“And that will mean you’re dead. Have you thought about it that way, you fool?”
“’Course I have. But I’m not worried. I’ve got it all planned.”
Gretta shook her head. “I’m guessing you never had any schooling, because you have to be the most ignorant man on the face of the earth.”
Someone knocked on the door.
“You done in there, Mike?” a man asked.
Mike looked Gretta over scathingly. “I reckon so. She ain’t much good at what she does, so she ain’t worth her price.” He walked over and opened the door. “You get a good lay?”
The stocky, younger man shrugged. “She was okay. She likes it in the mouth, so I obliged her.”
Both men laughed, and Gretta grimaced at the remark. She took a hard look at the young man at the door. He was perhaps in his twenties and built like a bull. She knew he’d picked Sondra for his lay, and she hoped the brute hadn’t hurt her. Gretta liked running a clean place, mostly for wealthier men or men of prominence who knew she could keep their trysts secret. One of them was Harley Wicks, a city prosecutor who was also wanting to make trouble for Jake Harkner. She hoped Harkner wouldn’t show up this year, for his own sake. She decided that if she saw him or his son anywhere, she’d warn them Mike Holt was in town. She didn’t know the younger man’s name, but she figured he was no better than Holt and probably also dangerous.
Holt came inside for his hat and plopped it on his head while the younger man looked Gretta over as though she were a fresh piece of pie. She just glared back at him. “Your friend isn’t a very nice man,” she told the younger man. “Get him out of here.”
The younger man just smiled. “What’d he do?”
“None of your business.”
Mike picked up his leather vest and pulled it on. “Come on, Brad. Let’s go have some drinks and find a card game.”
The one called Brad tipped his hat to Gretta and left with Mike. Gretta walked to the door and closed it, then slid the lock shut. She decided neither man would be allowed in the Range Club again.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. She shuddered to think what Harkner’s daughter must have gone through.
Thirteen
Mid-July
“Which one is the son and which one is the father?” Pepper joked. It was his turn to drive the three-seater carriage in which Randy, Evie, and Katie rode when the family went to Denver, well ahead of the cattle drive behind them. Jake did not want any of the noise and dust of the drive to affect the women, who at the moment watched Jake and Lloyd racing two young mustangs not far away.
“Pepper, if it weren’t for Lloyd’s long hair, it would be difficult to tell,” Randy answered him. “As far as behavior, I don’t think Jake ever got past twenty himself. He behaves like a younger man and then pays for it at night.”
“Well, ma’am, he’s a man who’s known a lot of pain. I reckon he’s just learned to live with it.”
The words stabbed at Randy’s heart. “Oh, yes, he has a very high tolerance for pain of all kinds, not just physical.”
“Looks like Lloyd won,” Pepper said with a chuckle. “They’re heading this way now.”
Pepper pulled up on the horse, halting the carriage while they waited for Jake and Lloyd to catch up. Several of the regular help stayed at the ranch, taking care of daily chores and helping watch the grandsons while Teresa and Rodriguez took care of the little granddaughters. The only ranch hands along who worked steady for Jake were Pepper and Cole. The others were drifting cowboys hired out of Longmont and Boulder, as well as two younger men belonging to neighboring farmers who wanted to earn some money. Randy couldn’t help smiling at one of the boy’s comment that he would get to go on a “real cattle drive with Jake and Lloyd Harkner,” which they considered an exciting honor.
She didn’t mind traveling this way. She and the other women could have taken a train to Denver, but all three preferred what some might now call the “old-fashioned” way of reaching their destination. The carriage they used was high quality, with good springs that made for a comfortable ride.
Jake and Lloyd reached them on lathered horses.
“Wait for me here while I go get a fresh horse,” Jake told Randy with a wink. “I want you to ride with me somewhere. I found a spot with a view you need to see.”
Lloyd dismounted. “Pepper, get on down and take this horse back to the herd. I’ll drive the carriage for a while.”
Pepper climbed down. “Whatever you say. You’re the boss.”
Lloyd got up into the seat beside Katie, leaning close to give her a kiss.