Page 44 of Rise of Temptation

“I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I think this meeting is over.” Enzo lifts me off of his lap and rises to his feet, towering over Ivan until he finally deigns to stand.

“I think you know exactly what I mean,” he says. But then he turns on his heel and marches out, his bodyguard following close behind. Sal goes with them, leaving me alone with Enzo.

I stay where I am, slightly behind him, waiting for him to give me some indication of his mood. Finally, he turns to me and says, “I need to shoot something.”

Something? Or someone?

Chapter 33

Enzo

The shooting range is empty, which is what I prefer even when I come by myself. But if anyone happened to be here this time, when I have Elise with me, she’d have to sit and watch. As it stands, I have a choice to make. I can still make her watch, or I can challenge her to a shooting competition. I’ve never seen her shoot, but I know she’s trained. I also know my own skills, and I’m confident I can win.

The range is one of the many Family businesses, so I help myself to the selection of guns in the back room. When I emerge, Elise has taken a seat along the wall to watch. She gives me a confused look when I hold up two identical Glocks.

“Let’s see what you can do,” I say.

Her eyes narrow in suspicion. “You’re going to let me shoot?”

“Sure.” I shrug. “Let’s make it a contest.”

“What if I shoot you?”

“Don’t.”

She accepts the gun and immediately opens the chamber to see if it’s loaded. It’s not; I’m not an idiot. She could’ve pointed it at me the minute I handed it over to her.

“I have ammo in my pocket,” I say before leading the way to the lanes where the targets are waiting to be set up.

Once we’re ready to go, I hand her a few magazines, and we head to our own lanes.

“Let’s warm up and then we can see if your formal training was better than my… shall we say… informal training,” I suggest.

She nods and takes her time loading her gun and examining her surroundings. I try to hide how closely I’m watching her, but she looks up at me once she’s ready and gives me a cautious smile.

“Thanks for this. I’m sure I’ve gotten rusty since I haven’t been able to practice while I’ve been undercover. Plus, shooting stuff is one of my favorite ways to burn off my frustration,” she admits.

“What are the other ways?” I ask, unable to contain my curiosity.

“Fucking.”

Her answer is simple, but it shoots me straight in the dick. Before I have a chance to respond, she flips her long, dark hair over her shoulder and aims her gun at the paper target. Three rapid-fire shots hit the poor guy in the heart, and I blink back my surprise.This is rusty?

I know she knows I was watching, but I turn back to my own target and start shooting.

We don’t try to speak over the loud gunshots and through our ear protection. I allow myself to get into the zone and fire off as many shots as I can in quick succession. After a while, I realize she has stopped shooting, so I turn and find her watching me.

“You ready?” I ask, removing my noise-canceling ear muffs.

“Ready to win,” she says, flexing her bicep and then laughing.

“You’re good,” I admit. “I’ll give you that. But you won’t win.”

“I have to be good,” she says, shrugging. “Part of the job.”

“Mine too.”

A strange look flickers across her face. It’s so fast, I’m almost able to convince myself it didn’t happen, but I know what I saw. Unfortunately, it’s gone before I can dissect what it means.

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