Page 110 of The Vows We Keep
“We don’t owe you answers.”
“Humor me.”
Felipe tugs my phone from my pocket. “Looks like lover boy has been trying to get hold of you. He holds it up to my face and takes a picture.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Just letting lover boy know where you are,” he says with a chuckle.
Perrito jumps to his feet, and in a move that shocks me, slaps Felipe. Not a punch, not a threat, a flat-palmed slap. The sound ricochets off the trees. His head spins to the side. When he straightens, blood trickles down his chin.
“What the fuck?” he curses.
“It’s your fault we’re in this mess. You and your goddamn mouth telling her the club came here six months ago. And for what? So she’d suck your fucking cock. I’m embarrassed by you.”
I look behind me and see the pitying looks on the rest of the club members’ faces.
Neva must have told them how I got the information. I can’t imagine her going down without a fight which must have been brutal. I’m proud of her bravery, even if the outcome for me is still the same. Dissent and distrust are powerful tools and she wielded them perfectly.
I hope she’ll be able to get away from Mateo and heal.
Perrito takes my phone and looks at it. “It sent, you idiot.” He drops it to the ground, and stomps on it. “We had the advantage of taking her by surprise. If they didn’t know we had her before, they do now. I don’t know how much of the background you got in that image, but they can check the photograph’s location data or might recognize it. You fool. You’re lucky I don’t fucking bury you with her.”
“Perrito,” I say to get his attention. “Was this really just about being an official club or not?”
“Your father always wished he’d been the one to lead the club. He tried to undermine me for years.” He takes a long drag on his cigarette. “Yes, he made plans to go back to Mexico. Planned to petition the mother chapter for control of the club. It bothered him that we kept the profit. He said we were using the Los Reyes name and not giving back to the club as was the spirit. Like we broke some kind of honor code. But you know what, Catalina? We like the profit. We like it a lot more than feeling honorable. Brotherhood doesn’t pay the bills. If you’d left things alone, we wouldn’t have had to do this.”
My heart lurches. I wrap my arms around myself as if cold. When the time is right, I’ll grab my weapon. “What about Mamá? She’ll ask questions about why I haven’t called, why I haven’t come home.”
Perrito shrugs. “Possibly. But in a week, she’ll be dead. Neva’s first act of contrition once she’s well again will be going over for coffee one morning and pouring something special into your mother’s cup. Something that won’t last in her system. Mateo will then break her arm and neck and place her at the bottom of her staircase, as if she fell. But I promise you; by then she won’t feel a thing.”
“No,” I shout and stand to my feet.
“Your father didn’t get to be buried in the sun as was his wish. Neither will you,” Perrito shouts.
Felipe reaches for my shoulder to shove me back down as I dip into my pocket and pull out the dipstick knife. In three fast moves, I stab him in the side, the chest, and then place the knife at his jugular with enough pressure that the skin splits before he manages to get out of my grasp.
With a yell, he launches us both to the ground in a battle only one of us can win.
35
NIRO
If there is a single mark on my woman when I find her, I’m going to chop up every single motherfucker there into pieces. I’ll wrap their fucking entrails around the tree trunks.
Vex has been raising his hand the last few miles. Five fingers, four fingers, three fingers.
We must be close.
I’ve never really thought about how I usually dismount my bike, but suddenly I’m thinking in fractions about the most effective way to get off the fucker and into a fighting stance. Don’t even care what happens to the bike today, as long as I’m off it as soon as I see Catalina.
One finger goes into the air.
I might even use it like a bowling ball. Ride through whoever has her and take them down like bowling pins. I’m a medieval knight on a powerful steel horse, and they don’t stand a chance.
We don’t have a formal plan. We’ve just ridden hard. Years and years of experience riding in this formation means we’ve been able to maintain speeds most others couldn’t. There are no prospects or green riders on this ride. Cars move out of our way when they see us in their rearview mirrors.
And I’m relieved that if Los Reyes had to take Catalina anywhere, it’s here. I’ve buried more people in the Pines on behalf of the club than any other member. I know this place like the back of my hand.
