Justice Ascending

  “Greyson did. We’re a military vigilante group, and we don’t want to train or protect civilians. You Vanguard folks do, so we either direct them to or sometimes drop them off for you to coddle.”

  “What about, you know, sex?” Sami asked.

  Damon glanced her way. “You offering?”

  Tace sat forward just enough to make his point.

  Damon turned back to the road.

  “What is up with everyone these days?” Sami snapped. “You’re all just horny dogs.”

  Tace bit his lip.

  “Sorry,” Damon said. “Um, to answer your question, if any soldier wants to keep a, well, companion, then they can. But Mercs are soldiers, all male, and anybody keeping somebody is fully responsible for them.”

  “Keeping?” Sami asked slowly.

  Damon held up a hand. “All consensual and all voluntary. Greyson double checks with anybody living in the territory, especially women, to make sure they want to be there. Period.”

  Good. “So you’re hoarding resources and pawning civilians off on us,” Tace said, watching a couple of shadows move near the street corner. He tensed and lifted his gun to the open window.

  Sami lifted herself to see better and brushed her breast against his arm.

  Electricity jolted through him. He kept perfectly still and tracked two women digging through rubble. “Slow down.”

  Damon sighed but slowed to nearly a stop.

  Both women looked up, their bodies tensed to flee. They were in ripped jeans and heavy jackets, both with long hair already formed into dreadlocks. Dirt marred their faces, and scratches showed down their arms.

  “Rippers?” Sami whispered.

  “Not sure.” Tace leaned out the window. “Do you ladies need help?” He let his twang free.

  The first woman, rail thin and about fifty, shook her head.

  The other one, a twentysomething, didn’t move.

  “All right.” Tace pointed back the way they’d come. “If you go about a mile east, you’ll enter Vanguard territory. Scouts will find you and take you to food and shelter, if you want.”

  The younger woman shook her head. “We’re fine on our own.”

  “We have vitamin B,” Tace said.

  The women looked at each other.

  “Your choice,” Damon called out, shifting the gear into DRIVE. “Good luck.” He drove away from the corner and around an abandoned library that had books scattered all over the front steps. “That’s why you’re almost out of provisions.”

  “Maybe we’ll just take yours,” Tace said evenly.

  “You can sure try,” Damon said agreeably. He sped up as the road cleared. “So, tell me about that April chick. She with anybody?”

  Tace slowly turned his head toward the Mercenary soldier. “Yes.”

  Sami started. “No, she isn’t.”

  “As far as the Mercs are concerned, she is,” Tace countered. Protectiveness for the young widow who’d lost so much rose in him so quickly, he nearly gasped. The last time he’d felt this way had been for his two sisters back in Texas. Neither had survived Scorpius. “Listen, Damon. I don’t like you, I don’t like the Mercs, and I’m going to help today because I’m a medic and that’s what I do.” Not entirely true. “If we do form some sort of alliance, which I doubt will truly happen, then we’re still not gonna be friends. You all got rid of the civilians, so you don’t get to come cherry-pickin’ for a good lay now.”

  Sami’s eyes widened. “That’s the longest conversation I’ve heard from you since you were infected with Scorpius.”

  Had he been that laconic? Maybe. “Humph.”

  “Sorry, buddy,” Damon said, speeding up even more. “Didn’t know I was stepping on your toes.”

  “You ask about Vanguard at all, and you’re past my toes to my feet,” Tace returned. “At which point I shove my foot up your ass.”

  Damon lost the grin, and he turned toward Tace, his brown eyes darkening. “You’re not the only one who can fight, Texas. Might want to keep that in mind.”

  Tace flashed his teeth. “Is that an invitation?”

  “Whoa.” Sami held up both hands. “Boys, we’re working together right now, so there’s no need to pull ’em out and measure them. You’re both big dicks, so don’t worry about it.”

  Damon snorted. “Don’t you mean that we both have big dicks?”

  “I said exactly what I meant,” Sami said, flattening her hand over her gun again.

  Tace couldn’t help the chuckle, surprised when his chest warmed. “I like you, Sami.” He genuinely liked her. He’d forgotten that fact in the last few weeks as he’d recuperated from the fever.

  “Man, you’re smooth,” Damon murmured.

  “Shut up,” Tace said.

  “Both of you shut the hell up,” Sami snapped. “I feel like I’m in a bad chick flick all of a sudden.” She lifted her gun toward the windshield. “Next guy who speaks in the coming hour gets shot in the face.”

  Fair enough.

  Tace sat back to watch crumbling buildings and deserted alleyways rush by. Nature had quickly begun to reclaim the earth, poking through concrete and climbing up brick. What was once a perfectly gray and concrete area was rapidly turning green again. Seemed like the earth always won the battle, didn’t it?

  The ninety-mile drive took nearly three hours as they tried to avoid roving gangs and Rippers. Soon the smell of the ocean salted the air.

  Tace shifted his sweaty back against the seat and glared at the sun. For weeks they’d enjoyed an odd and strong rainy season, but it appeared to be over. Air-conditioning was a thing of the past . . . a luxury already fading from reality. “We in Merc territory?” He broke the heated silence.

  “Yep. We’re relocating headquarters to the mansion next to the one the president blew up,” Damon said. He glanced at Sami. “How would you like fresh fish for dinner?”

  She lifted a shoulder, but Tace could see anticipation in the curve of her lip. Man, he had to stop focusing on her mouth. “We’re not here for a social hour,” he drawled.

  Sami nodded and focused outside the truck, no doubt taking mental notes.

  Tace did the same. They drove beyond two fences guarded with guns and into a high-end suburban area full of mansions. He whistled.

  “You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff we found in these places,” Damon said. “Drugs, guns, prepper provisions. And lots of dirty homemade videos with fortysomething-year-old women with fake tits and Botox faces. When did home sex tapes become a thing?”

  “Dunno,” Tace said, counting soldiers on the way. They patrolled in packs of three, all wearing black T-shirts with different pants. “The black shirt mandatory?”

  “On patrol for soldiers, yeah,” Damon said.

  Loud pops punctuated the quiet day.

  Tace went on full alert. “Was that gunfire?”

  More pops echoed, and he partially turned to cover Sami.

  Damon swiveled his head. “From the beach.” He yanked the wheel and ripped through the empty streets, driving past a house and right onto the beach. The wheels churned up sand, and the ocean rolled in not far from the truck.

  An explosion ripped apart the world, throwing debris into the air.

  Tace moved his body between Sami and the fight.

  Damon jumped out. “Status?” he barked to a group of men fronting a fence that faced another mansion.

  A redheaded guy turned around, blood dripping from his chin, his eyes a wild blue. “Noise yesterday brought them all out—Rippers and rogue scavengers. Third attack of the day . . . and this one has explosives.” His buddies fired over the fence.

  Tace quickly scanned the area, his blood boiling. They weren’t familiar with the area, and he didn’t see a safe zone. The truck was too visible. He leaped from the vehicle and yanked Sami out by the arm. “Stay behind me.”

  “No.” She pushed past him, her gun already out.

  He paused. A tingle spread from his foot up to his knee. God, not n
ow. His vision hazed. That was new. His knee weakened. Shit. He was gonna fall.

  “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.

  The sand turned to stone tiles, and she hustled around an oval swimming pool and across a wide deck into the much cooler house. Tan hues, stunning oil paintings, and crystal everywhere. Tace moved gracefully as if he was back in control, but she hadn’t seen any weakness in him before he passed out.

  What had happened?

  She’d have to find out later, because he ripped through the living room and to the front door, gingerly opening it and looking out. He held up a hand to stop her.

  She halted, leaning over to breathe, her gun clutched in her hand. Point and squeeze. No pulling the trigger. Aim and squeeze. Tace’s lessons rippled through her mind. She could do this.

  He slid the door open more and stepped outside.

  Sunlight cascaded inside.

  She moved behind him, staying low.

  Several quiet fountains shaped like cherubs were visible in the front, which was also gated. An empty driveway made of oval pavers led to an intricate gate facing the quiet street. Tace jogged silently across the driveway to the rock wall serving as a property division. He leaned against it as gunfire continued in the rear of the house.

  Sami moved toward him, reaching him, blinking against the blinding sun. The wall was about six feet tall, and she couldn’t see over it. A wide maple tree provided some shade from the other side. “Well?” she whispered.

  Tace slowly lifted himself up and looked over the fence. He was quiet for a moment and then ducked down, his back against the wall. “Big house, empty circular driveway, another rock wall on the other side. I think the shooters are one over.”

  She calculated the distance and remembered a similar scene in the newest Bloody Hell Suburban Fight game that had come out right before Scorpius had hit. She’d solved the game in less than a week by not taking the easiest route. “We go over the fence?”

  His eyebrows drew down. “They could be in the next house. We don’t know.”

  “Then we sweep and go fast,” she returned, adrenaline flowing through her veins.

  He studied her. “You been studying shooting more than just what I taught you?”

  A man screamed in the distance, the shriek full of pain.

  She gulped. “Yeah. I can hit somebody.” Although she’d never actually shot anybody. Her talents lay in strategy and not true action, like any good street fighter. Oh, the punch mattered, but placing it just right mattered more. “LAPD, remember?”

  His gaze narrowed. “Right.”

  “What happened to you back there?” she asked, checking his eyes. Clear and focused.

  He shook his head.

  Another explosion boomed from the beach area.

  “Let’s go.” Sami tucked her gun in her waist. “You need to boost me.”

  He grimaced but set his gun down. Grabbing her hips, he breathed out. “Stay behind the tree.”

  She nodded.

  He lifted her as if she weighed nothing, giving her a girly moment she quickly banished. She slapped both hands on the top of the wall, pivoted, and dropped silently to the other side. A second later he’d landed next to her, his big body in a crouch.

  She peered around the maple tree. Gunfire continued in the back. “I think they’re concentrated near the beach.”

  “Maybe.” Tace eyed the silent windows of the newest mansion.

  Sami angled her neck. The sun reflected off the windows, so she couldn’t see inside. The massive wooden door was closed, and the place actually felt abandoned. Smoke and debris drifted down, and her eyes stung. “I’ll go first. Stay low and watch those windows.”

  Tace nodded and pointed across the rather plush front lawn to a garden area with a multitude of flowers and weeds. “Go right over the hydrangeas and straight for the fence. Aim for next to the garage, because the windows face away.”

  “Hydrangeas?” she asked.

  “The big purple ones.”

  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 lar
ge 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 was just in 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.