Page 131 of Thug

Marbella turned around. “What about it?”

“Is it available?”

“Pick of the litter was paid for,” she said. “The two of you can pick the one you like out of the litter.”

“I want two,” Price said. “This one and whichever one she picks.”

Marbella looked at Brisco, scowled, and then looked at Price. “Five are spoken for. We were going to keep one of the boys for breeding, but I suppose we could let him go.”

“Don’t have the cash on me,” Price said. “Take a card?”

“Sure.”

Price raised the kitten and grinned. “I’ll take Eddie.”

Belle was curled in a ball in my cupped hands. I was giddy with excitement. “I’ll take Belle.”

Marbella smiled. “Well, that was easy. Follow me in the other room, and we’ll draft up the adoption papers.”

“Adoption papers?”

“Yes,” she said. “You’ll have to sign an adoption contract.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Big responsibility,” Brisco said, puffing his chest.

“I think we’ll manage,” I snipped.

“You’d better be nice to him,” Marbella said. “He paid for yours.”

“Pardon me?”

She looked at Brisco. “I’ll let the two of you iron out those details.”

I learned that Bisco had forfeited a kitten he paid for long in advance, so I could have a kitten of my own. Flattered and more than grateful, I picked a cat carrier, a collar, and a few toys from the options she had on hand.

After bidding Marbella a tearful farewell, I got in the truck with Brisco, excited to take the thirty-minute ride home with our newly adopted Bengal kittens.

“I’m so excited to raise these little guys from babies into adults,” I said. “I can’t wait to get home and show then their new house.”

“Do like she said and keep them contained to ne room for a day, before you let them out into the house. They’ll acclimate better if you do.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t ever feed them anything but the proper food,” he said. “The no preservatives chicken food.” He nodded toward my bag of goodies. “The samples she gave you.”

“Okay.”

“No table scraps.”

“Huh?”

“Table scraps,” he said. “Don’t let them have them, no matter how much they beg. It’s bad for digestion.”

“Uhhm. Your cats might have got a few table scraps.”

“What?!”