Shadow Reaper (Shadow #2)(86)

The first intruder rounded the corner and kept going slowly, cautiously, along the narrow path. This was the protected rose garden and the foliage was thorny, making sure the enemy stayed to the ribbon of a pathway. The corners were tight deliberately. The second gunman followed. The first was almost to the next corner when the third rounded the corner. Mariko stepped out of the shadows, smooth and efficient. She reached almost delicately, caught the man's head in the classic kill hold and wrenched, gently lowering the body to the pathway and disappearing in the shadows as the second man rounded the corner.



She slipped behind the second man, killing him, and then the third. She left them where they lay and was once again in the mouth of the tunnel.



"Two pathways over, near the trellis on the outside of the house," Emilio said. "Four more moving slow. They don't like the thorny branches pulling at them." There was a slight snicker in his voice.



Roses had been a good idea, even though Ricco had to make certain they didn't freeze and were protected through the harsh winter months. He watched from the side of the window frame as Mariko slipped back into the shadows. It was strange. He hadn't known her that long, but from the moment their shadows had connected, he felt as if he couldn't be without her.



Over the years, he had honed himself into the best warrior possible. He might be injured, but that didn't matter; when he needed his body to kick into high gear, every muscle was ready. His reflexes were fast and his hand-eye coordination extraordinary. He was a man fully confident in himself and his abilities, everything from killing a man to pleasuring a woman, yet now, with this woman, the one woman, he was hesitant and careful. She felt elusive to him, always ready to slip away.



Mariko emerged, just for one moment, at the mouth of a shadow just behind the four men. That momentary flash of her in the T-shirt that was long enough to be a dress on her, hair falling around her face, tumbling to her shoulders as if they'd just spent hours making love, her skin flawless and her mouth generous, had his body reacting, even in the midst of the danger. Maybe the danger contributed. He thought it was sexy how she could look so delicately beautiful when he knew she was so deadly.



She flowed like the wind, like water moving over rocks, as she came up behind the last man. The intruder didn't get the chance to turn the corner or even step off the path. He was a big man and she looked fragile in comparison. Ricco watched through the scope, his heart pounding in his throat as she leapt into the air and took the enemy down with her legs around his head, her hands already lethal before the man had a chance to know what hit him. She was gone fast, back into the shadows.



"Damn." Emilio's voice was pure admiration. "That woman is hot."



Ricco had to agree. He couldn't fault his cousin for noticing but …  "And she's off-limits. She's the one. I'm going to marry her." He had his eye to the scope, just waiting. She was going to be coming up behind the next man in line. She had to be exhausted, but he couldn't see one hint of that when she was working.



"Does she know that?"



       
         
       
        



"She does now. She can hear us," Ricco said. That was how crazy he was about her. How far gone. He hadn't even remembered she had an earpiece in. What any of them said, she could hear.



Emilio laughed. "You might clarify, Ricco. You've got guests knocking at your front door. It's rather hilarious. They're actually knocking. Seven of them. Seven more going into the Japanese garden, and you've got seven on the south side approaching the house. Step it up, woman."



There was no answer, or maybe there was. Mariko appeared behind the third man in line as the second one rounded the sharp corner of the maze. She caught his neck and wrenched, her hands slipping off, and then she was back in the tube to move into the next pathway behind the second and then first man in line. She'd taken out all seven attackers without a single incident. He didn't have to fire his weapon to alert the others they knew an attack was under way.



"Thank you, Mariko," Ricco said, steeling himself to let her go. "I want you to go over the wall and get clear. Three blocks down there's a garage with a car in it. Code is seven, six, two, four, five. That opens the door. Keys are hanging just inside the door. There's money stashed in the glove compartment. I want you to get out of here. When it's done, you can come back."



She stepped out of the shadows, looked straight up at him, shook her head, indicated she was going to the south side garden and stepped back into the shadows.