Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,87
the edge of the porch watching the moonlit lake, Claire spotted the silhouette of a boat coming toward her. She was sure it was Ben, but she could only see the outline of two people in the boat.
Her heart squeezed. Where was Sam? Had something gone wrong?
The boat sputtered to a stop at the dock, and she raced down the steps to where it bobbed in the water. Someone else was in the boat, she saw as she drew near. Her heart jerked then overflowed with love. Sam.
Her eyes filled as Ben swept the boy up in his arms and stepped out onto the dock. He set Sam on his feet, and the boy raced toward her, Troy’s dog galloping at his heels. Sam’s dog, she corrected, for clearly animal and boy belonged together. Running now, her cheeks wet with tears, she opened her arms and Sam ran into them, his warm body burrowing into hers as she held him tightly against her.
“You came to get me,” he whispered, and began to shake as he struggled not to cry. “You’re really here.”
Her throat ached. He was wet head to toe, covered with algae and mud. She squeezed him tighter and fresh tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m here, sweetheart, and you’re safe. Your dad’s here. Everything’s okay.”
As he looked up at her in the moonlight, his pale eyes glistened. “I shouldn’t have gone with Troy. I should have waited.”
“It’s all right. You’ve got your dad now. You don’t ever have to worry about where you’re going to live.”
Ben walked up just then, his face still streaked with black, his camouflage T-shirt and pants wet and plastered to his powerful body. Unconsciously, his hand came up and settled protectively on his son’s small shoulder.
“We have to go. I called the sheriff. He’ll be going in after Hutchins and Troy, but I don’t know how fast that’ll happen. We need to get out of here just in case.”
She nodded. In case the men came after them. They must have had trouble. She didn’t let go of Sam.
Ben’s voice gentled. “He’s okay, Claire. He’s going to be just fine.” She wanted to hold on to Ben as much as she wanted to keep holding Sam.
Ben’s hand stroked gently over the top of his son’s dark head. “He did great out there. He really can swim like a fish. I was proud of him.”
Sam looked up at his father. “Mom said you died in the war.”
Two pairs of ice-blue eyes met and held. “Your mother thought I wouldn’t want you. She was wrong.”
“Your mother was trying to protect you,” Claire explained. “Sometimes the people who love us make mistakes.”
Ben smoothed the boy’s wet hair one last time. “We need to move,” he said.
Claire nodded, more than ready to leave. “I packed up everything just in case. All we need to do is load the car.”
“I wish we had time for a hot shower,” Ben said to Sam, “but that’s going to have to wait.”
Sam just nodded. He seemed different to Claire, more stoic, more grown-up than before he’d disappeared. She turned as Ty approached, carrying the last gear bag out of the boat.
“Thank you,” Claire said to him. “I’ll never forget what you’ve done tonight.”
Ty just grinned. “Helluva lot more fun than sitting home watching TV.”
Claire managed to smile, but her heart was hurting. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she owed this man who had come here to help them. But there wasn’t time for that now, and even if there were, she wasn’t sure she could find the right words.
She settled her arm around Sam’s shoulders and they hurried back to the cabin. Ben and Ty loaded the bags and Ben’s gear into the back of the Denali. Ty tossed his duffel into the dark brown sedan he’d rented in Dallas. The bills were already paid. They pulled away from the cabins, started up the dirt track to the two-lane road that would lead them back to Egansville for the rendezvous Ben had arranged with the sheriff.
It was over. And yet Ben was still in battle mode, his weapons in easy reach. She wondered what had happened in the bayou. She wondered if they were truly safe.
* * *
The sheriff was waiting for them when they pulled into the parking lot in front of his Egansville office. Ben and Ty gave a statement of the evening’s events, and the sheriff spoke to Sam.