Outlaw Hearts(158)

Beth stifled a gasp, a sick feeling engulfing her. Beyond the doors Parker took his eyes from the poster and looked at Gentry, stunned. “What!”

“Most men who ran with him back then knew. I don’t know the circumstances, but I know he killed the man and continued killing after that. He rode with some of the worst outlaws, including Bill Kennedy and his gang, who were wanted in Missouri for robbery and murder and rape, just like what Jake’s wanted for on this poster. I did some thorough investigating for this, Mr. Parker. This isn’t just a hunch, it’s a fact. Before coming here, there was a big shoot-out between Jake and Kennedy’s bunch out in California. I don’t know what the beef was, but Kennedy went after Jake, and Jake killed Kennedy and every last one of his men. He’s good with those guns of his, as good as they get. That’s why taking him isn’t going to be easy. I hope twelve men is enough.”

Parker let out a gasp of shock and sat down in a silk brocade chair. “This is incredible! Jake is the best man on this ranch! He’s been my right-hand for fourteen years now. I’ve known him even longer. He worked as a payroll guard for me up at the mines before he came here. Why, he even risked his life saving the payroll, and my life! That doesn’t sound like this man.”

“And how many men did he shoot it out with to save the money?”

“Why there were at least…” Parker hesitated, realizing what Gentry was telling him. One fact was indisputable, Jake was damn good with those guns.

“I don’t know or care what the man has been doing the last twenty years, Mr. Parker,” Gentry told him. “I only know what he did before that, and bad is bad. Maybe he’s married and got kids, but that doesn’t erase what he did. You ask his wife about it. I’ll bet she knows.”

Parker kept staring at the poster. Robbery, murder, rape! Jake? “Miranda Hayes is a wonderful woman. She wouldn’t marry a man who did these things.”

Gentry sniffed. “Who knows what attracts some women? Maybe she had some big idea she could change him, or maybe she didn’t find out the truth about him until after they were married. All I know is she was already married to him when he got in that shoot-out back in California. That was back in sixty-nine, and that son of his is older than that. Think about it. Why did he come here after that? Was his family with him when he worked for you at the mines?”

Parker ran a hand through his thinning hair. “No. He sent for them later.”

“Because he was trying to find a place where he could start over, hide his identity. He got found out in California. He left his family out there so they’d be safe till he knew it was all right to be together again. Don’t you see? Working here on this ranch, hardly ever leaving this land, changing his name, it was his way of hiding out. He didn’t count on running into somebody who would remember him.”

Parker just kept shaking his head, an anger beginning to build toward Jake. It wasn’t so much that he cared what the man did twenty years ago, but his own daughter was in love with Jake’s son! Didn’t Jake realize what it would do to the Parker name if society found out his daughter was married to the son of a wanted man, a man who had robbed and raped…raped! Good God, he had let Beth go over there to visit so many times over the years! And what about Lloyd? Was he as trustworthy as he had first thought? Bad seed usually begot bad seed. Jake had killed his own father! What worse crime could a man commit? He couldn’t have Beth getting involved in this sordid mess.

Gentry came over and took the poster from the man, refolding it. “You’re thinking of your daughter, aren’t you? I remember from your party that she was sweet on Harkner’s son. I don’t know what the boy knows about any of this, Mr. Parker, but once I arrest Jake, who knows what he’ll do? Maybe he’s a good kid. I don’t know him. But I do know it would be best for your daughter’s reputation if she quit seeing him.”

Parker rose. “Yes, I agree.”

Beth walked a few feet away, grasping a stair rail and bending over to try to find her breath. Lloyd! Did he know about this? Surely not! He thought the world of his father. If only he were here on the ranch so she could ride out and find him, warn him, but he had taken that horse to Pueblo.

Her father had actually agreed with the lieutenant that she should no longer see Lloyd! She could not let that happen! She just couldn’t! Tears of horror and disappointment welled up in her soul, and she ran up the stairway, ignoring one of the maids who tried to stop her as she ran to her room.

In the parlor, Parker slowly rose. “Yes. I agree Beth should not be seen with the son, once this gets in the news. If the boy doesn’t know about this, it will be hard on him too. Maybe it’s a good thing that for the moment he’s in Pueblo.” The man’s pale complexion showed he was still bewildered.