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My face heats though I manage to force out a smile to swivel to face him. “These keys don’t look like the ones I found yesterday. Did you change your mind about which of these toys to give me?”
He chuckles and moves past me to claim the driver’s side of my chosen car. Meeting my gaze, he says, “The key I gave you was to the garage itself.” He gestures to the spacious room itself. “They areallyours, chica. Get in.”
I feel my eyes widen. I have to blink several times and force myself to climb into the passenger seat.
“You seem stunned,” Jaguar remarks. “Don’t tell me you doubt the gesture.”
Do I even believe him? I’m too terrified to tell.
“I’m just wondering how I’m going to fit all this into my luggage when you send me back to Texas.”
“Oh, Lupe, you can drive them back to Texas if you wish. With me by your side.”
“Where are we going?” I ask, rather than try to dissect the nuances of that statement.
He cocks his head and eyes the road. “I think it’s time you had a day out on the town. Only, unlike Franco, I will pick the places we go.Claro?”
I hold my breath, too uneasy to respond. Where could a man like Julian Domingas take someone with the so-called purpose of having a good time? The possibilities are chilling.
“Don’t look so worried, chica,” he says. “We just need to get something out of the way first. Then I think you will enjoy our destination.”
If he’s aiming to comfort me, he doesn’t.
Not in the slightest.
* * *
Despite knowingJaguar’s penchant for the unpredictable, I don’t think I would have ever guessed where he’d take me—a shooting range.
It’s open air, in the middle of nowhere, with human-shaped targets spaced at various distances from a shooting line.
Without my knowledge, he brought along the pistol he bought me or one suspiciously like it. Gently, he shows me how to hold it properly, forced to lean over me in the process. I bite my lip at the reaction coursing through me. He’s so damn warm. So firm. My mind starts to wander, envisioning if the growing pressure I feel against my lower back is another weapon he has holstered at his front, or something else…
“Focus, Lupe,” he chides, his tone a dangerous mix of playful and stern. “Watch.” With unnerving patience, he shows me where to place my fingers and how to brace my weight against the kickback. How to operate the weapon. Clean it.
And how to aim.
“I don’t give a damn if you’re outnumbered or bleeding out. First, you take a breath. Then face your enemy. Look them in the eye if you can. As a woman, they will always underestimate you, and right when they open their mouths to tell you some sexy little threat. You—” He makes me squeeze the trigger, and a shot rings out. Instantaneously, a small hole appears in one of the targets, mere centimeters from the bullseye.
“You don’t hesitate,” he murmurs into my ear. “You don’t cower. You don’t flinch in fear.” He steps aside and leaves me holding the gun alone.
“Again. Let’s see if you have magic aim in addition to that magic tongue.”
I suck in a breath and aim at the next target, following Jaguar’s advice to the letter. The night when I shot Diego, I had no clue of what to do other than pull the trigger. I was frightened. Shaking. I think I fired at least four times but hit him only once in a spray of blood that rendered him silent. It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t brave.
It wasn’t easy.
“Don’t forget the most important step, Lupe,” Jaguar warns. “No hesitation.”
I fire and come the closest to the bullseye I have since starting.
Jaguar claps, his playful smirk on display. “Excellent. I’ll make a fighter out of you yet. Now, let’s go. Business is over. It’s time for play.”
He takes the gun and stows it somewhere unseen. Then we return to the car and arrive at another destination minutes later. This one, however, makes my heart trill in a way that has nothing to do with reliving past gun violence.
“Ah, this is what I love to see,” Jaguar murmurs, his eyes on my face. “The look when the cat has got your tongue, chica, and you forget to maintain that hard-ass mask. If I’m not mistaken, one might assume that I’ve pleased you.” He reaches out, running his thumb along my cheek in a gentle caress.
I bite my tongue, holding my judgment until we’re inside.
