Outlaw Hearts(165)

He pressed her head against his chest, unable to speak at all for a moment. She could feel him trembling. “He won’t,” he finally managed to say. “He’ll lose Beth over this. He’ll never forgive me for that. I’ll see it, Randy. I’ll see the one thing in his eyes that I never wanted to see. I’m just glad he’s not here today.”

“I’ll explain to him, Jake.”

“It won’t matter. I know him. Everything he ever believed about me will be thrown in his face, all the pride, the trust. It will be worse for him. He’ll be the son of an outlaw. I know what it does to a boy to know terrible things about his father.”

She could not stop her own tears. He would never hold her again this way. He had lost the only love and happiness he had known in life. For the moment he was not Jake Harkner the man, but was back to being Jake Harkner the boy, who wanted so much to be loved but felt unworthy. “I’ll stay with you…every step of the way, Jake. Evie and I both will. Lloyd will, too, once he finds out what has happened.”

“I don’t want you there, not any of you. Everything I’ve ever done is going to come out, as well as things I haven’t done but people want to believe I did.”

“The children will know the truth, Jake. They know you. They won’t believe the lies.” She looked up at him, hardly able to see him for her own tears. “That’s what family is for, Jake, for love and support in time of need. Love is as strong and important in the bad times as the good. I’ve stayed with you through a lot of things. I’m not going to desert you now.”

He stroked her hair, kissed her eyes. “Yo te quiero, mi querida.” He kissed her lightly, thinking how just this morning he had looked forward to coming home to a home-cooked meal, seeing his wife and daughter, sleeping with Randy beside him tonight. Lloyd would likely be back in two or three days, and they would have talked about his trip to Pueblo. There would be no more camping alone with his son, no more hunting with him, no more talk about sending him off to college. There would be no more sweet nights with this woman he loved with more passion than he ever dreamed possible, no more sitting by the fire and listening to Evie read to him.

He leaned down to gently kiss her bruise. “Thank you, Randy, for all the good times. We tried, but it’s over.” He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, but he could not control the tears that slipped down his cheeks then. “You know…how much I love you…but the worst part is still…losing Lloyd’s love and trust. I figure…I can stand anything but that.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Love him for me. Help him through this. There can’t be any more running, Randy. The worst damage has already been done, and it won’t do any good…to put this off any longer. Vaya con Dios.”

He walked past her, unbuckling his gun belts one at a time as he walked toward the soldiers and the waiting prison wagon.

“Jake,” she whimpered. How was she going to go on without him? She left the horse behind and followed him, picking up first one gun belt, then the other. He took a knife from his boot and dropped that too. She picked it up and pressed the guns to her breast.

“Father!” As Jake drew closer, Evie started to run from the house to hug him. Two soldiers held her back. Jake glared at Gentry. “Let her go, you bounty-hungry sonofabitch! I’ve dropped all my weapons!”

Gentry smiled victoriously. “I give the orders from here on. You’re too dangerous, Harkner. I remember just how dangerous, when I used to buy stolen rifles from you back during the war.”

Jake looked him over and nodded. “So, that’s why you looked familiar to me.”

“I just didn’t stand out enough for you to remember good enough. You, on the other hand, are a man not easily forgotten. Now, get in the wagon.”

“Just one thing first.” Before Gentry realized what was happening, a big fist slammed into his jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground in a cloud of dust. “That was for my wife,” Jake growled. He grunted and crumbled then when another soldier smashed a rifle butt into his lower back. The rest of the soldiers joined in then, kicking and punching. Miranda dropped the guns and ran toward them, Evie’s screams of terror and horror ringing in her ears.

“Stop! Stop it!” Evie shrieked.

Jake fought back viciously, but ten men against one were odds no unarmed man could handle. Miranda tried to push some of them away, but a fist landed in her stomach and landed her on her rear so hard it knocked the breath out of her. Evie also tried to help, but the two soldiers holding her kept their grip, laughing at the sight of her father being beaten bloody. “He deserves it,” one of them told her. “A man’s got to pay for his sins sooner or later.”