The Apostles run Chicago's streets. Their leader, "Solemn Shawn" Terson, is the most revered--and feared--man in town. Because of his past exploits, the Apostles have a loyalty among its members that has reached mythic proportions.When Insane Wayne, a former member of the rival gang, the Governors, comes groveling for admission to the coveted Apostles, he's quickly turned down. His reaction is violent: He shoots a Governor and plants evidence that lays the murder rap on the Apostles, setting off a bloody series of retaliations.Solemn Shawn is ready to give up the gang world. His pregnant girlfriend wants another way of life and the cops are hot on his tail; he knows the time has come to step aside. But he must fight one more street war before handing over the reins of his empire. The head of the Governors has a score to settle with Shawn that dates back to their prison days--and Shawn and the Apostles must fight or flee as the streets around them erupt in...

Growing up in a Chicago ghetto, seventeen-year-old Donald "Don-Don" Haskill has nothing but time on his hands--time he rarely spends in school, choosing instead to smoke weed and hang out with friends. As a child, he witnessed his father's suicide, and today Don-Don's relationship with his mother, a worn-down cop trying to keep the family together is tenuous at best. Then Don-Don meets a girl with a taste for crack--and his delinquent life turns violently criminal.Consumed with chasing his next hit, alienating even his best friends, Don-Don works the streets like a pro. In pursuit of the demon, no deal is too shady. But when a huge drug transaction goes terribly awry, a bloody chain of events is set off, as Don-Don becomes a moving target, not just for the Chicago police force but for the ghetto's most hardened thugs. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.