Terrel Adams rode alongside the approaching riders. When Randy came closer, Jake grasped her arm gently.
“Jake—”
“Get back,” he ordered. He looked over at Brian. “Get her out of here, Brian—the kids, too.”
Brian walked up to Randy, taking her arm. “Come on, Mom. They might just be here to talk. Let Jake and Lloyd handle this.” He gently forced his mother-in-law to step back, calling to Little Jake and Ben and Stephen to come over near him. “Mind your grandfather and get over here,” he ordered. By then Evie had also come too close. Brian urged her to move farther away.
Ben and Stephen jumped down from the fence near the counting chute and walked right between the armed men and Jake, glowering. Ben’s fists clenched. The intruders halted their horses and waited as Little Jake went running by, but the boy stopped and walked right up to the lead marshal, putting his hands on his hips in a daring stance. “Don’t you hurt my grampa, mister!” he demanded. He squinted his eyes to show how serious he was. “I won’t let no sonofabitch take him away!”
“Little Jake, get away from there!” Jake commanded, the words firm but not yelled. “And watch your language. Get over by your father.”
Pouting, Little Jake held a fist up at the marshal, who just grinned. The man turned to Jake as Little Jake marched away in a huff.
“No doubt he belongs to you, Jake.”
Jake watched the man carefully. “He does.”
“Same temperament, I see.” The marshal nodded. “It’s been over four years, Jake.”
Jake wasn’t wearing his guns. Neither was Lloyd, but some of the hired help were, and Randy’s heart pounded at realizing they were ready to use them.
Jake nodded to the marshal. “Hal Kraemer, if I remember right from my days of riding for the law back in Oklahoma.”
“One and the same.” Kraemer removed his hat to reveal curly brown hair that was matted from the heat and the hat. He had steely blue eyes and needed a shave. “I remember you and that son of yours as two of the best at this job.”
Jake ran a hand through his hair and wiped at sweat with his shirtsleeve. “What are you doing in Colorado, Hal?” he asked.
“Got reassigned. And, Jake, I don’t like having to come out here and bother you, but it’s my job. You know how it goes.”
“You go away!” Little Jake yelled, tears welling in his eyes.
“It’s all right, Little Jake,” Jake told him without taking his eyes off of the marshal.
Hal Kraemer grinned. “Something tells me that kid is a handful, just like his grandpa can be.”
Jake grinned darkly, and Randy saw the wariness in his eyes. He looked like a panther that had just been backed into a corner and might pounce. “My adopted son and my grandsons seem to think it’s become their job to look out for me.”
“I see that.” Kraemer looked around, eyeing the hired hands and taking in the surrounding sight of cattle and horses everywhere. A hog-tied calf still lay kicking on the ground near the branding fire. One of the hired hands knelt down and cut it loose. The calf ambled away, and Jake folded his arms, facing Kraemer.
“Boss, they came riding in from the south,” Terrel told Jake. “I sure couldn’t stop them by myself, and they’re the law, so I had to let them through.”
“That’s okay, Terrel. I know this man,” Jake answered, his eyes still on Hal Kraemer. “Why all the extra men, Hal?”
Kraemer leaned on his saddle horn. “Well now, if I was coming out here to arrest you, do you really think I’d come all alone after somebody like Jake Harkner? Fact is, I would have brought a lot more men. I figure four men probably wouldn’t be enough.”
“If I was armed, I’d agree with you,” Jake answered.
Kraemer glanced at Lloyd, then back at Jake. “This the son who rode with you in Oklahoma? I never got to meet him.”
“It’s him. His name is Lloyd, and this is mostly his ranch. You haven’t answered my question. What are you doing on the J&L?”
The marshal’s horse shimmied sideways, and one of his men rested a hand on his six-gun until Kraemer turned his horse and ordered all of them to move back a little. “Guns aren’t necessary, boys. Save them for when they’re really needed.”
Randy breathed a bit easier. The five men looked well trained and ready to obey any command. Jake had been just as intimidating when he rode as a marshal. Apparently having been one was to his benefit now. He knew Hal Kraemer, but Randy had never met the man.
Kraemer faced Jake again. “Jake, I hear tell there was a bit of a shoot-out on this land with some rustlers a month or so back. The sheriff back in Denver filed a report.”