Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,43
cup. “What about the police? Do you think we should call them, tell them about Hutchins? The local police can be there a lot faster than we can.”
“I’ve given it a lot of thought. You called Owens after we talked to Lyla. They know Bridger has Sam. They know he’s probably headed for Louisiana, likely down I-10. They’ll be watching the roads, looking for a man and boy in a beat-up white pickup. The odds aren’t good they’ll find them, but the roads will be covered. And we can be in El Paso by dark, maybe sooner.”
“The police could be at the house right away.”
Ben scrubbed a hand over his face. He hadn’t shaved that morning. He looked completely disreputable and handsome as sin.
“I wish I trusted them to handle it. The trouble is, if they make a mistake, maybe go in too hot or their timing is off, Sam could get hurt or Bridger could get away. If he does, he’s liable to take Sam and go underground. We might never be able to find him.”
Ben had made the argument before and it made a lot of sense. “I don’t like the idea of the police cornering him. I’m not sure how far he’s willing to go to pay Laura back.”
Ben’s pale eyes bored into her. “You think he might hurt the boy to get even with a dead woman?”
She swallowed, fighting a rush of guilt. “I think a lot of it has to do with me. He...um...called me once. Said if I didn’t stop causing him trouble, I’d regret it.”
“But that wasn’t something you could do.”
“I told you, Laura was my friend.” She sighed. “I don’t know what Bridger might do but it...it worries me.”
She could tell by the set of his jaw it worried him, too.
An hour out of Chandler, Claire leaned back in her seat and dozed for a while, the lack of sleep last night taking its toll. An hour later, she jerked awake, her heart hammering, her skin flushed and her body pulsing. She’d been dreaming of Ben, remembering the erotic sensation of his mouth on her breasts.
She didn’t look at him, just turned and gazed out the window, fixing her eyes on the flat, arid desert moving by outside, hoping he couldn’t read her thoughts.
“You okay?”
She managed to nod. “Bad dream.” But it was a very good dream, a delicious dream she was sure to have any number of times over the years.
Another fifty miles into the trip, Ben pulled off the highway to make a quick pit stop at a Chevron station.
“Why don’t you let me drive awhile,” Claire suggested as they walked back to the car carrying paper cups of fresh hot coffee. “Maybe you could catch a little sleep.”
He looked at her over the top of his steaming paper cup. “We need to get there.”
“I’ll get us there as fast as I possibly can.”
He hesitated a moment, then nodded. “All right.” Climbing into the passenger side of the vehicle, he stuck his coffee in the cup holder next to hers and tilted his seat back. By the time Claire pulled onto the freeway, Ben was fast asleep.
* * *
Ben didn’t sleep long. Just enough to refresh himself. So far, things had gone extremely well, but he didn’t expect that to last. Eddie Jeffries had cooperated. He was in jail and didn’t want any more trouble. Sadie had a bone to pick with Bridger—no problem there. Lyla had been charmed by Sam and wanted to see him returned to his family.
Ben had a hunch Duke Hutchins wasn’t going to roll over on Bridger so easily. He hadn’t told Claire the rest of the information Sol had dug up. That Hutchins had a criminal record that included assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery. He’d been busted for selling marijuana and cocaine, spent time in half a dozen Texas jails and finally wound up in Huntsville Prison.
He was out on parole, but there was no question in Ben’s mind the man would be armed and dangerous.
It was one of the reasons he didn’t want to involve the police. He didn’t want to take a chance that Sam might wind up collateral damage if someone started shooting.
One of the things SEALs were trained for was extraction. With the right planning, he could be in and out with Sam before Hutchins and Bridger knew what the hell had hit them. He’d hold off bringing in the cops until he had no other choice.