363 King or Queen

Amelia left the shooting range with the trainer, leaving Damien and Katherine inside. The two men who were there earlier went to join their colleagues in the theatre to watch the two. Some of the men in the agency knew who Katherine was as they had seen her work in Crown Resort Group a few months ago and found out about her identity through the released news articles.

Apart from Alpha, Beta, and Delta Teams, no one else knew about Damien and Katherine's relationship. It was the first time that they had seen their Big Boss bring women into the agency, so today was definitely interesting for them.

"So what do you want to bet?" Damien asked as he turned to face Katherine.

"Hmmm… I can't think of any. What do you have in mind?" she wondered and watched him as he took the gun that Amelia used along with a box of ammunition to her lane. He checked the Glock and reloaded the magazine with bullets, his fingers working systematically as if he had been doing this his whole life. 

Her eyes trailed from the fingers on his large hand to the veins that are jutting out of his arm. He was wearing a dark grey Henley shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. She had been seeing him in very casual clothes lately, and it was quite a delicious sight to see—something different from his usual everyday office wear. He looked so laid back, yet still so put together.

He didn't bother to style his hair with pomade that day but it still looked healthy and shiny as it fell on his forehead and covered his eyes whenever he lowered his head, so he constantly ran his fingers through his hair to sweep it backward. 

His jaw clenched as he thought about what she asked and he tilted his head to the side, "Hmmm… How about... winner gets to be the King for the day?"

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "King?"

"Or Queen." He smiled.

"So if I win, I get to order you around and all?"

"Sure."

"Hmmm… for one day?"

He nodded. "Twenty-four hours. You in?"

Katherine studied Damien's face as though she was trying to see if he was planning to trick her so he could win but all she saw was his clear dark, serious-looking eyes. Crossing her arms in front of her, she challenged, "You're not planning anything to cheat, are you?"

Damien's head hung low at the same time that his hand flew to his chest, gripping it and faking a hurt expression. "Ah… You really think I would do that?" He had his eyes closed shut as he heaved out a long sigh before he cheekily opened one eye and peeked at her, "Are you scared that I would beat you?" A devilish smirk slowly appeared on his face and he dug his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Why would I be scared? Let's up the stakes, why don't we? First agreement plus..."

"Plus?"

"I don't know… I need to think about it first." She didn't know what she would bet. She was too distracted looking at his lips to think about what she wanted to gain after this little game of theirs.

Damien's sexy laugh tickled her abdomen. "Fine. Let's do this first, and then you think about the other prize once we know the winner. Deal?" He extended his right hand towards her, waiting for her to shake on it to seal their agreement.

Katherine lowered her gaze to his large hand before shaking it. "Deal."

"So how do we do this?" He stood next to her, pressed a few buttons on the panel and the paper target glided towards the far-end of the lane twenty meters away.

"Your call."

"Let's finish this quickly. How about two out of three? Ten rounds each," he suggested.

"Okay." Katherine shrugged. The two then prepared three magazines with ten bullets each. Damien went to the lane next to hers and prepped his own station, two magazines ready on the counter while one was already inside the Glock—she did the same.

When their targets were ready, and they were set—complete with earplugs, earmuffs, and eyewear, Katherine and Damien took their stance. With both hands gripping the Glock, they pointed at the target, turned their heads to look at each other and together, they nodded. Soon, the couple started pulling the trigger consecutively until all the bullets were used up on the first magazine.

In the theatre before their first-round started…

"Woah… Look at that Miss…" One man started, his eyes locked on Katherine's form and took in her appearance. "She looked so feminine, yet so badass. She's even wearing heels, yet it doesn't look like it's her first time holding a gun."

A man from the Delta Team smacked the man who just spoke on the head. "Don't ogle on her. If Boss sees you, you're dead."

"Are they dating?" one of them asked.

"What's it to you if they are? You like gossip so much," another one answered, shaking his head.

The muffled sound of gunshots caught their attention, and they turned their heads to see Damien and Katherine through the glass—they started firing their shots. The men in the theatre didn't know about the couple's bet as they couldn't hear conversations from inside the range. However, looking at the two, they somehow sensed that they were in some sort of competition.

Once the round of shots was finished, they saw the paper targets being carried forward. And it only took one of the men to start clapping and cheering for the others to follow suit. From where they stood, they could see the bullet holes on the paper targets clearly. A lot would aim at the X or the center of the body silhouette on the paper target, but upon inspecting Damien and Katherine's papers, the two had aimed for headshots.

All rounds of Damien and Katherine's shots were clearly aimed for a kill. Instead of several holes punctured on the paper targets, there were only two or three of them on each, yet the holes were big. Since there were ten rounds of bullets fired, this only meant that they were precise with their aims and had targeted the same spot, causing the holes to get bigger.

"F*ck who is this woman?" a few of the men wondered. They already knew about their Boss's skills as he would visit the agency once in a while to brush up on his skills to avoid getting rusty. But it was their first time to see Katherine there, and it certainly impressed them.

"She's surely—" The man who spoke gasped when he saw Damien look their way with an intense glare. The men inside the theatre shut up as they watched their boss walk over to the control booth and press something on the control panel. The next instant, the clear glass window that divided the theatre and the range turned opaque. They could no longer see anything that's happening inside the shooting range.

The air suddenly became cold inside. The men exchanged looks with silent questions running through their heads, but they chose to keep silent. Left with no choice, they exited the theatre quietly, giving Damien and Katherine their privacy.