Once they passed, each of them sighed in relief, but Jill turned, staring at the building as it faded from view. “Halfway house my ass,” she muttered.
The rest of the ride was silent until they pulled into the Battlefield Paintball Compound parking lot. Jill followed Adam and Steve out of the car, and looked around. She spotted the Warriors’ bikes, but Slade’s was missing. Relief washed over her as did irritation. Relief that she didn’t have to face him after their mind blowing sex and irritation that he was a * for not facing her.
“Uh, I don’t think we are going to be the only ones here.” Steve looked around as they headed through the parking lot. “I thought they’d shut it down for us.”
Making their way through the gate after telling the guy behind the counter who they were, they spotted Damon, Duncan, Sid, Jax, Jared and Sloan waiting impatiently.
“Glad to see you decided to show the fuck up.” Sloan frowned at them.
“Yeah, well we got caught up in traffic in front of the Halfway House,” Adam replied.
“How can they get away with calling it a halfway house?” Jill asked, still cranky about the fact. “It’s not like half-breeds are walking up to the doors for help. I saw a woman on her knees begging a cop. Doesn’t look like any halfway house I’ve ever seen. Cops were everywhere.”
“You don’t like the name, I take it?” Jared eyed her. “It’s just a way for them to calm panic among the community. We know what it really is and will shut them down.”
Sloan nodded, but didn’t add anything to what Jared said. Instead he looked around. “Where’s Buchanan?”
Jill looked anywhere but at Sloan. When her eyes met Sid’s, he was staring at her; she looked away, but not before shooting him a glare.
“Don’t know, but let’s get this going.” Jax stepped up, glancing at Jill before grabbing paintball guns and handing them to Adam, Steve and then Jill. “You four…”
“Four?” Steve frowned, pointing at Jill, Adam and then himself. “Three.”
“Sorry I’m late.” Dillon stepped up, surprising Jill and Adam.
“Dillon?” Jill’s shocked expression made him grin.
“In the flesh.’ Dillon opened his arms.
Jill rushed him and had to stretch to give him a hug. Dillon had been the smallest of any of them. “You grew!” she laughed, hugging him tightly. At that moment, her eyes met Slade’s, who stood just behind Dillon. Looking away from Slade, she screamed at herself to chill out and be cool as she looked up at Dillon.
“And I haven’t stopped,” Dillon laughed, looking at Jared with a grin. “I think that’s why the Warrior branch in Kentucky sent me back here. They can’t afford buying me new clothes.”
“Well, I’m glad, no matter what the reason is.” Jill smiled, and then watched as Adam and Dillon did a bro hug. He looked so different. His blond hair had darkened and was longer, instead of the summer buzz cut he always wore. His body and face had filled out, forming a damn good-looking man. Adam introduced Dillon to Steve and Jax, and then Slade who took Dillon’s hand in a shake. Jill watched as their handshake lasted a little longer than the others, and the confused look on Dillon’s face when he turned from Slade made her frown, but before she could think any more on it, Jax explained their training for the day.
“We are breaking up into teams.” Jax handed them each safety glasses. “Us against you.”
“Well, that seems a little unfair.” Steve removed his sunglasses to put the safety glasses on.
“Tough shit.” Jax picked up a paintball gun that looked like a damn Uzi. “You are only out on a kill shot. For you guys, a kill shot is the heart or head and for us, it’s the head. There’s five acres of land, woods and buildings. You have an hour to survive without having been hit with a kill shot. Within the hour, a horn will blow indicating the exercise is over and you have passed this portion of your testing. We will give you fifteen minutes to set a plan and get a head start.”
“But what about all of these other people here?” Adam looked around at groups of people heading out with paintball guns.
“They are off-limits to you, but you are not off-limits to them,” Jax replied.
“Are you serious?” Steve looked around. “Not only do we have you badasses hunting us down, we can be taken out by a mom out on a family outing?”
“Yeah, awesome, isn’t it?” Jared grinned.
Jill was still looking at all the Warriors’ guns with a frown. “Can’t we at least choose our own weapons?”
Jax cocked an eyebrow at her, and then waved his hand. “Be my guest.”
Looking at the guns displayed behind the counter, Jill instantly found the one she wanted. “Give me the sniper rifle.” She told the guy behind the counter.