Fire and Ice - Anne Stuart [95]
The hands reached out from behind, hard, hauling her back, and she kicked out, instinctively, panicked. A moment later she was slammed up against the stone wall, staring into the face of an angry stranger, dressed in loose khakis and a work shirt. A tall, angry stranger, with black shoulder-length hair and red tears tattooed on his cheekbones.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Reno demanded.
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She didn’t even question his presence. “I’m trying to get the hell out of here. I don’t know whether I killed the man in the kitchen or not, but I’m not staying here a moment longer.” And then it hit her. “What did you do to your hair?” she demanded, horrified.
“You should be asking me what I’m doing here.”
“Okay, what the hell are you doing here?”
“What do you think I’m doing? Trying to save your life. Again.”
“So how did a yakuza hit man get past you?” she said, cross. “You’re doing a lousy job of saving me. And I certainly don’t need any favors from you.”
“I’m not. This is for your sister.”
There wasn’t room enough to hit him, and she wasn’t going to cry. “So who’s trying to kill me this time? And why? I thought I was safe once I got out of your country.”
“Damned if I know. Taka got word that you were being watched, and he sent me to check it out. I was looking for a back way out when your friend got in. Who have you managed to annoy now?”
“Were you at the hospital two nights ago?”
“What hospital?”
She should have known that part was still a dream. “Why are the yakuza still after me?”
“What makes you think it’s the yakuza?”
“The man in the house is missing part of his fingers. It’s either an industrial accident or he’s part of your organized-crime family.”
“All members of my grandfather’s organization are dead. He has to be from some other family.”
“Then what’s he doing here?”
She’d forgotten how cold and dangerous Reno could look. The shorter black hair was all wrong, everything about him was wrong, and what the hell was he doing there, making her hurt all over again?
“I want you to find someplace to hide while I check this out. The garage is secure—I checked it out yesterday. Go in there, lock it, and don’t open it until either I or the police tell you to.”
“Go to hell.”
“You’re not going to give me attitude, are you?” he demanded, wearily.
“That’s all I’ve got for you.” She brought her knee up, hard, fighting dirty, but he jerked out of the way in time. Leaving her room to run.
She took off across the wide, manicured lawn, running toward the house. She needed to grab her cell phone, call 9-1-1, and the hell with Reno and everyone else who was placed on this earth simply to make her completely insane.
He caught her by the swimming pool with a flying tackle that sent her sprawling on the grass, and a moment later he was on top of her, rolling her over beneath him so that she could look up at him in the smoke-filled dusk. He was staring down at her, and the expression on his face was unreadable. Was it anger? Disdain? Hatred? Or something else?
“You’re going to get up and do exactly what I tell you to do,” he said in a deceptively soft voice. “Or I swear to God, I’ll let them kill you.”
“I’m sure you’re tempted,” she shot back, squirming. “But then you’d have to come up with a good excuse for Taka, and I don’t think you have it in you. Get off me!”
He didn’t move, straddling her, ignoring her struggles. It only took her a moment to freeze. He was turned on.
“You sick bastard,” she said, fighting it. Not him. Fighting the heat that had pooled between her legs.
He climbed off of her, hauling her up beside him, his grip like iron. “Healthy,” he said. “Are you going to do what I tell you?”
“Fuck, no.”
Before she could stop him he picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She beat at his back, but he was impervious, skirting the pool, heading for the garage.
The moment they were in the shadows he veered to the right, to the pool house, kicking the door open and shutting it behind him. The pool house had been closed