Page 46 of Justice for Aleta

BOOM!The pistol fired and that time, she held onto the weapon and stood there, frozen. “Look!” she crowed all of a sudden. “I hit it!”

“Yeah! You did. That was good! Let’s try it again. This time, fire twice in a row. It’s okay. The gun will cycle. You don’t have to do anything else to it. Get ready and take your stance.”

He watched, proud as a peacock, as she fired two rounds into the target on the far side of the barn. Both shots were within the silhouette. Yeah, they weren’t in the kill range, but that was good enough to stop someone. Reloading the magazine after racking one into the chamber, he held it out to her again. “Empty the mag. Fire them all, one right after another. Just do it. Let’s see how you do.”

To his amazement, she emptied all nine rounds into the target, and she managed to get five of them in the kill range. “Good job!” If she could do that, he was about to up the ante.

He took the big P97 away from her and loaded the GlockG26 Gen 4, then loaded the extended magazine with eighteen rounds of 9mmLuger, racked one in, and reloaded the mag, all the while wondering how she’d react to the lighter, subcompact weapon. “This isn’t like the other gun. It’s over a pound unloaded. This one is really light and easy to handle, plus it’s chambered for 9mm. Same procedure, only know that the trigger on this has an automatic safety. Half a pull doesn’t do anything. You have to pull the trigger all the way back. Ear protection,” he reminded her and watched as she put her ear plugs back in. “Let ‘er rip, babe.”

He watched as she took her stance, leveled the weapon at the target, and let the shell casings fly. She didn’t stop until she’d emptied the weapon, and even then, she kept pulling the trigger. “Babe! You’re done! It’s empty! Stop!” She lowered the weapon, and it was only then that he looked at the target.

All but two of the nineteen shots were in the kill zone. “Holy hell,” Jack whispered.

“I did good, huh?” Aleta asked, smiling.

“No. You did great. You sure you never did this before?”

“Positive. Does this mean I can have my own gun?”

“It means that after you’ve practiced for a week, you can have your own gun. This one. I’ll teach you to reload.” He pointed to six boxes of 9mm hollow points. “You’ll use every one of these today. Then we’ll do it again tomorrow.”

It took him less than three minutes to teach her how to reload the magazine, chamber a round, and slip another in the mag before she emptied it into the target, with about the same results. Jack was beyond thrilled. A few more days practice and if she had to defend herself, he was pretty sure she could.

“So let’s see you shoot,” she said when she’d finished. “Go on.”

Jack stood in front of the target, the Kimber in his hip holster. Hands to his sides, he stared at the black silhouette on the cardboard and pictured Moss’s face there, leering at him.It’s him or you, trooper. Make it count. See your target, take your target. You’ll only get one chance to save your own life.Jack listened to his trainer’s voice in his head, thinking back to the academy.It’s him or you, trooper.

He drew and emptied the Kimber in under fifteen seconds. Every shot went straight into the center and pulverized a two-inch spot on the target. When he stopped, weapon still aloft, he assessed the situation. The weapon’s magazine was empty and his suspect was subdued. That was his objective, and he’d met it. Completely zoned out and in the moment, he came back to himself when he heard a soft voice whisper, “Wow. That’s impressive.”

“Thanks.” Holstering the weapon, he turned to Aleta. “It’s my job.”

“Will I ever be that good?”

“I don’t know. I’ve had a lot of years of practice. But you’ve got a good start,” he told her, gathering up weapons and equipment. “Come on. We’ve got a lot of cleaning to do. A dirty weapon is a dangerous weapon.”

He and one of the team chatted as they all headed back to the house, and when they were locked in, he helped Aleta learn to field strip the Glock and clean it while he cleaned the Ruger and the Kimber. They hadn’t shot the Rossi or the rifle, but it didn’t matter. He wanted her to keep using the Glock until she felt comfortable with it. It seemed to suit her, and it would definitely do the job.

They spent the evening watching silly shows on TV, eating popcorn, drinking sodas, and cuddling on the sofa. They’d only been together for a little over a week, and Jack hoped their time together wasn’t about to run out.

* * *

The breakfast disheswere done and they were in the process of starting laundry when Jack’s phone rang?a Texas area code. “Fletcher.”

“Kentucky! How ya doin’?” a voice called out, and Jack recognized it immediately.

“Doin’ good, Cruz. You guys doin’ okay down there?”

“Yeah. Pretty damn good. Wanted you to know, the FBI located the Stone girl. She’s at Ortiz’s compound outside Austin. The good news is that she’s alive. The bad news is that it appears she was injured in the accident and wasn’t seen medically. She’s dragging a leg, and it looks as though she’s been beaten repeatedly, but she’s cooking for him, and that’s all he cares about.”

Jack was afraid to ask. “Anything else?”

“If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, I’m sure of it. Ortiz has hookers in and out all the time. He thinks of women as his to play with. I’m sure he’s probably raped her repeatedly and given her to Moss to use too. Our informant said she acted like a zombie, didn’t talk, eyes kinda glazed over. She’s in trouble. And if she gets to the point where she can’t cook for him, well, who knows what he’ll do to her, or with her.”

“At least you know where she is.”

“Yeah, but we’re trying to figure out how to extract her without starting a war. Menendez is still looking for her. I don’t know a lot, but I do know DonHernan is very respectful of women. If he finds her and she’s in that kind of shape, blood will flow like a champagne fountain at a Catholic wedding. You can count on it. DonHernan may be a drug kingpin and a brutal overlord, but he’s a gentleman, and that shit won’t fly with him.”

“At least he has one redeeming quality,” Jack offered.

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