Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,118
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?”