The Last Outlaw(136)

And his beloved son, Lloyd. Another lash.

And his angel of a daughter, Evie. She seemed to be full of his own mother’s spirit. Another lash.

And his precious Little Jake keeping his guns. Another lash.

And the love in Ben’s eyes for finding a man who loved him like a real father should. Another lash.

The adoration in Stephen’s eyes. Another lash.

And little Tricia and Sadie Mae. Another lash. Sadie Mae. Another. Sadie Mae…her gorgeous, dimpled smile. Another. The chickens. Sadie Mae’s giggle. Her big eyes that held secrets. Another. Sadie Mae crying over broken eggs and then laughing over her grandpa’s wild cussing when he went into the chicken coop.

Another lash.

He heard a chicken cluck. Somehow in the hideous darkness and pain, he managed to open his eyes and see it. A chicken. While he was being whipped, a chicken strutted right in front of him. Another lash.

Clucking. Pecking at grass seed. Another lash.

He actually grinned through the awful pain. Somehow Sadie Mae was with him. That chicken was a sign. Another lash.

Sadie Mae’s little hands were folded, and her saint of a mother was praying for him. Another lash.

Of course she was. Whose prayers had more power than Evie’s? Maybe the Pope. Another lash.

Randy! Was that Randy walking toward him? Was she greeting him like she always had back in Guthrie? Yes! There she was! I’m back, Randy. I can’t wait to hold you again.

That was his last thought before he passed out, unaware that his abuser continued to wield the whip until his back was completely raw.

Don de Leon smiled. “Cut him down and take him into the desert. Let the buzzards finish him,” he ordered his men. “And before you leave him there, cut off his privates!”

The two men taking Jake away looked at each other with the same thought. How could they do such a thing to a man? De Leon had never requested such a dastardly punishment.

De Leon walked away. He would report to the authorities that the famous Jake Harkner was dead, at the hands of Don Jesus Ricardo de Leon. He’d dealt his own form of justice, and now he would be famous for killing an American legend. Mexican authorities would do nothing about it. He owned them all.





Fifty


Lloyd saw him first. On the horizon. A lone man on a horse, and pulling a packhorse along. Lloyd was familiar enough with every single horse and man on the J&L to know it wasn’t Jake, and it wasn’t Outlaw. His stomach tightened. It was a roan gelding. Cole. God, no!

It had been seven days since his mother nearly collapsed over thinking something had happened to Jake. Damn it, Cole, where’s Outlaw?

Terrel happened to ride past, and he shouted to Terrel to get down off his horse. “Go tell Peter to keep my mother in the house,” he told Terrel.

“Yes, sir.” Terrel looked toward where Cole was coming in. “Shit,” he mumbled, hurrying to the house.

Lloyd mounted Terrel’s horse and charged up the hill before Cole could come any closer. He rode in a circle around the man. “Where’s my father?” he shouted.

Cole reined his horse to a halt, devastation written all over his haggard face. He just closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Goddamn it, Cole, where’s my father!”

Cole removed his hat and rubbed his shirtsleeve across his forehead. “He ain’t comin’.”

“That’s it?” Lloyd practically screamed. “He ain’t comin’? That’s all you have to say?”

Cole whirled his horse. “Yeah, Lloyd, that’s it! He’s as much as dead, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it! Shoot me if you want. I’d be glad if you did, because right now I’d just as soon be dead myself except for the fact I don’t have the guts to put my own gun to my head and pull the trigger! Jake chose what happened, Lloyd! He did it to give me and Annie time to get away, and now he’s dead!”

“You’re lying!” Lloyd leapt right off his horse and into Cole, knocking him off his mount and to the ground. Cole covered his face as the much bigger Lloyd began pummeling him, calling him a fucking liar and a coward. “You left him!” he roared. “You left him behind, didn’t you?”

In moments, several of the ranch hands surrounded them. It took six of them to get Lloyd off Cole, who got to his knees, then managed to stand up, his face cut and bleeding. Lloyd went for his gun, but Terrel grabbed it, and with the help of three other men, they managed to get it away from Lloyd.

“Jesus, Lloyd, that’s Cole!” Terrel told him. “He’d never abandon Jake of his own accord, and you know it! And he ain’t gonna fight you back. He knows you still ain’t healed on the inside.”