I almost laughed. My first impulse was to deny that anything was wrong, but that would have been a raging lie. I glanced away, wondering how bad I really looked.
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Every time we come to visit, Ben makes a big deal about being upbeat. We have to be cheerful, to help keep your spirits up. But I really need to talk.”
“Don’t worry about me. Talk, if you need to.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Ben told me about the miscarriage. I’m sorry.”
For a flash, I was angry at Ben for saying anything. But I guess he had to tell someone, and Cormac was his friend. Truth be told, Cormac’s statement had startled me. That a remorseless killer like him was capable of that kind of sensitivity, to even register what something like that might do to me. I knew I’d done the right thing, coming here to talk to him. He was my friend, too, even considering the killer part.
“Thanks. But that isn’t the worst of it,” I said. “My mom is really sick. And the situation in Denver just exploded. I tried to stay out of it, honest I did—”
Cormac ducked his face to hide a grin.
“Hey, don’t laugh.”
“Kitty, when have you ever been able to stay out of anything?”
I glared. “You should have met me back when I was quiet and unassuming. I used to be a nice girl.”
Cormac had the good grace not to respond to that. “Tell me the situation.”
I did, my voice hushed, not sure who might be listening in, not sure if what I was saying would even make sense to someone listening in. The description sounded like a war, a nasty guerrilla war where both sides occupied the same territory and no clear lines of engagement existed. Attacks came at any moment, treachery was the norm, and both sides fought with their own sense of righteousness.
“I wish you could come to the rescue this time,” I said, smiling weakly. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You have two choices: You leave Denver. Or you fight to win.”
“We can’t win, they’re too strong. I’ve already left—”
“And how long before you go back the next time? You won’t stay away. That’s why you need to win. So you don’t have to keep running. And Ben won’t leave, so you need to go back and cover his ass.”
I leaned my head on my hand. He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. I just had to hear it. And it wasn’t anything Ben hadn’t already said. But I expected to hear it from Cormac. Cormac was the one who talked like that. I still had this attitude that I was supposed to be protecting Ben. Maybe I should have listened to him.
“Right, fine, okay. But I don’t know how to fight a war.”
“Then don’t fight one. Not straight out, not like this Rick guy’s been doing. You’re going to have to do this down and dirty. Draw them out. Split them up. Get them looking over their shoulders at every little shadow, then move in to clean up. I could do the whole thing myself with enough planning.”
“I don’t think I have a lot of time for this.”
“Then you’ll have to move fast.”
Carl was only as strong as the whole pack. And the pack was weak, at least according to Rick. I couldn’t gauge Arturo’s relationship with his followers as easily. Rick had tried to catch Arturo off guard. But he’d also wanted to go after them in a straight fight, army to army. We couldn’t do that. We had to use our strengths as outsiders. Not dependent on the system. Not invested in the system. We couldn’t go in and replace Carl and Arturo. We had to bust up the whole deal and start from scratch.
Assuming Rick was dead, I’d have to go after Arturo myself. Or convince him that Denver was better off with me in charge of the werewolves. Compromise with Arturo? Maybe I could do it.
Cormac continued. “Remember, you’re hunting predators. With them, it’s all about territory. You take their territory, you take their power. When you draw them out, you can’t leave them standing. Are you ready to do that?”
I nodded quickly, not wanting to think about that part just yet. “Rick tried it and failed. They got him at his base. He didn’t have a chance to bring the fight to them.”
“Then he’s got a leak,” Cormac said. “Someone fed the bad guys his plans, and they knew exactly where and when to find him.”
That was so simple I almost cried. But all Rick’s people were handpicked, Rick wouldn’t have brought them in if he couldn’t trust them. Maybe there was a spy on the outside. Someone who could move freely, collec