The Siren (14 page)

Warren nodded. “Now take them out and do it again.”

My mouth fell open.

He cracked up and took a step toward me. “I’m kidding.” He picked up the gun off the table and handed it to me. “Pop the magazine back in. Hard.”

With all the strength I had left, I slammed the magazine in. By some miracle, it locked into place on the first try.

“OK. Now pull the slide back to put a round in the chamber.”

I yanked the slide back hard and released it.
 

“Nice! It’s ready to fire.” He pointed at the target. “Now aim and shoot.”

I frowned. “I don’t wanna.”

“Sloan.” His tone was a warning.

I groaned and turned toward the target.
 

“Hold on.” He stepped forward and slid noise-canceling ear protectors over my head. Then he put on his own. After that, his mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
 

I leaned toward him and shouted, “What?”

He laughed and pulled the ear protection away from my left ear. “Take off the safety, look down the site to where you want to shoot, and pull the trigger.”

He released the ear covering, and it slammed against my ear. “Ow!”

He pointed at the target and took a step backward.

I pulled the gun up straight in front of me, looked down the barrel, and aimed the notch at the top at the center of the black body outline. I pulled the trigger.
 

Bang!
 

The recoil knocked me back a few steps.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” I screamed.
 

I put the gun on the table and turned to see Warren doubled over, laughing with his hands on his knees. I ripped off my headset. “Why didn’t you warn me?” I shouted, stepping over and punching him square in the chest.

He was still laughing. “I thought you knew there would be some kickback.”

“There’s no kickback in the movies!”

The man two stalls down from us was watching and laughing as well.
 

I folded my arms over my chest and kicked Warren in the shin.
 

He straightened and put his arms around me. “You did well though! I’m proud of you.” He kissed the side of my head and turned me toward the target.
 

There were no holes in it.

My head dropped in defeat. “I didn’t even hit it.”

He squeezed my shoulder. “But you didn’t kill anyone either.”
 

I glared at him. “Yet.”
 

He smiled. “Do it again. Empty the clip.” He pointed down at my tennis shoes. “Plant your feet this time and try to not let it knock you over.” He chuckled, and I stuck out my tongue.

I turned toward the target and put my ear protection on. I picked up the gun and fired again, this time not caught so much by surprise. Dust
poofed
up on the embankment behind the target which was still left untouched.
 

Aiming again, I tried to hold my shaking hands steady. I fired and saw more dust.
 

Slowly, I blew out a deep breath and squeezed the trigger a third time. This time, the target moved. A small hole was ripped in the top right corner.

I put the gun on the table, then clapped my hands as I spun around toward Warren. “I did it! I did it!”

He laughed. “Congratulations.”

Nathan and Shannon walked across the wooden floor toward us. They had been inside looking at the selection of guns the place had for sale.
 

“How’s it going?” Nathan asked as they approached.

I grabbed his arm and pointed at the target. “Look! I hit it!”

He chuckled and patted me on the back. “Congrats. That’s practically a kill shot.”
 

I smiled. “I hit it though!”

He nodded. “Yes, you did.”

Warren nudged me with his knuckles. “Finish.”

I put my headset on and turned back to the target. With more confidence than before, I didn’t stop firing until the magazine was empty. Most of the shots hit the bank, but two more bullets hit in the white space of the paper, and one actually pierced the silhouette target’s shoulder. I turned around and smiled with satisfaction.

Warren clapped his hands before handing me the box of ammunition again. “Now reload it and practice some more.”

I frowned and lowered my voice so only he could hear me as I accepted the box of bullets. “You’re never getting sex from me ever again.”

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “
Sure
.”

While I struggled with the magazine, Nathan and Shannon got ready to shoot in the stall right beside us. Without instruction, Shannon loaded a small handgun and slipped on a pair of pink ear protectors.
 

I looked at Warren. He was curiously watching her as well.

Nathan took a step back beside him and leaned toward his ear. “Watch this.”

We covered our ears as Shannon raised her pistol. Like a pro on the hunting channel on TV, she aimed and popped off one bullet after another. The paper target rattled furiously till she stopped and put the gun down.

My mouth dropped open.
 

Warren clapped his hands—for much longer than he had clapped for me—and laughed. “I did
not
see that coming at all!”

In my head I was screaming,
Oh hell no!
But I kept my mouth shut. Almost every shot Shannon had fired pierced the inner part of the target’s body. Furiously, I began cramming bullets into the magazine.

Shannon turned, smiling with pride.
 

Nathan kissed her and put his arm around her shoulders. He had never done that in front of me before.

She shrugged. “My daddy started teaching me when I was ten.”

“
My daddy started teaching me when I was ten
,” I mimicked under my breath.
 

Warren was nodding his head. “I have to say, I’m pretty impressed.”
 

I rolled my eyes and turned away from everyone.
 

Shannon came over and put her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Sloan. You’ll get better with practice.”

I thought about punching her in the face.
 

Forty-five minutes later, I was a little better, but I still couldn’t shoot like Shannon Green. I was, however, able to shoot and not feel like I might pee all over myself.
 

Warren put his arms around my waist after he’d packed up his guns. “I’m proud of you,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

I groaned. “Thanks.”

He smiled and tightened his grasp on me. “I mean it. And, you look hot holding my Glock.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Mind if we go to the rifle range for a bit?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t mind.”

We packed up what was left of our ammo and cleaned up the stall. Warren picked up his rifle case and we headed across the complex. Aside from the range master, who was there to observe and enforce safety, we were the only people at the rifle range. It was much longer than the pistol range we had just left. There were three sets of targets, one at a hundred yards, one at two hundred, and one at three hundred.
 

I leaned against the wooden support post and watched Warren pull the huge rifle out of its case. As he attached the scope, I realized I had only seen guns like his in video games and action movies.

The gun rested on a stand on the table. Warren straddled the bench sideways behind it and looked down the scope. He was wearing a fitted gray t-shirt that stretched tight over his biceps when he positioned himself behind the gun.
 

Shannon was practically drooling next to me.

Warren stood up and looked at Nathan. “Go on, man. It’s ready to fire.”

Surprised, Nathan smiled. “Thanks.”

Warren leaned against the wall beside me and folded his arms across his chest. “You need any help?” Warren asked him as he slipped his ear protection on.

Nathan shook his head and sat down on the bench. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Good luck, baby,” Shannon said, blowing Nathan a kiss while she covered her ears.

My hands tightened into fists at my sides as I glared at her.

Nathan began firing, and I screamed and clasped my hands over my ears. He stopped shooting and looked back at me while Warren laughed and pulled my ear protectors up from around my neck. My head was ringing, Shannon was giggling, and Nathan was shaking his head.
 

I hung my head and ducked under Warren’s arm, a victim of my own bad karma.

Once Nathan was certain my ears were secured, he fired off a bunch of rounds, but the target was too far away to see how he had done. When he stopped shooting, he looked through the scope. “Six kill shots out of ten. Not too bad.” He turned and looked at us.

Warren had a sly smile on his face as he looked through a pair of binoculars. “Not bad at all. Not excellent, but not bad.”

Nathan smirked. “You can do better?”

I wasn’t sure what Nathan was thinking. Warren was a sniper for the Marines. Surely, he knew that.

Rolling my eyes, I looked at Shannon. “Men and their balls.”

She laughed.

Warren pushed himself off the wall when Nathan stood up and moved out of the way. Warren pressed the binoculars into Nathan’s hand as they passed. Without a word, he straddled the bench, swapped out the magazine, and looked around with the scope for a moment. Then he pulled on his ear protection and slipped on his black sunglasses before settling over the weapon. A few seconds later, he fired off three evenly spaced shots.
 

Pow!
 

Pow!

Pow!

When he stopped, he looked through the scope, and then sat up and cracked his knuckles.

Nathan had the binoculars squashed over his eyes. He laughed. “You didn’t even touch it! The target didn’t move!”

Warren stood up and walked in front of Nathan. He shifted Nathan and the binoculars a little bit to the left. “That’s because you’re looking at one hundred yards and not three hundred.”

After a second, Nathan’s jaw went slack. “Holy shit.” He started laughing again, this time in awe.

I smacked Nathan in the stomach. “Let me see!”

He handed me the binoculars, and I searched the three hundred range. Warren’s target had three holes in the face. I pulled the binoculars down and laughed. “That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

He smiled as I passed Shannon the binoculars and then draped my arms around his neck.

Nathan shook his head, resting his hands on his hips. “I can see why the Marine Corps wants you back.”

When we left, I carried Warren’s target proudly to the car. “I think I’m going to frame this and hang it over my bed at home.”
 

Nathan laughed. “You’re not going to hang your shoulder shot over your bed?”
 

I whipped my head around toward him. “Don’t make me have my boyfriend shoot you in the face.”

“Where are we going next?” Warren asked as he loaded his gun case into the back of the SUV.

I rubbed my hands together with a renewed sense of hope. “Let’s go find Rachel Smith.”

11.

Rachel Smith wasn’t easy to find.
 

We spent the better part of that week driving all over San Antonio with no sign of her and without gathering any more evidence on Larry Mendez. I was beginning to think the whole trip might be a bust.

On Friday morning, I rolled toward Warren in the bed with a crystal clear defeat on my face. “This sucks.” I rested my head on his chest and traced my finger along his tattoo. “Maybe we should call it quits and fly home when Shannon leaves on Sunday.”

“You want to go home?” he asked surprised.

“I don’t know. I kinda miss Adrianne.”

He kissed the top of my head and tightened his arm around me. “We’ll do whatever you want.”
 

I pushed up on my elbows next to him. “I want to lie by the pool again for a while today. I’m going to miss the warmth when we go home to the mountains.”

“We can do that.” He brushed my hair away from my face. “Then maybe we can take one more crack at Rachel Smith this afternoon.”

I nodded. “Yeah. We might as well try. We’ve covered Nathan’s entire list though. I don’t know where else we could even look. She could have been passing through San Antonio, you know? She might not have even lived here at all.”

“That’s true,” he agreed.

“I mean, we might have wasted an entire week here for nothing,” I said.

Under the covers, he slid his hand up my bare side and smiled. “I wouldn’t quite say that any of this week has been a waste. I’ve had a pretty good time here in Texas.”

“I would say you have. You’ve stayed in bed with me every morning we’ve been here.” I smiled and bit my lower lip. “For that reason alone, I don’t want to return to the real world.”

His hand ran down my back. “I’m trying to convince you to be a morning person by making them extra good.”

Laughing, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You’re doing a good job of it. I think getting away from everything was exactly what I needed. The nightmares have stopped, and I don’t feel so nervous all the time. You must be a good influence on me.”

He rolled over on top of me and pinned my arms down over my head. “You’re not sick of me yet?”
 

“Not even a little bit.” I smiled and squirmed underneath the weight of his body.

He nodded. “That’s good because I’m not going anywhere,” he said, “for the rest of your life.” He buried his face in the crook of my neck and nipped at my skin.

I giggled as his hair fell into my face. “Well, if that’s true, my daddy is going to insist that you marry me. He’s pretty old-fashioned like that.”

He pulled back and smiled down at me. “I know. I already talked to him about it.”

Wait.

I turned my head and cut my eyes at him. “You what?” The volume of my voice was a little louder than I intended.

He was still grinning. “I might have bounced an idea off him before I came by to see you at work last week.”

“Well, bounce it off of me, would ya?” I pushed him away and sat up on my elbows.