“Hell no,” Kathleen said at the same time. “You think we’d willingly give you a gun? You could turn on us and shoot all of us!”
“You’re being ridiculous,” David said. “She’s outnumbered. Unless she’s extraordinarily fast, she wouldn’t be able to hurt any of us before we stopped her.”
Jade looked almost offended. “I’m not a china doll. I am fast. I’m a good shot—”
“There’s no way in this world or the next that you’ll get that gun away from Matthew,” Kathleen said with finality.
Jade’s mouth turned into a mulish line. Her expression hardened. “I’ll just have to show you, then,” she said and darted forward toward Matthew. Matthew barely had a moment to think before he was swinging the barrel of the gun down from where it was pointed toward the sky. Jade dodged to the side and with one hand pushed the shotgun barrel down and away from her. Her other hand gripped Matthew’s injured wrist and twisted it. With the angle she had on the shotgun paired with the twisting pressure on his wrist, Matthew couldn’t help but cry out in sharp, sudden pain. His grip on the gun began to loosen against his will. Jade thrust the barrel down and out of his hand and then reached for the stock, effectively yanking the gun from his faltering hands into her own. She pressed the polished stock against her armpit and pointed the barrel at the dirt.
Without thinking, Matthew’s hands came up, palms out. He’d been easily and effectively disarmed. Terror filled him as he remembered her pointing a gun at him before. How he’d stared down a handgun barrel and wondered when she was going to pull the trigger. He had the same sensation now. Time seemed to slow for him.
He heard Kathleen scream. Her hands flew toward her waist and scrambled for the handgun in the holster against her back. Matthew knew she’d never be fast enough. Her face transformed with fear.
He watched as Jade took three swift steps back and swung the gun up. For a moment, he wondered which one of them Jade would kill first. She pivoted, braced the stock against her shoulder and pointed away from them.
The sudden gunfire exploded in the air. Matthew jerked back as though he had actually been shot. Instead, he saw a low-hanging branch on a tree some fifty yards away explode into splinters and the rest of it crack off the main trunk and land on the ground.
Jade flipped the safety back on and shot Matthew a smug smile. She focused on David, whose mouth hung open in shock. “Now imagine if I actually had something to properly aim at,” she said.
Matthew realized he was shaking. Ruth uttered a soft, “Wow.”
“Let me get you some real targets,” David said, looking as though he was trying to hide his shock. With careful steps, he made his way back into the hotel and returned moments later with a set of tin cans strung together with twine.
“Hey, that’s our security system,” Patton said.
“Well, now it’s going to be used for Jade to show off how good she is with a gun,” David said. He walked out a ways and began to set the cans in staggered places at different distances. Once he made his way back and behind Jade, she promptly took aim and fired at the closest target.
Ping! The first can exploded up into the air.
Matthew’s jaw dropped. He felt Patton grab his sleeve and tug. “Dad, I want to be able to do that,” he said.
Ping! The second can further away danced up and into the air.
“Me too,” Allison said, sounding breathless and yet at the same time strangely determined.
Ping! The third can flew off its target and bounced on the ground.
“Wow,” Matthew uttered, echoing Ruth. Jade was a much better shot than he’d given her credit for. He couldn’t help but say, “That is impressive.”
Ping! The fourth can shot off its perch and landed in the dirt.
“I could teach you,” Jade said. She flipped the safety back on and held the gun out to Matthew. He stared at it a moment, as if he couldn’t trust that she was offering it back to him. He took it tentatively from her.
“Absolutely not,” Kathleen said. When Matthew looked at her, he saw that her sickly pallor was back. Sweat beaded on her brow even though it was starting to get chilly.
Kathleen swallowed hard. “After that display, I’m even more convinced she can’t stay. If she can shoot that well, who’s to say she won’t attack us when we least expect it?”
“Kathleen, you’re being unreasonable,” David said. “I don’t know how to explain it any better to you, but I’ll be plain. Jade could teach us how to shoot. She could teach us how to disarm others if we are threatened. Don’t you see the value in that?”
Kathleen turned flashing eyes to David. “I’m being unreasonable? Explain to me, David, how looking out for my family is unreasonable. Explain to me why it’s reasonable to have my children around a woman who could disarm and shoot us at any moment? Or does that make me not useful? Would you throw me out of here because I don’t have the same skills?”
David glanced at Matthew and suddenly looked sheepish. “I didn’t mean it like that. I would never put my grandchildren in harm’s way. I’m just saying that if she can teach us and is willing to teach us, it would be foolish to miss that opportunity.”
Jade crossed her arms and held her head up high.
Matthew knew the argument wouldn’t be won by persuasion. His wife and father both had stubborn personalities. There was only one way to settle this. “No one is going to change their minds,” he said. “We need to put this to a vote.”
6
“Do you really think
