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“Miss Hawthorne?”
She spun around, filled with relief, and looked up at the face of her bodyguard. At the bald head beneath the cap, the blank eyes. The gun in his hand.
“We need to do this discreetly,” he murmured in some kind of accent, one she couldn’t place. “If I have to shoot you, then other people will get hurt, and you wouldn’t want to be responsible for that, would you? Not after you’ve already caused so many deaths?”
“I didn’t cause any deaths.”
“You refused the protection of his holiness, and the man you’ve been with is nothing more than an assassin, one who kills without mercy. You need to come with me, away from this place, so that he doesn’t kill anyone else.”
“He’s already gone. He doesn’t care where I am—you can just leave me here—”
“The woman who’s coming for you is just as dangerous. She’s already killed your sister, and she’ll kill you, as well.”
“So you’re threatening to shoot me in order to keep her from killing me?” Summer said, calm and frozen. She wasn’t going to believe his hideous words. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“There’s a silencer on this gun, and no one will notice. I’ll just curl you up in the seat as if you’re sleeping, and no one will notice until blood pools underneath your seat.”
She rose slowly, knowing he meant what he’d said. “Where are you taking me?”
“Where you belong. Under the protection of his holiness.”
“I don’t have the urn,” she said. “It’s out of my hands. I don’t have anything the Shirosama wants.”
“That is up to his holiness to determine. Walk very slowly and don’t make the mistake of trying to attract anyone’s attention. My master’s orders are explicit. Bring you to his care if possible, but do not let the forces of darkness take you again.”
“The forces of darkness?” she echoed, wishing she could be amused at his melodrama. “I’m not going anywhere. And I don’t for one moment believe that my sister is dead. I’d know it. I’d feel it.”
Instead she felt the gun poking into her ribs. “You will come with me, Miss Hawthorne, and stop arguing.”
She glanced around her. The terminal was still marginally empty—no sign of security guards in this security-laden age. Just a few aimless travelers, clearly way too early for their flights.
“This way,” he said, prodding her with the gun, and she had no choice but to precede him farther into the terminal, heading down a cement ramp marked Authorized Personnel Only. Maybe he was going to take her to the Shirosama, but more likely he was going to put a bullet in her head and leave her in the dark passageway. It was too late to scream, which Taka had told her to do. Too late to run.
“Stop right there,” the man said when they reached the bottom of the ramp. They were in a narrow, dimly lit corridor of closed doors.
Summer leaned against the wall, knowing what was coming. At least Jilly was safe—she was absolutely certain of that despite the man’s sinister words. And Taka was safe as well, on his way to Japan with the urn and the kimono, and he might never hear what happened to her. Part of her wanted him to remember, to feel a least a trace of guilt or regret. But he wasn’t the kind of man to feel guilt, and besides, he’d done his best for her. Her luck had just finally run out.
She looked at the bald man fearlessly. In the darkened ramp beyond him she thought she could see another silhouette. The goons probably worked in pairs.
“Is the Shirosama trundling his fat butt down here to meet me?” she drawled.
A spasm of pure rage crossed the man’s pale face. “How dare you defame the master?”
“The master’s not going to show his creepy self, is he? You were never planning to take me to him, you’re just going to kill me. So why don’t you get it over with?” She managed to sound bored.
“I’m supposed to kill you if you don’t cooperate.” He was clutching the gun tightly in his fleshy hands. The gun was bigger than she’d first thought—large enough to blow a good-size hole in her.
“But you and I both know it doesn’t really matter, right? You’ve got the excuse to kill me, and you’re going to do it. You’ll just tell his sliminess that I tried to escape.”
“You’ll be going to a purer place.” The gun was trembling slightly as he spoke. “You should bless the Shirosama for his mercy.”
“Killing me is merciful?” she scoffed. The shadow behind him moved, but she kept her eyes focused on Taka’s handpicked maintenance man.
“You’ll be removed from sin and worldly cares, moving to a higher plane of consciousness.”
“I like this plane of consciousness, thank you,” she said. Who was looming behind him? Was it rescue, or a more certain defeat? Was she going to die? Death seemed likely, all without ever seeing Taka again. Which was just as well. If she saw him she’d probably make a fool of herself, because he was all she could think of, even when her life was about to end. She could only hope that Lianne would feel damn guilty about her death.
“You deserve to die,” the man said. “For your lack of respect, if nothing else.”
