Chapter Thirty-Nine
A ustin, Texas
Rio Lang, Ben Paxton, and two other ex-military operatives stacked up at the shoot house door in close quarters combat formation. Each was armed with his weapon of choice. Rio took up last position. Paxton took first.
The building, constructed by Paxton’s security business, was two-story, held many rooms, and was equipped with easily moved targets. There were dummies of women holding babies, and cutouts of military-aged men, each designed to engage small combat units moving through.
Recently, Paxton had added holograms of both enemy fighters and innocent bystanders. The eerie images could be shone on walls and appeared quite real. So that the exercise was never the same, the building could be configured in hundreds of permutations. A man undergoing such training would learn when to dial up the violence and, just as important, when to dial it down. He’d hone his skills on high alert, thinking fast, fine-tuning muzzle control and target discrimination. He would take good kill shots, either to center mass or to the head.
For this kind of work, Rio liked the Navy’s version of a MP5 Heckler her life had true meaning. Up until recent weeks, his ... not so much.
At supper, Sarah again shoved his plate at him so hard he figured that at the very next meal, she’d probably throw it straight into his face. “All right,” he said, giving up. “What’s going on? Why are you such a hissing cat?”
She whirled, and her apron fluttered around her slender shape. “Where’s Becca?” she demanded.
“Becca?” He was truly confused. “Well, she’s in San Antonio. Where she lives.”
“And you’re living in Austin, right? What’s that, about an hour’s drive away from San Antonio?”
He scratched his chin. “Yeah, about that.”
“So when was the last time you visited San Antonio ?” she asked, with emphasis on the name of the city, like that was significant.
“Couple of months ago,” he replied truthfully. “Why?”
“Two months ago?” She spat the words as though they were epithets.
“Yeah.”
Glowering at him, she shook her head. “I pity you. You are a damn fool.” With that, she refused to speak to him any longer.
Beside him, Big Jim continued to smirk. “Told you,” he said, further confusing Rio, “women know about these things.”