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“For groups of men that want to ‘live free, ride free,’ there sure is a lot of fucking rules.”
She threw her hands up. “Welcome to the MC life where you only get the illusion of freedom.”
“That applies to more than MCs,” he said dryly.
“Of course. I bet you saw proof of that while serving.”
“I learned the concept of freedom is all smoke and mirrors. We can scream how free we are as a nation, but when you dig into the details it’s far from the truth. Yes, we may have more than some other countries, but we’re still a slave to capitalism which leads to greed.”
Vi stared at him. The man certainly wasn’t a brainless jarhead. “You’re right. And not just that. Women aren’t really free if they can’t even walk down a dark alley at night without worrying that they might be raped, assaulted, or even killed.”
The corners of his mouth tipped downward. “Are you worried about that?”
“Any woman would be foolish not to be. I swear caution is in our DNA when we’re born. It causes me to stay on high alert in many situations. If I have to temper how I dress, how I speak, where I go, and how I get there, then I’m not truly free.”
Reaper only stared at her.
Ugh. She didn’t mean to go on a tangent. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“No, I’m sorry women have to deal with that.”
“Thank you for not saying that you’re sorry we feel that way. Because that downplays the truth of our reality.” They needed to get back on track. Reaper was certainly not the misogynistic type who would blow off women’s valid concerns. “Anyhow, we can take our sleds west, if you want, but no cuts. We want to stay under the radar as much as possible.”
“Of course we want to stay under the radar. But thank you for informing me about the whole cut thing.”
“You patching in without being a prospect is a trial by fire situation. You missed out on some important lessons they get within that first year.” Along with plenty of abuse and insults. The established members want to make sure a prospect can hack the life before they vote on whether to patch him in or not.
“Good thing I have you.”
“Good thing,” she agreed.
“When are you ready to go?”
“I need to send a few more invoices out and pay a few bills. Once that’s done, I’m heading home to pack. I guess since we’re riding, I’ll have to pack light.”
Reaper unfolded from the chair and rapped his knuckles on her desk. “If you want, you can ride with me.”
“It would have to be on my sled because yours only seats one.”
“I guess I’ll have to do something about that sooner than later.”
“But not today.”
“Not today. So, we can take yours?”
That offer was tempting. If it had been anyone else, she’d turn it down since she liked to be independent.
But she also would enjoy clinging to Reaper.
Decisions, decisions.
Of course, this was one decision that ended up not being hard to make.
Chapter Fourteen
For the last three weeks, they had traveled to Columbus, staying three or four nights at a shot.
For week one, Vi was Reaper’s backpack, despite being on her sled. The second week, they’d had no choice but to take a cage since traveling with a sniper’s rifle on a sled would be a bit of a flapping red flag.
