That silence was worse than anything else.
If he had shouted, if he had threatened, if he had given me something concrete to push against, I would have known exactly how to respond. But this—this calm, deliberate refusal to engage—made everything feel off in a way I couldn’t immediately process.
I closed the distance between us, my hand already reaching out, ready to grab him, to pull Claire back, to end whatever this was.
That’s when I noticed something I hadn’t seen before.
Another man, dressed almost the same—leather vest, worn boots—standing just a few yards away, watching.