His throat hurt as he walked over to Lloyd, who still sat on the ground. Jake slumped down beside him, suddenly weary and realizing that for the last seven days he’d slept the equivalent of perhaps two nights, if that much. He touched Lloyd’s shoulder.
“When I saw you go down too, I thought I’d lost you,” he told Lloyd. “I never want to know that feeling again.”
“You won’t lose me, Pa. I have to be around to keep your ass out of trouble. That’s become my major occupation, you know.” Their gazes held. “How is she?”
Jake let go of him and ran a hand through his hair, realizing he’d lost his hat at some point. “I’m not sure. It’s going to take time, Lloyd, but she has Brian, and she couldn’t ask for a better man to get her through this. And she hasn’t lost the baby.”
Lloyd wiped at sudden tears. “I just…I want to kill every man left.”
“Evie knows that. She asked us not to. She said she’d feel responsible, that she forgives them, and we shouldn’t take any more revenge.”
Lloyd looked over at the remaining five men, who were being treated by Red and Ruben as best they could.
“Ain’t no way Doc Stewart is going to help any of you bastards,” Red was telling them, “after what you did to his wife. You can just suffer!”
“Only Evie would ask us not to make the rest of them pay,” Lloyd said quietly. “How can she forgive them?”
Jake sighed, looking down at the drying blood on his sleeve. “Because it’s not her place or ours to either condemn or forgive them. She said that’s God’s decision.” He met Lloyd’s gaze again. “And she doesn’t want me to lead you down that pathway. That’s exactly where you were going when you shot that unarmed man, Lloyd. I don’t want that for you, and neither does Evie. After what she’s been through, she’s thinking about us.” He looked away. “We have to honor what she wants.”
“I suppose,” Lloyd answered with a sigh. “I saw Dell’s dead body. I hope it was my bullet that got him.”
They sat there quietly for a moment, then looked at each other.
“She only asked me not to kill them,” Jake added. “She didn’t say anything about not kicking the shit out of them.”
Lloyd nodded. “A man needs to unleash his anger over something like this, but I’m hurting pretty bad right now, Pa.”
Jake looked toward the cabin. “Evie can’t see them right now.” He grimaced as he rose.
“You need to take care of that arm, Pa.”
Jake lit a cigarette. “I’ll have Jeff do it after I tend to business.” He walked over to the remaining men, who all looked terrified.
“Pa, maybe you’d better not,” Lloyd called to him. “Remember what you just told me. It’s the same for you.”
Jake kept walking.
“Pa, you could go to prison too, easier than I would!”
Four of the men sat hog-tied, one bleeding badly from a crease to his neck. A fifth man lay on his back, groaning from a bullet to the belly. Jake realized he didn’t know any of them.
“Don’t do it, Harkner,” one of them begged as Jake drew his gun. “You’re a marshal now. Marshals can’t execute people.”
Jake knelt down and pushed the gun under the man’s nose. “Can’t they?” He pushed upward painfully. “I’d like to shove the barrel of this gun into your mouth and pull the trigger, you worthless bastard! I’ve done it before. But my daughter actually forgave all of you. Can you believe that? She forgave you sonsofbitches! And that’s her right. But it’s my right not to forgive! I promised her I wouldn’t blow your fucking brains out, but I didn’t promise I wouldn’t make you suffer.”
Jake’s men stood back.
Jake slammed his gun across the first man’s face, then stood up and rammed a booted foot into his privates. He kicked another one under the chin.
“Pa, don’t!” Lloyd yelled. “Somebody stop him.”
Red and Ruben each grabbed hold of Jake.
“Jake, you’ll just kill them another way!” Red told him, both men struggling to keep hold of him. “Your daughter will see them! She’ll know! Stop this—for Evie’s sake!”
Jake hesitated, then shook them off, tears in his eyes. “Nobody knows what she means to me!”
“Pa, you have to stop,” Lloyd called to him from where he still sat. He grimaced as he tried to get to his feet, then sat back down again. “Just…stop…”
Jake looked at the man with the belly wound. The man started crying when Jake approached where he lay. “I’m gut shot,” he whined.