She lifted an eyebrow and curved her lip.
He shrugged. “My mama liked to garden. Now go.”
She sucked in air, centered herself, and then ran full bore for the purple flowers. She cleared them, ran across the driveway, and plastered herself to the edge of the garage. Tace was right on her heels. It took her a second to realize that he’d covered her back the entire time. If anybody had shot from the windows, a bullet would’ve gone through him before piercing her.
Once again, a large stone wall was too high for her to see over. These rich people sure had liked their privacy, hadn’t they? Maybe because they were all making sex tapes, like Damon had said. “Look over the fence,” she whispered, trying not to cough from the smoke.
He leaned up and glanced over. Then he turned and crouched down. “Nothing. The front door is open, though.”
Sami wiped smoke from her eyes. “What if we go past that house to the other side? I mean, come up behind them on the beach side.”
Tace glanced at her and at the closed iron gate at the end of this driveway. “If we do that, we should go out on the street and run past this house to the next.”
“No.” She shook her head, strategy coming easier now. “They’re too well equipped and organized not to have somebody on the street. They won’t be expecting us to use the front lawn of the mansion they’ve infiltrated.” She bit her lip. “Probably. I mean, there could be somebody watching the front lawn, but if they have the street covered, they may not have the manpower to cover the lawn.”
“That’s a lot of could-be’s and mays,” Tace muttered.
The battle continued by the beach, and another grenade went off.
“You know, this isn’t really our fight,” Tace drawled, his body beyond tense. “We could just hang low and see what happens.”
She rocked back. Months ago, Tace would’ve been the first one through the door to fight for justice and right, but they didn’t really know who wasjustin this fight, did they? “That’s true, but we have a tentative alliance or agreement with the Mercs, and we don’t know who this roving band is. The Mercs are probably stronger with much better numbers, thus making them better allies.” Her legs twitched with the need to move.
“True.”
A shuffle sounded on the other side of the fence, and Tace stiffened. He motioned her down.
She sidled to him at a crouch, her gaze at the top of a fence. Without warning, a body bounded over, landing easily on the pavement.
Tace shot forward faster than she could and tackled the guy onto his back, one hand over his mouth.
The guy struggled, fists pounding against Tace’s ribs. Sami rushed toward them, stood, and aimed a kick beneath the guy’s jaw. His head snapped back, and his eyes closed as he fell unconscious.
Tace rolled off him and breathed out several times.
Sami studied the guy. Black pants, yellow shirt, buzz-cut hair. She leaned over and tugged down his shirt to see a couple of tattoos winding down his chest. One had a skull and some weird numbers.
“Prison tats,” Tace said, sitting up.
“Oh. I mean, yeah.” Shouldn’t she be familiar with prison tats if she’d been in the LAPD? “You okay?”
“Affirmative.” Tace stood and dragged the guy over toward the garage. “My guess is the attackers wanted to infiltrate Merc headquarters the same way we want to get to them—through the front of a house. Let’s go through the yard now while they think this guy is gone.”
Sami nodded. “With the prison tats—do you think there’s a new player in town?”
“A new player?” Tace’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“Fine.” She moved toward the wall. They had enough enemies to worry about, and she should stop sounding like the gamer she’d been. This was real life. “Boost me over.”
“Wait a sec.” He leaned up and scouted the area. “All right.” This time he held out his hands, and she stepped into them. He lifted, and she shot right over, rolled, and landed on her feet. This place looked like all the others, with a gated driveway, bunch of grass and flowers, and stucco sides. Gray this time.
Tace heaved himself over and landed next to her, gun already sweeping. “I’m point.”
She followed him along the fence to the front of the house. This one had a wide bay window looking out, and again, the sun shimmered off it. “Go in high,” she whispered.
He ducked and ran along the window. She kept to his six, holding her breath. They reached the open doorway.
Slowly, Tace slipped inside, leading with his gun. Sami went low. Nothing. They crept through a large gathering room with red leather furniture and toward an open balcony at the back.
