Fire and Ice - Anne Stuart [99]
Kobayashi stood still, his massive body blocking the exit. “It won’t do you any good, young master,” he said. He was holding something in one meaty hand, something small and delicate. It was the digital tape recorder her supposed interviewer was going to use. He clicked it, and Jilly closed her eyes, expecting a thundering explosion. Nothing happened. Until she heard the crackling.
“My nephew already set the charges. He thought we were going to leave before the house burned, but that was never my intent. We will all die here, and join my master….”
“Ji-chan, run!” Reno shouted as he leapt toward Kobayashi.
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.