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“My… it’s my cat.”

I roll my eyes as I press my back flat against the bottom of the tub.

There’s no way she’s going to convince that guy Roger is hers. He doesn’t typically like many people, and she’s been referring to him as an alien, so I doubt this is going to play out well.

“Your cat?” Rae asks skeptically. “You have a cat?”

“Yep.” Zia’s shadow moves in front of the shower curtain and I’m not sure what she’s doing until I see her bend down, then struggle to stand. “Isn’t he… just… the cutest?”

She grunts multiple times as Roger gives off his warning growl, the insane woman picking my cat up and kissing the side of his head.

“Why, of all damn things, would you get a cat? Especially one that looks like that.”

“I was lone—ah, shit! I was lonely, Rae.”

“I don't think he likes you.”

Roger hisses and starts wiggling in her arms like crazy as Zia says, “We’re still… getting to know each other… he’s going to—hey!” She drops him on the floor with a plop as my cat swipes at her. “That wasn’t very nice, asshole!”

“I’m not sure you need to get to know each other at all if he’s going to try clawing your eyes out every time you’re within range.”

“It’s fine. Roger will love me eventually.” Zia moves closer to the bathtub, and I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

Her brother doesn’t seem to believe in boundaries, and if he’s worried about her having someone else held captive—which she does—in this house, I wouldn’t put it past him to start searching. This bathroom being location number one on the list, considering he’s already in it.

“You yelled at me for the second body and if you don’t have anything else to yell at me for, I was just about to take a shower when you—”

She reaches behind the vinyl, turns on the water and pulls the little stopper thing so the shower comes on when her brother grunts, “He’s looking for you.”

Zia’s hand freezes on the faucet, the water like ice as it starts pelting me. “He… he is?”

Rae’s shadow comes into view, closer to her, before he reaches out a hand and pats her shoulder. “That’s really why I’m here. The second body, it flagged him.”

“Kiza wouldn’t have told him, would he?”

“No,” Rae says. “Neither him nor Draven would have said anything, but he somehow noticed, and I think it means he has spies up here.”

Zia’s entire body language changes as she pulls her hand away and wraps her arms around herself. “And you think they found me?”

“It’s possible he has a good idea where you are. If you want to stay under the radar, I’d suggest you stop killing people and consider changing locations, otherwise your husband is going to leave Hell just to drag you back down there himself.”

Everything else that’s said is lost on me as I stare up at the ceiling.

Zia is a demon.

Which means her brother is too.

And that makes so much goddamn sense. The way I couldn’t quite place her scent, her freakishly strong little body, the lack of hesitation when it came to killing people.

The woman who kidnapped me is actually a demon who escaped Hell, and it sounds like she’s on the run just like me.

From her husband.

I immediately scowl over that, pissed off for multiple reasons, and ready to light into Zia for them all.

After her brother leaves because I still don’t want to get her in trouble.

Like a fucking idiot.