Page 277 of Incisive

“Andthenyou tempt fate by broadcasting from the Oval? Again, Elliot, I ask what theactual.Fuck?”

Jordan takes a sip of water from a bottle he apparently snagged on his way into the private front cabin. He says nothing, his gaze switching from me to Leo and back as we argue.

No help there, obviously.

“Not only did you put yourself at risk, you put Jordan and everyone else with you at risk, too.”

“They’re at risk any time they’re with me.” The bouncing ends and I feel the tug as the plane lifts off and heads up, up, this giant metal bird ferrying us to the secure underground base at Cheyenne Mountain.

There are closer bunkers I could be taken to and normally would, like Raven Rock in Pennsylvania. Except there were no attacks in Colorado and already a good number of lawmakers and other officials have been transported there from much of the country, including Ciro and his family.

We still have no answers as to what’s going on, or if there will be another wave of attacks. Or something worse, like a large-scale attack on a soft target to create more civilian casualties, or even detonating a dirty bomb in a major metropolitan area.

Some congressional lawmakers and other officials did get shipped to Raven Rock but with several of the attacks occurring in the northeast it was decided I should be flown out west to join Ciro.

Leo glares at me. “Only takes one guy with a lead-lined briefcase to fuck everything up, you know.”

My face heats because it’s like he’s reading my mind. A small dirty bomb being detonated just outside the White House grounds would definitely screw things up in an even more horrible way.

I hear and feel the softthumpas the landing gear folds into the plane’s belly. “Who made it onto this flight?” I ask Casey-Marie.

“No you fucking donot, Elliot,” Leo says. “You donotget to change the subject.”

A wave of weariness sweeps through me as I unbuckle my seat belt. “Yeah, I kinda do,hubby.” I don’t stand yet because we’re still steeply climbing. If we bank hard I don’t want to end up stumbling because I know Leo will try to grab me to keep me from falling and he might hurt his knee. “I’m POTUS, if you recall.”

“Then fuckingactlike it. When your detail wants to move you for safety reasons, you fuckingmove. You don’t go off half-cocked. You should already be out at Cheyenne. This should be Ciro’s flight.”

I glare at Leo. “Ciro haschildren. No way inhellwas I letting him stay behind when we didn’t know what was going on.” I can tell from Leo’s expression he hadn’t thought of it like that. “You don’t get to second-guess decisions I make on the fly for work.” Casey-Marie’s looking up at us still. “Who’s on board?”

“George, for starters. Secretaries of the Interior, Labor, Transportation, and the Attorney General’s wife. Who’s pissed off she wasn’t grabbed for the first flight, which her hubby was on, so you might want to avoid her for a while. Three senators, eight congressman, and twenty-one assorted significant others of both people on board now and some who were transported earlier. Seventeen minor children.”

“And five dogs, three cats, and a rabbit,” Declan adds.

“Well, we wouldn’t want to forget the rabbit,” Leo drawls.

“Apparently one of the SCOTUS justice’s kids smuggled their pet boa constrictor on the earlier flight and freaked out a few people,” Declan says with a smile.

“They didn’t search them before boarding?” I ask incredulously.

“They didn’t strip-search the kids, no,” Casey-Marie snarks. “And snakes don’t set off metal detectors as a general rule.”

“I am so angry with you right now,” Leo says, dragging us back onto the topic. “I can’t believe you shoved me down into the PEOC and had them confiscate my phone!”

“Your phone wouldn’t have worked down there, anyway, and you know it.” I stare down at him. “Look, be mad at me. That’s fine. I’d still make the same decision. I wanted you down there because I knew it’d take longer for you to be moved if we had to go deeper. I might only have one leg, but I can still run without needing help.”

I point at his bum knee. “You hurt that again, you’ll need surgery, and won’tthatbe a national security nightmare of epic proportions? Declan and I could zip downstairs if a threat was listed. But it wasn’t. You, on the other hand, I’m told that it took them nearly ten minutes to get you moved down there, and it took four agents to carry you without risking hurting your leg. If you hadn’t been injured then yes, I would have let you stay upstairs because you could have evacuated with me.”

His face goes red as he starts to argue with me before his mouth snaps shut. “That’s beside the point!”

I feel the plane start to level off after the steep climb. Because it’s dark outside I can’t tell which direction we’re heading but we would have banked by now as part of our climb, so we must already be heading toward Colorado. That means it’s likely safe for me to stand even though the seat belt sign is still lit.

I push myself up and out of my seat. “We can argue about this later,” I say. “Right now I’m going to go check in. Declan, Casey-Marie, you’re with me. Jordan”—I point to Leo—“you stay here with him for now. If I need you, I’ll send for you.”

Jordan doesn’t look happy about that but he nods anyway. “Yes, Mister President.”

“We arenotdone with this conversation, Elliot,” Leo says.

“I’m sure we aren’t.” I head for the cabin door. “But since I have a country to run, it’ll have to get shelved for now. Ask Jordan to bookmark it for us and we can fight later.”