Damaged Goods

Chapter 15- Aria Starts Shooting

After three days of training, the guys finally decided she deserved a few days off from hand-to-hand combat. An actual break was apparently too much for a pregnant woman like Aria to ask for because they insisted she start her shooting lessons today. She was much more excited about this, having been raised in Oklahoma where the majority of residents owned a firearm or two. She might not be up to Nate and Marcus's standards, but she could hold her own pretty well.

Aria had never been one to shy away from a challenge, so when her father had suggested she get her hunter-safety courses done as a child, she jumped at the opportunity. Growing up she had been your typical daddy's girl. She would hunt, fish and work on cars with her dad anytime the weather permitted. That was until he began getting sick. After that it was a blessing for him to even make it to her graduation.

"Are you ready to go?" Marcus asked impatiently.

She had been stalling, wasting time hoping morning sickness would prevent her from being able to go. Yes, she was excited to show them her skills. Well, she considered them skills but around trained assassins she would probably look like a kid at the carnival trying to shoot the stars out of paper targets and failing terribly. The other part of her was reluctant to go. What if they judged too harshly or worse yet tried to teach over what her father had. She didn't think she could listen to a lecture like that and keep from aiming it at one of them.

"Yeah, I guess. Let's just get it over with," she grumbled.

The building they would be shooting at was on the outskirts of town and had a private indoor shooting range for Nate and the men to practice at. The building itself looked like a brick warehouse, big empty parking lot and blacked out window beside the front of the metal door. The inside though was surprisingly nice. There were couches arranged throughout the front room attached to a small kitchenette. Nate said there were a couple of apartments above them that the company's men were available to stay at if desired. It looked like one big man-cave with beer posters and bikini pin-ups smothering the walls but Aria liked it.

The shooting range was underground and an entire different story. The place was immaculately cleaned, not an empty cartridge anywhere on the ground and a showcase of weapons lay waiting behind a fenced in room. They had a surplus of weapons ranging from small compact handguns to fully automatic machine guns and rifles. Aria wanted to point out about half of those weren't legal to own, but neither was their line of business so she kept quiet.

"We will start you off with something easy. A .22 is fairly quiet and won't kick, so that'll be best to get you started, alright?" Nate asked.

Aria wanted to laugh in his face for his suggestion but refrained, knowing he was just trying to be nice and had no knowledge of her experience level. Instead she just shrugged and walked over to one of the shooting benches.

Marcus brought one over and sat a clip beside it and a box of ammunition. While he was trying to explain what everything was and how many the clip could hold, Aria was already done loading the clip. She snapped it in place underneath the gun, cocked the bolt back to put one in the chamber and aimed the gun in the direction of the paper target down range. She clicked the button turning off the safety and carefully aimed. 'Breathe in and out slowly. Squeeze the trigger, don't pull,' she instructed.

She lined up her sites on the bulls-eye and on her next breath, squeezed the trigger gently. A 'bang' rang out through the room and Aria looked to see she had made her mark. She ejected the spend round and put the gun back on safety before turning around to examine the boys' faces.

They were stunned to say the least. Marcus looked incredibly proud of her, while Nate looked confused.

"Did you put up a new target, Marcus or was that there before?" he asked sceptically.