Page 15 of Sprite

“I have no idea,” she lied.

He looked her over, cocking one eyebrow at her, which was always a sign that he didn’t believe her. “You want to try that again?” he asked.

“No,” she sobbed.

The Prospect turned around as she called back over her shoulder, “I’ll use the woods after all,” she shouted.

Before the door even closed, Chains had her in his arms, “Are you pregnant?” he asked. She shook her head against his chest, and he chuckled. “Sprite,” he growled, “are we going to have a baby?” Hearing him say “We” gave her some insane hope that he wanted the baby, even if she wasn’t sure that she did.

“What if I said yes?” she asked. “How mad would you be?”

“I wouldn’t be mad at all, honey,” he insisted. “I’ve always wanted to be a dad,” he said. “How do you feel about being a mom?”

“I’m not sure,” she whispered. “I don’t know if I’ll be very good at it. I mean, look at my own mother. She wasn’t winning any Mother of the Year awards.”

“I think that you’ll be a fantastic mother, despite your own mom. You know what not to do now. That has to count for something, right?” he asked.

She wiped her nose on his shirt, causing him to chuckle again. “I guess I need some time to process all this. Would you mind taking me home?” she asked.

“I’d love to,” he agreed. “But honey, next time you have something important to tell me, don’t hide it from me. We’re a team and we need to learn how to work through things together.” She had never been part of a team before. She wasn’t much of a team player, but Chains made her want to try.

“I can try to be part of the team, Chains, but that’s not something that I have much practice at.” He put a finger under her chin and forced her to look up at him. Looking into his eyes, Sprite swore that she saw something more than she usually did. She thought that she saw love, but how would she even know that? She had never been in love, and knowing what it looked like was impossible for her.

“We can practice together,” he promised. “This is unchartered territory for me too, Sprite.”

“Okay,” she whispered as he kissed her lips.

“Let’s go home, honey,” he said, taking her hand into his. She didn’t argue with him. She wasn’t worried about the Harlots’ vote or anything but cuddling up with Chains and falling to sleep in his arms. She could worry about all the rest another time—there would be plenty of time for that later.

Sprite rolled over in bed and realized that Chains wasn’t next to her. For the past two weeks, Chains liked to lay in bed with her and talk to her belly. He was sure that the baby could hear him, and she didn’t have the heart to tell him that according to her baby books, the baby didn’t have ears yet. She thought that it was cute that he was so excited about the baby, but she was afraid to be as excited. Sprite worried that something was going to go wrong—it usually did, so why should now be any different?

She got out of bed and put on her robe to walk into the kitchen where she was sure that she heard men’s voices. “You can’t just sit here and wait for them to come and arrest you,” Savage’s voice said. She couldn’t help her gasp, giving away the fact that she was in the hallway.

“You should just come in here, honey,” Chains insisted. “You need to be a part of this little meeting.”

Sprite stepped around the corner and peeked into the kitchen. “What did he mean about you getting arrested?” she asked.

“He meant that I’m going to be charged with the murder of your mother’s scumbag boyfriend,” Chains said as though it wasn’t a big deal.

“Jake is dead?” she asked. “How did he even get out of prison?”

“I have no idea how he got out of jail and, yes, the cops found him in the dumpster outside the bar this morning. They called me down to the bar and asked some questions before the sun even came up. Apparently, someone left an anonymous tip that there was a body in my dumpster. They asked me if I knew him, and I told them how he’s your mom’s boyfriend, and that’swhen they started poking around. They asked where you were, and I told them that I didn’t know. A few of the guys said that they overheard Chains threatening Jake and now, the cops are looking for you both. Chains is a person of interest and possible suspect,” Savage said.

“And I’m not?” Sprite asked.

“No,” Bowie said, “apparently, you have an alibi for the probable time frame that he was killed. Plus, you couldn’t have put Jake into the dumpster by yourself. That’s why they are looking at Chains.”

“What was my alibi?” she asked.

“You were working at the time of the murder. Chains said he was working late, but there is no record of him being on base that evening,” Savage said.

“The night guard didn’t scan my ID and just let me in. I didn’t think anything of it when he did it, but now, it’s going to come back to screw me,” Chains admitted. “I mean, I thought that the guy was just being nice, but I should have insisted that there be a record of me being on base.”

“You couldn’t have known that this was going to happen, Chains,” she insisted.

“No, but it was reckless of me,” he said. “I was trying to save some time because I wanted to be able to pick you up that night after your shift,” he said. “And now, the cops think that I killed a guy.”

“But you’re innocent,” Sprite shouted.

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