IN DEMAND

Shannon Cole has always survived by noticing what others miss.

Numbers stick. Faces linger. Conversations don't fade.

In the hood, that kind of mind doesn't stay unnoticed-it gets used.

Shannon has become a quiet resource, passed between crews whenever something needs remembering, calculating, or confirming. He tells himself it's temporary. Just helping. Just staying afloat.

Until everyone wants him.

As gangs begin circling closer, access to Shannon turns into competition-and then into risk. Because when too many people want what you know, someone eventually decides you're too valuable to share.

Tiger Laurent doesn't compete.

He decides.

Tiger runs things with calm precision, and when he claims Shannon, it isn't curiosity-it's control. Pulled out of circulation and placed under Tiger's watch, Shannon finds himself safer than he's ever been-and more trapped than he imagined possible.

Protection blurs into possession. Use starts to feel permanent.

And the more indispensable Shannon becomes, the harder it is to tell whether he's being kept alive... or quietly erased.