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Army guy was Aaron, apparently. He introduced himself once we bundled into the car, Slade taking the back seat, moving to sit right by my side and pulling my hand into his. “Y’know, I’d find you a lot hotter if you were a bit distant and unapproachable, like from the other side of the backseat.”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” he said. “You’ll find me plenty hot enough tonight.”

“Now I’m just scared,” I mumbled, and the whole car started laughing. Fucking men. “Why are we going to a gun range, again?

“We’re going to see how well you shoot,” Finn said, looking at me in the rear vision mirror.

I looked from one to the other, disbelief plain on my face. “Are you fucking serious?” I grated out. Extra strength the painkillers might be, but I still felt like warmed over shit.

“Sometimes we get wild animals that come into the compound. You’re restricted in the places you can go until we gauge your gun proficiency,” Finn said.

“And this has to happen the day I am stupendously hungover?” I said.

“I’m free, and Aaron’s back from a trip to town. Seemed like the best time to get it done.”

I mumbled something about Finn’s parentage, which just set the rest of the car laughing again.

Apparently, I was nowhere near as quiet as I thought I was, and hilarious to boot.

“What about some breakfast, then?” I asked.

“I could murder a greasy bacon and cheese…” Aaron leaned down and plucked a wrapped white object from the cooler between him and Finn and passed it back, eyes on the wheel.

“Is that…? Oh my god, it’s still warm! Wait, what do I have to do in exchange?”

“Anything you want, honey,” Aaron replied, his lips twitching as he watched my expression in the rear vision mirror.

I wasn’t comfortable with that, but dear god, pain relief and wellbeing were just a few bites away.

I peeled the paper away to reveal a fluffy bread roll chock-a-block full of bacon and cheese.

I took a bite, not giving a shit that bits sprayed everywhere.

Today was gonna be messy, no matter what.

Slade groaned, shuffling back so as to get a better view of what I was doing. “Stop getting horny watching me eat,” I said, spitting crumbs.

“Too late,” he said, and reached down to adjust himself. My eyes widened when I saw an indication of what he was packing down there, but I kept eating.

I stumbled out of the car, feeling mildly better with food and medication in me.

I was pretty sure they thought they could put something else in me to make me feel even more awesome, but I instead marched up to the door of the range.

I turned the handle and stepped inside .

.. and wanted to walk right out again. Blam!

Blam! Ratatatatatata! “Oh, fuck,” I groaned, grabbing at my ears, my headache back with a vengeance.

The place, unsurprisingly, was full of men shooting guns.

“Here,” Aaron said, and put some ear muffs on me.

Now it sounded like a muffled gun fight was happening around me.

“So, what do I have to do?” I asked, probably too loud.

Aaron smiled, moving over to one of the walls and producing a key from his pocket to unlock the cabinet there.

He pulled out several guns that looked way too big and scary for me to be on the other end of, and tossed them to Finn and Slade before grabbing his own.

He held it so the stock tucked into one shoulder, the other hand holding the grip thingie at the front. “Wmm dmm omsmm,” he said.

“What?” I said, pulling off one ear protector.

“We’ll go to the range outside.”

Yay , I thought, casting a dark eye at the dusty paddock that served as an outdoor range.

Less noise but more sun, and I wasn’t sure what was worse.

I was sweating already, that funky mix of sour body odour and alcohol leaving the building.

I was gonna be so sexy when Slade finally got me for alone time.

“So this here is a blah blah gun thingie,” Aaron said seriously, showing me his fine weapon. “It’s great for blah and manly things.”

“Uh huh,” I said.

“So to use it, you do blah, blah and blah and then slowly squeeze your finger on the blah…” Boom! A hail of bullets came firing out of the machine gun thingie and into the target some metres away.

“Right,” I said, swaying slightly, “Don’t squeeze the blah too hard. Boys always say that.”

“What?” Aaron’s eyes snapped to Finn. “You sure she’s up for this?”

“I need her ready to go beyond the gate. No gun, no gate,” Finn said.

“There’s no rush…” Slade said.

“She’s employed to be my offsider, so yeah, there is a rush,” Finn snapped.

“This got anything to do with last night?” Slade asked. “Because stampeding into this…”

“This is too early,” Aaron said to Finn. “Once we know, she’ll be able to handle this no problems, or she won’t. But right now…”

“That might not happen,” Finn said. “She needs to be able to defend herself.” All of the men fell silent after that.

Aaron shrugged, taking one of the guns and passing it to me.

“Never point a gun at anyone you don’t intend to shoot,” he said, pushing the muzzle so it faced the targets.

"Be aware of what is in front of and behind your target. Keep your finger off the trigger until you decide to take a shot, and leave the safety on until then.”

I held it in what I thought was a mirror image of his pose.

He sighed and came to stand at my rear, putting his arms around me to correct my hold and stance.

I wasn’t sure this was strictly necessary, it felt like maybe he was trying to cop a feel.

I arched my hips back slightly, so my arse grazed his groin.

His body turned to iron, and he became very still.

Slowly, he pulled away. “Chamber a round, then take the safety off and give it a go. Just be careful, there’ll be some recoil.

” Right, the safety. Where was the safety?

Aaron sighed and flicked it for me, and then gestured for me to proceed.

I had no fucking idea what I was doing. The last time I’d shot a gun was some peewee air rifle my brother had been given by my uncle.

We’d gone out with Dad and Pa and Uncle Bill, and learned how to shoot cans in the home paddock when I was ten.

Well, I was committed now. I looked down the barrel, my hands starting to shake.

You should back out, back the fuck out , my brain screamed hysterically.

You can hurt yourself or others . This is part of my job , I retorted.

I couldn’t follow Finn without showing I could do this. I squeezed the trigger gently and…

Blam! I’m not totally sure what happened, but somehow I was lying in the hot dirt, staring at the sky, and Finn, Slade and Aaron were all standing over me. “Are you OK?” Finn asked, eyes wide.

“Princess, if you wanted to get out of the date, you just had to say,” Slade said.

“I told you it was too early,” Aaron said to Finn.

“Yeah, alright,” Finn said with a curse. “Let’s get Doc Hobbes to have a look at her.”

Which was how I ended up lying on the cold metal bench in the doc’s surgery, my head throbbing worse than before. “So, what happened?” she asked.

“Julie had a go with one of the rifles and wound up on her arse,” Slade said.

“Weapons training? That’d be better done after the full moon, wouldn’t it?” she said, flashing a torch across one eye, then the other.

“She needs protection,” Finn ground out.

“So assign one of the young bucks. They would be more than happy to protect her.”

“I’d be happy to volunteer,” Slade said.

“Me too,” said Aaron, meeting my eyes with a steady gaze when I looked at him in alarm.

“She’s supposed to be my offsider.”

The doctor glanced up at Finn without expression, then sniffed.

“Well, who better to protect her? You can take her past the gate if you’re by her side.

Sooner the better, I think. She seems OK, someone’s going to have to stay with her tonight, wake her up every couple of hours and look out for any sign of brain injury.

Slurred speech, dizziness, vomiting… Anything out of the ordinary, give me a call on my mobile.

So who’s going to do it?” The room went silent as the guys eyed each other.

“My night tonight,” Slade said with a shit-eating grin.

“Hey, if you want to spend it with her flat on her back, spewing, be my guest,” Aaron said.

“Yep, but then I get to hold back her hair and clean her up and rub her fevered brow,” Slade said. Aaron’s brows pulled down into a frown.

“Slade, take one of the bikes or carts up to her place and collect her dog from Nerida’s. Aaron and I will take her up in the car.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

I started to push myself upright on the table, but Finn swept me up in his arms, despite my protests. “Give Slade these,” Doc said, handing Aaron a box of medication. “We have to wait until the aspirin has cleared her system, but she can have two of these after eight hours.”