Page 93 of Beware of Dog

Cass blinked the sleep from her eyes as the door opened.

“Rise and shine,” Raven sang, leaning in the threshold wearing a robe, her hair piled on her head in a towel. “Lots to do today. Chop chop.”

She left the door ajar when she walked away.

“Ugh.” Cass sat up and brushed her hair back, rubbed at her eyes. Her head throbbed faintly, exhaustion dragged at her limbs, and she recalled why she preferred wine to liquor.

Shep kept his eyes shut, his arm stubbornly around her waist.

She scratched through his pillow-mussed hair. “She’ll be back, you know.”

He grunted and smashed his face into her hip. “‘Time is it?”

She checked the bedside clock. “Seven.”

He made an inelegant sound of disgust.

“Come on.” She tightened her hand in his hair and tugged. “She really will come back, and I don’t think you want her ripping the covers off.” Cass had wriggled back into her pajamas last night, but Shep had collapsed naked.

He cracked one eye to peer mutinously up at her, and she saw that he was more awake than he was pretending to be. “You’re bluffing.”

“Cass! Shepherd!” Raven called from down the hallway, followed by a loud wail from Nat.

Shep sat up, shaking his head. Looked down at his lap. “I can’t believe I fucked on My Little Pony sheets.”

“They’re not My Little Pony. They’re just flowers, Jesus.” She backhanded him in the chest and swung her legs over the side. “If you stop complaining and start moving, we can conserve water in the shower.”

He seemed wide awake after that.

Thirty minutes later, Cass stood in the middle of Raven’s massive walk-in closet, wrapped in her own robe, damp hair clinging to the back of her neck. “I still have clothes here, you know,” she tried to protest.

Raven snorted, dismissive, and ticked through hangers, click, click, click. “You have leggings, and sweatshirts, and kid clothes.”

“They’renormalclothes. Clothes for people who haven’t ever been on billboards.”

Raven waved over her shoulder and sorted through more hangers. “We aren’t trying to appear normal today. We have to look confident and powerful in front of Jamie’s mother, right? She called you a ‘biker slut.’ We can’t have that.”

Cass folded her arms. “Maybe Iama biker slut.”

“We’re all a slut for the right biker, darling, but that doesn’t mean other people get to say it. Here, try this.” She proffered a bundle of black cashmere.

It proved to be a high-necked dress that was shapeless in a fashionable way, but which Cass thought did her no favors. Raven added a belt, black stockings, and a dangerous pair of boots, and insisted she looked “fab.”

The guys were in the kitchen when they entered the main part of the flat, drinking coffee, dressed as casually as ever. Shep wore the same clothes he’d had on yesterday, hair clean and freshly gelled, and did a double-take when he saw what she was wearing. Abaddouble-take.

Cass turned around. “No, I’m changing.”

Raven barred her with arms outstretched. She of course looked flawless in dark blue, hair up in a tight, high ponytail set off by diamond earrings the size of quail eggs. “No, no, you look very elegant.” She took her by the shoulders, turned her around, and said, “Shepherd, doesn’t she look elegant?” Tone pointed.

“You look…” he stared, face twitching as he tried to control it.

“Don’t answer, you’re a waste of time,” Raven said. “Go, go.” She nudged Cass forward. “Come along, Shep, we’ll be late.”

Toly was staying behind with the baby, and he sent them a two-fingered salute over his coffee mug as they swept out the door.

Out on the street, the Rover idled on the curb, ready and waiting; the driver got out to open the rear door as they approached. Pongo and Topino were waiting as well, astride their bikes, and a few moments later, Shep joined them, having split away from them once they disembarked from the elevator.

“This is going to terrify them,” Cass said, once they were buckled in and moving, the bikes following.

---