Fire and Ice - Anne Stuart [78]
“I thought you were waiting to get your hands on Taka,” Reno said.
Hitomi’s smile was chilling. “We have him, Hiromasa-san. My men found him outside the compound. He hasn’t been talking, but he’s not going to be able to come to your rescue. You’re on your own.”
Reno’s body didn’t move, but she could feel the momentary shiver that hit him. Was it defeat, despair? Disbelief?
“Then it would appear we have no choice. I’ll get grandfather to open the door for you, if you let the girl go.”
“Not until we are able to talk to your grandfather.”
“And what makes you think I believe that you’ll let her go?”
“We are all honorable men, are we not?” Hitomi said with an expansive gesture. “We do not kill for pleasure, but rather for the greater good. If we do not need the gaijin’s death, then she will go free.”
And if Reno believed that, he was more gullible than he appeared to be.
“Yes,” he said. “But let me explain the situation to her in private. You know she can be impulsive. I want to make sure she behaves herself. I wouldn’t want her shot accidentally.”
“Nor would I,” Hitomi said with a small bow.
Reno bowed back, and Jilly wanted to scream. They were talking about murder and betrayal and they were fucking bowing to each other?
“I’ll give you five minutes,” Hitomi-san said. “If it takes any longer, we’ll shoot her, anyway.”
The men left, leaving the door unlocked, and Reno turned to her, grabbing her arms and speaking in low, hurried English. “We’re in trouble. They’ve got Taka, and they want me to get my grandfather to open the door so they can talk to him. They claim you’re worthless to them, but even so, when I give the signal I need you to fall to the ground, roll into the nearest corner you can and pray.”
“You want me to what?”
“You heard me. I tried to get them to take you as bait,” he said, trying for his lazy smirk. “I thought they could rough you up and drop you outside his door and then Ojiisan would have to negotiate, but they insisted on taking me instead.”
She looked at him for a long, endless moment. “Reno-chan,” she said gently in Japanese, “I understood almost every word you were saying.”
He’d been cool, almost off-hand, but now he looked shattered. “Your Japanese isn’t that good.”
“It’s good enough to know you offered to die for me. Why?”
“Don’t complicate my life further, Ji-chan. It’s family honor. They say they’ve got Taka, and my grandfather’s life is at stake….”
“You don’t think they have Taka?”
“Not necessarily. But we can’t count on him showing up. Right now it’s up to me, and I don’t need difficult questions or you to distract me.”
And then it hit her, with blinding simplicity. He cared about her. It was the last thing he wanted, the reason why he kept pushing her away. But the bottom line was, he cared about her, whether he would admit it or not.
“What are you smiling for?” he demanded, indignant. “We’ll probably be dead in another hour.”
“Yes,” she said, leaning forward and kissing him lightly on his beautiful mouth. He was too astonished to duck. “But you love me.”
“Don’t be insane….”
“We’re going to die, Reno. You shouldn’t die with a lie on your lips. You care about me, and you don’t want to. It’s that simple and so obvious I should have realized it before. You love me.”
“And you’ve lost your mind,” he said, exasperated. “I don’t blame you—you aren’t used to this kind of life. If we somehow manage to survive, you’ll realize how ridiculous that is.”
“And if we don’t survive?” she asked, surprisingly calm and happy.
“Then you can die believing I love you,” he snapped. “In the meantime, keep your head down.” He turned and started for the door, keeping a hold of her hand, and then, at the very last minute he stopped, turning back.
“I don’t love you,” he said. And he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, a kiss of passion and desperation, a