“I know.” Sean ran one hand through his lank brown hair. He looked as if he’d just been scolded for drinking from the milk carton. “I know how bad it sounds, but I never meant for any of this to happen. I only wanted to talk to her alone, so she could listen to me without her parents whispering in her ear. It just—” he glanced down “—it didn’t go like I planned.”
I shuddered as a frightening realization rolled through me. “You had her kidnapped so you could propose to her?” I couldn’t keep disbelief from my voice.
Ryan threw his hands into the air in exasperation, glaring at me.
Sean cringed. “That sounds bad, too, huh?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, so stunned my skin was tingling. “Really bad.”
Sean stepped toward my cage, his eyes wide and intense, pleading with me to understand what he’d done. “She only chose Kyle because her parents liked him better. But Sara liked me. I know she did. And Miguel said he could get me some time alone with her. For a price.”
“So you promised him your services. For two years.”
“Yes.” He nodded enthusiastically, as if pleased that I finally understood. “I would have promised him anything. But I didn’t know who he was, or how he expected me to pay my debt. And I had no idea he was going to lock Sara up.”
I made myself let go of the bars, trying to appear calm, as if I didn’t want to rip out his throat. “When you found out, why didn’t you let her go?”
He shrugged, but his eyes held too much pain to pull off such an offhand gesture. “I wanted to, but Miguel said her Pride was already looking for her, and that if we let her go, she’d turn us in. Her father would have had me killed. You know he would have.” He glanced at me for confirmation, but I didn’t know what to say. He was right.
“So you let them kill her instead,” Abby said. It wasn’t a question.
“I…” He glanced at me, then at her, already backing toward the stairs. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come down here. I can’t expect you to understand.”
“Sean, wait,” I said, following him as far as my bars would let me. But he didn’t wait. He turned and ran up the stairs, slamming the door as he left.
“I tried to warn you,” Ryan said, shaking his head at me as if it were my fault.
“Is that what you were doing?” I sat at the base of the bars, pulling the fast-food bag back into my lap. “I thought maybe you were trying to fly.”
“Cute.” He leaned back against the staircase, thin arms crossed over his chest. “Sean isn’t doing so hot today.”
“So I noticed. What happened?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure. It may have been going after you. Or maybe knowing they’re gonna take—” he caught his slipup just in time “—another tabby. The whole thing’s snowballing, and he knows there’s no way out. He’s acting like he might let go of that last shred of sanity any minute.”
“Serves him right,” Abby said. We both turned to look at her. She held a biscuit clenched in one hand, crumbling between her tiny fingers.
“Yeah, well, I think he’d agree with you,” Ryan said.
“If he feels so guilty, why’d he let them kill her?” I asked.
“He didn’t let them. He just wasn’t here to stop it. And I’m not sure he could have, anyway.”
“Michael said Sean’s scent was all over her,” I said, my food untouched on my lap.
Ryan sighed and sat down, apparently resigning himself to a long explanation. “That was from before. When Eric and Miguel went after Abby—” he glanced at her, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes “—they left me and Sean here with Sara. Sean spent the whole time down here with her, trying to work his Don Juan magic. He left the door open, and I heard part of it from the kitchen.“He told her how much he loved her and begged her to marry him instead of Kyle. She said all the right things, agreeing to everything he asked and telling him she loved him. According to him, they even ‘made love,’ but I suspect she was just too scared to say no. Afterward, I heard her crying, begging him to let her go home. Sean completely freaked out, accusing her of lying to him. He came upstairs blubbering and said Miguel was right, that they couldn’t let her go. He slammed the front door on his way out, and I remember thinking he was gone for good, and we were down to three out of five.”
My head snapped up in surprise. “Five? Who’s the fifth?” But I was pretty sure I already knew, that I’d already met him. And broken his nose.
“Luiz. The cat Miguel sent after you. He left before I got here, so I never met him, but Eric said he’s another jungle stray.” Ryan met my eyes. “I heard Miguel talking to him on the phone, but I don’t speak Portuguese, so, you know…” He shrugged both thin shoulders.
I gaped at my brother, stunned by how casually he’d prattled off the news of another murderer on the loose, as if such things happened every day. Maybe they did.
Ryan shook his head as if to clear it. “Anyway, when they got back with Abby, Miguel hit the roof. He said if I couldn’t find Sean by sunrise, they’d go after Hailey to teach him a lesson.”
I gasped in horror. Sean’s little sister was about Abby’s size, but she was only thirteen years old.
“I looked in every bar in town, but by the time I found him and dragged him back, Sara was dead.”
Silence fell over us like a heavy quilt, but instead of warming me, it gave me chills.
“They thought I was unconscious,” Abby whispered. Her words seeped beneath the blanket of silence like a cold draft.
I turned slowly toward her, hoping I’d misunderstood. She’d abandoned her food for the comfort of her favorite corner of the mattress. Tears stood in her eyes. She hugged herself, rocking back and forth as she spoke. “I saw what they did to her.” Her words sounded choked, as if she was trying and failing to hold them in.
My breath caught in my throat, and I coughed to expel it. I’d had a feeling she’d witnessed Sara’s death, but hearing her say it was different.
“I’m so sorry, Ab,” Ryan said, and I couldn’t help but believe him.
Tears slid silently down Abby’s face and she turned her back on us both, curling into the fetal position on the mattress. Even in human form she moved with a cat’s grace and flexibility; her posture was as expressive as most people’s eyes. I knew by the tension in her arms and the curve of her spine that she was reliving Sara’s final moments.
“Miguel came down first,” Abby said, her account punctuated by sniffles. “Sara screamed and cried. She tried to throw him off, but he was too strong. He ripped her clothes off in pieces. She wouldn’t shut up, so he choked her ’til she passed out. She was still unconscious when Eric came down for his turn, but she woke up at the end, screaming. Afterward, she curled up in a corner, trying to cover herself with scraps from her shirt.
“I tried to talk to her but she wouldn’t answer. She just cried for her mom. Then Miguel came down again. As soon as she saw him, she tried to scream, but she’d lost her voice. She clawed at the floor when he pulled her out of the corner. She—” Abby sobbed again, and I wanted to tell her to stop, that she didn’t have to say any more. But she seemed to need to get it out of her system. “Sara kept slamming her head into the concrete like she was trying to knock herself out, but he didn’t care. He just let her. When he was done, he picked her up—set her on her feet like a mannequin. She couldn’t talk anymore by then. She looked like she could barely even move. But then he touched her face. Her ran one finger down her cheek, and she lunged at him. She bit his finger, and he howled. He jerked his hand away, and she just stared at him, blood dripping down her chin.
“Miguel lost it then. He screamed at her in Spanish, or something like that. He hit her in the face with the back of his hand—hard—and she went flying across the cage. Her head hit one of the bars over the mattress, and there was this awful crunching sound. Her arms just hung there for a second, then she slid to the floor. There was so much blood…”
Ryan looked sick, and I knew exactly how he felt. “Abby…” I didn’t know what to say to her. I didn’t want to hear any more, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
“I couldn’t cry for her,” Abby said, her words so choked with sobs that I could barely understand them. “I was afraid he’d come for me if he knew I was awake.”
For several minutes, we sat motionless, listening to Abby cry. I wanted to comfort her but I couldn’t. There was nothing I could say to save her from her memories. I didn’t even know how to fight off my own.
All I could do was change the subject. I was good at that.
When Abby’s sobs faded into quiet hiccups, I glanced at Ryan to find him staring at the ground. “Did you call Mom?” I said, dreading the answer even as I asked the question. But it was better than thinking about Sara.
Ryan cleared his throat, claiming a stoic expression with obvious difficulty. “Yeah, a couple of hours ago,” Ryan said. “She’s pretty upset.”
“Ah, the light at the end of the tunnel.” I pulled the lid from my container of mashed potatoes and dug in with my spork. I’d lost my appetite after listening to Abby’s account, but needed something to do with my hands.