Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(73)

“More questions than answers,” AJ muttered. He ran a hand through his hair. “What the hell was going through your mind, Amelia?” he asked his sister as if she were right there to answer him.

Tension rolled off his shoulders.

Sasha placed a hand on his back and spoke calmly. “It will come together. It always does.”





Chapter Twenty-Six



“I either need to run and jump over things or I need to shoot something. You pick,” Claire said, standing toe-to-toe with Neil. She’d been staring at Amelia Hofmann’s cryptic notes in German for hours and she was starting to go crazy. She had no issue with long hours, but the words were running together, and she knew that if she could just clear her brain, something would click.

“Wade has a home gym.”

“Outside. Fresh air . . . get my brain cells working again.”

“Fine. Cooper?” He waved the man over. “Take Claire out past the stables, set up some targets. Don’t go any farther.”

Cooper offered two thumbs up. “Some trigger time? Sounds good to me.” He turned to Claire. “What do you want to shoot?”

“What do you have?”

Cooper smiled and motioned out the door. In the garage of the guesthouse they were using for a war room was a van that had rolled in the day after they arrived. She’d heard one of the guys yelling to another about getting something from the van, but she’d yet to see what was inside.

When Cooper opened up the back door, Claire was all smiles. She climbed in the back and ran her hand along the stocks of a small arsenal. “Sweet.” She reached for the AR-15.

“Careful there, kid, they’re all load—”

Claire didn’t let him finish. She popped the magazine out, checked the chamber, left the round inside, and drove the magazine back where it belonged. She repeated the action with an M16 and a 9 mm pistol. With the safeties all in place, she turned back to Cooper. “Do we have any ear protection?”

A sexy smile sat on Cooper’s face. “Okay, that was kinda hot.”

She swallowed back the excitement his comment did for her insides and brushed past him. “Put it away, Cooper. You’re too old for me.”

Outside and past the stables had to be far enough away to not disturb the livestock or the people in the house. Because of the long-range distance the weapons could reach, they also needed to butt up against a hillside or risk bullets finding unwanted targets.

“We don’t generally have paper targets,” Cooper told her. “I could come up with something . . .”

Claire looked down range. “That’s a fence post, isn’t it?”

“The one about four hundred yards out?”

She nodded. “Think Wade will mind if we use it?” From where she was, the post seemed to have been abandoned next to a new fence some ten yards away. Or maybe it was a double barrier for some reason.

“I’m sure a few holes won’t make that big of a difference.”

Taking that as permission, Claire set the guns on the ground at her feet and lay down next to them. On her belly, she placed ear protection over her head.

She noticed Cooper put on his ears and focus a pair of binoculars at her target.

“You know, Cooper, I can’t help but wonder if the flowers and message from Charlie were just a warning for Sasha . . . or if the school is on lockdown.” She leaned over the gun, put the stock into her shoulder. She dug the toes of her shoes into the loose dirt she was lying on to leverage herself against the kick.

“I doubt anyone would tell you if you called,” Cooper said.

“Yeah, right. No one has a cell phone.” She took a deep breath, stared down the barrel, and squeezed. The shot buzzed past the post on the right.

Cooper huffed and lowered the binoculars.

“Sites are off.”

“All our guns are dialed in, kid. You’re just—”

She fired off three more shots, one right after the other. The final one snapped a string of barbwire. Liking the sound of that, Claire burrowed down stronger and took three more shots.

“Off to the right. Not by much, though.”

“Damn, girl.”

She took that as praise. “What about a satellite image of the campus? Can we get that?”

“Overhead, yeah. I’m not sure how that will answer your questions.”

It probably wouldn’t. Not unless you could see into the eaves of the outside corridors, where the large containers would hold the lilies on shutdown days.

Claire unloaded the magazine and reached for the second rifle.

“Richter taught you how to shoot?” Cooper asked.

“Richter taught me everything.” She took two test shots, hit the post but not the wire. “Jax would know what was going on. If anything.”

“Who is Jax?”

“My roommate.”

“You mean you had a friend? Did they allow that?”

Claire glanced up at Cooper. “Ha, ha, very funny.” She leaned back over the gun, squeezed. Barbwire flapped in the sun. “Of course I have friends. Jax at the top of the list.”

“Did she know you were going AWOL?”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t tell her. If she’d known and the headmistress found out, she’d be the one in trouble.”