Page 78 of Beneath the Light of the Moon

“Now do what you would do if I wasn’t here.”

“Why?”

“I want to see your technique.”

“And I want you gone.” A lie, but she said it anyway.

“Consider this payback for interrupting my night all those weeks ago at the club,” he murmured, coming in so close that his mouth was near the outer shell of her ear protection. It was way too hot and way too small in this shooting booth for this. Anika froze.

“I can think of other ways to repay that debt,” she retorted, hating the way her voice was breathier than before.

“Oh, really? Like what?” Mikko’s hands came up and turned her toward the target out in front of them. They were warm and gentle despite the verbal battle, and she hated that the sensation was one she could get used to. It was reckless and electric compared to Levi’s touch. With him, she went through the motions and pushed him out the door at her earliest convenience. But with Mikko, she didn’t want it to stop.

Warmth crept up the base of her spine, her skin tingling with his closeness.

“Like filling you with a few rounds of lead,” she finally said.

If he responded, she didn’t give him any space to.

Picking up her gun, she resumed her shooting position—shoulder width stance, locked elbows, fingers tight around the grip of the firearm yet still clear of the slide, and a fingertip resting on the curve of the trigger.

Bang!

The paper didn’t even shiver at the intrusion, the bullet tearing through it with no resistance.

Heat and hard muscle brushed against her back, his distractinghands repositioning her arms. “You’re lucky I like threats”—his boots nudged her feet into a better position—“and charity cases.” Again with thatfuckingword. “But you’re going to have to do better than that to fulfill your promise.”

Anika’s spine stiffened. She knew he meant the words that he’d spoken, but her mind couldn’t help but wander to another promise lingering in her mind; one she’d vowed to herself and her mom all those years ago.

“I don’t want to show off,” she gritted out.

“Of course, my bad for assuming youchoseto be a bad shot.” His fingertips pressed firmly between her shoulder blades, the pinpointed warmth almost causing her to shiver. “Shoulders back,” he instructed. His hand moved down, skating over her ribs until his hand splayed over her stomach. “And don’t forget to keep your core tight.” He tapped her one, two, three,fourtimes until she did as he said.

Each place his hands stopped, Mikko corrected something as if he were rearranging a doll. And the only reason she let him, even as fury and something more sinister lurked beneath the surface of her skin, was because she’d need these skills one day.

“I do better with alivetarget,” she muttered, afraid to move and mess up her posture. Anika was certain he’d touch her all over again to make sure she was exactly where she needed to be, and she wasn’t sure she could handle that right now.

Mikko snorted, hands finally coming to rest near hers on the gun. “Doubtful.”

“Are you going to fess up to stealing my scarf?”

His chuckle reverberated against her back as his finger trailed over the side of her hip. “Are you going to fess up to stealing my car keys?”

Anika’s mouth popped open, a motion Mikko clearly saw.

“Oh, now you have nothing to say,” he commented. “Funny since those same keys wound up in a dead man’s body…”

“While I’m flattered you think I’m smart enough to keep up with your delusions, you’re going to have to forgive me when I say I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Playing dumb isn’t your thing,” he crooned near her temple, mocking the words she’d typed up to him in text a couple nights ago, “but I’ll bite. One of my men ended up dead withmyspare keys inside of his body inside one ofmywarehouses.”

“Real estate can be dangerous, sounds like a you problem,” she said, burning eyes still focused on the target ahead, her arms growing heavy.

“I’d agree,” he readjusted her arms since they’d fallen, “but I find it funny that the warehouse he was found in was the same one you toured.”

Bang!

In an attempt to shift the conversation, to gain her own control back, Anika fired off a round. It missed the target completely.