Page 83 of The Vows We Keep
The color drains from his face. “Don’t, Niro.”
“Don’t what? Tell you that I’ve finally figured out what your family can do for me to repay the debt created when I saved your father?”
“Fuck’s sake, man. Make it something else.”
“I can’t. I want Catalina to become a brother.”
King puts his head back and closes his eyes. But as I ink right over his heart, I can feel his chest rise and fall a little faster as he thinks through what I requested of him. It’s his problem now, not mine. Even though I know it’s perhaps the toughest internal question he’s been asked as president.
Working in silence, I change my attention to what I’m inking. It’s important to him. And it will be important to Rae. I want her to know, when she sees it, that it’s my best work. So I take my time with the shading, freestyle the flourishes to bring balance. And there’s strategic highlighting with white ink to make the text take on an almost three-dimensional appearance.
When it’s done, I turn off the machine.
“Take a look,” I say, tipping my head in the direction of the mirror.
“Before I do, I need to say something to you as your friend, not your president,” King says. “Dad told me where you came from. I didn’t understand, as a prospect, why you got a room, and I didn’t. You want to know why you’re treasurer, Niro, and not the enforcer role you always wanted?”
My eyebrows rise. “How would you know that?”
King shrugs. “Dad told me. You’d just become a prospect, and Dad realized that you’d basically never had any financial freedom, and because of that, you’d never learned any skills with money. Dad watched as you blew the first big paycheck you ever got after you patched in. It took you four days to blow through twenty-five grand and get back to being broke. He knew you’d blow it all, so he made you work alongside Venom before he went inside, so you could become the club’s next treasurer. That way, he could teach you about money and cash flow, without you getting pissed off for being on the receiving end of another lecture. Dad wanted to give you your pride. The reason he never let you switch roles, was because he figured if you had to reconcile the club’s books every month, it might force you to remember to reconcile your own.”
I swallow hard and look down at the floor. Maybe I know more about grief than I comprehend. There are so many ways in which Camelot looked out for me. Since his death, there’s been a void. I have more in common with Cat than I understood.
“I’ve put a lot of chaos in the world, but I’m really trying to work on it,” I say, my voice rough with emotion.
A hand hits my shoulder and squeezes hard. “I see it. It’s good. I think Dad saw you, Colton, perhaps better than the rest of us do.”
I look up at King. “Is it weird that I always kind of thought of you as the older brother I didn’t have? When I first met you, you were so fucking cool. Already a prospect, but a shoo-in for becoming a brother. And your dad didn’t want anyone to think he gave you a pass. Whatever anybody else got to do, you had to do ten times worse, or do it faster, or do it better. And you did it every single time. While I’m incredibly grateful to your dad, it’s you I kinda wanted to be when I grew up.”
King sits up, throws his feet down, and unfastens Camelot’s watch, the one the club gave him when he became president. The one he was wearing the day I saved his life.
“Dad would probably want you to have this,” King says, handing it to me. The noise and bustle of the tattoo studio fades into nothing as I look at the outstretched hand.
I reach for it but can’t take it.
“Hey,” King says, and I look up at him. “You’ve always been a pain in the ass, kinda a little brother’s job, I suppose. And if we’re brothers, and Dad was effectively your father, figure you should have something of his to honor your connection to him.”
Instead of handing the watch to me, King fastens the Rolex around my wrist.
“We have no available positions, but Martin is likely to get his cut soon. Maybe you can train him to be treasurer. And then you and Bates could share the enforcer role, seeing you work so closely together. There’s no way for Catalina to become a brother. But I’ll figure something out that makes her feel valuable. I’ll consider her killing of Henley as her prospect test and bring the proposal to the table for a vote. And I’ll vote in favor.”
I don’t remember the last time I cried.
I don’t remember the last time I felt the true sting of loss.
Which is maybe why my heart feels like it’s been shredded in my chest.
27
CATALINA
Dancing is so not my thing. Briar and Rae seem set on truly letting their hair down, and I find myself watching them over on the dance floor as I stand by our table with the others, which is close to the bar. My eyes are on them as they move to the beat, and my ears tuned to Gwen and Iris chatting about doing something together when the men go on their ride out to Philadelphia.
It’s a relief when the song ends, and they come back to join us. I feel better when my charges are in a group. Martin is standing a few feet away. The other two prospects are too busy flirting with two women over by the DJ.
“Who wants another drink?” Gwen says.
“Me, please,” Briar says.
