he who hesitates is toast

"That's not - I meant," he tries to clarify. "You can't - neither of you. If you try to keep them away from me, you'll become the enemy. You'll be a target. They're already going to start asking how much Steve knew. Could have known. If he's been hiding things. It won't stick, not the way things are now, but the more you try to block them from me, the worse it'll get."

He shrugs his right shoulder at her question. "I don't know. Until now, I never went up against them... not directly. The shadows were different."