“God knows it’s a good thing your sister married a doctor,” Jake tried to joke. “He doesn’t need a practice of his own. His family keeps him busy enough.”
Lloyd smiled sadly. “Yeah, well, if you’d learn to stay out of trouble, we wouldn’t need him so much.”
“Hey, Jake!” Cole called out as he rummaged through the clothing on one of the bodies. “Do you ever leave a man alive when you get into something like this?”
“Sometimes,” Jake answered, taking a Lone Jack cigarette from a pocket on the front of his shirt and lighting it.
“Remind me to stay on your good side,” Cole answered sarcastically.
“Just don’t try rustling any of my cattle,” Jake joked, taking a deep drag on his cigarette. “When I start shooting, I generally figure it’s best to plant the bullet where I can be sure the man shooting at me can’t shoot back anymore.”
Lloyd made ready to wrap some gauze around the wound.
“Leave it,” Jake told him. “I’m more concerned about your mother. Just give me my jacket and one swallow of that whiskey.”
“I’m just fine, Jake,” Randy reminded him.
“No, you aren’t. You might have messed up that shoulder, and I know what something like this does to you emotionally.”
Lloyd handed his father the jacket and the flask. Jake took a deep swallow of the whiskey, which told Randy he was in pain, because he never drank otherwise, at least not around her. He had too many bad memories of his cruel, drunken father beating his mother. She glanced at Lloyd and knew he realized the same.
Jake handed Lloyd the flask and grimaced as he tugged on his jacket. He pulled Randy close again. “I’m goddamn sorry, Randy. We had such a nice morning.”
“You didn’t ask for this.”
Jake kept Randy close as he watched Cole and Pepper rifle through the pockets and saddlebags of the dead men. “How in hell did you know there might be trouble?” he asked Lloyd.
“That courier from Denver, Jason Hawk, saw them from Echo Ridge. He was on his way to us with some news, and he knew we wouldn’t likely be herding cattle to Denver this early in the season. When we heard there might be rustlers out here, we rode half the night trying to catch up with them, or with you—whichever came first. I was hoping you’d miss them altogether, but no such luck.”
“Jason never comes out in the middle of the week like this,” Jake commented. “What did he want?”
Lloyd seemed hesitant. He sighed before answering. “It’s not exactly good news. Jeff Trubridge wired us about something he thought we should know right away. Trouble is, Jason gave the note to Evie, and it upset her. Brian is home now, though, so she’ll be all right. He always knows how to reassure her.”
Jake came instantly alert, and Randy felt a sick alarm as they both faced Lloyd. “What’s wrong?” Jake asked.
“Lloyd, is Evie okay?” Randy pressed. “She’s going to have another baby and shouldn’t get upset.”
“Baby? Sis is pregnant again?”
“Yes, and don’t let on that you know. She’s going to tell us at Sunday dinner. I already told your father to act surprised.”
“What the hell is wrong?” Jake asked, raising his voice more. “Why is Evie upset?”
Lloyd rubbed at his eyes. “Shit. I didn’t know she was pregnant again. That just makes things worse.”
“Makes what worse?” Jake asked.
Lloyd pulled the note from his pocket and handed it to Jake, then looked at his mother. “Mike Holt is out of prison—won some kind of appeal. He’ll come after me as sure as the sun shines every day.” He turned to Jake. “The past just keeps on rearing its ugly head, doesn’t it?”
Jake closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Thanks to me.”
“I didn’t mean it that way, Pa. This one is my fault, too, for shooting Holt’s brother in the back. But after what happened to Evie—”
Randy saw it then—that little flame of Jake Harkner that lived in her son. The dark, vengeful side. She always hated seeing it, because Lloyd was raised in love. He never knew the horrific childhood his father grew up with, and he was far more forgiving than Jake, but he had the ability to wreak revenge if warranted, the ability to shoot a man with no regrets if that man dared to harm one of his own.
“I just don’t want that man to suddenly show his face to Evie,” Lloyd told Jake. “I don’t think she could handle it if she saw even one of those men again.”
“We should have killed every last one of them when we had the chance,” Jake grumbled.