“Good. Now leave!”
Keller glanced down at the prisoner. “You made a big mistake being a part of harming this man’s daughter,” he told Bryant’s man. He looked at Jake again. “He calls himself Dooley. Just Dooley.” He glanced at Jake and Lloyd and shivered. Then Keller walked out.
Jake looked down at Dooley. “Where did they take her?”
“I…I don’t know.”
Jake pressed on his wound with his boot, and the man screamed in agony. “Where did they take her?”
“They’ll kill me!”
“I’ll kill you if you don’t talk! And I won’t be fast about it! Where did they take her?” Jake pressed harder on the man’s belly.
“I’m not familiar with Oklahoma.” The man started to cry, his face covered with perspiration. “They said…something about…hollow…some hollow.”
Jake took his foot away and knelt close to him then, running the scalpel over the man’s face. “Do you know how easily these things can cut a man’s eye out?”
Jeff felt ill but forced himself to watch, understanding Jake’s wrath but torn by his ideas of what was right and wrong to do to a man.
“Where do you want me to start, Dooley? An ear? Your nose? Maybe I should go ahead and cut out an eye!”
“That’s all I know!” the man groaned. “Some hollow.”
“I want you to think real hard. There are three places in this territory that I know of that end with the word hollow, and I’m not going to waste precious time visiting every one of them to find out where my daughter and grandson are. Which one is it, Dooley?”
“I don’t know! I don’t remember!”
Dooley wore only his long underwear. Jake reached down and jerked the underwear down to the man’s knees.
“What the hell are you doing!”
“Considering what those men have in mind for my daughter…and you willing to be a part of it if you hadn’t been caught…maybe I should use this scalpel to cut off your dick.”
“No, wait! Wait! Name the hollows. Maybe I’ll remember if you name them!”
Jake looked up at Lloyd. “Hold him down, Son.”
Father and son’s gazes held for a moment while Dooley screamed for help. No one came to his aid. Lloyd turned and straddled the man, sitting on his chest and facing him.
“Gurney’s Hollow?” he asked Dooley.
“No! No, that’s not it!”
Jake sat on the man’s legs and grabbed his privates.
“Don’t let him do it! Don’t let him do it!” Dooley screamed.
“Apple Hollow?” Lloyd asked.
Dooley shook his head. Tears poured out of his eyes.
“Dune Hollow?” Lloyd asked.
Dooley’s eyes widened and he managed to nod his head. Lloyd got up, but he turned and held Dooley’s shoulders against the floor. Dooley managed enough breath to speak gruffly. “That’s it! Dune Hollow! I swear to God, that’s it! Please let me go!”
Jake let go of his privates. “Well now, I appreciate your cooperation, Dooley. But I need to make sure you don’t get away. My very brave daughter-in-law put that bullet in your gut, and I’m goddamn proud of her for it, but you look like you’re recovering, and we can’t have that. Sparky over there isn’t in any condition to jail you, and I don’t have time, so I’ll make sure Juan does it for me. But I think your recovery has been too quick, and I need to make sure you don’t go anywhere.”
“What…what do you mean?”
Jake jerked him up, the man’s long johns still around his feet. He ripped off the bandages around his middle, then slammed a booted foot into the man’s wound. Dooley screamed bloody murder as Jake ground his boot hard. Then Jake turned and left, glancing at Dr. Keller. “He broke open his stitches. You’ll have to sew him up again.” He charged away, Lloyd at his side.
“Pa, Dune Hollow is a good two-day ride east.”
“I know where it is.” Jake called to Juan, “Make sure that man sits in jail as soon as he’s able to walk.”
“Sí, Señor Jake. You go and get your precious daughter. Que Dios te acompañe.”
Jake kept walking as he talked to Lloyd. “You tell Brian that if he wants to go with us, he needs to get some things together fast. Have Tobe fix up a horse for him and borrow a rifle from someone for Brian to take.” He walked fast as he talked. “Jeff!” he barked.
Jeff hurried to catch up again, leading his horse with him. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to my house. Tell the preacher to come over there.”