Ice Blue - Anne Stuart [79]
“You can stop playing the virgin sacrifice now. He’s not going to kill you.”
Her eyes flew open to find Taka in the darkened hallway. She glanced down at the body sprawled at her feet—she hadn’t even felt him fall—then back up at Taka’s calm face.
“What took you so long?” Her voice didn’t even shake.
“I was in such a hurry to get rid of you I wasn’t paying close enough attention,” he said, his voice cool and emotionless. “I guess you’re stuck with me for a bit longer.”
For a moment she couldn’t move. She was afraid that if she did, she’d throw herself into his arms and start crying. Can’t do that, she reminded herself.
“I thought you’d resigned as my guardian angel?”
“And I thought I’d told you I never was that?”
So he had. He’d told her a great many things that weren’t true. He’d certainly been there to snatch her from the jaws of death again and again. She just hadn’t thought he’d really get here this time, and she needed the wall behind her to keep her up.
“He said they killed my sister.”
“They didn’t. I checked my messages while I was heading back here. Your sister’s fine, but they’re flying straight to England. Without you.”
“You were coming back to rescue me from the killer you accidentally dumped me with, and you took time to read your messages?” Blood was beginning to flow through her body again, hot and furious.
“I can do more than one thing at a time. Are you ready to let go of that wall or do you need me to carry you?”
She jerked her head up, then pushed away from the wall. “You put one hand on me and you’re toast.”
“Then start moving. Our plane leaves in less than an hour and a half.”
“What plane? I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I’m going to Japan, and obviously you aren’t safe left behind,” he said wearily. “Let’s go.”
“You’re going to get me a fake passport and a ticket in that amount of time? And what happened to the urn?”
“The urn is already on the plane. The papers will be at the Oceana Air desk when we get there.”
“That fast?”
“That fast. They’ll probably be there before we are. Are you ready?”
She wasn’t going to fall down, nor was she going to give him an excuse to touch her when that was probably the last thing he wanted to do. She stiffened her spine, lifting her head regally. “I’ve always wanted to see Japan,” she said, stepping over the body at her feet.
“Don’t count on it,” he muttered. “I’m keeping you stashed at my uncle’s while I dump the urn, and then you’re heading straight back to L.A. No one will want you then.”
Bad choice of words. “I don’t think anyone wants me now,” she said in a breezy tone. She glanced down at the body. “How many people have you killed since you met me?”
“He’s not dead.”
The relief that washed through her was irrational and undeniable. The man had been about to blow a hole through her skull—he deserved to die. But not at Taka’s already bloody hands. “Good,” she said. She pushed her hair back from her face, knowing she looked like hell, knowing she needed a bathroom, knowing none of that mattered to Takashi O’Brien. “Then let’s go.”
He’d stopped shaking. He couldn’t remember ever shaking in his life, but in his rush to get to Summer, with the adrenaline spiking through his body, he’d been positively quaking by the time he saw them disappearing down the rampway. Quaking both with relief and fury.
It had been a close thing. If he’d been clumsy, or too fast, the man would have shot instinctively, and there would be two bodies lying on the ground in that deserted corridor. If Taka had been too slow it would have been too late, as well. As it was, he picked his moment perfectly, and the Brother had gone limp as the bullet nicked his spine.
He’d probably die, a fact that bothered Taka not one bit, but he’d lied to Summer, anyway. She’d had just about more than she could take, and another corpse might