"Your girl's going to be messed up, Johnny. You need to accept that. Doesn't make it right, but it is the way it is." Max wasn't moving. "She's been with a real whackaloon. I'm not saying don't kill her. If that's how it goes, that's how it goes.
"But you go in there half cocked," the term actually worked for this. "Then you might hit your girl instead of the bad guy. Or you may get Mary killed by doing something stupid." Rob looked as if he was about to say something, and the look he got from the p.i. was enough for now to keep him quiet.
"The killer may use the attack as an excuse to end Mary rather than using her for a deal. Think about this before you go in there guns a-blazing." He sighed. "I want everyone to get out of this with as little pain as possible, got me?"