Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,125
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
It 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.