“Stay, you big fool. We need to help the lady.” Jake knelt beside the sobbing woman, unable to see much about her other than light brown hair and some blood. After a quick thank you to the Almighty that it wasn’t Gabby, he tried to will away his shaking hands and help the woman. He didn’t want to scare her any more than she’d already been scared by those bastards.
“Ma’am?” he said softly. “Jake Sheridan here, from D.H. Enterprises. I don’t know if I met you this week or not, but I’m here to help you.” He touched her shoulder, and she screamed and scuttled away from him. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
Footsteps pounded the dirt behind him and Jake shot to his feet, gun at the ready. Gabby appeared from the darkness, her long wavy hair flying behind her like a shadowy pennant. Jake had the overwhelming urge to open his arms, to feel her pressed against him from head to toe.
“Jake.” She was breathing heavily and took a moment before she could say anything else. “Did you get them?”
“I stopped to help this lady. My friends went after them.” He bared his teeth in the direction the raiders ran like rats in the night. “Hopefully they’ll bring back a necktie party.”
Gabby didn’t shy away from his bloodlust, in fact, she nodded. “That would be a welcome change. Thank God you were here.” She gestured to the crying woman. “Is it Margaret?”
“I don’t know. She won’t let me near her.” Jake’s stomach began to relax. He didn’t know if it was because they’d stopped the raiders before they’d taken anyone or if it was because Gabby was there. He was thankful he hadn’t had a dark spell or worse, run like the coward he was pretending not to be.
She touched the woman’s shoulder, rolling her over. “Margaret.” Her voice was soothing, soft, a bedroom voice that sent a shiver across Jake’s skin. “It’s Gabby.”
With an incomprehensible stream of words that were half-sobs, she clung to Gabby while Jake sat next to them, helpless and anxious. The Devils needed to come back in the next ten minutes or Jake would have to go after them, like it or not.
“Jake, I need to get her to the doctor.” Gabby wiped the blood from the woman’s face with her sleeve.
“Is this her house? I can carry her inside and you can go get the doctor.” The last thing Jake wanted to do was be around someone who reminded him of just how scared he was.
Gabby took her hand. “Yes, this is hers, but her husband died in the war and she has no family. We have to take her to Doctor Barham’s office.” She pointed west. “His clinic is five blocks that way.”
With a curse for being such a coward and wanting to leave, Jake scooped up the woman, who beat at him, screeching in his ear. He took off running with Gabby behind him, ready to be done with the woman as quickly as he could. As it was, he felt the world tilting beneath his feet.
“Margaret, stop screaming. He’s bringing you to the doctor.”
It apparently didn’t matter what Gabby said, the blonde decided Jake was her punching bag. His ears rang from the halfhearted blows, as well as the concert of cursing—he was a bit surprised at her extensive knowledge of foul language. As Gabby ran ahead of them, Jake noticed her long legs and how they ate up the ground. Her hands were stained with blood as they held up her skirt to pick up the maximum speed. She was no shrinking violet—she knew what to do and acted on it. Gabby would’ve been a good soldier, probably better than he ever was.
It took mere minutes to reach the doctor’s clinic. Gabby knocked on the door with both fists as she yelled for the town’s physician. Jake’s arms strained under the weight of the woman coupled with her violent twisting to be free.
“Doc, get out here now!” She turned toward Jake, her eyes wide and clear. “I’m sorry she’s hitting you. Margaret has had a rough time the last two years. She’s really a good person.”
Jake jerked his head back to avoid the nails coming toward his skin. “Maybe you could try the door?”
Gabby turned the knob and it opened easily. With a surprised look, she led him inside the darkened house. The shadows swallowed her and Jake brought the flailing woman in behind Gabby.
“The examining room is this way.” She ducked into a room and Jake risked slamming into the wall to follow her.
“Bastard,” Margaret hissed as she pinched and scratched at him. In the dark, she was more demon than human.
A lantern lit the room within seconds and Margaret’s entire body trembled in his arms. She let loose a keening cry that made the hairs on Jake’s neck stand up. He daren’t look in her eyes or risk joining her on her journey into her own private hell. Sweet Jesus, he was holding onto his own sanity by a slender thread—someone else’s struggle would push him too far.
“Set her on the cot.” Gabby helped him extract the woman from his arms and she howled like a she-wolf who’d lost a cub.
Jake feared he couldn’t stay in the room another minute or Gabby might see a side of him she’d never imagined existed. His gorge threatened after glancing in Margaret’s eyes and seeing the same animal that haunted his dreams. He’d run into battles without hesitation, fought hand-to-hand against the enemy, looked death in the eye and survived. Yet it was the battles inside his head that he had trouble coping with. Embarrassed by his own lack of self-control and the sheer stupidity of it, he knew he couldn’t reveal to Gabby just how affected he was by Margaret’s plight.
Jake was a man, dammit. However, he was a man who stood with one foot on earth and the other in a hell of his own making.
“I’ve got to go.” He ran out of the doctor’s clinic with his heart pumping and his pulse pounding behind his eyes so loudly it sounded like the Chattahoochee River. Jake didn’t remember the black moments between leaving Gabby and arriving at his horse. It happened more times than he would admit to anyone—those frightening minutes he’d lost were constantly on his mind. Who could live with the knowledge that there were minutes in his life he couldn’t account for? Or that he could have done anything in that lost time and not known it? Most of all he was terrified that he’d one day find himself losing hours instead of minutes and then all would be lost. Jake would be lost.
Tonight was no different for him than any other night when he fought his internal struggle to keep control of himself, to find that place where he could belong and be happy with who he was, where he didn’t want to cry over what he’d lost. Once he’d arrived back at his horse, he’d leapt into the saddle as if he’d been shot out of a gun and took off after the Devils. It had only been ten minutes, he could catch up to them easily, especially considering the demons of hell were on his tail.
The sound of his horse’s hooves was the only sound he heard above the roaring in his head. The night creatures had no voice, nor did anyone or anything else. He let his instincts and his steed guide him away from that which frightened him, from the memories that stole his control. He was fairly certain the horse was following the Devils’ trail, but he simply held on with both hands and prayed.
Jake still believed in God, believed that He watched over everyone, but theirs was a tenuous relationship. God had failed him more than once and Jake was forgiving, but even he was at his limit with the Almighty. However, he still prayed and after a time, which could have been ten or a hundred minutes, he found his sanity returning. Jake heard gunfire in the distance and turned his horse with his knees. Together they shot across the unfamiliar ground toward the sound.
He hunkered down low in the saddle again, gun in hand and ready to fire. By the time he got close enough to hoot his signal, the gunfire had ceased and the cursing begun.
“Goddammit, Gid, what the hell just happened?” It was Lee. “My fucking brother just got shot and you didn’t protect him. I thought you were sworn to do that.”
Not good news. Zeke was the strategic one who complemented their compass, Gideon.
“I was trying to get to him, Lee. It ain’t easy in the dark when I don�
�t know what the hell is two feet in front of me.” Gideon sounded strained and angry.
“He was pinned down and you couldn’t get to him?”
A scuffle ensued and grunts filled the air. Jake rode in as fast as he could, hooting as he slid to a stop and launched himself at the grappling figures on the ground. He yanked on hair and pulled on arms until they broke apart, breathing like racehorses.
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but if Zeke is hurt then rolling around like five-year-olds isn’t going to help him.” Jake felt his control return fully as he wrestled with his friends’ problems instead. Nothing like a distraction to make a man forget he was going crazy.
Lee just growled while Gideon sighed.
“This night couldn’t possibly get any worse.” Gideon stood and brushed off his pants. “Jake’s right. Let’s get Zeke back to town and the doctor.” He turned to Jake. “How’s the woman?”
A rush of pure ice made Jake’s tongue freeze while images of Margaret’s suffering paraded through his mind. He cleared his throat and swallowed until his voice returned. “She’s hurt, I don’t know how badly. Gabby, I mean Miss Rinaldi, was looking for the doc when I came after you.”
Too bad it was dark enough that Gideon couldn’t see Jake’s lying eyes. He’d left Gabby high and dry while he ran like a dog with his tail between his legs.
Coward.
“Fine then, let’s get him patched up enough to ride.” Gideon led Jake to where Zeke lay in the dirt. “He’s out cold and I think it’s because he hit his head. Help him.”
Zeke lay on the ground, blood staining his right arm. Jake cursed his trembling hands as he checked his friend for injuries. He found a bullet wound clean through in his right arm and a sticky mess on his forehead. After divorcing himself from his own problems, Jake was able to focus on Zeke and making sure he’d survive.
Jake tied his bandana around the wound, tight enough to be a tourniquet and a bandage. He felt Zeke’s head and found a goose-egg-sized bump just above his right temple, sticky but not actively bleeding.
“He’s just out from the hit on the head. Let’s get him up on his horse and get him back to town.” Jake put his arms under Zeke’s, and Gideon grabbed his legs.
With Lee’s help, the three of them got Zeke belly-down on his horse and bound his hands and feet with the rope from Gideon’s saddle beneath the horse’s belly. Jake and Gideon rode on either side of his roan, making sure he didn’t fall off on the way back to Tanger. The ride back took four times as long as the ride out and each second ticked away along with the blood from Zeke’s wounds. God knew what would happen because of the head injury—men were known to be completely different after such a wound. He hoped Zeke was just knocked out and didn’t have any lasting effects.
They arrived back to a very quiet, dark town. Everyone, it seemed, had gone into hiding while the Devils were gone. Not that Jake blamed them, the raiders were fast, smart and deadly. He led his friends to the doctor’s clinic, which had a single light burning in a downstairs window. Jake knocked on the door while Lee and Gideon untied Zeke from the saddle.
After a moment the door was answered by a slender, nervous-looking man with thick spectacles and short brown hair. He pushed the rims up his nose and peered at Jake.
“Are you Mr. Sheridan?”
“I am. Are you the doc Gabby told me about?” Jake resisted the urge to ask about Margaret. He didn’t want to know if she was there or he might not walk in the door. The last thing he needed was to be thought of as a coward by anyone else.
“I’m Dr. Harry Barham.” The doctor pushed his spectacles up again. “You want to check on Mrs. Summers?”
“Who?” For a moment, Jake could only focus on the moon shining on the doctor’s spectacles, the whole world concentrated in an inch of glass.
“Margaret, the woman you helped?” Up went the spectacles again.
Jake swallowed. “Uh, no, my friend’s been shot and we need you to doctor him.” He turned and pointed. “I’m going to just go get him now.”
“That’d be fine. I’ll get prepared.” With a nod, the doctor stepped back into the house.
Jake trembled as he walked back to the horses. The idea of entering the doctor’s clinic had panic crawling up his skin. He didn’t know if he should run away or laugh like a lunatic at the absurdity of his response. His friends must not have seen anything in his face because they didn’t react at all. He nodded at Gideon and they pulled Zeke off the horse, careful to keep his head steady.
Jake took a deep breath and strode back toward the gates of blackness.
* * * * *
Gabby felt it when Jake walked in the room. Every small hair on her body stood at attention and her heart slammed against her ribs. He’d left so abruptly, she wasn’t sure what had happened. His return caused the questions to swirl around in her thoughts again. He’d appeared confused and almost scared, enough that it made her follow him out the door. Jake had been running like someone was chasing him and hadn’t responded to her calling his name.
When he came back to the doctor’s, what she saw in his eyes made her stomach jump. He blinked when he spotted her—was that relief on his face? Gabby realized one of his friends was hurt, and she stepped in to help. Harry had taught her some doctoring skills so he didn’t have to hire a nurse. Gabby didn’t care why he did it, she enjoyed learning about how to help people. If she had known more when her father had gotten hurt maybe she could have done something.
The three big men stayed in the waiting area while Gabby and Harry doctored their friend. He had a flesh wound on his arm and a gash on his head. That one concerned her because she’d read about how men lost their minds after a serious hit to the head. Fortunately he started to come around when they were bandaging him. His brown eyes were unfocused but not scared or angry.
“Hello.” Gabby smiled at him.
“Are you an angel?” he whispered.
Gabby laughed. “No, Mr. Blackwood. Just someone helping you out.”
“Friends?” He licked his lips and tried to look around the room.
“Your friends are all fine. They’re in the next room.” She nodded at Harry. “I’ll go let them know you’re awake.”
Mr. Blackwood looked relieved as his eyes drifted shut. Gabby stepped out of the examining room when Jake burst through the door from the waiting room, his blue eyes wide.
“Gabby. Is he all right? I…I meant to be… I should have been—” He ran his hands down his face. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”
She touched his arm, not surprised to find the muscles rigid as granite. “He’s fine. He woke up and seemed to be normal. He even asked about you.”
“Thank God.” He kissed her hard and fast, surprising both of them. “Jesus, what the hell am I doing?”
Gabby wondered the same thing about herself after she pulled him back into her arms and kissed him again. She closed her eyes and laid her forehead on his shoulder.
“Jake, is everything all right?” Gideon, the leader of their group, appeared behind Jake, looking concerned. The other man, she thought his name was Lee, was frowning so hard, his blond eyebrows almost touched.
“Y-yeah, everything is fine.” Jake stepped away from her like she’d suddenly grown two heads. “Gabby—I mean Miss Rinaldi said he woke up.”
She tried not to feel slighted, after all he’d been the one who kissed her. However, she could see the confusion and fear that lurked behind his beautiful blue eyes. She didn’t know any of the men very well, but she could see a bond between them, one that went deeper than anything she’d known in her life. Just seeing the silent communication made her, well, a bit jealous.
Ridiculous, she knew, but true.
“Please, all of you can call me Gabby. No need to stand on formality in a small town.” She gestured to the closed examining room door. “Your friend see
ms to be fine, other than loss of blood and a good knock to the head. The bullet passed through his arm and Dr. Barham stitched the wound. I’ll let him tell you his recommendation, but I’d say he’ll be up and around in a few days.”
Then Gabby did something that would probably make her mother faint. She reached out her hand to shake theirs. Gideon’s face registered surprise, but he readily grasped hers in a grip that was firm but not painful. When Lee figured out she was waiting for him, he grudgingly shook her hand too. Jake stared at her until the moment stretched uncomfortably between them.
Gabby didn’t know what it was about Jake Sheridan that fascinated her, but she was damned determined to find out. Her future had been a hazy mix of keeping the mill going and perhaps one day finding a husband, although that was an unlikely scenario since Tanger had no eligible men. And now, everything had changed within a few days.
“May I speak to you outside for a moment?” She forced a smile at Gideon and Lee. “I need to talk to Jake about the woman he helped earlier. You two can go in and see Zeke.”
After his friends left, Jake stared at her until she took his arms and led him outside. Although he was a tall man, it was like moving a small boy—there was no resistance at all. When they stepped out into the shadows of the night, she let him go and walked a few paces away.
“I don’t know what happened tonight after we brought Margaret here. I know men who have come back from war who can’t sleep at night or even live a proper life.” She hugged herself. “I can’t even imagine what you went through before you came here, and I wanted you to know none of it matters to me.”
Gabby whirled to face him, his light complexion visible in the moonlight. This was the moment of truth for her, the moment she either turned her back or jumped forward into a future full of uncertainty and unknown challenges. Life was too short not to take a chance.
Jake, Devils on Horseback, Book 2 Page 8
