Devin wanted to frame the question in a way that wouldn't hurt Joseph. He figured Joseph had thought about things too. He figured Joseph had handled things like an older brother and protected him from that day on.

But since the morning, when he walked out of that hotel and went up the twelve blocks to his apartment the question nagged at him.

He pulled out his cellphone and punched in the numbers.

Devin took a deep breath. "Hey Joe, how's it going?"

"Good, Devin, good. Are you okay?" It was automatic, always, are you okay?

"Yeah, yeah--no, I'm fine. Everything's fine," Devin said.