Tᴏʀʏ's Dᴀɴɢᴇʀᴏᴜs Gᴀᴍʙʟᴇ

Prologue

The city breathed beneath a veil of smoke and shadows, its heart beating to the rhythm of sirens and shattered dreams. In the dead of night, the streets whispered their secrets, and if you listened closely enough, you could hear them—stories of the lost, the broken, the ones who dared to survive. The block was a battlefield, and the only thing more dangerous than getting caught up in the crossfire was believing you could escape it.

Tory had learned that the hard way.

For as long as she could remember, the streets of 5th and Ash had been her world. A world where concrete cracked like broken promises, and every corner held a choice: to fight or to fall. She grew up fast, her heart hardened by what she saw—the friends she lost, the threats she dodged, and the brother she tried so desperately to protect.

Malik.

Her baby brother. The one person she swore to save from the darkness creeping in around them. The streets were quicksand, and once they pulled you in, there was no coming back. Tory fought to keep him out, fought to keep herself out. Basketball had been her lifeline, a way to rise above it all, to dream beyond the block. But dreams don't come easy here, and neither did survival.

The night everything changed, the sky had been clear. Tory remembered that because for a moment, she thought maybe—just maybe—it was a sign that things would be okay. That she could save Malik. That she could save herself. But the streets had a different plan.

Now, as she stood in the middle of the chaos, clutching the flash drive that held the key to a deadly secret, she realized how naïve she'd been. She wasn't just caught in the game anymore. She was a part of it. And in this game, there were no winners—only survivors.

Tory glanced down at the small, cold piece of metal in her hand. It felt heavier than anything she'd ever held before. On this drive was the truth—the truth about Dre, about the city's most dangerous players, and about her brother's involvement. The truth that could set them free or bury them both.

But truth in these streets came with a price, and Tory wasn't sure she was ready to pay it.

The sound of a gunshot echoed in her mind, a haunting reminder of the choices she had made, of the lives that had been lost, and the blood that had been spilled. Malik was fighting for his life in a hospital bed, and she was fighting for both of them in the streets, a battle she never asked for but one she couldn't walk away from.

Tory knew the moment she plugged that drive in, everything would change. And once you crossed that line, there was no turning back. The block didn't forgive. It didn't forget. And it never let go.

She looked up, the city's cold glow reflected in her eyes, and took a deep breath.

In the distance, sirens wailed, growing louder. She had a choice to make.

But in this place, where dreams turned to dust and hope was a fading shadow, the only question that remained was this:

How far was she willing to go to survive?

And what would be left of her once she did?