With no read you have to fold the initial raise from shorty. In a tournament I might go all in, but in a cash game it's a bad situation to be in. It's raise or fold, and I lean towards fold. Your hand simply isn't strong enough to overcome your positional disadvantage in that betting round.

Let's put it this way. Even raising or pushing here is a gamblers play given the possibility of a three way race holding 99. That's really not what cash game is all about. I think the least desirable decision is the one you made. In a raise or fold scenerio, you decided to call. No way. Do you really want to be holding 99 three way when the initial preflop raiser bets right out into you on a board that will be ahead of 9's?

It sounds like you got too emotionally involved after a small stack pounded the pot. That is a great opportunity to race with 99 since you're almost certainly ahead of him. The problem is the original preflop raiser was cockblocking you. Fold it this time.

I think sometimes people make decisions based on not feeling weak, when the right decision has the look of weakness, but very little to do with actual weakness.