Do Not Forsake Me(54)
“Why would I argue with that?”
“Because you’re Randy Harkner, and you think you have to be everything to everyone and do everything for everyone. I love you and I need you to stay well.” Another kiss. “Who do you belong to?” he asked.
“Jake Harkner.”
“You bet your beautiful body. Now lie down and sleep beside me. You’ve been sleeping on the sofa so you don’t disturb me, but I miss you in my bed. You sleep here tonight.”
“Yes, sir.” Randy moved to settle in beside him. “I guess I could use a little nap.”
Jake grimaced as he turned to his side and managed to pull her into his arms. “Let me hold you. Tomorrow I’m going to start doing things on my own. You’ve done enough.”
“But, Jake, you aren’t ready—”
“You’ve done enough.” He leaned down and kissed her once more. “Who did you say you belong to?” he asked again.
“Jake Harkner.”
“Every inch of you. Every private place, every nook and cranny, every hair on your head. And from here on, I’m taking care of you again.”
“It’s still too soon—”
“Go to sleep, Randy. That’s an order.”
She closed her eyes and relished the pleasure and relief of being in his arms again.
Fourteen
They rode hard. Thirteen men, all with the same purpose in mind—break Marty Bryant loose and go after Jake Harkner and his son, Lloyd…maybe even their families. Dell Bryant led them, his heart pounding with anticipation. The horses’ hooves spewed up sod and sounded like thunder as Dell led the hired men through wooded areas, over hillsides, through creeks and deep gullies…sometimes even right across farmers’ fields, not caring if they tore up precious crops. They were bent on taking the shortest route possible in order to cut off the prison wagon. One farmer hollered at them and waved a shotgun. They shot him and kept riding.
Hash and Marty Bryant, along with Jack Buckley, had gathered the men from various places over the past few weeks, starting even before Marty and his cohorts robbed the bank in Edmond. These men weren’t a part of that. They had stayed behind at Hash Bryant’s place, waiting to be paid for the job they had to do. Their pay was to come from the stolen bank money, but Marty never got back with it, thanks to Jake and Lloyd Harkner tracking them down and arresting them…and killing their good friend, Jack Buckley, in the process.
Dell Bryant felt proud. As the youngest Bryant brother, he’d always been left out of the robberies and mayhem, but now Marty was on his way to prison, and his only other brothers, Gordy and Ted, were both dead by Jake Harkner’s guns. And their best friends, Jack Buckley and his son Bo, had also gone down under Harkner guns. Stu was dead and so was the man they’d hired in town to help with a jail escape. No one knew which Harkner had killed which man.
Now their mission wasn’t just to gain a name for themselves by killing Jake and Lloyd Harkner, but pure revenge. The rest of these men wanted the same. They no longer cared about being paid, because they figured once Jake was out of the picture, they could rob every bank from Edmond to Kingfisher to Langston, Guthrie, Cimmaron City, and beyond. They could take sanctuary in No Man’s Land because the only marshal who dared go to that lawless place was Jake Harkner…and he’d be dead!
The riffraff riding with Dell were mostly newcomers to Oklahoma Territory, the kind of men who’d come here to hide out from the law elsewhere. Some had murdered, some had raped, most had robbed, and all of them drank, smoked, gambled, and ran with whores. A lot of them had been hired out of Hell’s Nest, a settlement northwest of Guthrie where only the lowest of the low had created their own pit of sin and corruption. If a man wanted to hire someone kill, rob, or kidnap somebody, Hell’s Nest was the place to find him. It wasn’t even an organized town—no laws and no lawmen, no lawyers and no churches.
After the shoot-out that left Jake Harkner unable to snoop around, Dell and his father, Hash, had moved these men closer to Guthrie—camped in the thick woods just outside of town—and waited. From a distance they’d watched the prison wagon leave, and they deliberately waited a few hours before riding out after it. In order not to draw any attention, they didn’t take the same road. Instead, they’d taken the shortest route possible to reach a place just a few miles north of Edmond, figuring that if they got there sooner than the wagon, they could launch a surprise attack just before the wagon reached town. They would make sure it never made it…nor would the men guarding it.