Page 92 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
My mouth opened and shut.
“I bet you’ve never fired a gun, have you?”Gina asked.
I hadn’t.As many times as I fantasized about killing Shock, I never put thought into the actual deed.Maybe that was why he singled me out.I was the proverbial lamb to slaughter.“I haven’t.”
“Thenyouget schooled first.”Gina led us down an exquisitely simple, curved wooden staircase.The expense of this house must have been astronomical.
“What did your grandfather do?”Zoe asked Danielle.
“Dot-com startups before the bust.His was one of the companies that didn’t go under, so the stock appreciated in value when everyone else’s tanked.”
“How much money do you have?”
“Zoe!”I flushed red with embarrassment at my daughter’s question.
But Danielle was extremely patient.“On paper?Sprout and I are worth seven hundred million, give or take about four to six hundred thousand in market fluctuations right now.But I can’t touch much of that.In reality, there’s about a million and a half in liquid assets.”
Zoe and I were shocked speechless.
Gina nudged me.“Makes my nursing salary look like shit, doesn’t it?”
I nodded.
The ironic part of this conversation was that I knew people richer than Danielle.Two of the vacation houses I cleaned were owned by financiers.Their net worth was much bigger than Danielle’s million and a half.I kept that information to myself.Zoe didn’t need to know that the teenagers she hung out with on the docks each summer were richer than this.She might get ideas.
Gina led us out of the house to a new outbuilding set on the hill.Inside, there was almost every style of gun imaginable available.From rifles to a tiny .22 caliber pistol that was almost smaller than my hand.“Who uses this?”
Gina looked me up and down.“Someone brand new to guns.That little puppy is only good at close range and fires two shots.”
Zoe leaned in to admire it.“Can I get one like that?”
“No,” I blurted automatically.
“Sorry, kiddo, you don’t carry your own until you’ve done at least a year on the range.That’s the rules.”Gina took the tiny gun from me and put it back in the case.She pulled her weapon out of a concealed holster.It wasn’t much bigger.“This is what I carry.”She explained the name, capacity, and the enhancements in the model to make it easier for people with smaller hands to shoot.
“The very first rule of all firearms is that they are loaded until you confirm they aren’t.”
“You keep all these loaded?”I took a step away from the gun display.
“Of course not.But you should always treat them as if they were; that’s the lesson.”
Oh.As lessons go, that was a very good one.
Gina went on to show how to check the gun.More importantly, how to hold the weapon away from anyone as you did.When it was my turn, my hands shook.
I swallowed.This wasn’t me.Zoe, however, was practically devouring the lesson.Her empty hands mimicked Gina’s motions.
This wasn’t right.
“I can’t do this.”
Gina stopped talking and studied me.“I’m surprised at you.”
I glared back.“Why?”
She spoke carefully, “Because I thought you’d do anything to protect your child.”
My jaw set.“I am protecting her.What if her grip slips?What if someone takes this thing away from her?”A million other what-ifs ran through my head.
