“Why would you want to spare that little shit?” he asked. “He’s a piece of trash. I can’t have people think they can try and steal from me without consequences.”
“Nobody thinks that. He’s noting and you’ll get blood all over the floor. Come on, you don’t have to—”
The junky reached the door. He staggered to his feet, leaned on the handle, and pulled it open. He fell out into the alley, his face slamming against the hard ground. He grunted in pain then crawled forward.
“Fuck this.” Owain marched out, closed the door behind him.
A loud bang rang through the afternoon.
Sander sighed and leaned his shotgun against his shoulder. “At least he did it outside.” He shook his head and walked back into the main room.
Owain came back a minute later. He stared at me as I crossed my arms and glared back.
“What?”
“I asked you not to do that.”
“Too bad. This is my business. I make the decisions.”
I clenched my jaw. “I fought back, you know. Jumped on him. Started hitting him.”
He tilted his head. “How’d that go for you?”
“Not great.”
“Yeah, well, don’t fight next time. Let them go. No need to get yourself hurt over this shit.”
“You don’t seem to get it. This is my money too now, and I’m not letting some idiot rip me off.”
A little smile cracked across his face. “Now you understand why I killed him.”
I didn’t back down. “I need to learn how to use a gun.”
“Really? You need to?”
“I have to defend myself. And our pills.”
“Come on. I can assign a guy to work with you. You don’t need—”
“Teach me to shoot, Owain. These idiots that come in here will never suspect it. They turn their backs on me and pretend like I’m just some stupid girl. If I had a gun, I could’ve ended that whole encounter sooner without anyone getting hurt.”
He laughed then, shaking his head. “You want a gun to avoid people getting hurt.”
“I want a gun to keep my money safe.”
“All right, little diamond.” His smile got bigger. “I’ll take you shooting. But once you got a gun, how do I know you’re not going to turn it on me.”
I smiled back, head tilted. I tugged at a long strand of hair.
“You’ll just have to trust me then, won’t you?”
He sighed and slipped his gun back into his waistband.
“I guess so.” He turned back to the alley door. “I’ll send some guys to clean that up. You sit back and relax for now.”
“When do we go shooting?”
“Tomorrow. Early.”
I groaned. “How early?”
“Earlier than you like. Want to complain?”
“Nope. Let’s do it.”
“Thought so.” He hesitated and looked at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but I thought there was a sense of pride in his eyes.
He laughed again and left, shaking his head.
I sat down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.
This was my life now. One second, I was bored and wishing something interesting would happen. And the next I was terrified for my life.
I couldn’t tell if I liked it or loved it.17OwainI got her up at the crack of dawn, a half hour before the sun began to peek up over the horizon.
I didn’t need to do that. I could’ve let her sleep as late as she wanted. The shooting range we were going to was owned by another guy in the crew, a man named Brett Crofts. I shot him a message the night before letting him know that I was going to use his facility for a little training, and that meant I could head in whenever I damn well pleased.
But she didn’t need to know that.
She grumbled the whole way over. Big sweatshirt, tight black jeans, large brown boots, and a messy bun—she looked gorgeous, even though she complained the whole time about how early it was and how she didn’t have enough time to get ready. At least I was nice enough to stop in at the coffee shop around the corner right as they opened and got her favorite drink.
I was a gentleman, after all.
The range was on the outskirts of west Philly in a large, single-story building with a gun shop attached. I parked out front and led her to a side door with a pin pad outside. I entered the pin, the door buzzed open, and I let her inside.
The space was cavernous and completely abandoned.
“This is pretty cool.” She walked along the shooting stalls and looked out across the range where targets hung from ropes that could be pulled in and out. “Do you normally comes when it’s empty?”
“I know the owner.” I walked over to a large storage locker and got out two pairs of hearing protection. No need to fuck up our ears all day for this shit. I walked back over to her and steered her toward the center stall.