Lethal Attraction: Against the RulesFatal Affair

by Linda Howard

He startled and then relaxed into her embrace. “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”

  “Can’t sleep without you. You’ve ruined me.” She pressed a series of kisses to the warm skin on his back. “Come on.”

  He shut off the water.

  Sam grabbed his towel and dried them both. Taking his hand, she led him to bed. Wrapped in his arms, she was finally able to sleep.

  *

  Walking into the National Cathedral for the first time in her life the next morning, Sam gazed up at the soaring spires like an awestruck tourist from Peoria.

  She wondered if staring at the president of the United States and his lovely wife like a star-struck lunatic made her any less of a bad-assed cop. In all her years on the job and living in the city, she had caught occasional glimpses of various presidents, but never had she been close enough to reach out and touch one—not that she would because that would be weird of course. Not to mention the Secret Service might take issue with it.

  But as President Nelson and his wife Gloria approached Nick to offer their condolences, Sam could only stand by his side and remind herself to breathe as he shook hands with them.

  “We’re so very sorry for your loss,” Gloria said.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Nelson. John would be overwhelmed by this turnout.” He gestured to the rows of former presidents, congressional members past and present, Supreme Court justices, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretaries of state, defense, homeland security and labor, among others. “This is Detective Sergeant Sam Holland, Metro Police.”

  Sam was struck dumb until it dawned on her that she was supposed to extend her hand. To the president. Of the United States. And the first lady. Jesus. “An honor to meet you both,” Sam said.

  “We’ve seen you in the news,” the president said.

  Sam wanted to groan, but she forced a smile. “It’s been a unique month.”

  Gloria chuckled. “I’d say so.”

  Since both men were speakers, they were shown to seats in the front, adjacent to the O’Connor family. While Nick went over to say hello to them Sam scanned the crowd but saw no sign of Patricia or Thomas. Seated behind the O’Connors were most of John’s staff and close family friends whom Nick identified for her when he returned to sit next to her.

  She glanced over to find him pale, his eyes fixed on the mahogany casket at the foot of the huge altar. He hadn’t eaten that morning and had even refused coffee. Looking back at the throngs of dignitaries, she couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be for him to stand before them to speak about his murdered best friend. Disregarding her PDA rule, she reached for his hand and cradled it between both of hers.

  He sent her a small smile, but his eyes expressed his gratitude for her support.

  The mass began a short time later, and Sam was surprised to discover Nick had obviously spent a lot of time in church. Since she’d been raised without formal religion, the discovery was somewhat startling.

  John’s sister Lizbeth and brother Terry read Bible passages, and his niece and nephew lit candles. When both of them ran a loving hand over their uncle’s casket on their way back to their seats, Sam’s eyes burned, and judging by the rustle of tissues all around her, she wasn’t alone.

  President Nelson spoke of his long friendship with the O’Connor family, of watching John grow up and his pride in seeing such a fine young man sworn in as a United States senator. As the president left the pulpit, he stopped to hug John’s tearful parents.

  An usher tapped Nick on the shoulder. With a squeeze for Sam’s hand, he got up to follow the usher’s directions to the pulpit.

  Unable to tear her eyes off Nick as he made his way to the microphone, Sam was swamped with love and sympathy and a jumble of other emotions. She sent him every ounce of strength she could muster.

  “On behalf of the O’Connor family, I want to thank you for being here today and for your overwhelming outpouring of support during this last difficult week. Senator and Mrs. O’Connor also wish to express their love and gratitude to the people of the Commonwealth who came by the thousands to stand in the cold for hours to pay their respects to John. He took tremendous pride in the Old Dominion, and the five years he represented the citizens of Virginia in the Senate were the most rewarding, challenging and satisfying years of his life.”

  Nick spoke eloquently of his humble beginnings in a one-bedroom apartment in Lowell, Massachusetts, of meeting a senator’s son at Harvard, of his first weekend in Washington with the O’Connors and how his exposure to the family changed his life.

  Sam noticed the O’Connors wiping at tears. Behind them, Christina Billings, Nick’s deputy and the woman who’d suffered through unrequited love for John, rested her head on the communication director’s shoulder.

  Nick’s voice finally broke, and he looked down for a moment to collect himself. “I was honored,” he continued in a softer tone, “to serve as John’s chief of staff and even more so to call him my best friend. It’ll be my honor, as well, to ensure that his legacy of inclusiveness and concern for others lives on long after today.”

  Like the president before him, Nick stopped to embrace Graham and Laine on his way back to his seat.

  Sam slipped her arm around him and brought his head to rest on her shoulder. At that moment, she couldn’t have cared less who might be watching or who might gossip about them later. Right now, all she cared about was Nick.

  The mass ended with a soprano’s soaring rendition of “Amazing Grace,” and the family followed the pallbearers down the aisle and out of the church.

  Dignitaries milled about, speaking in hushed tones as the church emptied. Watching them, Sam realized this was as much an official Washington political event as it was a funeral.

  With Nick’s hand on her elbow to guide her, they worked their way through the crowd. He stopped all of a sudden, and Sam turned to see who had caught his eye.

  “You came,” Nick said, clearly startled to see the youthful man with brown hair and eyes and an olive complexion that reminded Sam of Nick’s.

  “Of course I did.” After a long pause, he added, “You looked real good up there, Nicky. Real good.”

  An awkward moment passed before Nick seemed to recover his manners. “This is Sam Holland. Sam, my father, Leo Cappuano.”

  “Oh.” Sam glanced up to take a read of Nick’s impassive face before accepting Leo’s outstretched hand. He seemed far too young to be Nick’s father, but then she remembered he was only fifteen years older than his son. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “You, too,” Leo said. “I’ve read about the two of you in the paper.”

  Nick winced. “I meant to call you, but it’s been kind of crazy…”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I appreciate you coming. I really do.”

  “I’m very sorry this happened to your friend, Nicky. He was a good guy.”

  “Yes, he was.”

  Neither of them seemed to know what to say next, and Sam ached for them.

  “Well,” Nick said, “the family’s having a thing at the Willard. Can you join us?”

  “I need to get back to work,” Leo said. “I just took the morning off.”

  Nick shook his hand. “Give my best to Stacy and the kids.”

  “You got it.” With a smile for Sam, Leo added, “Bring your pretty lady up to Baltimore for dinner one day soon.”

  “I will. I have Christmas presents for the boys.”

  “They’d love to see you. Any time. Take care, Nicky.” With a smile, Leo left them.

  “Dad?”

  He turned back.

  “Thanks again for being here.”

  Leo nodded and headed for the main door.

  Nick exhaled a long deep breath. “That was a surprise.”

  “A good surprise?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  But she could tell it had rattled him. What would it be like to expect so little of your father that you’d be shocked to see him at your best friend’s f
uneral? Sam couldn’t imagine.

  On the way out of church, numerous people stopped Nick to compliment him on his heartfelt eulogy. He accepted each remark with a gracious smile, but Sam could feel his tension in the tight grip he kept on her hand. When they finally made it outside, he took a deep breath.

  Gonzo met them. “No sign of either of them.”

  Removing the ear piece she’d worn during the funeral, Sam took a measuring look around at the crowd. “I really thought they’d be here, if nothing more than to pour salt in the O’Connors’ wounds. She told Cruz they were planning to attend.”

  “We’ll keep looking,” Gonzo assured her.

  “Any word on autopsies on Tara or Natalie?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  “Get with Lindsey and put a rush on Tara’s. We’ll have to bug Alexandria for Natalie’s.” Sam glanced up at Nick, whose attention was focused elsewhere. Lowering her voice, she said to Gonzo, “I need to hang with him for a while longer. Call me if anything breaks.”

  “You got it.”

  “Thanks.” Taking Nick’s arm, she directed him to the row of taxis lined up at the curb.

  “It was a good idea you had to take the Metro in this morning,” he said once they were in a cab.

  “I knew security would make it tough to park anywhere near the cathedral.” She snuggled into him and wrapped her arm around his waist. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve been better.”

  “You were really great up there, Nick. I was so proud of you, my heart felt like it might burst.”

  He hugged her tight against him and touched his lips to her forehead. “Thanks for coming. I know you had other things to do—”

  She tilted her face to kiss him. “I was exactly where I needed to be. Where I wanted to be.” Glancing up at him, she found him staring out the window. “Can I ask you something?” she said tentatively, not sure if this was the best time. But she needed to know. For some reason, she had to know more.

  “Sure you can.”

  “What you said about growing up in Lowell with your grandmother…”

  “What about it?”

  “If you lived in a one-bedroom apartment, where did you sleep?”

  “The sofa pulled out to a bed.”

  She bit her bottom lip in an attempt to deal with the sudden need to weep. Her every emotion seemed to be hovering just below the surface, and it wouldn’t take much for the floodgates to swing open. “Where did you keep your stuff?”

  “I didn’t have a lot of stuff, but what I had I kept in the hall closet.”

  Her heart cracked right in half. “That’s why you’re so particular about the things you have now, isn’t it? And I’ve made fun of you for that. I’m so sorry, Nick.”

  “Don’t be sorry, babe. You’re right to razz me. You lighten me up, and I need that.”

  “I had no idea…”

  “How could you? But it doesn’t bother me at all when you tease me about being anal. I swear it doesn’t, so please don’t stop.” He tipped up her chin and flashed the cajoling smile she couldn’t resist. “Please?”

  She returned his smile with a pout. “If it doesn’t bother you, that takes some of the fun out of it.”

  He laughed. “I love you, Samantha Holland, and all your crazy twisted logic.”

  Wanting to give him absolutely everything he’d ever been denied, but satisfied for now to hear him laugh, Sam closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his neck. “I love you, too.”

  CHAPTER 36

  The cab came to a stop in front of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, two blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

  “The O’Connors reserved the ballroom, and the food here is amazing,” Nick said, hoping to convince her to stay for a while.

  “I really need to get to work.”

  “I know. I’m just being selfish wanting you with me.”

  Sam studied him. “Let me check in with HQ. Maybe I can stay for a few minutes.”

  Nick watched her while she talked on the phone and wished he could take her home to decorate the Christmas tree he planned to buy. He’d never bothered with a tree before, but this year he wanted the bother. This year, everything was different.

  “I’ll be there shortly,” Sam said as she ended the call. “I’m only a couple of blocks away at the Willard.”

  “So you can come in?” Nick asked when she had returned her phone to her coat pocket.

  She hesitated, but only for a second. “Sure. There’s not much else I can do until we get a sighting of one of them.”

  Before they entered the hotel, Sam rested her hand on his arm to stop him. “You know it’s going to be like this, right?”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ll want to be with you, especially on a day like this, but I’ll need to be somewhere else a lot of the time.”

  Nick smiled, touched by the hint of vulnerability he detected. “I know what I’m signing on for, babe.”

  “Do you? Do you really?”

  Something in her tone and the expression on her face told him this too had been a problem in her marriage. He leaned in to kiss her. “I really do. I’m sorry you can’t spend the day with me, but I understand you have a job to do, and in this case, I have a vested interest in you getting it done.”

  “Okay,” she said with a sigh of relief.

  “I’m never going to hassle you over your work, Sam,” he said as he guided her inside with an arm around her shoulders.

  “Never say never. It has a way of screwing up plans, vacations, meals, sleep…”

  “I’ll do my best to understand, but I’ll always be sorry to see you go.”

  She looked up at him, a small smile illuminating her beautiful face. “I want to be with you today.”

  “I know, and that counts for a lot.”

  They checked their coats and wandered into the elegant ballroom where Graham and Laine greeted each guest as they entered the room.

  Nick embraced them both.

  “You did a beautiful job, Nick,” Laine said, grasping his hands.

  “Thank you.” Nick had such admiration for the aura of dignity the older woman projected even in the darkest hours of her life.

  “No, thank you, for everything this week. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.”

  “It was no problem.”

  Laine shook Sam’s hand. “Thank you for coming today.”

  “The service was lovely,” Sam said.

  “Yes,” Laine agreed. “I thought so, too.”

  “Any developments?” Graham asked.

  “A few,” Sam said. “I’m heading into work shortly, and I hope to know more by the end of the day. I’ll keep you informed.”

  “We’d appreciate that,” Graham said. “Nick, look me up in half an hour or so, would you?”

  “Sure.” With his arm around Sam, Nick steered them through the crowd toward one of the bars in the corner. “I know you have issues with them, so thank you for that…just now.”

  “This isn’t the time or the place.”

  “Do you plan to do anything about them lying to you?”

  “What would be the point? If they had told me the truth, it would’ve saved me some time. I don’t have anything to gain by going after them.” She glanced over at the O’Connors who were greeting the senior senator from Virginia and his wife. “In fact, I kind of pity them.”

  “Because of John?”

  “That, too, but also for what they’ve missed out on with Thomas. And for what?”

  “I wonder if they regret what they did,” Nick said as he accepted coffee for himself and a soda for her.

  “They will if we can prove Thomas’s mother murdered John.”

  Nick shook his head. “What a tangled web.”

  “It amazes me that people think they’re going to get away with trying to hide a baby. A secret like that is a time bomb looking for a place to detonate.”

  “True. I see it all the time in politics. The
stuff people try to keep hidden usually blows up in their faces during a campaign.”

  Sam took a measuring look around the room. “I wonder where the cops who are supposed to be protecting the O’Connors are. I don’t see anyone.”

  “Could be undercover.”

  “If there was a cop in this room, I’d know it.”

  Lucien Haverfield, the O’Connor family’s attorney, approached them.

  “There you are, Nick. I’ve been looking for you.”

  “Lucien.” Nick shook hands with the distinguished older man and introduced him to Sam. “Nice to see you.”

  “Fine job you did today at the funeral.”

  “Thank you.”

  “The will is being read tomorrow at two at the O’Connor home. I need you to be there.”

  “Why’s that?” Nick asked, surprised.

  “You’re a beneficiary.”

  “But he left me money,” Nick stammered. “Insurance money, and a lot of it.”

  “Can you be there at two?” Lucien asked, clearly not willing to shed any light in advance of the reading.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Great.” Lucien patted Nick’s shoulder. “I’ll see you then.”

  “Wonder what that’s all about,” Nick said to Sam.

  “I guess you’ll find out tomorrow.”

  “Yeah.” He noticed Graham signaling to him and led Sam over to a table where Graham sat with the Virginia Democrats.

  “We’d like to have a word with you upstairs, if you can spare us a few minutes, Nick,” said Judson Knott, chairman of the party.

  “Sure,” Nick said with a perplexed glance at Sam.

  “I’ll, um, just wait for you here,” she said.

  “You’re welcome to join us,” Graham said. “This involves you, too.”

  Sam looked at Nick, who shrugged. “Okay,” she said.

  They followed the other men to the elevator and then to the Abraham Lincoln Suite. Nick took a moment to check out the incredible blue and gold suite, thinking he’d like to bring Sam there sometime when they could be alone. He accepted a short glass of bourbon from Judson. Sam declined a drink. Richard Manning, the party’s vice chairman, had also joined them. “What’s this all about, gentlemen?”

  They gestured for Nick and Sam to have a seat at the dining room table.