Page 111 of Her Unending Horizon

When I finished, Michael exhaled slowly and scrubbed a hand over his jaw.

“So,” he said at last, “you and Chloe are back together. Like…together-together.”

I blinked. “I tell you all of that, and you focus on my marital relations?”

“Yes,” he said flatly. “Because without Chloe as your anchor, I wasn’t sure you could pull yourself out of the hole you dug. I was real close to staging an intervention that involved duct tape.”

I snorted. Then I sobered. “Yeah. You’re not wrong.”

He nodded once. “Okay. Now let’s talk about the part I don’t like.”

“Which part?” I asked dryly.

“The part where you let someone who might—or might not—be an actual murderer get close enough to take pictures of your wife,” he said. “That sounds risky as hell.”

I leaned both elbows against the hood of his truck, my head between my forearms. “It does.”

Michael shrugged. “If you’re really that worried, have Zoe stay with her.”

I frowned. “Zoe?”

“That girl can shoot a tick off a dog’s ass from fifty yards,” he said. “I’ve seen it. Also, she’s mean when she needs to be.”

A thought sparked.

“Hell,” he went on, “why not have Zoe take Chloe’s place entirely until after the fight?”

I stared at him.

Then thought about it.

“That,” I said slowly, “is not a bad idea.”

Michael smiled back. “That’s why you called me.”

Yeah.

It was.

For the first time since they talked about using Chloe as bait, I wasn’t feeling like I was going to throw up. Chloe was the center of my world, and I know that years ago, when pressed against the wall, she’d been able to kill someone. But Zoe was a little harder. She had that edge. Had abilities that Chloe didn’t. She’d go on the offense if necessary.

* * *

I finished my coffee and tossed the cup into the trash.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he replied. “You still gotta walk into the fire.”

I nodded.

But this time, I wasn’t walking in alone, and I was doing it for all the right reasons.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Zarek didn’t ease into it.

He never did when he thought something was the right call.