Page 61 of Goodnight, Sinners

We’ll start you off small,Jozef signed as he led her toward one cage. He tapped a code into the panel and opened it.You’ll get the codes to these cages so when you feel like shooting, you can come up here without me. You’re always welcome. All staff, including my men, have to book their time in the range, but family can come and go as they please.

Shaun’s heart picked up the pace as Jozef started examining weapons, picking each one up and weighing it in his palm before replacing it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to become comfortable enough with the gun range to come and go at will.

Finally, Jozef chose a weapon. He handed it to her, and she reached for it, hesitating, her hand hovering over his for a moment before taking it.

It felt strange to her. She’d held exactly three guns in her entire life, all on the same day. One when Karl had been killed, and she’d been forced to defend herself and then again when she took one from the locker of the panic room and tried to defend Jozef. And last, when she picked up Havel’s gun to protect them while he recovered. But those times were different. She’d been in panic mode and reaching for those weapons had been automatic, like a reflex. Now, she was willingly choosing to use a weapon.

“I don’t like it,” she told Jozef, looking at him and hoping he could see the indecision.

He caressed her cheek, then dropped his hand to sign,you’ll do fine. Imagine it’s a scalpel and you need to make very precise cuts in your target. With practice, you’ll grow more comfortable and gain confidence. It will become more of an accessory than a monster that weighs on your mind.

She was relieved that he understood, but she wasn’t sure she believed him.

He must have read her continued indecision.When I first held a gun, it felt foreign. It brought back flashes of my parents’ deaths. It took time, but eventually I grew comfortable. Now, it’s an extension of myself. Like a limb.

Shaun had seen the way he was around weapons. They were definitely a part of him. Like he said, an accessory.

“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll try.”

You won’t try, you’ll succeed.

She knew he wasn’t giving her a pep talk when he said she would succeed. He was telling her she didn’t have a choice. She would learn to shoot and she would learn to shoot well because he was going to make damn sure she could.

Unfortunately for Jozef, it turned out that Shaun had absolutely no natural ability.

Twenty minutes later, she growled in frustration. “This is nothing like cutting with a scalpel!”

Jozef chuckled and took the gun from her, setting it on the platform in front of her. He hit the button next to the wall, which called her target forward, then removed the earmuffs from her head.

You weren’t any good with a scalpel the first time you picked one up.

She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. “How do you know?”

No one is good the first time they try something.

“Maybe I’m a prodigy.”

Maybe, but you’re definitely not a shooting prodigy.He unhooked the target and held it up. She’d used an entire clip and hit her target twice, neither bullet actually hitting the person’s outline on the target.

“I think you got mine too.”

Shaun turned to find Saskia standing behind her. Her pulse picked up as she noticed the gun held low at Saskia’s side. She looked more mature than usual, standing there in ripped blue jeans and a pink hoodie, blue earmuffs around her neck and her gun at her side.

She handed Shaun her paper target. Shaun took it from her and winced as she saw the stray bullet hole in the paper's edge. Saskia’s shots had all landed within the outline.

“You’re not very good at this.”

“It’s my first time,” Shaun argued.

“It shows.”

Before Shaun could say anything else, Saskia stalked away, heading for the armoury. Maybe to check her gun in.

Shaun sighed and turned to look at Jozef. “She’s mad at me because I kicked her out of Adam’s cell earlier.”

Jozef looked at her speculatively.Why?

“She was interfering, and she refused to listen when I asked her to stop questioning him.” She chewed her lip before confessing her thoughts, “I didn’t like the way he was looking at her. Sort of predatory.”

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