Love's Sweet Revenge

by Rosanne Bittner

  “You know how to use a gun?”

  “’Course I do.”

  “All right. I’m camped outside of town. You can join me if you want.”

  “Hell, I have a farm, such as it is, just northwest of here. You’re welcome to come there with me and sleep in a real bed under a real roof.”

  Holt nodded. “That’s right friendly of you, Buckley. I’m hurtin’ pretty bad from that damn red-bearded man’s fists.”

  “I bet. Red St. James is the town gunsmith, and he’s known for his fighting skills. He’s never been beat arm wrestling.”

  They started walking together.

  “Hey,” Brad said, “if you don’t mind my asking… I saw it in the news. They said you were released because there was no proof you actually raped Jake’s daughter.”

  “And you want to know if I did.”

  Brad shrugged. “Can’t help wondering. I sure would have liked to have been there and had my own turn.”

  Holt stopped walking. “Well, son, I had my turn at her, and it was sweet. The best part is, she was blindfolded.”

  “Blindfolded?”

  “Yup. Some of us decided to blindfold her when we took our turn. It was pretty entertaining. And now I could walk right up to her, and she wouldn’t recognize me. When I was done with her, I went back to a barn where me and some of the other men slept, and she never really saw me. When the shooting was over, her husband had already taken her behind the cabin so’s she wouldn’t have to see those of us left alive.”

  “Yeah, but Jake and Lloyd saw you. They won’t forget. So whatever you have planned, you’d better make sure you truly have the drop on them, or you’ll be pushing up daisies.”

  “I don’t really know for sure what I’ll do, but I’ll damn well pay back Lloyd Harkner. You can bet on it.”

  Brad grinned. “Well then, we both have scores to settle. Maybe between the two of us we can find a way.”

  “Maybe so.”

  Holt started walking again. “Lead me to your farm, my boy. I’m hurtin’ pretty bad.”

  “Sure. My horse is back at the saloon where I was when I heard the commotion. You stay here and wait. I don’t want anyone in town to know we’ve been talking. I’ll be right back.”

  Brad hurried back down the street, wanting to laugh out loud at his luck. He’d been wanting to get out of Guthrie for a long time. Because of Jake Harkner, his whole family was gone, and nobody around Guthrie wanted what was left of the Buckleys or their outlaw friends the Bryants. The possibility of getting his revenge against Jake Harkner was the best reason of all to leave Guthrie, and he’d damn well never come back.

  Seven

  Randy folded a quilt and laid it across the foot of the bed, smiling at how big the bed was—specially built from black walnut for Jake’s tall frame. Jake had ordered the wood shipped from Michigan and hired a carpenter from Boulder to build the bed and a matching six-drawer dresser. The set was quite grand, but also quite heavy. Getting all of it up to her and Jake’s loft bedroom had been quite a project.

  She turned and headed downstairs, still a bit overwhelmed by her lovely home and thanking God for what she and Jake finally had here together. Only a hundred yards away on either side of their home were equally lovely log houses belonging to Lloyd and Katie and to Brian and Evie.

  She untied her apron and tossed it over a chair, then stepped out onto the wide veranda where she could hear laughter and guitar music coming from the bunkhouse. It was Sunday, and the ranch hands were enjoying a day off. Teresa, the Mexican woman who helped with housework and the children, was at the cabin she shared with her husband, Rodriguez de Jesus. Dinner with the entire family, a Sunday ritual that Jake insisted they keep, was over, and in the absence of church, Evie had read from the Bible and had sung a hymn before the meal.

  Randy breathed deeply of the fresh mountain air and glanced over at Jake, who sat leaning back in a chair, one foot up on the porch railing. He smoked quietly, watching the usual bedlam of the whole family together. She smiled, knowing that Jake still couldn’t get over the fact that he had such a big family. Tricia and Sadie sat near him, playing with dolls. Tricia called Jake Poppy, and to Sadie, Jake was Gamps. Sadie had her mother’s long, straight black hair and big, dark eyes. She was going to be as beautiful as Evie someday, the Mexican blood from Jake’s mother showing through. Tricia had her mother’s very red hair but Lloyd’s dark eyes.

  In the distance, grandson Stephen rode horses with adopted son Ben, who could be spotted anywhere because of his very blond, almost white hair. Seven-year-old Little Jake was chasing after Stephen and Ben, asking Stephen to saddle a horse for him, too. Ben and Stephen were good riders already, and it was obvious that Stephen, tall for his age, was going to be a big man like his father and grandfather.

  Evie sat on a blanket with Brian under a huge pine tree that had its branches cut off at the bottom so people could use it for shade. Randy thanked God for Brian Stewart every night in her prayers. He’d been a godsend for their family, not only as a good doctor who’d literally saved Jake’s life more than once, but also as the perfect man for Evie—attentive, caring, steady, and solid. What happened back in Oklahoma might have destroyed some marriages, but not theirs. Evie was so good-hearted and trusting that she needed a man who had a delicate but sure way of handling her. Helping her through her ordeal was something few men could have managed.

  Randy walked closer to Jake and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s nice to watch our growing family, isn’t it?”

  Jake smoked quietly for several long seconds before answering. “Do all those beautiful children and grandchildren really belong to us?”

  “All from your seed, Jake Harkner.”

  He looked her over suggestively. “I believe you had a little bit to do with it,” he told her with a sly grin.

  She squeezed his shoulder. “If you hadn’t forced me to submit to you in the back of that wagon all those years ago, we wouldn’t have all this.”

  “Forced you?” He reached up and grasped her wrist. “Woman, you all but said, take me—take me!”

  Randy pulled her hand away. “Oh, you can be so cocky sometimes!” They both grinned, and Randy sat down in a rocking chair nearby. She studied the man beside her. How he’d survived everything he’d been through in life she’d never understand, but here he sat, still tough and strong and sure and able. Only she knew how hard he struggled with physical pain he never talked about. His emotional pain was worse. A preacher back in Oklahoma had helped him deal with his inner demons, but it would never all go away.

  Her thoughts were interrupted when Lloyd and Katie rode up to the porch, both sitting on a big roan gelding with only a blanket on its back. Lloyd kept an arm around Katie, who was perched in front of him and sitting sideways, a towel over her arm. “Can you two watch after Stephen and Tricia for a couple of hours?” he asked.

  “While you and that beautiful woman sitting in front of you do what?” Jake asked teasingly. He loved to make Katie blush. She smiled and looked away.

  “Nothing you and Mom haven’t done a hundred and twenty-five thousand times,” Lloyd shot back.

  Jake broke into hearty laughter. “You underestimate us, son. I think it’s probably been more than that.”

  “Yeah, well, you need to keep yourself out of trouble, or Katie and I will never catch up on more important things. Now that we know Evie is carrying, we have to keep this little contest going and have the next babies within a couple of months of each other, like Tricia and Sadie were. I can’t let Brian outdo me.”

  “I have a feeling that will never happen,” Jake said with a wide grin. “And you know you don’t need to ask us to keep an eye on Button here.” He looked at Tricia and winked. She shot Jake a bright smile that showed the dimples in her cheeks Jake liked to kiss. “Now get going. We have a lot of work ahead of us starting tomorrow, but you’ll p
robably be too damn tired from the fun stuff.”

  “That will be the day.” Lloyd turned the horse. “We’re going swimming down by the pond,” he called back as he rode off.

  Jake watched after them. “He looks like a damn Indian,” he remarked.

  Randy smiled. “You’re always saying that. He has beautiful hair, and Katie likes it long. They’re so happy now, Jake.”

  “I’m glad.” Jake tossed his cigarette stub and rubbed at his eyes. “That thing with Beth—”

  “It’s over, Jake.”

  He rested his elbows on his knees. “Do you think he really has forgiven me for all of that?”

  “Jake, that young man would die for you. So would Evie. And I love that he’s turning out to be so much like you—his sense of humor, his thoughtfulness, his ability to love.”

  “Yeah, well, I have plenty of other traits I’d just as soon he didn’t take after.”

  “He’s a good father and a good husband, and so are you.”

  He grinned and shook his head. “Woman, you just won’t admit to the other Jake Harkner, will you?”

  “Why should I? I know the real Jake, and he’s a good man.”

  Jake glanced at his granddaughters, who were hugging their dolls. “I just hope being related to me doesn’t bring disaster to these precious little girls, or to Stephen or Little Jake.”

  “It won’t. The past is past, Jake.”

  “Is it?” He glanced at Evie and Brian. “Did you talk to Evie about that telegram?”

  He’d asked the dreaded question. Jake practically worshipped their daughter, considered her an angel sent from God. What had happened to Evie just about killed him, spiritually and physically. “You said you’d talk to Brian and that I should wait,” she told him.

  “Randy, I know how close you two are, and I can tell you’ve been holding back on me. When Evie announced at dinner that she was carrying, there was plenty of joy around the table, but I saw something in her eyes that reminded me of the terror I saw there that day at Dune Hollow. And I saw how you looked at each other. What are you keeping from me?”

  Just then, Tricia got up and climbed onto Jake’s lap, interrupting their conversation when she threw chubby arms around his neck and gave him kisses. Not to be outdone, Sadie did the same, both girls giggling as Jake growled and tickled them. They lavished him with more kisses, Tricia shouting “Poppy” and Sadie squealing “Gamps.” Considering the fact that Jake had shot seven men just three days ago, Randy thought the sight of him doting on his little granddaughters extremely comical.

  Jake grabbed both girls about the waist and carried them down the steps, setting them on their feet. “Go find Grandma some flowers,” he told them, “and take some to Evie, too, but don’t pick any of Grandma’s roses. The thorns will poke you.” He ran a hand through his hair to straighten what four small hands had made a mess of and came back up the steps.

  “Jake, when we go to Denver, I want to find that place where they sell rosebushes. I want to plant more roses around the porch…yellow ones, of course. The ones we bought last year look beautiful, don’t they?” She studied her roses, proud of her green thumb.

  “You’re avoiding the subject we need to discuss,” Jake answered as he walked over to his chair and sat down again, his smile fading as the girls ran off. “Let’s hear it,” he told Randy.

  Oh, how she hated having to reopen old wounds. She stared at the blooms on a nearby rosebush as she spoke. “I asked if there was anything Evie wanted to tell me. At first she said she didn’t want to because she was scared how you would react. Jake, she’s so afraid of you going back to prison.”

  Jake took yet another cigarette and match from his shirt pocket. “I’m not going anywhere. I just need to know what’s got her so upset. It’s more than the fact that Holt is out of jail.” He struck the match and lit his cigarette; his smoking was almost constant when he was upset. He glanced sidelong at her as he inhaled. “Just tell me, Randy.”

  She closed her eyes. “It isn’t the news itself that upset her, Jake. I mean, she’s healed from the horror of what she went through, and things are good now between her and Brian. Thank God for that man.”

  Jake stood up with a deep sigh and leaned against the railing, facing Randy. “And?”

  Randy hesitated, hating to tell him anything that could bring back the old Jake, the dark and ruthless Jake…the Jake who still had to remember that if he stepped too far out of line, he could be arrested again. He had to remember he was no longer a U.S. Marshal. He was Jake Harkner the citizen, a man whose reputation could be used against him.

  “Randy, talk to me.”

  She sighed. “What’s bothering her is…something she never told any of us. Brian knows, but she didn’t tell us because… Well, mainly because she’s embarrassed about it, and because she’s worried how you’ll take it, but she thinks you need to know because it could be important.”

  Jake folded his arms. “I promise not to do anything crazy. Just tell me what I’m dealing with.”

  Randy rose and stood beside him, watching Evie sweep little Sadie into her arms when the child ran up to her. “They, uh…they blindfolded her, Jake.” She didn’t have to touch him or look at him to know his whole body had stiffened with an oncoming rage.

  “They what?”

  “When some of the other men with Marty and Hash came to take their turns, they blindfolded her so she wouldn’t know who was…raping her…and they told her that any minute they would…bring her terrible pain and…they would kill her and she wouldn’t see it coming. They said that so she’d be even more terrified.”

  “Jesus God Almighty,” Jake muttered under his breath, seething.

  Randy reached over and grasped his arm without looking at him. His bicep was as hard as a rock. “Please stay calm, Jake. It will break her heart if she sees you explode.” She squeezed hard, thinking how silly it was to think she could physically stop this man from anything he might decide to do. “Jake, she only told me because she thinks we need to be aware that she doesn’t even know what Mike Holt looks like. He could walk right up to her, and she wouldn’t even realize he was…one of them. That’s what scares her.”

  He pulled away.

  “Jake, don’t say a word to her about it. She’d be devastated. She hated for you to know, because she understands how easily you blame yourself for all of it. Remember that she forgave them. That’s how she lives with it. And she needs her father to stay calm.”

  “I should have killed the sonofabitch when I had the chance!” The words were spoken in a gruff but lowered voice. Randy knew the vision of his daughter being so brutalized was torture for him.

  “That would have broken Evie’s heart, Jake. She doesn’t want her father to be the man he was the first thirty years of his life. There are laws now, Jake, even more so than when you were a marshal—and a judge sentenced you to serve that duty as part of a reprieve from prison, allowing you to use your knowledge of outlaws to help the law rather than ride against it. But you’re still Jake Harkner, and now that you’re no longer wearing a badge, the law will be watching you. The book Jeff wrote has made you even more famous, which makes you even more noticeable.” She turned and looked up at him, almost gasping at the look in his eyes. There it was—the ruthless outlaw.

  “He needs to die, and you know it!”

  She grasped his arms. “Jake, do you love Evie?”

  “You know you don’t need to ask that!”

  “And do you love me? And those beautiful little granddaughters out there? And Stevie and Ben and Little Jake and the new grandchild on the way?”

  He pulled away and turned. Before he’d even finished the cigarette, he threw it out into a puddle left from a soft rain the night before. He grasped the railing so tightly his knuckles turned white. His breathing quickened as he shook his head, and Randy knew he was struggling with a
rage that wanted to explode out of him. She could almost hear a rumbling sound. “My God, how can she forgive something like that?” he said, his voice husky with fury.

  “Because she’s full of God’s grace, Jake, and she knows that’s the only way to stay sane. She loves Brian and wants to be a good wife and a good mother, so she has to go on with her life and be a woman for Brian and leave the past behind her.” She deftly moved an arm around his waist, realizing she was probably the only person who could touch Jake Harkner when he was like this and not worry about him roaring at her and shoving her away. “Jake, please look at me.”

  He just shook his head and stared at the puddle of water. “Some say I should have let her testify, but I damn well wasn’t going to put her through that. It was better that every man there was presumed guilty.”

  Randy watched his jaw twitch in repressed fury. Finally, he turned to look at her, and she leaned up and kissed his cheek, kissed the thin scar from when he got into a wild fight with their adopted son’s abusive father. “Jake, you can’t let this eat at you. Mike Holt might never show up, and even if he does and tries to make trouble, you have to let the law handle it. The law, Jake.” Her eyes teared. “After all we’ve been through making sure you’re a free man, I don’t want to spend my old age sitting alone on this porch while you die in prison. I’m already scared of what might happen from the shoot-out with those rustlers the other day. Everything you do gets extra scrutiny.”

  “A man has a right to protect what’s his. Those rustlers broke that law you’re talking about. I didn’t! And they would have come after you if I hadn’t made sure they couldn’t.”

  She moved both arms around him. He was rigid with anger. “You can’t save the whole world, Jake. You can defend us, but you can’t go looking for someone who might do something to one of us. It just doesn’t work that way anymore.” She pressed the side of her face against his chest and felt his mother’s crucifix against her cheek. He’d worn it under his shirt his whole life…ever since he’d witnessed his father murder his mother and little brother and then was forced to help bury them. Those ugly memories that visited him deep in the night were what kept the battle between good and evil raging deep inside his soul. It was only the love he’d found with Randy and their family that kept him from going over the edge. “Just promise me you’ll be careful. It would destroy us all to see you go back to the dark hatred and maybe even go back to prison.” She breathed in his familiar scent. “I’ve grown used to finally having these arms around me every night, Jake.”