Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Canyon) (31 page)

It wasn’t a bad theory. He walked to the corner, prowling the sidewalk, people’s front lawns, checking the street. About where the van had been parked, the sun reflected off something in the gutter. Ben reached down and picked up a piece of paper, the clear cellophane crackling in his hand.

He recognized the sound, and his heart started pounding. He spread open the candy wrapper, read the familiar white lettering.
Homemade Mud Bugs. Catahoula Candy Makers, Egansville, Louisiana.

Relief and fury hit him at the same time. It wasn’t Santos. She wasn’t being tortured. Troy Bragg had come for Sam, and Claire had tried to stop him. Bragg had taken her with him to whatever godforsaken rat hole he and his clan were calling home.

Santos didn’t have her, but she was still in terrible danger. Both of them were, but especially Claire. His stomach knotted at the thought of the Bayou Patriots, thirty-odd men and very few women. Thirty horny, caged-up motherfuckers and a beautiful woman like Claire, helpless against them.

As Ben headed for the car, he pulled out his cell phone and started making calls. Jake, Trace, Alex and Sol were waiting in the office when he stepped inside, ringing the bell above the door.

“All right, we know who’s got them,” Ben said as he approached. “We just need to find them. Time to go to work.”

“Copy that,” Trace said as all of them headed for the conference room. Ben didn’t miss the hard, determined looks on his best friends’ faces.

Thirty-Three

B
en settled back in the copilot’s seat as Alex’s twin Beechcraft Baron dropped lower, winging its way over a dense green landscape ribboned with water and very few roads. Jake and Trace sat behind him. The nose and fuselage of the plane was full of their gear.

The ground came up. The wheels lightly touched down on the tarmac as Alex made a perfect landing at a small airport near Deerfield, just over the Catahoula County line where Ben hoped word of their arrival wouldn’t reach the Patriots before he and his friends could get to them.

Back in Houston, Sol waited at his computer. The kid had access to satellite imagery that could pinpoint areas Google Maps couldn’t begin to reach. If the position of the satellite was right, he was hoping to get some video footage this time.

First, though, they needed a starting place, some indication where to look for the Bayou Patriots’ bug-out compound. They had to know if it was somewhere in the area or someplace altogether different.

They’d discussed going to the sheriff, talked over the pros and cons. But the only people who had known Ben and Ty Brodie had pulled Sam out of the compound, knew Ben’s name and where he lived, were people who worked in the sheriff’s department.

Information had been provided to the Braggs. Whether on purpose or accidentally, the result was the same. Claire and Sam were missing, and Ben had no doubt Troy Bragg and his clan had taken them. He couldn’t chance letting Bragg escape again.

A pair of rental cars were waiting, a dark brown Chevy Tahoe, different color but otherwise the same as the one he had rented in El Paso and driven to Houston, and a white Jeep Grand Cherokee. They needed room for men, weapons, ammunition and miscellaneous gear, and he wanted a backup vehicle in case of trouble when they headed into the compound.

They piled into the two SUVs and drove to a motel on the edge of Deerfield that Ben had reserved on Hotels.com. They had to move fast. If word got out that four strangers had arrived in the area, it might reach the Patriots. If the group figured the men were there in search of the woman and boy, they would bolt like scalded dogs to a new location, forcing Sam and Claire to go with them.

These men knew the swamp, most had lived around here all their lives. The only way to get to them was to take them by surprise.

Sol had discovered the double-wide trailers Silas and Jesse Bragg and their families lived in a ways past the turnoff to the Bushytail Bayou compound. He had also discovered where the two brothers worked.

Silas managed a sporting-goods store in Egansville, but Jesse drove heavy equipment for E. and J. Construction, currently working on a project in Deerfield. The plan was to wait for Jesse to finish his shift and head for home.

Ben was going to make sure he didn’t get there.

* * *

“Claire!” Sam bolted toward her as Mace led her away, but Troy slung an arm around his neck and dragged him back.

“She’ll be fine. No one’s gonna hurt her. Pete’s just gonna talk to her awhile, get to know her a little. He’s lookin’ for a wife. Woman could do a lot worse than my brother Pete.”

“She can’t marry him. She’s gonna marry my dad!” Sam had overheard Claire and Ben talking. He would have a mom and dad, something he wanted more than anything in the world.

Troy spun him around. “You better get this straight, boy. You live here now. Aggie’s your kin. Claire’ll be living here, too, but she’ll be marrying Pete.”

Sam’s jaw tightened. “My dad’s coming, just like before. He’s a SEAL. You’ll be sorry you took us away.”

Troy chuckled. “He’s not gonna find you. He got lucky last time, but we’re deeper in the bayou now. Me and Duke ain’t leaving for a couple of weeks. Your daddy comes, we’ll feed him to the gators, and the sheriff won’t find a trace.”

A shiver ran down Sam’s spine. “I hate you.” A blow to the side of his head sent him reeling.

“Your mama taught you better than to disrespect your elders. I won’t put up with it and neither will anyone else.”

Sam thought of his mom and tried to remember what it was like when Troy lived with them. His mom liked the way Troy looked, Sam guessed, a little like Ben when Troy shaved and kept his hair trimmed instead of letting it grow, but he had always had a bad temper. Mom hadn’t let him stick around very long.

Sam glanced across the compound to where Claire sat in the shade with Pete Bragg. Pete looked a lot like Troy, same blue eyes and dark hair. All of them did, but Claire wouldn’t be interested in a loser like Pete and she sure wouldn’t want to live out in a dung hole like this.

His chest clamped down and his eyes burned. This was all his fault. If he hadn’t gone with Troy in the first place, Claire wouldn’t be here, and neither would he. What if they made her marry Pete like Troy said? What if Ben couldn’t find them? What if he came and they shot him and threw him into the swamp?

“Get on out there,” Troy said, nudging him down off the porch. “Aggie’s workin’ in the garden, and she could use your help.”

Sam cast Claire a last, regretful glance, then started for the garden.
This is my fault,
he thought again as he trudged through the dirt and fought to hold back tears.

* * *

Jesse Bragg sat in a chair in room 126 of the Deerfield Motel, his arms and feet bound with plastic ties, a rope tying him to the chair. He was six feet tall, dark-haired and blue-eyed like the rest of the Braggs, with a thin scar on his chin. Now a bruise darkened his cheek and his lip was split.

When Ben had taken him down on his way to his pickup truck after work, it was over before Bragg had time to put up much of a fight or sound an alarm. The scuffle had begun after they got inside the motel room. Bragg had started it, but Ben had enjoyed the punches he’d thrown in return a little too much.

Fortunately for Jesse, Trace had been there to stop him from doing a whole lot worse.

“I don’t have time for this,” Ben said, crowding Jesse enough to make him uncomfortable. “I want to know where they’ve got my woman and my boy. You can make this easy or hard. Either way, you’re gonna tell me what I want to know.”

“Give the guy a break,” Alex said, stepping in to play good guy. “Jesse has a family of his own. He knows how worried you must be.” He turned to the man in the chair. “We need to find them, Jesse. Claire and Sam are Ben’s family. What would you do if someone took your family and disappeared?”

Jesse swallowed. “I tried...tried to talk them out of it. Silas was against it, too. Even Mace thought it was a bad idea.”

“Tell us where they are,” Alex said, “so we can bring them home.”

“I can’t do that. They’re my brothers, my friends. We took an oath.”

“Did your oath include kidnapping an innocent boy and a woman?” Ben asked.

“I told you it wasn’t me. It was Troy and Duke. They stirred everyone up.”

“Why’d they take the woman?” Jake asked. “What do they plan to do with her?”

“Nothin’ that’ll hurt her. They’re plannin’ to marry her off to one of my brothers. Nate’s a preacher, and it ain’t like she’s never had a man between her legs.”

Ben’s fist shot out and slammed into Jesse’s face, knocking over the chair and sending him crashing to the floor.

Jake grabbed Ben and dragged him away before he could lift up the chair and hit him again.

“Take it easy,” Jake warned, but his hard look said he wouldn’t mind punching the guy himself.

Unclenching his fist, Ben pulled himself under control. They needed information. That was the reason Jesse was there.

“I’ve had enough of this,” Ben said as Jake set the chair upright with Jesse still in it. “Let’s go get his wife and kids, bring them back here. We’ll have a little fun with the woman—just like your brother is planning to do with mine. We’ll let Bragg watch while we’re at it. Maybe let the kids watch, too.”

He’d bring them back if he had to, but only as a threat. Hurting women and children wasn’t part of his plan.

Alex shoved himself between them, playing good guy again. “We all know how you feel, Ben, even Jesse.” He turned. “You’ve got to tell us, man. Ben’s tied up in knots over this. He’s going to find your bug-out spot whether you help us or not. In the meantime, your wife and kids are going to be the ones to pay.”

Jake moved in for the kill, giving Jesse the out he needed. “If your friends give you any trouble, you tell them we threatened your family, your wife and kids. Tell them you had no choice.”

Jesse surveyed the four hard men standing around him. He moistened his lips. “You go in there...you aren’t gonna kill them?”

“We’re going in and bring out my lady and my son,” Ben said. “We won’t hurt anyone unless we have to.”

“Ben’s a SEAL,” Jake added. “He’s done dozens of extractions. No one has to get hurt.”

Not unless they tried to stop him. If they did, he’d do whatever it took to get Claire and Sam out of danger. But he didn’t say that.

“This is your last chance, Jesse,” Alex said. “You need to tell us. You need to do what’s right.”

Jesse hung his head. Seconds ticked past. No one said a word. Finally, he looked up. “There’s a way in off the road.”

“Which road?” Ben pressed.

“Same road outta Egansville that led to our first camp. The turnoff’s ten miles south of the one you take to Bushytail Bayou. You can get there through the swamp, but you’d have to know the way and you couldn’t make it in at night.”

“Go on,” Ben said.

“Road’s hard to find. The turnoff’s completely overgrown. You have to know where it is to find it.”

“How many men are in there?” Ben asked.

“Ten, maybe twelve. Too hard getting in and out, and it’s harder livin’ that far from town. You can make it with a four-wheel drive, but it’s real rough goin’.”

Trace leaned down and cut the man’s bindings. “You’re gonna make it easy, Jesse. You’re gonna show us the way.”

Jake jerked him out of his chair. “You’re going to do what’s right. And you’re going to keep your family safe.”

* * *

“Make her take off them clothes, Mace. Man don’t buy a pig in a poke. Gotta sample the goods a little first.”

“Get away from me!” Claire slapped Pete Bragg’s hand away as he reached out to touch her cheek. Since the men didn’t approve of a woman wearing jeans, she was dressed in a worn cotton print dress that Aggie had loaned her and she had taken in by hand to fit.

Mace reached out and roughly caught her chin, forcing her to look at him. “What’s the matter? You don’t like Pete? You think you’re too good for him?”

“I— I’m already engaged to be married to another man.”

“Yeah, well, your man ain’t here, and he ain’t gonna be.” He turned to his brother. “You need to give her a day or two. She ain’t used to the way we do things here. Aggie’ll talk to her, get her straightened out. Woman needs a man to take care a her. A couple of days, she’ll come around.”

“What if she don’t?” Pete asked. He looked like all the other Braggs, not unattractive if it weren’t for his shaggy hair and ugly brown beard.

“You can wait till hell freezes over,” Claire said. “I still won’t marry you.”

Mace drilled her with a glare that sent a shiver down her spine. “Fine, you don’t want to be a wife, you can be Pete’s whore. Service a few of the others, too. Choice is yours.”

All the blood drained from her face. She would have to marry one of them, or all of them would take her. For a moment, she thought she might faint.

Aggie’s arm settled around her shoulders, steadying her. Claire took a deep breath as the woman led her off toward the cabin she was staying in with Aggie and Sam.

“Don’t you pay no mind to Mace. We got good Christian values here. I’ll see to it you get yourself a husband of your choosin’. Don’t you worry about that.”

Her stomach rolled. Oh, God, what if Ben didn’t find them in time? Claire moistened her trembling lips. So far Aggie had been an ally. She couldn’t afford to lose her. “Thank you.”

Aggie patted Claire’s back as they walked up on the porch of the one-room shack, and Sam ran up to her.

“You didn’t say you’d marry him, did you, Claire? You’re still gonna marry Ben?”

Sam had asked her about it that morning, told her he had overheard them talking. He had asked if it was true and looked up at her with so much hope in those pale eyes so like his father’s it made her heart hurt. It made her glad she had said yes to Ben. It wouldn’t be the kind of marriage she had always dreamed of, the kind based on love, but there would be caring and it would be enough.

Aggie shooed Sam away before she had time to answer. “You go on now, this is grown-up business. You go check on the chickens, make sure they’re in for the night and the henhouse door is closed. We don’t want some fox getting into the coop.”

They went to bed early in the swamp, a little after the sun went down, which this time of year was right after supper. Lamps provided the only light and oil was costly.

“Go on,” Claire said softly. “Everything’s going to be okay.” But her hope was rapidly fading. She had learned this was not the same place the men had taken Sam before. It was deeper in the bayou and nearly impossible to find.

On top of that, Mace Bragg had sentries guarding the compound, two men on each shift now instead of just one. They were heavily armed and ready for trouble.

Claire thought of Ben and her heart squeezed. Dear God, even if he found them, she wasn’t sure he would be able to get them out without getting killed.

She turned and forced her feet to move through the door. The cabin was the largest of those built around the clearing, with a kitchen equipped with a wood-burning stove and a long table and benches where Aggie fed the men.

The place was so crudely constructed that in the daytime she could see light coming in through the cracks in the rough board walls. At night, she slept on a pallet on the floor while Sam slept on the rope bed next to Aggie.

The cabin was steamy with the smell of pork and vegetable stew. Biscuits were baking in the oven. She helped Aggie serve the men, then washed the tin plates in a big pot of boiling water heated on the stove.

Earlier, Aggie had put her to work washing the men’s laundry. It was done the old-fashioned way, immersing the clothes in a huge cauldron of boiling water, scrubbing the garments with homemade lye soap, then running them through the wringer of an old-style washing machine with a hand crank and hanging them up to dry.