shooter.
“Target has red dot in center. Blue dot left bottom,” Luke confirmed the plate.
“That’s your target. Check parallax and mil,” I instructed and looked down at my handheld ballistic computer while Luke made the proper scope adjustments to ensure his reticle and target were on the same plane and called out his range distance.
“Hold over six-point-five.” Knowing that Luke was prepping his firing sequence—exhaling slowly, taking out the slack in his trigger, I prepared to give him my wind call.
“Ready.”
“Left point five.”
I heard the snap of the bullet leaving the barrel and three beats later there it was—the faint sound of lead hitting steel.
“Good splat, brother.”
Luke lifted his head, and while I couldn’t see his face I heard the smile in his words when he muttered, “Fuck, yeah.”
“Had enough?” I asked and Luke sat up.
“Yeah, ‘preciate your time.”
“Good calls.” I heard from behind me and I tensed.
Jason Walker.
It was not unusual for one of the guys to wander out to the range, but Jason Walker and Nick Clark normally stay up at the pistol range. Both being former law enforcement, they’d taken over tactical shooting and close quarter combat training. Leaving me to handle long-range shooting.
Correctly reading Jason’s appearance, Luke grabbed his McMillan, and with a lift of his chin, excused himself.
Not being a big fan of interrogations, I calmly waited out of respect. Hadley was close to her brother, Jason, and I knew that he—like the rest of the family—was protective. Jasper had obviously shared that we’d had a conversation and Jason rightly assumed I’d jump at the chance to finally connect with his sister.
“Heard you talked to my dad,” Jason started, confirming my assumptions.
I also didn’t miss the disapproval.
“I did. I see you don’t approve.”
“You’re older than I am,” he noted.
This was true, I was six months older than he was. Since he’d pointed out the fact, I didn’t feel his statement required a response so I bit back my smartass comment and remained quiet.
“If you’re looking for a place to dip your—”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” I snapped and battled my rising temper. “I get you’re looking out for your sister. Obviously, you’ve got concerns—one of those being my age. Something I admit fucked with my head over the last four years. But seeing as I held off as long as I did should tell you I had a mind for her and waited. I was also prepared to wait longer, something your sister didn’t want, by the way, but I was still holding out. Some things happened last week that made it impossible to deny what we feel for each other. I was struggling with what that meant for us. Your dad talked to me and I went to her last night. We’ve decided to give it a go. I’m not gonna stand here and give you a bunch of guarantees and assurances. Any promises I make are to Hadley. She knows where I’m at and that’s gonna have to be good enough. Don’t warn me off, don’t threaten me, don’t say shit that’ll drive a wedge between us. You’ve known me awhile, and in that time I’ve not given you one goddamn reason to believe I wouldn’t treat Hadley with the care and respect she deserves. That’s all you’re gonna get from me, Jason, and I hope you know the respect I have for your sister extends to your whole family. Which means I wouldn’t do dick to fuck her over, by extension fucking all of you.”
Jason didn’t look pleased and that sucked. I liked the man, liked working with him, enjoyed the time I’d spent at Walker get-togethers over the years. But I was who I was and Jason had to know this ambush wouldn’t sit well with me.
“She know about your dad?”
His question pissed me off. The underlying insinuation his family was better than mine enraged me.
“Say what you wanna say, Jason? Does she know that my father’s an asshole and has spent twenty years locked up, yeah I told her. Does she know my mother’s dead and how that came to be, again, yeah. Does she know all of the details, no. Will she? Absolutely. But last night while I was trying to convince her to forgive me after I hurt her feelings wasn’t the best time to lay the rest of my fucked-up family history on her. But she knows enough to understand that I didn’t have what she had growing up. But unlike you, she didn’t hold that against me.”
“What the