Outlaw Hearts

by Rosanne Bittner

  Miranda glared at him. “You’re such a fool, Lieutenant. Nothing you’re doing could stop Jake if he decided he’d rather shoot it out with you. He’s faced nearly as many men before, also with a wife and child at stake.” She smiled, wincing a little at the pain it caused. “He doesn’t miss, Lieutenant. There are other reasons he won’t try anything this time, and none of them have anything to do with your efforts.” Her defiant smile faded, and her eyes teared. “He knows he has already lost something more precious to him than his life or our physical presence. He’s lost the pride and self-respect he’s worked so hard over the years to learn to have in himself. He’s lost his children’s honor, maybe even his son’s love, but then you wouldn’t understand how important those things can be.”

  She whirled and walked off toward Jake, and Gentry glared after her, frustrated at the woman’s refusal to crumble and beg or to show fear. There was no look of defeat about her as she walked out to meet her husband. She stood erect, walked in bold steps. It seemed to him the woman ought to be regretting a lot of things by now, but she actually still seemed to be proud to be married to Harkner. “Stay alert, boys,” he ordered.

  Miranda’s steps became more rapid as she drew closer. Jake had stayed a good three hundred yards back. She watched him dismount, noticed he was riding Jess’s horse instead of his own. So, Jess had warned him. Something must have happened to his own horse, so he used Jess’s to get back here faster. He walked toward her, and her heart ached fiercely at the look of him, suddenly older, a look of defeat about him. “Jake,” she whispered. She hurried to him then, wrapping her arms around him.

  His own arms encircled her, and she thought how this might be the last time her husband would hold her. She clung tightly to him, visions of him hanging or imprisoned stabbing at her like a knife. Not Jake! Not her Jake! Why had God let this happen? Why had he let them come this far, only to let it all be destroyed?

  Jake took hold of her arms and pushed her away, studying her face, a look of fierce anger coming into his dark eyes. “What the hell happened? Who did that to you?”

  “It’s all right, Jake. I’ll be fine!”

  “It was Gentry, wasn’t it! The sonofabitch is after me! He had no right hitting you!” He started walking away from her.

  “No, Jake! Evie’s in the house. They’ll hurt her for sure! This is the army, Jake, not just one gang of men you can eliminate! If you shoot them down, they’ll just send more men after you!”

  “Bastards!”

  “Jake, please! I know you came here to turn yourself in to protect us. Don’t let what happened to me make you do something that could get Evie hurt!”

  He turned away, breathing deeply for control. “The sonofabitch knows he’s holding all the cards this time. He’s probably laughing right now over getting away with hitting you. If I could ever get him alone—”

  “Jake, we have so little time.” She choked in a sob, and he turned to face her.

  He realized what she meant. They couldn’t spend these last few minutes fretting over Phil Gentry. He came closer again, reaching out to lightly touch the bruise. “You’re still so beautiful,” he nearly groaned. “My precious, faithful esposa. You took all the risks, turned down so many chances at peace and happiness. I thought we had finally found it here. I’m so sorry, Randy.”

  She grasped his hand and kissed his palm. “Don’t ever be sorry. I don’t regret one minute of it.” She moved her arms around his waist again. “This doesn’t change anything, Jake. The man they are arresting doesn’t really exist anymore. You have to believe that. Evie knows, and she still loves you. She’s trying to understand.” She looked up at him. “Lloyd will too.”

  He pressed her head against his chest, unable to speak at all for a moment. She could feel him trembling. “He won’t,” he finally managed to say. “He’ll lose Beth over this. He’ll never forgive me for that. I’ll see it, Randy. I’ll see the one thing in his eyes that I never wanted to see. I’m just glad he’s not here today.”

  “I’ll explain to him, Jake.”

  “It won’t matter. I know him. Everything he ever believed about me will be thrown in his face, all the pride, the trust. It will be worse for him. He’ll be the son of an outlaw. I know what it does to a boy to know terrible things about his father.”

  She could not stop her own tears. He would never hold her again this way. He had lost the only love and happiness he had known in life. For the moment he was not Jake Harkner the man, but was back to being Jake Harkner the boy, who wanted so much to be loved but felt unworthy. “I’ll stay with you…every step of the way, Jake. Evie and I both will. Lloyd will, too, once he finds out what has happened.”

  “I don’t want you there, not any of you. Everything I’ve ever done is going to come out, as well as things I haven’t done but people want to believe I did.”

  “The children will know the truth, Jake. They know you. They won’t believe the lies.” She looked up at him, hardly able to see him for her own tears. “That’s what family is for, Jake, for love and support in time of need. Love is as strong and important in the bad times as the good. I’ve stayed with you through a lot of things. I’m not going to desert you now.”

  He stroked her hair, kissed her eyes. “Yo te quiero, mi querida.” He kissed her lightly, thinking how just this morning he had looked forward to coming home to a home-cooked meal, seeing his wife and daughter, sleeping with Randy beside him tonight. Lloyd would likely be back in two or three days, and they would have talked about his trip to Pueblo. There would be no more camping alone with his son, no more hunting with him, no more talk about sending him off to college. There would be no more sweet nights with this woman he loved with more passion than he ever dreamed possible, no more sitting by the fire and listening to Evie read to him.

  He leaned down to gently kiss her bruise. “Thank you, Randy, for all the good times. We tried, but it’s over.” He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, but he could not control the tears that slipped down his cheeks then. “You know…how much I love you…but the worst part is still…losing Lloyd’s love and trust. I figure…I can stand anything but that.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Love him for me. Help him through this. There can’t be any more running, Randy. The worst damage has already been done, and it won’t do any good…to put this off any longer. Vaya con Dios.”

  He walked past her, unbuckling his gun belts one at a time as he walked toward the soldiers and the waiting prison wagon.

  “Jake,” she whimpered. How was she going to go on without him? She left the horse behind and followed him, picking up first one gun belt, then the other. He took a knife from his boot and dropped that too. She picked it up and pressed the guns to her breast.

  “Father!” As Jake drew closer, Evie started to run from the house to hug him. Two soldiers held her back. Jake glared at Gentry. “Let her go, you bounty-hungry sonofabitch! I’ve dropped all my weapons!”

  Gentry smiled victoriously. “I give the orders from here on. You’re too dangerous, Harkner. I remember just how dangerous, when I used to buy stolen rifles from you back during the war.”

  Jake looked him over and nodded. “So, that’s why you looked familiar to me.”

  “I just didn’t stand out enough for you to remember good enough. You, on the other hand, are a man not easily forgotten. Now, get in the wagon.”

  “Just one thing first.” Before Gentry realized what was happening, a big fist slammed into his jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground in a cloud of dust. “That was for my wife,” Jake growled. He grunted and crumbled then when another soldier smashed a rifle butt into his lower back. The rest of the soldiers joined in then, kicking and punching. Miranda dropped the guns and ran toward them, Evie’s screams of terror and horror ringing in her ears.

  “Stop! Stop it!” Evie shrieked.

  Jake fought back viciously, but ten men against one were odds no un
armed man could handle. Miranda tried to push some of them away, but a fist landed in her stomach and landed her on her rear so hard it knocked the breath out of her. Evie also tried to help, but the two soldiers holding her kept their grip, laughing at the sight of her father being beaten bloody. “He deserves it,” one of them told her. “A man’s got to pay for his sins sooner or later.”

  Miranda struggled to her feet and stumbled over to her daughter, tearing her away from the two men and holding her tight, pressing her head against her breast in an effort to keep her from having to see.

  “Get him in the wagon!” Gentry ordered, now on his feet again himself. The words were slurred through a bleeding, already-swelling mouth.

  It took four men to lift a nearly unconscious Jake into the wagon, which looked hot and uncomfortable to Miranda. She could not control her sobs then as she watched them handcuff both of Jake’s wrists behind his back to wagon bars. He sat on a hard bench, his head hanging, blood dripping from several face and head wounds. He managed to lift his head just slightly to look back at her as two soldiers climbed into the wagon seat and whipped the mules that pulled it into motion.

  “Where will you take him?” Miranda screamed at Gentry.

  One of the men who had been holding Evie answered for the man. “To Fort Lyon. Authorities from Missouri will pick him up there and take him to St. Louis.”

  “Then I’m going to Fort Lyon, and to St. Louis! And I’ll damn well find out who Lieutenant Gentry’s commanding officer is! He’ll know what happened here today! Arresting a man is one thing! Beating him and his wife is another!”

  The soldier frowned, walking to help Gentry mount up, then mounting his own horse. The rest of the men climbed onto their horses, and they all rode to catch up with the wagon.

  Miranda watched after them, feeling crazy with a need to go and help Jake. How badly was he hurt? Would they help him at all? Would he get food and water?

  How could life turn so quickly? This morning she had been happily baking, planning for Jake’s return. She clung to a weeping Evie, and from inside the house she could smell her bread burning. She had been baking it for Jake. How he loved her homemade bread, loved it when the house smelled of it. She remembered the first time he’d mentioned how he liked that smell, back at her little cabin in Kansas City close to twenty years ago.

  In the distance, Jake watched his wife and daughter grow smaller as the wagon bounced and clattered away. He thought how Randy was still a slip of a woman, how strangely sad it was that she had been wearing that yellow dress today.

  Twenty-six

  Lloyd led the palomino stallion into the corral, glancing at the Parker ranch house in the distance, anxious to see Beth again. He would have to wait until tomorrow to meet her at Fisher’s Creek, since he was dusty and sweating and needed a bath. It was already late afternoon, but in spite of his condition, he decided to at least go to the house before he left.

  “It’s about time you got back, boy,” one of Parker’s men yelled out to him.

  Lloyd grinned. “I know. I would have been back two days ago if the damn mare hadn’t been so stubborn. She wouldn’t let Pacer near her for three days.” He thought the man would laugh, but he only nodded, a strange look in his eyes that made Lloyd feel like he was in some kind of trouble. He had done everything as he had been requested, and he had the money Parker’s friend had paid for the stud service. He glanced toward the house again, wondering why Beth didn’t run out to greet him like she usually did. She always watched for him when he’d been gone a while.

  He dismounted and took the bridle from the stallion’s head, pulled the bit from its mouth. “There you go, boy. You ought to feel damn good after making love with that pretty mare.” He patted the horse’s neck, and the animal reared and whinnied, then pranced around the corral. Lloyd led his own horse back out of the gate and locked it. He tied his horse and started toward the house when the same man called out to him.

  “She ain’t there, kid! Her pa took her off someplace four days ago.” The man started toward him, taking a piece of paper from the pocket of his vest. “I’m supposed to give this to you. It’s from your ma. She’s gone too, her and your sister and Jess York—gone to Fort Lyon to be with your pa.”

  Lloyd frowned, totally confused. “Fort Lyon? Why would Pa take my mother and Evie there just to sell a few cattle to the government?”

  Will Brewer leaned against the corral gate, hating to be the bearer of bad news. He liked Lloyd, had liked Jake too, for that matter. He and the other men were still shaking their heads over the events of the last few days, still found it all hard to believe. “I guess you don’t know anything at all yet, do you? I thought maybe the news had got to Pueblo before you left.”

  Lloyd took the folded paper from the man. “What news?”

  Will rubbed at his mouth nervously. His shirt showed sweat stains, and he sported a three-day-old beard. He had never been one to shave or bathe regularly, and his eyes were always puffy from too much whiskey. Right now those pale gray eyes showed a true concern for Lloyd. “Soldiers come here about four days ago, son. They took your pa away, arrested him.”

  “Arrested him! What the hell for?”

  Will watched his dark eyes. “For a lot of things. They had an old wanted poster with them showin’ your pa was an outlaw back in Missouri during and after the war. On the poster he was wanted for bank robbery and murder, and rape.”

  The man watched the blood drain from Lloyd’s face. He suddenly grasped Will’s shirt and shoved him against the gate. “You’re lying!”

  Will grasped his wrist. “Don’t be pushin’ me around, boy! I’m tellin’ you the truth! I liked your pa. Why would I lie about it?”

  Lloyd glared at him, then released him and stepped back. “My pa would never murder and rob and rape!” he growled.

  “Maybe not, but there’s a lot of people back in Missouri who seem to feel otherwise, so much so that the wanted poster was still good on him after pretty near twenty years. It was that Lieutenant Gentry who arrested him. He knew your pa from the war, bought stolen rifles from him, found out he was still wanted.”

  Lloyd stared at the man, dumbfounded. His father, a wanted man? An outlaw?

  “Word is he rode with a real bad bunch led by a man called Bill Kennedy,” Will continued. “Kennedy raided settlers during and after the war, robbed trains, banks, you name it, took women hostages. Apparently Kennedy and your pa had some kind of fallin’ out, had a big shoot-out out in California a few years back. It was after that your pa went to work for Mr. Parker, then sent for you and your ma and your sister. He’s been hidin’ here on the ranch under a different name.”

  A sick feeling engulfed Lloyd. Beth! Did she know? Did she hate him now because of this? He struggled against a growing panic. “A different name?”

  “His real name is Jake—Jackson Lloyd Harkner.”

  “My…mother knew?”

  “I reckon so. She decided to stay by your father’s side through his trial and all—wrote that letter for you and left it with me. She knew you’d likely stop here first thing when you got back from Pueblo. Your pa is probably on his way to St. Louis by now. I ain’t sure if they hang men anymore in Missouri, but—” The man halted midsentence when he saw the look of horror in the boy’s eyes. “Sorry about that. You just ought to know things don’t look good for your pa. I’m sorry you have to come back to all of this, but I figured I might as well get it out right away, seein’ as how you were headed for the house. Parker done took Beth away somewhere. Most likely it was to keep her away from you and all the scandal. He wouldn’t want a daughter of his seen with the son of an outlaw. Mind you, now, I don’t think any the less of you for it, but some people will.”

  Lloyd looked toward the house, then back at Will, tears of anger and frustration forming in his eyes. “Where did he take her?” He stepped closer and shouted. “Where?”

/>   Will shook his head. “He wouldn’t say. I reckon that was his way of keepin’ you from findin’ out so you couldn’t go after her.”

  Beth! He had to find her! They had sworn that nothing would keep them apart. He headed toward the house again.

  “I wouldn’t bother, boy. Ain’t none of the servants inside know where they’ve gone. You’d best read your ma’s letter. It’s your own family who’ll be needin’ you right now.”

  Lloyd looked down at the folded letter in his hand. Was this some kind of joke? Some kind of nightmare? What the hell was going on? How could his father do this to him, hide such a lawless, sinful past? All his life Jake had taught him about honesty and truthfulness. He had preached to him about doing the right thing, wouldn’t even let him touch a gun until he was fourteen, and even then only because he had practically begged for it.

  The sick truth began to sink in, bringing literal pain to every nerve in his body. He felt betrayed, humiliated. Suddenly it was difficult to remember what time of day it was, where he was. Nothing around him seemed real. He was supposed to come home and see Beth, then go home to a cozy house and a happy family, talk to his father about his trip to Pueblo, eat one of his mother’s good meals, joke with Evie. He was supposed to clean up, put on the new clothes he had bought in Pueblo and visit Beth tomorrow down by Fisher’s Creek, hold her again, make love to her.

  “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you,” Will was saying. His voice sounded far away. “Me and some of the boys, we was told to stay out of it, but we rode out to catch up with Gentry and his men to see if it was true they was arrestin’ your pa. By then they already had Jake in a prison wagon. That’s when Gentry told us what all he done, showed us the poster. Your pa was in a pretty bad way. Looked like them soldiers had beat up on him pretty good. I reckon’ your ma got in on it too, on account of when we rode out to your place, she had a pretty nasty bruise by her eye. Jess was there by then. Bein’ your pa’s best friend and all, he’s lookin’ out for your ma and your sister, stayin’ with them through the trial.”