Love’s Sweet Revenge(130)

This time it was Lloyd who grinned. “You idiots! Take my advice and apologize for insulting my sister before you get the hell off the J&L!”

Clyde shook his head. “No way. We came this far, and we’ve been plannin’ this for a month! We’re finishing it!”

“Then I’d advise anybody standing behind me and Lloyd to get the hell out of the way,” Jake announced, “because I figure these three couldn’t hit the side of a barn.”

Men scattered, Pepper going over to the boys and herding them farther away.

“Pa, after what happened in Denver, I don’t think you should shoot to kill,” Lloyd told him, enjoying the growing fear in the eyes of the opposing men. “You might get in more trouble, and these three will never clear their holsters anyway. They just want to prove they’re faster.”

“I figured that,” Jake answered.

“Grampa said once that when you draw against a man, you watch his eyes, not his hands,” Stephen whispered to the other two boys. “Him and my pa are doin’ just that. Can you see it?”

“I see it,” Little Jake answered, his dark eyes glowing with anger. “And I don’t like what they said about my little sister.”

“They’re just trying to make Pa draw on them,” Ben said softly. “Lloyd, too.”

“You’d better shoot to kill,” Tucker growled, “or you’re both dead men!”

More men backed away.

Ronald’s eyes widened. “Maybe we should just go,” he told Clyde.

“Maybe you should,” Lloyd told him. “Real quick. Wounded or not, I really, really want to beat you till you can’t even see—and then I’ll shoot you!”

“I ain’t goin’ anywhere till I kill Jake Harkner,” Clyde growled. He went for his gun.

The three boys watched in astonishment. Before any of the men could even clear their holsters, Jake and Lloyd’s guns boomed. The three shots came so fast it was almost like one thunderous roar that made the boys jump. Jake shot Clyde’s gun out of his hand, the bullet putting a hole through his hand from the side so it blew half his fingers off. His second bullet skimmed Ronald’s holster in such a way that it fell off him and left a deep gash across the side of his hip. Lloyd’s bullet went into Tucker’s holster and hit the bullet chambers, causing some of the bullets to explode against the man’s hip and thigh.

Clyde just stood there a moment, gawking in astonishment at his bottom knuckles where three fingers used to be. The fingers lay several feet behind him, and blood poured from the stubs. Realizing the fingers were actually gone, he began shaking and screaming curses at Jake while Ronald was already down, writhing in pain from a bleeding hip.

“I think my hip bone is broke!” he screamed. “It’s broke! It’s broke!” He held a hand to his hip, trying to stop the bleeding.

Tucker was also on the ground, curled up and groaning and hanging on to his thigh.

“Pepper, get their guns,” Jake told him.

“Gladly,” Pepper answered, marching up to take the guns and picking up what was left of Tucker’s shredded gun belt.

“We need a doctor!” Tucker yelled, beginning to cry.

“The men can help you best as they can, and then they’ll escort you off the J&L,” Lloyd sneered.

“Your brother-in-law is a doctor!” Clyde screamed. “Get him out here! He’s got laudanum!”

“After what you said about his wife?” Lloyd seethed. “I’m not sending him to take care of the likes of you, you worthless snake in the grass! You can lay there and bleed to death for all I care! I hope you die, and real slow from infection!” He looked at the other men. “Do what you can for them and make sure they’re off my ranch by dark!”

“Where will we go?” Clyde screamed.

Lloyd looked at Jake. “Where do you think they should go, Pa?”

They turned away, and Jake barked at the three boys to follow them back to the house.

“What do we tell the women?” Lloyd asked. “I don’t want Evie to know what they said. Brian either. Jesus, Pa, in the last five or six months, I can tell they’ve both really been able to get back to normal married life. You can see the difference in them.”

“I know. That joke Brian made really surprised me. And for Evie to be able to go along with it really told me something. They’re enjoying each other the way they should be able to enjoy each other.” He called the boys over. The three came scurrying.

“Grampa, you really showed ’em!” Little Jake said excitedly.

“I’ve never really seen you draw a gun on a man,” Stephen told Lloyd. “That’s the fastest thing I’ve ever seen, Pa!”