Dante stands over me, staring at me with an intensity that makes my insides go all twisty.

"Maybe you should let me walk away," I tell him, and my voice sounds ragged. "Did you ever think of that?"

"Yes." He places a hand against the bricks on one side of my head. "A hundred times."

My heart is tumbling over itself. "Then why don't you?" Why are you still here, making this even harder on me?

His other hand comes up on the other side of me, ...