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There’s too much detail here.

Too much organization.

Mikey’s a fucking idiot. One of my small-time dealers surviving off rave scraps and whatever pills he doesn’t sell himself. He’s reckless, loud, and stupid enough to think selling to Blair behind my back was worth the risk.

But this?

This feels smarter than him.

Too clean and calculated.

“I swear to fucking god,” Mikey says louder this time. “I don’t know where that shit came from.”

Reaper laughs quietly under his breath.

Mikey immediately jerks toward him hard enough the chair scrapes loudly across the concrete.

“I’m serious!”

There’s genuine panic in his voice now.

Not fake panic either.

The kind that cracks around the edges.

The kind that sounds real.

I slowly lift my eyes toward him.

“You expect me to believe somebody what?” I ask slowly. “Stole your phone to frame you?”

“I don’t know!” Mikey shakes his head violently enough blood flicks onto the floor. “Maybe!”

Noir takes the phone calmly from my hand, but I keep staring at Mikey.

Really staring.

Because something about this feels off in a way I can’t fully explain yet. The fear on his face isn’t clean enough to be guilt. It’s messy. Confused. Desperate. Like he’s trapped inside a story somebody else wrote for him, and he’s only just realizing he doesn’t know the ending.

Mikey notices me hesitating and latches onto it immediately.

“You know me,” he says quickly, voice cracking around the blood in his mouth. “I’m a dumb fuck, yeah, but I ain’t fucking suicidal.”

The warehouse goes quiet again.

Because he’s right.

Everybody in this city knows exactly what happens to people who betray me.

Mikey included.

I crouch slowly in front of him while his breathing turns ragged. Blood slides from his split lip every time he talks now, streaking dark down his chin and throat. His chest heaves violently while the zip ties dig deeper into his wrists every time he jerks against them.

“You know what happens if you’re lying to me?” I ask quietly.

He nods immediately, fear flashing across his face hard enough his expression almost twists apart.

“I know.”