You know I can.

Say the word.”

And every man in that room went still, and waited, because a part of each of them wanted me to say it.

And I will be honest with you: a part of me wanted to say it too.

My daughter was in a hospital bed with her jaw wired shut.

The men who put her there were sleeping soundly in silk sheets, certain they would never answer for it.

Every instinct I had ever trained, every ounce of the buried man, strained toward the simplicity of Leo’s offer.