Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,86
the boat slid silently along, but the kid couldn’t keep his eyes off Ben. The dog lay quietly, praise Jesus, in the bottom of the boat.
They were about halfway back when the distant but unmistakable roar of an approaching engine reached them. It was still a ways back in the swamp, but moving a helluva lot faster than they were.
Ben fired up the engine.
“Sounds like the party’s about to get started,” Ty said, his smile grim.
“Ty Brodie, meet my son, Sam.”
Sam looked up at him. “Thanks for coming to get me.”
He sat down across from the boy. “That was your dad’s idea. You can thank him later. Right now, we need to get the...umm...heck out of here.”
Ben pushed the speed up a notch. It was dangerous with so many hazards in the water, but the moon gave off enough light to avoid the downed trees and overhanging branches, see the turns up ahead.
Ben was counting off the distances between forks in the channel, keeping to the right, then the left, then another right. Both of them knew the route by heart, and since they were traveling faster than they’d planned, Ty was damned glad they did.
A rifle shot pinged through the air. Then another hit a tree limb and bounced away. Ty reached into his bag and pulled out the AR, shoved in the magazine and pulled back the action. At the first sight of a boat behind them, he laid down a burst of automatic fire that flashed across the water in front it, throwing up a wall of white spray.
“I guess you found the conversion kit,” Ben said above the engine roar.
Ty just grinned. He’d spotted the kit in Ben’s weapons cache, taken the rifle apart and reassembled it when he’d been back in his cabin. “Figured we might need a little extra firepower!”
Ben’s mouth edged up. Ty had begun to recognize the expression as the closest thing to a Ben Slocum smile.
They were getting near the entrance to the lake. Ben had pushed the boy down in the bottom of the boat and drawn his pistol. He fired a couple of shots behind him over the heads of the men in the boat, laying down cover as he increased the speed to full throttle.
The channel was wider here, but there were still obstacles in the way and if they missed a turn and went into a dead end, they were in serious trouble.
The lake appeared ahead. The boat shot into the open water and roared toward their destination. Of course at seven miles an hour, it still wasn’t a helluva lot of speed. Good thing the other boat wasn’t any faster.
Looking backward past Ben, Ty fixed his gaze on the mouth of the channel, expecting to see at least one boat, maybe two shoot into the lake. They’d decided if they were followed, they would head to shore south of the cabins and take a defensive position there instead of risking Claire and anyone else who might be at the fishing resort.
Nothing.
He motioned to Ben, who turned to look, both of them watching, waiting.
Nothing.
“Looks like they turned back!” Ty shouted.
Sam sat up from the bottom of the boat. “I don’t think they’ll come this far.”
“Why not?” Ben asked.
“I heard Mace talking. He said if there was ever any kind of trouble it was smarter to stay in the bayou. He said they knew it better than anyone else in the world and it was the best place to defend themselves.”
As the boat moved across the lake, all three of them kept watch for any sign they were being followed.
“Mace didn’t want me there anyway,” Sam said, his eyes still glued to the lake. “He’ll be glad I’m gone.”
Ty glanced over at Ben, whose face had turned to stone.
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Ben said. “You got me. I want you. So does Claire.”
A look of hope filled eyes as pale as his father’s. “Is Claire really here?”
Ben nodded. “She’s the reason I knew about you. She loves you, Sam.” Ben didn’t say more, but Ty could read it in his face. He loved the kid, too.
Ty’s chest filled with warmth. Sam Slocum was going home. It always felt good when a mission like this succeeded and victims were returned to their families.
He glanced across the lake. The only question was, would the Bayou Patriots return to their mud hole in the swamp? Or would they want revenge and come after Ben and Sam?