What he did next had her turning away, unable to watch any longer. The devil wasn’t going to be left with a choice that time. Stark was on his way to hell.
Chapter 17
“I ain’t taking credit for that.”
Drake stood, wiping his bloody knife off on his pants leg. “Don’t worry, Greer. I’ll make sure Knox knows I did it.”
“Is he dead?” he asked, bringing his rifle down to poke at the limp body.
Tate rolled his eyes at Greer.
“What in the hell do you think?” Dustin said, looking between the brothers blocking his view. “He’s sucking his own dick.”
“Drop your guns,” Tate ordered. “Here comes Knox. I don’t want to give him any excuse to shoot us.”
The four men dropped their weapons to the pavement as the sheriff parked his squad car in the middle of the street. There were too many dead bodies and broken bikes for him to pull into the parking lot.
“You think he’s going to be pissed?” Greer asked.
“Look at that face. What do you think?” Drake prepared for the blasting Knox was going to give for not calling him and letting the police handle Stark.
“Any of them alive?” Knox asked, his face a calm mask as he walked up, looking over the bodies littering the ground.
“I just shoot them if they move. None’s moved, so I’d say they’re all pretty much dead,” Tate answered, keeping his eyes on the bodies as if one would suddenly jump up.
Drake really wondered sometimes if his mother had been adopted into the Porter family.
Knox winced when he saw Stark’s body. “Who’s responsible for that?”
Drake opened his mouth to confess, but was beaten to the punch.
“I did it,” Greer lied.
“I guess I need to call the coroner. I better count how many body bags he’ll need.” Knox pulled his radio out, walking around the parking lot and poking the bodies with the toe of his boots as he talked to dispatch.
“Want to tell me why you changed your mind?” Drake asked Greer. “I did it, and I’m going to tell him that when he comes back.”
“Want to spend Christmas Eve with your woman or with paperwork for Knox?” Greer patted him on the back “Merry fucking Christmas. And my new truck better be sitting outside the sheriff’s office when I get done.”
Drake couldn’t help laughing at his cousin. Greer would have the biggest truck he could buy.
He had called Drake when he had seen the large group coming into town. They had been waiting for the bikers to attack. Drake had actually believed they would try to get her when she was farther away from the sheriff’s office, though, so he had been waiting down the street at the cut-off to her house.
When he heard the shooting, he had come running in time to kill the one his cousins had promised to save for him.
All of a sudden, he had the air knocked out of him when Bliss threw herself into his arms.
“Are you okay? I called an ambulance for you.”
“Why?” He gave her a bewildered look.
“You’ve been shot.” Bliss tried to pull back to look at his arm, but Drake pulled her back into his arms.
“I’m fine. It passed through.”
Knox came back then with the yellow tape to mark off the parking lot. “Do you Porters ever leave anyone alive to tell their side of the story?”
“Technically, he ain’t a Porter. His ma is my dad’s sister,” Greer corrected.
“I have as much Porter blood as you,” Drake repeated the same phrase he had said numerous times over the years, proudly proclaiming what he had been thinking about denying just minutes before.
Greer looked down at Stark’s dead body. “I’m going to agree with you this time.”
Drake held Bliss tighter, the way she liked to be held when she was afraid.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow move from behind the building then another following, heading toward the church across the street. Three more joined them from different vantage points. Drake didn’t have to see their faces to recognize them.
The Last Riders hadn’t left Bliss unprotected; they had been watching over her, too.
Stark hadn’t stood a chance. He had ridden into his own execution.
* * *
It was after midnight when they returned to his home. Bliss had won, making him go to the hospital to be stitched up.
Jace and Cal were spending the night with Jace’s mother and would be back Christmas morning.
“Guess who’s spending the night?” Drake taunted as she trailed behind him to his bedroom.
“They aren’t home?”
“Not until Christmas Day.”
“We can spend two nights together?”
“Yes.
“This Christmas is turning out to be the best one I’ve ever had!”
“Wait until I give you my present. It will put it over the top.”
Bliss sat down on the end of the bed, using her feet to make herself bounce on the mattress. “What did you get me?”