The Last Riders - First Four Votes (65 page)

“
C
an
I have one of these?” Diamond asked, picking up the tiny flashlight no bigger than her forefinger with a beam which was remarkably strong.

“No.” Knox put one in the package they were putting together for a customer.

“Why not?” Diamond asked, clenching and unclenching the flashlight in her hand.

“Because you already have two other flashlights,” Knox said, checking for the next item on the packing list.

“But this one charges when I squeeze it,” Diamond said. “The other one is solar powered and the other one takes batteries. What if we lose power and there’s no sunlight and I don’t have batteries?”

“I’ll get you one,” Knox relented.

“Cool.” Diamond helped him fill two more orders. Then, collecting the items for another order, she sat down on the stool at the table looking through the items.

“Can I have one of these?”

Knox didn’t bother to look at what she had in her hand. “No.”

“Why not?” Diamond asked. “I really need one of these.” Knox looked sideways at the backpack in her hand.

“No, you don’t. I already bought you one last week. Why do you need another one?”

“I already made my bug-out bag, but I have to make yours now.”

“You can have it. Now let’s finish getting these orders out.” Knox gave her an exasperated look, which she ignored. The Last Riders’ survival business was more than successful, it was booming. He had volunteered for a couple of extra shifts while Viper and Winter interviewed new employees. Diamond had begun sitting with him while he filled the orders over the last month, but she often was more of a distraction than help.

“I have everything we need now except, Knox, I think we need to buy a small island,” she said, picking up a pocketknife.

“A small island?” Knox turned toward her, taking the knife out of her hand.

“Yes.” Diamond nodded enthusiastically. “Did you know that you can buy small islands? They’re kind of expensive, but if we save, we could buy one in a few years.”

“Diamond…” Knox started to say something, but closed his mouth. “Why an island?

“Because zombies can’t swim,” she answered, placing another item in the box.

Knox just stared at her. “They can’t?” Knox tried his hardest not to laugh when he saw she was serious.

“Can they?” she asked, looking at him with a quizzical expression.

“I don’t know, but no more zombie movies for you for a while.” Knox checked the list before taping the packaging closed and then taping the address onto the large box.

“Can I have...?” Diamond began.

Knox took the small tube tent from her hand. His hand going to her hair and tugging her head back for a soft kiss.

“Diamond,” Knox growled.

“What?” she asked, returning his kiss.

“I think Sex Piston isn’t the only nut in your family.”

D
iamond rolled
over in the bed, kissing Knox’s shoulder before getting ready for work. He was lying on his stomach, naked among the rumpled covers while her lips traced the tat on the back of his shoulder. She could recall it from memory; he had the Navy Seal insignia of an anchor wrapped along its length by a snake with the head at the top of the tat, giving an unnerving stare. A variety of objects surrounded the insignia; two revolvers pointed at each other with a metal chain linking the two together, a hand of cards, a razor knife and brass knuckles. The whole tat had a dark overlay, giving it a shadowed appearance.

Her lips went over each one, counting the objects. She had already figured out it was the club tattoo and had guessed who most of the symbols belonged to. Razer was the easiest; the razor Knife. Knox and Rider were obviously the Revolvers; Knox kept his near at all times. The lawyer in her was concerned until he had opened his wallet showing the concealed-carry permit. Rider also made no attempt to hide that he carried. Diamond didn’t have to ask to see his; he had volunteered to show her. The chain, and playing cards were still mysteries to her. The snake was obviously Viper and the shading Shade. The Brass knuckles was the last one she had figured out when Cash had gotten in a fight with a drunk at Rosie’s when they had stopped for a beer.

“You want to fuck?” Knox asked sleepily.

“We just did twenty minutes ago.” Diamond laughed against his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against him.

“Keep doing that and you’ll be doing it again in five,” Knox mumbled into the pillow.

Diamond pulled away, laughing as she climbed reluctantly out of bed. “I can’t. I have to go to work. I’m already late. Holly needs to talk to me before court. I think she’s going to ask for a raise. I’m going to give it to her, she’s certainly worth it.”

Diamond showered and dressed, going back into her bedroom and smiling when she saw that Knox was sound asleep. Picking up her briefcase, she left, not wanting to wake him. Going down the short flight of steps, she pushed the unlock button on her new SUV. She still felt weird climbing into the expensive vehicle, but Knox had convinced her to spend the extra money to drive a safer vehicle.

D
iamond smiled
when she looked out her window and saw the buds on the trees; the pretty weather had tricked the trees into blooming early. Straightening up, she stretched, yawning. Holly had gone to lunch earlier. When she had opened her mouth to ask for the raise, Diamond had cut her off, giving her a nice raise and benefits, too. The surprised woman hadn’t known what to say, so Diamond had given her a hug and told her to go to lunch.

She heard her front office door open and then saw Knox walking into her office, coming to a stop when he saw her behind her desk. She could tell from his face that he was going to try to walk away again. He didn’t say anything, just stood there and stared at her. Diamonds eyes watered as she stood up from her desk, going to him. Sliding her hands tightly around his waist, she placed tiny kisses along his taut jaw.

“Please don’t, please don’t, please, baby, please...” Diamond pleaded.

“Dammit to hell!”

Diamond found herself backed across the room until her desk was at her back. Pressing her backwards onto her desk, her briefcase and cell phone fell to the floor as Knox swept them out of the way with his hand before going to her knee, bringing it up to his hip.

His fingers slid underneath her panties, finding her warm and ready for him. Tugging her skirt to her hips, he yanked at the material of her panties, tearing them apart. Diamond watched as he unzipped his jeans, bracing herself on the desk as he pulled out his cock.

“Knox?”

“What?” His disgruntled voice brought a tender smile to her lips.

“Could you close the blinds?”

K
nox’s boots
crunched on the late spring frost as he got off his bike, parking it near the old fireplace on Cash’s homestead property. He started the walk up the mountain path that had been made through generations of Cash’s relatives. The steep path was kept clear by either him or Cash.

At the top of the mountain, he paused a second, looking down at the huge trees, seeing Treepoint in the distant valley below. Taking a deep breath, he released it, seeing the vapor in the cold morning air. He was glad he had made Diamond put on her coat as she left the clubhouse to go to church with Beth, Winter and Evie. The sunny day was deceptively cold and she would have frozen her ass off before she would have been able to get inside the SUV.

Knox turned, walking forward into Cash’s family cemetery. The older tombstones mixed with the newer ones and told the amount of time the cemetery had been in existence. He stopped in front of a pink marble headstone, staring down.

Cash had offered a final resting place for his young wife. Like him, she had no family, so he had accepted Cash’s offer.

“Sunshine.” His aching voice filled the silence of the cemetery.

He dropped to his knees beside her grave, not feeling the coldness of the frozen grass through his clothes. Knox’s voice broke as he talked to her.

“I promised I’d love you forever, that no one would ever take your place. Sunshine, I tried not to love her. I tried to stay away and break it off, but I couldn’t. When I realized that I loved her, I tried not to let her have my soul. To keep a part for you; to keep a part of me with you. Always, Sunshine, that’s what I promised you on our wedding day and the day I buried you here on this mountain.

“But I have to give someone else those promises now. I love her, Sunshine. She’s become a part of my life, and when I look into her eyes, I see the same promises I gave you. Promises I need to give her now. I’m not leaving you behind me; you’ll always be with me, a part of mine and Diamond’s life.”

Knox felt a warm touch on his shoulder; the warmth flowed through his body as he turned to see who was behind him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to startle you.” Rachel Porter stared down at him, her hand still on his shoulder. Her gaze went to the tombstone before coming back to his. “My parents are buried over there. I like to bring Mom flowers every Sunday after Church, catch her up on what’s going on in our lives. She wouldn’t be very happy with my brothers carrying on the family business. She never cared about how much money it provided, she always said ‘God may not give you what you want, but He will provide for your needs’.” Rachel removed her hand, stepping back. Without another word she walked to the end of the cemetery to stand in front of two graves, laying the flowers down on one.

Knox sat there with the sunshine on him, feeling the guilt he had felt for the last months melt away like the frost on the grass, removing the final barrier from giving Diamond his love.

D
iamond came
out of church with Evie, Beth and Winter and each of them took their turns complimenting Pastor Dean on his service as they left.

“You’re becoming a regular at my services and I haven’t heard any Adele lately. I take it you’re doing well?”

Diamond blushed with the other women listening. “Yes.”

Pastor Dean laughed at her reaction, however Diamond managed to evade further questions when another parishioner came up behind her.

They walked to Beth’s SUV in the church parking lot, each of them climbing inside except Diamond.

“I’m going to go to my office to do some paperwork I need to get done before court tomorrow. I’ll call Knox when I need a ride home.”

“You sure?” Beth asked.

“Yes, I’d rather get it done in an hour instead of having to do it tonight.”

“Want us to give you a lift?”

“I think I can manage the walk,” Diamond said, smiling.

“See you later then,” Beth said, closing the door as the other two women waved.

Diamond walked across the parking lot, crossing the empty street to go inside the quiet office building. As she went to unlock the building, she found it already unlocked. She wasn’t terribly surprised because there was usually someone always was in the building that had four offices; two on the bottom and two on the top. Her office faced the street and the insurance office that shared the top floor with her had the part that faced the back. Someone had probably had an accident, which was why someone was ordinarily in the insurance office.

Diamond went up the steps to her office only to find the insurance office’s lights were off. Frowning, she went to her office door starting to unlock it, when the door suddenly opened and she stood facing her secretary.

“Holly, what are you doing—” A sudden push against her back cut her off and had her falling forward into her office. Holly tried to catch her, but a hand pushed her back out of the way. Diamond heard her office door slammed shut as she landed on her hands and knees.

“Stop it, Mitch!” Holly screamed as Diamond was lifted off her feet and dragged from the front to her private office.

“Shut up, Holly.” The man Holly called Mitch flung her forward. Diamond fell against her desk which looked like it had been ransacked.

“I don’t understand,” Diamond said, looking at Holly who was staring at her with frightened eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Diamond. I didn’t mean for this to get so out of control.”

“Get what you need, Holly, so we can get out of here.”

Holly ignored Mitch. “I’ve tried talking to you several times, but either you were too busy or I got scared and chickened out. I didn’t know what to do,” Holly began.

“Holly?” A small child’s voice from the couch drew Diamond’s attention.

“It’s okay, Logan. Just sit there, we’re going to leave in a few minutes,” Holly said.

Diamond looked at the little boy and recognition dawned. “Oh, God, is that…?”

Holly nodded, her eyes pleading for understanding. “Vincent Bedford hired me to be Logan’s nanny. He rented a house for us in Jamestown, but when he was arrested, Samantha moved us here to Treepoint to be closer to her. She ran out of money when her father went to jail, so I quit taking a salary from her and got a job supporting us. Mitch, my boyfriend, watched him while I was at work. We were going to go somewhere else. Sam wanted a fresh start. The day Samantha died she called and said she had enough to get us out of town.

“Then after she died, I didn’t know what to do. That day you handed me those notes about Samantha’s grandmother, I didn’t know she even had any relatives. I was afraid that, with Samantha dead, everyone would think I did it or had kidnapped Logan. I didn’t know what to do.” Holly took a deep breath.

“We need to go, Holly,” Mitch said.

“Holly, there’s no need to run. You haven’t done anything wrong. Why did you come to the office today?”

“I saved enough so that we could leave Treepoint, but I wanted to see Sam’s autopsy report. Logan gets sick a lot and we couldn’t get insurance since Sam is dead. I thought, if I could see her autopsy report, I could find out what’s wrong with him. I’ve looked everywhere for it and couldn’t find it, so I figured you kept it in your locked drawer which I didn’t have a key for. Mitch was going to break it for me then we were going to leave town tonight.”

Diamond took a closer look at the dark, curly haired boy who looked exactly like his father. His skin was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. He was a beautiful little boy, but he didn’t have the healthy glow to his cheeks as he should have.

“We’re still leaving,” Mitch snapped at Holly.

Diamond ignored Holly’s boyfriend, trying to make Holly understand the seriousness of Logan’s possible condition.

“Samantha died of a genetic kidney disease, Holly. He needs to see a physician as soon as possible.”

“Oh, God.” Holly looked at Mitch. “What are we going to do? I don’t have the kind of money that will cost.” Tears came to her eyes as she went to the silent child, lifting him into her arms.

“You don’t have to, Holly. His father will help. If not, there are programs that—”

“Mitch?” Holly looked at her boyfriend for guidance.

“Let’s go, Holly. You found out what we needed to know. If we stay here, you’ll lose the kid. Is that what you want?”

“No, but I don’t want him sick, either.”

“I’m not staying in this town. Make up your mind; either stay here or go with me.”

“I don’t give a damn what either of you do, but that kid isn’t going anywhere,” Pastor Dean said, coming into the room.

Relief flooded Diamond, knowing that Pastor Dean would be able to prevent them leaving with Logan until Mitch drew a gun from the pocket of his jacket.

“Mitch, no!”

“I’m leaving, Holly. Let’s go; either take the kid or leave him, but you’re going with me.”

“I can’t leave Logan,” Holly said, crying. “Put the gun away, Mitch.”

“Then I guess we’re taking him.” Mitch turned the gun on Pastor Dean.

Diamond watched in stunned amazement as the Pastor moved forward, jerking Mitch’s gun hand upwards. Mitch struggled, trying to regain control when Pastor Dean’s other hand snapped out, hitting Mitch’s nose with enough force to snap the man’s head back, sending him crumpling to the floor.

As soon as Mitch was down, Diamond went to her desk where she picked up the phone to call the sheriff. Holly stood, crying and holding Logan close as she rocked him. Diamond talked briefly to the dispatcher before hanging up while Pastor Dean stood over Mitch, holding the gun while the groggy man began to regain consciousness.

“Don’t move.” Pastor Dean cocked the gun, pointing it at Mitch’s head as he lay back down, not moving.

“Diamond?” Holly screamed as the sheriff barreled into the room.

“Holly?” Logan cried, twining his arms around her neck.

“It’s okay, Logan. Holly, calm down. I’ll help you get this straightened out.”

Holly stared at her in hope. “I’m sorry I handled this so badly, I don’t deserve your help.”

“Holly, you might be my secretary, but you’re also my friend.”

“You’re going to let me keep my job?” Holly wasn’t alone in her surprise. Pastor Dean and the sheriff were taken aback by Diamond’s gesture as well.

“Of course, you didn’t commit any crime. Samantha hired you to take care of her child. That’s not against the law, and I gave you access to my office. You got in with the key I gave you, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” Holly’s lips trembled.

“Holly, you were only trying to do what you thought was in the best interest of Logan. I can’t fault you with that, neither can the law. Everything is going to be all right.”

Holly finally breathed a sigh of relief, loosening her hold on Logan who gradually quieted.

“Well, now that it’s settled that she didn’t commit a crime, how about that man lying on the floor with a gun pointed at his head?” The sheriff gestured toward Mitch.

“Him, you can arrest for attempted murder,” Pastor Dean spoke before Diamond could.
He shouldn’t worry
, Diamond thought,
I’m going to make sure Mitch stays in prison for a long time
.

Her eyes lifted to Pastor Dean. “You saw them through the window, didn’t you?

“Yes.”

Damn, he had seen Knox and her that afternoon that Knox had ignored her request to close the blinds. His amused expression didn’t try to hide the fact that he had gotten quite a show. She was buying curtains for the window the first chance she got. The man had gotten his last show of her and Knox.

D
iamond answered
Mrs. Langley’s door when the knock sounded. The Porters stood on the porch, white faced and nervous. The law didn’t faze them, but the prospect of a child frightened them to death.

“Come in.” Diamond opened the door wider, letting the family of four enter then closed the door behind them, motioning the Porters into the living room.

Holly sat on the couch with Logan as Mrs. Langley sat on his other side. Diamond had not been able to hold back her tears when Mrs. Langley had seen her great-grandson for the first time. Diamond again received all the reassurance she needed that she was doing the right thing when she saw the Porters’ reaction. Dustin took a hesitant step forward as his sister and brothers hung back, letting Dustin meet his son without their overwhelming the small boy.

“Are you sure he’s mine.” Dustin was trying not to embarrass himself, but unable to keep his eyes from watering.

“Pending a DNA test, we’re pretty sure,” Diamond reassured him. “I think the curly hair and the eyes are pretty good clues, but I think what she named him confirms it.”

“What did she name him?”

“She named him Logan. That was your father’s name, wasn’t it?” Mrs. Langley asked Dustin. Diamond could tell Dustin almost lost it at the name of his son.

“I told Sam when we married and had kids I was going to name my son after my dad.” His hoarse voice had Rachel bursting into tears. Greer put his arm around his sister’s shoulder.

Dustin carefully walked closer to the little boy sitting silently by Holly’s side. Slowly he dropped to his knees.

“Hello, Logan. Welcome home.”