“Come visit him tonight.”
“Will they let me?”
“Yeah. Once I’m there.” I smile. “Bring me dinner, please? Wear your White House badge.”
One corner of his mouth quirks in a smile. “You told me never to wear my work badge outside of work.”
“Show it to the agents. They’ll escort you up. I’ll leave word.”
He leans in so I can hold him. “Yes, Sir. Thank you.”
We finally start our day. Jordan fixes our coffee while I get in the shower, and he joins me there. Twenty minutes later, we’re heading to work in a car with a Secret Service agent driving us. It’s not even five a.m. yet and the streets feel…weird.
The city’s on heightened alert because of yesterday and there’s a far more visible than usual presence of Metro PD, Capitol police, SWAT and others from an alphabet-soup of governmental law enforcement agencies.
“It’s eerie,” Jordan says.
“Yeah.” I sip from my travel mug. “It will be for a few days, at least.”
“It feels like they’re all waiting for something else to happen.”
“They are.”
“I thought it was a lone wolf?”
“Supposedly. Until they’re sure, they’ll keep stricter procedures in place.”
He shivers. “We’ve had crashes before, but yesterday was different. I knew it wasn’t a drill or false alarm even before we heard about Kev. ERT was everywhere, and all the agents were jumpy.”
I reach across the seat and hold his hand. “Yeah. They will be for a while. This is personal, to all of them. Even the agents who weren’t with Chris and Kev.”
He squeezes my hand. “I was worried about you and President Samuels, until they gave the all-clear and we found out what happened.”
“You don’t need to worry about me, baby.” I offer a smile I don’t feel. “I’m tough. I survived falling out of the sky, after all.”
Except…I don’t feel very tough right now.
My soul is tender, raw, fragile.
Elliot’s not in yet when we arrive. Jordan heads to his office and I text Elliot good morning as I walk upstairs. There, I find Shae awake and looking stressed out. She’s wrapping up a briefing with one of the NSA advisors, who leaves a moment later.
“Good morning, Madam President.”
She curtly nods. “Leo.”
“Have you had coffee?”
“Not enough.”
“How’s Kev?”
“Asleep. Chris won’t come home.”
“I’ll stay with Kev at the hospital tonight so Chris can have a break. You go take a shower. I’ll get your breakfast ready.”
“Thank you, Leo.” She heads into their bedroom to do that while I go to the kitchen and start preparations. Chris usually cooks everyone breakfast. While sometimes the staff is asked to do it, they prefer breakfasts to be family time whenever possible. When Chris is home, he usually makes dinner, too.
The kids aren’t slated to be up for at least an hour yet, but I’ll cook for them, too, if Shae wants me to.
