Shadowed (37 page)

They could shoot. They just couldn't aim.

“Come on out, fellas!” Titus's wife, Liza, yelled as another barrage of fire peppered
the air.

“Yeah, don't be chicken.” Megan, Kaylan's roommate, hollered from behind a barrel.

“Says the girl at the back of the course,” Jay shouted back. He spat in the mud and
crouched behind the truck with Nick. Self-titled “team prankster,” he clearly didn't
see the current predicament as challenge enough for his skills.

Nick pulled a piece of Juicy Fruit from his pocket and popped it in his mouth. “Colt,
you got eyes on all the girls?”

Colt's grin sparked beneath his mask. As team daredevil, taking
on the ladies seemed
the perfect job for him. He'd even brought a date, Jia, a leggy redhead more skater
girl than hipster. Where most of the guys dreaded the repercussions of shooting the
girls and hearing about it later, Colt didn't carry that emotional stake just yet.
“Jia is to our right about fifteen yards behind the brown Chevy. Liza is the closest
behind that jacked-up blue bug.”

“My sister is hiding out behind a couple of barrels off to our right and back about
twenty yards,” Seth huffed beneath his mask.
A University of Alabama linebacker, his shoulders barely fit behind the single barrel
he crouched behind.

“Anyone else?”

At their silence Nick rolled over again, trying to gauge the direction of the paintballs
with the locations he now knew. His sniper skills served him well in moments like
these. Melody, David's girlfriend, popped from behind a single barrel at the back
right of the field to fire a shot. He grinned at her shoot-and-hide approach. That
left one more.

“Jay, where's your date, man?”

“My what?”

Micah bent next to him and slapped him across the chest. “Gorgeous blonde, successful
lawyer, way out of your league, responds to Bree. Ringing any bells?”

“Oh, right.” His bored expression caused Nick to chuckle. “She's got guts. She's
behind the car right next to Liza and sneaking pretty close to our line.”

A movement caught Nick's eye, and he fired. A frustrated cry met his ears as Bree
stood tall with her hands over her head. “I'm out. You happy?”

“Well, one down.” Nick rolled and sat up, swiping the drying mud from his cargo shorts.
“Jay, if you don't like her, why'd you bring her?”

“Because Megan won't go out with me. Now, for the love of everything sacred, can
we please put them out of their misery?” Jay
begged as he readied his gun. “Whose
idea was it to play paintball with a bunch of women anyway?”

“I can't take much more of this. They think they're winning,” Colt huffed.

“They have to be about out of ammo,” Titus said as he swiped a bead of sweat rolling
down his neck.

The sun hovered in the California sky, heating the metal around them. Nick sighed.
“Kaylan bruises like a peach. I'm going to hear about it for the next two weeks.”

Jay flipped his mask up, his blue eyes incredulous. “That's what's holding us back?
Man, forget this!” With a whistle the men took off in twos and threes, taking cover
behind the obstacles. Gunfire erupted in earnest. The SEALs were out to win.

Micah slapped Nick's back, chuckling as he scurried off. “She's your problem now,
my friend. No refunds or exchanges.”

“I haven't married her yet,” Nick muttered as feminine cries filled the air. He might
as well help end this quickly. He rolled onto his belly beneath the truck and took
aim. He watched Kaylan creep closer and take cover behind two metal barrels fifteen
yards away. She took aim facing away from him, her green eyes intent beneath her
mask. Nick grinned. Why not up the stakes a bit?

“Yo, Seth! Feel like picking on your big sister?”

Seth shuffled closer and leaned down to hear as the carnage continued, the SEALs
now fully engaged and decimating the enemy. “What do you have in mind?”

Nick's smile spread wider in anticipation, his breath heating the air in his face
mask. “How 'bout a game of catch? Keep her distracted while I sneak up behind her.
I'll take her hostage, and we'll force the girls to surrender.”

Seth smirked. “You do remember this is paintball and not BUD/S, right?”

Nick remembered well his days training to be a SEAL, but it's what made this faux
war even more fun. “You're playing with
SEALs, son.” He slapped Seth on the back
and crouched low to take up his position before Seth could toss another jab his way.
He needn't have worried. Seth trained his sights on his sister instead.

“Hey, Kayles, we taught you to shoot better than that.”

His taunt worked like a charm. Kaylan fired and the shot went wide, causing Seth
to momentarily duck and snicker. His head popped up as he continued his teasing,
fulfilling his role of younger brother. Nick ran to the next barrel. A shot came
from his right. He swiveled, aimed, and fired in a fluid movement, taking out Megan,
who lost her balance and fell rear first into the mud in surprise.

“Seriously?” Megan shrieked. She swiped at paint on her protective vest as she stood
to her feet and stalked off the field. “I hate pink.”

Nick smirked, imagining her in the pink bridesmaids dresses Kaylan was thinking about
choosing in honor of Sarah Beth, her best friend who had died in the Haiti earthquake
almost a year before. He shook his head. Only two barrels remained between Kaylan
and him, but Kaylan had eyes only for Seth.

His shoes squeaked in the mud as he ran to the next barrel, assessing the scene.
Bree, Megan, and Jia slumped off to the side, watching as the guys cleaned shop.
Jay stood fuming next to them, paint on the center of his mask and covering his thigh.
“Let's end this, men ,” he shouted. Only Kaylan, Liza, and Melody remained in the
game. Nick knew just how to force their hand.

With a final sprint he pounced on Kaylan, forcing a squeal as she tried to swivel
around.

“Nuh-uh, gorgeous. Just drop the gun nice and easy.”

“Nick Carmichael, this is paintball, not war games, and I am trying to shoot my smart-mouth
little brother.”

“I'm afraid I can't let you do that. He may be a smart-mouth, but he's on my team.”

“I heard that, traitor!” Seth shouted.

Nick pulled Kaylan to her feet in front of him with his arm wrapped around her and
his gun held at the ready in his other hand.

“All right, all right. Game's over, ladies. Time to give it up,” Nick called across
the field to Liza and Melody.

“Don't think because Kaylan is in front, we won't still shoot,” Liza hollered. Titus
had married a spitfire, a spitfire he was about to take out from the looks of it.

“Liza, look out,” Melody and Kaylan yelled from different sides of the field as Titus
crept up.

Liza spun and fired at Titus just as Colt let loose a round that splattered against
her back. She howled, and her eyes shot daggers at her husband. David put a quick
end to Melody with a shot to her toes peeking out from beneath an old, dented Cadillac,
and the game ended.

Kaylan swung around in Nick's arms, her green eyes sparkling. “That, my dear fiancé,
was world-class cheating.”

Nick bit back a chuckle. He pulled her face mask off, placed a finger under her chin,
and murmured, “When you learn how to actually shoot, we might call it a game.”

“You jerk,” she squealed. “I grew up in the South. I can outride and outshoot most
other people.”

Nick crossed his arms over his chest as Kaylan's brothers and Melody joined them
at the barrels in the center of the field. “First of all, not everyone in the South
rides a horse, so don't perpetuate the stereotype. Second, you are playing with Navy
SEALs. You will never outshoot us. And third, your brothers epically failed to teach
you how to shoot at anything.”

“Hey there, don't blame us. We tried.” Micah popped Nick on the back of the head.

“She finally shot a coke bottle a couple of years ago,” David said as he threw his
arm around Melody. The petite blonde folded her arms and leaned into him, her smile
evidence of her familiarity with Richards' family banter.

“Actually,” Seth interrupted, “I kind of shot that bottle and let her take the credit.”
His sheepish expression almost made Nick feel sorry for Kaylan. Almost.

“Seth Richards, I really am going to kill you.” Kaylan's face went red as she took
off after her brother. She was no match for the sophomore collegiate football star.
He let her chase him before turning around and flipping her over his shoulder. He
trundled back to his family as she screamed.

“Shall we?” he motioned to the parking lot where the rest of the guys and their wives
and girlfriends were gathering to leave.

“I'll take her,” Nick responded, bracing himself as Seth dumped Kaylan into his arms.
Nick swung her into a cradle position as David, Micah, Seth, and Melody walked ahead
of them to the gravel parking lot. Laughter drifted on the breeze, and Nick thanked
God for the family he would join in just a short time.

He gently placed Kaylan on the ground and they hung back for some alone time, Kaylan
gazing after her brothers. “You know, sometimes I hate that my brothers are all much
stronger and taller than I am. I think God made a mistake by not giving me a sister.”
A sadness stole across her eyes, tugging at Nick's heart.

He pulled her into a hug. “You had one, babe,” he murmured, thinking of Sarah Beth,
Kaylan's childhood best friend. Joy. That word always came to mind when he remembered
her.

“I know.”

They walked in companionable silence and climbed in his Jeep. Nick allowed the silence
to linger as he pulled onto the road behind his friends and headed back toward Coronado
and the house he lived in with Micah. Gravel crunched beneath his tires, and a thin
layer of trees lined the back road as they pulled away from the pop of other paintball
games behind them.

“Speaking of sisters . . . ”

“No, Kaylan.”

He felt her eyes on his profile as he kept his gaze glued to the road. He added pressure
to the gas pedal.

“Nick, we've got to talk about it. You've got to talk about it. It's already been
a couple of months since you learned of her existence. I know you've been busy with
work and then Christmas and now my brothers visiting, but you need to meet her.”

He met her eyes. “I thought we were talking about Sarah Beth. When are we going to
talk about her?”

“That's not fair, Nick.”

He gripped the steering wheel, regretting the low blow. “I know. I'm sorry.”

“January tenth is a week away. I can't believe it's been a year since the Haiti earthquake.
A year since she . . . you know. I'll figure out something. It's just hard. No one
here knew her.”

“Your brothers are here, and they did. Let's do something to remember her while they
are in town.”

The wind grew louder in her silence, and he glanced over. She sat rigid, her jaw
tight, her eyes moist. She swung her gaze to meet his, and the fierce look surprised
him.

“I promise I will figure out a way to grieve and celebrate Sarah Beth, if you promise
to plan a time to go meet your sister.”

“Kaylan . . . ”

“Promise.”

He gripped the steering wheel harder, the hot rubber uncomfortable beneath his sweaty
palm. “I promise.”

“I want her at our wedding, Nick.”

His heart leapt at her quiet statement, the highway symphony almost drowning her
out. He ground his teeth and punched the button to turn on the radio.

A cloud drifted over the sun and a cool breeze chilled his skin. He didn't want to
deal with this. He didn't want to deal with any of it.

But he no longer had a choice.