Aaron smiled, moving over to one of the walls and producing a key from his pocket to unlock the cabinet there. He pulled out several guns that looked way too big and scary for me to be on the other end of, and tossed them to Finn and Slade before grabbing his own. He held it so the stock tucked into one shoulder, the other hand holding the grip thingie at the front. “Wmm dmm omsmm,” he said.
“What?” I said, pulling off one ear protector.
“We’ll go to the range outside.”
Yay, I thought, casting a dark eye at the dusty paddock that served as an outdoor range. Less noise but more sun, and I wasn’t sure what was worse. I was sweating already, that funky mix of sour body odour and alcohol leaving the building. I was gonna be so sexy when Slade finally got me for alone time.
“So this here is a blah blah gun thingie,” Aaron said seriously, showing me his fine weapon. “It’s great for blah and manly things.”
“Uh huh,” I said.
“So to use it, you do blah, blah and blah and then slowly squeeze your finger on the blah…” Boom! A hail of bullets came firing out of the machine gun thingie and into the target some metres away.
“Right,” I said, swaying slightly, “Don’t squeeze the blah too hard. Boys always say that.”
“What?” Aaron’s eyes snapped to Finn. “You sure she’s up for this?”
“I need her ready to go beyond the gate. No gun, no gate,” Finn said.
“There’s no rush…” Slade said.
“She’s employed to be my offsider, so yeah, there is a rush,” Finn snapped.
“This got anything to do with last night?” Slade asked. “Because stampeding into this…”
“This is too early,” Aaron said to Finn. “Once we know, she’ll be able to handle this no problems, or she won’t. But right now…”
“That might not happen,” Finn said. “She needs to be able to defend herself.” All of the men fell silent after that.
Aaron shrugged, taking one of the guns and passing it to me. “Never point a gun at anyone you don’t intend to shoot,” he said, pushing the muzzle so it faced the targets. "Be aware of what is in front of and behind your target. Keep your finger off the trigger until you decide to take a shot, and leave the safety on until then.”
I held it in what I thought was a mirror image of his pose. He sighed and came to stand at my rear, putting his arms around me to correct my hold and stance. I wasn’t sure this was strictly necessary, it felt like maybe he was trying to cop a feel. I arched my hips back slightly, so my arse grazed his groin. His body turned to iron, and he became very still. Slowly, he pulled away. “Chamber a round, then take the safety off and give it a go. Just be careful, there’ll be some recoil.” Right, the safety. Where was the safety? Aaron sighed and flicked it for me, and then gestured for me to proceed.
I had no fucking idea what I was doing. The last time I’d shot a gun was some peewee air rifle my brother had been given by my uncle. We’d gone out with Dad and Pa and Uncle Bill, and learned how to shoot cans in the home paddock when I was ten. Well, I was committed now. I looked down the barrel, my hands starting to shake. You should back out, back the fuck out, my brain screamed hysterically. You can hurt yourself or others. This is part of my job, I retorted. I couldn’t follow Finn without showing I could do this. I squeezed the trigger gently and…
Blam! I’m not totally sure what happened, but somehow I was lying in the hot dirt, staring at the sky, and Finn, Slade and Aaron were all standing over me. “Are you OK?” Finn asked, eyes wide.
“Princess, if you wanted to get out of the date, you just had to say,” Slade said.
“I told you it was too early,” Aaron said to Finn.
“Yeah, alright,” Finn said with a curse. “Let’s get Doc Hobbes to have a look at her.”
Which was how I ended up lying on the cold metal bench in the doc’s surgery, my head throbbing worse than before. “So, what happened?” she asked.
“Julie had a go with one of the rifles and wound up on her arse,” Slade said.
“Weapons training? That’d be better done after the full moon, wouldn’t it?” she said, flashing a torch across one eye, then the other.
“She needs protection,” Finn ground out.
“So assign one of the young bucks. They would be more than happy to protect her.”
“I’d be happy to volunteer,” Slade said.
“Me too,” said Aaron, meeting my eyes with a steady gaze when I looked at him in alarm.
“She’s supposed to