Loretta shook her head. “I don’t know. I fear it’s already too late. Luis Estava has likely already…already shattered all of Annie’s big dreams of living like a rich man’s wife. Once she’s down there long enough, there will be no changing what’s happened. She could even die of disease or be murdered or…who knows? If Mister Valencia can’t find her, no one will.”
Gretta stared at a rose bush. “I’ll pay you back the two hundred dollars and pray right along with you,” she told Loretta, wanting to scream and weep. Her baby had been so beautiful. She’d grown into a sweet, loving little girl with red curls and blue eyes and fair skin. Just the kind men consider prime flesh and worth a lot of money, she seethed inside. “I know someone who I’m betting could find her,” she told Loretta. “And he’s not a lawman, at least not anymore. He’s half Mexican and speaks their language; and obeying the law means nothing to him. He could ride right into Mexico and fit right in. He knows prostitutes and brothels, and best of all, he knows outlaws.”
You didn’t handle those bank robbers the way you did because you used to be a lawman, Jake Harkner. You knew how to handle them because you used to be just LIKE them! Gretta smiled at the thought.
“Who are you talking about?” Loretta asked.
Gretta shook her head. “I don’t even know if he would do it. He’s a family man now, and recently hurt.” She faced Loretta. “But if that supposed investigator of yours doesn’t bring my daughter back in a month, you let me know. This man could damn well find her, and you might say he owes me a favor. I helped keep his head out of a noose last year.”
Loretta thought a moment. “Do you mean that man who made such a sensation here last summer? The one who shot a man in the head at close range at the Cattlemen’s Ball?”
“That’s exactly who I mean.”
“But he’s…he’s no better than an outlaw!”
Gretta grinned. “I guess in some ways that’s still true.”
“And you would trust him with your fifteen-year-old daughter?”
Gretta felt suddenly calmer. “You bet I would. If Jake Harkner cared that a woman like me might be hurt, he’d sure as hell care about an innocent fifteen-year-old girl.”
Thirteen
Jake grunted with pain as Randy helped him step out of his pants and shirt. “Brian said the wound looks like it’s healing beautifully,” she told him. She hung on to him as he sat down on the bed and managed to lay back. She looked around the room. “I’m glad we could stay in our own hotel room tonight. It’s only been six days, but I can’t wait to get back to the J&L, away from all the attention around here.”
“And I’ll be damn glad when I have all my strength back,” Jake grumbled. “Get your gown on and come lie down by me, Randy. The last time you were in bed with me you were fully clothed and about to fall off the edge of the doctor’s cot.”
Randy pulled the covers over him. “I don’t like that sleeping medicine the doctor gave me. I should be awake in case you need something.”
“No, you need to sleep. Now come to bed. We’re leaving in the morning, and we both need rest.”
Randy undressed, and Jake closed his eyes against the sight of her ribs and hip bones sticking out. He wanted to rip apart everything in the room at the sight of her. He’d always loved watching her undress, drinking in the sight of her full breasts and the soft curve of her hips and the small roundness of her belly and the sweet, secret spot between her beautiful legs. She had a perfect bottom that had kept its firm roundness. All those soft curves and the roundness were gone now, and her breasts were not quite so full. He watched her brush out her hair, the beautiful blond tresses he loved to get tangled in his hands.
“Come on to bed, Randy.”
Randy set the brush down and walked around the other side of the bed, away from his wounded side. She watched him warily. “You’re upset.”
“Yeah, you might say that. I’ll be even more upset if you don’t get into this bed.”
Randy turned off the lamp beside the bed and crawled under the covers, lying still on her back and not touching him at first.
Jake sighed deeply, resting an arm over his eyes and struggled to speak calmly. “Randy, I’d like to get back together with the woman who sasses me and bosses me around and who feels good in my arms, the one who is round in all the right places—the one I can tease and laugh with and whose strength makes me stronger. That time we spent at the line shack after what happened last winter—it was beautiful and necessary. You asked me to take it all away and make you mine again, and I damn well did, or at least I thought I did. But something is different. Of all the things we’ve been through, none of it ever made us feel like strangers, but that’s how I feel right now.”