“Then we’ll just have to shoot them all before we get down there,” Lloyd suggested.
A rant of curses came out of Marty’s mouth then, ending with a promise to “get Lloyd” for kicking him into the street and throwing him into the prison wagon and making him lose his eye patch.
“Keep them talking,” Jake told Lloyd. “I’m trying to spot Marty in a window.”
“Things will be a lot worse for you once we come down there!” Lloyd goaded, feeling a wicked pleasure at shooting the unarmed man. He lowered his voice. “They’re scared shitless, Pa. We’ve got the lowdown on them damn good.” He yelled again, “You really screwed up this time, Marty! There’s no getting out of this one!”
Jake watched the cabin window, but he couldn’t get a good view of Marty and wasn’t sure if Evie might be standing right beside him.
“Gampa! Gampa!” Little Jake screamed the words from inside the cabin. It tore at Jake’s heart.
“Show yourself, Harkner, or I’ll shoot the kid and turn his ma over to the other five men in this cabin!” Marty yelled.
“Five plus Marty,” Lloyd muttered. “That’s six in the cabin. We took down four plus Hash. With the man I just shot, that makes twelve in all accounted for. There must be more in that wagon and more in the barn.”
“We need to get Marty outside,” Jake told Lloyd and the others. “If I can take him down, the others will try to run off. That’s when we get every last one of them.” He aimed his rifle again. “Marty!” he shouted.
“I’m listenin’!”
“I want to see my daughter again, and my grandson! You bring them out, and I’ll come down.”
“No, Daddy, don’t you come down here!” Evie screamed out the window.
Someone jerked her away. More screams. Little Jake kept crying for his “gampa.”
“Jesus, I have to go down there,” Jake told Lloyd.
“No! Every man there will take a shot at you, Pa. You’ll be riddled with bullets before you ever reach bottom. Every damn one of them wants to say he killed Jake Harkner.”
“I don’t have any choice.”
“Try once more to get him to come out. The man is stupid, Pa. We can flush him out.”
More screams.
“My God, they’re hurting her,” Brian agonized.
Jake struggled not to give in to his own personal horror. “Stay calm, Brian.” He fired into the wagon and someone cried out. Things quieted again after that, and it sounded like men were arguing inside the cabin.
“They’re starting to get real scared, Brian,” Jake told his son-in-law. “A scared man makes stupid mistakes, and he won’t take the time to mess with a woman. He’ll be more concerned with how to save his neck.”
Little Jake had stopped crying, which worried Jake.
“Bring them out now, Marty, and I’ll come down!” Jake shouted. “That’s a promise! You’ll never get me down there otherwise, no matter what!”
“I’ll kill her right now if you don’t come down!”
“No you won’t!” Jake answered. “You kill her or my grandson, and you know for a fact that you’re a dead man! I’ll starve you out of that cabin, and then I’ll do things to you that you can’t even imagine before I kill you! Understand?”
“Holy shit,” Red remarked.
“Bring them out, Marty! You’re trapped in there! If you want me down there, I need to see my daughter and grandson first!”
Things quieted again. Finally, the cabin door opened.
“Get ready, boys,” Jake told the others. “Remember what I told you about choosing your man.”
One man jumped out of the wagon and started running.
“I’ve got him,” Red St. James declared. He fired his buffalo gun. The man’s head literally disappeared.
“Red, I think you should keep that deputy’s badge,” Jake told him.
Red grinned. “I just might do that.”
“You goddamn murderin’ outlaw!” Marty screamed.
“That one was on Red St. James!” Jake yelled back. “I have plenty of help up here, Marty, but I told these men up here to save you for me!”
“You ain’t gonna do nothin’,” Marty all but screamed. “I’m gonna take your daughter with me for protection! I’m bringin’ her out, Harkner, and she’s stayin’ right with me till I get to my horse. The rest of my men will cover me. You let me go and I’ll drop her off a few miles north of here.” He dragged Evie outside. She wore only a man’s shirt. It kept falling open because the buttons had been ripped away.