Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Canyon) (33 page)

“They’re gonna put us all in jail, ain’t they?” the gray-haired woman said.

Ben looked down at her. “Troy and Duke for sure. No way around it. Maybe the rest of you can cut a deal. Sam says you treated him and Claire well. That’ll be in your favor.”

She looked over at Sam, her features softening. “Boy loves you. So does the woman.”

Ben’s chest clamped down as he followed her gaze to his family. Sam stood in front of Claire, both of them facing him, Claire’s hands resting gently on his son’s shoulders. Sam’s gaze followed Ben’s every move, and there was no mistaking the trust in the eyes so like his own.

“I love them, too,” he said gruffly.

Claire’s gaze shot to his, then drifted away. He wondered if she believed him. He didn’t think so. He would find a way to convince her as soon as they got out of this hellhole.

Mace’s deep voice echoed across the clearing. “We’ll wait for the sheriff.”

Ben breathed a sigh of relief. “Good call,” he said. To a man like Mace, his word was his bond. It was almost over.

Unfortunately,
almost
could be a deadly word.

* * *

Claire leaned against the rough wooden wall, her arms around Sam, who shivered in front of her though it wasn’t cold in the cabin. Ben was keeping watch out the window, Aggie crouched next to him on the floor below the sill.

For an instant, he turned and his eyes met hers. The icy shade stood out even more against the black greasepaint on his face. He looked big and hard and male. More capable than any man she had ever known. She loved him so much.

I love them, too,
he had said, and she knew that in a way he meant it. He loved his son and he cared for her. He had come for her, as she had known he would. And though she hadn’t been sure he would find them, she had known with an unshakable certainty deep in her soul that he would come after them. He might not love her the same way she loved him, but he would be good to her. He would make a home for her and his son.

Her throat tightened. All they needed was to get out of there.

Something shifted in the air inside the cabin. Claire turned to see the back door swinging silently open and Duke Hutchins moving into the shadows at the rear of the room. Claire caught the glint of a pistol, the barrel coming up, pointing at Ben’s back.

“Ben!” She didn’t stop to think, just launched herself at Hutchins, knocking him sideways, his pistol discharging as Ben whirled and fired two quick shots in return.

Claire screamed as Duke’s pistol roared again and Ben slammed backward against the wall. Hutchins teetered and crashed to the floor, his gun spinning away.

Shaking all over, Claire raced toward Ben, her heart trying to tear through her ribs.

He caught her against him. “I’m all right, baby. Hutchins is down. I’ve got a vest. I’m bruised, but I’m okay.” Sam ran to them and Ben pulled both of them against him.

Shooting erupted outside the cabin.

“Get down!” Staying low, Ben peered out the window, checking the area in front of the cabin. He rubbed his chest where the bullet had struck as he made his way to where Hutchins lay on the floor.

Claire was certain the man was dead until he started moaning. Crouching, she hurried to the bed, dragged a pillow case off a pillow and tore off a strip. She handed it to Ben, who pressed it against the wound in Hutchins’s chest.

“I’ll tend him,” Aggie said, bending low as she crossed the room in her nightgown and knelt beside Ben. “I got some blame in this. When Troy brung the boy here, he said he didn’t have no kin. Sam was the son I never had and I wanted to keep him. I didn’t know he had family till Troy brung him back and Sam told me. I’m glad you come for him.”

Aggie tore off another strip of cotton and pressed the material over the wound to help slow the flow of blood. She looked down at Hutchins.

“You never was one of us, was you? You just come here to stir up trouble. Troy’s my brother, but you always had a way of turning him bad. You’re lucky this man didn’t kill you.”

Outside the cabin, the shooting had ceased. New sounds reached them. Engine noise, wheels churning up mud, then the single quick bark of a siren as the sheriff’s vehicles reached the gate. Claire crept to the window, peeked over the sill and saw the gate standing open and a line of white SUVs pouring into the compound.

Spotlights lit the clearing. As the deputies streamed out of their cars, men emerged from the cabins, their hands in the air. Jake, Trace and Alex walked into the clearing, their weapons no longer in sight. Jake hauled Jesse Bragg along with him.

As Ben walked out on the porch, a movement caught Claire’s eye. Troy Bragg bolted out the back door of the nearest cabin, running hard toward the darkness and safety of the bayou.

“Son of a bitch!” Ben took off after him. One of the spotlights swung toward Bragg, illuminating his lean figure running flat out toward the swamp. In the round circle of light, Claire saw Ben tackle him, bringing him down hard in the mud at the edge of the bayou. Deputies raced toward the struggling men as Ben dragged Troy to his feet and punched him hard enough to knock him back into the mud.

The deputies grabbed Troy and hoisted him to his feet, pulled his arms behind him, cuffed him and hauled him back toward the clearing. Claire figured Troy was lucky the deputies were there to keep Ben from giving him the beating he deserved.

Ben walked toward her, mud all over his clothes and his knuckles bleeding. He climbed the steps leading up to the porch, and Claire threw herself into his arms.

Ben’s hold tightened around her. “It’s over, angel.” Sam ran up and threw his arms around his father’s waist. Ben smoothed a hand over his son’s dark hair. “Time to take my family and go home.”

Claire looked into his hard, beloved face and burst into tears.

Thirty-Five

I
t took two hours to mop things up.

Since the clearing wasn’t big enough for a medevac to land, Duke Hutchins rode away in the back of a sheriff’s SUV. Troy Bragg was hauled off in handcuffs, covered in mud, his nose bleeding and his lip split. Mace and Aggie were taken into custody, while everyone else was read his rights and released on his own recognizance.

The Bayou Patriots all had strong ties to the Egansville community. And the men had mostly been pawns in Troy and Duke’s scheme. Ben figured the two would serve time, if Duke lived. Mace, Aggie, Luke, Pete, Jesse and the others would probably cut a deal.

All Ben wanted was to take Claire and Sam and go home.

The problem was, once they got there, Claire’s life would still be in danger. Diego Santos and his band of cutthroats still believed she was hiding information she had received from Michael Sullivan. And they were willing to kill in order to get it.

Ben mulled over the problem as Alex landed his plane in Houston and taxied to the executive terminal. As soon as he shut down the engines, Jake opened the cabin door, and they all climbed out. Ben was reaching for one of the gear bags when his cell phone started ringing. Caller ID said the number belonged to Danny Castillo.

“Slocum,” Ben answered.

“I hear you found Claire and your boy,” Castillo said.

“That’s right. We just landed in Houston. We’re on our way home.”

“That’s good news and I’ve got more.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Undercover cops located Diego Santos last night. When they tried to bring him in, he resisted, and there was a shoot-out. Santos and two of his top guns were killed. Looks like your lady is safe.”

Relief slid like whiskey through his veins. “That
is
good news. Thanks, Detective. Maybe now our lives can finally get back to normal.”

“Maybe yours can. My job never ends.”

Ben chuckled. “I guess not. Thanks for the call.”

Feeling as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Ben hung up the phone. “Santos is dead,” he told Claire. “Happened last night. Perfect timing, if you ask me.”

Claire sighed with relief. “Thank God.”

“Exactly.” Ben slid an arm around her waist and another around Sam’s shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

There were things he needed to say to his family. Important things he hadn’t been able to say before. It wouldn’t be easy for a man like him, but he was determined to make things right.

Ben couldn’t wait to get there.

* * *

It was late morning by the time Ben reached his house, everyone got cleaned up and settled in. While Claire went into the kitchen to make a badly needed pot of coffee, Ben led Sam over to the sofa in the living room and urged him to take a seat.

Sam looked up at him, his eyes big and worried. “You aren’t mad at me, are you?”

Ben frowned. “Why would I be mad at you?”

“If I hadn’t gone with Troy in the first place, he and Duke wouldn’t have come back and taken Claire.”

Ben slung an arm around the boy’s shoulder. “None of this was your fault, son. I just called you in here to tell you...how much I love you. You never have to worry about being alone again. And I wanted you to know how much I liked it when you called me Dad.”

Sam looked up at him. “I didn’t mean to. Claire said you would come, but I was afraid you wouldn’t find us. When I saw you by the bed, I was so glad to see you it just popped out.”

Ben smiled. “I’m really glad it did.”

“So it’s okay if I call you Dad from now on?”

Ben hugged him, his throat a little tight. “From now until forever.”

Sam grinned and Ben ruffled his hair. “Go get some sleep, okay? You’ve been up half the night.”

The boy yawned. He’d slept on the plane, but after so much excitement it wasn’t enough. He glanced toward the sofa, where he had been sleeping while Claire was staying in the house.

“Why don’t you use your own room?” Ben said. “From now on, Claire will be sleeping with me.”

Sam looked up at him solemnly. “You’re going to marry her, right?”

“That’s right.”
If she’d still have him.
The more he thought of the way he had asked her to marry him, the more he worried she might have changed her mind.

“I’m glad.”

“Me, too.”

Sam padded down the hall to his room, went in and closed the door.

Ben took a breath for courage, thought about what he planned to say and headed for the kitchen.

* * *

Claire filled Hercules’s bowl with dry cat food, then returned to the kitchen counter to check on the pot of coffee she was brewing. She hadn’t been able to sleep on the plane. She kept seeing Duke Hutchins pointing his gun at Ben, remembering the raw terror she had felt when she’d thought Ben had been shot. He was badly bruised where the bullet had hit, but the vest had protected him.

As she reached for a pair of mugs, she felt him come up behind her, settle his big hands at her waist. Sliding her hair to one side, he bent his head and kissed the nape of her neck.

“You okay?”

She set the mugs down and turned into his arms. “I knew you’d come for us. I didn’t know how long it would take you to find us, but I knew you’d never stop looking.”

“I would have searched the rest of my life.” He very softly kissed her. “Troy and the others...they didn’t...hurt you?”

Claire shook her head, remembering the hard work, what Mace and Pete Bragg had planned for her, trying not to think how much worse it could have been if she had been forced into some sort of sham marriage.

“You got there in time. Pete Bragg wanted to marry me, but I told him I was engaged to another man.”

Ben caught her chin, forcing her gaze to his. “Not anymore.”

Claire felt the blood slowly drain from her face. She stared up at him. “I thought...thought you wanted to marry me. I thought we were going to the justice of the peace. Just something simple—you said that’s what you wanted.”

Ben shook his head. “That’s what I thought I wanted, the reason I made that ugly proposal.”

Panic slid through her. “It wasn’t really ugly. It was... It was practical. That way we could both be with Sam.”

“It was ugly and selfish. If I hadn’t been such a fool, I would have told you I loved you. I would have said that I’m so crazy in love with you it hurts to think of spending another day without you as my wife. But I didn’t say those things.”

Her heart squeezed. She couldn’t figure out where this was going. Dear God, was he going to change his mind? She couldn’t bear to think of a future without him.

She forced herself to smile. “It doesn’t matter what you said. We’ll both be able to be with Sam. It was a good idea. It still is.”

“It was a stupid idea. I don’t want to marry you because of Sam. I want to marry you because I love you. I want to marry you because I can’t live another day without you. That’s the way I feel, Claire. What I need to know is how you feel about me. Do you love me? Because I want to marry you more than anything in the world.”

Relief hit her hard, then a surge of joy. Her eyes welled. Claire threw her arms around Ben’s neck, her heart beating so hard she was sure he could hear it. “Oh, Ben, I love you so much. It seems like I’ve loved you forever.”

The tension eased from his powerful shoulders. Ben kissed her long and deep. “I don’t want to go to the justice of the peace. I want us to have a big fancy wedding with all the trimmings. I want you to wear a long white gown and carry an orchid bouquet. I want your father to walk you down the aisle and your whole family watching. I want our friends there when we say our vows. I want them to know how much I love you and how proud I am you’re going to be my wife.”

Claire started crying.

Ben’s arms tightened around her. “I love you, angel. I was just afraid to tell you. I was a coward, but I’m not afraid anymore.”

Claire swallowed and shook her head. Ben Slocum was the bravest man she had ever known.

He eased back to look at her, wiped away the wetness on her cheeks. “Will you marry me, Claire?”

Fresh tears spilled over. How many nights had she dreamed of this moment, dreamed of saying yes to a man who truly loved her.

Claire smiled up at him. “I’d be honored to marry you, Ben. You and your son.”

Ben kissed her, a long, deep kiss meant to show her how much he cared. And though she might have doubted it, somewhere in her heart she had known, the moment he had stepped through the cabin door in camouflage and greasepaint, exactly how strong his love was.

Claire looked up to see Sam standing in the kitchen.

“So is she gonna marry you, Dad?”

Ben grinned. “Yeah, son, she is. She’s gonna marry both of us.”

Sam shot a fist into the air. “Yes!”

Pepper barked his agreement, and Claire and Ben both laughed. Ben was a man of danger and adventure. Claire looked forward to the adventure the three of them would share.