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“If we conceive a child, I’m making that place that keeps sending you these fucking goodie bags pay for the birth.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“I’m on the pill!” She yelled.

I blinked.

“You said last week you weren’t,” I said.

“Well…” she shrugged. “I started it after my period ended.”

“It’s not effective yet,” I informed her.

She cursed and stomped to the bathroom, only just now aware of the come dripping down her leg.

I threw the remains of the second shittiest condom I’d ever seen into the trash, and then grabbed my pants.

Yanking them up over my hips, sans underwear, I closed the bedroom door and walked towards the front door, bare-chested.

When I unlocked it, I didn’t bother to invite the man inside, I blocked the doorway with my body and glared at him.

“What?” I asked.

He pointed at Downy who was standing down by his truck, his head in his hands, and I found my first smile of the day.

“He saw, huh?” I asked.

Raphael nodded once.

“She’ll be embarrassed as shit,” I informed him. “Tell Downy to give us five and knock on the door, okay?”

He nodded and turned, relaying the message.

I left the door open for Raphael to come inside, walking straight to the door of the bedroom and opening it.

“Close the door!” Aspen hissed.

I closed the door, but not because she told me to; I was going to do it anyway.

“Have you seen my shirt?” I asked, glancing around the room.

“It’s on the back of the chair,” she pointed.

I found it hanging by the collar from the kitchen chair that for some reason was in her bedroom and pulled it on.

“How about my shoes and socks?” I asked.

She pointed to the end of the bed where they were resting nicely and I nodded.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“You’re a slob,” she said, sitting down on the kitchen chair and reaching down to put her socks on.

She slipped first one foot, then the other, into her socks, then worked the one on with the ankle monitor so the sock rested underneath the monitor instead of being bunched up on the bottom.

“What’s he want?” She asked. “To tell us why he didn’t go to jail with the other guy—well after he recovers from that gunshot wound to his head?”

“He’s undercover. Has been working that case for a long time, and hopefully is still working it if they can keep this whole situation under wraps. Why he’s here now, I don’t know. I didn’t ask,” I slipped on my socks and boots in half the time it took her to get on both socks. “Do you want something to drink?”