Page 25 of Isla by Any Other Name

“Are you ready to take me down?” he asked as he led her over to the mats. “Let’s warm up and then I want you to demonstrate what I taught you the other day.”

Mitch put her through her paces. She was a good student. She had mastered all the techniques he had shown her the other day. “You’ve been practicing.”

“Colt helped me out. I dropped him three out of the five times I tried. And he gave me a few new tips as well. Do you want me to show you?”

“What did he teach you?”

“I want you to put your hands around my neck and I’ll show you what I need to do to get out of it.’’

Mitch gripped her throat tightly, but not enough to cut off her breath. She brought her hands up and forced his hands up and away from her face.

“Good, you’re a natural. I’m proud of you.” He took his hands and cupped her face as he leaned down and dropped a gentle kiss on her lips. “I could take you right here.”

“I wish you would,” said Isla.

Mitch groaned. “I’m nervous Lara will be scouting the area or something.”

“Mitch, when this is all over, I want to talk to you about what this is,” said Isla. “You’re all I can think about.”

“I’m counting on it,” said Mitch. “Just touching while training you arouses me and that’s never happened to me before.”

Isla smiled and flirted, “Well, then let’s keep training.”

They worked out on the mats for an hour and then headed for the shooting range. Mitch unlocked a vault and pulled a gun from the case along with a box of ammo. He turned to her, checking the gun’s chamber to make sure there were no bullets. “I want you to get comfortable handling it without bullets first. Feel its weight and lift it to your face. How does it feel in your hand?”

“It’s heavy, but not as heavy as I thought it would be,” Isla said as she handed it back to him.

“Here’s some ear and eye protection. Put these on and stand on the side of me and watch what I do.”

Isla stood behind and to the side of him as he raised the gun and aimed at the paper target. He fired off the round and then pulled off his ear and eye protection and looked at her with a serious face. “Are you ready to try? I’m putting only one shot in the chamber. Come in front of me.”

Isla stood in front of the divider and Mitch handed her the gun, then raised her arms to where he wanted them to be. “Now use the sight to line up your shot, release the safety, and pull the trigger.”

Isla pulled the trigger. The shot kicked her back into Mitch’s chest and went wide to the left of the target.

“How did that feel?” Mitch said.

“I didn’t expect such a kickback,” Isla said. She frowned. “I wasn’t even close to the target. Mitch, I don’t think I can do this.”

“I don’t want to hear can’t. You’ve picked up everything I’ve taught you so far. I know you can do this. It just takes practice.” Mitch took the gun from her hands and filled the chamber and handed it back. “Now again. I want you to unload the whole clip.”

She positioned herself like Mitch had shown her and pulled the trigger until the clip was empty. Mitch brought the target forward and she had actually hit the sheet of paper twice. She hadn’t hit the body target, but she had hit the paper.

“I did it! I hit the paper!” she screeched excitedly.

“You hit the paper,” he chuckled. “Come on, let’s try again.”

They practiced for the next hour and in that hour, she actually hit the body outline on the paper three out of ten shots. Mitch told her to aim center body mass. She had hit that twice.

“That’s enough for today,” Mitch said, taking the gun from her. “We’ll practice again tomorrow. You did great today for a person that’s never fired a gun before. We’ll make you a marksman before you know it.”

“I don’t think I want to be a marksman, Mitch,” Isla said seriously. Just hearing the sound of the shots gave her flashbacks to the night she saw Jim Watkins murdered. “But I’ll do this because you want me to.”

“Good, because I want you to be safe, Molly.” Mitch looked around at the mountains. The clouds were gathering and the wind had picked up since they had left. “I feel a storm coming in.”

Mary Carlson had just been met at her door by Hernandez’s henchman, Roberto Mendez. “You better have news for me, Mary,” he said as he stared daggers at her.

“I think I found something today,” Mary said. Her voice quivered with fear. “I just need a few hours to track the information down.”