Page 42 of State of Retribution (First Family #9)

“ W hat do you want?” Conklin called.

“Open the fucking door,” Malone said. “Right now, or I’ll kick it in.”

The click of locks disengaging preceded the door opening to a man Freddie wouldn’t have recognized as Conklin if he’d seen him somewhere else. He’d aged ten years and gained more than twenty pounds, if not more. In addition, he hadn’t shaved or combed his hair in days.

“Again, what do you want?”

“What’ve you done?” Malone asked.

“What’re you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I mean. Who’ve you been running your mouth to?”

“I haven’t talked to anyone in weeks.”

“If I dump your phone, will I find out that you’re still a fucking liar?”

Conklin’s eyes shifted ever so slightly, but Malone saw it.

“You fucking rat! What’ve you done? ”

“I needed the money, Jake.”

Freddie’s stomach dropped to his feet.

Malone moved lightning-fast and had Conklin cuffed, the cell phone out of his pants pocket, and was hauling him out of the house before Freddie had a second to catch up.

“ What the fuck? ” Conklin shouted. “You can’t just arrest me.”

“Wanna bet? You’re under arrest for aiding and abetting a crime. That charge ought to be familiar to you.” As Malone marched Conklin to the SUV, he recited his Miranda rights before stuffing him into the back seat and slamming the door.

“Go back and make sure the door is locked so he can’t blame us if the place gets tossed.”

Freddie jogged to the stairs, took them two at a time and pulled the door closed, testing the door lock to make sure. Then he returned to the SUV. “All set.”

“Thanks.” As they drove toward the District, Malone radiated with fury. “You know what never ceases to amaze me, Cruz?”

“What’s that, Cap?”

“How people never fucking learn. They can be run out of an organization in total disgrace and still manage to make it worse. Remarkable, isn’t it?”

“Truly. And disgusting.”

“That, too.”

A gagging sound from the back seat had Freddie spinning around and Malone looking for a place to pull over.

“He’s choking, Cap!”

Malone brought the SUV to a skidding stop by the side of the road and jumped out.

Freddie got out of the passenger seat and opened the back door to find Conklin foaming at the mouth, his eyes bugging and his lips already turning blue.

“Motherfucker,” Malone said. “He took something.”

“When? He was cuffed!”

“Before he answered the goddamned door.”

“Oh… Crap. Now what?”

“Now we drop his useless ass at the hospital so they can declare him dead and then dump his phone to find out who paid him to tell tales out of school.”

Sam was sitting up in bed, sipping a glass of wine as she tried to decompress from the events of the day.

After dinner earlier with Nick, the kids and her mom, her spirits were much better than they’d been when she got home.

But she was still reeling from the hits she hadn’t seen coming, hits that could no longer be treated as anything other than a coordinated, deadly smear campaign.

If they’d killed, attacked and assaulted innocent people in an effort to get at her, how would she ever live with that? Harlowe and the other victims’ families were counting on her to get answers for them. What would they think if she was the cause of their agony?

The thought of that was just too big for her to process.

Her phone rang with a call from Freddie that she took because he was her best friend, and she needed him. “Hey.”

“Sam, you’re not going to believe what happened.”

As he relayed the evening’s events, Sam listened in stunned disbelief. “He said he needed the money? Those exact words.”

“Yes. Exactly that.”

“So someone paid him for dirt on me. My dad must’ve confided in him about how he’d protected Alice from further heartache by letting Cameron go into the military rather than sending him to jail.

Maybe he even told him that I’d reopened the case and how he’d had to shut it down again.

And now Conklin’s dead. That fucking coward. ”

“That’s what everyone here is saying, too. I’m so sorry to have to tell you this. As if he hasn’t already hurt you and your family enough.”

“I don’t even know what to say.” Her phone beeped with another call from the chief. “Hey, Farnsworth is calling. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay.”

Sam took the call from the chief. “Hey.”

“Have you heard about Conklin?”

“Yeah, just now.”

“Sam, I’m so sorry. That he could’ve been involved in something like this after what he’s already done… I lack the words to properly convey my outrage.”

“It’s okay. Nothing surprises me anymore. Do you believe me now that a coordinated effort is underway with a goal of ruining my career and reputation?”

“I do. Your suspension is lifted as of tomorrow morning. Come back to work and help us nail these sons of bitches.”

“This doesn’t change the fact that what Reese is saying about what I did is true.”

“We’ll deal with that later. For now, our priority is putting a case together that’ll take these guys down. Avery Hill will be here at zero eight hundred. I’d like you and your team in that meeting.”

“We’ll be there. Thank you, sir.”

“Sam…”

“I know, Uncle Joe. I know. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“See you then.”

It broke her heart to hear him upset over something having to do with her. If she had her way, she’d be the last one on the force to cause trouble for him. Not that she was the one causing the trouble, but she was the subject of it.

She called Freddie back.

“What’d he say?”

“My suspension is lifted, and he wants us in an eight o’clock meeting with Hill. Will you text the others and tell them I want everyone there, including Carlucci and Dominguez?”

“Will do. I’m so glad the suspension is lifted.”

“Me, too. But I’m not out of the woods over Reese. It’s just been postponed.”

“By the time we blow the lid off whatever this is, I have a feeling that no one will be talking about Hector Reese.”

Sam was dozing fitfully when Nick got into bed and curled up to her, putting his arm around her. She opened her eyes to look at the clock and saw that it was after three a.m. “What’re you doing up so late?”

“Going over the briefing books for tomorrow.”

“Let me turn over.”

Nick raised his arm to give her room to move.

“Hi.”

He kissed her. “Hi there. Sorry I woke you up.”

“I’m not sorry.”

“You will be in four short hours when we have to get the kids up.”

She slid her leg between his and pulled him in closer with a hand on his backside.

“What is happening?”

“I just wanted you closer.”

“You know I’ll never object to that.”

“Guess what?”

“What?”

“My suspension was lifted.” Sam told him about what’d happened with Conklin and the subsequent call from the chief. “He took a fatal dose of something the minute he realized Malone and Cruz were at his door because he knew why they’d come.”

“What a fucking pussy-ass bitch.”

“That’s quite a mouthful, Mr. President.”

“It’s true.”

“Yes, it is. He was always a spineless coward. We just didn’t know it until after my dad died.”

“And he basically confessed to selling you out to someone for money.”

“He did.”

“Good thing he’s already dead, or I might be asking to borrow your rusty steak knife.”

“My hero.”

“It drives me nuts that these impotent men are always coming for my wife, who’s smarter, quicker, more successful and everything they’ll never be but always think they could be.”

“That about sums it up. It’s very sexy to me when you call my enemies ‘fucking pussy-ass bitches’ and threaten them with violence.”

“I’m dead serious, Samantha. I’d love nothing more than to stab the lot of them through the heart with the rustiest steak knife I can find. The thought of one of them taking you from me is unbearable.”

“I know, love, but I’m not going anywhere. Whatever they’re up to, they won’t win. They never do.”

“Sometimes they do.”

“They haven’t yet, and the good news is we’re zeroing in on who might be behind all this. Let’s change the subject so we can sleep.”

“What should we talk about?”

Sam reached between them to cup him. “How about my favorite subject? The birds and the bees.”

He sniffed out a laugh. “Only you can make me laugh when I’m primed to do violence.”

She’d stroked him until he was hard and throbbing against the palm of her hand. “How about we put love before violence?”

“I’m always up for love with you.”

“You’re definitely up.”

His lips connected with hers in a hot, sexy kiss that had her ready for more in about two seconds flat, or maybe she’d been ready since the minute he cuddled up to her.

“I love so many things about this life, but you…” He bent his head to kiss her neck. “You’re the one who makes it all happen.”

“ We make it happen. Together.”

He shifted so he was on top of her.

Sam wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him as close as she could get him.

“You’ve got me totally trapped in your web. Nowhere else I want to be.”

“Likewise, my love.”

He teased her, pressing his hard cock against her before retreating, and then doing it again and again until she was on the verge of begging. And then he gave her everything in one deep stroke that made her come so hard, she saw stars.

“Holy shit, babe,” he gasped. “You almost ended me before we even got started.”

“That’s your fault,” she said when she could speak again.

“How was it my fault?”

“You know what you did, and I loved it.”

When he pushed deep inside her, she held him there by tightening her legs around him.

“Say that whole pussy-ass thing again,” she whispered.

With his lips against her ear, he said, “The people who want to harm you are fucking pussy-ass bitches.”

Sam came again, taking him with her this time.

He landed on top of her, panting and laughing. “Are you for real? That does it for you?”

“You do it for me. Your dirty talk is just the frosting on top.”

“I’ll have to remember that for next time.”

“I’m here for my respectable president being a dirty-mouthed bad boy in bed.”

“Good to know. I’ve got more where that came from.”

“Bring it on, Mr. President.”