Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“What do you mean?”
“I mean if you are busy here with classes or your therapist, or you are going to school or whatever for yoga instruction, then you can just hang here with everyone like you did last time. If you’re ready, we can get you a car, so you can start taking yourself around, and don’t have to rely on anyone else here.”
“I would like to drive again,” I agreed, even though nothing was so far in Shady Valley that I couldn’t walk if I wanted to. Once it started to get hot, I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to want to be doing that. “But what else would it depend on?” I asked.
“If you want to come with,” he said.
“That would be allowed?” I asked.
“It might take some finesse on Slash’s part, but, really, it would come down to you and your comfort level.”
“With the guns.”
“Yeah, I mean… more so, with the illegality of it. That’s a risk you have to really consider. I would never have you come with us if we were doing a deal that wasn’t public. Most of what we are doing is actually legal. The buying of the guns, that is. It mostly happens at gun shows. It’s legit. The problem is, we can’t take them across state lines like we do.”
“That’s why they’re hidden.”
“Exactly. But we also do some deals that are private. Those are risky.”
Risky.
Like the deal he’d been trying to make when the shootout happened, when he’d found me.
I didn’t immediately try to push the thoughts away, instead just breathing through the way panic started to build, then releasing it.
Some day, it wouldn’t have so much hold over me.
But, for now, it was okay that it still threatened to pull me back and under.
“But if I wanted to, I could come and just hang in the hotel while you work?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s the idea.”
“Would it bother Raff?”
“Why would it bother Raff? He loves you. So long as we get separate rooms, there’s no issue.”
“I think maybe it would be fun to do a time or two,” I decided. “But, doesn’t it get old after a while? Especially if you keep taking the same routes?”
“It didn’t used to feel that way. I think I used to be a lot more restless when I was younger. Now, yeah, it’s… it’s getting old. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be willing to do the whole route.”
“You said it might eventually stop being so long, though, right?”
“Once the chapter in Texas is fully up and running, yeah. Then it will only be from here to there and back.”
“Half the distance.”
“Yeah, for the most part. There might still be times when we will need to go past Texas to hit up gun shows, since we can’t all rely on Texas to get all these weapons purchased and distributed.”
“But your club is growing too,” I said. “And guys like Coach, Colter, and Rook might actually want to take those trips, get away for a while.”
“Yeah, I think that might be the conversation I have to have with Slash eventually. That we all need to start splitting it up, so we can all spend most of our time here, and just a little bit on the road.”
“What about Raff?”
“I don’t know if he’s done yet,” Riff admitted.
“Won’t it be difficult for you two not to be doing this together?”
“Yeah,” he said, sighing hard. “Harder than I think either of us realized yet. At this point, we’ve never really spent much time apart. But I can’t ask him to stop before he’s done. And he wouldn’t ask me to keep on when I’m done. We care about each other too much for that.”
“What do you think will have him settling down?”
“Fuck if I know,” Riff said, shaking his head. “We’ve always been so different. I think, I dunno, maybe a woman would slow him down or stop him.”
“Or be crazy on the road with him,” I said, shrugging.
“I honestly can’t imagine him settled down, so I have no clue.”
“Does he want to settle down?”
“Eventually, yeah. He really likes kids. So he wants some of his own one day.”
“Do you?” I asked, wincing, hoping that it wasn’t too soon to ask something like that.
“Yeah. There was a time where I was worried I wouldn’t be a good parent…”
“Because of your father?” I asked.
“Yeah. I don’t want to learn I got that kind of meanness in me.”
“You don’t,” I said, knowing that down to my bones. No man who had been so sweet and patient with me would be cruel to children. “Besides, if it was true that we are doomed to repeat our parents’ mistakes, then I would be a selfish teen mom who decided to drop her kids off at her mother’s doorstep, so she could follow a band across the country.”