Here wego.
I looked over to see her holding the large white thing. My gaze flicked to Nox, who shared my hatred of cats and just rolled his eyes. Ronnie was inspecting the cat’sabdomen.
“No, we are not doing feline surgery.” We had bigger shit to worry about, and she was always trying to save these injured animals. “You’re not a vet,” I remindedher.
Her eyes flicked up and she glared at me. “She’s pregnant, youasshole.”
Damn.Now I felt bad. Kittens weren’t the same as cats. I likedkittens.
“She is?” Tatum said as Lucy peered over with a light smile looking at the ball offur.
“Okay, let’s keep moving. Bring the stray if you want, but if shit goes down, we’re leaving her,” I toldRonnie.
Ronnie pulled an arm sling out of her medic kit. “We absolutely arenotleaving her!” She popped the huge cat into the sling and gently tossed it over her shoulder, cradling the feline to her chest like it was ababy.
I rolled my eyes. “Someone needs to impregnate you already. You have baby fever,bad.”
“I volunteer!” Brisk yelled and raised hishand.
I snickered, and even Ronnie was wearing a slight smile. “Come on, moveout.”
* * *
After two hoursof walking through what could only be described as an alien forest, we came to an abandoned building. It had been blown up and was missing a roof, with only reddish cement-type bricks remaining on three of the four walls that only stood about four feet high. Still, it was better thannothing.
“Let’s rest here,” I told thegroup.
Everyone sagged with relief. Jeremy had some noise-canceling headphones on, I assumed to block out the near constantpop pop popof bullets and the occasional bomb going off. I’d become immune to it now. It was sensory overload, but somehow I’d manage for the four to six hours we werehere.
Everyone started to file into the small broken-down building. Maxine was first, scouting in for any ghouls. When she gave the “all clear” whistle, the rest of them went in and began to set down their heavy rucksacks. Ronnie immediately whipped out her portable ultrasound—it assisted her well in the field when doing quick trauma surgery, or assessing whether someone was internallybleeding.
Jeremy was inspecting Damien’s arm cuff while Josephine patiently stood by his side, literally tethered together. This family had grown on me. Their hardships and challenges were becoming my hardships and challenges. Mr. Hansen held up some water so Josephine could drink, and I saw an endearing gaze pass between them. Maybe they were more than just coworkers? I’d shelve that thought forlater.
“Three kittens! All healthy, but she’s due any day now,” Ronnie exclaimed, as she lightly pressed the ultrasound wand to the cat’s giantabdomen.
“Cool,” I said, in a fake-excited tone. I was a dog person, a sheep person, anything really, but cats weremeh.
“You know there’s a special place in Hell for cat haters,” Ronnie hissed, glaring at me, the green glowing hue that saturated the Dream Wars lighting up herface.
I grinned. I had a sick fascination with riling her up. “As long as I’m not in Hell with cats, I’m fine withthat.”
A chunk of brick sailed past my head and I laughed. Ronnie would go to Heaven one day for all of her cat rescue work. “Okay, truce,” I told her, walking over to examine what she wasdoing.
My brow furrowed when I saw her writing on the cat’s belly with a marker. “What the hell are you doing, Ronnie?” She had written her phone number and the words “Free catdoctor.”
She looked up at me with a quirked eyebrow. “I’m going to talk to the owner of this cat and convince them to give me one of her kittens for free veterinarycare.”
I nearly choked on my spit. “You’re not a vet! This cat could be a stray, and it could live in Australia for all youknow.”
Ronnie placed one hand on her hip, and I saw Tatum and Lucy were staring at her now, unsure what she would do. Hell, I was unsure what she would do! Some days I knew she wanted to smack me. “Kit, if you want to single-handedly help wipe cats off the face of the Earth, then fine, but I’m doing my part to make sure that future generations know what it’s like to hold a fluffykitten.”
She was so adorable I couldn’t even argue with her logic. “All right, Ronnie. Allright.”
I didn’t mention that this mama cat might not even make it through her labor, or that her babies might not make it through their first few nights. I just left italone.
“If you get one, what will you name it?” I asked, trying to play peacemaker now that I’d pissed her off. Someone was always pissing Ronnie off. She was in a perpetually snippymood.
She smirked. “Kitty.” She said referencing my full firstname.
