Page 37 of The Vows We Keep

“Fuck me.” King turns to Switch. “Can you do a blood test or something, figure out what to give Niro so we know he’s back to his usual messed-up self?”

Neva huffs. “No need. I can tell you the drug and its dose. It was sodium thiopental. Slows your processing down.” I’m glad my girl has my back. “Should be out of his system”—she looks at the clock hanging on the wall dramatically as if calculating it, when she and I both know it only lasts hours—“anytime now.”

Niro’s head is down again, but he checks me out of the corner of his eye. I’d give anything to know what he’s thinking right now.

“You all need to get the fuck out of this clubhouse,” King says. He tips his chin to Vex, who hands back our phones. “Go back to that rental of yours, pack up your shit, and get out of here. Los Reyes killed my father and we don’t owe you shit.”

“My pleasure,” Neva says as she swipes her phone from Vex’s hand. “Come on, Cat.”

I look at Niro who nods once.

The club killed his father.

No wonder he hates me. “I’m sorry. I had nothing to do with that. But hopefully knowing how it feels to lose a parent will help you understand why I need to find the truth about my own. I want to stay. I want to share what we’ve established and see if any of you remember anything that might help us find him.”

Spark steps forward. “Not gonna happen. Halo shared with us what you told him. Niro helped you as far as he can. You gotta get out of here.”

Niro steps forward and almost chest bumps Spark. “She leaves when I say so.”

“As sergeant at arms, I believe it’s in the best interests of club security that both these women leave.”

Niro moves even closer to Spark, so close that it’s as if their noses are touching. “Didn’t see you rushing the Irish chick out when she arrived here all shot up. In fact, I seem to recall you acting like a lovestruck cunt when she was bleeding on our pool table.”

Spark is remarkably calm. “Iris was never a member of her uncle’s organization.”

Niro scoffs. “Yeah, but we didn’t know that at the time, did we? And Cat isn’t a member of Los Reyes.”

“Sounds like that’s a fucking technicality,” Spark says.

Halo steps between the two of them. “Okay, boys, back it up.”

Bates starts singing that song about backing it up like a Tonka trunk. Niro snarls but doesn’t move until Halo shoves at his chest.

“Cat says she wants to stay until she figures this out, she gets to stay with me.” Without turning to face me, he reaches out his hand. I glance at it for a moment, but then I take it. And when I do, that same feeling of security hits me like it did before.

And while I don’t understand it, I want the feeling to last just a little while longer.

12

NIRO

“Fuck me,” King mutters beneath his breath. “Fine. But she’s your responsibility. Anything that happens from now on is your cost. She can’t be here during church. And if we find out anything she has said so far is a lie, I’ll take her out to the shed and kill her myself. The other one has to leave, though.”

“My name is Neva. Notother one,” Neva says.

“Fine,” I agree. Because I just had the best fuck I’ve had in a long time, and Catalina Flores is not just hopping onto the back of that bike of hers and riding off into the sunset.

“Wrong call, Prez,” Spark says.

“Seem to recall you punched me so hard, I fell off the back of a stool because I laughed at you calling your womanLittle Chick. Can’t imagine what you would have done if I’d tried to kick her out,” I say.

“Stop talking about Iris,” Spark says.

“Or what? Should we talk about all the stalking you did before Prez followed you and called you out on your shit? Or how the club found out you’d been fucking her after an explicit order from your Prez to leave her alone?”

Spark grabs my shirt in his fist.

“Don’t hit him,” King shouts. “You know how he gets.”