Taken by Two (8 page)

“Um, should we get Nate?” I licked my lips and salivated at the thought of sex with both of them together again.

“No, he doesn’t play.”

“What?” I asked, my face scrunched in a question. The kind of play I wanted to do was very much something Nate did—did very well, in fact.

“I mean, he can shoot, but he doesn’t really like to just go out and blast things.”

It dawned on me that Rex wasn’t talking about sex. “Guns? I-I’ve never shot a gun!”

“Oh baby, let me pop your cherry then.” He stood up and walked over to a heavy wool rug on the floor in the corner. He pulled it up, revealing the solid wood floor underneath. He pushed at one of the planks before pulling up a metal door. Below the door were a half dozen military-looking rifles next to as many handguns. “That’s your arsenal?” I asked, surprised. “Arsenal? Hell, that’s just my safe here
in this part of the house
. It is one of many, sweetheart, one of
many
. Tools of the trade, baby.”

We walked out of the compound, Rex loaded down with guns, ammunition, and other shooting equipment, until we came to a clearing where he had various targets and objects to shoot at set up. I was a little nervous, my only exposure to firearms was the many security people that were around my dad’s businesses, but I’d never held or shot any myself. “What if—what if the gun just goes off?”

“That’s what we’re here for today, Penny. Guns don’t just go off by themselves, baby,” he stuck up his index finger in front of him and curled it as if pulling the trigger on the gun. “It doesn’t do anything until
you
make it—you pull the fucking trigger, it fires. Once you know what you’re doing, guns are only dangerous to the people that you point them at, which is why you’re going to learn.”

Rex pulled out a handgun, examined it for a second, and then handed it to me grip first. The grip of the pistol felt like rough sandpaper. It smelled like a combination of oil and charcoal. It was a lot heavier than I expected, and partly made of plastic and partly made of metal.

He handed me safety glasses and I put them on, thinking that they were extremely ugly. “Okay, this line,” he traced a line etched in the dirt with the toe of his heavy boot, “is the firing line. You don’t go past it unless I tell you to. Point your weapon that way,” he pointed toward the targets. “Not at me, not at your feet, not at the compound—only that way. Always assume that every gun you touch is loaded, and assume that if you pull the trigger, it’s going to shoot. This,” he showed me a lever on the pistol, “is the safety. This way, the safety is on and you can’t pull the trigger,” Rex flicked the lever with his thumb, “and this way, the safety is off; when you pull the trigger, it will shoot. This gun has fifteen rounds—it’s a semi-automatic, so you don’t have to cock it each time.”

“You said cock,” I joked.

He shot me the knock-it-off look, and continued. “The slide is spring loaded. You rack it like this…” He grasped the top of the slide of his own pistol, pulled it back, and let it loose. The metal slide slammed shut with a loud metallic snap. “That loads the first cartridge in the chamber.”

“This gun isn’t very powerful, so there won’t be much recoil, but keep a firm grip on the weapon after it fires, like this…” His hands braced the gun in demonstration.

“I’m bored,” I whined, his stern glare silencing me. “You
will
learn this shit, Penny. This is serious. It could save your life…or mine.”

“Yes, sir,” I sighed.

“I want you to load your first cartridge the way I showed you.”

I racked the gun, satisfied that I did it the way he’d demonstrated.

Rex stood behind me, his massive arms outside of mine, showing me how to grip the handgun. “Hold it just like this in your dominant hand, a firm grip, just like a handshake. Grasp with your support hand—your left hand—around the outside of your right. Wrap it around to completely support the grip of your other hand.”

“Okay stand like this…legs a shoulder-width apart, knees loose, keep your back straight…Yeah, like that, perfect. Shows off that delicious ass, too. I’m gonna break that virgin ass in very soon, Princess.”

I couldn’t imagine his giant cock in
there
. “I’m not ready for that,” I complained, turning to face him. He held up his hands, yelling, “Don’t point a loaded gun at me! Keep it on the target, for fuck’s sake!”

“Oh, sorry,” I pivoted to face forward again and aimed the pistol at the target.

“You want to keep your eyes open, put that white dot on the front sight right between the two white dots of the rear sight. Focus your eyes on the front sight, and not on the target.”

“What? I can’t see the target if…”

“Yes you can. Do it, aim it down at the target, and focus your eyes on the front sight.”

I held the rough plastic of the pistol out in front of me, my eyes focusing on the white dot of paint on the little black square of the front sight.

“See? Look at the sight and you can still see the black shape of the target just fine, even though it’s a little out of focus.”

He was right, I could still see the target behind it, but it felt really unnatural.

“Okay, the last thing is pulling the trigger. Don’t jerk the trigger back, pull it smoothly all the way back until it stops. Don’t anticipate the kick-back of the gun, just hold it steady and smoothly pull the trigger.” Rex demonstrated with his handgun, holding it in one hand out toward the target while looking at me.

BANG!
I flinched at the surprise of the sound of his pistol going off. He was smiling, eyes twinkling from behind his tinted shooting glasses.

“Just like that, Penny. You want to be surprised when it goes bang. If you try to anticipate, you’ll end up missing the target.”

“Good, now with the safety off, point at that target down there of the body and aim for the center of his chest.”

“Oh, I couldn’t shoot at a person…”

“Penny, for fuck’s sake, it’s a piece of paper.”

“I know, but…it feels creepy.” I lowered the ready-to-fire gun down to point at the dirt.

“Would it feel creepy to shoot the mother fucker if he was about to rape you? Kill you? Make you wish he’d killed you?”

“No, I…You’re so negative.”

He shook his head. “Penny, you have no idea how dark this world can be. Shoot that goddamn target.”

“Shouldn’t I aim for a limb to immobilize him first?”

“Tell you what, Princess—if you can do that, go right ahead. I’ve been shooting for over twenty years, and I
still
don’t have the skill to aim so well under stress that I can shoot a moving guy in the arm. So, no—if you try that, you’re probably going to miss. If you’re willing to aim a gun at someone and pull the trigger, you’ve already decided they have to die in order for you to live. Shoot to kill, not to injure.”

“Okay, okay—but why then not aim for the heart?” Rex intimidated me, but I wanted to understand.

“The biggest area to aim for that will do the most damage is the center of the torso,” he thumped the center of his muscular chest with his fist. “Aim here, the center of mass of the body. This is your first time, baby, you’ll be lucky to hit anywhere near that damn target. Shit, you’ll be lucky to keep the fucking bullet in South America.”

“Fine,” I snapped, pointing the firearm at the paper target.

“Now or never…” I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger smoothly. Before I knew it, with a crack the gun went off, the sharp jolt as it fired pushing me back before I regained my grip. “Did I hit it?”

“No, Penny. You closed your eyes when you pulled the trigger.”

“I did?”

“It’s a subconscious thing, like a flinch. All new shooters do it. Concentrate on keeping your eyes open and looking at the target even after the shot goes off. Now, shoot again.”

I aimed again, holding the dot of the front sight on the black silhouette of a man and slowly squeezing the trigger.
Keep your eyes open…

BANG!
The shot again took me by surprise, but this time I was looking at the target and I saw it gently sway back and forth. “I hit it!”

“We’re not done yet. Again!” Rex snapped. I aimed and took a breath, held the front sight on the target, gently squeezed the trigger, kept my eyes open, and was surprised at the bang. I saw the target paper jolt again. This time I wasn’t startled, in fact, it was starting to be fun now that I knew what to do and what was going to happen. I continued to shoot until the weapon was empty, Rex holding up his hand in a stop gesture. “That was fun!” I couldn’t help but be surprised at how good it felt to shoot.

He smiled. “See? Let’s see how you did. Look and make sure the chamber is empty, then set the weapon down on the bench over there.”

I did as I was told, and waited as he retrieved the target. “Do you need your glasses? Should I bring my younger eyes to look?” I teased as he shot back his middle finger to me.

He stared at the paper for a minute before turning to bring it back for me to see.

“Holy shit, Princess can shoot! Mother fuck—that’s amazing.”

He held up the target, riddled with bullet holes, most in the center in a cluster the size of my hand. He counted the holes. “All but two hit the target. I think he’s dead. That’s wicked good for a beginner, baby girl. Let me unload this round in mine, and we’ll go back and play the way
you
wanted to.”

“Can’t we shoot all the bullets that you brought? What’s that big rifle over there? Can I shoot that?”

He chuckled, shaking his head incredulously at me. “You surprise me every damn day,” he said with a grin.

When we returned to the house, laughing and talking guns, Nate was standing at the door, arms folded, his lips pursed in his pissed-off Nate look. “I’m glad you two are having fun,” he snipped.

“We were just…Rex taught me how to shoot, that’s all.”

“Thanks for asking me along.” He tapped his foot.

“Quit acting like a jealous little bitch, Nathaniel.” Rex’s voice was firm, dismissive. “Come on, Penny, we have guns to clean.”

“I, uh, I’ll hang out with Nate,” I said, looking to Nate, who would not make eye contact with me.

“You will fucking come clean your goddamn gun, and you’ll do it now,” Rex’s voice boomed. He turned to walk toward a side room, guns in tow. I looked to Nate, confused, fighting tears. Being torn between them was more than I could bear. “Go, Penny,” Nate finally said, turning to walk toward his room.

Nate’s door slammed, and I scurried to the door where Rex was. Inside, the large room was set up to clean guns, and there was even a place to make, or maybe refill, spent bullets in the corner. “Here, I’ll show you how to clean yours,” Rex said as if nothing had happened. “You need to talk to him, to tell him… He’s upset.” He continued to clean his gun. “I’m not much for coddling people, sweetheart. We’ll catch up with him later.”

“Rex, I think…” He turned to face me, his massive frame hulking over me.

“You think what?” He tone was challenging.

“I think the three of us have a… We have a relationship, a beautiful one, and those take care and feeding.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, go talk to him, I’ll teach you this shit later.”

“I-I think,” he stared into me as I spoke. He was trying to intimidate me. “I think you should go talk to him, make an effort to… Just make some sort of effort…
Please
?”

“Mother fucker!” he shouted, “Stay here, don’t touch
anything
.”

I waited for what seemed like forever for Rex to return. I was terrified that today’s spat, that today’s episodes of jealousy, would tear us apart just as we were beginning. I needed
both
of these men—they were two halves making a whole for me.

Rex returned, without saying anything about Nate, and began his lesson on cleaning guns and preparing them for storage. I fought the urge to ask questions, instead completing my lesson to his satisfaction.

Hours later, Nate emerged from his room and sat across from me in the living room. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…I asked him if you’d want to…” He held a hand up to stop me. “No, I was being stupid. I
hate
target shooting. I felt jealous at you two being together doing something he loves and I don’t. I was jealous…of
both
of you, really.”

I placed my hand on his knee as he leaned in closer. “This isn’t exactly the way things normally go when falling in love, is it?”

“Are you in love with me, Penny?” His steel blue eyes stared into mine, waiting.

“Yes.”

“And him too?”

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.

“I’m in love with you both,” he said, his hands raking through his hair. “Uncharted territory in so many ways, I guess some growing pains are to be expected?”

“He spoke to you?” I was desperate to know what happened between the two men.

“Uh huh,” he nodded, a secretive smile crossing his lips.

“And?” I asked, yearning for more.