Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,72

going back to the truck.

But Pepper had been waiting, and he couldn’t just leave him.

“I’ve got some chores for him to do right here,” Aggie said, resting a hand on his shoulder. She was the only one in the camp who’d been nice to him.

“I’ll see he gets somethin’ to eat,” Aggie said. “Soon as we’re done, I’ll send him on out to y’all.”

“All right, but don’t take too long.”

Aggie smiled down at him. She was kind of old, but at least she liked him. “Hear that? We’d best get you fed. How about some grits and syrup? It’s still in the pot. I can heat it up in no time.”

Sam just nodded. His stomach was rumbling. He tried not to think of the French toast his mom used to make, his favorite breakfast meal. He tried not to think of his mom at all.

Or Claire. He wondered if she had tried to find him after he was gone. She probably thought he’d run away and forgot all about him.

His throat closed up. When Aggie set the grits down in front of him along with the pitcher of syrup, he had to force the food past the lump in his throat.

He was never going home. He had to face the truth. Troy would never let him leave, and there was no place to run from here. Not unless he wanted to get killed by a snake or eaten by a gator. He’d seen one of those yesterday, too.

Little by little he was getting to the point where he didn’t really care. Maybe he’d just take off, see if he could make it out of here on his own. Sam went back to eating his grits. He would need to be strong if he decided to run.

Twenty-One

The sign for Catahoula Candy Makers sat in front of a long, low, metal-roofed building outside the Egansville city limits on the west side of town. The town itself had a population of twenty-one hundred, bigger, at least, than Converse. Claire couldn’t keep the hope from rising in her chest as they approached the front door.

Ben held it open and she walked to the counter, where a middle-aged woman wearing a clean white apron and a name tag that read Sophie came up to greet them. She was small, with short blond hair and dark eyes.

“Welcome,” the woman said with a smile. “What can I get for you today? We got the Mud Bug twelve-pack, if you’re interested. Saves you ten percent. They keep real good, so you can’t go wrong stockin’ up.”

Claire smiled brightly. “That sounds great.” She hoped she could keep Ben from jumping into interrogation mode, which, with those pale eyes and the way he was grinding his jaw, would send the poor woman running for cover. “We’ll take a twelve-pack.”

“Sure enough,” Sophie said, obviously pleased. She disappeared into the back and returned with a white cardboard box holding twelve packages of Mud Bugs wrapped in clear cellophane, each piece twisted at the ends.

“You ain’t from around here,” the woman said as she wrote out the receipt. “How’d you hear about us?”

“A friend told us about you,” Ben said, taking Claire’s lead, thank God, and standing down, at least for the moment. “Troy Bragg. We tried some at his house. You don’t know him, do you?”

She shook her head, continued writing up the order. “’Fraid I never met him.”

Claire’s spirits fell.

Sophie added the tax. “I know his sister, Aggie, though. She comes in a couple of times a year. Aggie loves our candy.”

Claire couldn’t breathe. Thank heaven Ben stepped in, because she couldn’t get out a single word.

“That’s what Troy told us.” Ben managed a smile that looked at least halfway sincere. “We thought while we were here we’d stop by and say hello. You wouldn’t know her address, would you?”

The woman laughed. “Aggie don’t exactly have an address. She and her kin live about thirty miles south of here, out to Bushytail Bayou. Egansville’s the closest town. Aggie and some of the others come in for supplies once or twice a year.”

Finally back in control, Claire pasted on a friendly smile. “I know she has six brothers. I didn’t know they all lived together.”

Sophie started frowning. “I figured if you knew Aggie, you’d know about that.”

“We’ve mostly talked to Troy,” Ben said smoothly. “He mentioned something about a big family. I can’t remember exactly what it was.”

The woman grinned. “Then if you go out there, you’re in for a real surprise—if