Page 73 of Blurred Red Lines

“Takea strong stance and a firm grasp.” Val stood behind me, and kicked my feet apart wedging his knee between my legs. “Hold the gun on your target. You want to let your finger barely touch the trigger and let it go limp.”

Snickering, I rolled my chin over my shoulder. “You, um, want it to go limp?”

“Very funny.” Smirking, he pointed to the cans he’d set up on wooden posts in a field outside his house. “Now, turn back around and focus.” Obeying, I extended my arms again like he’d shown me. “Now, I’m going to cover your hold and pull the trigger with you.”

With experienced precision, he held us both steady and shot accurately, blowing the can off the post in one shot.

“Wow,” I breathed, genuinely impressed. “You’re good.”

“You have no idea.” He grinned.

Through two more rounds, he shadowed me, instructing me on stance and follow-through. Finally, through enough whining on my part, he stood back and let me try it on my own. The first time, I was crushed to realize I’d shot a migrating bird. Val laughed at my devastation, asking how I planned to shoot a man if I broke down over random fowl. Pissed off, I shot again, effectively deflating his tire.

“Eden, let’s just call it a day. I’d like to keep my windows while I still have them.”

I’d failed at most everything I’d ever tried. I’d be damned if I was going to fail at this. That can was a dead man.

“Don’t be a smartass, Val. Smartasses sleep alone.”

“Always with the dick threats.”

“Use what you know.” Sighing, I gave him a pleading look. “One more time, okay?”

“Fine,” he agreed, palming his neck. “One more, and then I have to get ready to leave.”

If I couldn’t show him I could hold my own, no way would he let me leave with him. I had to make this work. “I can do this.”

“Sure, you can.”

The condescension in his voice boiled my blood to a level of wanting to turn his nuts into fertilizer. It didn’t help that he stalked behind me like a hungry lion, just waiting to go in for the kill. My hand shook as I tried to focus on the target, his pacing form distracting me out of my peripheral vision.

“Can you stop doing that?”

“As you wish.” Sidling up behind me, he molded into my back, his chin settling into the crook of my shoulder. “Better?”

Rolling my eyes, I aimed the gun. “Much.”

“Do I make you nervous?”

“No.”

“If you go with me, there’ll be distractions all around you,Cereza. Bullets could be flying from all angles, men shouting, and chaos erupting like you’ve never experienced.”

As his whispers broke into hoarse rasps, I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “Do I makeyounervous, Danger?”

“No, you make me want to hold you against the fence and bend you over.”

My body temperature rose with the morning sun, and my palms became sticky against the grip. Squinting, I focused all my attention on the silver can sitting on the post.

“Shoot,” he whispered in my ear.

With calm composure, I squeezed the trigger, hitting the center of the can and knocking it off the post and across the lawn. Shocked, I lowered the gun and turned my chin excitedly over my shoulder. “Did you see—”

The rest of my words ended up in Val’s mouth as he crushed my lips with a bruising kiss. Grabbing my hips in a strong hold, he shifted our combined weight as he turned us against the fence, taking the gun from my hand.

“Hold on.”

“Val, someone will see us.”