Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
RORY
“How’s your head?” Caden asked as we walked towards the parking lot after school, and I grimaced.
“Thumping. I need to train more. I want to be Skeet when I grow up,” I joked, holding onto my bag strap more tightly as he tried to take it from me. “It’s a headache. I can still carry my bag.”
“Give it here,” he grumbled, yanking it and almost making me land on my ass as I tried to hold on. “Aurora, stop being difficult.”
“Never,” I chuckled, giving him a small smile. “You like me being difficult.”
“Wrong,” he grunted, managing to get the bag from me and swung it over his own shoulder.
Tyler had skipped last period and was lounging on the hood of his car smoking a cigarette, watching as the smoke swirled into the air above him like it fascinated him.
“Hey, stud muffin,” I greeted, standing in front of the hood.
He grinned and flicked the cigarette away, sitting up and sliding down a little so his feet were on the ground on either side of my legs as he grabbed handfuls of my ass.
“Hey, baby. You should’ve ditched with me. Nothing goes better with coke quite like your pussy,” he replied, shoving his face between my tits and making motorboating noises. “Fuck, I love these.”
I could tell Caden wanted to scold him about getting high again, but he kept his mouth shut and unlocked his car, letting me deal with him.
“How about you stop doing coke at school?” I deadpanned, and he made loud booing noises.
“Boring! Where’s Luke and Jense?”
“They had to grab stuff from their lockers.”
“Do you think they’re stopping for a quickie? We should have a quickie,” he laughed, nipping my boob and sliding his hand up my skirt.
I swatted it away, giving him a dirty look. “You can wait.”
“You’re a stick in the sandbox,” he grumbled, and I rolled my eyes.
“You mean mud?”
“Sandbox sounds more fun. Unless it’s mud wrestling,” he mused, getting to his feet and fishing his keys from his pocket.
Caden gave me a look that I interpreted as he wanted me to take Tyler’s keys, so I took them and smacked a kiss on Tyler’s cheek.
“I’m driving.”
“Anything for you,” he grinned, grabbing my chin and pulling me closer to kiss me hard.
There was the faint taste of whiskey on his tongue, telling me I’d made the right choice in taking the keys.
Once I’d gotten him in the car, I turned to Caden. “Meet you at home?”
“I think we should travel as a group,” he said carefully, glancing at Tyler through the window. “Especially when he’s going to be useless if you run into trouble.”
“You don’t know how to shoot anyway.”
“You barely do either. Want to drop him at home with the guys and we can go to the range or something? Might be a good idea to get some practice in. Skeet might meet us.”
“Skeet was stupidly busy today. He mentioned something about a meeting with the Devils this afternoon too.”
“They’re being nice to each other now?”
“I don’t think so. They’re just more worried about the Kings and Soldiers instead of each other at the moment,” I said dryly, pulling my phone out. “I’ll call D. He might want to come with us.”
The phone had barely rung twice before Diesel answered, concern in his tone. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, nothing’s wrong. Holloway wants to learn to shoot and we were considering going to the gun range.
I know Skeet’s busy, but did you want to come if you’re not with him?
I’m not that good yet so teaching Caden probably isn’t a great idea,” I sighed, eyeing Lukas and Jensen as they walked out of the main doors.
“I didn’t go with Skeet, no. He took some of the others. I’m already at the range with a few of the guys. I can come and get you if you need me to.”
“We can drive. I’ll get him to drive so I can keep an eye out,” I promised. “We need to drop Ty at the house first. He got fucked up at school again.”
“Text me when you’re on the way. Call if you run into trouble,” he ordered, and I promised we would before hanging up.
“Is he okay?” Jensen asked dryly, making us all look at Tyler, to find him laughing at something on his phone.
“I think so. You guys are just hanging out at Holloway’s, right? Can you stay with him?” I asked, and Lukas frowned.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“We’re meeting Diesel at the gun range. With all the chaos, I want more practice, and Caden wants to learn to shoot. Ty obviously can’t come if he’s fucked up,” I answered with a wince.
“Yeah, we’ll game at the house or something,” Jensen nodded, and I smiled a little as he slipped his hand into Lukas’. It was obvious Lukas was nervous about it, but he didn’t pull away.
“Thanks. We’ll bring Ty there and get changed out of our uniforms.”
We all split up, and Tyler chatted to me the whole drive, telling me all about the things he wanted to do to me when we got home.
He wasn’t happy when I told him I was dropping him off and leaving him with Lukas and Jensen.
Caden and I got changed quickly once the guys had dragged Tyler off to play games, and I made sure to bring my gun, wanting to get used to my own weapon.
Josie was still at the main office and wouldn’t be home until tomorrow night, so we climbed into the Challenger and drove towards Pine Valley without delay. She would have tried talking us out of it.
There was a red car that stayed behind us most of the drive, but they kept their distance and turned off to head towards Lake Rowland, making the anxiety inside me calm. Every car was a threat, and I made sure to keep my eyes on our surroundings until we arrived at the gun range.
Diesel was waiting outside for us, relief on his face when he had his eyes on us.
“No trouble?” he asked as we climbed from the car and locked it.
“Nope. We had a car behind us most of the drive, but they turned off to Lake Rowland,” I explained, following him inside.
Caden scanned the room as he trailed behind us, checking the place out. He didn’t look uncomfortable, just wary.
We stepped into a room that had other people in it, and I recognized Brick and a few others. He gave me a nod in greeting but went back to shooting his targets, while some of the others eyed me with irritation.
Samuel didn’t look happy to see me, but he didn’t say anything.
“Holloway, this one’s for you,” Diesel offered, holding out a handgun like mine. “I’ll go over it a few times with you. We’ll pull it apart and put it back together again.”
Caden didn’t look happy about not jumping straight into firing it, but he didn’t argue as he stood by the table and watched as Diesel started telling him what to do.
“Donovan. Show me what you can do,” Brick called out, my eyes sliding to Diesel, who gave me a nod.
I pulled my gun out and grabbed my ear and eye protection, joining Brick. He let me fire a few shots before stopping me, correcting my stance a little and giving me pointers.
Another guy seemed invested in my progress and told me to adjust my arms, smiling when I hit my target.
“That’s better. You’ll be able to do this with your eyes closed soon.”
“I hope so,” I joked, hesitating before holding my hand out for him to shake. “Rory.”
“I know,” he chuckled, shaking it. “Jonah.”
Both Brick and Jonah were more than happy to help me, leaving Diesel to focus on teaching Caden. It sounded like it was going well from the praise I could hear Diesel giving him when they started shooting.
Samuel and the other guy avoided me, which I was totally okay with since it meant no drama was starting over me being here.
“Want to try moving targets?” Brick offered, and I grinned.
“We can’t just go out and shoot people.”
“The room next door has moving targets,” he chuckled, motioning to Diesel. “Hey. We’re going into the moving target room.”
Diesel didn’t look convinced but nodded, watching us leave the room warily. Brick had kept me safe from the Soldiers, so hopefully that meant he wasn’t likely to kill me once he got me alone and away from Diesel’s view.
Jonah followed, and I waited for them to set everything up before Brick motioned for me to come closer.
“You’ll fuck this up a bunch. Moving targets are a lot harder, but most people you need to shoot at won’t be standing still for you.
Stand here, get into position, and I’ll start it slow, okay?
” he offered, pressing a bunch of buttons on a panel on the wall before the target started slowly moving left, then back to the right.
He wasn’t lying, I missed a lot, but between them, they managed to help me shoot it a few times.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked after I took another shot, and Brick shrugged.
“You’re Skeet’s girl. Slash sacrificed himself for you. Kind of think that makes you important to them. I’d like to know if you’re out with Skeet or one of the guys that you can hold your own. It makes everyone a lot safer if you don’t need saving.”
I looked at Jonah, who snorted. “I’m just being nice. We’re not buddies, Donovan, but Brick’s right. If something goes down, it would be better if you could protect yourself.”
“I can respect that,” I answered, focusing on my moving target again.
We spent hours there, Diesel occasionally poking his head in to make sure no one had murdered me, but I was happily surprised when I finished a faster round of targets and turned to find Skeeter leaning back against the wall studying me.
“You’re improving fast,” he said, motioning for me to do it again.
I did as he asked and took up my position again, firing a few rounds and hitting the target.
“She’ll be a sniper in no time, boss,” Brick joked, patting my shoulder on his way past. “Good job today.”
“Thanks for helping,” I said to both him and Jonah as they left the room, leaving me alone with Skeeter.
He reached out to check my temple, sighing as he finished looking at it and dropped his hand again.
“You’re doing really good,” he finally said, my stomach doing a little flip.
“I’m more comfortable with it now. Today was helpful, Brick and Jonah gave me lots of pointers.”
“I’m glad they’re embracing the fact that you’re not going anywhere.”