Love’s Sweet Revenge(71)

The music started up again, and Brian kept an arm around Evie’s waist. “You told me you wanted to dance every dance, my love, so I’m holding you to it, as long as you feel up to it.”

Jake noticed a short, rotund man coming toward them and guessed it was Prosecutor Wicks. To his relief, Evie let go of his hand and joined Brian on the dance floor. Women turned to another waltz, swirling around the dance floor in beautiful gowns in dozens of colors and designs.

Jake rose, towering over the man coming his way, a big-boned, haughty-looking woman walking with him. She wore diamonds at her neck and a dress that fit too tight in the waist and forced her large bosom to bubble up at the bodice and jiggle as she walked with an arrogant air about her.

“Well, at last we meet, Mr. Harkner,” the man said when he came closer. He put out his hand, but Jake just kept his arms folded.

“I don’t shake a man’s hand until I know his name,” he told the rosy-cheeked man.

Lloyd slowly rose to stand beside Jake.

“How dare you snub an important man like my brother!” the woman sniffed.

Jake turned to Lloyd. “Did I snub the man?”

“Seems to me you only asked who he is,” Lloyd stated.

A few people nearby quieted and watched the confrontation. Jake and Lloyd’s sizes and demeanor made Wicks look like a chubby little boy.

“Let me start over,” the rotund man, whose vest was too tight over his belly, told Jake. He put out his hand again. “I am Prosecutor Harley Wicks, and this lady beside me is my sister, Arlis. Of course, everyone knows who you are.”

More people stopped talking, and some stopped dancing. Evie noticed and started to rush over to Jake, but Brian kept hold of her arm.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Wicks, but why should I shake your hand?” Jake boldly asked. “I got a visit from Marshal Kraemer a few weeks ago, and he told me you’d like to arrest me. So why are you here wanting to shake my hand?”

Randy glanced at Katie, who quietly rose and moved to go sit beside Randy. The two women clasped hands.

Wicks pulled back his hand. “Mr. Harkner, I just want you to understand that I’m not a man who holds a grudge. Marshal Kraemer cleared up the situation over the shooting out at your ranch.”

“Did he?” Jake moved a little closer, causing the prosecutor to back up a little. “Let me tell you the situation, Mr. Wicks. Seven men tried stealing my cattle, and I’m sure there are plenty of ranchers here who would have done the same thing I did if they caught rustlers stealing from them. My wife happened to be with me at the time, and they threatened to come after her. I did what any man would do.”

“You murdered my son!” the woman beside Wicks told Jake, her dark eyes glittering.

All music stopped, and this time everyone turned. Just then Jake noticed, of all people, Gretta MacBain coming through the doorway. He moved his gaze back to the woman who’d accused him of murdering her son. Her nostrils flared with indignation, and her large bosom heaved with her deep breaths of fury.

Jake met her gaze boldly. “Ma’am, I shot back at someone who was shooting at me. That’s called self-defense. And I had no idea who any of them were.”

“You could have just wounded him!”

“And what was an obviously wealthy and probably spoiled young man doing out at the J&L rustling cattle in the first place?” Lloyd asked. “He didn’t need the money, and he must have been raised to know better.”

“My nephew had fallen in with the wrong bunch of men, who convinced him they could show him a good time,” Harley Wicks answered. “I’m sure they intended it as just a prank.”

“A prank?” Jake seethed. “What I saw was no prank, Wicks, and even if it had been, I wouldn’t have known who was who. When you play with guns around me, you’ve picked the wrong man!”

“Are you saying it was a lie then, when some of your men claimed they came along and did some of the shooting?”

Randy squeezed Katie’s hand, praying Jake wouldn’t lose his temper in front of the very man who would like to jail him.

Lloyd joined the confrontation then, always ready to step up in defense of his father. “They were out to kill both my parents, you sonofa—”

“Lloyd!” Jake interrupted his son, keeping dark eyes on Wicks. “What I’m saying, Wicks, is that seven men came onto my land and stole my cattle and then came at me and my wife! I’m not sure how many of them I shot myself. I only know I had to stop them from getting to her, so that’s what I did! If some of my men came along in time and took care of some of the others, then that’s what happened. I was pretty damn preoccupied at the time, and one of their bullets got me across the back and would have hit my wife if I hadn’t been shielding her. I’d say that warrants shooting back, wouldn’t you?”