Page 125 of Once Upon a Lie

“No!” she shouts protectively, snapping out of it and doing the shifting herself. “The doctor said no driving or exerting for a week, and we’re following the doctor’s orders no matter how stubborn you want to be.”

I glance over at her then. The way her brow pinches with concern. The way her hands white-knuckle the steering wheel like she’s desperate to protect something fragile—that “something fragile” being me.

I can’t help it; I smile. It’s big and soft and I feel it to my fucking toes because I am completely gone over this woman.

“It’s been six days, Teeny,” I argue, but nothing but love and care colors my voice. “Practically a week anyway.”

“No, Shane. No.”

I chuckle. “Okay. I’ll be on my best behavior. But I reckon you better kill the ignition so we can go inside before the carbon monoxide poisons us. Don’t you?”

“Fine,” she agrees, turning the car off and pulling her purse onto her shoulder to step out of the car. I wait like a good boy—even if it goes against every chivalrous bone in my body—as she rounds the hood and opens my door.

She’s all determination and care as she helps me out, and I know to my soul that this, right here, is what love looks like.

I know she’s been running on fumes for the last week, trying her best to take care of me and her mom, and nurse the sting of such a huge life shake-up all at once, and I wish I could do more to ease her mind or slow her down. But when a woman like Teeny’s on a mission to care for the people she loves, it’s best practice to stay out of her way.

And like it or not, this is the new normal, at least for a while. Her dad is well on his way to being indicted and charged and has been transferred to a federal prison in New York in the meantime. I’m sure it’s the last place he’d like to be—with all his old Greco family connections and enemies breathing down his neck—but it’s at least a cushy, celebrity-style cell, with no roommate and solitary yard time to reduce the risk of an inside job taking him out.

I haven’t said anything to Valentina, but the hard truth is, it’s probably only a matter of time before his old life catches up to him. Paid-off guards. Crooked wardens. There’s always a way to make it happen in the mob.

She reaches down to help me move my legs to the pavement outside the car, and the front door of Dom’s house kicks open dramatically, revealing the cocky bastard’s smile even from this far away. “Wow, Shane,” he calls. “Did they cut off your nuts when they took out the bullet, or am I losing my eyesight? Because there’s no way the Maddox of old would be letting his woman help him out of a car, for shit’s sake.”

Teeny immediately takes the blame—too nice to give him the middle finger like I do. “Sorry! That’s all my doing. Doctor’s orders were to lie low for a week, and so we are lying low for a week! Right, Shane?”

“Right, baby.”

Dom shakes his head, whistling low. “You mean he actually listens to you when you speak, Valentina? What’s that like?”

She smiles at that. “It’s nice, actually.”

Dom laughs as we reach him, and he pulls Teeny into a hug that makes her eyes close. “You’ll have to teach me your ways for when we’re back on duty together.”

Teeny giggles. “Sounds like a plan. Though let’s not rush the whole back on duty thing, okay? I’m not quite ready not to have him around every day.”

We all know what she’s really saying is that she’s not quite ready for the unknowns and danger that come with having a cop life partner on the streets day in and day out. When we met, she thought I was a handyman. Now she has to get used to the idea that shoot-outs like the one at her dad’s gala may not be an everyday occurrence, but they are an everyday possibility.

“Of course. No rush,” Dom concedes, reading the field of play just like I did. “Come in and meet the crew, please. They’re all so excited, they’re going stir crazy.”

Dom steps to the side and lets Teeny and me lead the way, and I soften her nerves by guiding her with a hand at the small of her back. The living room is alive and well with action when we arrive, between little Louie and Tali having a pillow fight in the play area and Sherry blasting NCIS on the TV at full volume, but Hannah’s kind smile and sweet baby Abby in her arms go a long way in making the whole visual seem calmer than it is.

Dom speeds up to do the formalities, introducing our women with a flair only he can. “Hannah, love of my life and the woman who made me risk it all, meet Valentina—the woman who did the same for Shane.”

I snort. “Nice, dude.”

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? I’ve never met two other women we’ve been willing to break the rules for.”

Hannah rolls her eyes and steps forward to pull Teeny into the safety only women’s friendships can provide and gives me a gentle shove in the stomach. “Wow, Shane. She’s much prettier than I thought you’d be capable of landing.”

“I know,” I say instead of getting offended, softening Teeny’s face as she flicks her eyes toward me and her shoulders relax away from her ears.

And just like that, she’s at ease in my world, just as I knew she’d be.

Dom and I take seats on the couch beside Sherry, and she doesn’t waste any time patting me on the thigh. “Hi, Leroy.”

“Hi, Sherry.”

“Glad to see you so happy and smiling with your Shannon. I know you were really upset when you thought she’d been killed, but I’m happy to see her back. Nobody lights you up like she does, even when they’re redheads.”