“Tace, get down!” Sami tackled him, and sand erupted all around them. Blackness caught him a second later.
Chapter Four
Hit and then think.
—Sami Steel
Sami scrambled over Tace, frantically searching his torso while staying low. Nothing. She ran her fingers through his hair. “You’re okay,” she said, feeling along his ears and ducking as sand whipped around them. Should she try to shove him under the truck? What if a round hit the engine and it blew? “Tace?” she yelled.
He blinked, and his eyes opened. “What the hell?” Without waiting for an answer, he rolled them both and flattened her in the sand, looking up and toward the fence. “We gotta move.” He dodged to his knees, grabbed her shoulders, and crab-walked them behind the men furiously firing.
She shook him off the second she regained her bearings. Sand poured down her arm. “Are you all right?” There was no blood. “Have you been hit somewhere?” Panic whipped through her.
“No.” He crept up behind one of the shooters, manacling her wrist to keep her shielded. “Status?”
The soldier in front of him lobbed a grenade. “Duck.”
“Shit.” Tace turned in time to wrap himself around Sami.
She ducked low and slapped her hands over her ears. Warmth and a whole lot of muscle surrounded her. Tace had always been fit, but since Scorpius, he had new rips in new muscles.
A boom echoed through the day.
Then silence.
She slowly lifted her head, her shoulders shaking.
Gunfire rattled against the other side of the fence again.
“Damn it.” Tace glared at Damon over Sami’s head. “This is the shitstorm you dragged us into?”
Damon leaned up and fired over the fence. “They’re two houses over. We can hit them by the beach.”
Sami shook her head and concentrated on the problem. “If the beach side is fenced, you’ll be walking ducks.”
Tace nodded and glanced up. “I have another idea.”
“Roofs are booby-trapped,” Damon said, crouching. “We catch at least one Ripper a week trying for the roofs.”
Sami winced. So body parts just flew around Merc territory. That was nice. She glanced to her left at the sprawling stucco mansion facing the beach. Bullet holes marred the peach-colored stucco, and half of the chimney bricks had fallen along the angled roof. “What about from the street?”
“Probably covered,” Tace said. “But we can’t just wait here.”
“We have men coming from the other side, I’m sure,” Damon snapped. “You two just sit tight and wait it out.”
Tace cut her a look.
She shook her head. Neither one of them was a “sit tight and wait” person. They had to do something before one of them got blown up or before Tace passed out again. What was up with him?Through the house?she mouthed.
He looked toward the house, his gaze intense. “Keep on my six.” His whisper was a warm breath against her ear.
She shivered. “Copy that.” They’d been fighting together for months, and this was only one more battle. But he’d just been unconscious. Had he somehow been hit in the head by flying debris? “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Keep up.” He turned in a fluid motion and launched himself across the yard, keeping low and beneath the fence line.
“Tace!” Damon growled.
Sami moved to follow him, but one of the soldiers grabbed her arm. Without missing a step, she pivoted and kicked out, knocking him on his ass, and turned to run after Tace.
