Do Not Forsake Me(133)

“What’s the second thing you want?”

Jake picked up a piece of tall grass to chew on it, longing for a cigarette. “If I live through this, I’ll likely get down there first. Give me five minutes alone with Evie before you come for her. Just five minutes. It will take you that long to get down that ridge anyway. You first tend to any of those men with us who might get hurt, especially if it’s Lloyd. You find Little Jake and make sure he’s all right. I just want five minutes with Evie.”

Brian rose with a deep, pitiful sigh. “She’ll want to know you’re all right anyway. In fact, the only thing that comforts me is that she knows her father will come for her. That will give her courage.” Brian ran a hand through his hair. “Get her out of there, Jake. Just get her out of there. I’ll damn well take care of the rest.”

Jake listened to the owl again, thinking how quiet it was tonight, and how tomorrow the air would be filled with the sounds of gunfire. “I’ll get her out of there, even if it means my life. That’s a promise.” He rose and walked over to put an arm around Brian. “Try to rest. You’ll need your wits about you tomorrow.”

Brian nodded and they walked back to camp. His own body aching from lack of sleep, Jake laid out his bedroll next to Lloyd’s.

“Try to stay calm tomorrow, Son, no matter what we see down there. If we do this right, we’ll get your sister back.”

Lloyd stared at the night stars. “Pa?”

“What?”

“I love you. I don’t say it often enough.”

Jake thought about his own father. How he would have loved to be able to say those words to the man, and to hear them back. He sat there quietly for a moment. “I love you too, Lloyd. You’ll never know how much.”

“I think I do. You told me to stay calm tomorrow. You have to do the same. I’m not ready to lose you, and if something happens to you, it will kill Evie. She’ll fall into a million pieces and never recover from this. You remember that, and don’t be too ready to hand yourself over to them. If Evie has to suffer a little more in order for you to find another way, she’ll gladly do it. Don’t underestimate her. She’s the one who was strong when you went to prison. I ran off. I’ll never be able to make up for that.”

“You’ve more than made up for it. Do you realize what it means to a man like me to hear his son say he loves him? That alone makes up for everything else. A man couldn’t ask for a better son.”

Lloyd sighed. “Or a better daughter,” he added.

Both remained quiet for a moment. Jake pulled his hat down over his face.

“Pa?”

“What?” Jake kept the hat over his face.

“We’ve had some wild times together, haven’t we?”

“That we have.”

“You can be a damn lot of fun sometimes…when times are good. We’ve had each other’s backs for quite a while now. I’d die for you. You know that, don’t you?”

Jake remained quiet for a moment, forcing back emotions that might get in the way tomorrow. “I damn well know it.”





Thirty-four


Evie awoke to the still-dim light of dawn. Everything hurt, and she curled up against the ugliness of what the two men who lay on either side of her had done to her over the past six days.

Morning sickness engulfed her, made worse by the smell of perspiration and men’s filth. She sat up and deliberately leaned over Hash as vomit spewed forth. The man cried out and cursed, slamming a hand across her face. The incident woke Marty, who followed suit and threw Evie to the floor. He then jumped up and grabbed a pitcher of water, throwing some of it into Evie’s face, then tossing the rest over Hash.

“Shit! Go outside and clean up in the horse trough,” he ordered Hash. He looked at Evie. “You bitch!” He crashed the pitcher against a wall, then threw a shirt at her naked body. “Put this on and make us somethin’ to eat! And make sure that kid of yours don’t do any cryin’ again today.”

Evie picked up the shirt with shaking hands and pulled it on. It, too, smelled of perspiration, but at least she could use it to cover her nakedness. She was inwardly pleased she’d vomited all over Hash. Her sickness would keep both men away from her.

She wondered how long the sight of Marty’s face, with its sewn-up eye socket, would haunt her. Your pa done this to me, so you can damn well look into this face while I take what’s his! the man had sneered. And you can thank your pa for what you’re goin’ through now, missy.

The only thing that kept her going was drawing on the strength she knew her father would have. She was Jake Harkner’s daughter, and she’d rely on that strength until he came for her…and that was one thing she did not doubt. Her father would find her.