I stood, back to the house at the side of the door.
He looked at me and gave me a head jerk which I had to interpret on the fly.
I made an educated guess, turned my head the other way, leaned forward and looked into the window at my side.
Mace knocked loud.
All the shadows behind the sheets dropped.
I looked back at Mace and shook my head.
Without delay, he lifted a long leg and put a boot to the door, shouting, “Bond enforcement!”
Interesting.
We had no warrants for anyone inside, but that didn’t mean someone inside didn’t have a warrant on them. So that was a good call. And smart.
I stopped noting that for future reference because the rest happened fast.
Mace went in.
There were noises, thuds, shouts, running feet.
Someone came out the front. I put my foot out, tripped them and they went flying, landing on their front on the cement walk. I moved in quickly, stunned them and they went lax. I grabbed a wrist and started to haul them off the walk so they wouldn’t be trampled if anyone else tried to escape out front. As I did this, I saw Hector running in the front door.
That was when I heard Mace’s whistle.
I took that as his sign.
I got in, Tex coming in behind me, and it appeared Mace had had all the fun, what with the bodies littering the floor and some tweakers cowering in a corner.
But Ren was having fun, too. Across the room, he had hands on a guy—arm and back of the neck. He slammed him face first into the wall, let him go and the guy dropped straight to his back, o-u-t, out.
My man.
Totally hot.
After allowing myself a quiver in my happy place, I took in the space. There was a lot of mess, some not so great furniture, and three car stereos sitting on a filthy, battered coffee table.
That night’s take.
And last, little baggies of meth crystals and drug paraphernalia everywhere.
No weapons.
I looked at Mace. “You hogged all the fun.”
Mace got close and talked low. “We need a reason to be here. You and Tex talk to each one. Get names. Call Brody and have him run them for warrants. Warrant or not, after you talk to Brody, call the cops. They get here, I’ll deal.”
I nodded and turned to Tex to see he’d gone back out and was now dragging in the one I dropped outside. He was doing it by the dude’s hand so the head and the rest of the tweaker bumped and cracked against everything even as he was coming out of the stun. He was probably also tweaking, so that didn’t help.
“Tex, a little care,” I told him.
“Got shit for brains already, don’t matter I stir it up,” Tex replied.
Since I didn’t need a lawsuit on any of my cases, I scratched a chat with Tex about his sidekick do’s and don’ts to happen at a later date and got busy, taking Tex with me.
When I was done, I gave a nod to Mace who was standing sentry at the entrance, while Hector stood sentry at the door that led to the back of the house.
Mace was studying me, looking broody.
Even after Stella gave him good loving and his family back, Mace could be broody. Usually it was hot. Unfortunately, now it served to hide whether he felt I passed or failed.
Whatever. He didn’t sit on the Licensing Board. I failed the Mace Test, I’d live.
I turned to Ren who was providing badass presence at Tex and my backs.
“You good?” I asked.
He was looking beyond me at the wired, strung out, unkempt tweakers, and I didn’t have to know him as well as I did to know he didn’t like what he was seeing.
He then looked at me.
“You sure this is the company you wanna keep?” he asked.
“No. What I’m sure of is that tomorrow and the next day and the next, some person in this ‘hood is not gonna walk out to their car, see their stereo stolen and feel violated,” I replied.
He studied me several beats, grinned and murmured, “Good answer.”
