She didn’t understand how or why she had ended up here, but she knew that whatever the reason, it was a tragic mistake. She had a family and a job. She could not stay trapped in this prison for the lost and the abandoned and the stolen. She waited until dark, when the men left these wailing creatures to endure the lonely night in whatever way they could, and used a claw to tease open the knot of wire. She grasped the wire between her teeth and patiently unwound it from the lock. Then she turned her attention to the lock itself. It wasn’t a complicated contraption. It was merely a lever on the outside of the cage. She worked one paw between the metal bars and lifted the lever as she leaned on the door. It opened with a barely audible creak. Well, barely audible to humans, but the other creatures heard it well enough. As Nine sauntered down the empty hallway, past cage after cage, the creatures muttered and sang, howled and growled, mewled and cried. She wanted to help them; she didn’t have time to help them. She steeled herself against their plaintive wails and headed straight for the large swinging door at the very end of the hallway, the door to freedom.

But just before Nine reached the door, it swung open, a long shadow looming behind it. Nine’s nails scratched for purchase as she scrambled backward and raced back down the hallway. The long shadow followed her, footsteps eerily quiet on the cement floor. At the sight of the intruder, the other animals grew frantic, the air filling with the rattling of their cages, the sounds of their barks and mewls and shrieks. Nine found herself on the opposite side of the building, a brick wall in front of her, cages to her left and right.

No way out.

Nine turned around and lowered her head, gathering herself to spring.

The woman stopped just a few feet from Nine, smiling, unafraid. She crouched to meet Nine’s eyes and smiled wider when Nine answered her steady gaze with a warning growl.

“Well, well, well,” the woman murmured. “Just the kitty I was looking for.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jaime

The morning after the twins’ mom took Nine away, Jaime woke up far too early with a strange, hot pressure in his head, like someone was squeezing his brain from the inside.