He was like a spider on a giant warthog. Reno was tall, but bone-ass skinny compared to Kobayashi’s massive bulk, and the big man tried to shake him off like the annoyance he was.
But Reno was clinging, slamming his elbow into the man’s neck, and the two of them were crashing against the furniture, Reno’s wiry strength little match for Kobayashi’s massive determination.
Suddenly she realized what she was holding. Nakamura’s gun. It was too much like the gun she’d used in Reno’s apartment, and her stomach lurched again. “Stop it!” she cried, but her voice was drowned out by the grunts and thuds of their uneven battle.
And then Reno was down, smashed against the floor, unmoving, and Kobayashi turned to her.
She could hear the crackle of the fire, feel the heat begin to build. Smoke was billowing around the outside of the house, and the drapes in the living room caught, bursting into flame. She pointed the gun at Kobayashi, but her hands were shaking so much she could barely keep it still.
“A bullet won’t stop me,” Kobayashi said gravely. “This is what must be. You and the young master will die, and be reborn….”
She cocked the gun. She wasn’t even sure how she knew how to do it, but she pulled back the slide, hearing the chamber click into place. “I’m not ready to be reborn,” she said, her voice as shaky as her hands. “Get away from Reno. We’re getting out of here.”
He started toward her, keeping between her and Reno’s unmoving body, and there was no way she was going to run out and leave him. It was all or nothing.
“I’ve killed before,” she warned him, but the gun was shaking even more, and all she could see was the man she’d killed in Reno’s apartment, his head blown half off.
Kobayashi said nothing, he just kept coming. If his hands had been around Reno’s neck, she could have pulled the trigger. Anything short of that and she was helpless.
She saw Reno move, just a tiny bit, and knew she had to get Kobayashi away from him. She threw the gun at him, then took off across the marble floor, heading for the long, sweeping staircase that was her mother’s pride and joy.
The fire was spreading, rapidly, moving through the first floor of the mansion. The nephew must have used some kind of accelerant to make it go so fast, and the heat was coming at her in waves, thick and deadly, following her as she ran up the stairs.
She could hear the fire engine sirens, but they were far, far away. She moved fast, scrambling up the steps two at a time, ignoring the pain in her ankle. As she raced by the first landing she looked out the window—the fire engines were trying to get through the gate that was blocked by the crashed Hummer. She’d sealed her own fate.
Kobayashi was coming up the stairs after her, faster than she would have imagined the big man could go. Flames were already licking their way up the wallpaper at the top of the staircase, dancing across the landing to the bedrooms. The bedrooms would go quickly, and then there’d be no escape. And Reno was down there in that inferno.
Why the hell had she thrown the gun at him? Why hadn’t she just capped Kobayashi between the eyes and dragged Reno’s unconscious body out of harm’s way? She’d picked a hell of a time to get squeamish.
And then she saw Reno, taking the stairs three at a time, racing to catch up with them, just as Kobayashi caught hold of her loose T-shirt, hauling her backward.
She lost her footing, her sprained ankle buckling beneath her, and she struck out at him, but he was too big, too strong. She felt him pick her up, carry her to the edge of the marble railing, and she knew she was going to end up smashed in a bloody puddle on the marble floor almost two flights down, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She kicked uselessly, she scratched at his face, but he
was impervious, carrying her to the edge as if she were a sacrificial cow.
And then Reno reached them, and his headlong charge left all three of them sprawled on the hard stone stairs. Reno kicked at Kobayashi’s head, but the solid blow didn’t slow him down, any more than the follow-up hits to his neck and kidneys. Kobayashi was simply beyond feeling pain, and he was dragging Reno toward the railing along with Jilly, impervious.
He was hauling her across the marble steps, painfully, and she looked up at the huge man, clenched her hand into a fist and slammed it into his testicles.
Kobayashi let out a high-pitched squeal, momentarily taken off balance, releasing Jilly, and Reno took advantage, slamming his leg up high against Kobayashi’s head, again and again, until the big man fell across the wide stone railing, momentarily dazed, trapping Reno’s body beneath his, pinning him there.
Reno shoved, as hard as he could, but Kobayashi didn’t move, and the flames had spread down below, filling the stairwell, starting to eat their way up Lianne’s organic-grass stair runner.
“Get out of here!” Reno shouted, his voice muffled as he struggled with the huge man’s weight.
Jilly didn’t hesitate. She took a flying leap at them, and a moment later Kobayashi went over the side, landing on the marble floor two flights below with a sickeningly wet-sounding splat.
Blood was pouring down Reno’s head, and he was cradling his arm, but he managed to get to his feet. “Come on,” he said. “We have to get out of here.”
The flames had reached the bedrooms, billowing out of the open doorways above them, and the smoke was getting so thick she could barely see him. They hadn’t gotten this far only to burn to death. “You’re supposed to be the rescuer,” she said, choking on the thick smoke. “I don’t suppose you have any suggestions?”
“It’s your goddamned house,” he said in a raw voice. “You tell me.”
“Come on.” He was too busy cradling his arm with his other hand, and he couldn’t drag her and haul her anywhere. The blood was getting in his eyes, and she took a moment and tried to wipe some of it away. His blood, on her hand. Proof of life, she thought. They weren’t ready to die.
She went up the last few steps of the massive staircase, into the fiery heat, knowing he was following her. “Keep low,” he shouted at her, and she ducked as the smoke swirled overhead.