The Last Outlaw(11)

“Well, we…we just thought—”

“You thought wrong.” Jake tipped his hat. “Please don’t be upset. I genuinely understand your intent, ladies. My wife and I will be here one more night—staying at the Gold Dust Hotel. If you come up with some other idea—”

The riders came closer. Jake watched them head toward the bank. “Jesus!” He pushed at the women.

One of them screamed, “What on earth?”

“Get inside the hardware store and stay there! I think the bank’s being robbed!”

One of the women gasped and another screamed as they hustled inside.

Jake ran toward the saloon. Randy! She couldn’t take something like this. She was still too fragile! And little Tricia was with her! He barged into the saloon. “Get the sheriff!” he ordered the card players. “Now! I think the bank is being robbed!”

The men looked at one another as Jake ran back outside.

“Sonofabitch!” Till Medley swore. “Harkner’s out there! This should be quite a show!”

“Goddamn if we won’t get the chance to see Jake Harkner in action!” Bill Tucker exclaimed.

Clete ran out the back door to find the sheriff.





Four


Nine riders charged recklessly through the town, causing people in the streets to dive out of their way. One man jerked his little boy aside just before one of the horses would have trampled the child. The horses’ hooves spewed clods of dirt and clouds of dust around them. Jake ran toward them, pulling off his jacket and tossing it down as he hurried to catch up with the riders. Peppermint sticks went flying.

“Everybody get inside!” Jake yelled as he ran, pulling one of his guns. A few women screamed, and several men hesitated, not sure what was happening. Jake noticed a young girl standing transfixed as the men rode by. He grabbed her up and ran with her to the boardwalk, half tossing her to her father. That one move cost him some time, and already five of the riders had dismounted and charged into the bank. The other four remained mounted and ready to ride, holding the horses.

A shot rang out. Jake felt the jolt in his lower left side. People were screaming and running as he went down.

“Shit!” he swore. He rolled behind a watering trough, then got to his knees and shot one man off his horse. He grunted against pain and forced himself to concentrate. The sheriff was running toward the bank, and Jake yelled at the man to stay down.

Another shot rang out, and the sheriff went down. Jake let go of his bleeding side and pulled his other gun out, then charged away from the trough, guns blazing. The three men waiting out front dropped before they even got a chance to fire their weapons again. Their horses scattered, one of them dragging its rider down the street with his foot caught in the stirrup.

Jake stumbled to grab one of the other horses as it ran past him and used it for cover, pulling it to the center of the street. “Come out of there or you’re all dead!” he roared.

Everything quieted. Jake quickly put four bullets back in his .44, glad that he’d worn both his guns. He didn’t always do so anymore, but he’d packed the second gun on this trip because of Randy and Tricia. Everywhere he went these days, trouble followed. He certainly hadn’t asked for it this time. He glanced over at the sheriff, who lay still. “Damn it!” he grumbled.

“Who’s out there?” someone yelled from inside.

“Someone who’s going to blow your ass away if anybody in that bank gets hurt! Come on out of there!”

“Jake!”

Jake recognized Randy’s voice. There followed a ruckus inside—a scream. Furious and desperate, Jake ignored his pain and shoved the horse toward the bank.

“Come out of there now or I’ll come in shooting, and you’ll wish you’d never picked today to rob a bank!”

Jake heard Tricia start to cry. “Grampa!” she sobbed. The front door of the bank was suddenly thrown open, but no one came out.

“Fill those bags!” a man shouted inside.

“Somebody help the sheriff!” someone yelled from another direction in the street.

“Oh my God, they’re robbing the bank!”

“Dear Lord, my wife’s in there!” another man shouted. “Susan!”

“Harry!” a woman shouted back, noise coming now from every direction.

One of the women Jake had shoved into the hardware store screamed, “Charlie! Are you in there?” She started to run toward the road, but the other women pulled her back.

“Everybody stay out of the street!” Jake roared.

“Shut up, all of you, or somebody in here will die!” a voice roared from inside the bank.

“Jake Harkner has them pinned down!” another person yelled.