Page 48 of Reckless Vengeance

Caden scanned the room as he trailed behind us, checking the place out. He didn’t look uncomfortable, just wary.

We stepped into a room that had other people in it, and I recognized Brick and a few others. He gave me a nod in greeting but went back to shooting his targets, while some of the others eyed me with irritation.

Samuel didn’t look happy to see me, but he didn’t say anything.

“Holloway, this one’s for you,” Diesel offered, holding out a handgun like mine. “I’ll go over it a few times with you. We’ll pull it apart and put it back together again.”

Caden didn’t look happy about not jumping straight into firing it, but he didn’t argue as he stood by the table and watched as Diesel started telling him what to do.

“Donovan. Show me what you can do,” Brick called out, my eyes sliding to Diesel, who gave me a nod.

I pulled my gun out and grabbed my ear and eye protection, joining Brick. He let me fire a few shots before stopping me, correcting my stance a little and giving me pointers.

Another guy seemed invested in my progress and told me to adjust my arms, smiling when I hit my target.

“That’s better. You’ll be able to do this with your eyes closed soon.”

“I hope so,” I joked, hesitating before holding my hand out for him to shake. “Rory.”

“I know,” he chuckled, shaking it. “Jonah.”

Both Brick and Jonah were more than happy to help me, leaving Diesel to focus on teaching Caden. It sounded like it was going well from the praise I could hear Diesel giving him when they started shooting.

Samuel and the other guy avoided me, which I was totally okay with since it meant no drama was starting over me being here.

“Want to try moving targets?” Brick offered, and I grinned.

“We can’t just go out and shoot people.”

“The room next door has moving targets,” he chuckled, motioning to Diesel. “Hey. We’re going into the moving target room.”

Diesel didn’t look convinced but nodded, watching us leave the room warily. Brick had kept me safe from the Soldiers, so hopefully that meant he wasn’t likely to kill me once he got me alone and away from Diesel’s view.

Jonah followed, and I waited for them to set everything up before Brick motioned for me to come closer. “You’ll fuck this up a bunch. Moving targets are a lot harder, but most people you need to shoot at won’t be standing still for you. Stand here, get into position, and I’ll start it slow, okay?” he offered, pressing a bunch of buttons on a panel on the wall before the target started slowly moving left, then back to the right.

He wasn’t lying, I missed a lot, but between them, they managed to help me shoot it a few times.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked after I took another shot, and Brick shrugged.

“You’re Skeet’s girl. Slash sacrificed himself for you. Kind of think that makes you important to them. I’d like to know if you’re out with Skeet or one of the guys that you can hold your own. It makes everyone a lot safer if you don’t need saving.”

I looked at Jonah, who snorted. “I’m just being nice. We’re not buddies, Donovan, but Brick’s right. If something goes down, it would be better if you could protect yourself.”

“I can respect that,” I answered, focusing on my moving target again.

We spent hours there, Diesel occasionally poking his head in to make sure no one had murdered me, but I was happily surprised when I finished a faster round of targets and turned to find Skeeter leaning back against the wall studying me.

“You’re improving fast,” he said, motioning for me to do it again.

I did as he asked and took up my position again, firing a few rounds and hitting the target.

“She’ll be a sniper in no time, boss,” Brick joked, patting my shoulder on his way past. “Good job today.”

“Thanks for helping,” I said to both him and Jonah as they left the room, leaving me alone with Skeeter.

He reached out to check my temple, sighing as he finished looking at it and dropped his hand again.

“You’re doing really good,” he finally said, my stomach doing a little flip.