Four Brothers -2005- -

Victor chuckled. “That’s cute. But this is my city now.”

The tape ended.

They didn’t kill him. That would’ve been too easy, too clean. Instead, they delivered him—bound, beaten, and with a full confession recorded—to the precinct where a honest detective had been waiting for years to make a case stick. Victor Sweet got life without parole. Four Brothers -2005-

Jack leaned forward. “No. This is Mercy Street. And Mercy Street doesn’t forget.” Victor chuckled

Jack spoke first. “You had her killed because she was going to tell the city about your trafficking ring. We found the witness, Victor. The kid from the store. He talked.” They didn’t kill him

—the smooth one, the planner—sat on a toolbox, cleaning a revolver that wasn’t his. He hadn’t cried at the funeral. He’d just stared at the back of the head of a man named Victor Sweet, a local club owner who’d been expanding into Evelyn’s block. “She knew something,” Angel said. “And Victor knew she knew.”

Silence. The snow kept falling.