Page 70 of Broken

“Then do I shoot? Pew, pew, pew.” She made a softnoise as she took aim and he couldn’t help but laugh as she also moved her armsdown the aisle.

“Why not bang, bang, bang?” he asked, extendinghis arms past her.

“Because my gun will go pew, pew, pew.” Shelaughed.

He smiled.

“Okay. Do you see the bottles?” he asked.

“Yep, and it looks to me like you guys have asmidge of a drinking problem.”

“I’m not the only one that drinks, and besides,these have been collected over the past week.”

“You guys haven’t heard of hot chocolate orcoffee?”

Dirty tried to contain his laughter. “Sure, you goahead and tell the guys they need to cut down on their beer and drink coffeeand hot chocolate. Will you allow them to have marshmallows?” he couldn’t helpbut tease.

“Absolutely not. They are much too sweet and onlygood boys and girls can have marshmallows.”

She was adorable. He missed this, just talkingwith her. She was like a different person.

They took aim down her fingers, and no matterwhat, she continued to pew, pew, pew. It was time to put a real gun in herhands, and there were a few to pick. He knew Warden had gotten to train Kim,and Colt was training Rosalie to handle a gun. Now it was his time to showPetal. Someone might have to show Tanya, but he had a feeling she would alreadyknow. It was just something about her that said sheliked to be prepared.

Handing her a small handgun he’d loaded, he placedit in her hands.

“It’s loaded and ready. No safety, just ready totake aim.”

Petal nodded. “Just to shoot.”

“Yes, shoot. Look down your barrel, take aim, andthen when you’re ready, fire.”

Seconds passed. Dirty didn’t pressure her to fire.He waited patiently.

Then, he saw Petal take a deep breath and aim,this time as she fired, there was no pew, and as the gun shot its first bullet,she closed her eyes. The sound and the slight shock took her by surprise. Shedidn’t hit the bottle.

“It’s okay, you can do it again.”

“I didn’t get the target!”

He saw Petal glare, and this time she took aim andshot a second time, and a third. She kept firing until the gun was empty andthere was nothing inside. She handed him back the gun, and without a word hereloaded.

This time, as she took aim, she waited severalseconds and then started to fire. After two more shots, she dropped her arms.

“Are you kidding me? How is this so difficult? Thetargets are not even moving. It makes no sense to me.”

“It takes practice.”

She handed him the gun. “Prove it. Show me thisgun can take out a target.”

Dirty took the gun and aimed, shooting the targetfurthest away without flinching. He held the gun out to her.

“Practice.”

Petal glared at him and then held her position,taking aim and firing. She didn’t get it the first time, or even the second,but the fourth. On the fourth shot, the sound of glass smashing was like sweetmusic to his ears.

Petal let out a little cry. “Oh, my, I did it. Doyou see that? I did it.”

She threw herself at him, and Dirty held her inhis arms. He knew he was not going to stop until she was finally his.

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