Page 2 of Bullseye
I’m sorry for him, but it’s not my problem.
Christ. My brain’s a cluttered mess. I’m no good at handling a crapload of thoughts at once. No man is. The way a woman can multitask like Tess did, Nick’s kid, our old VP, is astounding. She brainstormed the expansion of our organization while handling a world of shit, and frankly, that would just be impossible for most men. At least it is to a guy like me. I see straight and shoot straight.
Pushing the damned image of that night and the kid from my mind, I set up to unload my magazine. Forget the rush of hormones, unloading twenty-five rounds will feel damned near orgasmic.
I need the release because today is September thirtieth. The day Mikey and Tony are freed. The last time I saw them, I was walking out of Sing Sing, free after only six months on my three-year sentence. I’ll never forget the look in their eyes as they peered out from their cages…
“Avery Fucking Pairings,” they snarled and spat as I hurried past, a free man, thanks to the fact that Don Bordono likes me and called in some favors.
“One day, when we’re out of here and find you, you’ll wish you were still in this hellhole.” Mikey sneered. His fleshy cheeks covered most of his eyes when he smiled.
“That’s a promise,” Tony added, flipping me the bird on the hand with only four fingers. He’d lost his pinkie during an initiation into the Bordono family.
An unease churns in my gut.
Yeah, okay, Mikey and Tony don’t scare me. They’re low-level thugs who work directly for a dealer, Ironclad, who works formyold boss and my father’s boss, Bordono. But… small men with big vendettas can do stupid things. And they swore to me they’d seek vengeance on me and anyone I loved.
That’s why I’m hiding out here, in Hoppa. Fortunately—and unfortunately—“anyone I love” doesn’t mean my old man so much anymore, since he’s still back on Long Island and on Mikey and Tony’s turf. But even if they did come looking for him, my old man is in so deep with Bordono, he’s mostly untouchable.
However, “anyone I love” does mean Nick, the founder and President of the Steel Knights, Harry, my best friend since college, and the guys at the club. Yeah, the guys can sure as hell take care of themselves if they have to. They’ve proven that just with this last raid from the Unchained Dogs when the scum tried to hit us on our turf. Sure, we had injuries, but we held off and chased them back.
But now that we’re down men—and woman, counting Tess—we’re in a tough spot. I don’t care that some of the guys, including Harry, didn’t like her much, I thought she had some good ideas. And her guy that she brought in—CJ—may have once been a Dog, but damn, the man could fight. He was a good man to have on our side. Even Nick’s son, Taylor, who was a total psychopath, was at least another body—and one who was happy to kill.
So, now we’re light. That’s why, even though opening up the club to new prospects can be risky, it’s the only way. We need members.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
What the hell? Spinning around, but still behind my partition, I glance at the lane on the opposite side of the range. Who the hell is that? Jackson, the guy who runs this range, promised I’d be here alone. I’m always alone at this hour.
Glancing farther around the partition, I see her. Wow. No wonder Jackson let her in. Even in her mandatory goggles and ear protection, she is all female. She’s got short wavy hair that falls to one side, and in her deep purple fitted shirt that covers her from neck to waist, hugging all her impressive curves, she is damned sexy.
Boom!
Fighting to hold back a chuckle, I can’t help the traitorous grin that escapes. Starting at one corner of my mouth, it spreads like wildfire across my lips, but I’ve got to control it. It’s my usual charming smile, the one that gets me out of trouble more often than it gets me in, but still.
No, I don’t know her in the least, but something tells me this is not a woman to mess with, especially when she’s holding a loaded pistol. Yet I want to see more.
“Never step out of the lane with your finger on the trigger. Stay put.” My father’s words are swimming in my brain. He’s right. You never put yourself, or anyone else, at risk by stepping backward or worse, forward around the partition. And you never move with your finger on the trigger.
Of course, as I grew older, I learned that saying was actually Bordono code for, “Stay put.” Thankfully, since I ran to Hoppa, I haven’t had any need for the Bordono crime family’s codes or sharpshooting. And I intend to keep it that way.
And I also intend to catch some more of her…
Placing my pistol on the table with the muzzle toward my mark, I step back around my partition and hang just in the hallway, where I can get a better look at her.
From the safety of the hallway, I watch her. Her body isn’t all that thin, but it’s lean, and strong, and toned.Boom!When she shoots, her arms are ramrod straight, but that’s an easy adjustment to make on an experienced shooter, and, looking down her lane to see she’s hit her target multiple times, it’s obvious she is that.
My gaze drops to her butt in her skintight black leather pants. Firm and high and round… Yup, I was right. All female. As she squeezes the trigger, her—
“Hey!” Whipping her head around, but keeping her gun on the target ahead of her, she catches me. I’ll be damned, the entire side of her head is shaved.
This girl is hot shit.
“Don’t be a perv,” she snaps, and turning her head forward once more, she unloads the rest of her magazine.
Chuckling, I step back into my alley. Standing behind her in my long-sleeved black shirt and black jeans with black high combat boots, I probably did look like a perv.
Picking up my piece, a cocky grin sweeps across my face. She’s a pretty good shot. But now, it’s time to school her on how a master marksman shoots. One who’s grown up on the fringes of a crime family, with a sharpshooter for a father.
