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She didn’t say anything for a moment, and when she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “The day after my brother graduated, he went out and bought a gun. My parents don’t know.”
“Does he keep it locked up?”
“I don’t know. He took it with him.” She paused, and her voice almost wavered. “I kept worrying that I’d accidentally find it, or he’d accidentally shoot it, or . . . I don’t know.”
“If you want to learn how to handle them, I could show you.”
She turned her head slightly. “Yeah?”
“Sure. When—”
The basement steps creaked; then heavy footfalls were coming down the stairs. “Hunter?”
Hunter jumped and almost dropped the gun. Thank god it was unloaded, because Clare started to spin with the weapon in her hands.
Hunter got a grip on it before she turned all the way, but it left his arms wrapped around Clare, the gun in their hands, just as his uncle came through the door.
CHAPTER 2
Hunter tried to think of a way out of this.
He was coming up short.
“That better be unloaded,” said his uncle. He was still in uniform, and it always made him look taller, more official.
“It is,” said Hunter. He let go of Clare, keeping the barrel pointed downward, trying not to meet his uncle’s eyes.
There was no way his dad wouldn’t find out about this.
“I figured we’d catch you with a girl one day, but this isn’t quite the scenario I imagined.”
Hunter sighed. Humiliation was going to kill him.
“It’s my fault,” said Clare quickly.
“Really?” said Uncle Jay. “You stole the keys and guessed the combination? Was Hunter trying to get the weapon away from you, then?”
He couldn’t be in too much trouble if his uncle was going to stand here and joke about it. “It’s not her fault.”
“Should I give your girlfriend a ride home?”
“Let me guess,” said Hunter. “You mean in your police cruiser?”
“Oh, I can walk,” said Clare. She was already edging toward the door.
Hunter wished he could go with her.
She didn’t look back at him as she dashed for the stairs.
Well, that had been short-lived.
But at the top of the steps, she ducked back to look at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
Then she was gone, and the gun room was completely silent.
Hunter held out the gun, stock first. “You want to just shoot me and save Dad the time?”
Jay smiled and took the weapon, checking the magazine before putting it back on the wall. “He’s not going to shoot you.”
