Page 53 of The Vows We Keep

“Thank you.” I lean over and kiss his cheek.

“But more than fifteen minutes, and I’m coming in looking for you.”

I hustle out of the car and jog up the drive. I don’t normally like being told what to do, but I see this for what it is: a compromise between his desire to take control of our situation and me setting boundaries.

“Cat,” Neva says when I enter the house. “I was worried.”

“Come with me while I pack. I don’t have a lot of time.” She follows me up the stairs and watches as I begin to load up the packing cubes, which I’ll stuff in the hard panniers attached to my bike.

“What happened?”

“I’m staying with Niro for a little while to see if we can figure out what happened to Papá.”

Neva puts her hands on her hips. “But you heard King yesterday. He doesn’t want to help you. And I’m not surprised—they’re a rival club, Cat.”

“You’re telling me things I already know. But I also can’t go home yet, because I’m not sure I can trust Los Reyes now.”

Neva’s eyes go wide. “But they’re our club.”

I shake my head. “They’re not our club. They’re a boys’ club. We don’t actually belong to it. You don’t see us wearing cuts, do you? You don’t see us getting a share of the profits. We’re a disposable asset. And they are lying about Papá.”

Quickly, I move to the bathroom and throw my toothbrush and a few small bottles into my toiletry bag. “Listen,” I say, making a spur-of-the-moment decision. “I want you to go back home. We said we’d be gone ten days for vacation. Tell them I decided to extend my trip. That I’m going to head south to visit Abuela.”

Neva leans against the doorframe and folds her arms. “I can stay with you, Cat. You know that. I have your back.”

With a sigh, I stop packing for a moment and look at her. “I know you do. And I’m grateful. But we need all this to seem natural for the club to believe it. We already lied and told them we were headed to Florida. It’s all going to get complicated if neither of us return. I promise I’ll message you and tell you where I am every step of the way.”

“Where are you staying?”

“With Niro.”

Neva purses her lips. “You sure that’s a good idea? He could be using you.”

“For what? It’s not like I know any club secrets of value.”

“But you make really good collateral.”

I zip up my toiletry back and return to the bedroom. “I don’t. I’m the daughter of a dead vice president.”

Neva huffs. “Don’t sell yourself short like that. If Felipe got a call that you were being held by an Iron Outlaw, they’d be on their bikes and halfway here in a heartbeat.”

Her words irritate me. “Why, though? Why would they be halfway here? It wouldn’t be because of me. It would be some misplaced machismo. They’d hate that the Outlaws had a woman they perceived astheirproperty. They’d be filled with outrage that another club got one over on them. No part of what they do next is actually about me. It’s about ego and ownership.”

“You need to be pragmatic,” Neva says. “You aren’t saying anything that’s untrue ... it’s just ... this is our world. And we’re trying to create the best life we can within it.”

Niro’s words from the previous evening hit me hard.

I want the part of you that’s trying to push your ribs apart right now so she can burst free ... I want the part of you that will scrape and claw and fight to shape a life you want more than anything else ... Give her to me, Cat, because I’m really fucking hungry for her.

“I want to be unapologetically me, Neva. I want to be seen in the spaces I want to exist in.”

Neva rubs at a small mark on her jeans. “Does Niro see you?”

"He does. And it’s the only thing that makes sense right now.”

“So, it’s just sex?”

“I can’t explain it, but no, it’s more than sex. Or it could be if I let it. I don’t know. I want to feel safe for a hot minute, and I do with him. Is that so hard to understand?”