Do Not Forsake Me(159)

Randy wrapped her own arms around his waist, still clinging to Shortbreads reins. “I’ll just hang on. I know we can’t ride like this for long, but I like it.”

Jake kissed her hair. “So do I.”

“I love you, Jake.”

He didn’t answer right away. “To this day, after almost thirty years, I still have trouble figuring out why. I’ve put you through so much.”

“You’ve loved me and that’s all that matters. After all those thirty years I feel like we’re not just husband and wife, but lovers. Does that make any sense?”

He laughed lightly. “You are determined to make this ride difficult for me, aren’t you?”

She leaned up and kissed him. “You’re fun to be with when you’re like this, all relaxed and happy. And you didn’t answer when I said I love you.”

He kissed her hair again. “That’s because I love you isn’t good enough for the likes of you. I was trying to think of something better than that.”

She threw her head back and looked up at him. “Worship? Adore?”

“Something like that.”

They both laughed and she hugged him again. But even without looking at him, she felt the sudden change. He halted his horse, and she felt his whole body stiffen. She leaned back again and saw the darker look of the old, defensive Jake Harkner, the wanted man always on the alert. He was looking past her.

“Jake?”

“Rustlers. Hang on to Shortbread.” He turned Midnight toward the foothills. “We’re heading for those rocks to the west!” He urged the horses into a faster lope, heading into an outcropping of rocks that looked as though they’d tumbled there from nowhere. “Get down and hide the horses!” he told her when they reached cover. He hung on to her arm as she slid off his horse. Jake dismounted. “Tie them farther into the trees.” He yanked his rifle from its boot. “I think they’ve already seen us, but I’m not sure.”

Randy pulled the horses into the trees, her heart pounding. In moments like this, she trusted her husband to know what to do. She obeyed every order.

Jake ducked behind a huge boulder. “Get the shotgun and my leather pack with the extra cartridges and buckshot,” he told her, cocking his repeating rifle.

Randy took the shotgun and ammunition pack from the packhorse and carried them over to him.

Jake set both rifle and shotgun against the rock while he checked his Colt .44s, the guns that had brought him so much notoriety…and often too much heartache. “You stay down, and I mean down,” he told her.

Randy knelt beside him and peeked through an opening between the boulder and another rock. In the distant valley a good six or seven men were herding a fair number of cattle south.

“How do you know it’s not Pepper and some of the other men?”

“None of my men would be riding in bunches like that this time of year. They’re spread out, a couple here, a couple there. And we aren’t rounding up yet. We’re just checking things out. There’s counting and branding to do before we start herding any cattle.” He rested on one knee, picking up the Winchester and positioning it in the same opening to watch. “They’re still a little too far away, damn it!”

“Jake, please don’t take them on by yourself.”

“I don’t think I’ll have any choice. Take the shotgun and keep it handy. If anything happens to me, use it!” He handed her one of his six-guns. “And then shoot the rest of them with this.”

Shoot the rest of them? “Jake, why not just let them ride on?”

“Because it’s my cattle they’re stealing, and besides that, they’re already coming this way. Don’t touch the trigger on my .44 till you have to. You know how touchy they are. You’ll end up shooting me or yourself. Just set it aside for now but be ready to use that shotgun.”

Randy carefully laid the six-gun on a flat rock, closing her eyes and praying she wouldn’t have to use it, worried that all the sweet and wonderful things she and Jake had shared the last few days could end in disaster here and now. Crouched on her knees, she peeked around the other side of the second boulder to see five men drawing closer, all very well armed. Two more were making their way around either side of the boulders where she and Jake were holed up. Her only consolation was that if any one man could take on six or more against him, it was Jake Harkner.





Five


“Jake, two of them are trying to work their way behind us.”

“I know. You just stay low, understand? Keep an eye behind us, but you let me do the shooting unless something happens so I can’t.”