Page 40 of Dangerous Lies

“Life is full of what-ifs. You have no clue he wouldn’t have returned the next night, and the same shit happen. The streets are a dark place. Every night, tons of people die. You can’t possibly think it was your fault.”

“Oh, she does, boss,” Lucas said as he snacked on a pack of M&M’s.

The pilot came over the loudspeaker, stopping the conversation. They were to prepare for landing.

Rose excused herself and rushed to the bedroom to get her son. He was sound asleep in the bed. She hated to wake him, but it wasn’t safe for him to be on the bed during landing.

She lifted him into her arms. Soon she wouldn’t be able to pick him up, the guy was getting so big. They passed Ginger’s bed on the way to her seat and Tyler reached toward his dad.

“He needs to heal,” Rose whispered.

“I know, Mommy.”

Rose placed Tyler in his seat before she sat in the one next to him. He wanted to buckle himself in. Each day, he seemed to grow more and more independent. Her heart squeezed when he grabbed her hand as they descended. The plane jerked as it hit the tarmac, and the motors’ backward thrust roar filled the cabin. A perfect landing.

Ginger’s monitor started to beep, and the doctor cussed under his breath before he told the nurse to start CPR.

15

GINGER

Chapter Fifteen-Ginger

Ginger closed the video chat with Dr. Hill. He was in the living room of the safe house Xavier let them use. During the landing, a blood clot traveled through his body to his lungs. The doc had performed a minimally invasive surgery when they were on the tarmac, and he had recovered. Except he still met with the doctor once a week over the computer. He was supposed to see the doctor for some more tests.

The chime on his phone alerted him to the company he’d invited over. For weeks, he’d planned this surprise for Rose. The last two months, he’d gone a little stir crazy, and so had she. The doctors hadn’t cleared him to go back to work, and the police didn’t have enough evidence to hold Evan.

Each day, he made Rose and Tyler swim with him. They were getting better, but both protested.

He hoped the gift that had showed up would bring a smile to Rose’s face. He knew she missed working. Hell, he missed it, too. They hadn’t even left the house to grab food. Xavier had everything delivered, stipulating it was safer that way. He hadn’t even had his teammates over.

Casanova and Grim were bringing his surprise.

Rose didn’t move on the couch as he rushed to the door and opened it.

Casanova hadn’t brought Grim. He’d brought Ginger’s teammates, and even Axel was in tow. Each man had their arms full of boxes.

“Dude, need to put these down. You understand there are actual bugs in these boxes, right? You owe me so much,” Cy grumbled as he stepped into the house, followed by the rest of the team.

“Rose, I’d like to introduce you to the men on my team. You already know Casanova. Beside him are Cy, Casper, Lucky, Doc, Richy, and Scar. Casper and Richy both left us, but we don’t hold it against them.”

“Wow, I wish someone would’ve told me we were having people over.” Her eyes darted to the living room where Tyler had his books laid out. Although, he was in the bedroom taking a nap.

“You should see the shit Lucky leaves lying around,” Scar said before setting his box to the side and wrapping Rose in a hug.

Scar’s deep chuckle filled the room before he let her go and pulled Ginger into a hug.

“We’ve missed you,” Scar said, “and you keep dodging my call.”

Ginger winced. Penelope, the woman he’d saved in the ocean, wanted to say thank you, but he didn’t want to relive that night. Maybe that was selfish of him, but he wasn’t ready to have the conversation yet.

“Wow, I’m not sure I can remember who each of you is,” Rose said.

Richy waved his hand in the air. “It takes time. We promise not to give you a quiz at the end of the night.”

Movement outside caught Ginger’s attention.

“Sorry, those are my tagalongs.” Richy said. “Secret Service follows me everywhere now.”

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