Romeo smiled weakly. "He probably wasn't eating." Romeo hadn't been, and Reno was even worse about such things.

Taking a breath, he said, "They came after me on the beach, Reno and Yurika. I was out alone. I was stupid. I would have let them eat me if a woman, I suppose she's a police officer, hadn't come along to shoot them and make a trooper take me home. I couldn't see the people I love dead, again."