"No."
"Kane—"
"No." He said it a second time, flatter, more final, pacing the length of his study with the particular restless energy of a man trying to out-walk an argument he knew he was going to lose eventually. "Absolutely not. You are not walking into Vale's fortress a second time, Wren, escort or no escort, Ronan's word or not."
"I wasn't asking your permission."
"I'm aware. That's precisely the problem." He stopped pacing, dragging both hands back through his hair, and turned to face her with an expression caught somewhere between fury and something far more fragile underneath it. "Do you understand what happens if this goes wrong? If Thackeray recognizes you, if Vale decides the safest political outcome is simply to have you disappear quietly within his own walls, where I have
