Me? Are you sure it's just me you don't know? We've been here a week, there's no way for you to know anybody. A small flame of anger lit up, but was just as quickly extinguished by the anxiety he was drowning in.
But her words paved a path through his thoughts--would someone who knew he was an ex-con asking for a knife say something like, I don't know you? If you were dead set that the person in front of you was terrible and set on doing a terrible thing, you would just come out and say it, not bank on a chance of the unknown.
He half-laughed, half-sobbed into his hand. "Aren't you afraid of what They're going to do if we don't pass...?"