"Men were threatening you?" Dante demands. "Men you know?" His voice is so strained that he hardly even sounds like himself.

I shake my head. "Strangers."

The muscles of his chest are rigid beneath my hands. He doesn't move - doesn't even breathe - for a full minute.

"Why didn't you tell me this?" he demands finally. His eyes bore into me.

"I knew it would upset you."

"Of course it upsets me!"

"Well, it's not like ...