The house was shaped like a U with the garden between the two jutting wings. Surrounding the house was a maze of more gardens with narrow walkways, forcing anyone moving through the extensive outer gardens to do so in single file. Throughout the grounds were many places Ricco had incorporated where a rider could easily slide through the permanent shadows he’d created within the maze.

This was the moment he’d known all along would come. The old council, made up of Dai Saito, Mikio Ito and Isamu Yamamoto, was making its move against his family. Mariko and Nicoletta were caught in the crosshairs. He’d dreaded this moment, had countless nightmares about it, but he was prepared. He just detested that he didn’t know what was happening with the others.

He put in the earpiece. “Emilio, Mariko is going out onto the north side. I’m in the north tower. Check on all family members.”

“Roger the north side and tower. I checked on all of them, including your parents. No one has texted back. I tried their bodyguards and everyone is silent. We have to assume they’re under attack.”

Ricco might have gone a little crazy, rage welling fast, guilt all-consuming, but he didn’t have the luxury. He had Mariko to protect. He pulled his favorite rifle from the armory and caught up boxes of ammunition. “North garden, Mariko. Stay in the shadows until you hear Emilio or me tell you who and where to hit.”

She didn’t hesitate, and that humbled him. She was going out into the open in a T-shirt and red lace panties, no weapons, against an army of men heavily armed. Mercenaries by the look of them. Enzo was running facial recognition. Ricco caught her by the nape of her neck as she turned away from him, jerked her back to him and kissed her. He poured what he felt into her. Passion. Fear. Guilt. Rage. Admiration. Respect. All those things. His need to protect her. He was feeling very protective. She kissed him back and he tasted sweetness. Giving. Passion. Acceptance.

He let her go reluctantly. Their eyes met. She nodded and then slipped into a shadow, riding it down the stairs and out into the north gardens – and absolute danger. She didn’t so much as hesitate. He knew he was more than halfway in love with her. She was a warrior woman, totally confident as she walked right into the shadow and disappeared to go face the enemy. She’d made herself vulnerable to him as a woman when she’d come so bravely to him in his studio, providing him with what he needed. No judgment. None. Just a giving of herself. He was falling hard and fast. Irrevocably. No going back.

He sprinted for the northern tower with the bank of windows on three sides. His walls were reinforced and bullets weren’t getting in. The closed windows were bulletproof. He had to open a window to protect Mariko and wreak a little havoc of his own.

Outside, the gardens were designed to force anyone on the walkways to go single file and then turn corner after corner, like a maze. The entire outer garden was just that, a maze leading through path after path toward the house. It looked fun and beautiful, but it was deadly to an enemy. With all the shadows cast throughout the garden at any time during the day and with the lights on at night, the advantage was to the shadow rider.

From his vantage point at the window, he could see every open spot where the enemy would turn a corner, and Mariko would be waiting just inside the tube.

“Coming at you in five seconds. Three in a row. Take them at your leisure,” Emilio instructed.

Ricco put his eye to the scope and instantly all three men appeared in detail. They had automatic weapons and belts of ammo slung across their bodies. He didn’t want to shoot unless he had to. The others coming over the fence would know instantly he knew they were there and they’d probably run a blitz attack. He would prefer to take most of them outside to keep his house from being damaged.

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.