“I will. God knows I had a right to kill that man, doesn’t He? He won’t blame me, will He?”
“I can’t imagine that the loving God our daughter is always talking about would ever blame you for what you did. I’m the one who has to live with the guilt of it. You should have let me do it, Randy.”
“I couldn’t! I don’t want to lose my Jake.” She snuggled closer. “Tell me we’ll come back here more often.”
“As often as you want.”
“This is our special place, Jake. I’ll cry this time when we leave it, because of this beautiful memory, but I know we have to go home. I miss my little girls…and those wonderful boys who fought so hard to help me. They’re such good boys, Jake. And they love you so much.”
“They’ve reached an age where they need a lot of talking to.”
“They’ll be fine. They hang on your every word.” Randy sighed deeply. “Don’t let any of the men use this place, Jake.”
“I won’t.”
“You can see half the ranch from up here. Our beautiful ranch where our beautiful sons and daughter and our beautiful grandchildren live—the descendants of the magnificent Jake Harkner.”
Jake had to laugh lightly. “Please stop saying that.”
She smiled through tears. “But you are magnificent.” She kissed his chest. “Don’t let go, Jake.”
“I’m right here.” He found the sachet under a pillow and gave it to her.
Randy squeezed it into her hand and held it to her nose again, loving him more than she’d ever loved him before for remembering the roses.
* * *
Jake carefully eased away from his sleeping wife and pulled on a pair of denim pants. He took down a woolen jacket and put it on over his bare torso, buttoning it up and then grabbing a cigarette from a tin on the table. He glanced at Randy once more to make sure she was still asleep, then stepped into a pair of deerskin slippers and quietly walked outside, leaning against a porch post to light the cigarette. He shivered a little and slowly exhaled, watching the cigarette smoke drift lazily into the endless horizon. The J&L. Maybe at last the family would know true peace. Every last man who’d started all of this was dead now.
Lloyd had been right. He’d taken his revenge in the sweetest, most delicious, most gratifying way a man could enjoy revenge. All those who’d come against him had lost, and he still had his Randy…his beautiful, gentle Randy who loved him in spite of all he’d been, all he’d done, all the running, and all the times he’d tried to leave her.
The quiet almost hurt his ears, though he knew his hearing wasn’t quite as good as it used to be. Too much gunfire over too many years had done that. He did hear an owl hoot, though, and something rustled in the nearby underbrush. He came instantly alert and reached for a gun that wasn’t there. The guns that had brought him so much fame and so much heartache still hung inside the cabin.
A deer jumped out from the brush.
A deer.
Not an outlaw. Not a lawman. Not a drunk. Not an Indian. Not a cattle rustler. Not a prostitute. Not someone out to claim he’d killed Jake Harkner.
Just a deer.
“Jake? Get in here,” Randy called. “You’ll catch your death.”
Jake grinned, tossing the cigarette into the snow and going back inside.
* * *
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come.
’Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home…
From the Author
When I finished Love’s Sweet Revenge, it was obvious to me that I had to write a fourth book about Jake and his family. Not only does the ending to the third book beg for one more sequel, but I am also having trouble leaving Jake and his family behind. I am thoroughly attached to these characters, as I hope you, the readers, are also. Throughout the first three books, Jake has managed to grow and change, but deep inside, he is so deeply scarred by his tortured childhood that a book involving some kind of closure for Jake seemed in order. His every emotion, every decision, every powerful reaction to certain events is based on memories of his brutal father. It’s time for him to come face-to-face with those dark memories.
In addition, now that you have finished Love’s Sweet Revenge, you can see that Randy will need some time to heal. In the fourth book, she will be deeply affected by what she survived, to the point where she becomes very clingy and hates being away from Jake for any length of time. This will present a problem when something vital forces Jake to leave for Mexico to face his childhood. This parting will be a big test of Jake and Randy’s marriage, to the point of almost tearing them apart…