Cole nodded. “We get your meanin’.”
“It would be like none of this happened,” Jake added. “I never want one word of this to go outside of this ranch—or for the public to know my wife was involved in any of this. I’ll not have her talked about. You men keep that in mind.” He turned Midnight and rode off.
The men looked at each other, thinking the same thing. None of them cared to cross Jake Harkner.
Little Jake glanced at Ronald Beck’s dead body. “Is Grampa gonna kill the rest of ’em?” he asked his father.
Brian rubbed at his eyes. “I expect so.”
“Good,” Ben added.
“He’d probably try to handle this differently if this didn’t involve your grandmother,” Brian added. “And after what happened to your mother, Little Jake, I don’t blame him. But you boys need to keep it straight in your heads that you can’t always handle things this way.”
“We know, Uncle Brian,” Stephen told him.
“Let’s get going,” Cole told them. He deliberately rode his horse over Beck’s body before heading out after Jake and Lloyd. Everyone else charged ahead to catch up with Jake, leaving a bloody, broken Ronald Beck behind for the wolves.
Thirty-nine
“Are you scared, Stephen?” Little Jake shimmied ahead of his cousin as they made their way through a literal crack in the earth.
“Kind of,” Stephen answered, looking up a good seventy feet or more at the sunlight above. He clung to his father’s rifle, trying to be careful not to scrape it against the rocks as he skimmed sideways through the crevice, which in places seemed almost impassable. “I’d be more scared if we were doing this alone, but Grampa and my dad will be out there in the rocks, covering us when we make off with those men’s horses.”
“I wish Ben could have come with us, but he’s gettin’ real big. I don’t think he would have fit.”
“Heck no.” Both boys spoke just above a whisper.
“Will you shoot one of ’em with your rifle?” Little Jake asked.
“Pa told me to use his rifle just for self-defense if I have to.”
“What if they see us and come after us? I’m gonna shoot ’em.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Little Jake stopped and reached under his shirt, pulling out a Colt .45 from the waist of his pants.
“Little Jake!” Stephen stared wide-eyed at the handgun. “Where’d you get that?”
“Cole’s saddlebag. I seen him put it in there for a spare when we packed to leave the ranch.”
“You could accidentally shoot yourself—or me! You shouldn’t have that gun! Grandpa will be really mad! So will your dad!”
“I don’t care. Them men did bad things to Grandma, and I’m gonna kill ’em!”
“You’ll get in trouble, that’s what! Or get shot!”
Little Jake shook his head. “I’m not scared at all.” He put the gun back and started shimmying along the crack again. “What do you think they’ll do to Grandma?”
Stephen sucked in his belly to get through an especially narrow space. “I think Grandpa is scared they’ll do something men do to women only in a nice way when they love ’em. Grandpa sure wouldn’t want them doin’ that to Grandma, ’cause she’s his and she’s old and she’d feel bad. He loves her an awful lot. My pa loves Katie, too. I hear them at night sometimes. Pa says it’s okay when you love a woman, but you gotta love her a lot. You’re not supposed to do stuff to her if she doesn’t want you to.”
“What about the bad women?” Little Jake knocked away a spider. “I think they’re the kind that don’t care. Do you think Grampa used to be with a lot of women like that?”
They both giggled. “I think Grampa did a lot of stuff like that when he was younger. But I’ll bet Grandma really would punch him if he did that now.”
They giggled again, the conversation helping relieve their nervous fear of what might happen.
“It’s warmer in here out of the wind,” Stephen remarked. “Grampa says another snowstorm might be coming. We have to get Grandma home so’s she doesn’t get sick.”
“How much farther do you think before we reach the cabin, Stephen?” Little Jake asked.
“I don’t know. Just keep going. We have to reach Grandma before they hurt her too much. If they kill her, Grampa and my pa are gonna feel really, really bad. I don’t think they would maybe ever smile again. I’m scared Grampa might even ride away and never come back. I think he’d go crazy without Grandma.”
“My mom said that once,” Little Jake answered. “She prays for him all the time on account of he gets kind of crazy sometimes, like when he shot that man in Denver.”
“He just loves all of us too much,” Stephen told him. “That’s what makes him crazy.”
“I wouldn’t never be happy if Grampa left us…or if he died,” Little Jake commented. “Would you?”
“I don’t think so. I can’t even picture life without Grampa around. He’s so…I don’t know…big! It’s like he fills everything up, even outside. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yeah. Uncle Lloyd does, too.” Little Jake giggled again. “My mom is always complaining how he looks like an Indian ’cause of his hair. I’m glad he didn’t die when that man in Denver shot him.”
“My pa is tough. I knew he wouldn’t die. He’s a big, strong man.” Stephen stopped for a minute. “Little Jake.”
“What?” Little Jake looked back at him.
“Let’s make a pact.”
“What do you mean?”
“You and me. We’ll be like Grampa and my father when we grow up. I mean, we’ll get along like they do, and we’ll be tough like they are.”
Little Jake frowned. “Sure we will! But Grampa and your pa sometimes get in fights.” He started shimmying through the rugged crack again.
Stephen followed. “That’s just them carin’ about each other. We might fight sometimes, too, but it won’t mean we don’t care about each other. We should always get along and watch out for each other like Pa and Grampa do. And we gotta remember that Grampa would want to always treat Ben like his real son. Ben had a bad father like Grampa did.”
“I know.” Little Jake giggled again. “Heck, I just thought about it. Grampa adopted Ben, so he’s my uncle!”
Both boys laughed over that. “He’s more like a brother or a cousin. I never thought of him as an uncle!” Stephen said.
They moved along silently, blinking against stone dust that kept getting in their eyes. Because of the size of the crack, they couldn’t wear their hats, and their hair was starting to cake with dust. Little Jake buried his face in the crook of his arm to sneeze. The boys froze.
“Do you think they heard that?” Little Jake whispered.
“No. We’re too deep in these rocks, and you muffled it. Hurry up now! We’re almost there!”
Little Jake walked faster when they reached a wider area, then sucked in his belly when the crack narrowed again. “We’re real close,” he whispered. “I remember that big part was just a little ways from where we climbed into the crack where it comes out by the cabin.”
Hearts pounding, the boys finally reached the opening. “I see it!” Little Jake whispered excitedly. “I see the cabin!”
“Do you see Grandma?”
“No. She must be inside.” Little Jake peeked farther out. “I don’t see nobody. I see the horses, though. They’re over to the right. You ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Stephen whispered in reply.
“I’m scared, but we gotta do this for Grandma.”
“Yeah.” Stephen hung on tight to the rifle. “But Pa and Grandpa are out there waiting. Let’s go!”
Little Jake didn’t hesitate. He ran out, Stephen right behind him. The boys made a beeline for the horses, quickly untying them from the tether line. One of them whin
nied.
“Shit!” Little Jake yelped. He couldn’t climb up on the unsaddled horse he was trying to grab. Stephen laid down the rifle and gave him a boost. He handed up the reins to two horses.
“Go! Go!”
Little Jake took off, hanging on to the two extra horses.
“Hey!”
Stephen turned to see Clyde Pace standing at the corner of the cabin. “What the hell—” He stood there with no gun. “Brad! They’re takin’ our horses!” Clyde started after Stephen.
Stephen bent down and grasped his rifle.
“It’s the goddamn Harkner kids!”
Stephen raised the rifle and fired. Clyde whirled and went down.
“What the fuck—” Someone inside yelled the words.
Stephen couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Clyde started moving and got back to his feet. To his surprise, Little Jake rode back up toward the cabin and took out the Colt .45 he’d stolen from Cole. He held it with two hands and shot at Clyde but missed.
“Ride, Stephen!” Little Jake yelled.
“Get out of the way!” Jake roared the words from the rocks above. “Get the hell out of there!”
The boys heard rifle fire, and Clyde flew forward into a watering trough.
Stephen dropped his rifle and jumped onto another of the horses. He grabbed the reins to one other, leaving the last horse behind as he and Little Jake kicked their horses into a hard ride, flying down the hill as more shots were fired.
Stephen wasn’t quite sure whether to be glad or sorry he’d shot a man. He remembered Jake telling them once that it wasn’t a good feeling…killing a man, but at least Clyde got back up. More likely it was the second shot that killed him, and it probably came from his father or grandfather.
He could hear Little Jake behind him, whooping like an Indian. He caught up to Stephen as they neared the bottom of the hill. The boys yelled in victory and laughed.
“We did it!” Little Jake rejoiced. “We chased off their horses, and we got one of ’em!”
“Let’s go find Grandpa!” Stephen yelled, turning his horse to the left and heading up into the high rocks at the side of the cabin. More gunfire rang out, bullets from the cabin, pinging against the rocks as the boys headed into them. Return gunfire was blasting the cabin to pieces. By the time the boys reached their father and grandfather, the shooting had stopped.
“Hold up!” Jake ordered. “Randy could get hit from a stray bullet! We need to flush them out of there.”
“You’re dead meat, Harkner!” Brad Buckley yelled from the cabin. “Leave now, or your wife is dead!”
Stephen saw puffs of smoke where someone fired at them from the cabin windows. Clyde Pace was still alive and trying to drag himself out of the watering trough.
“Stay back!” Lloyd screamed to the boys when he saw them climbing up toward them. “Get behind some shelter!”
The boys clambered into the trees and ducked behind a large boulder.
“You don’t have a chance, Buckley! There’s no place to run!” Jake yelled. “I’ve got Lloyd and three other men with me, and you’ve got no horses!”
“How’d you get up here, you bastard!” Brad yelled. “We’ve been watchin’ clear across the valley for you!”
“Those men with you don’t know this land as well as they thought!” Jake answered. “My grandsons know it even better than I do! They got us up here, you sonofabitch! You messed with the wrong Harkners this time!”
Both boys grinned excitedly, feeling like men now.
“I’ve got your wife, Jake! You’re the one who’d better give up, or she’s dead!” More shots came from the cabin. “I’ve hated you ever since you killed my pa and brothers, you murderin’ sonofabitch!” Brad screamed. “I’ve got you back for it. Takin’ your wife is better than killing you!”
“You’ll live to regret it!”
“And you’ll never get out from behind those rocks alive!”
Jake noticed Clyde still struggling to get out of the trough. He aimed his rifle and fired, and Clyde cried out and tumbled back into the water.
“Just three of you left, Brad!” Jake yelled. “Three of you and six of us! Ronald Beck is dead, too! You shouldn’t have left him behind to tell us where you were.”
“You always were a stupid sonofabitch!” Lloyd shouted, moving as far behind the cabin as he could get. It was impossible to get directly behind it because of the steep cliff that rose up in back of it.
“Bring my wife out of there, and we might let you live!” Jake ordered.
“Like hell! You don’t never let nobody live, Jake Harkner!”
“You should have thought of that before you took my wife!”
“I’ll kill her, Harkner! I’ll kill her because you’re gonna kill me anyway! And you’re gonna live the rest of your life knowin’ the last man who had her was me, Brad Buckley! She ain’t bad for her age, Harkner!”
“And I’ll fucking take three days to kill you, you bastard! You bring her out of there, or I’ll skin your hide off when I get hold of you and plant you on an anthill! And I’ll damn well cut your balls off and shove them in your mouth! Bring her out now, and all I’ll do is put a bullet in your head!”
“That ain’t much of a choice, Harkner!”
“You think about it! I never lie, Buckley! If you kill my wife, what I did to you back in Guthrie will seem like a picnic!”
Things got quiet. Lloyd moved around to confirm that there were no windows at the back of the cabin. He’d brought a rope along in case he might need it, and indeed, he realized he might be able to use it to get behind the cabin. He scurried up through the rocks, finding an area where he could slide down the cliff on sheer, flat rock and land in the small area between the face of the cliff and the cabin. He waved to Jake, then set down his rifle and tied one end of the rope to a small pine tree at the top of the cliff. It wasn’t very strong, but it was his only choice. He clung to the rope and shimmied down the cliff for about fifteen feet. The sapling broke, and Lloyd fell the rest of the way, a good ten feet. He landed hard just behind the cabin but got to his feet, silently waving that he was all right.
“What’s it going to be, Buckley?” Jake shouted. “Do you want to die easy? Or do you want to take two or three days to die? You’ve trapped yourself by your own stupidity! Dying one way or the other is your only choice!”
“You bastard! I had her, Jake. I’ve got that much to go out of this life with! And it wasn’t the way you think! I figured I wouldn’t enjoy it much on account of her age, so I shoved it in her mouth!” He laughed, and Jake felt like someone was ripping his heart out. “She practically choked on it, Harkner! She had to swallow Brad Buckley’s shit! Twice! Clem’s too! He figured since she was a whore, she’d probably like it. You ever do that, Harkner? Hell, a big man like you could break her jaw!”
More laughter.
Stephen and Little Jake looked at each other. “What’s he mean?” Little Jake asked.
“Something real bad,” Stephen answered, his hands moving into fists. “It’s a dirty, low-down thing. I wish we’d been big enough to stop them, Little Jake. I can’t wait till I get big like Pa and Grandpa.”
Lloyd was tall enough to grab hold of the edge of the wooden shingle roof of the cabin. He stepped on a barrel behind it to give himself a boost onto the roof, then quickly removed his jacket and laid it over the chimney. Jake and the other men moved from the rocks after a few minutes and headed for the cabin. Brad Buckley, Tucker, and Clem couldn’t help but run out, coughing and hacking from smoke. All but Brad dropped their weapons and raised their hands as Jake, Cole, Rodriguez, and Vance surrounded them. Lloyd quickly removed his jacket from the chimney, worried about his mother, who was surely choking on the smoke inside the cabin.
“Don’t kill us!” Clem whined. “We didn’t hurt her! It was Brad!”
Brad’s eyes stung from the smoke, but he had to know the big figure coming toward him was Jake Harkner. He raised his gun, but before he could fire, Jake shot him in the privates—twice. He went to his knees, screaming. Lloyd jumped down from the roof. He pulled his six-gun and walked up to Clem, shoving the gun into Clem’s mouth. “You fucking piece of shit! Nobody messes with my mother!” He pulled the trigger without hesitation. Clem’s head exploded into pieces.
“Oh my God!” Tucker cried out.
“Pa!” Stephen whispered.
“I think that’s what Grampa did to that man back in Denver,” Little Jake said.
Cole raised his six-gun to Tucker’s chest. “That fire killed my best friend, you bastard, and men like me don’t have many friends!” He shot Tucker in the heart.
Still standing over Brad, Jake seemed unmoved by what Lloyd and Cole had just done. “Go inside and use something to bring a hot coal out here!” he ordered Vance. He looked at Lloyd. “Go see if she’s still alive.” He almost groaned the words. “I’m sorry to make you do it, Lloyd, but I need to know before I…go in there.” His face was etched dark with devastation.
Brian came closer, the three boys with him. “Jake, I’ll go,” Brian offered.
“No!” Lloyd objected. “It’s okay. You went through enough with Evie.” He turned and headed into the cabin, Vance right behind him. They left the door open to clear out some of the smoke.
Lloyd hesitantly approached an old rope-spring bed where something lay curled up under blankets. He couldn’t imagine life without his mother, and he said a quick prayer that she was alive. He bent closer. “Mom?”
She curled deeper into the blankets. “Jake?”
Tears of relief filled his eyes. “It’s Lloyd.”
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