Page 18 of Three Meows

Deep breath in, hold it, let the air out.

I made my decision.

With purpose in my steps, I went back to my flat, intending to lay the cards down on the table.

I wanted them. All three of them.

Before I reached my block I heard angry yowling and sprinted in the direction of the sound. A cat was in trouble!

I stopped in shock when I saw it was Chester scruffing a familiar black cat.

“Enough running! We are going to have a talk,” the redhead said with narrowed eyes, ignoring the hissing and twisting of the cat.

“It’s time we end this,” Elijah nodded from Chester’s side, his expression serious.

The bigger man opened the door to the building for his friend and the distressed cat in his grasp.

Why did they have Shadow? What did Elijah mean by ‘end this’? Couldn’t they see how panicked the black cat was? It was no way to treat an animal!

My stomach clenched as the rose glasses of friendship cracked a little. Were they going to hurt Shadow? I didn’t bring it up during our date, but the cats who bothered Kevin sounded awfully like Shadow, Cheddar, and Marshmallow. I could understand Shadow being aggressive as I had seen him hiss at the people who gave him bad vibes, but the other two shouldn’t even be out of the apartment. In retrospect, it was disturbing how uncaring my neighbors were about letting their cats go as they pleased and vanish for half a day or night in my flat. And when I visited there was always one hiding in the bedroom… now I wondered if the cats were really there or if my neighbors lied to me while their cats were missing, or if they put them outside themselves… If Shadow was their runaway it was another red flag that they never told me to keep an eye out fora black cat and didn’t ask for details when I mentioned one in passing.

I had such a bad feeling about this.

My steps led me to their door for a different confrontation than I had planned.

With dread settling in my stomach, I knocked loudly on the door.

“Where’s the black cat?” I asked bluntly.

“What black cat?” Chester appeared with a big smile.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I saw you carry him here. While he was crying and trying to escape.”

“Haha, this is not what it looks like, I swear!” Chester laughed nervously.

“Isn’t it? Then show me that the black cat is safe and hale. No, show me all of your cats. I want to check all three of them,” I demanded.

Rowan appeared from one of the bedrooms, his expression stormy as he gave Chester and Elijah a side-eye. Did he disagree with the other two about something? Like… the treatment of the cats?

“There’s nothing to worry about. The kitties are safe, I promise!” the ginger said.

“That’s lovely to hear. You won’t mind then if I see for myself.”

I forced my way into the flat, which is to say the three men were too panicked to bodily block me as they knew they would need to use excessive strength to stop me, with the way determination filled my body.

Chester started to spin some story I wouldn’t believe in a thousand years. I ignored him soundly. They watched helplessly as I tore through every room. The flat was small, so it was quick work to open the rooms and even the bathroom to peer inside. One cat, maybe two, could be hidden somewhere, like under thebed, or on top of a wardrobe, but I refused to believe none of the three cats would come to me as I called for them.

Cheddar, Marshmallow, and Shadow were not here.

“What did you do with them?!” I shouted, focusing on my anger because otherwise I felt like I would burst into tears.

“They are perfectly fine. I swear, Lisa,” Elijah said, his voice trembling.

“Let’s just all calm down—” Chester started.

“Prove it,” I demanded. “Prove to me that you are good men and not some monsters who hurt animals.Please.”

My lower lip trembled as I slowly realized whatever it was I probably couldn’t do anything to make those three men confess. The only thing I probably could do was to ugly cry at them until they got tired of the noise.

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