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Tyler sat down.

“Fuck.”

I picked the paper back up.

Xavier Lawless.

I read it again.

And suddenly I wasn’t sitting in my office anymore.

Seven years ago flashed through my head.

Not because I had been there.

Because Mills had walked me through what the records showed.

Xay had gotten pulled over.

Something unrelated.

Something small enough that I probably would’ve laughed about it if he’d told me.

Except somebody realized who his brother was.

Then they started squeezing.

I could picture that nigga at twenty-seven sitting in some interrogation room.

Young.

Nervous.

Trying to act harder than he felt.

I don’t know shit.

Them putting paperwork in front of him.

Talking charges.

Talking time.

Telling him they already had me.

All they needed was confirmation.

And somewhere in that room, my brother opened his fucking mouth.

That was all it took.

One location.

One night.

One piece of information.

And seven years of my fucking life disappeared.