Page 63 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

“I’m going. Can you give me a lift to the Metro? I figure it’ll be easier to get back that way tomorrow.”

“No problem. Let’s go.”

They walked out into snow falling much more intensely than it had been earlier.

“The whole region is going to be paralyzed by this,” Freddie said.

“I know. It’d be comical if it wasn’t such a pain in the ass. At least it won’t be as bad as it would be during a regular workweek.” She’d no sooner said the words than she was airborne, having slipped on a patch of ice under the snow. “Fuck,” she said when she landed hard on her hip and elbow. “Goddamn motherfucking snow.”

Freddie had come around the car to help her up.

Vernon and Jimmy rushed over to help, too.

Sam shook them off. “I’m fine.” But her hip and elbow hurt, bad. “Why do I have to find the one random patch of ice?”

“Are we heading home, ma’am?” Vernon asked.

“With a stop at Judiciary Square to drop off Detective Cruz.”

“Very good.”

She unlocked the car and eased herself into the driver’s seat, wincing from the blast of pain. “Shit, fuck, damn, hell, goddamn it.”

“Sam.”

“This is no time for a lecture about the Lord’s name! I just busted my ass!” She reached for the key and nearly blacked out from the pain in her elbow. “And my arm!”

“Do you need the ER?”

“No, I don’t need the motherfucking ER.”

“’Scuse me for asking.”

“You are not excused!”

“How glad am I that you’re on vacation and not my problem this week?”

“I’ll be in for a few hours tomorrow to keep things moving on Olsen.” He would understand, better than anyone, that it had taken less than five minutes for Audrey—and Wes—to become hers. Yes, she trusted her team to do right by their latest victim, but Sam needed to help. And then she’d go home and hang out with her husband and kids.

“Oh joy,” Freddie said in response to the news that she’d be in tomorrow.

Sam drove to the Judiciary Square station and pulled up to the curb. “Get out.”

“You have a good night, too.”

“Buh-bye now.”

Whistling the tune of “My Humps,” he closed the door and jogged toward the station with no worries about falling and busting his ass. Bastard. What should’ve been a ten-minute ride home stretched to thirty minutes because people could not drive in snow to save their lives. She witnessed four accidents and was glad they weren’t her problem. Patrol officers would have their hands full tonight.

By the time the distant glow of the White House came into view, her entire body hurt, and how was that possible when she’d cracked her hip and elbow? Was this the first time she was glad to see the place they now called home? “I think it is,” she said with a gruff chuckle. Knowing Nick and the kids were in there, along with a warm meal and a cozy fireplace, greatly improved her mood.

Until she moved to get out of the car.

Holy shitballs of pain, Batman.

She hobbled to the door, where Harold greeted her with a concerned expression.

“Are you all right, Mrs. Cappuano?”