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Allow me to spell it out

"Ronnie, Spencer is a s, he does caveman When he says ‘No, Ronnie, you may not have one of my custo insane? I refuse to spend every Godda ditch soet a bike withhelp ave Rook a bike!"

"Yeah, because it n her in when she talks about riding it And after she took off to Illinois alone on that fking Shrike Bike, you see where it is now? Sitting under the fking carport out here in theridden by no one Rook will never sit on that bike again, let alone ride it Ronin put his foot down and it’s over Now, do you need me to spell out why he refuses to let you model for hiure that shit out on your own, but I’ll hold your hand tonight and not make fun of your idiocy because it’s Christmas"

"Nice bedside manner, Ford You really have a ords" She stays silent for a few seconds, lory days as a body artBikes "I’, I’ht have a little bit of freak in me with the blood phobia, but I’m not that far away from normal I still want to have fun and I want to have fun with hiht you wanted him to be serious You can’t have it both ways, Ronnie You can’t be the slutty model at the shoho attracts the buyers and lookers You can’t be the reckless biker chick with no responsibilities You can’t be the wild tattoo artist with red lips and black stilettos ill hygienically tattoo a penis if a custo for it"

"I’ve tattooed hundreds of people and only one of theh She’s so thick "My point is… you can’t be these things and be the kind of girl Spencer wants to settle with Because eventually, he will settle down and when he does, he wants a wife" I shrug I kno it sounds, but fk it She needs to hear the truth "He wants dinner and kids and all that shit"

"He never said any of that toher head "He’s never talked about a faether, Ronnie I know hi, we just want it in different ways Ronin wanted to settle down right away because his life has been one exciting event after another Spencer wants to check life out a bit, explore his options, and then settle down"

"Fuck that," she says as she stohts and pulling the door closed behind me "If he can explore his options, then I can explore mine, too Go ahead and tell hithem and don’t try and tell ht and tell hi a late dinner with hiSpencer never buys ht as well be you, Ford! Hell, if I was your pet at least I’d be getting fked!"

I raise my eyebrows at her

She winces and backs away "Sorry Too far?"

I nod "Let’s go get s from my apartment and I’ll drop you off at hoet back in the Bronco and drive down to the shop It’s not far, but I have a few boxes of stuff to load up, so I take the truck

Ronnie sheepishly follows me upstairs to my apartment over the shop It’s pretty bare bones Just some mismatched furniture and my leftover boxes of casual clothes and personal iteo back down to the Bronco and load it up

She is silent the whole tiot nothing to do with her He loves Veronica Vaughn I know this, I’ve watched him with her on ot involved in that con we ran on Rook’s ex, she al out That’s how I know he loves her

But I also know he’ll never tell her as long as we have all this legal shit hanging over our heads There’s too ether--Rook, Ronin, Spencer, and me--until we knoon’t be killed or put in jail

And if certain people kne hn, then her life er too And it’s not fair to involve her She’s got nothing to do with any of these illegal jobs we’ve been doing

We ride back to Fort Collins in silence and I’ure out if I should call Spencer and tell hiht on Mountain Avenue Ronnie is the only fehn family--which consists of her, her four brothers, her dad, and her grandfather All of whom are tattoo artists and have owned a shop in Fort Collins, called Sick Boyz Inc, since the early Sixties They live in a gigantic old house in the historic district right off don If I had left her at the restaurant she could’ve walked home in five minutes