A giggled escaped her lips. “You should have never told me your government if you didn’t want me to use it.” Teonny kept busy by rolling up the paper target before discarding it in the trash bin next to her station. Then she fidgeted with her gun so she could avoid his eyes. If she looked at him right now, he might see her true feelings.
“Like I had a choice. You refused to talk to me when I introduced myself as Prosper. You ain’t really talk to me until I told you my government.”
“Because I ain’t one of those niggas you run the streets with or the bitches still stuck in the projects. I didn’t want your street name.”
“Aye, man, ain’t no need to snap at me. You already know whatever you want you can get up out of me. You got the government, didn’t you?”
Her lips turned up into a smirk, and she finally looked up at him. “I did.”
“And you won’t let me spoil you any further than that,” he said, lifting his hand and brushing her black curls from her face.
She sighed. It didn’t take long for Prosper to get affectionate with her. Outside of her mom, his affection was all she got. She craved it, but she always had to pull away. Love had been cruel to her. The way she saw it, all she had was her mom’s death to get through, unless she died first. One more death, she could handle, but she couldn’t let anyone else into her heart and risk any more than that. Lord knew Angel’s almost took her out. Her mom forced her up out of that depression and kept a close eye on her since.
“We’ve had this conversation, Patrick.”
“That don’t mean I have to accept your lame ass excuses.” He was right. He didn’t have to accept her excuse that she wasn’t dating at the moment and hadn’t for the last five years, but she wished he would. Part of her did, anyway. The other part of her begged to allow him in because she was lonely as hell. Tears gathered in her eyes as she thought about how unbelievably lonely she was. Prosper’s hand cupped her chin. “Aye, look at me,” he coaxed. “Who hurt you, Peanut?”
She barked out a laugh that would let anyone who heard it know that there was nothing funny at all. “That’s a long story.”
She pulled away from him and packed her gun up.
“You always say that.”
“Because it’s the truth.”
Silence stretched between them, but the sudden sound of a gunshot made Teonny jump. She immediately picked her gun up from the case as she looked around the space with her browsdripped. When she noticed Prosper suddenly had a gun in his hand, too, her brows rose.
“What was that?” she asked hesitantly, though she already knew. She could never get the sound of a gunshot out of her head. The problem was, the sound came from outside the designated area for active guns.
“Aye, stay here right quick,” Prosper said, already moving toward the door with his gun in his hand and raised slightly.
Before he could open the door, it swung open. Everything happened quickly after that, but luckily for both Prosper and Teonny, her reflexes were on point.
The man who shoved the door open raised his gun to shoot Prosper, but Teonny shot him first.
Another man walked through the door, and both Teonny and Prosper shot him. He dropped right next to his buddy.
Prosper backtracked toward Teonny, who shook violently, despite her steady hands. Fear gripped her as she had flashbacks from the last time she’d been attacked like this.
“W-what the fuck is going o-on?”
“I’on know. Stay behind me. We gonna go out to the front and exit through the back door.”
Teonny nodded, but she didn’t really think that was the best idea. Sitting still wasn’t either. She knew that from experience.
Prosper made sure his entire body covered her as he walked toward the door at a steady pace. Every so often, he reached a hand behind him to make sure she was on his heels, but he kept his eyes forward and alert.
When he pried the door open, Teonny was ready with her gun raised, but tears blurred her vision. She knew she had to blink them away quickly if she wanted to stay on point.
Teonny glanced at the men on the floor and shook her head, immediately wishing she hadn’t looked.
I killed someone. Two people.
All these years she wished she could kill the two people who had gotten away with murder, but nothing could have prepared for what it felt like taking a life.
They got fully out of the door when they heard another gunshot ring out. Terror caused Teonny to freeze. She couldn’t see behind Prosper’s large frame, so she felt completely helpless.
He returned fire and then pulled her forward. They stopped in the lobby where two bodies lay in a pool of blood. One was dead, the super nice man who owned the small gun range. Teonny said a silent prayer for him and his family before focusing back on Prosper, who had the other man by the collar. Blood leaked out of the man’s stomach, and he groaned in agony as Prosper shouted at him.
