Ash Crown of Detroit

Six years after a Detroit courthouse let trafficker Aleksander Drakov walk free, former prosecutor Marcus Whitfield and DPD Sergeant Andre Jefferson remain tied to the case that drove them apart.

Marcus left the system and built Lakefront, a crew with no badges that has spent those years doing what the courts would not, while Andre stayed on a cross-precinct task force and kept hunting Drakov through the law.

When that name resurfaces, insulated by lawyers, bought politicians, and a network running from Canada to the Keys, Marcus calls and Andre answers on the first ring.

Their first meeting in six years is one chance at the man who broke them, and it will expose what Andre buried to protect Marcus as well as what Marcus has quietly done for his family with no card and no name.

Drakov has been waiting for the cut that draws Lakefront, the Merritt household, the Lords of Darkness, and the Crimson Company into the same Detroit war.

The law will take what it can, and the rest will fall to two men whose want for each other never left, with no badges and no backup.