At Trout's, Torrent arrives with Tranquil and D-Train to interrogate Wiz and Cali, two surviving members of a hijacked gun shipment, who had been frozen in the walk-in freezer with frostbitten flesh. Wiz and Cali describe how their convoy on Route 794 was ambushed: cars exploded, and masked white men in 'Rare Breed' MC vests dragged them from the van. Roman silently admires Khalil's thoroughness in disguising the hit. Torrent demands to know who they tipped off; when neither can answer satisfactorily, Tranquil executes both men.

While the crew prepares to wrap the bodies, fifteen-year-old Eddie Munsta giggles when Torrent slips on Cali's blood. Enraged, Torrent grabs a butcher knife and stabs Eddie repeatedly to death, ordering him wrapped up with the others. The room is left stunned.

Loading the three bodies into Roman's cremation van, D-Train confides Eddie's tragic backstory and expresses guilt and disillusionment over the senseless killing. Roman subtly plants a seed of dissent, quoting a business professor about leaders not pushing followers off cliffs, then privately recalls his father Keith's adage that the man wearing the crown isn't always meant to be king.

Back at the crematory, Roman cremates the bodies and is struck by a devastating epiphany: Eddie was only fifteen, a year younger than Roman was when his mother disappeared, and is now reduced to ashes hidden in the storeroom. Roman feels spiritually dead himself. He texts Dante to lie low, worried Eddie's death would push him over the edge.

The chapter shifts to Dante, hiding in a cheap motel in Aruna, fifty miles from Jefferson Run. He reads Roman's text, lies in bed reflecting on his constant mistakes, and turns to embrace an unnamed woman as rain falls outside, obscuring a Honda with a large spoiler in the parking lot.