya to Richmond as quickly as possible. While she waited at the hospital, she placed a call to Michael.

  “I was hoping you’d call,” he said. “How’s it going there?”

  “You won’t believe it. Not only did we find Carisma, but there were nine other children in the house.”

  “That Daniella took from people?”

  “We don’t know yet, but we believe that’s possible.”

  “Jesus, Jeannie. This is huge.”

  “I know. It’s unbelievable and overwhelming. They were all filthy and starved and abused. It’s just…”

  “Baby…”

  “I’m okay.”

  “It’s all right if you’re not.”

  “It’s just a lot worse than I expected. I was hoping to find Carisma, but this…”

  “You’ve stumbled upon a nightmare and saved ten lives in the process. I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.”

  “Thanks.”

  “When will you be home?”

  “I’m waiting for Carisma’s mother to get here, and then we should be able to leave.”

  “And Matt is still with you?”

  “Yep. He’s been great today. I feel like we finally became real partners while we waited for this to go down.”

  “I’m happy to hear that. I know how tough it’s been for you since Will left.”

  “Yeah, it has been. I’m getting a call from Patrol. I’ve got to run.”

  “Be safe, love, and wake me up when you get home.”

  “I will. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Jeannie took the call from the Patrol officer transporting LaToya.