Dom had carried me to the car then went back for our coats and shoes. My foot and ankle throbbed like crazy. It was worse than the time I’d stepped into a hole playing right field in a class softball game. I’d been the smallest person in my sixth-grade class, so the appointed team captain had stuck me in the position with the least amount of responsibility. Eldin had helped me off the field that day, and we’d become fast friends.
That’s when I’d developed a crush on him. He’d been my hero. I curled in a ball, careful of my foot, and glanced up at my determined partner as we drove us down the road. He caught my gaze and put his hand down on my head and stroked my neck.
“It’s going to be okay, Nic.”
He petted me. I wanted to be taken aback, but the gesture was sweet. Tender even. The only therian boyfriend I’d ever had was Eldin. In college, I’d only dated humans. It’s not like we could take out ads saying, “single shifter looking for same.” It was both strange and wondrous having someone touch me while I was in my animal body. I rubbed my cheek against the back of his hand.
He smiled but kept his eyes on the road. “We’re almost there. Just passed the bridge out of town.” His fingers trailed down my back. Instinctually, I licked his forearm then quickly moved my head back mortified I’d just tried to clean my partner, something raccoons did when being affectionate.
I waited for the teasing I knew would follow, but he just kept stroking my fur with one hand while gripping the wheel with the other. “Pulling into the drive now.”
When he brought the car to a stop, he scrambled out, and I could hear him pounding on the doc’s door. He didn’t stop until I heard a woman say, “I heard you! What’s is going on, Dom?”
It was Chavvah.
“We need to see Billy Bob. Nicole’s hurt.”
The next few minutes passed quickly as Dom took me from the car and carried me through the Doc’s house down a long hallway to the door that led into the clinic. He gently put me down on a patient bed in one of the rooms.
Doctor Smith curled his finger under my chin and smiled. “We’ll give you a minute to change.”
Suddenly, I didn’t want Dominic to leave. My reasoning side didn’t want to be naked and vulnerable in front of him, but my raccoon side found him comforting. He made me feel safe. I reached out with my paws and gripped Dom’s finger. He looked down at me, a question in his eyes.
“I’ll be right outside the door,” he said.
I gripped his finger tighter.
The hard worry lines at the corners of his eyes softened. “You don’t want me to leave?” I willed my fingers to open and let him go, but those crazy kids had a mind of their own. Dom looked at Doctor Smith. “I guess I’m staying.”
“If Nic is okay with you being in here then I don’t mind. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Doctor Smith exited the room. Only then did I let Dom’s finger go.
I rotated on the bed and shoved my nose under the white sheet and light coral colored blanket. Dominic helped by lifting up the edge so I could crawl under. When I got myself completely under and turned around, I closed my eyes and willed the shift from animal to human. It didn’t feel as good as turning into a raccoon, but it wasn’t unpleasant. I forgot, though, the slight disappointment I always felt when I would lose the heightened sense of touch, smell, and sight. My biped form was better than a regular human, but nowhere near as in tune as my animal. It wasn’t the same as being forced to shift on the first full moon every month. That involuntary shifting produced an animal that acted on pure instinct, and for the past nine years, I hadn’t allowed myself to shift at any other time.
Now that I had, I realized how much I missed it. It was the reason many therianthropes staying in closed communities. It was a freedom to be who we are without worrying about humans trying to kill or trap us. My animal counterpart was hunted for sport regularly in the Midwest. I can remember my father’s warnings about leaving our woods. For a moment, I understood the fears of the TSS.
Dom’s warm fingers touched my cheek, and he wiped a tear that had spilled down it. “You’re in pain. I’ll go get the doc.”
I was in pain, now that I was back in my frailer body, but that wasn’t why I cried. I grabbed Dominic’s hand again.
His brow lowered. “What’s wrong?”
I cleared my throat, my voice a little raspy from the transformation. “Thanks.” I scooched up the bed while holding the covers to my chest. “Ah!” I winced as my injured ankle turned.
Dom untucked the covers at the bottom and lifted them over my foot to free it. “Ouch,” he said. “That looks angry.”
My ankle was red and swollen to the size of a navel orange. “It feels angry.” Though not as much as it had before shifting. Therianthropes healed quicker than humans, but it was nothing like what people wrote about in fiction or in the movies. Not even turning would speed up the process.
Dom sat on the side of the bed, his hip pressed up against mine. “I don’t like you being hurt.”
I grimaced. “I don’t like it much either.”
He took my hand in between both of his. “No,” he said. “I really don’t like seeing your hurt. I know it’s just an ankle, but damn, Nic. I wanted to run all the way here to get you fixed. I had to fight myself just to go back for the stuff we’d left by the culvert. You mess my head up.”
I blushed. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“I’ve never said that to another woman, darling.”
Goose bumps raised on my arms as a flush crept into my cheeks. I remembered him calling me darling when he’d carried me to the car. I’d mortified myself by snuggling against his chest, taking comfort in his heat. “Stop,” I said quietly. “Don’t lie to me.”
He leaned down and kissed my forehead. When I didn’t move away, he kissed my lips. Soft and sweet. “I’ll never lie to you.”
My mouth parted as a myriad of declarations prepared to pour out. Knock, knock, knock. I closed my mouth.
Dominic gave me a lopsided grin. “Saved by the doctor.”
“No kidding,” I said with feelings of relief and disappointment.
“You ready?” asked Doctor Smith through the door.
“Yep,” I said loud enough for him to hear. I met Dom’s gaze as he took my hand. I nodded. “I’m ready.”
A COUPLE OF HOURS AND an X-ray later, I was at my parents’ home in the living room with my wrapped foot propped up on the couch. There was no break, just a bad sprain. Doc had given me some pain meds and wrapped my ankle up. He’d also given me a splint to wear that would fit in my shoe, but told me to keep off the foot for a day or two. But, as I told Dominic on the way to my folks’, there was no way in hell I was missing the search in the morning.
“So, how did you twist your ankle again?” My dad asked.
I had come up with a story about me tripping up a step, but it made my gut hurt to try and say it out loud. I looked at Dominic, imploring him to be the liar, liar, pants on fire. He nodded.
“We snuck onto the TSS compound earlier, and Nic fell down through a trap door in their food pantry,” Dom said.
Dad’s eyes widened, my eyes widened, Mom gasped as she brought a bag of ice in from the kitchen, and Dom shrugged. I guess I wasn’t the only one uncomfortable with lying to Dad.
“What in the Sam Hill is he talking about, Nicole Rae?”
I groaned. When Dad used my first and middle name, it was almost worse than him calling me Puddin.
He turned to my dad. “We were in and out before anyone saw us, and the room under the pantry is pretty suspicious.”
“Yep,” I agreed. “It smelled like rotting meat down there.”
“And we found this,” Dom said. He held up the metal piece we’d found on the floor in the cellar. “Maybe a hairpin or something.” He handed it to my dad. “The end has been scraped and worn.”
My dad held the object up and examined it from all sides. Finally, he handed it back. “So, for all your trouble, all you got was a piece of trash someone dropped.”
“We also found a chewed-up plastic toothpick,” I said in our defense since Dom was no help at all. “Doctor Smith is going to help us get DNA to see if it matches any of our victims, including Lloyd Evans.” I let my shoulders fall, and my head slumped forward a little. “Of course, he said the test will probably take a couple of weeks, even with a rush put on them. However, he did say he might be able to match the marks with Evans’ teeth if it’s his.”
“And then what?” My dad clenched and unclenched his fists. “You two are the two biggest dumbasses on the planet.” Dad’s tone simmered with anger. “You contaminated a potential crime scene. Walked out with evidence that we can no longer connect to the place.” He waved his hand. “I can’t talk about this anymore with you. Judge Holt and his wife are coming by for dinner tonight. He’s bringing the warrant I dropped off at the courthouse today. You two keep your mouths shut about your little illegal adventure.”
I wanted to be indignant, but chances were good he was right about the piece of metal being trash and us being dumbasses, though I didn’t think there was any way we were the biggest on earth. “Dad...”
He held up his hand. “I should haul both of your asses into jail for breaking and entering, criminal trespass, and a half a dozen more charges I’ll think of on the way to the station.”
“But you won’t,” I said hopefully.
My Dad’s penetrating gaze made me squirm. “No. I won’t.” He walked around the back of the couch and put his hand on my head. “I’m really mad at you right now, Nicole.” With a quick pat, he strolled down the hall to his home office, the room right before the guest bedroom.
My mom shook her head at me. “That man adores you, Nicole. You need to stop lying to him.”
“I know, Mom. I’m sorry.” God, I was gutted. The look on my dad’s face when he’d walked away had reflected the displeasure I saw in my mom’s expression.
“I’m not the one you need to apologize to.” She placed the ice pack on my ankle. “Don’t take too long to think about it.” And with that final admonishment, Mom went back to the kitchen, leaving Dom and me alone.
He pursed his lips in a frown. “Sorry.” He drew his shoulders up in a partial shrug.
“You left me looking like the jerk.” I pointed at him. “Why the hell didn’t you tell him the stair story?”
“Why didn’t you?”
Because I was a coward, who didn’t want to lie to my dad. And now I felt like an asshole for asking Dom to take the heat I deserved. Maybe my parents treated me like I was 12 years old because I was acting like it.
“Look, Nic, I couldn’t bring myself to lie to him,” Dom said, clear exasperation in his voice. “I freaking like you, okay? I don’t want to get on the wrong foot with your father.”
“Too late for that. You and I are in the same boat on shit’s creek.”
“I’m not talking about parental ire.”
“I know. We...we can’t,” I told him half-heartedly. “We are partners. It’s against the FBI policy on fraternization.”
Dom knelt down next to me. “We’ve already broken a dozen rules. What’s one more?” He cupped my chin and kissed me. A zing of exhilaration zipped through me as his tongue wet my parted lips. I leaned into the kiss, my hands encircling his neck as I opened for him, inviting the invasion. Dom moaned as his large arm wrapped around my waist, and he pulled my chest against his. God, his body temperature warmed me to the bone.
And speaking of bone, my hip brushed against his groin, and the thick bulge was hard as a rock. I squirmed, only hurting my ankle twice, as I maneuvered to wrap my legs around his waist.
“Nicole. Rae. Taylor,” snapped my mother.
I yelped as I pushed Dominic away from me and his body hit my foot. I swung my feet back up on the couch and put the ice pack on my injury and pretended my mom had not just walked in on my trying to dry hump my partner.
Dom looked dazed like the cat seduced by the canary.
“Look here, Smokey and the Bandit.” Mom snapped her fingers. “The Judge and Judy are going to be here any minute. You need to stop acting like two lovesick teenagers who have discovered their bodies for the first time.”
My cheeks flamed. “Mom!”
“My apologies, Mrs. Taylor,” Dom said.
I glared at him.
I was beginning to think he needed to worry a lot less about what my parents thought of him and more about the fact that I was going to kill him.