Right in Front of You

25. Combat training

Kay had a really fun evening at Tanner Ranch. After a dinner of ratatouille, Sophie and Max insisted they all played a really complicated board game called Carcassone. It mostly consisted in building a map out of tiles and claiming castles, roads and fields off it using little wooden men.

Kyle was pretty bad at it, but Sophie and Max were very competitive, so he spent the entire game screwing up their plans. By the third game, Kay got the hang of it and managed to steal a large field from Sophie right before the end of the game and score second place. Max took it out on Kyle in what was the most amazing childish insult war Kay had ever witnessed.

It ended with Sophie grounding them both and Max threatening Kyle that he'll see in the morning. What he would see exactly, Kay wasn't sure.

After her full evening, Kay slept better than she had in weeks. Maybe it was the really comfortable bed, the loving family atmosphere or the bucket list she'd made, but when she woke up the next morning, she found herself excited to start the day. She couldn't remember when that happened last.

She found Sophie in the kitchen, brewing a large pot of coffee. A consistent stack of pancakes waited on the island.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Kay," Sophie answered, pouring coffee into two mugs. "Slept well?"

"Very," Kay said, taking her cup and smelling it. Yup, this is what heaven probably smelled like in the morning. "Are the boys going to join us for breakfast?"

"They already ate." Sophie took a delicate sip of her coffee. "Kyle's out running the course and Max is probably bellowing at him. I swear, I raised him better than this."

"What course?" Kay asked frowning.

Sophie's eyes widened and Kay could swear Kyle's grandma actually looked excited that she had no idea what the course was.

"Come," Sophie said with indecent enthusiasm, grabbing Kay's forearm and dragging her towards the door. "You've got to see this."

Throwing the pancakes a longing look, Kay followed Sophie out the back door. The woman led her to the stables at a brisk pace, then around them. Kay almost dropped her mug. They've come across a large wooden construction, for lack of a better word.

The course looked like the love child between a police obstacle course and an adventure park. It was about three stories high and there were swinging logs, rotating wheels, nets, zip lines and even a barbed wire tunnel Kyle was now crawling under.

As Kay watched, Kyle rose a little too high on his elbows and the barbed wire nipped his t-shirt.

"You're sloppy!" Max yelled from the other side of the course.

He held a stopwatch in one hand, and to Kay's utter shock, a pistol in the other. She hoped it was one of those signaling guns that only made noise, but it looked like a regular, killing gun.

Kyle lowered himself to his stomach and crawled the rest of the way until he cleared the barbed wire. When he got to his feet, his eyes fell on Kay and Sophie and he hesitated. From behind him, Max pointed the gun.

Before Kay could open her mouth to let out the terrified scream rising inside her, Max pulled the trigger. Kyle jerked back as the bullet hit his shoulder.

"Ow, fuck!" he said, rubbing it viciously.

"What the hell are you doing? You're dead! Move it!" Max pointed the gun again, this time at Kyle's head, and shot.

Kyle ducked the speeding bullet and threw himself inside a tunnel made from a hollow log. Max strode towards them, rolling the pistol around one finger, looking very pleased with himself. Kay felt a sudden urge to slap the smirk off his face.