Free Fire & Ice by Anne Stuart

he knows it's safe, and there's no word.”
    She leaned back against him, and he could feel her warmth sink into his bones. It was easy enough to stop thinking and lose himself in her, but he'd let things go on for long enough. “You think they haven't been able to stop the Russians?” she asked.
    “It should have been an easy job. My great-uncle's organization is very efficient—there was no need for anyone else to be involved. But it should have been dealt with days ago. Something's wrong. They shouldn't keep on coming.”
    “Are we going back, then?”
    “I'm going back. You're staying here where it's safe. There's more than enough firewood, and the food will last long enough if you ration your Diet Coke habit.” He could feel her stiffen in his arms, and he kissed the top of her head. “Trust me.”
    “Like hell,” she said sweetly, pulling away from him. “You know you can't make me stay here.”
    “You know I can.”
    She just looked at him. He'd seen that look before, and it always meant trouble. It was a good thing he was going to be out of reach for the next few days. She'd build up a good head of steam, probably come at him with a knife, and then there'd be mind-fucking sex.
    “Let's get our things,” he said in his most resigned voice.
    “I'm glad you're learning,” she shot back, turning and heading into the empty inn. Dropping the duvet on the floor as she headed to the bedroom.
    He picked it up, following her, wondering if there was enough time for sex to lull her into a false state of security. Probably not. Once on alert, he didn't dare waste time.
    She went into the bedroom, he tossed the duvet after her, then slammed and locked the door. If he moved fast, she wouldn't realize there was a way out the back of the room, smashing through the paper screens.
    He could still hear her yelling as he ran out of the building, down onto the beach and the boat they'd hidden. He was well out into the water when she finally appeared on the beach, stark naked, screaming at him. For a moment he was afraid she'd try to swim after him, but even in her fury she had enough sense not to jump into a winter ocean.
    “I'll be back as soon as it's safe,” he shouted to her, but she was too busy screaming curses at him to hear. It didn't matter. All that mattered was making sure no one could get to her. He'd been counting on his great-uncle to take care of things. Clearly he was going to have to do it himself.
    And then he was going to have to spend a lot of time making it up to Summer.
    “You sadistic son-of-a-bitch asshole!” she shrieked. “Get your scrawny butt back here!”
    But he simply gunned the motor, loud enough to drown her out, looked forward and sped away, as her cries of anger disappeared into the foggy morning.
    Reno drove fast , as he always did. If the police stopped him, it might be the best thing—they'd take both of them into custody and no stray mercenary would be able to get within a hundred feet of them. Of course, that would mean his grandfather would have to pull a few strings to get them out, but that would be child's play to a man like his grandfather.
    Unless, of course, he delegated the job to whoever had ratted them out.
    No, maybe the police weren't the answer. He hated to admit weakness, but he was tired and hungry, and more than anything, he needed a few hours of sleep before he could figure out what the fuck he was going to do.
    Heading back toward Tokyo was a no-brainer—whether or not he was going to stop or keep on straight to Osaka remained to be seen. He'd need to ditch the delivery truck and find something with a little more power. He could buy something, but that would leave a paper trail, and right now he and Jilly needed to disappear. Ojiisan was going to have to make a lot of amends by the time Reno was ready to head back to England.
    If he was going back. He couldn't get rid of the feeling that if he'd stayed in Japan his grandfather wouldn't be nurturing a traitor in