Fatal Series 01 - Fatal Affair

one, she took it with her. Before she left, she might’ve taken a long last look at him. She was filled with regret that he couldn’t be what she needed him to be, but at the same time she was angry with him for making her do this.”
    “You’re good, Sam,” Nick said, his tone reverent.
    As if she had been in a trance, Sam looked up at him. “What?”
    “The way you describe it… If I were a juror, I’d convict.”
    “All I have to do now is prove it and figure out who did it.”
    “You will.” He moved to the closet, opened the doors and contemplated the row of dark suits, dress shirts in white, various shades of blue and some with pinstripes. There were easily a hundred ties to choose from.
    Peeking into dresser drawers, Sam asked, “Did he ever wear anything besides suits? Where’re the jeans? The sweats?”
    “He didn’t keep a lot of that stuff here.”
    “Where else would it be?”
    “At his place in Leesburg.”
    “He has a second home?”
    Nick nodded. “A cabin near his parents’ property. We both use it as a retreat from the insanity of Washington.”
    “Why didn’t you say anything about it the other day?”
    “To be honest, it never occurred to me. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking clearly then. I’m still not. Between what happened to John and seeing you again…”
    “Take me there.”
    “Now?”
    She nodded.
    “It’s almost midnight. You’ve been at it for eighteen hours. I can take you tomorrow.”
    Shaking her head, she said, “I won’t have time tomorrow. If you drive, I’ll nap in the car—if you can stay awake that is.”
    “I’m fine. I do my best work from midnight to three a.m.”
    His comment was rife with double meaning that Sam refused to acknowledge. Her face, however, heated with embarrassment as she helped him decide on a dark navy suit, pale blue silk dress shirt and a tie decorated with small American flags. They unearthed a garment bag, and Sam zipped it over the suit.
    “Underwear?” she asked.
    “He didn’t wear it in life.”
    “How in the hell do you know that?”
    Nick laughed. “We were at a luncheon with the Daughters of the American Revolution a year or so ago, and everyone was starting to leave when one of the blue hairs came to tell me the senator needed me at the head table. I went into the room, and he was sitting all by himself.”
    “How come?”
    “Apparently, he’d managed to split his pants and was in need of an exit strategy.”
    Sam laughed at the picture he painted. “Let me guess—he was in commando mode?”
    “You got it. So I found him an overcoat—not an easy feat in July, I might add—and got him out of there with his pride intact.”
    “Where did that fall in your job description?”
    “Under ‘other duties as assigned,’” he said with a sad smile that tugged at her heart.
    “All right then. No underwear. Shoes?”
    “Would you want to spend eternity with your feet encased in wingtips? The tie will be bad enough. I’m sure I’ll hear plenty about that when we meet up again in the afterlife.” He reached for her hand and linked their fingers. “Thank you for helping me with this.”
    Flustered, she extracted her hand and jammed it in her pocket. “It’s no problem.”
    “Is choosing clothes for the deceased part of your job description?”
    “This is definitely a first.”
    On their way out of John’s bedroom, Nick looked at her in a way that reminded Sam of what he wanted from her. A burst of yearning took her by surprise. Sam wasn’t a woman who yearned, especially for a man. She was focused, efficient, dedicated to her work and her family, hard nosed when she needed to be, and independent—fiercely and completely independent. So it should have been unsettling to want a man as much as she wanted Nick.
    Truth be told, she had fantasized about him for years after the night they spent together. She had followed Senator O’Connor’s career and watched hours of congressional coverage in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the senator’s trusted aide. But only rarely had she seen Nick. He apparently kept a much lower profile than his illustrious boss.
    In the parking lot, he held the passenger door of his car for her.
    She slid into the buttery soft leather seat and sighed with contentment. When he turned the car on, she quickly discovered the seats were heated and felt like she’d gone straight to heaven. “This car suits you.”
    “You think so?”
    “Uh huh. It’s classy but not