i be90349f18331670 by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

evenly into his lungs, held for a moment while his finger twitched on the trigger, pulled…
    He blinked. Frowned.
    “No, you’re forgetting the safety again.”
    “I’m
    not forgetting it.” Wil took the gun’s butt plate from his shoulder, pointed the barrel at the ground as Brayden had instructed—six thousand times—and tilted it so he could point at the little catch behind the trigger.
    “Every time I go to shoot, my finger slides the safety back on.”
    “Mm, well, that’s because it’s designed for right-handed people, I expect. You’ll just have to get used to it.”
    Wil scowled and began the process once more. There was a lot to remember, and he hadn’t even got a shot off yet. Stupid-picky-bossy Constable Brayden had made him learn the various parts of the gun first, and what they did, quizzing him relentlessly as they’d ridden through the day. Once they’d finally stopped for the night—earlier than yesterday so they’d still have some light left—Wil was then instructed and quizzed on how to load and pump it. And all of that before he was even allowed to touch the poxy thing except to point at various parts and name them. Even though the rain had let up before dawn and the day was alternately bright and gray and not as cold, Wil found himself in a somewhat sour mood, and Brayden’s patience was noticeably thinner than usual.
    42

    Carole Cummings
    The combination was either going to result in one of them with the shotgun up his arse, or Wil in eventual giddy hysterics on the ground.
    He supposed he should be more accommodating.
    Brayden hadn’t slept at all and Wil had, quite well, in fact, as soon as he’d convinced himself Brayden wasn’t going to try following Wil into his dreams again. He’d been fairly sure he’d believed Brayden’s horror the next morning, and believed very firmly that if it had been possible for Brayden to convince himself it had never happened, he would’ve done. Still, there was blissful relief this morning when Wil had woken to the smell of coffee and the knowledge that he’d been as alone inside his head as he could be. Brayden’s dark shape had been behind him as always, at his back, Watching, but that was all, and strangely, it hadn’t unnerved him.
    “All right, start over,” Brayden said sternly. “Cock it first and slide the—”
    “—slide the safety on, right, I can’t apply the safety without first cocking it, then I brace the butt plate to my shoulder like so—”
    “Not too firmly—”
    “—because there will be a kick—”
    “Recoil.”
    Wil dipped the barrel back down, sent a sideways glare at Brayden. “What bloody difference does it make?”
    “The difference,” Brayden said slowly, “is that it’s called a recoil and not a kick.”
    Wil held back a growl, turned his attention back to the gun and the target. “Not exactly the strong, silent type, are you, then?” he muttered through his teeth, then:
    “ Fine , there will be a recoil , and if my grip is too firm I’ll end up with a broken shoulder.” Wil rolled his eyes a little, forcibly relaxing his jaw before he ground his teeth away, and sighted down the long barrel and across 43

    The Aisling Book Two Dream
    the clearing, aiming for the bundle of sticks Brayden had strung from a branch as a target. “If you’d just let me use one of the handguns, I wouldn’t be having this—”
    “I keep telling you, they’re not as accurate and they don’t have—”
    “—don’t have the same range, yes, so you’ve said, but I bet they’re a lot easier to use one-handed.”
    “You’d think, but not really.”
    “Easy for you to say,” Wil grumbled. “You don’t have to pump this thing with a broken hand.”
    “Your hand isn’t broken,” Brayden replied, voice tight, “a couple of fingers and a few bones are—”
    “Right, like the fact that it’s ‘a few bones’ and not all of them is supposed to make some kind of difference?”
    “—and your wrist is