Fire and Ice (Ice 5)

“You’ll stand out wherever you are in Japan, and it won’t take them long to find you,” Reno said in a flat voice. “You saw something you weren’t supposed to see, and they don’t want you to have a chance to tell anyone.”

She wanted to argue with his reasoning, but she couldn’t. Instead she tried another tack. “Who are ‘they’? And tell them what? What the hell is going on?” she demanded.

“If I knew, I’d probably tell you,” he said, not the most comforting words she could have heard. “The Russians who were after you were simply trying to lure Taka out of hiding, but someone was telling them where we were going. If I’d realized how complicated things were, I would have stashed you somewhere while I warned my grandfather, but there aren’t that many safe places out of reach of my grandfather’s men. I should have known you’d get in trouble wherever I took you.”

“It’s not my fault someone was murdered,” she shot back.

“It was your fault you were wandering around places you shouldn’t have been. Why didn’t you just stay in your room?”

“And then what? You would have gone off and your grandfather would have sent me back home and we all would have lived happily ever after? Except for the dead man.”

He sighed. “Just do what I tell you from now on. Something is going on with my grandfather’s family, and Hitomi-san is part of it. I tried to warn Ojiisan, but he simply told me not to worry, that he had it all under control. Right now there’s nothing I can do to help him. I have to take care of you.”

He sounded as disgruntled as she felt. “No, you don’t,” she said. “I can take care of myself.”

His derisive laugh was annoying enough that she was tempted to kick him, but she’d seen enough violence in the past two days to last her her entire life, no matter how obnoxious he was. “You’re as pathetic as a kitten,” he said. “If your family had any sense they wouldn’t let you out without a keeper.”

The taxi was pulling up to a large, Victorian-looking building, and Reno spoke to him so rapidly Jilly could only get a few words. He shoved a fistful of yen into the driver’s requisite white-gloved hand and dragged Jilly out the door.

It must be rush hour, she thought dazedly as he politely pushed his way through waves of people…though almost every hour seemed to be rush hour in Tokyo. “Keep your head down,” he muttered, “and try to slump. We’re trying to blend in here.”

“Fat chance,” she said, slumping anyway. Her streaky blond hair shouldn’t be that much of a giveaway—it seemed like half the younger population had dyed their hair varying shades of blond and orange. Her height and her walk were two things she couldn’t change. She kept her face down, slumped her shoulders and scuttled along behind Reno as best she could. She’d never been able to disappear in a crowd, and in a homogeneous society like Japan she was doomed from the start.

Not that Reno was doing that great a job, either, she thought critically, ducking behind him as he used a ticketing machine. Sunglasses after dark tended to draw attention, as well as his height. But even worse was the way he carried himself. Like a lord of the universe, a prince of fucking darkness. People moved out of his way automatically, and the hidden hair and tattoos were little help. If someone was looking for them, they’d be too damned easy to find.

“Oh, shit.”

Reno whirled around, the tickets in one hand. “What?”

“I think they found us.”

Kobayashi was hard to miss, the crowds parting around him like the Red Sea, and the two men with him, though tiny compared to Kobayashi, looked extremely lethal.

Reno froze. “Listen to me, Jilly, and do absolutely everything I tell you. No deviations, no thinking for yourself. When I give you the word, I want you to run to the left, as fast as you can. Push people over if you need to, just get the fuck out of here. Then get a taxi and have it take you to Narita.”

“I don’t have enough money….”

He shoved a wad of yen in her hand. “Get the first plane out, anywhere. Trust me.”

“I don’t…”

“Now!” he said, and shoved her, so hard she almost fell, as Kobayashi loomed over them, reaching out a meaty arm to grab her.

She spun out of his way, knocking people aside, sprinting through the terminal. She could hear the noise behind her, the sho

uts, but she didn’t stop, she just kept running as the crowd swallowed her up.

There was no mistaking the sign for the ladies’ toilet, and she didn’t even hesitate, running inside as she shoved the wad of yen into her jeans. The room was almost empty—two of the eight stalls were in use, and she ducked inside one, locking it, trying to catch her breath. And then she turned, to look at the ceramic hole in the floor with utter despair. There was no way she could use that while she was wearing jeans. She was just going to have to wait.

Wait to pee. Wait to catch her breath. Wait to see whether they were going to find her in the ladies’ room, whether Reno was now a pulverized spot on the floor of the terminal, whether she was going die in the next few minutes.

One thing was certain. She wasn’t getting a taxi to Narita airport without finding out that Reno was still alive. It was that simple.

And he’d probably kill her when he found out she didn’t go.

Too bad. She’d had enough of running for her life, and she wasn’t running out on Reno, no matter how much he wanted to get rid of her. She was in it for the long haul.

And he was about to find out just how tenacious she could be.