“I’m not leaving.”
“Youhaveto leave. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
When I don’t move, Naoya-san looks at me for a long second. Then another. He sighs.
“Come to my house later. You’ll let me take care of you.”
I want to stay. I want to curl up under his hands and not move again until he tells me to. But I nod. Because he told me to leave, and I always do what he says.
“I’ll stay close,” I mutter, already walking. “Until they arrive.”
He doesn’t argue.
I’m almost out the door when something catches the corner of my eye. A flash of a face. A busted nose. Split lip. Familiar jawline.
I stop.
No fucking way.
That one by the corner. Split from jaw to ear.
Iknowhim.
And the other. Arm bent backward. Neck crooked.
Iknowhim too.
The third. Still twitching with his gut cut open.
I knowexactlywho the fuck he is.
Mine.
They weremine.
* * *
Ryo didn’t want to come at first. Said I was walking straight into a death trap. That if I went to the Dokugumo-kai quarters like this, I’d either get killed on the steps or lose what was left of my goddamn mind. I told him I didn’t give a fuck about either. So he came.
We waited in the alley by Naoya-san’s studio while the sirens wailed in the distance. Ryo lit a cigarette.
“That was a shitshow,” he muttered.
“You better fucking explaining what the fuck happened.”
He rolled his neck, unimpressed.
“They were gonna kill you. It was a joint op. Kageboshi and Tetsukaminari got called in ‘cause too many of Dokugumo’s men are more loyal to you than to Kobayashi. It was supposed to be clean.”
My hands curled into fists so hard my knuckles popped. I should’ve known. Ididknow, I guess. Something had been off for weeks. Small things. Looks. Weird jobs.Everythinggoing wrongall the time.And even though Ryo warned me about Kageboshi and Tetsukaminari following me around, I knew, deep inside, that it wasn’t just that.
“You waitedthis fucking longto tell me? Could’ve told me earlier. Sent a fuckingpigeon, I don’t know.”
Ryo shrugged.
“I found outlastnight. And I had to think if I was really gonna do it. Betray my own crew, my own boss. But fuck, I did it, didn’t I? Risked my ass to save your boyfriend. You think Midori’s gonna just forgive that shit?”
“They almost killed Naoya-san.”
