Page 34 of Violent Truth
Dice doesn’t leave my side.
We escort my best friend and new coworker to the private doctor at the Samurai Castle Resort & Casino. Apparently, being in the yakuza has perks like that, and it’s a relief. We stay with Piper until she’s got a good amount of pain relievers in her system and is soundly sleeping. Compared to her, I got off easy. I was only in that room for one day. Piper was there for over a week and a half.
We briefly check on Katie, and luckily, she was like me, only captured for a short amount of time. Then Dice makes the doctor check methreetimes before he’s finally convinced that I’m okay. The bruise on my forehead hurts like hell. Considering everything Piper went through, I’m glad that’s the only thing I have to deal with.
And Harry Hayes is dead.
The doctor leaves the room to print a prescription for pain meds, leaving Dice and I alone for the first time since I told him I was done. Why did I think it was a good idea to leave Dice? It seems so stupid now.
And still, he came for me.
“Are you all right?” Dice asks.
He holds me in his gaze, and it hits me how much has changed in a few days. He used to be so uptight that he couldn’t evenlookat me. And now, he never stops staring or asking if I’m okay.
He just wants to take care of me.
I nod, smiling up at him. “I’m all right. But areyouall right?”
He shakes his head, then kneels down beside the examination table. His hands squeeze my fingertips.
“This is sudden. I don’t even have a ring,” he says. “I never thought I’d get married.”
My body quivers. Rings? Marriage? How is everything moving so fast?
“What are you talking about?” I whisper.
“I wish I could force you to say ‘I do.’ I would even carry you to the altar if I had to,” he says, his eyes burning with passion. I laugh nervously. “But you didn’t choose to be rejected by your parents, and I never chose to be abused by my mother, nor did I decide to enter the yakuza on my own. That decision was made for me the day Tomo killed my birth mother.”
Tears fill my eyes. Who is Tomo? And did Tomo kill Dice’s mother for abusing Dice?
Dice is revealing so much of himself right now, and I know that I’m the only person in the world he’ll talk to like this.
Emotions zoom through me. I don’t know what to say or think. Dice strokes my fingers, and those worries dissipate.
“You control your own future, Lily,” he says.
I swallow a gulp, tension flooding my veins. Dice and I are so similar, and yet, so different. My parents kicked me out, leaving me alone, and Dice was abused and rejected by his birth mother. He had no choice but to enter the yakuza.
Neither of us choose our home lives, and yet Dice still wants me to choose my own future.
“You deserve toalwayshave a family,” he says. “With us, you’ll never have to worry about us leaving. Once you’re in the Endo-kai, we’ll stick together. All of us.” He grasps my hand. “Will you marry me, Lily?”
My parents would disapprove of my relationship with a member of the yakuza. They would tell me that I’m a disappointment. That I don’t deserve anything they sacrificed for me.
And for once, I don’t care. Because whatever this is with Dice, itworks,and I’m done begging my parents for approval.
Even when I mess up, Dice accepts me for who I am. He wants to be my chosen family. And more than that, he wantsmeto control my future. And I love him for that.
“Yes!” I cry.
EPILOGUE
LILY
one week later
After an intensive weekin all things yakuza, I know the key members of the Endo-kai. Outside of the courthouse, Tomo stands by our side, his arm around Dice’s adoptive mother, Gracie. Niko, Ronin, Cherry, Kenzo, and Vi are here too, teasing each other. Piper holds my hand.
