Ice Blue by Anne Stuart Page B

street that led to her stepfather's gated mansion.
    "No!" she said, her voice rising in panic. "It's not here."
    "Then where is it?"
    He pulled up to the security gate and put the car in Park, punching in a security code that he shouldn't have had before turning to look at her.
    The gate began to slide open, and Summer's panic began to spike. "Listen, I told you, it's not here," she said for the thousandth time. "There's no reason for us to go up there. We don't need to involve my family in this mess—put them in danger."
    "It was your mother who put you in danger in the first place, and they're already involved. Your idiot mother is one of the Shirosama's most devoted followers. If the Shirosama's men haven't already been here then they'll come soon."
    "No!" Summer said in horror. "We can't…I'll give them the bowl…"
    "What are you so afraid of? Don't tell me you're trying to protect your mother. She already fed you to the wolves, and I imagine she'd do so again."
    Summer didn't bother denying it. "Then why give her the chance? Let's just get out of here."
    "She's not here."
    "She isn't?" Summer said warily.
    "Your stepfather took her to Hawaii this morning to try to get her away from the Shirosama. Apparently he balked at spending fifty thousand dollars for her guru's bathwater."
    "What?" Summer cried, horrified. "Why would she want his bathwater?"
    "To drink it. It's part of the True Realization Fellowship's initiation. You drink the Shirosama's bathwater to absorb his consciousness. They sell his blood as well, but that's a bit pricier."
    "I don't believe you," she said flatly, horrified.
    "Don't you?" Taka leaned back, his hands loose on the steering wheel, and in the dim light he looked elegant and deadly. "The True Realization Fellowship has over a billion dollars in assets, and that amount is climbing daily. Selling the blood and the bathwater and the tapes and the literature is just a lucrative sideline—and they make most of their money through the donations of their renunciants. And they do their best to attract the wealthiest of the disaffected. They need the poor students for their scientific expertise and the grunt work, and they need the rich ones to turn over their wealth. It's been very effective so far—the True Realization Fellowship has grown from a handful of followers ten years ago into one of the most powerful of the new religions, as they like to call themselves."
    "A religion that condones murder?"
    "Most of them do, as long as they believe their cause is just. And they all believe that." Takashi started to open the car door, and she put her hand on his arm to stop him. It was a strange sensation—he'd touched her any number of times as he'd snatched her out of danger, but she couldn't remember ever reaching out to him.
    His arm was hard and strong beneath his jacket, and he could pull away easily, but he stopped, looking at her in the darkened car.
    "Please," she said in a low voice. "It's not my mother I'm worried about."
    "Your little sister is gone."
    Relief flooded Summer for a moment, then suspicion followed. "How did you know about my sister?"
    "I know everything about you. Your sister is visiting friends in the country, and she won't be coming back anytime soon. At least, not until this is settled. We've made sure she can't be found easily, and she has no idea what's going on. You don't need to worry about her."
    Summer stared at him. '"We made sure'?" she echoed. "Who the hell are you?"
    He didn't answer, and she no longer expected him to. The only thing she knew for sure was that he was no Japanese bureaucrat.
    And he was about to break into her stepfather's mansion, an act that would only bring unwanted attention to her baby sister. Protecting Jilly was the one thing even more important than Summer's promise to Hana, and she wasn't going to screw that up.
    "It's at Micah's house," she blurted out.
    Taka didn't seem particularly gratified by her sudden surge of honesty. "And why would