“More like no vacation from the horrors that go on in this world.”

“Right? We both see and hear the worst of the worst.”

“Someone’s gotta do it.”

“I guess,” she said.

“You know, someday it won’t be us doing it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Stop,” he said, laughing. “You won’t be working the streets at ninety.”

“Who says?”

“I say. We’re going to turn it over to other people one day, and we’ll get to do anything we want.”

“What’ll we do?”

“I have no idea.”

“Do you really want to be stuck with me full time without the job to keep me sane?”

“Um, well… Not really.”

“Great. Glad we had this conversation. You can do your retired thing, and I’ll keep you in the style to which you’ve become accustomed.”

“With butlers and ushers and chefs and florists?”

“On a cop’s salary?”

“Well, maybe not quite that level, but I can live happily with much less as long as I have you.”

“You know that our lives are never going to be normal, right?” she asked.

“Shut your mouth.”

“Nick… Tell me you know that after this, there’ll be presidential libraries and speaking tours and memoirs and endless obligations.”

“We’ll make it work.”

“Where have I heard that before? Was it when you promised you were going to do one year in the Senate and then we’d get back to normal?”

“Am I ever going to hear the end of that?”

“Not ever.”

“Good to know.”

“You hoodwinked me, and now I’m living in the freaking White House and trying to pretend that’s normal. People at my job are whistling the tune to ‘My Humps,’ and if you laugh, I’m getting out the rusty steak knife.”

His lips quivered, but lucky for him, he held back the laugh. “It’s perfectly normal.”

“You need to be very, very thankful that I love you so much, mister.”

Nick pushed himself up on an elbow. “I’m thankful every minute of every day that you love me so much.” He punctuated that with a soft, sweet kiss. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“Likewise, even if you’re a lying hoodwinker.”

Smiling, he kissed her again. “And you love me.”

“God help me, but yes, I do.”

Sam dreamed about Audrey and other victims who’d crossed her path. She dreamed of Stahl, Ramsey and Conklin. Good people, evil people, coexisting in the same community, and her in the middle of it, charged with bringing order to the chaos. Nick’s alarm ended the dream abruptly, startling her and reminding her of the painful injuries she’d sustained the day before.

Her sharp gasp had Nick sitting up. “Is it worse?”

It was much worse. How was that possible? “I, um, I’m not sure.”