Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
I chewed on my lower lip nervously as Kain pulled open the door for me. A shooting range? Who takes a girl on a date to a shooting range?
“Montgomery!”
Ask the universe a question, and the universe will deliver answers.
Kain reached over the counter and shook the hand of the clerk who knew him on a last name basis.
I looked around the front side of the business, careful not to wear my wonder on my face.
The main entrance opened into a store, exhibiting dozens upon dozens of different firearms, ammunition, body armor.
My eyes scanned the glass cases that kept the display weapons from prying hands.
I wondered if the glass was bulletproof.
Then again, who was dumb enough to attempt to shoot up a gun store?
The store, despite its intimidating stock, was kept well.
The smell was reminiscent of July 5th mornings, the way the streets smelled after a night of July 4th fireworks.
“You’ve got the back cleared out for me?” Kain asked, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. The clerk behind the counter shot me a wary glance. It almost looked like he was… worried about me. I read his name tag. Carlos.
Carlos took Kain’s credit card, nodding quietly. “Yeah, I expected more people… with you closing out the range, and all. So, uh… it’s just a party of two?”
Kain chose to ignore the question. Probably because the answer was obvious. Instead, he just read off his order as if he were buying lunch.
“Glasses. Earmuffs. Two G18 magazines. A hundred rounds of nine millimeter ammo. Brass casings, copper jackets. I don’t care which brand.” He looked at me over his shoulder, almost smiling when he asked, “Do you have a preference?”
“Funny,” I replied sarcastically, my eyes rolling. Carlos’ eyebrows raised, eyes shifting wildly between Kain and I. Cautiously, he reached under his counter for two boxes of bullets, eyes on me the entire time. Something about Carlos’ behavior was beginning to entertain Kain.
“You wanna pick the piece?” Kain asked as he signed the receipt. I shrugged, which he took as a yes. He pointed at a display case. “Over there, any one on the second shelf.”
I ambled over the display, puffing my cheeks as I looked over my rental choices. Some people go on dates and rent bowling shoes. Kain and I apparently rent handguns.
They were all similar in appearance, heavy black metal things. Some brands I could actually distinguish from others. Even still, it was all the same to me. Deadly weapons. I was literally taking my pick of a deadly weapon.
I stopped walking upon finding the gun that stood out to me.
“This one is pretty,” I announced, pointing at a black handgun with rose gold trim. Kain got a look at my choice, a single eyebrow turning up amusedly.
“You heard the lady.”
After a slightly shaky handing over of the gun, Carlos lead us into the back of the building. There, twelve shooting stalls were set up, all completely empty, yet prepped with targets. We stopped at the first, and I waved goodbye to the nervous clerk before he reluctantly left us there alone.
“What’s his problem?” I asked as soon as I was sure he was gone. Kain chuckled, shaking his head as he began to load the magazines.
“He thinks you’re in danger,” Kain replied, inserting in the bullets one by one. “Before we arrived, I rented all twelve stalls for the next hour and requested that all the security cameras be shut off.”
“That is…” I giggled at the irony. “…kind of suspicious.”
“Yeah,” Kain agreed, popping the magazine back into place. “It was either that, or risk the full Fame-O-Licious spread. You ready?”
“Ready for?”
“You’ve learned how to disarm. Now we’ve gotta work on what you do with the gun after it’s in your hands.
” He flipped the gun over, grasping it at the barrel as he handed it over to me.
I took the gun at the handle, slipping my pointer finger into the trigger.
“Yooo! That’s loaded,” Kain reminded, bringing his hands up.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t point it at me.
Keep your finger off the trigger till you’re ready to fire. ”
“The safety is on,” I informed, flashing him a smile. “Mm-hmm! I actually did read those diagrams you e-mailed me.” I pointed at the gun in my hand. “This… is a Glock 19. The one in your car… That was a… Beretta 92?”
“M9,” he corrected, evidently still impressed. “It was a Beretta M9.”
“Almost the same thing.” I shrugged as he slipped on my head gear. “Are the headphone things necessary? I saw you had earplugs in your glove compartment, too.” I slipped on my shooting glasses. “What happens when you shoot a gun with no ear protection?”
“You eventually lose your hearing if you do it enough times,” he explained, lifting one side of my headphones so I’d hear him. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard anything as loud as a close range gunshot.”
“So in an emergency situation, if I shoot a gun like this and I don’t have anything over or in my ears…?”
“Your ears will ring really bad for a while, but you’ll recover.
Nobody really thinks about their ears when it’s life or death, though.
” Kain slipped on his headgear and glasses.
He reached over and flipped a switch on my headset.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice coming through some walkie-talkie device within the headset.
“I can hear you in the headphones,” I marveled. “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I can hear you,” he replied. “Now, show me your stance.”
I nodded, turning to face the paper target pushed at least ten yards away from me. It was in the shape of a man, from the lower torso and up; two bullseyes, one at the head and one at the heart. I let out a slow breath, widening my legs as I lifted the gun until it was parallel to my nose.
“Lift the gun a little higher, just below it bein’ level with your eyes,” Kain advised, coming up behind me. “Spread your legs apart just a little bit more. You got your balance?”
I nodded.
“Um… I don’t want to shoot anyone in their heart or head, though, Kain,” I declared.
He laughed at this. “If you can shoot that target in the head or heart on your first go, then we really don’t need to be here.”
I took that as a challenge.
Dozens gunshots and laughs later, I hadn’t even hit the paper. There were two bullets left in the second magazine and I turned to Kain, skeptical about this whole thing.
“I think there’s something wrong with that target.”
Kain tried not to smile. “What does that even mean?”
“I’m just thinking… hey, maybe it’s not as close as we think it is?”
“Hmm.” Kain thought about this. “You mind if I…?”
I nodded, flipping the gun so the barrel would be facing away from him as I handed it over.
We switched spots, now with me behind him. Kain raised the gun just below eye level, pulling the trigger once. Ten yards away, a perfect circle ripped into the red center of the target’s bullseye head.
Kain smiled, lowering the gun, and tossing a look my way. “The target works just fine.”
“What the f—”
“It takes practice,” he assured, a soothing quality to his voice, checking his phone for the time. “We’re almost out of time, though. C’mere,” he nodded me closer.
Sidestepping around me, he eased the gun back into my hand. I raised the gun again, this time with his hand guiding my positioning.
“Where do you want it to hit?” he asked, his chin barely touching the back of my head. I could feel the warmth of his body radiating into my back, making it that much harder to focus on my mark.
“Shoulder,” I chose.
“Okay.” He moved my hand a little to the right, angling the gun downward just a smidge. “Are you lookin’ at the shoulder?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Try focusing on the space above it,” Kain advised, letting go of my hand. “You good?”
“Yeah.”
“Pull.”
POW!
I missed the shoulder. But this time, only by an inch too high. “I hit the paper!”
“You did!” Kain smiled proudly. It was so genuine. If he was making a mockery of how excited I was, I couldn’t tell.
As the headphones were coming off, I got the same feeling in my stomach that I felt when I was a child, and my family was leaving Disney World. It was all over too soon.
Full disclosure, shooting at the range was exhilarating. It was like a heavily involved game of darts, that also made me feel kind of powerful. I wanted to come back as soon as I could.
“So when’s lesson three?”
Kain was removing his head gear when my question caught him by surprise. “You actually wanna come back?” he asked.
“Yeah, it was fun!” I admitted. “Safe… Legal… And the adrenaline rush!” It appeared that he was amused by my enthusiasm. “What’s funny?”
He nodded toward the door for us to head out, answering my question as we walked.
“So Sanaa called me this morning, apparently already aware we were goin’ out today.
She asks me what I’ve got planned, and when I told her, she practically cussed my ass out.
” I would’ve agreed with that response an hour ago myself.
Kain breathed out a laugh. “We can come back whenever you’re able to get outta the house again. It’s up to you.”
We passed through the gun shop again. I turned over my shoulder as Kain let Carlos know everything was left at the stall.
Carlos’ shoulders relaxed a little upon seeing that I was still in one piece.
I didn’t know how heartened I was supposed to be at his relief.
He’d suspected foul play, and yet did nothing to try to help me if I had actually been in any trouble. He would’ve let me die.
As if reading my mind, as we walked out the door, Kain mused, “If that’s not motivation to learn to fend for yourself, I dunno what is.”
Once back in the car, I checked the time on my phone. Although I felt like Morgan could get away with coming in at two in the morning, I’d given myself a midnight curfew just to be safe.
“It’s almost eight o’clock,” I announced.
Kain nodded, starting the car before he asked, “You hungry?”
***