Page 14 of The Vows We Keep

Catalina looks surprised. “You’re going to help me?”

“Sure. On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You let me out of this fucking chair for a piss. Look. You can keep a gun on me the whole time. You can even come in and watch me. Just don’t be getting ideas about giving me a blow job, because I’ll take you up on that in a heartbeat.”

Her nose wrinkles. “That’s gross.”

I shrug. “Maybe. But it’s the best hangover cure I know of. And I do my best work when I’m not hungover.”

“I gave you painkillers, water, and coffee.”

“Are we negotiating, or was that a definite no?”

Catalina rolls her eyes. “That was a most definite no. When I said you reek of booze, I wasn’t lying.”

“So it’s just the smell of me. If that’s the dealbreaker, I’m sure there’s a shower in here somewhere. I’ll even air dry if there are no towels.”

“Stay focused. Fine. Toilet break. But first I’m going to wake Neva so there are two of us and only one of you. Just so you don’t think you could overwhelm me.”

“Oh, Catalina, I have lots of ideas how to overwhelm you.”

“Stop with the flirting too. It’s obvious and unhelpful,” she says, but I see the twitch of a smile.

She wakes Neva, and with two weapons on me, we navigate the narrow hallway to the bathroom. It’s ugly. Worn and dated. It also has a large window, big enough for someone to escape from.

“Keep the door open so I can see you,” Catalina instructs.

“You want a look at my cock, all you gotta do is ask.” I unzip and do what I have to do, which includes groaning in relief.

“Any wild moves and I’ll shoot that cock clean off,” Neva says, calmly. I don’t trust her with a gun any more than I trust her with a goddamn needle.

“Feel better?” Catalina asks.

I shake off my cock and tuck it back in my pants. “So much better.”

The water pressure is low, but I wash my hands and then bend forward, splashing frigid water on my face, before running some of it through my hair to push it back off my forehead.

There’s a small towel on the rail, and I dry myself off.

“Can I?” I hold up a tube of toothpaste.

Neva frowns, but Catalina nods. “As long as you only use your finger and not my toothbrush.”

I do as she says, just grateful for something minty. “Coffee’s gonna taste like shit after this, but my mouth tastes like something died in it.”

When I’m done, we do the same shuffle down the hallway back to the kitchen. I consider attempting to escape. I feel like I could take out Neva in front of me, but I don’t know how Catalina would respond. I’d like to think she’s softening and wouldn’t pull the trigger. But that’s not a wager I’m willing to make. “You know, I like a threesome as much as the next guy,” I say. “If the two of you want to put the guns down, we could have a totally different kind of fun.”

“You’re a pig,” Neva says.

Catalina nudges the nozzle of her gun between my shoulder blades. “My experience is most guys don’t have enough stamina for one woman, let alone two.”

We reach the kitchen, and I sit back in the chair. “Then allow me to prove you wrong because you’ve been fucking the wrong men.”

“Tie your legs to the chair,” Catalina says.

She’s a clever girl. Because if she’d come anywhere near me fully untied, I’d have taken her weapon and run. When I’m done, Catalina hands her weapon to Neva.