Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2) by Kal Aaron (best book recommendations TXT) 📕

her weapons wouldn’t do much if someone made the natural connection between dual pistol use and Hecate.

She hadn’t seen anyone else in the range wearing two holsters, which made sense given the lack of tactical utility for the average shooter. Maybe next time, she’d leave one of the guns in a case. As long as one was close to the other, it wouldn’t strain Jofi’s seal.

“No, you didn’t leave anything. Nice guns.”

“I like them.” She smiled.

“It’s stylish.” He smiled and extended a hand. “Luke.”

“Lyssa.” She shook his hand. “Please don’t tell me this is the part where you give me tips on my shooting.”

It had come out bitchier than intended. While she didn’t want to cause trouble, she didn’t need amateurs telling her how to shoot.

Luke laughed. “I don’t think I can give you tips. Your control and accuracy are damned impressive.” His gaze lingered on her face for a moment. There was a hint of open admiration in his eyes. “You doing anything after this?”

“I’m going home,” Lyssa replied. “Why?”

Luke laughed. “I was wondering if you’d like to get a bite to eat.”

He wasn’t bad looking, and he had a slicker vibe than the last man who’d hit on her. Nice shirt, nice slacks, nice shoes, but she had work and family to worry about, and she still wondered about possibilities with Damien. Not that they were going anywhere.

Lyssa sighed. This would be awkward, but Luke was a big boy. It wouldn’t be that bad.

“I’m not really in the market right now. Sorry. I don’t want to waste your time.”

He snapped his fingers. “Damn. I didn’t even get to my B material, but I appreciate you saving me time.”

“No problem.” Lyssa nodded at the door. “I should get going.”

“Wait.” Luke’s smile returned. “That’s not why I stopped you, but it was worth a shot.” He winced. “No pun intended. Anyway, I was serious about your shooting. You do competition shooting?”

“No.” Lyssa shook her head. “I’ve never been interested in competitions.”

“You military or SWAT or something?” Luke sounded surprised. “Because that was competition-level skill.”

“I’m just a woman who wants to make sure she can protect herself,” Lyssa said. “And I can’t do that if I can’t hit the target both quickly and accurately.”

“Why the two guns?” Luke asked. “When I saw you had both of them, at first I was like, ‘Oh, it’s some woman who’s watched too many movies, but then I saw what you did to those targets. Is it, like, a luck thing with the two guns? You were alternating in the range.”

That small choice might have saved her from being recognized. She’d been tempted to do some dual shooting. Since she planned to come to the range again, she’d have to keep that in mind for the future.

Lyssa allowed herself a wry smile. “Something like that. I think a lot of weapons have a spirit to them, and I feel like these have a joint spirit. I don’t want to keep them too far apart.”

“You are coming very close to telling him the truth,” Jofi said. “I advise caution.”

Lyssa ignored the spirit. Some random guy in the range wasn’t going to figure out anything about her pet spirit and true identity from a comment like that. She hadn’t felt any sorcery other than the enchantments on her guns since leaving home.

Sometimes it was nice not to have to lie. A future where regalia existed but didn’t double as a disguise would be nice.

“Huh. Spirit of the gun? That’s deep.” Luke stared at one of her holsters. “It’s like martial arts for guns. The Way of Shooting. I could learn a lot from you. No wonder you’re so good.”

“I think it’s less my attitude and more that I’ve been shooting almost half my life, fourteen years.” Lyssa patted her holsters. “It’s funny you mention martial arts. I grew up doing only martial arts at first. I was kind of following in the family's footsteps, but then I got my hands on a gun, and I fell in love with it. I didn’t neglect my other training, but I threw myself into guns, too. Always nice to have tactical options. You never know what’s going to happen out there.”

“A woman who can kill me fifteen different ways. Nice.” Luke whistled. “And I know what you mean. A woman’s got to protect herself. But wow, fourteen years? I’ve only been shooting for about five.” He smiled. “You have to forgive me for hitting on you earlier. Seriously, that wasn’t really why I approached you.” He chuckled nervously. “It’s not that you’re not attractive, but I saw the double holster and realized you were on lane four, and I had to talk to you. I didn’t get a good look at you before, but I need you.”

“Need me?” Lyssa frowned. “Look, Luke, I’m flattered, but I thought we already went over this—”

“I need you for my team,” Luke sputtered. “I’m the captain of a regional pistol team. We’re one of the better ones, but if you were on our team, we could crush the competition. You’d come out of nowhere. You could end up a major player. We could probably compete on a national level.”

“Oh,” Lyssa replied. “You want me to join your team? That’s it?”

“Exactly.”

She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or insulted. That didn’t change her answer.

“Again, I’m flattered, but I can’t.” Lyssa shook her head. “I’m not much of a joiner. I’ve got a lot on my schedule, and I have an unpredictable lifestyle.”

“Fair enough,” Luke said. “I’m not going to pester you about it, but I’m not blowing smoke up your ass about how good you are. I’m always on the lookout for new talent for the team, and the last couple of times I spotted someone as good as you, they were already on other teams. We can be flexible about your schedule if that’s your main problem.”

Lyssa inclined her head toward the door. “I’m not saying I’ll never join, but it’s not something that’s