Page 44 of Riordan's Revenge

“Pretend he’s someone ye hate and put a bullet between his eyes.”

I hefted it. Exhaled. “You want me to shoot into the dark?”

“Think some fucker coming after my sister is going to wait until ye have good lighting?”

He had a point. It shouldn’t have been so easy to raise the gun, yet no caution or nerves troubled me. The man in the painting became the mayor, and I was on the riverbank with a chance not to fall.

“Do I need to take off the safety?”

“It doesnae have one. It’ll only fire if ye squeeze the trigger. Put the pad of your index finger to that then use the gun’s sights to line up your target. Straight arm, slow your breathing.”

I did, but peered back to make sure Struan and Cassie were well behind me.

Struan tilted his head. “What are ye waiting for?”

Fucking hell.

With my sights on the distant painting, I squeezed the trigger. A jolt and a crack and the bullet tore from the gun, just like in my dream except I was the one behind the weapon.

It hit something far down the corridor, right as I was recoiling from the shock. Spinning around, I set the gun carefully down on the table then shook out my hand. Cassie danced over.

“Let’s see how ye did losing your bullet virginity.”

The three of us jogged down and took in the portrait with a hole a few inches wide of the man’s head. If this had been a real person, I would’ve missed. My shoulders sank.

To my surprise, Struan clapped me on the back. “Ye did well. None of us hit the picture the first time. Now I’ll show ye how to avoid pulling left when ye shoot.”

The lesson continued. He talked me through how to load and unload and which way the bullets went in the cartridge. How to check if there was one already in the chamber. How not to hesitate if I was in a fight and the other person was armed.

Struan’s gaze went purposefully to his sister. “If her attacker is aiming, he plans to kill. Don’t second-guess someone else’s deadly intentions. Rely on your own.”

After Cassie’s startling police statistics, my view of the world was already shifting.

I took the lesson to heart.

Two shots later, I hit the bull’s-eye.

Pride flushed warm through me. I put my finger to the hole in the middle of the McInver grandfather’s forehead.

Struan whistled. “Nice. Perhaps we’ll all despise ye a little less if ye keep working this hard.”

I snorted. “Glad to impress you.”

“Let’s not go crazy now.”

At the end of the corridor, Tyler approached. My urge to celebrate with Cassie thinned with the way he regarded her.

“Something wrong?” she asked him.

“That favour you asked, I need to talk to you about it.”

Cassie gazed up at him wide-eyed then nodded. “Follow me.”

She directed Tyler into a room off the gallery, leaving the door ajar. I stared after them. What the hell did he need to talk to her about that no one else could hear? Thoughts battered me. I’d asked her if she planned to offer Tyler the same thing she had me.

What if he took her up on it?

I scowled and kept my gaze on the narrow slice I had into the room. Cassie perched on the table, her hands white-knuckling the wood either side of her.

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