Jake shifted in his saddle, reminding Lloyd of a tightly wound spring about to release an explosion of emotional rage. He decided to try to lighten the mood, at least for the moment, partly for the boys, who still looked so brokenhearted. He wanted to cheer them up, at least a little. “Your grandma jokes with your grandpa about other women,” he told them, raising his voice a little more to deliberately goad Jake.
Jake turned and scowled at him.
“You’ve heard stories about Grandpa and bad women,” Lloyd teased.
The three boys tentatively smiled.
“Grampa says there’s no such thing as bad women,” Little Jake reminded Lloyd.
“Yes, well, that’s your grandfather’s weakness. He does have his weaknesses, and women is one of them. But if your grandmother ever caught him really misbehaving with some other woman, she’d give him a black eye.”
“Nuh-uh,” Little Jake protested.
“Oh, you bet she would. I told you she’s stronger than she looks. Little as she is, she can handle your grampa like a puppy dog. She’s got him right here.” He held up his hand and made a fist. “Right in the palm of her hand. Big and mean as he is, she can rope him down like a calf.”
The three boys giggled.
“Can she, Grampa?” Little Jake asked.
Jake gave the boys a half smile, as if realizing, like Lloyd did, that they needed some uplifting. “Sure she can,” he answered.
“How can she do that?” Stephen asked.
Jake turned his gaze to Lloyd. “I’ll let Lloyd answer that one.”
Lloyd put on a very serious look. “Oh, a woman has her ways, Son. You’ll find out when you’re a little older.”
“It’s a very hard question to answer,” Brian told Stephen. He smiled a little himself. “Let’s just say a happy woman is much easier to live with than one who is mad at you.”
Some of the men chuckled, and Lloyd thought about Katie and how just last night everything was beautiful and peaceful. Before the fire broke out, he’d been watching Katie breast-feed their new son. It had been such a sweet moment. He’d meant to make love to her when she was through. They hadn’t made love since the baby was born, and right now he’d never wanted her more. He already missed her and the baby, missed the smell of the baby’s little neck, missed how Katie smelled, how utterly beautiful she was when she was nursing.
Jake threw down his cigarette. “Let’s get going,” he told them, kicking Midnight’s sides and riding off again.
“Time to get serious again, boys,” Lloyd told the younger ones. “Don’t any of you make one move on your own once we find Grandma. You let me and Grandpa take care of things.”
“But we wanna help, Uncle Lloyd. Those men hurt Grandma.”
“You just wait till Jake or I tell you what to do. I mean it, Little Jake—you most of all. You mind what we tell you. And your father has a say in this, too. Your mother is probably worried sick right now.”
Brian nodded. “You mind your business, Little Jake.”
Disgruntled, Little Jake got his roan mare underway to follow Jake as they took off again.
Within a half hour, Jake, who rode well ahead of the others, gave out a shrill whistle. Lloyd saw him riding hard, toward what looked like a horse—and a man on the ground beside it.
“Stay behind me!” Lloyd ordered the boys. “Rodriguez, stay with them!” He galloped ahead, and Cole, Terrel, and Vance charged their horses ahead to catch up. Rodriguez hung back with Brian and the boys, looking around cautiously. They were on open range now, with nothing for cover. “Come slowly,” he told the boys. “Looks like Jake found one of them. That means we are getting closer.”
Lloyd rode hard. “Holy shit,” he muttered. Jake had already charged Midnight right into whoever was on the ground, deliberately trampling him.
Thirty-eight
Lloyd jumped off his horse before the animal even came to a full stop. He ran toward Jake, who held a man by the front of his woolen jacket. “I didn’t touch her!” the man screamed.
“You didn’t help her either!” Jake kicked him hard in the privates. The man yelped and bent over, and Jake kicked him under the jaw, sending him sprawling. “You fucking bastard!”
Lloyd recognized Ronald Beck.
“Somebody stop him!” Beck begged. “I didn’t touch her! I was comin’ to tell you where they took her!”
“The hell you were!” Jake growled.
“My horse threw me!” Beck yelled through bloody teeth as he got to his hands and knees to get up. “I think my leg’s broke, and I think I’ve got cracked ribs from you ridin’ your horse over me, you sonofabitch.”