“Yeah. I know. I’ve watched men in this family tell that little self-delusion for a long time now.” She shakes her head. “It’s wrong, though. Because the things you can do to a body are over fast. Lies, though… Lies live forever. You can’t outrun them. Whatever you’re doing, or planning, or saying to this… this ‘collateral’… It’ll haunt her forever. She’ll wake up every morning for the rest of her days and try to figure out which things are true and which aren’t worth a damn. And she won’t be able to tell one from the other. That not-being-able-to is going to eat her alive.”
“I’m still not done.” She clears her throat. “I’m not telling you this to talk you out of it. I’m not your priest and I don’t know your debt. Kir owes Lukas things I’ll never understand, and I’m not in the business of
