The option is less thrilling than you might think. We have rather more important matters to consider, it seems.

Pepper stood and paced a few feet away, needing to move, needing to do something other than sit there and fume.

"Were you planning on telling me? Because when I said I was on your side of the war, I meant it. I already knew that you'd 'bartered' something when I said you were enough, and I meant that. Everything is leverage, but not everything is helpless," she ground out, her voice shaking. "Not around here."