The second man moved closer to the booth.
Claire felt Manny tense.
Old Danny’s newspaper had disappeared completely now.
The young couple had stopped pretending they weren’t listening.
Witnesses.
The taller man lowered his voice.
“You know what happens if you embarrass them.”
Vincent stared at him.
“Yes.”
“You know what happened last time.”
Something passed through Vincent’s face.
Pain this time.
Real pain.
Claire saw it and understood that Manny’s warning had never been about some simple feud.
There was history inside that sentence.
The young man leaned forward.
“Sign our folder.
Let us clean up what’s left.
You disappear.
Everybody stays comfortable.”
Vincent looked toward the front window.
Claire remembered the way he’d checked that door earlier, like a man expecting his past to walk in armed.
Maybe he had been expecting exactly this.
“And if I don’t?” Vincent asked.
The man glanced toward Manny.
Then toward Claire.
That was his mistake.
Vincent became perfectly still.
“Leave them out of it,” he said.
The younger man smiled again because he thought he’d found the wound.
“That’s the problem with getting old, Vince.
You start collecting things you care about.”
Claire’s fear sharpened into anger.
She reached into the pocket of her apron.
Her phone was there.
She had started recording when the men came in.
She didn’t know whether it would help.
She only knew that people became bolder when they believed nobody would ever repeat their words.
The taller man noticed her hand move.
“What are you doing?”
Claire pulled out the phone.
“Watching the room.”
Vincent’s eyes flicked toward her.
The second man stepped forward.
“Give me that.”
“No.”
“Claire,” Manny warned.
But Vincent raised one finger.
The man stopped.
Not because Vincent had touched him.
Because some habits survived even when people claimed a man had lost his power.
Vincent looked at Claire.
“How long?”
“Since they walked through the door.”
The taller man’s face tightened.
“Turn it off.”
