Hell Bent (3 page)

“
They
aren’t my secretary,” Dave replied gruffly.  “Secretaries don’t
need
range practice.”

Susan’s shoulders stiffened as one corner of her mouth kicked up.  “I was your secretary and you should be thankful that I knew how to shoot because it meant I could save your butt out at that clinic didn’t it?”

Cee Cee bit her inner cheek to keep from laughing as she watched her brother grind his teeth.  This was why Susan could tolerate him twenty-four hours a day when no one else could.  She didn’t let him get by with
anything
.   Yes, she definitely wanted to be like this woman.

“She can go, but you’re staying here.” Dave crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin but Susan just smiled wider.

In a slow, cat-like movement Susan slid her hip off of the desk and turned toward Dave, who backed up a little and twisted so one hip was forward.  Susan poked him in the shoulder. 

“You want to repeat that,
pookie
bear
?” she drawled.

Pookie bear? 
Cee Cee snorted and Dave shot her a glare.

“I said, you are
not
going to the range, Susan. Exposing yourself and the baby to lead dust and the reverb isn’t good.”

“You know I hate it when you’re right.” Susan groaned, her face paled and she put her hand to her forehead.  “Why in the hell didn’t I think of that?”

Dave pulled her to him with a growl and squeezed her tight as he rested his chin on top of her head. “Because you’re pregnant, and you’re not used to that yet.  I’ve been Googling things to make sure we do things right.”

“Stop Googling, Logan…you’re going to drive me nuts.” Susan nuzzled her face into his shoulder then sighed heavily.  “I’ll just take Cecelia to the range and let her shoot a few rounds, but I promise I won’t shoot at all.”

“It’s an indoor range, so the dust is in the air,” he countered, shooting Cee Cee another hot glare.

“I won’t go inside the range, I’ll sit outside on the sofa and eat bon bons…” Susan gave a frustrated laugh and pushed back to look up at him.  “You sure you don’t want to wrap me in bubble wrap and put me in a closet for seven months?  I knew I shouldn’t have told you I was pregnant until I was ready to deliver.”

Dave frowned darkly, but tempered his tone.  “Because of your age, the doctor said you were high risk and I don’t want you taking chances, sweetheart.”

Susan nodded and stepped back to swipe an X between her breasts.  “It will kill me, but I’ll be a good girl and sit in the lobby, I promise.”

“Just drop her off and she can call me to pick her up when she’s finished,” he suggested, glaring at Cee Cee.

“Stop trying to manage me, Logan,” Susan warned, her jaw tight.  “You know that only makes me more determined to do exactly what I shouldn’t be doing.”

These two were talking about her like she wasn’t even standing there and Cee Cee didn’t need them to take her to the range.  She could’ve already run to her apartment and picked up her truck by now.  She grabbed her pistol case off of the desk and pushed her way between them. 

“I can just run home and get my truck,” she said.  

“
No
!” Susan shouted and Cee Cee stopped because the woman’s voice held that kind of command.  She walked up beside Cee Cee to hook her arm through hers.  “
We
are going to the range.  I’m not about to set a precedent at this early stage by allowing my overprotective husband to boss me around because I’m incubating his progeny.  Slade won’t let Taylor out of the bedroom, so she can’t go with us, but we are going and that’s that.”

Dave harrumphed and Cee Cee smiled as they walked to the front door. 
Take that brother
, she thought, as she opened the door.  Hopefully, your offspring will give you just as much hell as your wife, because you deserve every damned minute of it.

An hour and a half later, after firing three clips of practice rounds, Cee Cee pushed her shooting glasses up on her nose then ejected the clip to reload.  She glanced at the target on the wire and was pleased to see the center mass circle had almost disappeared.  One more clip and she’d replace the target and start over again.  This target had been for her brother and his controlling ways, his lack of confidence in her abilities.  The next would be reserved for Cade Winters and her frustration at having to both put up with seeing him, and having to avoid him.

There was something to be said for the therapeutic value of focused range practice.  Cee Cee was feeling better than she had in the last two months.  She hated to admit it, because she really loved her sister-in-law and was thankful to her for making it possible for her to come here, but she was also grateful that she was alone in the range.

Other than peeking in a few times, Susan had kept her word to Dave.  Cee Cee had been in the middle of a clip both times and felt kind of guilty for ignoring her.  She had to be bored out there, so when the door opened this time, she stepped back out of the booth with a smile, but the corners of her mouth slammed down when it wasn’t Susan standing there. 

As if her thoughts had summoned him, it was Cade Winters’ broad shoulders that filled the doorway, his icy blue eyes that met hers.

CHAPTER TWO

You’re just like your father
. 
Don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re any better, Cade Winters
. 

Why did those words that this woman had angrily tossed at him the last time he’d seen her six years ago still burn so badly inside him?  Every time he looked at her now they speared through his mind. 

Because you’re pissed at yourself for ever being so young and stupid.  For trusting her with your deepest darkest secrets like a fool.  For giving her the fifty cal slug she put right into your chest when she needed ammunition to hurt you. 

Well, that wound was long ago healed but remembering the words now sure as hell reminded him of what kind of woman she was and how stupid he’d been for trusting her or anyone with that information.  It was a mistake he hadn’t repeated for sure.

Cade never expected to see Cecelia Logan again, would have preferred not to.  But now that he had, Cade was determined not to pass up the opportunity to get a pound or two of her creamy flesh in retribution.  The Army evidently hadn’t toughened her up like it had him, so she was making that damned easy.  Too easy. 

She wanted to meet his father
?  From his time in Delta Force and now the agency, Cade had definitely toughened up to the point he had no problem showing her and the world that man.  Going for the jugular was not a problem now since he was a trained killer.  But first he wanted to play with his prey a little for sheer entertainment value.

Cade eased the door closed behind him, and his eyes fell on Cecelia’s hand to see where her finger was in relation to the trigger on the pistol in her hand.  From the look on her face, she’d rather shoot him than look at him.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, and he didn’t miss the tremble in her voice, the tension in her tight little body. 

“Of course not, or you wouldn’t be here, would you?” he replied with a nasty snicker. 

Carrying his weapons into the booth beside hers, he set them down on the narrow shelf then backed out to lean against the wall and cross his arms over his chest, effectively blocking her way to the door.  The trapped rabbit look appeared in her eyes, which pleased him.

“I was just leaving,” she said gruffly, disappearing back inside her booth. 

“Of course you were.”  Nothing less than he expected.  “But it’s a long walk back to the office, so I guess it’s good you’re getting a head start.  There are a lot of things that could get scared little rabbits in the dark before they reach their rabbit hole.”

Cade enjoyed her indignant gasp, and forced a smile when she leaned around the partition to glare at him.  “I’m
not
a scared rabbit.  Those days are long gone, and I have a ride back to the office so I won’t be walking anywhere.” 

Cecelia disappeared back behind the partition, and the angry huffing sounds she made as she unloaded her weapon tickled him.  Two loud clicks told him the pistol was back in the case, and when she reappeared with the gun case at her side his smile widened, making his face feel tight because he wasn’t used to smiling anymore. 

Logan had called him to come here and relieve Susan, to give Cecelia a ride back to the office, but he wasn’t telling her that.  Let her find out for herself that if she wanted a ride, she would have to
ask
him for one. 

Cade moved to walk into his booth and pick up his pistol.  He heard the door open and close as she exited the range, but didn’t look that way.  Sliding his shooting glasses from the top of his head onto his nose, he pulled on his ear muffs then flicked off the safety on his pistol.  Without bothering to load in the practice rounds, he took aim at the target’s head and fired nine times into the center of the forehead.  One bullet followed the next into the hole in the target until it was almost dime-sized. 

As he reloaded with practice rounds, the door creaked opened and Cecelia stood there for a second before she finally walked back in.  Cade didn’t acknowledge her, he lifted the pistol again and put nine more rounds through the first hole in the target, widening it to quarter size.  Ejecting the clip, he quickly reloaded, but stopped when a finger poked him in the back. 

“I called Susan and she said you were giving me a ride back to the office?”  Cade bit back a laugh at the sickness in her tone.

“I am?” he asked, slamming the magazine into the butt of his pistol.  This time, he went for the heart and left a hole the size of a single bullet in the center dot of the target. 

When he popped out the clip, she shoved his shoulder and he turned.  “What is it you want from me, Cecelia?”

“I didn’t bring my wallet to pay for a taxi, so I’ll…ah, need a ride.” 

That sounded like a problem.  Her problem.  One she wasn’t going to solve, until she begged a little, or at least reframed her statement into a request.

“Well, that presents a problem, doesn’t it?” Cade said gruffly, as he snapped his magazine back into the pistol.  “You might want to cover your ears.  You’re already blind, so you don’t want to go deaf too.”

“Blind?” she repeated dumbly, and Cade pointed to her target which had a huge connect-a-dot hole out of the middle, with the rest looking like Swiss cheese. 

“If you didn’t use a room broom, Brat, that’s not very good,” Cade said with a nasty laugh.

It wasn’t that bad, but it served his purpose he discovered when he heard her indignant gasp.  The gasp could’ve come from his use of his former nickname for her too. 

Cecelia was the pesky little sister who did everything she could to get him to notice her.  Well Cade noticed, the first time he laid eyes on her, with her angelic face, long golden hair and cornflower blue eyes he’d been struck stupid.  The nickname originated when she followed him and Logan into the woods and almost got herself shot.  They’d told her to stay at the house, but she’d grabbed a gun and walked inside the tree line to follow them. 

It only got worse after that, and the nickname stuck. 

Whatever the cause for her upset now, Cade knew he’d hit his mark when he saw her body start shaking.

“I have a medal in shooting from boot camp,” she announced with a growl.

“Your instructor must’ve been blind too then,” he said, and enjoyed the growl that rumbled in her chest, before coming out on a harrumph.

“My instructor at least had enough sense to teach me to shoot center mass instead of being a hotdog hotshot who goes for the center of the forehead, Maverick.” 

The anger behind her words told him he was under her skin—right where he wanted to be.  He shot her an amused glance. 

“I had the advanced course in Delta Force, Brat.  I go for the kill shot and happen to be good enough to actually
hit
the forehead on purpose.”

Cecelia’s face blanched and she collapsed back against the partition. 

“You were an operator?” she asked looking totally blown away.

Operator?  Operative? SMU? JSOC? ACE?
  Yeah, he had been all of that.  Those titles and acronyms changed daily for whatever reason, and they didn’t define him.  What defined him, placed him in the most elite of the elite forces, was his training and the jobs the Army, and later the CIA, assigned to him.  The dirty, mostly off-the-books, jobs they had that nobody else wanted or could do.  Jobs they knew he could and would get done for them in his sleep.

But he had nothing to prove to this woman.  And his secrets were not for public dissemination—especially to her. 

“If you want lessons, put your pistol on the shelf in the next booth.  Or if you want a ride, you can wait in the lounge, and I’ll be done here shortly.”

Cade picked up his tactical assault rifle and did a quick check, before changing it to semi-auto and putting it to his shoulder to aim at her target.  He popped off ten rounds directly into the forehead, tracing the same hole with each bullet.  In a quick move, he flipped the lever and emptied the clip in auto mode into the target. The last shots were less accurate but still in the forehead.

Cade thought he heard her grumble, “Showoff,” as she backed out of his booth.

Picking up his fifty caliber hand cannon, he loaded it.  This was just for fun, he thought, as he aimed at the clean target in the third booth.  The recoil rocked him and the boom reverberated inside his skull even though he wore ear protection, but he was pleased to see the round pierce the forehead of the target.

He hoped like hell Logan had good padding in the walls here, otherwise someone’s vehicle in the next parking lot might be missing a windshield.  When he finished the rounds, he laid the pistol down and stepped back into the aisle where he saw Cecelia leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest, watching him.

“Ride or lessons?” he asked with a lifted brow. 

A muscle worked in the side of her cheek and it looked like she might be biting the inside.  When she didn’t speak, he decided to dig in deeper—go for blood. 

“Maybe Logan might let you be a baby agent if you learned to shoot better,” he goaded, and her long, thin neck turned bright red.  That red crept upward until it looked like even the ends of her spiky blond hair were pink.

“That’s what you’ve been hell bent on accomplishing for six years, right?  I can help you get there if you like.  If you want to get yourself killed, I’d be happy to help you arrange it.”

“What the hell happened to you, Cade?” she asked, her lips trembling. 

Those soft lips, those big soulful blue eyes did nothing to him now.  Cade’s heart was as hard and tough as they came.  Especially where Cecelia Logan was concerned.

“I became a man not to be messed with, Brat.  You started that process, so thank you for that.”  Cade swallowed hard and turned toward the booth to gather his weapons.  “Now, do you want a ride?  Or do you want me to teach you to shoot like the man you’ve been trying to become for so many years?”

“I
don’t
want to be a man, especially considering the ones I know,” she said looking away, and he barely heard her over the ringing in his ears from the fifty cal reverb.

“Lessons or a ride?” he asked again gruffly, patching that crack he felt start in his chest.

“
Lessons
,” she growled, surprising him. 

Cade laid his weapons down to walk back into the aisle.  “Get your protection back on and load your pistol.  You did unload it before you put it in your case, correct?”  He sure as hell hoped so—that was range practice 101.

“I removed the magazine,” she replied with a huffed breath.

“Did you eject the round from the chamber?” he asked, with raised brows.

“Uh—”

“
Uh
—ain’t going to cut it, Brat—you should know better!” Cade moved around her to step inside the booth and open her case.  He lifted the pistol and quickly pulled back the slide to eject the round.  “This could get someone killed—namely
you
.”

“I’ve been stateside for a year, so I’m a little rusty.”

“No excuses,” Cade growled, turning to pin her with a glare.  “This shit should be rote to you since you were in the military for six years.  Or were you too busy sharpening your pencils to remember that?”

“I
didn’t
sharpen pencils in the service, asshole.” She lifted her chin to glare up at him. “I was assigned to outfit spec ops guys with com equipment at Camp Salerno and served two tours there.  I know how to shoot, and shoot well, but am not arrogant enough like some people to think I couldn’t stand to improve.”

Salerno
?  Ice water replaced the blood in Cade’s veins and his stomach churned.  Rocket City wasn’t any place for a woman.  That base near the Pakistani border was under mortar and insurgent attack more than any other forward operating base in the sandbox. 

He was actually surprised he hadn’t run into her there.  It was damned good thing he hadn’t, because he’d probably have fought to get her out of there fast and gotten himself in trouble.  Cecelia Logan was damned lucky she lived to come back home. 

A lot who were assigned to that base weren’t so lucky.

“Why two tours?” he asked gruffly.

“Because despite what you and my brother think, I was damned good at what I did and was asked to go back.  I volunteered and didn’t leave until we pulled out and handed it over to the ANA in 2013,” she replied her eyebrow lifting.

“Then you’re even more stupid than I thought when you left.” 

Cade’s hand shook as he laid her pistol down on the carpeted shelf to reload the clip.  He shoved it into the butt of the gun forcefully and it was a good thing the barrel pointed into the range because the pistol fired, scaring the hell out of him. 

“What the
fuck
?!?” he shouted, laying the pistol down on the shelf to spin around to glare at her.

She shrugged. “I had the trigger pull lightened to lessen the recoil and improve my accuracy.”

“What you
improved
are your chances of accidentally killing someone, maybe even yourself!  I didn’t even have my finger
near
the trigger!” Cade felt the veins in his neck pulsing as he leaned down to put his nose nearer to hers.  “That damned thing is
dangerous
, and you are
not
to shoot it again!”