The Last Outlaw(25)

“I can do that,” the doctor told him.

Someone loudly cleared her throat, and Jake and Randy turned to see the nurse standing in the doorway with a tray of food.

Jake smiled at her. “Constance! Thanks for the food. Just set it over here on this table by my wife so I can make sure she eats all of it.”

“Yes, sir.” Constance was a robust older woman, her dark hair pulled into a bun at the base of her neck. She carried in the tray and set it on the table next to the bed.

“Constance, I apologize for my outburst earlier.” Jake turned his gaze to Randy again. “I love this woman here beyond words, and I’m worried about her health.” He looked back at Constance. “Will you help her clean up when she’s done eating and make sure she takes some of that tonic there?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.” Jake reached out his hand, and Constance took it. He pressed her hand gently. “Am I forgiven?”

Constance glanced at Randy, who only smiled and shook her head.

“Something tells me, Mr. Harkner, that no woman stays angry with you for long. Yes, you are forgiven.”

Constance walked out, and Jake glanced from Randy to the food and back again. “Start eating. You say you can’t live without me, Randy, but it would be worse for me without you.” He watched her reach over and pick up a biscuit and butter it.

“Want some?”

“I’ll eat later. I want you to swallow everything on that tray.”

Randy sighed. “I’ll try.” She bit into the biscuit.

Jake watched her eat, and with every bite, he wished he could land another blow on Brad Buckley and ram burning coals down the man’s throat. All for her, this woman who was the air he breathed.





Nine


Lloyd hoisted his saddle to a fresh horse. The animal whinnied lightly and danced sideways.

“Calm down, Strawberry.” He reached under the horse to grab the cinch when the animal skittered a little away again.

“What the hell is wrong with you, girl?”

He heard it then, that buzzing sound of one of those motor engines they’d seen in town. It sounded like it was getting closer, and he heard children shouting excitedly. He scowled as he finished cinching Strawberry. He hated those damn new vehicles as much as his dad did. He could hear horses whinnying in a corral outside, and the bawling of their prize bull, Gus, who was penned up behind the barn.

He led his horse outside to see someone riding down the hill toward the homestead on a motorized bicycle. Now that was one he’d not seen before. A couple of J&L men rode out beside the bicycle, escorting whomever it was. Ever since Randy had been taken last winter, men were posted all over the perimeter of the J&L, as well as at the three houses, rotating turns at different posts. A visitor seldom made it close to the houses or even onto J&L property without anyone knowing it. Lloyd’s wife, Katie, and his sister, Evie, watched the noisy contraption in surprise and curiosity.

Lloyd hung on to Strawberry’s bridle as he hurried toward the women, who stood in front of his house with the three boys. A young man wearing goggles and a leather helmet drove the odd-looking bicycle closer.

“I want one of those!” Little Jake told his mother.

Evie folded her arms, looking unsure. “I think you’d better stick to horses, Little Jake.”

Lloyd tied Strawberry and walked up to his sister and wife, adjusting his wide-brimmed hat as he frowned at the sight. “Damn useless, noisy contraptions,” he grumbled.

“You sound just like Daddy,” Evie told him.

“Well, everybody says I’m just like him in most other ways, so I might as well add this to the list. That damn thing is scaring the livestock. If one of those ever came along while we were herding cattle to Denver, we’d have a stampede on our hands.”

Katie moved closer and stood beside her husband. Lloyd slid an arm around her and bent down to the five-month-old baby boy in her arms and kissed his son on the cheek. “Hey, Donavan, how’s my boy?”

“He’s constantly hungry,” Katie complained. “If he keeps this up, I’ll run out of milk.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to start using cow’s milk, and he’ll have to learn to like it.”

The chunky little boy smiled at his father, and Lloyd kissed his wife’s red hair. “I’ll just have to take over once he’s on cow’s milk,” he teased.

“Lloyd Harkner! Your sister is standing right next to us!”

Evie covered her mouth and laughed. Lloyd enjoyed the sound. There was a time when he thought his sister might never recover from her ordeal. It had taken years of love and support from her whole family, and from her damn good husband, to help her heal. The fact that she, too, had another new baby, a sweet little girl named Esther, proved she’d found a way to be whole in herself again.