Page 119 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

“This is my girlfriend, Kaeli,” he said, his voice actually sounding a little smug. “Kaeli, this is Mick.”

I might’ve said the appropriate greeting…I wasn’t sure. My head was still celebrating the fact that Noah had just called me his girlfriend. I heard him tell the guy it was my first time and that he wanted to teach me, or something like that, and then I was signing something and we were moving down a corridor.

Noah stopped at a section down near the end and started organizing…I don’t know…guns and stuff…

I glanced around while he was busy, checking the place out. We seemed to be the only people there, which relieved me a little. If I was going to make an idiot out of myself, the less people who saw, the better.

“Here…”

I turned to see Noah holding out a pair of safety glasses for me to take. I watched him for a second before I took them. He was in complete business mode and, to be quite honest, I was a little turned on, because business mode equaled bossy Noah. Yum.

“Uh…do you want me to put these on now?”

“No. I’ll go over the features of the gun first. Come here.”

I stepped closer to him, my gaze drawn to the gun in his hand.

“We’re just going to use my Glock today. It’s a good gun to start with, easy for beginners, but I think I’d like to get you something with a manual safety.”

I frowned at the gun, suddenly hesitant to touch it. “It doesn’t have a safety thingy?”

His lips twitched but he managed to keep a straight face. “Not like you’re thinking. It has three safety mechanisms, but I’m not going to go into them right now. All you need to know, is the trigger safety.” Holding the gun so it was pointing down, away from us, he pointed to the trigger. “See that bit in the middle of the trigger? That’s the safety mechanism. If that’s not pulled properly, the gun won’t fire.”

I stared at it carefully. “Okay.”

“Alright, stand here,” he said, maneuvering me so I was facing down the range. Standing behind me, he held the gun out for me to take. I hesitated.

“It’s okay. The chamber’s empty. Just take it and feel it in your hand first. I’m just going to show you how to hold it and how to stand while you’re firing.”

Sliding the glasses on top of my head, I took it from him with a careful hand. It was lighter than I expected.

“Okay, stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, that’s it, and hold the gun out in front of you, using your other hand to keep it steady.”

I did as he said, kind of copy-catting what I’d seen in every action movie. Except for those ones where the bad guys held their guns on the side. I didn’t understand that at all.

“So like I said, to fire the gun, you have to pull the safety trigger all the way in. You’ll find a little bit of slack before it fires but it’s pretty light on a Glock. You can pull it now to feel it if you like.”

I did. I felt like I was playing with a toy gun, but I wasn’t going to mention that to Noah.

“Good. Now, this gun is a semi-automatic, so it reloads the bullets for you. Pull the trigger again, but this time listen when you release it. When it gets to a certain position, you’ll hear a click. That’s the reset position. When it gets to that point, the gun’s ready to shoot again.”

I was fascinated by the way he explained it all. I could tell it was his passion. No wonder he was so good at it. I pulled the trigger and listened as I released it, hearing the little click he was talking about.

“Alright. Do you think you’re ready to give it a go?”

I went for enthusiasm, because he was kind of rubbing off on me. “Yes!”

I felt his breath blow over the back of my neck from his chuckle, sending shivers down my spine. I tried to stop my head from clouding over so I could concentrate on what I was doing, but damn, he was making it hard.

Placing his hand over mine on the gun, he directed me to hold it down and away and picked up what I assumed was the bullet cartridge.

“This is the magazine,” he said. “You take it.”

I took it off him and, placing his hand over mine, he showed me how to fit it into the gun.

“Okay, show me your stance.”

I held the gun up with both hands and positioned my feet how he’d told me, looking down the range through the little guide thingies on top of the gun.

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