The Last Outlaw

by Rosanne Bittner

  Randy smiled, but then the tears came. “Don’t be angry with me for not eating, Jake. I thought you would die! I couldn’t leave you.”

  He reached over and took her hand. “When have I ever been truly angry with you? I’m angry with others who should have seen you needed some medical help of your own.” He scowled at the doctor, who finished covering the wound.

  “Well, do forgive me,” the man said with a hint of sarcasm. “I was a little busy trying to keep you from bleeding to death.”

  Jake couldn’t help a faint grin. “Yeah, well, you still should have been concerned about my wife. You can see how thin she is. She barely eats.”

  The doctor looked Randy over. “Have you been sick, Mrs. Harkner?”

  “No, I—” Randy glanced at Jake.

  “It’s just a woman thing, I think,” Jake lied. Randy wouldn’t want the doctor to know the truth. It was important that no one outside of the J&L know, and she’d be devastated to have to talk about it. “You know how things change for women when they get a little older. She’s been depressed.”

  “Well, I have a tonic that might help that.” Doctor Snow put back the scissors. “It’s in the outer office. I’ll see about it.”

  He left the room, and Jake looked at Randy. “You stay here when the nurse brings that food. I want to witness you eating. I love you and I need you and I’m not going to sit around and watch you dry up and blow away like the wind, Randy Harkner.”

  The doctor returned with a brown bottle and a spoon. “Take a teaspoon of this a couple of times a day, Mrs. Harkner. I’ll check you over after you’ve cleaned up and eaten. And we have a bathing room behind that door over there.” He turned his attention to Jake. “My nurse can help your wife clean up.” He frowned. “When you wake up…you wake up in a big way! Apparently I don’t need to wonder if you’re better. I saw enough of those old bullet wounds on your body that by all rights you should have died a long time ago.”

  Jake put a hand to his head. “Well, Doc, for some reason, the Good Lord keeps me alive to keep putting this poor woman here through hell—and to keep doctors like you on their toes. I have a son-in-law who’s a doctor, and between me and six grandchildren and accidents on the ranch, he hardly gets a day’s rest, especially during roundup and branding.”

  The doctor sighed. “Mr. Harkner, I’ve heard plenty about you. How in God’s name you could be so badly wounded and still manage to put bullets into the heads of those men holding hostages, I will never understand. I didn’t see it, but witnesses say it was phenomenal, the best damn demonstration of fast and accurate shooting a man could ask for. By now it’s in all the newspapers.”

  “They had my wife and granddaughter. I didn’t have any choice.”

  “Still, it was quite something. The mayor and some other city officials are talking about asking you to be our new sheriff. Our own was shot dead by one of those bastards.”

  Jake felt Randy’s hand tighten around his. “No, thanks. I have a big family back on the J&L, and I would never leave. My wife went through enough when I was a marshal back in Oklahoma.”

  “Well, just the same, I’ll let you handle it.” He nodded to Randy. “I’m sorry I didn’t do something sooner, ma’am, but you seemed so bent on not leaving your husband’s side that I didn’t have the heart to try to force you into anything. I’ll send word to the hotel. I’m sure that little girl over there wants to see her grandfather.”

  “I’ll bet she does,” Jake said with a smile. “And I want to see my Button. This whole thing must have terrified her. I wish I could give her a hug.”

  “If I were you, I’d just lie still, Mr. Harkner, for another couple of days anyway. Relax until your son gets here. I’ll try to keep reporters and the mayor and others who’ve been clamoring outside my door out of here.”

  “Thanks. I don’t want to talk to any of them.” Jake looked at Randy again. “Little Jake will have a fit over not having been here to see his grandfather in a gunfight.”

  “Oh, he’ll be beside himself,” Randy told him.

  The doctor took a moment to listen to Jake’s heart, then felt for fever. “You’re going to be fine as long as there is no infection.” He looked at Randy. “Don’t take that tonic until you get some food in your stomach.” He straightened, turning his attention to Jake again. “You say your son-in-law is a doctor?”

  “Brian Stewart,” Randy answered for Jake, “and he’s a very fine doctor. He travels around to other ranches to help with everything from broken bones to birthing babies and doctoring spider bites. I’m sure he’ll come here with Lloyd so he can be with Jake on the way home.”

  “Well, if he’s along, maybe Jake can leave sooner than I would normally let him go.” Doctor Snow glanced at Jake on those words, an obvious expression of “I’d like you off my hands” on his face.

  Jake grinned. “I know. You can’t wait till I’m out of here.”

  The doctor chuckled and walked out for a moment, coming back with Jake’s gun belt. “This damn thing is heavy with both guns in it.” He hung it over the bedpost near Jake. “There you go. I have no desire to touch those things.”

  “I’d advise you not to.”

  “After all that shooting, the guns are likely empty.”

  “I’ll load them myself once the nurse returns with that food and I see my wife eating.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  The doctor left, and Jake turned to his wife. “This whole thing of not eating has to stop. I can’t stand to watch you wither away like this.”

  She blinked back tears. “I’ll try to eat when they bring the food.”

  “You’ll do more than try.” Jake studied the circles under her eyes and reached out to touch her about the ribs. He grimaced from pain as he urged her to sit closer to him on the edge of the bed. “You’re just bones,” he told her. “I’m afraid to even hold you anymore.”

  Randy laid across his chest again. “You have to hold me. I need you to hold me.”

  There it was again. How many times had she asked him not to let go of her? How she’d managed to get through this current horror, he couldn’t understand. He could only take hope in the fact that she did get through it. It meant some of the old, strong Randy was down in there somewhere, keeping her from completely falling apart. “I’m serious, Randy. I don’t care if you eat so much you get fat. You’ve got to take care of yourself. Do it for me if for no other reason, but don’t forget we have six grandchildren who adore you and need you.”

  “I’ll try, Jake.” She closed her eyes and leaned down to kiss his hand. “You won’t take any of those jobs, will you? The range detective? Or sheriff here in Boulder?”

  “And be away from you or make you worry? Hell no. You’ve been through enough for ten lifetimes, and I’m damn sorry for that. Why would I leave you now?”

  “When you’re better, can we go back up to the line shack?”

  “What about the fund-raiser here in Boulder you wanted to go to?”

  “Right now, all I want is to go home and then go up to the line shack. When we’re there, I have you all to myself. I feel so safe when it’s just you and me alone.”

  “What about the grizzlies and mountain lions?” Jake took heart in the way she smiled.

  “They’re afraid of you,” she teased.

  Jake grinned, squeezing her hand. “They should be afraid of me.”

  The doctor walked in. “Jake, Constance is back with a tray of food.”

  Jake kept his eyes on Randy. “I intend to watch you eat every bite, and after that, I want you to clean up, and I want you to sleep. Maybe the doctor can bring in an extra cot so you can stay close to me.”

  “I can do that,” the doctor told him.

  Someone loudly cleared her throat, and Jake and Randy turned to see the nurse standing in the doorway with a tray of food.

  Jake
smiled at her. “Constance! Thanks for the food. Just set it over here on this table by my wife so I can make sure she eats all of it.”

  “Yes, sir.” Constance was a robust older woman, her dark hair pulled into a bun at the base of her neck. She carried in the tray and set it on the table next to the bed.

  “Constance, I apologize for my outburst earlier.” Jake turned his gaze to Randy again. “I love this woman here beyond words, and I’m worried about her health.” He looked back at Constance. “Will you help her clean up when she’s done eating and make sure she takes some of that tonic there?”

  “Of course.”

  “Thank you.” Jake reached out his hand, and Constance took it. He pressed her hand gently. “Am I forgiven?”

  Constance glanced at Randy, who only smiled and shook her head.

  “Something tells me, Mr. Harkner, that no woman stays angry with you for long. Yes, you are forgiven.”

  Constance walked out, and Jake glanced from Randy to the food and back again. “Start eating. You say you can’t live without me, Randy, but it would be worse for me without you.” He watched her reach over and pick up a biscuit and butter it.

  “Want some?”

  “I’ll eat later. I want you to swallow everything on that tray.”

  Randy sighed. “I’ll try.” She bit into the biscuit.

  Jake watched her eat, and with every bite, he wished he could land another blow on Brad Buckley and ram burning coals down the man’s throat. All for her, this woman who was the air he breathed.

  Nine

  Lloyd hoisted his saddle to a fresh horse. The animal whinnied lightly and danced sideways.

  “Calm down, Strawberry.” He reached under the horse to grab the cinch when the animal skittered a little away again.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, girl?”

  He heard it then, that buzzing sound of one of those motor engines they’d seen in town. It sounded like it was getting closer, and he heard children shouting excitedly. He scowled as he finished cinching Strawberry. He hated those damn new vehicles as much as his dad did. He could hear horses whinnying in a corral outside, and the bawling of their prize bull, Gus, who was penned up behind the barn.

  He led his horse outside to see someone riding down the hill toward the homestead on a motorized bicycle. Now that was one he’d not seen before. A couple of J&L men rode out beside the bicycle, escorting whomever it was. Ever since Randy had been taken last winter, men were posted all over the perimeter of the J&L, as well as at the three houses, rotating turns at different posts. A visitor seldom made it close to the houses or even onto J&L property without anyone knowing it. Lloyd’s wife, Katie, and his sister, Evie, watched the noisy contraption in surprise and curiosity.

  Lloyd hung on to Strawberry’s bridle as he hurried toward the women, who stood in front of his house with the three boys. A young man wearing goggles and a leather helmet drove the odd-looking bicycle closer.

  “I want one of those!” Little Jake told his mother.

  Evie folded her arms, looking unsure. “I think you’d better stick to horses, Little Jake.”

  Lloyd tied Strawberry and walked up to his sister and wife, adjusting his wide-brimmed hat as he frowned at the sight. “Damn useless, noisy contraptions,” he grumbled.

  “You sound just like Daddy,” Evie told him.

  “Well, everybody says I’m just like him in most other ways, so I might as well add this to the list. That damn thing is scaring the livestock. If one of those ever came along while we were herding cattle to Denver, we’d have a stampede on our hands.”

  Katie moved closer and stood beside her husband. Lloyd slid an arm around her and bent down to the five-month-old baby boy in her arms and kissed his son on the cheek. “Hey, Donavan, how’s my boy?”

  “He’s constantly hungry,” Katie complained. “If he keeps this up, I’ll run out of milk.”

  “Well then, we’ll just have to start using cow’s milk, and he’ll have to learn to like it.”

  The chunky little boy smiled at his father, and Lloyd kissed his wife’s red hair. “I’ll just have to take over once he’s on cow’s milk,” he teased.

  “Lloyd Harkner! Your sister is standing right next to us!”

  Evie covered her mouth and laughed. Lloyd enjoyed the sound. There was a time when he thought his sister might never recover from her ordeal. It had taken years of love and support from her whole family, and from her damn good husband, to help her heal. The fact that she, too, had another new baby, a sweet little girl named Esther, proved she’d found a way to be whole in herself again.

  “Lloyd, you’re just like Daddy—you do your best to embarrass women.”

  “Just expressing my desire for my beautiful wife.”

  Katie moved Donavan from one arm to the other. “Yes, well, we need to discuss that. I feel like I’m constantly pregnant, and I’ve gained too much weight.”

  Strawberry whinnied and jerked as the noisy bicycle came closer to the house. Lloyd hugged Katie close. “Don’t be worrying about your weight. I’d rather have you strong and healthy.” He gave Katie a squeeze.

  Katie looked up at him, and because he stood a good foot taller than she was, she stood on her tiptoes when he leaned down to kiss her lightly.

  The conversation ended when the loud bicycle reached the house. Lloyd’s older son, Stephen, along with Evie’s boy Little Jake and Lloyd’s adopted brother, Ben, started asking all kinds of questions about the bike, too many and too fast for the rider to answer all at once. His eyes looked almost comical once he removed his helmet and goggles, white circles in the middle of a face covered with dust from his ride. He shook out his hair, a tangle of wild, dark-brown curls that hung past his collar. “Slow down!” he told the boys. “I’ll show the bike to you and give you rides as soon as I deliver my message.”

  “Lloyd, Jake’s been hurt!” Terrel Adams told Lloyd before the messenger could. The ranch hand dismounted, and Lloyd and Evie and the rest of them sobered.

  “Grampa’s hurt?” Little Jake asked, no longer interested in the bicycle. “What happened?”

  “This kid on the bike here is named Connor Grace,” Terrel told them. “He’s from Boulder, and he came here to let you know. He saw the whole thing.”

  “What whole thing?” Lloyd asked, letting go of Katie.

  Connor reached out to shake Lloyd’s hand. “There was a big bank robbery in Boulder,” he explained. “Are you Jake Harkner’s son?”

  “I am.”

  Connor nodded. “At first I thought you were an Indian, what with that long hair and all.”

  “Get to the point,” Lloyd told the young man.

  “Well, sir, it was something, I’ll tell you! I doubt any man is as good with guns as your father is, except maybe you. I’ve heard—”

  “Start from the beginning, Mr. Grace,” Lloyd ordered. “This is my pa we’re talking about! Is he hurt bad?”

  “I’m really not sure.” Connor sobered and stepped back a little.

  “Oh no!” Evie exclaimed. “I’ll go get Brian.”

  Lloyd kept his eyes on Connor Grace as Evie ran off to find her husband. “Details, Mr. Grace, and fast!” he told the young man. “I’ve got to get to Boulder.”

  “Well, sir, there was a bank robbery. Your mother and a little girl—one of Jake’s granddaughters, I think, were in the bank at the time—”

  “Tricia!” Katie gasped. She looked up at Lloyd.

  “That’s my little girl you’re talking about,” Lloyd told Connor. “Is she all right?”

  “Yes, sir, thanks to your father.”

  “What about my mother?”

  “She’s okay, too, far as I know. The whole thing was quite spectacular, actually. I was right there and saw the whole thing!” Connor explained to the last detail what happened as Lloyd and the others stood
there in wide-eyed shock.

  “Grampa stopped all of them, didn’t he?” Little Jake asked, sticking his chest out proudly.

  “He sure did. The whole town watched with their mouths open.” Connor looked back at Lloyd. “Your pa was already shot, but he still came out, guns blazing. Boom! Boom! Boom! Those men were holding that girl and the women right in front of them, but your pa fired anyway! It was something to see! He got all four of them that was holding the hostages, right in the head, shootin’ right straight at his own loved ones like he was damn sure he could get those men without hurting the women. Them robbers didn’t even have a chance to fire their guns, but two others who were standing there with bags of money did get a chance. That’s when your pa took a bullet to the head, I think.”

  “Jesus!”

  Katie broke into tears. “Oh, Lloyd!”

  Lloyd looked at Terrel. “Go saddle a horse for Brian!” He turned to his son. “Stephen, Evie went for your uncle Brian. Run over to the house and tell her he’ll need a change of clothes and his doctor’s bag and that we’ll have to leave for Boulder right away!” He looked back at Connor. “You sure my mother and daughter are okay?”

  “Yes, sir. There was bedlam everywhere after it happened, your pa laying in the street and your mother…she was fine…but I sure felt sorry for her. They carried off your father to a doctor, and your mother just kind of sat there in the street for a couple of minutes, like she didn’t know what to do.”

  “Damn it!” Lloyd looked at Katie. “You know how she’s been. This must have been awful for her. I’ve got to go to her!”

  “Of course you do.”

  “My daughter?” Lloyd asked again.

  “The Mexican woman carried her off so she wouldn’t have to see her grandfather bleeding and wounded. She was crying, but she was okay.”

  “Thank God Teresa was with them! She’ll take good care of Tricia,” Katie told Lloyd.

  “And that’s all you know?” Lloyd asked Connor. “You’ve no idea how bad my pa was?”