The same fans who’d been cheering so loudly a few minutes ago were now booing even louder, and trash rained down on the outfield from the bleachers.

“I don’t understand,” Scotty said, his eyes swimming with tears. “How could he miss that? It was an easy fly.”

“He took his eye off the ball,” Nick said, shocked by the turn of events. “That’s all it takes.”

As the grounds crew scrambled around the outfield, cleaning up trash that continued to come from the seats above, security wrestled with enraged fans in the bleachers. Nick was glad to be in a skybox, away from the frenzy erupting around the stadium.

Vazquez stood alone in center field, seeming dazed by what had happened.

A tap on Nick’s shoulder had him turning to Eric Douglas, one of the Secret Service agents assigned to his detail. They’d been tailing him in the waning days of his reelection campaign, ever since Sam pinned Victoria Kavanaugh’s murder on former presidential candidate Arnie Parsons and he’d vowed revenge on her family.

“Senator, we’d like to get you and your family out of here,” Eric said.

“Not until the game is over,” Nick said.

“We’d like to go now. Just in case the situation escalates.”

“I can’t take Scotty out of here now, Eric.”

Sam’s pager went off, as did those belonging to Gonzo and Cruz. She checked hers. “Wow, the entire MPD is being put on tactical alert.”

“What for?” Nick asked, as a feeling of unease came over him.

“The expectation of rioting.” She pointed to the field. “Look.”

As he glanced at the action below, uniformed police officers stepped onto the field, armed with serious-looking weapons.

“Special response team,” Sam said with a note of pride in her voice.

“They were already here?”

“Hell, yeah. These days we’ve got to be ready for what happens if the team wins—or if it loses. People go batshit crazy either way. They must be expecting big trouble if they recalled everyone.”

His stomach plummeted at the thought of the city erupting in violence and his wife being smack in the middle of it.

“I’m going to drop Christina and Alex at home,” Gonzo said to Sam as he hustled his family from the skybox. “I’ll see you at HQ.”

“Me too,” Cruz said, holding Elin’s hand as they headed for the exit. “Thanks for the great seats, Nick.”

“Gotta go,” Sam said with a kiss for Nick and a hug for Scotty. “Try not to take it too hard, buddy. No matter what happens, there’s always next year.”

“Yeah, I know. Thanks for bringing me to the game. It was exciting to be here, no matter how it ends.”

“That’s the way to be,” she said. “I’ll see you guys at home.”

“Um, Mrs. Cappuano,” Eric said. “We’d prefer that you remain with us.”