Page 278 of A Vicious Love

Adrian and I both looked at her. Julian joined us with two glasses of water. He handed one to Sienna, one to Adrian, then glanced at me.

I looked at his empty hands.

He lifted a brow. “Do Crows drink water?”

“Rarely on purpose.”

“Sienna said you prefer coffee.”

“Sienna says many things.”

Julian’s gaze flicked to his sister. “Less lately.”

The sentence landed near a nerve. I let him keep his life because Sienna was standing between us, and because she had begun tracing her thumb over the leather strap of my holster as if she did not realize she was doing it.

A staff member approached with a gun suited for Sienna’s size and the kind of hopeful expression people wore right before becoming disappointing. “Miss Bellemere, your father has requested you take third rotation.”

Sienna’s smile appeared instantly.

I hated seeing the gun placed into her hands.

Something primitive and Crow rose in me so fast I nearly took the weapon and broke it. Sienna and guns did not belong in the same image. She wasn’t fragile. The sight simply made my blood go black. Her hands were for my wrist under tables, soft touches given as reward until I behaved like a trained animal with a violent inheritance.

Never guns.

She accepted it because everyone expected her to.

Her father approached with Uncle Theo, both carrying the eager male confidence of men about to explain a skill to a woman who had heard the same explanation yearly and still wanted nothing to do with it.

“Sienna,” her father said warmly. “This year, remember the follow-through.”

Uncle Theo lifted a finger. “And don’t close your eyes.”

“I don’t close my eyes,” Sienna said.

“You do,” Adrian said quietly.

She looked wounded. “Traitor.”

“You close them after the first shot.”

Julian’s mouth curved. “Before the second, depending on weather.”

“Both of you are dismissed.”

Adrian leaned closer to me. “Every year.”

I kept my eyes on Sienna as a staff member positioned her. “What happens every year?”

“Father gives tips. Theo gives worse tips. She gets tense. Misses everything. They give up after making it worse.”

Julian stepped to my other side. “Then Adrian or I usually end it.”

“How?”

“Sudden weather. Equipment issue. A dog running through the field. Once, Adrian started an argument with Cousin Victor and dragged half the men away.”

“What about the other girls?” I asked.