“I can hear you guys,” Sam said.

“Who do you think is trying to bomb us?” Scotty asked, his dark brows furrowing in a serious expression.

“Could be anyone,” Nick said with a nonchalant shrug designed to assuage Scotty’s concerns. “Could be someone who didn’t like my speech about reasonable gun control after the shooting in Des Moines, or it could be someone who doesn’t like that I was never elected as VP and thus shouldn’t be president.”

“Or it could be the family member of someone I’ve locked up,” Sam said to let Nick off the hook. “It could be Detective Ramsey, who finally succeeded in getting himself fired after he broke into my office and trashed it. Or it could be former Lieutenant Stahl’s brother or uncle who’s pissed that he’s doing a life sentence for trying to kill me twice, as if that was my fault.” Sam mirrored Nick’s shrug. “Like Dad said, it could be anyone.”

“You guys have a lot of enemies,” Scotty said bluntly.

“I suppose we do, even though we’d rather we didn’t have any,” Nick said.

“It’s the nature of both your jobs,” Scotty said. “Haters are gonna hate, but I think most of them would like to be you.”

“Everyone thinks it’s so cool to be president until they’re president and find out it’s actually super stressful,” Nick said.

“It’s also pretty cool,” Scotty said. “I mean, you’re the only person in the world that the Navy Band plays ‘Hail to the Chief’ for, and you get your own armored car, helicopter and airplane, as well as this sick house that comes with a bakery, twenty-four-hour pizza, Coke on demand and a pool, bowling alley and theater. It’s not all sucky.”

Nick chuckled at Scotty’s recitation of the benefits. “No, it certainly isn’t, and I’m not complaining. I don’t want you to think I am.”

“Nah, I get it. When some country halfway around the world does something crazy, that’s your problem. I can see how that gets old.”

“Not to mention when someone does something right here in the US, that’s my problem, or when a hurricane or tornado wipes out whole towns or a blizzard takes down the power grid of a major city. All that is my problem.”

“That’s a lot of problems for one person to manage.”

“But, hey, there’s twenty-four-hour pizza and Coke on demand.”

Scotty laughed. “Touché.” To Sam, he said, “Does he win every argument now that he’s president, or does it just seem that way?”

“He’s been on a winning streak lately. We’ll have to work on that while we’re on vacation.”

“You guys must be so happy to be on vacation,” Scotty said. “Even happier than I am to have no algebra for twelve whole days.”