“Was anyone else in the hallway with you?”
“Not until after the blast when people came running.”
“What did you do in the immediate aftermath?”
“I tended to Vernon, who assured me he was all right, and then I ran to check on my team and then to the lobby to see where I could help.”
“Do you have any other thoughts or impressions you’d like to share?”
“Nothing other than obvious heartbreak over the loss of four lives and the loss of… Well, I guess… Losing the feeling of being mostly safe in my workplace. It never occurred to me that something like this could happen here until it did.”
“It’s a kick in the teeth.”
“For sure.”
“I’ll admit that my first thought was that someone was coming for you.”
Her heart sank. “Really?”
He shrugged. “You’d be a tempting target. Doesn’t that ever worry you?”
“Worry me how?”
“That your very presence here could be a threat to everyone you work with. How do you live with that?”
Sam needed to get out of there before she lost her composure. “Is there anything else, Agent Lawler?”
“No, I’m good.”
Sam got up and left the room, feeling like she’d been punched in the chest. He hadn’t needed to say that to her. Fuck him and anyone else who put the blame for the bombing anywhere but where it belonged—with the Russians.
She returned to the pit, loaded for bear. “Everyone in the conference room in ten.” In her office, she shut the door and took a second to calm down. Why had the agent felt the need to toss that grenade at her when they already knew who’d bombed HQ? It was infuriating, especially coming from a fellow law enforcement officer who should have her back.
Since Nick had become president, and maybe even vice president, she wasn’t “one of them” anymore. She’d been elevated by her husband’s lofty career, which was the last thing she’d ever want, to be “othered” within the blue brother- and sisterhood. But it was now a reality of her life and one she’d have to cope with as long as she was determined to stay on the job, which she was. She didn’t need to hear that someone like Lawler, who didn’t even work there, felt like she was endangering others by showing up to do her job.
After a knock at the door, Malone came in.
He took one look at her and said, “What’s wrong?”
She was about to say nothing, but he knew her too well to get away with that. “Remember when you promised you’d tell me if you thought I shouldn’t be here anymore?”
“I do.”
She met his gaze.
“You did a good job with the briefing. Thank you.”
“Are you changing the subject?”
“Not intentionally. You asked me a question, and I answered it. Nothing else to say about that, is there?”
Sam crossed her arms, needing the protection against unruly emotions that had her questioning everything. “No, sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”
