Stitch turned, a lazy grin spreading across his face. “Look, it’s little Slick. Where’s your crew, boy? Still running track for Ryder?”

Marcus didn’t flinch. “That’s Carl’s territory now. Let him handle it.”

“That was a ‘75 Monte Carlo, you piece of trash!” Stitch screamed.

The heat from the pavement rose in shimmering waves, making the graffiti-tagged walls of the cul-de-sac look like a mirage. To anyone else, East Los Santos in the summer was a pressure cooker of sirens, barking dogs, and the distant thump-thump of a lowrider’s hydraulics. To Marcus “Slick” Jones, it was just home.

“Carl’s doing three to five up in San Fierro,” D spat. “That leaves us. You, me, and Jamal’s shaky trigger finger.”