where he sits beside me. “I’m not going to shoot him. It’s okay, alright?”
Jackson isn’t as corrupt as Cassel and me and is worried that we’re targeting the wrong guy and will accidentally kill him. “I trust you, Leland. But it’s really far.”
“I’ve shot farther.”
“And it’s windy up here.”
“I’ve shot someone during a hurricane,” I inform him. “While storm chasing a tornado.”
“Oh wow,” Jackson says, sounding annoyingly sarcastic when he was supposed to be so turned on he was going to start stripping his clothes off. I see no clothes being stripped at all. Not even a button being loosened.
I narrow my eyes at this atrocity. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“No, babe, hon, Honest Abe, you’d never lie or exaggerate the truth at all. I still think… this is risky as hell. The man is an army—” Jackson is immediately cut off from his sass by me.
“Cassel, pull out the ball gag, it’s just you and me now.”
“Who… who’s wearing the ball gag in this scenario?” Cassel asks in confusion.
“Whoever you want, sugar plum. Jackson doesn’t believe that I once shot a man straight through the eye of a tornado. The tornado had a truck right in the eye of it and as it swirled around, I fired. My bullet bounced off the truck’s frame, ricocheting perfectly and hitting someone who was forty-five degrees in the opposite direction.”
Cassel just goes, “Uh-huh. Wow. Interesting. Anyway, ready for me to email him?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I wrote: Hey Aidan, it’s been a long time, but it’s clear you’re very interested in the outcome of my life. I’d like to talk and if you don’t comply, there will be more drastic measures.
All the best, the man you want dead.”
“I like it. Did you send him the picture of Jackson stuck on the fence as I recommended, in case he doesn’t know who the email’s from?”
They both ignore me.
“And sent.”
I watch through the scope as Aidan stares at his computer. Then he leans in, like he’s seen something quite interesting.
“Either some mighty strange porn just popped up or he read our email,” I say as Aidan stares at his computer a moment longer. I give him five minutes and in that time, we never receive an email back. He picks up a glass and I shift the rifle just slightly before pulling the trigger.
Oh, the thrill of shooting a long-ranged gun. I don’t get to do it enough anymore and I love it so much every time I do, even if there’s not a made-up tornado involved.
The glass explodes in his hand and the man jerks back in alarm. For a moment, he sits there, clearly confused about why his glass shattered in his hand. He stands up… looks around, then eyes the window. He walks over to it, sees the bullet hole and lunges back.
“Sending email two: Here’s your first warning, reply immediately or the next one’s between the eyes,” Cassel says.
The man starts to run as I follow him with my gun. The issue that he has is his apartment is half made of glass to overlook the city. He dives down behind a kitchen counter, out of sight.
I slowly look over at Jackson with a raised eyebrow. “Believe me now?”
“Wow,” he says, and this time there isn’t an ounce of sarcasm. “That was amazing.”
I can’t hide the pleased look on my face. “Why, thank you. I’ll take a kiss in exchange for being so motherfucking badass.”
Jackson leans over and kisses my cheek as I preen, proud of myself for wowing my sexy man.
“Watch this, babe,” I say as I shift the gun and aim at the saltshaker on the top of the counter. If I shoot it just right, it should spray Aidan all over the face and hopefully burn his eyes for thinking he can try to kill my man. And if Aidan just happens to peek above the counter at the exact same time, I might shoot his head and be all “Oh no, it was an accident! My amazing skills have failed me! Boo hoo, he’s dead. Whatever will we do now? Why’d I shoot him twice in the head, you ask? That’s because I didn’t want him to suffer after accidentally shooting him the first time. Silly me!”
God, I want to shoot this fucker.
But I’m a good badass motherfucker and just shoot the salt and then the pepper and then a stupid ugly fucking ornament just for fun. While we’re waiting for the man to reply to Cassel, I