Raising Kane by Heather Long

Author:Heather Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-08-31T16:45:57.010037+00:00

Jimmy

The Ranch

Shane eyed the target and lined up the rifle. The sixteen year old was easily as big as any of them, and it was easy to forget how young he was. His shoulders were set, his back curved slightly and his legs braced. When the weapon kicked—and they always kicked—he wouldn’t lose his balance. The lines of concentration between his brows were tight and his eyes narrowed against the flickers of sunlight playing off the distant target. Jimmy had chosen to set the targets up near a watering hole—the glare of the sun off the water increased the distraction and made distance harder to judge.

With one deliberate squeeze the rifle barked and the target didn’t move.

“Dammit.” The oath didn’t carry any heat, but Shane glanced at him in question. “What am I doing wrong?”

“Depends, what are you targeting?” Jimmy didn’t have to look at the target to know if he could hit it, but others needed that line of sight. They needed to know how to lead a target if it were moving and how to compensate for other visual distractions. Shane needed a skill that had nothing to do with his ability—shooting worked.

“The target.” He waved his hand toward it, the rifle pointed at the ground. Rule number one when holding a weapon and talking to someone, never point it at any one. Jimmy enforced that rule with ruthless brutality. Weapons had to be respected. Period.

“Look at the target again. Look at the water. The water moves and the sun is playing off the ripples.” He waited for Shane to do what he told him to. “Now look at the target again.”

Shane had to squint and then he blinked hard. “It’s hard to focus with the glare.”

“Exactly. So you don’t look at it. You look at the target, you identify the glare and the effect it has, are you squinting, does it mess up your aim, how steady is your arm. These are all questions that need to roll through your mind, and then you have to accept that all of them are true. So how do you compensate?” The day began cool, but warmed up quickly and Jimmy had shed his duster and hung it over the saddle he’d stripped off his horse.

Frowning, Shane shook his head. “I don’t know whether I’m pulling right or left.”

“Well let’s find out.” Grabbing a couple of boards, Jimmy headed out to the target and set them up on either side of it, then he found some pebbles and added those between the boards and the targets. With a wave to Shane, he headed back to a position behind the younger man.

Wasting no time, Shane reloaded the rifle, lined up his shot and took it. The right board went down with a bang.

“Right.” They said in unison. Jimmy went back to fix the targeting area. Returning, he nudged his hat up higher on his forehead. “Know what you need to do?”

“Close my right eye.” Shane said and proceeded to do that. He took off the right side of the target—but he’d hit the damn thing.

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