Page 281 of Incisive

Jordan smiles and points to himself. “Because after all our years together, this guy right here is smart enoughnotto get between you two chuckleheads when it comes to shit likethis. That puts me in a no-win situation. We all know I donotdo no-win situations unless it includes an orgasm for yours truly.”

Leo rolls his eyes but after kissing me again he releases his grip on my hair. “You broke my trained attack boy,MisterPresident.”

I grin and roll out of his reach so I can stand. “I didn’t break him,MisterCruz. I just…reprogrammed him a little.”

Leo snorts. “Yabrokehim.”

“You’ll have all the time in the world to reprogram him to your liking after I’m out of office.”

I grab a quick shower, shave, and change into fresh clothes so I can return to the command center. Before I go I kiss Leo again.

“Love you,Master,” I make a point of saying.

He rolls his eyes at me. “Love you too, you fucking brat.”

“Are we good?”

Another of those weighty sighs from him. “As long as you make it right with Lyman, yeah. I guess we are.”

I nuzzle my nose against his one last time. On my way past Jordan I grab him, wrap my arms around him and fist his hair, and dip him as I kiss him and shut off his brain for a moment. He wobbles a little when I finally release him and I note Leo’s bemused expression.

“Love you,boy,” I say.

Jordan licks his lips but when he responds I can hear the subspace already trying to creep into his tone. “Love you, too, Mister President.”

I blow Leo a kiss and walk out of the room to the sound of Leo chuckling and calling Jordan over to him.

Yeah, I’m certain Leo will keep a running tab of punishments I’ll need to work off.

I’ll gladly endure every last goddamned one once I’m out of office.

As long as my men still want me by then.

* * *

The next morningI apologize not only to Stephen Lyman but to my entire detail. The ones who accompanied me to Cheyenne Mountain, that is. And I do it in front of plenty of witnesses, so I know word will make its way around. I also order non-passenger commercial air flights resumed, so shipping companies and freight can get a leg up on logistics and start catching up.

Two days later, I order passenger air space reopened and that snarled process slowly grinds into life. There have been no further attacks and no signs of future attacks, so the Secret Service feels comfortable enough with the situation to allow me and Ciro and the other officials to decamp from our various bunkers around the country and return home.

I hated being shut away while the public at large is vulnerable but Casey-Marie and Angie are able to spin it to portray Ciro and me as being right in the heart of the literal control center of the investigation, even if that wasn’t exactly the truth.

Still, polling looks great for me and Ciro as a result. Sucks that a tragedy can give a candidate a political bounce, but there you have it.

Several GOP reps scream that they want to file articles of impeachment against me for the attacks happening on my watch. Since the House and Senate are in temporary recesses due to being moved, their efforts are shut down immediately by not just the Dem majority leaders, but also by the GOP party and minority leaders.

Jordan reports his sources tell him it was an ill-considered publicity stunt not sanctioned by minority leadership—which I find difficult to believe—and that once they return to Washington the lawmakers in question will likely find themselves stripped of their committee assignments and censured.

I can’t worry about that petty bullshit right now. My focus is on the investigation and juggling foreign relations as a few troublemaker countries rattle sabers because they think we’re weak and distracted.

Despite a wave of arrests netting nearly three dozen suspects so far, the discrete and decentralized cell structure surrounding the perpetrators of each attack has hampered the investigations.

Some of the perpetrators have abandoned their previous right to silence claims after it’s pointed out to them that if they’re prosecuted for treason they will likely face the death penalty, or at the very least life without possibility of parole in a federal supermax prison, meaning virtual solitary confinement.

Investigators might have also “chatted” with the families of some of the suspects and applied judicious pressure at tender, vulnerable spots to get them to beg suspects to cooperate. Like pointing out that the first to flip usually get the best deals while the rest will probably get the death penalty, not to mention their families will forever be painted with that same toxic, shameful brush.

That means more precious information is teased free but no one arrested thus far has been able to roll over on the operation’s ringleaders or financiers.

No operation this large can maintain its secrets forever. I’m assured it’s only a matter of time before law enforcement unwinds enough tangled skeins and pinpoints the moneymen.