“Maybe.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hawk was more than happy to offer lessons when I sparred with him yesterday.”
“I know, Red. Why do you think I’m taking you myself, today?”
“Is this a ‘no one teaches my woman’ or more of a ‘no one shoots my gun’ type of situation?”
“Neither. I’m a better shot than Hawk is, and he knows it. Makes sense that I’m the one to teach you. But I do love hearing you call yourself ‘my woman’.”
“I like saying it.” The blanket fell away from her as she reached up to stretch her arms above her head. Gage tried not to groan when the smallest sliver of skin on her belly peeked through as her shirt lifted, but failed. With the way her face turned the most delicious shade of strawberry red at the sound, he wasn’t too mad at himself.
* * *
“This floor is where we run all of our drills and simulations.”
Sloane had a hard time not letting her jaw fall open. The training facility was incredible. She’d heard the guys talking about it from time to time, but it was a whole different thing to experience it in person.
“So, you make up scenarios to run the teams through that come here? Like robberies or hostage situations?”
“That’s exactly what we do. There’s basically a catalog of scenarios that I’ve already programmed all the lights and sounds to. The organizations that come here to train can either pick something standard from that catalog, or we’ll work with their training personnel to design scenarios and simulations that they specifically want to run through.”
“So, if Dallas SWAT wants to practice breaching a residence with an armed individual inside?”
“Right. We have a scenario for that. And if you look over there,” Gage pointed across the open floor. “That’s the door we would have them practice breaching. We have several ways to enter that room, and we can also barricade the doors a bunch of different ways to make it more challenging. We can even change the visibility out here on the main floor or inside the room with smoke machines and different lighting setups.”
“This is incredible. Where’s the gun range? Is there a level below us right now?”
“Should I be worried at how excited you are to practice?” he teased.
“No. But I am looking forward to knowing I have options to protect myself.”
“You do have options. And I want you to know how to use all of them, even if I never plan to let you out of my sight when we aren’t at home.”
“So was I right?”
“Yes. It’s downstairs.”
She nodded, looking around the complex. “What are all the cameras for?”
Gage laughed. “You’re full of questions, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know why I feel like a kid on Christmas. It’s not every day you get invited to see something like this.”
“So, it’s better than a day on the couch?”
“Definitely. Now, what are the cameras for?”
Gage slipped his hand over hers. They walked into a space that was clearly set up as a classroom, with long tables and chairs set to face the front of the room. She watched as he clicked over a few switches, typed something into a keyboard and then lowered a screen on the far wall. Several camera angles on the training floor projected up onto the screen.
“Oh, this is incredible! So, while you have a team on the floor, immersed in the exercise, you can have another one in here, getting to watch and dissect their decisions. Or have them come in and critique their actions once the simulation is complete?”
“Exactly. Red, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were hiding some law enforcement training in your background.” He laughed, but her face fell at his words.
“Kimi taught me a lot, after everything. She’s where my training began.”
“I should have known even in the face of all of that, you’d be an incredible student.”
She smiled. “So, who controls the cameras?”