Off the Deep End

by R. Jayne Revere

  “We know.” Aaron’s teasing sideways smirk displayed admiration. Both he and Les had been watching her, probably curious how she would do as they hadn’t seen her actually fire a weapon before.

  “I think she should try something farther out.” Andy grinned.

  “We’ll set you up. What suits your fancy?” Les asked her, indicating the rifles as he and Aaron got to their feet.

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I really don’t have much experience with rifles. What do you guys think would be a good fit?”

  Les looked at Aaron.

  “308?” Aaron asked him.

  “Well, I know you sure like that one. But then what kind of bloody weapon don’t you like?” Les replied with a chuckle. “Yeah, that would be a good fit for her. Solid and reliable, and it’ll definitely reach out and touch someone.”

  Aaron handed her the rifle he’d been firing and went over with her what she didn’t already know.

  “Okay. Now this is just straight-up scoped, so you’ll have to adjust your aim to compensate. At this distance, the round will fall some. Also, it’s not windy here, but notice out past the blue car on the right? See how the weeds are blowing? It’s past the shelter of the hills and we’re catching a good breeze out there, and that’s going to affect your shot too.”

  Alex peered through the scope at her target as she and Aaron lay on their stomachs on the ground. An old waxed canvas tarp underneath them gave protection from rocky soil. So far away. She lifted her vision up and out past the scope, squinted back through it again.

  “When you’re ready, just relax, exhale, and squeeze.”

  The force of recoil jolted Alex’s body as it punched against her shoulder. A second later, a puff of dust revealed impact about five feet before and to the left of her target.

  “That’s good. Now, notice where you hit. Remember where you aimed and adjust. Same drill. Relax, exhale, squeeze.”

  Another poof of dirt, closer but still too low, in front of her target. Alex shifted her aim up a bit and to the right of her first two. Sighting through the scope, she corrected just a little farther than she thought necessary. She let out a slow breath and squeezed the trigger.

  Standing a few feet behind them, Les and Andy viewed the target area through binoculars.

  “Bloody hell, woman,” Les breathed.

  “Oh yeah!” Andy bounced around and punched the air.

  Alex bit her lower lip and rested her chin on her hand on top of the rifle stock. She looked over at Aaron, her cheeks dimpling at the expression on his face.

  He shook his head at her, returned her smirk, and rested his forehead on his hands on the ground in front of him. A moment later, he looked back up at her.

  “There’s a lot more we’ll get into besides target shooting, but… the wrong people find out about that?” He extended an index finger out at the range. “They’ll want to hire you.”

  “I’m not telling if you’re not.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “Besides, I work for you.”

  “I’ve got it!” They all turned at Andy’s exclamation. He bounced on the balls of his feet, his springy exuberance uncontainable. “My nickname for her!” He paused and bowed for dramatic effect, gesturing wide in Alex’s direction. “Hot Shot!”

  Aaron’s secretive intentions for their upcoming evening were made evident throughout the rest of the afternoon in the knowing glances of their new friends.

  “So, it seems our entire little encampment here knows something that I have a pretty good guess about.” Alex’s cheeks glowed a rouge frame to her sly grin. “And while that is kinda amusing, you didn’t… actually give detailed plans, did you?”

  Aaron laughed. “God no. I sure hope you don’t think I’d do that. Not the kiss-and-tell type.” His grin widened and he lowered his gaze. “I just maybe mentioned that, well, maybe they could all make it a late night for themselves?” He rubbed the back of his neck and peeped back up at her. “Like maybe several hours late.”

  A giggle escaped Alex. “Oh yeah, not subtle at all.” She rested a hand on her cocked hip and combed the fingers of her other the length of the section of hair that lay in front of her shoulder before flipping it back. “Pretty confident there, aren’t ya, sir?”

  He stepped close enough that only a breath existed between their noses, vision locked on the beauty inches away. In any way she was willing, he’d make every effort. But first, food. He reached past her and turned the doorknob to their suite.

  The space was candlelit, a table set for two. Canopy sheers of the bed had been set free from their ties to cozy an intimate refuge. Delicious scents of the awaiting meal drifted to them from the warm stove.

  Alex turned to Aaron as he closed the door behind them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You did all this for me?” Her eyes glistened with appreciation.

  He winked at her. “Let me date you. At least one official date. Dinner. So far it’s been far from anything normal in that department for us.”

  A smile lit up her eyes through her lashes. “If we count our hangouts on the ship, we’ve had quite a few. And the day we rode up to your property, I’d call that an amazing date.” She stroked the hair at his nape and whispered in his ear. “And thank you. You certainly do know how to make a woman feel special.”

  He returned her embrace and whispered back to her. “For the right woman, I hope to always.” He slid a hand behind her neck and head and kissed her. Maybe the food could wait…

  “This is actually the really rough part,” Aaron said to Alex. “Psychological conditioning.”

  Les agreed. “You can be damn good with weapons and skills, but if you lack the mentality to make the hard decisions, if you hesitate, you get yourself killed. You get others killed,” he said. “Hey, you guys get over here too.” He beckoned at the two men at the computer bank. While their learned knowledge on this subject was extensive, it never hurt to refresh.

  Mikey and Andy made their way over and sat on either side of Alex on one of the two sofas.

  Les stood in front of them. Aaron reclined on one elbow on the adjoining sofa.

  Alex struggled to keep her attention where needed and on topic, but it kept wandering to the other sofa and Aaron’s seductive form. Legs slack in repose, fitted black T-shirt, well-worn jeans and unlaced tactical boots. His head rested on his right palm, fingers buried in tousled hair, his left arm draped along his side and hip to end with slack digits spread across an inner thigh. Just his normal easygoing self. Beyond inviting.

  That carefree vision coupled with recent memory of this morning’s shared intimacy consumed her imagination and thoughts. Over the past week since their “dinner date,” she’d felt veritably obsessed with him. As if she hadn’t been already. And he seemed the same with her, although he did a better job of keeping it more subtle than she around the others. When they were in private, however, they could barely keep their hands off each other. Spending hours at a time immersed in their pleasure and devotion, they’d kissed and giggled, shared secrets, and explored passion in waves heightened by that magically charged touch that bound them unlike anything either had felt before. At the moment, she needed to get her mind off his body. Yeah, right. That would take some serious mental work.

  Would the others notice her current predicament? A lean forward to stretch out her back allowed her hair to fall across and veil her face. Aaron had to know what he was doing. How dare he look like that when he knew she should be concentrating elsewhere!

  A rakish smirk and his index finger lifted off his thigh to point at Les. Dammit! Busted on another stolen glance. She flashed her eyes at him and buried her face in her hands, mashing knuckles into her lids. She had to refocus to the instruction at hand. Plus hide her captivated smile from Les and the companions who had just settled beside her. A deep breath. Poker face time.

  She brushed back her hair, and her eyes were back on Les, who was still just getting started in his lecture. Basic firearms discipline and evaluations had mad
e up most of their first week after arrival. Today’s focus would be something new. The psychological aspect fascinated her, and her intent was to soak up every bit of invaluable information this training had to offer.

  Les continued his talk for a while, going over a more textbook explanation of the topic. “You probably feel that, faced with a lethal force confrontation, you can pull the trigger and take out the opponent. Correct?”

  All three nodded confirmation, though Mikey’s response came less than enthusiastically. “Yeah, well, maybe… You know I don’t do this stuff. I’m the computer guy.”

  “So am I, but you gotta be able to if you have to.” Andy looked over at his friend.

  Mikey glared back at Andy.

  Les went on. “At some point, you will be faced with it. You won’t like it. But you have to be able to handle it, take control of the situation.” He turned a stern gaze on Alex.

  She met his look, listening, intent, but experiencing a cringe in her gut as he questioned her directly. “Do you really believe you can handle that?”

  Alex answered him with a slow nod. She had received some of that training before in a class, though only the basics. But she’d still always felt she could defend herself if needed and act. “Why? Do you think we can’t?”

  Les gave her a wry smile, and in a flash drew his sidearm on Aaron.

  Alex was on her feet at once, gun drawn but pointed toward the floor. The hair at the back of her neck lifted and her core froze as adrenaline flashed through her veins, chasing away all those amorous warm fuzzies from minutes earlier.

  “Can you make the hardest decision? Someone you know?” He challenged her, his intense gaze remaining fixed on Aaron.

  “Les, this isn’t funny! Stop it!” She had seen him reload earlier and for whatever reason had paid attention. “You’re not chambered. Besides, we know you. We trust you. You’re a friend…” She stopped, tickles of suspicion creeping in at the edges of her mind. That look he was giving Aaron…

  Les’s gruff reply was cold as ice. “Yeah… we bloody trusted Shane for the most part too…” With that, he racked his slide, chambering a round, the stare he had leveled at Aaron turning chill and blank.

  “Aw, fuck!” Andy edged back on the sofa, bringing his legs up under him, ready to flee as he scooted behind Alex, toward Mikey.

  Mikey’s eyes were saucers riveted on Les.

  Aaron regarded Les, his calm expression unchanged.

  Though he retained his laid-back position, Aaron’s jawline pulsed in a clench, and one muscle in his left forearm twitched. Alex raised her weapon to Les. Hers was still chambered from the range the prior day. This wasn’t happening.

  “Les, don’t give me a reason to not trust you. Especially with this one. After Shane, I won’t hesitate.”

  A thick, confused tension hovered in the silence for harrowing seconds.

  “You just did.”

  Les locked eyes with Aaron, lowered his weapon, and reholstered it. He turned back to Alex. “But we’ll work on that.”

  Alex stood frozen, mouth agape, and looked from one to the other. Color drained from her face. She eased down her own pistol.

  “Holy shit, man!” Andy collapsed back to the cushion and rested his head in his hands.

  Mikey bolted over to his computers without a word. Dropping into his chair, he busied himself at once, hunkered down behind one of the larger screens.

  Hands now shaking, Alex holstered her weapon and sank to the sofa. The unfortunate kick of nausea began to rise as she struggled to reconcile her turmoil at this mental blow, and she found herself unable to either come up with words or cry. Staring at her palms, she felt her body start to tremble. The ways this could have ended so badly. What the fuck?

  That condition remained temporary, and she was back on her feet in an instant. “What the hell was that? Just what the hell was that?” she demanded of Les, her fear and shock now having been replaced with a boiling need to understand why their “friend” would even hint at such an action. She also restrained an urge to provide a swift kick to an area of his body that would quite painfully demonstrate her disapproval.

  “Just proving a point. Wanted to see how you’d react.”

  She opened her mouth to reply, but unable to come up with any decent rebuke, she snapped it shut. Fingernails dug into palms, and she turned on her heel and stomped off, slamming the door to the outer hallway behind her.

  The main outer door remained in lockdown from night security, but if they knew what was good for them, they’d open it. A metallic click sounded just as she reached the exit, and without missing a beat, Alex rammed her hands into the smooth steel of the crossbar latch. The door slammed open and she marched outside.

  A few seconds of pause; would they lock it again after it closed? It drifted shut. No click followed. She snickered to herself. “Yeah… Whatever.”

  She stalked to the edge of the compound and plopped down on a large rock under a pine. Asshole. She kicked a small stone. Midmorning sunlight shone dappled points of brilliance all around her through the boughs. The air held a sharp chill. She ignored both and glared at the mountain.

  Aaron eased up from the sofa and took the couple of steps over to where Les still stood. “You could’ve given me a heads-up on that.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Les shook his head. “Just thought of it. Figured spur of the moment would elicit a more natural reaction. Sorry, mate.”

  Aaron nodded and after a moment threw Les a hard side-eye. “You do realize, had that been for real, your first shot would’ve had to have been the kill shot.”

  Les glanced away from him and over to the guys at the computer bank, who purposely ignored them.

  “And then you’d be dead now too.” He raised an eyebrow at Les, his gaze darkening. “In fact, the only reason you’re not is because she knew, deep down, that you weren’t really gonna shoot me. Somebody else? We’d be mopping.” He gave Les another hard stare. “You did make her question it though.”

  Les sighed and looked back to Aaron. “Yeah.” He shrugged. “At least we know she’d do it. Sometimes that emotional attachment can come in handy.” He rubbed his face. “Maybe we can use that. Along with detachment training. It’ll take some time… I’m thinking of something.”

  Aaron shot Les a dangerous look at that. Don’t screw with her, man. You’re playing with fire. He rested his hands on his hips. “You shouldn’t have brought Shane into it.”

  “Yeah, well, I wanted a true, strong, gut-wrenching reaction. And that dodgy bastard did wind up with her gun on the ship.”

  “Well, no thanks to us, she had no reason to not trust him.”

  Les nodded. “And yeah, I know she’s bloody pissed.”

  “To say the least.” Aaron rubbed his hands through his hair, laced his fingers behind his neck, and gave Les a solid stare. “Don’t do it again.” He turned to go after Alex and glanced back at Les. “Damage control.”

  “Think she’ll actually talk to you right now, mate?” Les’s look was somewhat apologetic.

  “I’m not the one who just pulled a gun on me.”

  Aaron rubbed one shoulder as he walked down the outer hallway. Dammit, Les! Had the man done more harm than good with his little test, or had it been a valuable training scenario? Aaron would find out soon enough. Les had come damn close to getting himself killed. The man knew it too.

  In a matter of seconds, Alex had transformed from the giddy girl stealing seductive glances to a protective lioness ready to kill. She’d been a vision in her fitted Levi’s and lace-trimmed white T-shirt, taking up that armed defensive stance; while it sent a wave of admiration and desire into the mix with the dose of adrenaline sweeping his bloodstream, the paradox lay in witnessing her unfaltering determination. She would kill or die to protect him. The perfect partner and teammate. The most devastating loss he could ever face.

  Training her and enhancing her skill set for her own protection? A good thing. Training her to lend support to their upco
ming operation? A plus. Putting her in a situation where, if things went bad for him, she would put herself in harm’s way? Not the best option. He needed to discuss this with her. And Les.

  Plus today was a whole different side to Les than Aaron was used to seeing. His friend sure used some strange methods to evaluate a person’s mental capacity. That one had even caught him off guard. Aaron himself was usually the one pulling the crazy stuff, though that was more in line with reading other’s intentions and utilizing his own physical talents. Les wouldn’t harm him. But facing the business end of any firearm brought a general apprehension. Even with training to the contrary. No matter how calm he stayed inside, telltale signs of that unease could escape. The fact that Alex picked up on those minute reactions fast showed her attention to detail. Or was it her attunement to him?

  Exiting the outer door, he squinted against the sunlight, his eyes finding Alex right away. Out beyond the buildings, seated on a flat-topped boulder, her back to him, she made no move to turn around. As he headed in her direction, he also noted the extra cold chill in the air. The moderate weather they’d experienced so far was about to take a turn.

  The steel door opened and closed. Footsteps crunching over gravel and dried grass soon reached Alex’s ears. Aaron walked around and stood in front of her. She continued to stare past him toward the mountain. If she looked at him right now, she’d burst into tears. He didn’t move.

  After a time, she asked, her voice small and quiet, “Did you know he was gonna do that?”

  “Honestly, no.”

  She nodded, and he approached to sit with her on the rock. Looking out in the direction she was, he offered, “Pretty decent view.”

  “Yours is better.” Her reply came immediate and terse as she referenced his piece of land.

  He waited a few more minutes before speaking again.

  “I know it seems harsh, but… an honest reaction tells a lot. That’s what he was looking for, and that’s what we got.”