Page 32 of Violent Truth

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But I need Lily.

Using my body weight, I crash into the door like a boulder. Everyone shouts, and there’s a mix of English and Japanese curses. I ignore them all. I keep charging at the door.

Mr. Harry arms his pistol, aiming at me. Niko and Ronin instantly point their guns at Mr. Harry’s head, stopping him before he can shoot me.

“This better be good,” Niko mutters.

It won’t be good. What I’m doing is for a woman. Niko will never forgive me.

But I won’t forgive myself if I let anything happen to Lily.

“We’re with you, Dice-kun,” Tomo says. He turns to Mr. Harry. “What’s behind the door? Where’s your key?”

“It’s Lily, isn’t it?” Niko grumbles. “We’re losing a gun deal for a woman.”

“I was never going to sign with you idiots,” Mr. Harry shouts. “The Ito-gumi is delivering Japanese women to us. Do you know the kind of money my brother and I can make off of them? And with the new American girls, we’ll be unstoppable.”

“Open the fucking door!” I yell.

Mr. Harry laughs as he shoots. He misses me, and Ronin restrains Mr. Harry’s arms while Niko punches Mr. Harry until he shuts up. Tomo checks Mr. Harry’s pockets for the key.

I don’t have time for that.

In a final attempt, my body crashes through the door, breaking it down.

Three women sit crumpled on the floor, their arms hanging from chains above their heads. Piper. The new stripper, Katie. And my woman.

Lily.

A purple bruise stains her forehead, marred with dried blood.

Everything turns red.

I swing back toward Mr. Harry.

Ronin sees the anger in my eyes, and he smirks. “Should’ve known better than to mess with Dice’s woman,” he says.

“You know how much she’s worth? I’ll split it with you all,” Mr. Harry says in a panic. “My brother and I run a sex slave operation. It’s huge! We’ll split it evenly. You’ll be rich—”

I grab his neck, choking him until he purples like the fucking bruise on Lily’s face. He goes limp from the lack of oxygen, and I drop him to the ground.

I kneel on his chest and pry out his eyes. The balls of flesh dangle with blood vessels and nerves.

He’ll never look at Lily again.

He stirs awake. I use my knife to cut his neck. Tomo taught me to protect those you love, even if that means ripping out your enemy’s eyes and slitting their throat.

“You’re pathetic,” Niko says with contempt. “All of this for a woman?”

Maybe I am pathetic.

But I don’t care.

I step over the broken door, clutching the eyeballs in my hands.

Then I kneel in front of Lily.

CHAPTER15

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