Outlaw Hearts(159)

“It’s a good thing for more reasons than one. He’ll be out of the way when we go after his father. He might try to defend the man, and someone could get hurt.”

Parker rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling numb. “You going after him right away?”

“Right away. I just need to know where you think he is.”

Parker shook his head, walking to look out a front window at the waiting soldiers outside. “I’m not sure. This is a big ranch, Lieutenant. You could ride for days and not find him. He could be anywhere. I sent him out to check again for sheepherders and squatters. I suppose the only thing you can do is go to his house up at the northwest section. He’s been such a good man I let him build a home up there and use a piece of land like it was his own.” He turned to face Gentry. “Whatever he’s done, he does seem to care deeply for his wife and children. If he thinks they’re threatened, perhaps he’ll turn himself in to you to keep them safe.”

Gentry sighed. “I’d rather not do it that way, but so be it. You just be sure to send a messenger out to tell your men to stay out of this.”

“Yes. Yes, I will.” The lieutenant started to leave, and Parker touched his arm. “Be careful, Lieutenant. Whatever Jake has done, he has a lovely family. I don’t want to see them get hurt.”

“They won’t, if they stay out of my way; but if his wife knows about his past, then she knows the risk she takes being married to him. If she chooses to expose herself and her children to that danger, then that’s her problem.”

The man walked out, and Parker followed, watching him mount up. “Where’s the man who brought us here?” he asked the others.

“He was askin’ questions, Lieutenant,” a sergeant answered. “We didn’t tell him anything, but he rode off like he was in a hurry.”

“Damn! The sonofabitch probably knows who I’m after!” He looked at Parker. “The man who rode in here with us—who is he?”

“Jess York.”

“He good friends with Jake?”

“Best friends.”

“Jesus Christ,” Gentry mumbled. “What’s the quickest way to Harkner’s place?”

Parker stepped away from the house again, pointing to a road in the distance to the west. “Ride back out of here and head up to that right fork you see up there. That takes you right to his place. It will take you a couple of hours.”

Gentry turned his horse. “Follow me, men!”

The soldiers rode off, and Parker watched them for several minutes, until they headed out on the right fork and disappeared over a rise, carting the prison wagon behind them. He turned and walked slowly back into the house, wondering how he was going to break this to Beth, how he was going to convince her to stay away from Lloyd Hayes, or Lloyd Harkner, as the lieutenant claimed he should be called.

With the lieutenant on his way to arrest the man, he supposed he should tell the girl right away. The charge of rape was difficult to believe. In fact, none of the things he had heard seemed to fit the Jake he knew, but then the man’s past had always been a bit of a blur, and when Jake did use his guns, he could be ruthless. He had proved that up at the mines, and again when he’d had that shoot-out with the squatters.

Lloyd had killed that night too. Was it in his blood to become like his father? He seemed like such a good kid, but this could set him off in a whole different direction. He was going to be an angry, shocked, confused young man, maybe turn to Beth for something more than friendship. There were things Lloyd was going to have to learn to live with, and he simply could not have Beth involved in the drastic changes that would take place in the boy’s life.

Thank goodness Lloyd was in Pueblo right now. If he had been home, it would be just like Beth to try to ride out to him once she heard about his father. She would have gotten involved in the whole dirty mess and the dangerous arrest. He decided he had better get her out of here as fast as possible, and he had to convince her to stay away from Lloyd. Neither task was going to be easy, but it was for her own good.

Thank God the relationship to this point had not seemed to grow too serious. Both still had plans to go off to school in the fall. Once Beth met some of the refined young men in the eastern schools, she would forget about Lloyd Hayes soon enough.





Twenty-five


Jake listened to the birds of summer, watched them flit about. He loved these mountains in summer, loved the smell of the pine, the beauty of gray and purple rock still glazed with snow at the peaks. This particular spot was his favorite, a rocky foothill that overlooked a wide, green valley and a small, blue lake. Behind him the bigger mountains loomed like fortresses.