Page 109 of The Vows We Keep

I spin and turn to face Mateo. “What did you do to her?”

“We persuaded her to tell us where you really were,” Mateo says. His dark eyes narrow. “After I did a deal with her father. Nudillo paid the club for her poor choices and handed her over to me. Permanently.” He lifts a hand, removes his riding glove, and shows me the wedding ring. “Not quite the start to married life any of us intended, but she’ll adapt.”

“God, you are morally bankrupt.” I face Perrito. “Why are you doing this?”

At a speed that belies his age, he steps up to me, his thick fingers digging into my cheeks. “Because you humiliated me, my club, and my son. Because Neva told us you’ve been spending time with an Iron Outlaw who took out eight members of our club. Because your father was an asshole. The apple does not fall far from the tree.”

“You use the Los Reyes name, but you don’t truly stand for it. You sent those men to their deaths. If the Outlaws hadn’t done it, you planned to have the nomads kill them anyway.”

Perrito shoves my face away and I stumble.

It’s hard to breathe. Panic creeps through my veins faster than the icy chill of the wind. Forcing myself to take in deep breaths, I focus on a spot in the distance.

“What are you going to do to me?” I ask.

“Funny you should ask.” He turns and walk away from the bikes, and Felipe spins me around. His cigarette dangles from the corner of his mouth as he yanks my cut off my shoulders and tosses it to the ground.

Felipe grabs my arm, dragging me after him. The other men fall in around us.

“Felipe,” I whisper. “Somewhere inside you is a good man. You’re more than the product of your father. Please help me.”

“Let’s go,” Perrito shouts.

Felipe glances down at me.

“Please.” I try again. “This is so fucked up. If I meant to you as much as you say I do, you wouldn’t do this to me.”

“Youdomean this much to me,” Felipe hisses. “Or you did before you humiliated the fuck out of me and left me for a rival club member. And you meant a lot to the club too. You just couldn’t see it in your quest to be equal. No man wants a woman like you for a wife. I’d marry a fucking brother before you.”

The other men chuckle.

The words wound. All my life I’ve been rejected for being exactly who I am.

But I remind myself Niro wants me, and he’s twice the biker, twice the outlaw, and twice the man Felipe is.

When we get to the clearing, Felipe pushes me to my knees. “You could still make a fine house mouse though. Clean up my shit. Cook for me. Let me fuck you when I want it. Although might have to run some bleach through that pussy of yours, given an Iron Outlaw has been dipping his infected dick in it.”

Mateo laughs. “Appropriate that Felipe and I subjugate you and Neva, no?”

I’d rather choke.

Words tumble through my brain in response, but I force myself to keep them inside.

I can recover from verbal humiliation.

I can recover from being beaten.

But I can’t recover from being dead.

So, I look at Perrito. “Why not just shoot me on my bike? Why bring me all the way out here?”

He taps a cigarette free of the packet, puts it to his lips, and lights it. Smoke drifts up into the air. “Cleanup will be a hell of a lot easier. And we can have a bit of fun first.”

I hear Mateo laugh but resist the urge to turn and look at him. Instead, I press my arm to my side and feel the pressure of my gun. It’s reassuring.

Perrito crouches in front of me. “You always were smarter than anyone truly gave you credit for. And you’re the same as your father. Couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie. Trying to find out what happened to him. You won’t let this rest, and I can’t take the risk that you’ll continue where your father left off.”

“You killed him,” I admit. “I already know that. I know who did it, and I have Papá’s cut. You had someone else do the dirty work and shoot him though. Why? Too much of a coward to do it yourself?”