Love’s Sweet Revenge(140)

He entered her gently again, moving softly, slowly. “Tell me if it hurts.”

“Not a bit,” she whispered.

He rocked her rhythmically, moving in that way he had of bringing on another climax without her even needing any other stimulation. This time it lasted even longer before he came again in his own groaning release.

He moved to her side and pulled her into his arms again. “Thank you…for all of it, Randy—all the sacrifices, all the waiting alone, all the forgiving and forgetting.”

“You’re easy to love, Jake Harkner.”

“Yeah, well, not many people would agree with that remark.”

“They don’t know the Jake I know.”

They lay there quietly together, nearly asleep when they heard it—the signal bell at the bunkhouse. It began clanging wildly.

“Fire! Fire!” someone was screaming.

Jake jerked awake. “What the hell?” He jumped out of bed, and Randy followed close behind, grabbing her robe and holding it against herself as she rushed with Jake to a window. “The horse barn!” he exclaimed.

Jake ran over to the bed to find his long johns and yanked them on while Randy stared in horror. Already she could see Lloyd running from his house toward the fire as someone kept clanging the bell and more men surrounded the barn. She turned to see Jake jerking on his denim pants. He buttoned them, sat down to yank boots over his bare feet, and grabbed a sheepskin jacket from a hook on the wall. “Make sure the boys stay in this house!” he yelled to her. “I don’t want to have to worry where they are!”

“Jake, be careful!” she called after him.

Randy ran to the bathroom and quickly cleaned herself with a washrag, then pulled her heavy flannel robe over her nakedness and tied it tightly. She heard the boys talking excitedly downstairs. She hurried down. “You boys stay right here!” she ordered. “I mean it! Don’t go out that door!”

“Grandma, the horse barn is on fire!” Stephen yelled.

All three boys stood at the front window. Randy rushed over to join them. “I know. Those poor horses! Midnight is in there! And some of the best mustangs they brought in the other day!”

Someone ran past the house. It was so quick Randy couldn’t tell who it was. She frowned, wondering why one of the men would be so close to the house when he should be running to the fire.





Thirty-five


“Get Midnight out of there!” Jake charged toward the flames, and Lloyd caught up with him just in time to keep him back.

“Pa! Nobody can go in there!”

“Pepper’s in there!” one of the men shouted.

Three horses came galloping out, the whites of their eyes filled with terror. One of them was Midnight. The black gelding reared and whinnied wildly as Jake tried to grab hold of him. One hoof came up and caught Jake under the jaw, sending him sprawling as the horse tore away and ran off.

“Pa!” Lloyd ran over to where Jake lay rolling on the ground. He could tell his father was momentarily stunned and dizzy. Lloyd leaned over to help him up. “Pa, take it easy.”

“Got to help—”

“I don’t think it’s going to make any difference.”

Brian reached them, wearing woolen pants and a corduroy jacket and leather dress shoes he’d thrown on at the last minute. They weren’t high enough for the snow that collected inside them as he ran, but he paid no heed.

“Jake!” He looked at Lloyd. “What happened to him?”

“Got kicked under the jaw by Midnight.”

“Jake, stay down a minute. There’s nothing you can do about that barn!”

“No.” Jake moved to his hands and knees. “Pepper’s in there…the horses!” He managed to get to his feet while hanging on to a fence post. For several minutes he stood there, trying to clear his head.

“What can I do to help?” Brian asked Lloyd.

Lloyd just watched the out-of-control fire consume his best barn and best horses. “Sonofabitch!” he roared.

“We have to…get the horses out,” Jake repeated, still clinging to the fence post.

“It’s too damn late, Pa!” Lloyd kicked at a fence board and cracked it, then paced. “Midnight got out with a couple of the mustangs,” he told Jake, sounding ready to cry. “I think that’s all that will make it out.”

For nearly an hour, men continued their fruitless effort to put out the fire. Jake struggled against blacking out from the blow to his jaw. Dizziness kept overtaking him, so he could barely walk in his efforts to help the other men. When his head cleared more, he stumbled toward the barn again.

“What about Pepper?” He grasped another fence post to keep from falling again. “Pepper! Pepper!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.