Page 55 of Lone Star Protector

“Enough of this shit,” Nash snarled, and he pivoted, took aim at Eddie’s head and blasted away.

Nash didn’t miss.

Eddie dropped like a stone, and Nash immediately turned back to Bodie. But he was too late.

Hell, he was too late.

Bodie bashed Ruby against the limestone and shoved her aside. Without missing a beat, he tossed down his knife, whipped out a gun from his shoulder holster, and put his finger on the trigger.

The asshole coward was going to shoot Caroline, and she only had her knife to defend herself.

Nash took aim. But Caroline had already done that—with her knife. And she didn’t hesitate. Just as she’d done in her studio with the target, she sent the knife flying. And it landed all right.

Directly into Bodie’s chest.

Bodie went stock-still, and with his mouth open in shock, he looked down at all the blood as if he couldn’t believe this was happening.

“You brought a knife to a gunfight,” Bodie muttered, his eyes already glazing over.

And the last breath he’d ever take rattled from his throat as he crumpled to the ground.

Chapter Nineteen

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Caroline sat in the open back of Slade’s van with the really bad cup of coffee that one of the cops had given her.

She sat, sipped, and watched the first responders do their thing. Watched Nash, too, as he was giving his statement to one of the county deputies—something Caroline had already done.

Apparently, they’d given her top dibs in that department.

Maybe because she’d been the one to kill Bodie. Or it could have had something to do with her on the edge vibe she had no doubt been giving off. Added to that, she hadn’t needed any medical attention like her mother, Jordana, and Leland.

Ruby was in the process of being interviewed as well by another deputy, while an EMT continued to clean and bandage the wounds on her neck. Like Nash, her mother kept glancing her way. Maybe making sure she wasn’t about to lose it.

She wasn’t.

Nowhere close to that.

But it was reasonable for them to think that she would what with her knife sticking out of Bodie’s heart.

Slade was with the county sheriff and a team of CSIs, and they were likely discussing what needed to be searched and processed. Thankfully, not his house since the shitstorm hadn’t happened there. But the harbor would definitely need to be checked out in case Eddie had left a stash of weapons there.

Watching a crime scene wasn’t exactly old hat for her. Neither was killing a man. But as she saw the ME team lift Bodie’s body into their van, she certainly wasn’t feeling guilt. Or fear. Or panic. Or some tangled stew of all of those things.

No.

She was feeling relief. A Zen kind of sensation that might have been helped along with sheer exhaustion, spent adrenaline, and more of that relief. A whole mountain and ocean of it.

Bodie was dead. Stone cold dead, and part of her was glad she’d been the one to face him down.

And end him.

It felt like a full circle that had started when he’d attacked her eighteen years ago and finished right here with his blood soaking into the ground.

Of course, Jordana wasn’t feeling much relief at the moment. She’d sobbed and wailed all while the EMT’s were treating her wounded hand, and she was continuing the sobbing and wailing now that the cops were carting her away to jail. Caroline had heard the cops talking about charging her as an accomplice in Barney Coltrain’s murder. She wouldn’t get off with just a slap on the wrist for that.

Leland wasn’t faring much better than this daughter. One set of EMTs had immediately taken him to the hospital. But if and when he recovered, he’d be facing charges, too, since he’d not only helped Bodie escape so he could murder him, Leland had also obstructed justice.

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