It was not the response he wanted or expected. His goal had been to cow or shame her into obliging him his secret. The mission itself came second to all that. Committed as he might have been, it was not the chief thing in his mind. Yet it certainly had not slipped her attention. Somehow he found himself admiring her for that certainty and focus. For all the things he had been involved in, none of it had ever mattered to him as much as this seemed to matter to her.

With a shake of his head and a snort, he relented. "Seems so. We'll finish this out." He might have been soft and even as weak as his brother claimed, but he wasn't a quitter. "But you and me's got a long talk ahead before you go filin' yer paperwork."