“Fine.” Kaci broke the brownie in half but made no move to eat either piece. “You?”

“Honestly?” I shrugged. “I’m kind of scared. And pretty sad. And really pissed.”

Kaci stared at me for several seconds, then nodded solemnly. “Yeah, me, too.”

“So, what do you think we should do?”

“About the thunderbirds?”

I sipped from my glass, then set it on the countertop watching deep shadows sputter on the front of the fridge. “Yeah.”

She blinked in surprise, then seemed to consider, and I realized no one had ever asked her that before. At least, not about anything more important than what she wanted for dinner. “I think we should talk to them,” she said at last. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

“Even one of them?”

She nodded slowly, then more confidently. “It’s all a misunderstanding, right? They think we did something we didn’t do, and they’re trying to punish us for hurting someone. Like we’re going to do for Ethan.” Her eyes watered as she said his name, and I fought back tears of my own. “Right?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s like a misunderstanding.” A huge, gory case of mistaken identity. “And I agree with you. I’d rather talk this whole thing out.” We’d dealt and been dealt more than enough death over the past few months, and yet more was on the horizon. “But that’s hard to do, considering that they don’t have a leader and we can’t get in touch with the majority of their Flight.”

Kaci started to say something, but stopped when Michael’s voice reached us from the hallway.

“No. Holly, do not drive out here.” He paused, but I couldn’t hear how she replied over the raised voices now coming from the office. “Yes, another family emergency. I’m sorry, but I have to stay overnight. Owen…fell off the back of the tractor.” Another pause. “Yes, he’ll be fine, but there’s nothing you can do for him.”

Michael crossed in front of the wide doorway, carrying a red taper in a crystal holder, then reappeared almost instantly. He put his thumb over the receiver of his cell and met my gaze while Holly listed her objections in his ear. “Faythe, can I use your room? I need a little privacy.”

Before I could answer, my mother spoke up. “Manx is using Faythe’s shower. Take the master suite.”

My brother shot her a grateful look, then disappeared down the hall.

“Poor Michael.” Kaci frowned after him. “I don’t know how he keeps her from figuring stuff out.”

Michael was the only werecat I knew who’d married a human. Since there weren’t enough tabbies to go around, most toms settled for endlessly playing the field with human women. But my oldest brother wanted something more—someone to love for more than a few months at a time—and Holly had seemed the perfect choice. She loved Michael, and thanks to her job—she was an actual runway model—she spent almost as much time on the road as she did at home. Which was good, because when Michael wasn’t practicing law, he was at the ranch.