Dee lay there, half his ribs broken, one arm twisted wrong, blood leaking through his teeth like thick syrup. Aiden stood over him, breathing hard. One eye already swelling shut, knuckles split and raw.
But he was smiling.
Dee coughed. "You… you think this wins you something?"
Aiden crouched, slow and cruel, his breath steady now.
"I already won," he said quietly.
Dee's brow furrowed.
Aiden leaned closer. "You remember Mendoza?"
"…The distributor?"
Aiden nodded. "He was never loyal to you. I made sure of that."
He paused, savoring the flicker of confusion in Dee's eyes.
"He killed my mom, Dee. Sold her the last hit she ever took. You used him to push weight out of South Shore—but he was always mine. I made a deal with his little brother. Got him inside. Whispered just enough in Mendoza's ear to make him paranoid. I let him think you were skimming from him. That you were planning to cut him out."
Dee's eyes widened. "You… son of a bitch…"
"You think I vanished? I went underground. I needed you to chase ghosts. To scramble. To clean up the mess I left on purpose."
Aiden's voice was low, razor-sharp.
"I fed you rumors. Set up a fake stash house. I even staged a rip that got your name painted on every wall from Chinatown to Lawndale. Mendoza turned on you before you even knew it."
He stood, towering over Dee now. The fury in his chest was cold now. Clean.
"You were too busy blaming me to realize you were playing by my rules."
Dee tried to reach for the gun. Aiden kicked it away.
"And Connie?" Aiden looked back toward her, where she lay bleeding but alive. "She was part of the plan too. I knew she'd come looking. I knew you'd use her."
Connie's lips parted, confused, as her fingers clutched her side.
"I didn't count on how far you'd push her," Aiden muttered, quieter now. "But that's on me."
Dee chuckled, spitting blood. "You used your dead mom to pull strings?"
Aiden's jaw clenched.
"No. I honored her."
Bang.
He had missed, not by choice. As Rosalie caught his arm.
"Aiden, no. Connie's bleeding out. This is not the way…"
He froze. Torn. Dee was about to be dead. But Connie needed him.
He was limping, favoring one leg, a deep gash across his cheek—but he was alive. Somehow, he'd slipped out during the chaos, ducked under bodies, maybe crawled through the ash and smoke like a roach.
And now he had one of Aiden's stolen pistols in his hand.
"Wasn't ready for you to be this cold again," Dee said, blood in his teeth, eyes wild. "But it don't matter. You're still just a kid that got lucky."
Aiden didn't raise his own gun.
His face didn't change.
Dee smirked, backing toward the open door. "You brought the whole f***ing roof down, Shade. You think that means the streets will forgive you?"
"Nope," Aiden growled, stepping forward.
But Dee was gone
A dark silhouette vanishes into the alley smoke.
Aiden turned, and saw Connie's eyes fluttering.
Shit.