“It was a generous move, Senator,” Graham added gruffly. “He won’t let you down.”

“Of course he won’t.”

“Julian sends his regrets,” Graham said. “He’d hoped to be here, but his meeting at the White House ran late.”

“I’m sure they’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“Gonna be a battle royal,” Graham said with a gleeful grin. “The Republicans will flip their lids—especially Stenhouse.” Graham O’Connor’s bitter relationship with Senate Minority Leader William Stenhouse went back decades, and for a brief time, he too had been on Sam’s short list of suspects in John’s murder.

“Good thing we don’t need’em,” Nick said with a grin of his own.

Graham rubbed his hands together. “I love being in the majority.”

Sam found his use of the present tense interesting. You could take the man out of the Senate…

“Hopefully, he can find a free night for dinner next week,” Nick said. “I want to show you all my new place in the city.”

Sam wondered if he had lost his mind. A dinner party for a potential Supreme Court justice at the place he hadn’t even moved into yet? Next week? Right. But even as she thought it, she knew he would pull it off the same way he had pulled off their party—effortlessly.

“Sounds like a plan,” Graham said.

“I can’t wait to see your new house, Nick,” Laine said. “I’m sorry. I should call you Senator now.”

“You should call me Nick.” He kissed her cheek. “Why don’t you grab a drink, have something to eat and we’ll catch up to you in a bit?”

“Excellent,” Graham said, putting his arm around his wife to lead her to the bar.

“They seem better,” Nick said to Sam when they were alone.

“What did you do for Terry?”

Nick had his eyes—and obviously his mind—on the O’Connors. “What?”

“Terry. What did you do?”

“I offered him the deputy chief of staff job.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he knows his stuff, and he’s wasting away in that bullshit lobby job. He’s also John’s brother. It felt like the right thing to do.”

“But he hates me, too! Your two most senior staffers hate me!”

“I’ve made it very clear to both of them that if they can’t treat you with courtesy and respect they’ll be looking for new jobs.”

“You did?” Sam squeaked, her heart pounding in her chest. The emotion could hit hard when she least expected it.

“They can be replaced. You can’t.”

“You have a way with words, Senator,” she said with a sigh. “You really do.”

Chapter 5

At two minutes to midnight, Nick couldn’t find Sam and panic was setting in. A heartbeat away from asking the DJ to page her, he spotted her tucked into a corner, checking text messages on her phone.