The whole time he spoke, he kept a keen eye on the five men cautiously approaching. Randy jumped when he suddenly fired his Winchester, cocked, and fired again.
“Jesus Christ!” someone yelled.
Jake fired again. A man cried out. “My leg! My fuckin’ leg!”
“The other three are down in the tall grass,” Jake told Randy. “Keep watching our backs.”
Randy struggled against tears, remembering another gunfight back in Guthrie, when she almost lost her husband to nearly unstoppable bleeding…another gunfight, back in California years ago, when he took a bullet to the hip…another huge gunfight when they both saved Lloyd from a gang of outlaws out to kill him.
“Who’s there?” one of the rustlers called out.
“Jake Harkner! And those are my cattle you’re stealing, you sonofabitch!”
Things got quiet for a moment.
“Shit!” someone swore. “The Jake Harkner?”
“I’ve never come across another man by the same name!”
“Goddamn it, Harkner, we didn’t know it was your cattle we were stealin’.”
“Doesn’t matter. Stealing is stealing!”
“You did your share of it once yourself, you damned outlaw!”
“Long time ago—and a different man, mister!” Jake shouted. “I’ll give you one chance to ride off, long as you head north and not south and you leave my cattle behind. Nobody has ever got away with rustling off the J&L, and I intend to keep it that way!”
“Jake, behind you!” Randy gasped.
Jake whirled, his six-gun out, and fired in the blink of an eye. It boomed much louder than the Winchester, and the man sneaking up on them flew into the air with a scream, a huge hole in his chest.
“Billy, there’s a woman with him!” a second man somewhere behind them called out.
“Lie down flat!” Jake ordered Miranda.
Randy did as he told her, just as a bullet pinged against the rock right where she’d been sitting. She felt Jake’s weight on her when he laid himself over her to protect her. Randy squinted and covered her ears when he fired his .44 five more times.
Randy heard a man screaming. It sounded like he was running toward them. “That was my father, you bastard!” he was yelling. She felt Jake move, realized he was reaching for the six-gun she’d left lying on the flat rock. More shots rang out, pinging against the rocks and ricocheting in all directions.
She felt Jake’s body jerk. “Jesus!” he grunted. He fired the second .44 twice. Another man cried out.
“Jake, are you hit?” Randy screamed from under him.
“Just grazed. I think it was a bullet that bounced off a rock.”
“Come on out, Harkner!” one of the men in the grass yelled. “You can’t stay there forever. The minute you up and run, we’ve got you on account of we’ll take your woman down first. If you don’t want her to suffer, you ought to come on out of there.”
“You two are all that’s left!” Jake shouted. He remained on top of Randy. “Do you really think I can’t take you both down, even out in the open? Let’s make it a fair gunfight! You two against me!”
“Jake, no! You’re hurt, aren’t you? You’re hurt!”
He moved off her, staying low. “Load my other six-gun…quick!” he told her. “And stay low like I told you.”
Staying on her belly, Randy reached out with a shaking hand and grabbed the empty gun he’d left near her. She reached for the bag of cartridges nearby and dumped them on the ground, picking out the right ones for his .44s. She nervously began loading the gun while the man Jake had shot in the leg lay groaning and crying. “My leg! My leg!” he kept hollering. Suddenly he raised up and pointed his gun at Jake.
Jake fired again.
“You bastard!” one of the others swore. “He was wounded!”
“So am I! He should have stayed down!”
“The poor guy was confused from pain, you murderin’ sonofabitch!” the first man answered.
“I’ve been called worse!” Jake turned to Randy, still keeping his head down. “Keep your fingers away from that trigger,” he reminded her.
“I know.” Randy noticed the back of his jacket was soaked with blood. “Jake, you’re bleeding!”
“Doesn’t matter. I can’t let them get to you. Finish loading that thing and give it to me.”
Randy slammed the cartridge chamber closed and handed him the gun. One of the men behind them groaned.
“Jake, one of those men back there is still alive.”
“He isn’t in any shape to do us any harm,” Jake answered, shoving his six-gun into its holster. “How about it, mister!” Jake yelled louder. “An even gunfight, me against the both of you!”