Justice Ascending

  “I do.” Jax slapped him on the arm. “More than anybody.”

  Man, if Tace really went dark, it would suck if Jax had to kill him. “I’m sure Winter is the one lying, if anybody is. There’s no reason Sami would lie to us, right?” Tace asked, his gut churning.

  Jax walked with him through the room. “Hell if I know. But it’s now your job to find out.”

  * * *

  Sami finished drinking some type of broth-based soup from a cup and glanced around the mishmash of tables in the headquarters eating area, once a soup kitchen. Folks, mainly soldiers, were scattered throughout, drinking the unappetizing soup; it smelled like feet. She nodded at a couple, and they nodded back. Home. This odd, dangerous, frightening place was her home, and for the first time in her life, she felt whole. Needed . . . and part of the group.

  She’d never been part of any group before. God, she had to hold on to that feeling.

  Barbara Bradley tipped back some soup and headed across the room, stopping at her table. “Hey. Do you want to practice sparring later tonight? I’m having trouble with the grappling hold you taught us last week.”

  Sami swallowed and quickly nodded. She’d liked Barbara from the beginning, but the thought of Tace’s mouth on hers the night before forced heat to climb into her cheeks. Even though he’d said it was casual, it still had happened, and Barbara deserved better than to be lied to by anybody. “Sure. You heading out now?”

  “Yeah.” Barbara smiled, transforming her face into the perfect girl-next-door look. “We’re scouting on the east side for supplies. Found a bunch of kids’ toys the other day, and it was like Christmas inner territory.”

  Sami grinned, catching the excitement. “That’s awesome. Jax didn’t get cranky, you guys spending time and resources to bring back toys?”

  Barbara chortled. “He tried, but when he saw how happy the kids were, I swear, he actually smiled.”

  “A real smile?” Sami lowered her voice to a hushed tone, fighting another grin.

  Barbara nodded, her eyes sparkling. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Maybe I’ll try to bring back some board games for adults later.”

  “Don’t push your luck,” Sami said.

  “Good point. So, training?”

  Sami sipped her soup. “Sounds good. I’ll meet up with you tonight.”

  “Perfect.” Barbara turned and headed for the outer door. “You’re the best,” she called out, shoving the door open to the sunny day.

  Yeah, right. The best. Sami shook her head. What had she been thinking to even daydream about Tace? Barbara was her friend, damn it.

  Jax bellowed her name from the war rooms.

  She rolled her eyes and pushed away from the round barrel serving as her table. “Coming,” she screamed back. Dropping her cup in the bucket on the counter, she strolled out of the soup kitchen and into the vestibule, where Jax, Tace, and Damon Winter waited.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped at Winter. The Merc soldier was an enemy as far as she was concerned.

  “Man, you can yell,” Damon said, slapping a hand against his ear.

  “Sami,” Jax said. “Damon arrived an hour ago to request assistance. I’m sending Tace into Merc territory to help with the wounded from the attack yesterday, and I’d like you to provide backup.”

  Merc territory? Eesh. Although it would be advantageous to catalog their weak points. “Got it.” She kept her face stoic and strode past the men and into the war room. After she’d tapped out the night before, Tace had let her up, and she’d all but run for her quarters. A sleepless night later, and she still couldn’t forget his lips so close to hers. No way was she getting involved with a brilliant bad boy who freely admitted he was about to go dark—especially since he was smart enough to figure out everything she was fighting so hard to keep hidden.

  Tace followed her. “You shouldn’t come with me,” he whispered, keeping pace past the table to the lockers.

  What was happening with him? “Why not?” she whispered back, yanking open a locker to outfit herself.

  He didn’t answer.

  She fit a gun holster over her shoulder, pushing her green sweater out of the way. A knife went in her jeans pocket, and a couple more went beside her calf and in her boot. She looked up. “Well?”

  Tace’s jaw flexed, and he stepped into her space. “It’s Merc territory.”

  “No shit.” Heat flared through her at the nearness of his hard body. Man, she was off-center. “Would you move back?”

  “No.” He tugged on her shoulder holster. “This isn’t secure enough.”

  She slapped his hands. “Stop it.”

  He yanked on the strap, and she smacked his wrist, engaging in a clumsy struggle. He leaned in. “You need to listen to me. Last night I dreamed of you beneath me, naked in bed, and coming hard. We need distance from each other.”

  She didn’t back down even as her libido sprang right up into awareness. “What about Barbara?”

  “It’s over,” Tace said flatly.

  “That’s your problem and not mine.” Sami drew out a knife.

  “Yeah, except you’re the one haunting my dreams,” he said, his voice gravelly.

  She shook her head. “You’re just having more brain issues from the illness. It’ll go away once you heal. Nothing can happen between us because of our jobs.” And the fact that she was lying to everybody about her past. Oh yeah. That.

  His jaw clenched. “I know that, which is why we could use distance.”

  “I’m not neglecting my job because you’re horny, Justice.” She shoved him.

  He tugged on the strap again, and she slapped his hand. Again. They engaged in a struggle for control, and she shoved his arm.

  “What the hell?” Jax snapped from the doorway.

  Her head swiveled the same time Tace’s did. Heat climbed into her face.

  Jax frowned and looked from Tace to Sami and back. “Is something going on between you two?”

  “No,” Sami burst out just as Tace snarled, “Hell, no.”

  Jax rocked back on his heels, his face harder than usual. “All right. Keep it that way.”

  Sami brushed by Tace. “No worries there.” When she reached Jax, he stopped her by the arm. She lifted one eyebrow and stared up into his sharply cut face.

  He dropped his hand. “This isn’t an order. If you don’t want to go into Merc territory, you don’t have to.”

  Sami stiffened. The men had never treated her differently because of her sex. Her abdomen cramped. “Did you give Tace the out if he didn’t want to go?”

  Jax paused and then frowned again. “Actually, yeah. I did.”

  “Oh.” She settled. “All right then. I’m fine on the mission.”

  “Copy that.” Jax released her. “Learn everything about the Mercs that you can—I’m interested in their holdings and provisions. Well, and security. If we decide to take out Greyson Storm, who steps up?”

  Sami paused. Sometimes she forgot what a cold strategist Jax could be. He’d mellowed a little since falling in love . . . but only a little. “You’re thinking of taking the leader of the Mercs out?”

  “Maybe.” Jax turned toward Tace. “Are you focused enough for this?”

  “Yep.” Tace grabbed a black cowboy hat off a rack near the door.

  Sami shook her head. “Do not let him wear the hat. We’ll look like idiots.”

  Tace ran his finger along the brim of the hat. “This is my natural look.”

  It might have been at one time, but the new Tace Justice? She took a good look at him. The brim hung low over his blue eyes and cast part of his face in shadow. Fine lines and rugged features were visible and yet his expression remained veiled. Tingles exploded in her abdomen. He did look good in the hat. “Maybe it will fit our purposes for them to think you’re a moron.” She pivoted on her heel and headed for the vestibule, using every ounce of her strength to sound normal.

  He chuckled low behind her, and the
sound shivered down her spine. Her temper stirred, and she wanted nothing more than to get in his face and tell him to knock it off. But Jax was already frowning, and the last thing she needed was to be treated like somebody’s woman instead of a fellow soldier. Both Jax and Raze were committed to women, and they had turned all alpha protective over them.

  Sami refused to be hidden safely behind Vanguard walls. She had a job to do, and she was damn good at it. Finally, she kind of belonged, even though she’d never use her true skills again.

  Damon waited by the door, his gaze curious.

  Shit. She’d almost forgotten about the whole LAPD issue. She should’ve figured she’d one day meet up with a real former LAPD member. “Damon,” she said.

  He nodded. “You didn’t tell me your name last time I was here.”

  When they’d tied him to a chair and threatened to torture him. She smiled. “Sami.”

  “Nice to meet you.” He cocked his head to the side as if trying to force himself to remember her. “LAPD, right?”

  “I was.” She kept her voice pleasant, her mind scrambling. What if he asked her a specific question?

  A little blond girl ran in from the soup kitchen.

  “Lena,” Sami said, crouching so they were eye to eye, relief filling her at the interruption. “How are you?”

  The girl smiled, and her pretty black eyes sparkled. Yet once again, she didn’t talk. Instead, she reached into her pocket and drew out a cracked S key from a keyboard to drop into Sami’s palm.

  Sami smiled. “S for Sami.”

  Lena grabbed three more letters, X, U, and G, to hand over. Sami’s lips trembled, and she formed them into a line.

  “What do the X, U, and G stand for?” Damon asked, craning his neck.

  “Dunno.” Sami forced a smile for the girl, who had been giving gifts with odd meanings to Vanguard members for months. The computer keys were a clue Sami couldn’t let anybody in on.

  Lena nodded and moved toward Damon.

  He smiled. “Do you have a letter for me?”

  The girl shook her head and reached in her jumper pocket to hand over half of a shiny toy sheriff’s star.

  Damon paused and took the gift. “How did you know I was a cop?”

  “Lena, there you are.” April Snyder, the girl’s pseudo-guardian, rushed to the doorway. “You have to stop taking off like that.” She pushed curly brown hair away from her classically lovely face.

  “Well, hello,” Damon said, straightening, his gaze sharpening.

  “Um, hi.” April reached to tuck Lena against her, her eyes wide on Damon. “Jax? We need to talk about, ah, my mission.”

  Damon’s head jerked back. “You have a mission, pretty thing?”

  April’s mouth gaped, and then her posture straightened. She met his gaze directly. “I surely do.”

  Damon’s grin was slow and somehow nearly sweet.

  Jax nodded. “Sami, Tace? I want you back in forty-eight hours, no matter what.” He leaned in to Damon’s face. “If they’re not back, I’m waging war.”

  “Got it.” Damon took one last look at April and then shoved open the door.

  Sami waved at Lena and turned to face the rapidly heating day.

  “It’s odd that Lena gave Damon the star and not you, right?” Tace said quietly, walking right on by her.

  Odd? Not really. Lena knew things she shouldn’t, and Sami had never been a member of the LAPD. “She’s a kid, Tace. Who knows why she gives certain gifts.”

  He turned and pierced her with his blue gaze. “Someday you’re gonna be honest with me, darlin’. And it’s gonna be sooner rather than later.”

  Chapter Three

  The dinosaurs probably thought they’d live forever, too.

  —Dr. Frank X. Harmony, Philosophies

  Tace scouted the old parking lot outside of headquarters and led the way toward the fence, which surrounded the entire seven-block Vanguard territory with metal and wrapped barbed wire. He gave a whistle, and two of the guards opened the gate. Downed trucks, vans, and industrial barrels provided another layer of protection along with tons and tons of discarded tires.

  The piles of tires were uneven, and he had to fight a strong urge to go even out the stacks. Damn Scorpius had given him OCD. He maneuvered beyond them, his hands shaking with the need to organize, and stopped short at an ancient yellow Datsun truck. “Nice.”

  “We aim to please,” Damon said, striding around the grille. Tension cut lines into his face.

  Tace turned and waved at the guards pointing weapons at them. Good ole Damon had a reason to be stressed. Most of the guards were itching to take him out and steal the truck. Tace opened the door. “Get in, Sami.”

  She faltered. “You get in.”

  Oh, he wasn’t sitting in the middle. While the woman could fight like a demon, she shot like a debutante—a fact she hadn’t quite explained, considering she had been LAPD. “The day you learn to shoot straight, you can take point in a vehicle.” He whispered the words so Damon couldn’t hear.

  Sami glared but slid into the truck and moved over.

  Tace settled against the ripped seat in the weathered truck. Sami should stay at Vanguard where it was somewhat safe, damn it.

  “Why do I have to straddle the damn gear shift?” she muttered as she set her gun on her jean-clad leg.

  The words shot images through his head that shuddered right down to his dick. He cleared his throat. “Why use our gas when the Mercs have supplied us with transport?” Although Tace would’ve preferred that he was driving. When had he become such a control freak? Oh yeah. When Scorpius had ripped through his brain and tore him into a new being.

  “We set?” Damon shut his door and ignited the engine, which clunked rather than purred.

  “Oh, no Rippers will hear us trying to get through town in this piece of crap,” Sami muttered.

  Tace leaned over and put his lips near her ear. “The more sarcastic you get, the more I want to strip you naked and make sure you stop talking.”

  She stilled and then turned her head until their noses brushed. “Sexual harassment these days doesn’t go to HR, Tace.”

  “Oh?” He lifted an eyebrow. If he moved a millimeter, his mouth would be on hers. He swallowed. What the hell was wrong with him? He had to get control of himself and now.

  “Yeah. These days you get your dick cut off and shoved in your ear.”

  Amusement burst through his chest. He coughed and leaned back. Was that an actual human reaction? A normal one? It had been so long. “I’m sorry.”

  She blinked. “Huh?”

  He winced. Had he been that much of a jerk lately? “I’m sorry for the harassment. It’s wrong.” The words were correct, but he wasn’t quite sure about the line between right and wrong any longer. Apparently, he’d crossed it, though. If a guy had treated one of his sisters like that, Tace would’ve maimed him. “I’ll do better.” If he thought to appease her with his very nice apology, he’d apparently missed the mark.

  Sparks flew through her pretty brown eyes. “Don’t even think of charming me, Texas. I’ll make you pee blood for weeks.”

  “You’re an intriguing woman.” The words slipped out of him before he could call them back. Harass her, and she was all fire. Be nice to her, and even though she’d spit venom, vulnerability would darken those stunning eyes.

  She turned toward the dirty windshield. “Whatever.”

  Damon glanced across the seat. “You guys done with the foreplay? I’d like to get on the road.”

  Tace leveled him with a look.

  Damon grinned. “All righty, then.”

  “Stick to back roads as much as possible,” Tace said. “Gangs have set up traps on the freeways, and they’re armed.”

  “Yep.” Damon drove around a pile of what looked like milk jugs in the crumbling street. “I have to ask, why would Jax set up Vanguard in the middle of the poorest area in LA?”

  “It’s where he grew up,” Sami said. “He was familiar wit
h the area, and it contained an old food-distribution center, medical offices, and a school.”

  Tace watched shattered storefronts go by out the window. Were they walking right into a trap by voluntarily heading into Merc territory? “It was an easy area to fence and protect, just like a military base.”

  Sami cleared her throat. “Why did the Mercs settle in Santa Barbara? Seems not so tough.”

  Damon barked out a laugh. “We have the ocean, multiple greenhouses, and all of the resources built into UC Santa Barbara. In other words, we have more food and water than you do.”

  Tace kept silent and let Sami press the Merc for information. She was a natural at it. Had she been lying to them all? Once again, a pit opened up in his gut.

  Was he starting to feel things again? Sure, he’d had plenty of sex since he’d recovered, but the enjoyment had been an act. Was sex turning into something else? What would sex be like with Sami? Probably explosive. He shifted in his seat to ease some of the raging pressure suddenly in his groin. Man, he had to get a grip.

  “Right, Tace?” Sami asked.

  Shit. What had she been saying? He grunted in response.

  She turned back to Damon. “So that’s why.”

  “I see.” Damon slowed down to turn west.

  “How many Mercenary members are there?” Sami asked.

  Tace tuned back into the conversation.

  “About seventy men.” Damon winced. “Maybe sixty after the attacks yesterday.”

  “Just men?” Sami asked.

  Damon nodded. “All male soldiers like in the old days of the military.”

  Sami didn’t react. “Ratio of soldiers to civilians?” she asked smoothly, playing her part perfectly.

  Damon turned the wheel to avoid what looked like a human leg in the road. “All soldiers.”

  Sami cut Tace a look. “What happens to civilians?”

  Now Damon grinned again. “We drop them off in Vanguard territory.”

  Well, at least they didn’t eat civilians. “Who came up with that plan?” Tace asked.