Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,124
caught the hard set of his jaw. He had a feeling she’d been expecting him, maybe even approved in some way that he had come to save his family.
“Mace, you heard the man. Get yourself out here.”
Only a few seconds passed before the oldest Bragg stepped out of the safety of his cabin. He was big and thick-chested, with a long, shaggy beard. “You Slocum?”
“That’s right.”
“Let my sister go and we won’t kill you.”
“You’ve got armed men, Bragg, but so do we. Here’s the way it’s going down. I’ve come for my boy and my woman. We have your brother Jesse and your sister, Aggie. Three of your men are already down and the sheriff’s on his way. We let Aggie and Jesse go as soon as the sheriff arrives. In the meantime, we all hold our fire and wait.”
Silence ensued. Mace backed up a few paces and disappeared inside the cabin. Ben stepped back into the shadows, Aggie beside him, figuring Mace and the men were talking it over, trying to decide what to do.
“You think he’ll agree?” Claire asked.
“We’ll soon find out.”
Mace stepped into the open doorway. “How do we know you got Jesse?”
“How do you think we found this place?” Ben called back.
Mace cursed. “Stupid son of a bitch.”
“He had a family to protect. So do you, and so do I. You got nowhere to run—not this time. And the sheriff’ll be here any minute. We wait and we all stay alive.”
Even with the faint rays of moonlight, it was too dark to see Mace’s face.
“Gotta talk to the rest of the men.” Turning, he stepped down off the porch, apparently convinced no one was going to shoot him, crossed the open area and disappeared into another cabin.
Ben moved backward, hauling Aggie back inside the cabin. “Hold your positions,” he said into his mic.
Time slid past. The longer it took the better the chance the sheriff would arrive and end the standoff.
“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.