Page 120 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

“Good. Now when you fire, you’re going to feel a little bit of recoil. It’s not too bad with this gun, but I want you to be ready for it.”

“Okay,” I breathed. I could feel the adrenalin starting to pump through me.

He slid the glasses down over my eyes, then placed some earmuffs over my head. Holding one earpiece away from my ear, he shifted to my side a little.

“I’m just going to stand back a little. Just relax. Focus on your target, and breathe. I find the best way to get a good shot, is to breath out, long and slow, then squeeze the trigger.”

I nodded. I was nervous and excited, but I just really wanted to do him proud.

Feeling him back away, I focused on the target down the range. I went through a mental checklist of everything he’d said, and tried to slow my breathing, taking long, slow breaths like he’d said. When I felt ready, I exhaled slowly, and squeezed.

The force of the shot did push me back a little, but I’d been prepared for it. I wasn’t sure if the bullet hit anything. It was too far away to see.

I stood still for a moment, unsure whether he wanted me to shoot again. Making sure to keep the gun pointing down the range, I turned to look at him. He nodded his head and motioned for me to keep shooting.

So I did.

I couldn’t hear the click he’d spoken about before to know when the trigger had reset, but I thought I remembered roughly where it’d been, so I kept shooting. I tried to imagine it was Aaron standing down the range instead of the paper. It seemed to help.

When the bullets ran out, I lowered the gun to the ground in front of me like I’d seen Noah do earlier. It kind of made me feel bad ass. I liked it.

Noah came to my side and took the gun off me, taking out the magazine and checking that the chamber was empty before putting it down and hitting the button to send the paper man flying forward.

Sliding the glasses and earmuffs onto the table, I turned to see Noah watching me.

“How did that feel?” he asked.

“Amazing!” I said, grinning like an idiot. “I feel kind of bad ass now.

He laughed and shook his head. “Well, let’s see how you did.”

Glancing over his shoulder, I saw the paper man almost before us, and when I saw where all the holes were, I thought I’d done pretty well. There were a few holes around the edges, but most of them were over the chest area. Two holes, which I assumed were from when I’d pictured Aaron, were in paper man’s head - one right in the eye. Yes!

“Fuck me,” Noah breathed. He glanced from paper man to me then back again.

I noticed he was breathing a little heavier than he was before.

He turned to face me full on, his eyes dark and dangerous. “I didn’t think you could possibly get any hotter than you already were, but I seriously want to fuck you right now.”

Oh, shit.

Heat pooled between my legs. I tried to keep my head because I was likely to let him take me right there if I didn’t, so exhaled and glanced over to paper man.

“So I did okay then?”

His eyes narrowed and he growled. “I need to get you home.”

Grabbing up his Glock and other gun paraphernalia, he took my hand and led me towards the door at a brisk pace.

We’d just gotten into the parking lot when we came face to face with a girl.

“Patch,” she said, her eyes wide with surprise.

I frowned at her, not because she called Noah, Patch, although that did confuse me. It was the fact that I recognized her. It was that girl who’d come to my school for those couple of weeks. What was her name again…? Ah yes.

“Sarah?”

She glanced at me, but her gaze immediately went back to Noah, more or less ignoring me. What the hell?

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