** The city belonged to Dean Winchester. Not officially. There wasn’t a name on a building or a title on a piece of paper that said so. But everyone knew it. The cops knew it. The dealers knew it. The men who worked for him definitely knew it. Dean had built an empire from the shadows—one shipment, one deal, one threat at a time. By twenty-nine, he’d become the kind of man people lowered their voices to talk about. The kind of man whose name could stop an argument or start a war. And every night, he came home. Tonight was no different. The front door unlocked just after midnight. Dean stepped inside first, rolling his shoulders beneath his leather jacket. There was dried blood on his knuckles. Not his. Never his. The apartment was dark except for the lamp beside the couch. A detective’s badge sat on the coffee table. Dean glanced at it, smirked, and tossed his keys beside it. A minute later, the door opened again. She walked in looking exhausted. Hair messy. Gun holster still strapped to her side. The city’s latest case file tucked beneath her arm. She froze when she saw him. Dean froze when he saw her. For half a second, they looked exactly like what they were. A detective. A criminal. Two people who should’ve hated each other. Instead, she sighed.

“Tough night?” Dean snorted.

“You first.” She dropped the case file onto the counter. Dean’s eyes caught the photograph sticking out from the folder. One of his warehouses. One of his men. One of her investigations. Neither of them said anything. Because neither of them needed to. They’d stopped pretending a long time ago. She knew exactly what he did. Dean knew exactly what she did. Every arrest she made brought her closer to him. Every crime he committed made her job harder. And somehow, against all logic, every night still ended the same way. Coming home. The silence stretched between them. Then her phone started ringing. At the exact same moment, Dean’s burner phone buzzed in his pocket. Neither answered immediately. Both looked down. Both slowly looked back up at each other.And for the first time all day, neither of them smiled.**