“They filmed it,” she said. “While I killed him.”

Hugh had made a snuff film. Why was I not surprised?

“This alters things,” Thomas Lonesco said.

I nodded to Juan, one of Jim’s people standing by the door. “Put her under guard, please. Make sure she’s watched.”

He took her by the arm.

“What will happen to me?” Dorie asked.

“Come on.” Juan pulled her.

She came to life suddenly, flailing in his arms. “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Don’t kill me!”

He picked her up and carried her out of the room.

I waited until her sobs receded and stared down the Pack Council. My memory replayed Curran’s advice for dealing with the Council in my head. I never go into the Council room without a plan. You have to give them a range of possibilities, but if they discuss them too much, they’ll never make a decision. Steer them toward the right choice and don’t let them derail the train.

Steer them toward the right choice. Sure. Easy as pie. “As you know, the People intend to start a war. They are likely moving toward the Keep now. We have several courses of action opened to us. We can surrender Dorie to the People. Opinions?”

I waited.

“No,” Jim said.

“We’d lose too much influence,” Martha said. “Pass.”

“No,” Andrea said.

“No,” Thomas Lonesco said.

That gave me a majority. Surrendering to the People was off the table. “Option two, we can execute Dorie and show proof of it to the People.”

The pause was longer this time. They were thinking it over.

“No,” Robert said.

“No,” Martha agreed. “We don’t kill our own without a trial.”

A trial would take time. We all knew it.

Nobody else volunteered anything, so I kept going.

“Option three, we keep Dorie and tell the People to screw themselves.”

“The casualties would be staggering,” Thomas Lonesco said.

“If they want a fight, we can give them a fight,” Desandra said. “But we’re at reduced strength and it will be bloody.”

“This isn’t an option for me,” Jim said.

“So, we don’t want to execute Dorie or turn her over to the People, and we don’t want to go to war,” I said. “That leaves us with only one option. We can surrender her to state law enforcement.”

The silence dropped on the table like a heavy brick.

Desandra frowned. “So like what, here’s Dorie, here’s her confession, take her off our hands?”

“Yes,” I said. “Technically the murder was committed in Atlanta, which makes it the business of Atlanta’s finest. If they take her into custody, the People can deal with them. Our hands would be clean. We’d remove their pretext for the war.”

“We’d be abdicating control over the situation,” Thomas Lonesco said.

“Yes,” I confirmed.