“Come out at the end, gun up. He’ll be on your right, ten feet ahead. He’s not facing you, so you’ll have a beat to take him out. But don’t be slow…” I pause. “And don’t fall on your face.”
“Aww, Spencer loves her,” Jay teases in a sing-song voice. “He’snevertold me not to fall over.”
“Because I don’t give a fuck if you break your neck,” I answer. “Three… two…” I wait her out, wait for her to approach the end. “One… Fire, Jessie.”
She emerges at the end of her tunnel with a battle cry and her left hand massaging the side of her stomach. Alex crouches beside his shot best friend, but his eyes shoot up at Jess’ stupid roar, then he spins with his gun cocked and loaded.
“Don’t shoot, Turner!” Kane runs down the side of the embankment in the way he was trainedneverto do. Banshee shouting, arms waving, total fucking lunatic, attention-seeking as Alex’s eyes first stop on his traitor sister, then swing around to Kane as Jess takes her shot.
Red paint explodes over Alex’s chest. One shot, two, three, she massacres him with an evil giggle, and squeezes her knees tight when he drops to the ground with a groan.
“I win!” Jess thrusts her arms into the air and makes me duck a little lower. She only has a paintball gun, but waving any weapon in the air scares me, so I hunker down and watch the show as Kane grabs his girl and disarms her as she squeals, “I won the game!”
“You won the award for stupidity,” Kane snaps. His voice echoes in the space below us, then again in my ear. “I can’t believe you came down here! Jesus. What are you gonna do if you drop a baby in the yard? Lay it in the hay and sing a Christmas song?”
I shake my head and tug the piece out of my ear as I climb to my feet.
Game over. The gunfight we’d been planning for weeks is over, and none of us got to shoot the chief like we wanted. Jessie stole that from us, and by the looks of things, is about to wet herself from excitement.
“Nice shots.” Grunting, Jay climbs to his feet and grins so his pearly white teeth stand out behind the green and black paint he smeared on his face. He lets his weapon dangle by his side, claps my shoulder as I pass, then falls into step so we make our way down the small hill at the back of my shooting range.
This place used to be a farm – a farm for fruit, not animals – so most of the land was flattened for planting, but the property near the very back, the place that takes five or so minutes to walk to from my back door, has natural hills and the hills we built from extra dirt brought in on trucks.
This is the first time we’ve ever used it for paintballs instead of live rounds, but the chief said we couldn’t use the real thing, and seeing as he’s the law, we didn’t have a lot of choice.
“You think she’ll make it to the wedding?”
Jay chuckles as Soph emerges from shrubbery to our right and joins us as we walk toward the guys in the center. “Hell no, she won’t make it. Look at her!” He takes Soph’s hand, and thrusts the other in Jess’ direction as she slaps at Kane. “She’s crowning and acting all irrational and shit. She just took her own brother out. Doesn’t matter though, ‘cause I went online and got myself a marriage license.”
I turn to him and frown. “What? For you and Soph?”
“No, not like a license for us to marry. But a license so I can marrythem.” Ten feet from the couple who swear they’re marrying in two weeks, he stops and grins. “I can be the dude that says ‘you may kiss your bride.’ I can be the one who signs their certificate. For the rest of our lives, I’ll be the guy that married them. They’ll frame that shit and have me on their wall.”
“But they have their own dude,” I argue. “Jess has everything lined up with the church already.”
He pulls his ballerina girlfriend under his arm and smacks a noisy kiss to the top of her head. “We’ll see. I’m saying those babies are gonna be here before the wedding bells. Then I’m gonna ride in on my Harley and save the day.”
“Your Harley?” Soph shakes her head. “You do not own a motorcycle, and you definitely do not have my blessing to buy one. Your head is already too soft.”
“So you’d rather I buy a horse?” When she shakes her head, he throws his hands up. “How the hell am I gonna ride in if I can’t have horsepower between my legs?”
“You could get a scooter,” she offers with a grin. “Rollerblades? Skateboard? A lick of common sense?”
“You’re always dragging me down, Sugar Plum. You never let me play.”
“Ohhhh…” Jess’ hiss brings every man’s attention up.
We watch her the way I’ve seen men watch an IED in the field. Slow movements, wide eyes, racing hearts, we watch her hold her belly, and her face screw tight. We’re all worried about her stubbornness… except Jay. His brows jump like he’s ready to be called up for the big game.
“Ouch.” She blows out a long breath and massages the side of her stomach. “This shit hurts so much, guys.”
“Time for the hospital.” Kane grabs her shoulders and turns her toward my office, which is also my home, and the main entrance to my shooting range. “Let’s go and get this done.”
“No!” She smacks his hands away. “It’s not time for them to come. They’re just rolling around in there. Sometimes my ribs get in the way.”
“Blondie! You’re full term pregnant with twins. I’m not a fuckin’ Oompa Loompa, which means they aren’t gonna be small. Your buzzer sounded weeks ago. Time to evict those little suckers.”
“Not time.” She walks toward us and waits for our group to part so she can walk between us. “I’m getting married in two weeks. Then there’s this book being released the Friday after. I’ve been waiting ages for that shit. We can have the babiesafter.”