to fight, as Maggie expected, Tina began crying. Her body shook with sobs beneath Maggie's hold.
"Please don't hurt me! It was all Aarón's idea—the pills, everything. He wanted me to be abuelita's caretaker, and I was afraid to say no!"
"Sure, I believe you," Maggie said, making no attempt to hide her sarcasm. "He even promoted you to CFO…that must have been just awful."
But Tina's scent and body language both indicated that she was telling the truth.
"I swear I didn't know anything about this," Aarón said as he rose naked from floor and reached for the shirt and suit that lay in a heap nearby. "After my abuelita's accident, I saw that she wasn't doing well, but I didn't know why. I just wanted to do what was best for her."
"And you decided that taking over her company was the best thing for her, not to mention giving our sister a big fat promotion?" Steve asked, once more in his human shape as well.
Aarón flushed. "Despite what you think of me—and I admit I was a mean little bastard when we were growing up—I really do love Abuelita. I would never hurt her, and I had no idea what Tina and Guadalupe were doing. And we needed a CFO pretty urgently after Cousin Vincente moved into the COO role."
Everything about him testified that he was speaking the truth as well. Except that his version of the story contradicted Tina's.
At least one of them was lying…but how were they getting away with it?
Steve hastily pulled on his sweatpants. Then, ignoring his crutch and the blue fiberglass cast that lay discarded next to his crumpled t-shirt, he limped over to Maggie and knelt at her side.
His arms came around her. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you."
Relief washed over her, and not only because she'd made it here in the nick of time.
She had spent the flight from Missoula to San Diego worrying that she had overreacted and that she was just going to look stupid once she arrived.
She'd never been so happy to be wrong when she received his text upon landing.
"I left you a message, but then I wasn't sure if you were going to get it. So I had to come," she said. "I felt that something was very wrong."
"Thank you. I'm so glad you did." He kissed her, a quick, warm meeting of lips that left her wanting more. "You may have saved the day. Again."
"Ugh, could you guys be any sappier?" Tina commented, from her place on the floor. "Stevie, Aarón was totally in on this. It was his idea!"
* * *
Tina seemed to be telling the truth. But then again, she'd just tried to kill him.
Even now, Steve couldn't believe it. She'd always been on his side. Always. What had changed so drastically?
"Don’t let that Malinche fool you!" Abuelita Delfina declared from the hall. "It was all her idea! I can't tell you how many times I heard her lying to Aarón while she was trying to talk him into something."
Accompanied by Dr. Canis, who held her arm, she advanced with slow steps until she emerged into the foyer. She stopped to peer around her wrecked living room, then faced the four shifters.
Steve was still bare-chested, but at least he had gotten his sweatpants on.
"It was all your fault!" Tina said, turning her head to look at her grandmother. "You never gave me a fair chance, never gave me the promotions I deserved, but you gave Aarón everything!
"I did not approve your promotion because I saw how you had used the power you already had!" Abuelita Delfina replied, looking sad. "Believe me, I considered your application very carefully, but after I met with your direct reports and heard some of their stories, I realized that you were not worthy of greater responsibility. You had gone as far your abilities could take you. And I was troubled by some of things I heard, things that made me wonder about your ethics."
"I did a great job for the company!" Tina insisted. "My employees must have been lying because they were jealous of me!"
"Oh, Valentina," Abuelita Delfina said, with a sigh. "Ever since you were a child, everything bad that happened was always someone else's fault. You never could take responsibility for the mistakes you made."
"And you always favored the boys in this family!" Tina retorted. "You were never going to give me the credit I deserved. You forced me to remove you from the picture!"