Had Tess been distracted enough by the store artfully set up to be a painful and bleeding reminder of what she had left behind, had lost - her home - she wouldn't have caught the movement in time in her peripheral, the glint of light catching on those knife blades. She'd left Joel as he had wandered off and had strayed to a side shelf close by but tucked away that Nasir had managed to overlook her presence in favor of charging at her partner.

The poster book she had been flipping through slipped through her fingers to drop to the ground at the sound of quick but heavy steps; all Tess had on her was the skate, which she had brought up immediately in means of defense as she hurried to put herself between the unknown man and Joel - wherever how far he had gotten himself to.

"I don't fucking think so," she spoke to Nasir then, her tone dangerously low. A warning that he back off.