Page 71 of Riff

“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?”