Kings & Chaos: A Dark College Bully Romance (Aventine University Book 2) - SIGNED PAPERBACK

“Again,” Rock said. “Inhale, then squeeze nice and easy while you exhale.”

It would have been easier to focus on the gun in my hands if he hadn’t been behind me, his dick pressed up against my ass in jeans, his muscular arms lined up with mine as he showed me how to fire the gun.

I took a breath and focused on the chest of the silhouetted target at the end of the lane. I exhaled, nice and slow, and squeezed.

The sound was still a shock, even with the headphones we had to wear at the shooting range. It had been two weeks since the !re at the cabin, and I’d spent both Sundays with Rock, learning to fire the weapon in my hands.

Rock stepped away and pressed the button to bring the target closer. I forced myself not to look at him, because looking at him was too damn distracting.

Besides, I already knew what I’d see: a blond god with shaggy hair, sea-blue eyes, a grin that could disarm the world’s biggest cynic, and a body that made me want to tear off the jeans hugging his thighs and the T-shirt that showed off the muscled landscape of his chest.

I knew that’s what I’d see because I’d been trying and failing not to look at him all fucking day.

The target floated toward us on an electric pulley. I held my breath as it got closer, hoping I’d hit it this time.

“Look at that!” Rock said when it was close enough to see the bullet holes. “You hit the shoulder.”

“I was aiming for the chest,” I grumbled, “like you said.”

After everything that had happened, my instinct was to aim for the head, but Rock had told me to start with the chest since it was a bigger target.

“You weren’t far off,” he said. “And at least you hit the target.” The words would have been snide coming from Neo, but they were sincere from Rock. “I think you’re ready to go it alone.”

“You think?” We’d spent our first day at the range going over gun safety, reviewing the parts of the gun and the mechanics of how it worked. Then, I’d fired it a few times with Rock behind me, the sexiest fucking training wheels a girl could ask for.

 

I’d never fired the gun alone, and I’d assumed we’d spend today practicing together.

“Definitely,” he said. “I’ll be in the next lane if you have questions. Just remember the safety rules and keep practicing.”

He stepped away, and I had to admit that I missed the press of his thighs behind mine, the safety of his arms wrapped around me. I had to remind myself that he wasn’t safe.

None of the Kings were safe.

But it was hard for my body to believe when I was wrapped in his arms and feeling like nothing in the world could touch me.

Fuck me, these guys were confusing.

I spent the next forty minutes !ring the weapon in my hands, getting used to the recoil, the sound, the idea of shooting to kill.

The last part wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I just imagined Dean Giordana and the masked man who’d dragged me into the cabin.

I imagined them digging my grave, throwing my body into it, covering me with dirt.

Then I imagined them doing it to Emma, to all of the missing girls.

I fired again and again, letting my mind go blank of everything except the target, aiming for the chest until I started to hit it.

 

Then I started with a fresh target and aimed for the head.

When our time was up, Rock stood next to me while the target drifted up the lane. There were a few misses, but there were also several holes in the silhouette’s head.

Rock beamed down at me, and I swear, it was like having the damn sun on my face. “Look at that. You’re a natural.”

I smiled in spite of myself. “Thanks. Does this mean you’ll get me a gun?”

It was a point of contention. My near-death at the cabin had put a lot into perspective, and the biggest thing of all was that the Kings had been right: I had to be able to protect myself.

And I couldn’t do that tiptoeing around, stealing the Kings’ guns when I felt like I was in danger, because I was pretty sure it had been established that being in danger was a default state for me at Aventine.

I’d woken up the three days after the fire and demanded a weapon, but the Kings had other ideas.

“Slow down, kitten,” he said. “This was a good session, but let’s get a few more under your belt.”

“A few more and I’ll probably be dead,” I muttered.

“You know we’re not going to let that happen. We’ve taken care of you so far, haven’t we?”

That was the million-dollar question, and unfortunately for me, the answer was complicated.

 

Because yes, the Kings had kept me safe. They’d saved my ass twice — first when Neo found me in the woods at the quarry and then at the cabin.

But there was also the issue of the security tape I’d found, the one with Emma approaching the Kings’ house on the night of her disappearance, Neo grabbing her arm, terror written all over her face.

I wasn’t entirely sure why I hadn’t called them on it. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to know, because I’d started to actually like them, Rock and Oscar anyway. Or maybe it was because I knew they’d just spin more bullshit, putting me off with vague explanations and promises to tell me more later, which was what they’d done so far.

Maybe it just felt like an insurance policy — one piece of information they didn’t know I had, something I might be able to use to !gure out what had happened to Emma.

“Wow,” Rock said. I looked up into his ridiculously gorgeous face as he rubbed at the blond scruff on his jawline. “I kind of thought that question about taking care of you was a softball.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I was thinking about something else.”

“So?” he prompted. “Do you trust us?”

He was talking about the gun, about the Kings’ insistence that I learn how to !re one before having one of my own, but for me, the question was loaded with a different meaning.

“Obviously,” I said, trying to make it sound obvious when the issue of the Kings and trust swirled like a deadly whirlpool in my mind.

“Whew,” he said with a grin. “You had me worried there for a second. We’ll get you a weapon of your own when using it feels like second nature, and we’ll keep coming to the range, so that’ll be no time at all.”

“Great.” I said it because that’s what he wanted to hear, but I was already plotting other ways to protect myself.

Because if the Kings thought I was going to sit around and wait for someone else to come for me, they didn’t know me at all. Dean Giordana was dead, but there had been at least one other man willing to bury me in an unmarked grave, and my gut said he was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Come on.” Rock slung his arm over my shoulders and I hated that his scent and the closeness of his enormous perfect body made me wet when I was supposed to be not trusting him. “Let’s grab some food. I’m famished.”

He wasn’t the only one. And I wasn’t thinking about food.