Page 89 of Cruel Debts
"No, that was my fault. I forgot to tell you to take it off. I should have said that first." I took the gun from her grip and flicked the safety off, handing it back carefully. Trinity was no idiot, but shewaseasily distracted. So I didn't want her to take her attention off the gun in our hands. "Make sure to keep it pointed away from people now. Those rounds are live, not blanks."
"Got it," she agreed, holding it much more gingerly than before. "Careful."
"Careful doesn't mean be afraid of it, girl," I growled, lining up behind her again. This time, I kept my distance a little, myhands reaching around her from a step behind her, guiding her arms where I knew she'd be most likely to hit her target from. "Okay, now, do just like I said before—breathe in, aim, breathe out, fire."
Her whole body stilled as she followed my orders to a T. Her chest rose and fell with measured precision, her arms straight and anchored like I taught her. When her finger squeezed around the trigger, I braced for her to recoil, but the panic and flinch didn't come this time.
The bullet, however, did. It shredded through the paper on the far end of the range, and she set the gun down on the stand in front of her gently before tossing her hands in the air so she could celebrate her shot.
"Oh my god, Liam, Ihitit! I hit the target!" The excitement was adorable, almost endearing, but all I could focus on was the way her tits bounced as she did, the way that bra did little to contain them while she hopped like a bunny in a little circle, her grin wider than the Rio Grande.
Then her arms fell on my shoulders, and she practically jumped into my arms. I had just enough time to react—in the completely opposite way from what I wanted to—and wrap my arms around her, holding her still against me.
I needed her to calm down. This wasn't a good place to turn into Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, with a spring-loaded tail.
"Trinity, hey, good shot, but can we tone it down? This is a gun range, not a?—"
"I wanna do it again." She was already turned around with her back to me, the gun in her hand again, lined up for her next shot. "I can hit the target better this time."
I didn't have a second to recover before she was popping off the rest of the bullets in the clip. I could only watch as she nailed shot after shot, and while they weren't great, and they weren'tbullseyes, they were all on the page, and most of them were inside the man-shaped lines.
There was definitely room for improvement, but as I watched her apply herself and give it her all, I realized that she'd be great at it someday. With determination like that, failure wasn't an option.
I don't know why the thought sent a wave of despair through my heart.
Trinity didn't pay me a single second of attention until she ran out of bullets, and then the next lesson became learning how to load the clip once she'd emptied it. Putting the little bullets in the slot was tedious, but she did it without complaint, only getting frustrated when the last one popped out of her grip and fell to the floor.
"Oh, shit, I'll get it!" She fell to her hands and knees, scrambling around at my feet until she found the little gold casing. "Here it is!"
And then she looked up at me from her position in front of my feet, hands on my knees as she held the bullet out to me, looking for all the world like some secret little submissive looking for approval from her dom.
And I damn near lost it right then and there.
"Is this the bullet, Liam?" She stood up but didn't move away, and I found myself struggling to breathe as her hand reached for mine and took the clip away. "I'll go ahead and put it in here, then." I watched from a state of shock as she slid the clip home, and then lined up to take more shots. With every bullet she fired, her aim got immeasurably better.
And my sanity slid further and further down the drain, right along with my self-worth and sense of honor.
Because the only thing I could think about right now was bending Trinity McCoy over this fucking counter, banging herbrains out, and then nailing all seven shots in a bullseye to assert my dominance.
And I knew I never would, and that was what hurt the most.
THIRTY-EIGHT
TRINITY
Learning to shoot was easy.Mostly since I had to pretend to be bad at it. Keehn taught me when he came back from overseas, citing the need for his sister to protect herself in this big, bad world. I just wanted to get nearer to Liam and get out of this place. Now that Asher had indulged me with a trip up the mountain, I wanted more freedom. And the lessons I learned with him there on that mountain felt right, good, in every manner in my life.
I was tired of playing it safe. I had to take things into my own hands.
Unfortunately, none of my posturing during our lesson helped. In fact, when he brought me back to the dorm, he was even more distant, and it bothered me immensely that he wouldn't even so much as look my way as he deposited me on the couch and skipped out with a promise to bring home takeout for everyone.
I didn't want takeout. I wantedhim.I was greedy, sure, but it couldn't be helped. I'd never once been able to choose between these three men, not while I was growing up, and not now. And since Asher and I didn't have an exclusivity arrangement, I saw no issue in approaching the other two.
Unfortunately, Hawke was busy, and Asher was on assignment, so that left me to my own devices, sitting in an empty room, an empty home, with nothing to keep me company but my own thoughts.
I tried watching TV. After flipping through a hundred different channels and finding nothing good, I gave up.
I took a shower—first a cold one, then a hot one.
