Do Not Forsake Me

by Rosanne Bittner

  “No!” A woman behind them nearly screamed the word.

  Peter turned to see Randy had come out of her room and heard what the marshal said.

  “No! No! No!” She screamed the words over and over as she crumpled to her knees. Peter ran over and grabbed her up, holding her in his arms so she wouldn’t fall. “Tell me they’ve already found Little Jake and my daughter!”

  “No, ma’am. It just happened yesterday. A posse went after them, but they all got away, and Sheriff Sparks was shot. He’s alive, but not in good enough shape to go after them. Jake wasn’t there. I’m sure if he was, he might have stopped it all. He was out looking for Bryant and his men.”

  “Brian! What about Evie’s husband, Brian?”

  “I’m told he got knocked unconscious, but he’ll be all right. More men want to try looking for Evie and the kid again, but they need someone to lead the way—someone like Jake who knows how to find men like that. But no one is sure how to find him, and he hasn’t sent any wires.”

  “He knows. Jake knows!” Randy clung to Peter. “He’ll be there soon, I’m sure of it. Somehow he found out and he’ll find Evie.” Randy wilted against Peter. “Oh my God. My God! Evie! Poor Evie! Jake will go mad!” She collapsed into sobs. “I’ll never see him again. I’ll never see Jake or my daughter again! And Little Jake! He’s just an innocent child!”

  “Randy, Jake will go after them and—”

  “They want him, Peter. They want Jake. He’ll do anything for Evie—anything! He’ll offer himself up like a lamb to slaughter to get her back. They’ll kill him, Peter! They’ll kill him for sure this time. They might even kill Evie and Little Jake. They’re ruthless, Peter!”

  Marshal Graham pushed back his hat. “I’m so sorry for this terrible news, Mrs. Harkner. But, ma’am, if I may say so, you ought to know better than most that Jake doesn’t go down easy, and if he can find a way out of this and still get your daughter back, he’ll do it. Didn’t he take on the Kennedy gang all by himself back in California? That’s how I heard it, anyway.”

  Randy dug her fingers into Peter’s arm. “Yes.” She closed her eyes at the awful memory. “I was there.” She looked at Graham. “What about Lloyd’s wife, Katie? And my grandson Stephen?”

  “Far as I know, they’re okay. And, ma’am, remember that Lloyd rides with Jake now. He’s a real able man too. I’m thinking they’ll be all right. Those two together are quite a force. And I’m sure Jake will be smart enough to take a few more men with him. He’s not alone this time, Mrs. Harkner. You ought to take hope in that, and in the fact that…well…like I said, this is Jake Harkner we’re talking about, and those men took his little girl. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be a part of that gang right now…not with Jake Harkner after me.”

  Randy straightened a little, but Peter kept hold of her. “I know all that, Marshal, but you have no idea how much Jake loves his daughter. He’ll give himself over to them even if it means being tortured to death. He’ll do anything for her.”

  “Well, maybe he won’t have to, ma’am. Maybe he won’t have to.”

  “The man is right, Randy,” Peter encouraged. “This is Jake we’re talking about. And Lloyd is with him. Your son is just as good as his father with those guns. If they round up a few extra men—”

  “Oh, Peter, I have to go home. I have to go home! I have to be there for Evie if she lives through this. Let Dr. Rogers take my stitches out. Please, please, take me home. If you don’t take me, I’ll get dressed and go by myself, I swear it! I should be with Katie and Stephen too. Poor Katie must be beside herself, and Stephen is probably scared to death he’ll lose his father and his grandfather.”

  “Katie’s parents are with them, Randy.”

  “Is there some kind of message you want me to send to Guthrie, Mrs. Harkner?” Marshal Graham asked.

  “Just that I’m coming home right away.” She pulled away from Peter and covered her face, leaning against a wall. “What will be left of my family when I get there, Peter? I could lose Evie and Little Jake and Lloyd and Jake…all four of them! And Evie is pregnant. Oh my God, poor Brian. Poor Brian!”

  “Ma’am, you won’t be much good to any of them if you get sicker instead of better,” Graham told her. “You need to trust in your husband now. If anybody can get them back, he can.”

  “He’s right, Randy,” Peter told her, pulling her back into his arms. “Jake will damn well get her back.”

  She wept against his chest. “But at what price, Peter? At what price? They will want a trade…Evie and Little Jake…for Jake. They might even make Lloyd part of the bargain, and both of them will give their lives for Evie in a minute. Lloyd will never allow his father to face this alone.”

  Peter looked at Marshal Graham. “Send a wire to Katie that Randy knows what’s happened and is coming home as soon as she can. We’ll leave by the day after tomorrow.”

  “No! Tomorrow!”

  “Absolutely not! Your getting home in a couple of days won’t make any difference if they already have Evie. Jake and Lloyd will go after them the minute Jake knows, and there won’t be a thing you can do until they all get back. And they will all come back. You have to believe that, Randy. Jake won’t give himself up to those bastards. He’ll find a way to bring them all down.”

  “If I hear anything before you leave, I’ll let you know, Mrs. Harkner,” Marshal Graham told her.

  Randy turned away again. “Thank you.” She walked back to her room, feeling as though she were in another world. Evie! Her beautiful, sweet, still-naive Evie.

  Peter caught up to her and took her arm.

  “Peter, she worships Jake. Evie absolutely thinks he is incapable of some of the things he’s done. She’s going to see a side of him that will shock her. She sees only the good in him, but I know what this will do to him. If he manages to get her out of this, he will execute every one of those men left alive. I saw what he did to some of the Kennedy gang. And these men…they will rape her, Peter. That will put Jake into a world Evie has never seen. He might even do things that will send him back to prison.” She collapsed onto her bed.

  “Randy.” Peter knelt in front of her. “Evie means everything to him, so maybe he’ll do this right—the way he should handle it as a marshal—for her sake. And I’m betting plenty of people are praying for your family, Randy. You remember that Evie, sweet as she is, is also a Harkner. She’s stronger than you think, because she has two very strong people for parents. I think you’re wrong about her not being able to stop Jake from doing something that will get him killed or sent back to prison. All she has to say is that word Daddy, and he’ll do anything she asks. You know that. I have a feeling that word totally undoes that man—not Pa, not Father, or Dad. She calls him Daddy, and that just turns him into a piece of clay she can mold any way she wants.”

  Randy managed to smile a little through her tears. “Everyone thinks it’s so funny that she still calls him that.”

  Peter squeezed her hand. “And when she calls him Daddy, it’s so endearing.”

  Randy nodded. “It is, isn’t it?” She covered her face. “Evie has no idea the things Jake is capable of.”

  “And he won’t want her to know.”

  “It might not matter—not if they kill him, Peter. Not if they kill him. That will be horrible for Evie. She’ll not get over the fact that her father gave his life for her.”

  Peter pulled the covers over her again. “I’ll have the doctor give you something to help you sleep. I’ll see if he’ll let you leave a few days early and let Dr. Rogers take out the stitches. Then we’ll head back to Guthrie, if he gives the go-ahead. But I’m getting you a sleeper car on the train so you can lie down most of the way, and I’ll hire a stagecoach that’s just for us—no other passengers—so you can have one full seat to lie down on there too. I’ll get you home, Randy, but you have to promise me you’ll let the doctor give you s
omething to help you sleep tonight and most of tomorrow.”

  “But we should leave tomorrow.”

  “No. It won’t help. One more day, Randy. Even then, we can’t leave unless the doctor says it’s all right. I’ll try to get you home within four or five days.”

  “I should be there for Jake. He’ll need me, Peter. If Evie is badly hurt or killed, he’ll go insane. Even I won’t be able to help him. The Jake I married will be lost forever.”

  “And you won’t be able to be there for him or Evie or any of them if we don’t handle this right. You have got to do what the doctor says, Randy, so you’ll be there when they all get back.”

  When they get back. “They might never come back, Peter. They might never come back.”

  Thirty-two

  They stopped every few miles wherever they could find fresh horses, leaving promissory notes to either return the horses or pay for replacements if necessary. There was no time to dicker with the owners, and seeing the look in Jake’s eyes, none argued with him. They rode into dark, rested only four hours, then left again, arriving in Guthrie at sunrise in four days instead of the six or seven it should have taken all the way from Hell’s Nest.

  They rode past a burned-out barn, and up the street were more burned businesses, some still smoldering. Someone had shot out the windows of Brian and Evie’s house, as well as Lloyd and Katie’s home…and Jake’s. With an aching heart, Jake noticed some of Randy’s rosebushes were trampled, and the front door was kicked down. He didn’t need to go inside to know the house had been ransacked.

  Everything seemed quiet, the rest of the main street eerily empty, even for early morning.

  “Jesus,” Lloyd muttered. He charged past them and up the street, practically screaming Katie’s and Stephen’s names. He dismounted and ran into his house, still yelling, but there was no one inside the wrecked dwelling. He came back out and began running up and down the street, as people began emerging from doorways. In the distance, Jake could see someone running from the preacher’s house.

  “Lloyd!”

  It was Katie! She ran toward Lloyd, Stephen close behind. Jake watched Lloyd wrap his wife and son both into his arms, all of them crying. Jake looked at Jeff, looked back at his house…Brian’s house…looked up the street again.

  “They took her, all right,” he told Jeff, his voice scratchy from grief and too many cigarettes. “They took Evie…and if Little Jake was here, he would already be running out to me, so they took him too. And Randy…if she was here, she’d be waiting at the house for me, even though it’s half-destroyed. That means she’s not back yet. Maybe she isn’t even alive.”

  Jeff didn’t reply.

  Jake urged his horse forward. As he approached the jail, he noticed more windows shot out, bullet holes sprayed all over the front of the jail. People began emerging from businesses and homes. Some nodded to Jake but didn’t speak. When he looked at them, they stepped back. When Jake neared Sadie’s place, Sadie and Mary Ann stepped out, both looking ready to cry. Seeing Mary Ann reminded Jake of the day Randy remarked to the young woman about her cleavage. Randy…his beautiful wife. If she was alive, she’d probably been told about this by now. She was in hell, just as he was. What if she was dying? He should be with her—and he needed to go after Evie. But there was only one of him.

  The door to the boardinghouse opened and Brian stepped out, a strip of gauze wrapped around his head, blood showing near his forehead. The devastation in his eyes was painful. Brian…a good, good man…caught unawares and probably thinking he’d failed to protect his family. But how could a man who didn’t even own a gun stand up against someone like Marty Bryant and his filthy cohorts in a surprise attack?

  More people began assembling to watch. Jake dismounted and walked up to Brian, who closed his eyes and turned, grasping a hitching post to keep from going to his knees.

  “They took her. And they took Little Jake.”

  “I know,” Jake said gruffly. “I tried to get here before they did. When did it happen?”

  “Three days ago. They burned buildings to distract attention, shot up the town…shot Sparky…made a mess of all three of our homes…shot out all the windows…barged in. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do. One of them landed his gun barrel into my head and I…heard Evie screaming as they dragged her off…and Little Jake was crying for his ‘gampa.’”

  Jake forced back the part of him that wanted to scream…and scream…and scream. If he didn’t stay in this dark, angry place, he would be of no use to Evie.

  “Get her back, Jake,” Brian groaned. “You’re the only one who can do it. Get my Evie back.”

  Jake had to swallow to keep from vomiting. “How many were there?”

  “I have no idea…ten…twelve. I think…maybe there were even more, waiting outside of town. There could be close to fifteen of them. Katie got one of them, but he’s not talking.”

  “Katie?”

  “She managed to get to her rifle, because they came for us first, so she had time. The damn woman barricaded herself in the bedroom and shot the first man who came through the door. I guess that made them give up on her and just take Evie and Little Jake.”

  “The man she shot is still alive?”

  Brian nodded. “He’s at Dr. Keller’s office, under guard.”

  “Then I guess I’ll have to pay him a visit.”

  He left Brian and walked toward Lloyd and Katie. He lifted Stephen and hugged him tight.

  “You’ll get them back, won’t you, Grampa?” Stephen asked, tears in his eyes.

  Jake closed his eyes and held him close, smelling his hair, the familiar scent of his card-cheating grandson. He took one hand and wrapped his fingers into the child’s thick, dark, uncombed mane, remembering how Randy hated it when he messed up the boy’s hair. He needed to touch him, smell him, remind himself that Stephen was real and alive. “I’ll get them back, Stephen. I’ll get them back.” He turned toward Lloyd and Katie. Lloyd took the boy back into his arms.

  “Have you heard anything about Randy?” Jake asked Katie.

  Katie nodded as her parents also came out of the boardinghouse. “We got a telegram from Peter Brown,” Katie told Jake. “Randy had the surgery, and she’s fine. There was no cancer. We got another telegram yesterday saying she would start home today. She knows, Jake. She knows about Evie.”

  Jake pulled Katie into his arms, holding her tight just to keep from crumbling. “She’s really all right? It wasn’t cancer?”

  Katie hugged him. “That’s what the telegram said.”

  Again Jake struggled against a need to break down. Such wonderful, wonderful news…but his Evie was in the hands of evil men. This was what happened to people who dared to be a part of his life. This was how people suffered for bearing his blood.

  “I’m glad you and Stephen are all right,” he told Katie.

  “Pa, Katie shot one of them! Isn’t that the biggest goddamned surprise you ever heard? My Katie shot one and kept them away from Stevie.” He moved an arm around Katie.

  Jake nodded, managing half a smile for Katie. “Brian told me. You did damn good, Katie, damn good. You’re a Harkner now. We have a man left behind that we can question, thanks to you.”

  “Jake, darlin’, what happened to your face?” Clara Donavan asked him.

  Jake touched his face, having forgotten all about the wound. “It’s a very long story, Clara, and there’s no time for it now.” He looked down at Katie. “You know Lloyd and I have to leave again, don’t you?”

  Katie looked at Lloyd. “I know.”

  “He’ll be all right, and he’ll come back to you, Katie. I’ll make sure of it. But right now there’s little time for good-byes. I need Lloyd to go with me to question the man you shot.” He looked at Lloyd. “He’s at Doc Keller’s office.”

  Lloyd nodded, his own gaze showing a cold darkness seld
om seen in the young man’s eyes.

  He pulled Katie closer. “Baby, I have to go.”

  “Lloyd…”

  He pressed her close. “I love you, Katie, more than I even realized. When I thought they might have taken you too—” He kissed her hair. “I’ve been selfish with my feelings. And I’m goddamned proud of you for what you did. You might have saved Stephen’s life. I’ve never loved you more. You’re braver than I could have ever thought.”

  “I’m the one who’s been selfish, Lloyd, asking you not to ride with your father. Before Evie was taken, we’d had some long talks, and she told me so many things. I understand everything so much better now. Oh, Lloyd, she’s such a good person. This is so horrible! You’ve got to go and get her away from those awful men!”

  He leaned down and kissed her. “I hate to leave again, baby.” He looked at her parents. “I’m so glad you were here for her and Stevie.”

  “So are we, Son,” Pat told him. “But, by God, it’s Katie who did the protectin’! I didn’t even have time to load my pistol. I just wasn’t ready for this. But it’s not over, and sure ’n’ you have to go find your sister. We’ll pray you come back safe and sound.”

  “Lloyd!” Katie reached around his neck and leaned up to whisper in his ear. “You have to come back. I think I’m pregnant.”

  Lloyd squeezed her closer again. “Jesus, Katie, we have so much to be thankful for, but now this thing with Evie—I’ve never felt so torn. I have to go with Pa, Katie. I have to.”

  “Of course you do.”

  He kissed her several times over. “I love you, Katie girl. You couldn’t have made me more proud, and now a baby.”

  “I love you so, Lloyd.” She kissed his lips. “Go catch up with your father.”

  He hated leaving her, especially now that he knew she was carrying his child. But he forced back his softer side then and let go of her reluctantly, hurrying after Jake, feeling as though someone were ripping out his heart. Part of him wanted to rejoice over Katie’s bravery, rejoice for the good news about his mother…but there was still Evie and Little Jake to feel sick over…and a father on a rampage.