When he reached his front porch, Katie came out of the front door. “Oh, Lloyd, the horses! The barn!”
“Never mind that! Are you and the baby and Tricia okay?”
“Yes. Why?”
Lloyd turned and screamed for one of the men to get over to his house. One called Til Reed came running.
“Stay here! There’s a rifle inside over the front door!” Lloyd told him. “Keep Katie and my daughter and baby in the main room with you, and don’t let anybody in!”
“Yes, sir. What’s goin’ on?”
Lloyd struggled with rage. “If you’d been at Dune Hollow, you’d know what’s going on! I can’t explain right now.”
He heard gunshots. More shouting. “Randy!” his father was screaming.
“Please, God, no!” Lloyd groaned. “Stay here and together!” he told Katie. He ran off the porch, shouting at Vance Kelly to get over to Brian’s house and stay with Evie and the girls. “Send Brian to the main house! Somebody might be hurt!” Stephen! Were the boys okay? He hurried toward Jake’s house, where Jake was stumbling around outside like a crazy man, shooting his rifle into the air and screaming Randy’s name.
“Cole, help me stop him!” Lloyd shouted, running up to Jake and grabbing him around the middle. “Pa, calm down!”
“They took her! They took Randy!” Jake shoved him away, but Lloyd charged into him again.
“Goddamn it, Pa, you’re going to shoot somebody by accident! Let go of the gun!”
Jake staggered and dropped the rifle, grasping Lloyd’s arm for support. “They took her! They took your mother!”
“Pa, let’s think this out! Get your head together!”
“They took her!” Jake repeated yet again, total devastation in his eyes.
“Come on inside, Pa. Maybe you’re just all mixed up. Maybe she’s in there. And what about the boys? Are Stephen and Little Jake still in there with Ben?”
Jake went to his knees. “Yes,” he groaned. “I left Randy…in our bedroom in the loft when I ran out…”
“Well, maybe she’s still up there.” Lloyd struggled not to think the worst as he handed Jake’s rifle to Cole.
Jake shook his head. “Just a little while ago…I was holding her. I’m supposed to keep her safe. She says she always feels…safe…with me…but I ran out…and they took her. They took my Randy.”
“Pa, you’re all mixed up from Midnight’s kick.” Lloyd helped him to his feet. “Come on inside.”
“The boys…they hit Stephen…Little Jake…”
“Cole, come inside with us!” Lloyd ordered, feeling as though his head would explode. He tried to keep hold of Jake’s arm, but Jake jerked away as he stumbled up the veranda steps. He turned to Cole.
“Give me my goddamn rifle!”
“Jake, we ain’t the enemy. You gotta calm down.”
Jake just stared at him a moment, then turned away and stumbled to the door. Lloyd followed him inside, where he reeled with horror at the sight of tumbled furniture and broken lamps. The three boys sat near the fireplace of the great room, sobbing and looking terrified. He glanced at a small table near the front window where his mother always sat to write letters. He could tell she’d started another one. A fountain pen lay near a still-open bottle of ink.
Jake screamed Randy’s name, stumbling up the stairs to their loft bedroom. Even Lloyd was temporarily stunned, trying to get his thoughts straight, wondering if this was real.
“Pa?” Stephen sniffled, his nose bleeding. “They told us if we ran out…to get you…they’d kill Grandma.”
“Stephen!” Lloyd felt like he was coming out of a trance. He rushed over to where Stephen sat on a ledge in front of the huge stone fireplace and knelt in front of him. “My God, Stephen, what happened?” He smoothed back the boy’s hair as he leaned in and kissed his forehead.
Little Jake shivered and cried, a dark bruise forming on his right cheek, blood running from a cut on his head. Ben held his left arm.
“I think my arm’s broke,” he told Lloyd.
“They took her!” Little Jake seethed. “I’ll kill ’em. We were gonna go after ’em, but they said if we went out of the house they’d know…and they’d kill Grandma.”
“We weren’t sure,” Stephen added, “and Little Jake, he was knocked out for a while.”
“Heck, I’m okay now,” Little Jake insisted, his lips pouted with determination.
“Pa’s gonna hate us,” Ben wept. “We shoulda been able to help her. Pa’s gonna give me away now. He won’t want me anymore.”