“You go back home and pack your things and get your rifle and handguns,” Jake told Lloyd.
“I’m not leaving this house until I’m sure you won’t try to sneak out on your own yet tonight. I know you, Pa, but if you go out there now, you might mess up a good trail.”
“This is Randy! She belongs to me! To me! I’m supposed to protect her.” He turned away and bent over. “¡Lo siento, querida! ¡Favor perdóname! ¡Favor perdóname!”
“Evie, get some washrags and hot water,” Brian said quietly. “I need to clean the blood off these boys’ faces.”
“Grampa, we’re goin’ with you,” Little Jake spoke up. “You gotta take us!”
Jake breathed deeply and straightened, looking over at the boys. “It might be a hard ride, and I might do things boys your age shouldn’t see.”
“We don’t care!” Stephen spoke up. “She’s our grandma, and they hit her. That one called Brad hit her so’s she’d quit fighting them. She fought real good, and she screamed for you, but you couldn’t hear because of the fire and all the shouting outside.”
Jake planted an arm against the wall and rested his head on it. “Oh my God,” he groaned. “What was she wearing?”
“Just…her housecoat,” Little Jake answered, breaking into tears again. “It fell open, and they looked at her, but we looked away ’cause she’s our grandma.”
“Jesus God Almighty,” Jake whispered.
“Daddy, just get her back here. I can talk to her,” Evie spoke up.
Jake shook his head. “The two most important women in my life—first my daughter, now my wife—and because of me—”
“No, Daddy! Not because of you,” Evie told him. She carried a small pan of water and a washrag over to Brian. “It’s because of Satan and the hatred and vengeance he creates in people’s hearts.”
“Then Satan is in my heart, because no man has ever been more full of hatred and vengeance right now than I am!” Jake looked at Lloyd. “I can’t do this. I can’t not kill them!”
“Pa, we’ll figure something out. You just need witnesses. That’s all I’m saying. Don’t go after them alone. That’s what they want. Those three we kicked off the ranch wanted a reputation for killing you, and they’re at it again. And Clem just wants revenge for that beating you gave him. I don’t know how they hooked up with Brad Buckley, but they did, and we have to be smart going after them. If you go alone, they’ll shoot you to pieces!”
“We’re goin’ with you, Grampa,” Little Jake repeated. “Don’t you leave us behind!”
Jake glanced his way, and in that moment he saw himself—the hurt and angry and heartbroken little boy who couldn’t stop his father from beating his mother to death—the little boy who had to help bury her and throw dirt on her face. He saw his own soul in Little Jake’s dark eyes. He looked at Ben, and he saw a terrified boy who feared losing the only real family he’d ever known.
“Ben, you aren’t going anywhere. None of this is your fault, understand? Not any one of you is to blame for this. It’s obvious all of you tried real hard, and I know how that feels. You’re all going with us because you need to go. But it will be hard riding. Do you think you’re up to it?”
They all nodded, brightening a little.
“My arm feels better.” Ben sniffled. “I thought it was broke.”
Brian began gently feeling the boy’s arm while Evie washed Little Jake’s face.
“And you need to do exactly as I say, understand?” Jake ordered.
“Yes, sir,” they answered almost in unison.
“The last thing either Lloyd or I need is to lose one of you over this. You let Brian finish cleaning you up and let him do something about that cut on your head, Little Jake.”
“We jumped on ’em, Pa,” Ben told him. “All three of us. We tried real hard. Little Jake got a poker stick, but they knocked it out of his hands, and they swung it at Little Jake. That’s how he got a cut on his head.”
Jake could not control the darkness that engulfed him, remembering his father using a fireplace poker to beat his own little brother to death. Flashes from the horror of his childhood kept stabbing at him, combined with envisioning Brad Buckley and the no-goods he’d chased off manhandling Randy—his sweet, tiny, devoted, beautiful wife—his reason for living. Randy! Clem Sutton had called her a whore. Did he intend to try to prove it? Just a little while ago they’d made love, and it was beautiful, and he’d worried about hurting her. Now…