Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,85

scream.”

Fight or flight. This was the moment. Slipping his hand into his pocket, Ben tried to read the boy’s body language as he silently broke the surface of the water and rose to Sam’s same height. “I’ve come to take you home. Claire’s waiting for you. We just have to get you out of here.”

Sam’s muscles were rigid as he peered through the evening shadows, trying to decide what to do. “I’m your father, Sam. We have to go before they miss you.”

Sam stiffened. “You aren’t my father. My father’s dead.”

“I didn’t know about you. Your mother didn’t tell me. Claire came to find me after your mother died.”

The boy started shaking his head and Ben flicked on the LED light, held it beneath his chin, lighting his face. “Look at my eyes. Same as yours. I’m your father.” The kid’s eyes widened the instant before Ben turned off the light. “Let’s go.”

Sam looked at the swamp and didn’t move. Who the hell would? “There’s alligators and snakes.”

Ben slid his KA-BAR out of its sheath, let Sam see the blade. “Claire says you’re a really good swimmer. I’ll take care of the snakes. We need to go. Now.”

Sam looked at him one final time. Then he stepped off the bank into the water. The black Lab quietly waded in beside him.

Ben shook his head. “We can’t take the dog. He’ll make too much noise. Send him back.”

For the second time the boy hesitated. “Pep won’t make noise. I taught him to be quiet. We play hide-and-seek whenever we get the chance.”

Hide-and-seek. Finding a place of safety. It made his chest go tight.

The boy’s eye’s filled with tears. “Please, mister. Please let him come with us. Pep’s my only friend in the world.”

Ben’s throat closed up. He’d been there. He knew how it felt to be that alone. “Keep him quiet then. Stay as close to me as you can.”

Sam nodded, his decision made. They moved through the water together, the bottom dropping away, the boy sidestroking, barely disturbing the leaves and algae in the channel. The dog swam along beside the boy through the murky brackish sludge. They were almost there. Ben could see a hint of metal where the aluminum boat waited in the heavy grass and branches up ahead.

They swam beneath the drooping cover of the willow. The boat bobbed just a few feet away.

The sound of gunfire at the shooting range had stopped.

And there was no sign of Ty.

* * *

The guy was big and beefy and he smelled like swamp mud. Ty stood immobile no more than a foot behind him, hidden in the shadows of an ancient, overgrown oak. If the guy started moving away, Ty would stay where he was.

No such fucking luck. The big guy stiffened, and his head came up. His nostrils flared, scenting the air like a dog. He’d heard something, caught some slight ripple in the usually stagnant water as a few feet away, Ben hauled the boy into the boat, lifted the dog in next to him, pulled himself over the side.

The Patriot’s jaw hardened. As he opened his mouth to sound the alarm, Ty’s arm wrapped around his neck and squeezed, silencing him even as he clawed to get free. An instant later, he went lights-out without a sound.

Ty lowered him to the ground, jerked his hands behind his back, bound his wrists and ankles with plastic ties and slapped a piece of duct tape over his mouth.

Dragging him behind a fallen log, he left him there and moved deeper into the swamp, heading along the bank toward the boat, careful to stay out of the moonlight, in the shadows out of sight.

Ben and the kid were in the boat when he stepped out into the open, Ben’s Nighthawk pointed at the middle of his chest. Ben quickly shoved it back into his holster. There was another passenger in the boat, one they hadn’t planned on. Apparently the Iceman had a heart after all.

Soundlessly, Ben pressed the oar against a tree stump and shoved the boat away from the bank, started poling toward deeper water. They needed to get some distance away from the compound before they started the engine—assuming no one discovered Sam missing or found their fallen comrade and shouted an alarm.

Ty used the other oar to pole from the opposite side. The sun had set, but rays of moonlight illuminated the darkness and lit the water with an eerie silver sheen. No one spoke as