Love's Sweet Revenge (4 page)

“Where did you say he spotted them?”

“He noticed them when he was up on Echo Ridge near the place you call Evie's Garden. The rustlers were south of there, camped like they belonged there and weren't afraid of bein' caught.”

“Damn,” Lloyd swore. “That's hours away. We'll have to ride hard and fast.”

“Yes, sir,” Vance answered. “I'll bet them men have no idea they might run into Jake Harkner. They'll get one big surprise if they do.” He handed out an envelope. “And here's the message the courier left with your sister. She said you should see it right away.”

Lloyd's horse skittered sideways as he took the envelope. He quickly opened it. From the loft, Katie watched his whole demeanor change. She could feel it. He removed his hat and shook his long hair behind his back. He'd not retied it. “Did my sister seem okay? Was she real upset?” he asked.

Katie's heart pounded with wonder at what was in the note.

“She seemed shook up,” Vance told him, “but her husband came home from helpin' that neighbor kid who broke his arm. She seemed calmer once he got there. What's in the note?”

Lloyd shoved the note into a pocket inside his denim jacket. “One of the bastards who was at Dune Hollow is out of prison, and he'll be after my ass for sure.”

“Oh no!” Katie groaned.

“First things first,” Lloyd continued. “Let's go catch us some rustlers.”

“Jason said it looked like they were headed south toward Denver,” Vance told him.

“And by now Pa is headed south, too. He'll come around the south border and head on up to the house. Hard to say if he's ahead of them or behind them.” He studied the very weatherworn and life-worn Vance Kelly, who was about Jake's age and who Jake suspected had a very colored past but judged him to be a dependable man. “You stay here, Vance, and keep a watch on things. I'm not sure what this sonofabitch who just got released might do. I killed his brother, and he swore to get revenge, so you stay close to my wife and my sister.”

Katie's heart pounded with dread at the words.

“You can count on me,” Vance answered. “I've handled my share of men like that.”

“My wife is up in that loft. You wait for her to come down and follow her back to the house; and don't you make any jokes about us being up there, understand? You be respectful.”

“Jesus, Lloyd, you don't have to tell me that.”

Lloyd looked at the other two. “We'll ride all goddamn night if we have to—try to cut them off before they run across my father. They'll be going a lot slower than us and will stop somewhere tonight, so we might be able to catch up with them by tomorrow.” He kicked his horse into a hard run, and the other two men followed.

Katie watched them ride off. Pepper and Cole were good men, older like Jake but solid and able. Jake suspected Pepper and Vance were former outlaws, but then, so was Jake Harkner, so he knew men like that better than any other kind. He read men pretty good and seemed to sense which ones could be trusted. So did Lloyd.

“Take care of him,” she whispered in a quick prayer. She hurriedly dressed. She felt embarrassed at having to walk out there and face Vance Kelly, but there was no getting around it.

It seemed they would never be able to totally relax and enjoy the new life they'd found out here. She supposed she would just have to get used to the fact that where there was a Harkner man, there was almost always some kind of danger, even without wearing a badge. All they needed was the name, and guns were required. But she loved Lloyd, and she'd learned to live with the danger.

Besides, this was nothing compared to what happened back in Oklahoma. At least not yet.

“You getting sore in all the wrong places from too much riding?” Jake turned his horse to face his wife.

“It's not the
riding
that's got me sore in all the wrong places,” Randy teased, taking up the reins of their packhorse.

Jake laughed in the teasing way he had of making her feel embarrassed.

“On a trip like this, a man your age should be too tired for frivolity, Mr. Harkner.”

“Don't underestimate what a man my age is capable of, Mrs. Harkner.” Jake winked at her as he lit a cigarette.

“In your case, I don't underestimate
any
thing,” Randy shot back.

“You're the one who kept offering herself to me,” Jake teased. He grinned and turned his horse, heading down a pathway toward the valley below.

Randy followed behind him, pulling the packhorse along. “Just don't be underestimating
me
, dear husband. I've been just fine on this trip. I'd rather put up with the hard ground and lack of comforts than be home worrying about what's happening when you're gone for too long at a time. We went through enough of that back in Oklahoma.”

“Well, being a marshal back there proved more dangerous than all the grizzlies and bobcats and rustlers here, but even so, I'm not bringing you along every time I do this. We needed the time together, but these trips are too dangerous for you.”

“Are you giving me orders?” she called out.

Jake kept the cigarette at the corner of his mouth when he glanced back at her. “You mean by saying you can't come with me next time?”

“I mean exactly that.”

He turned away. “Then I am giving you orders. What if something goes wrong? You're a distraction. I might not be as alert as I should be.”

Randy smiled. “I
like
being a distraction. That means you're still attracted to me. A woman my age needs to know that.”

“Hell, you're ten years younger than I am. Maybe I'm the one who needs to know he's still wanted.”

“Half the women in Colorado want you.”

“Easy, Midnight.” Jake pulled up on the reins to the black gelding he favored over the other horses he owned. The path had suddenly banked steeper, and small rocks tumbled as Midnight whinnied and stepped lightly to his master's command. “Stay there!” he told Randy.

Randy slowed her horse, a gentle gray gelding called Shortbread. She watched with concern as Jake led Midnight down the steep path that had become more of a washout after a short but hard rain last night. Rocks and dirt tumbled as Midnight half slid down the bank to a flatter pathway. Jake dismounted and tied the horse, then grasped at trees and rocks and anything else he could to keep from slipping as he climbed back up to where Randy waited. She noticed how worn-looking his black leather boots were in spite of being fairly new. The silver Mexican conchae and extra-fancy stitching made them sturdy enough for the wear and tear of ranching, but they were already scratched and dirty.

She wore leather boots herself, and a split riding skirt. She shivered under the extra sheepskin jacket Jake had made her bring along, and she was glad for his advice. Mountain mornings could be very cold, even when the weather was warming in the valleys.

Jake reached her and took a last drag on his cigarette, then threw it down and stepped it out extra hard, as he always did when in the pine forest. “Get off Shortbread. We'll walk down using the trees to keep our balance. Let Shortbread and the packhorse make their own way. The last thing I need is for you and that horse to take a fall out here where there's no help.” He reached up and grasped her about the waist, helping her down.

“I do have help,” she teased. “
You're
here.”

“Yeah, well, I'm no damn doctor.” He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “And why on earth would you think I'm not still attracted to you, after the three days we spent up in that cabin?”

Randy smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I just like hearing you say it, that's all.”

He yanked her wide-brimmed hat farther down on her head when she looked up at him again. “See?” he told her. “You're distracting me again. And there's Shortbread and the packhorse, already headed to the bottom. Come on.” He kept hold of her arm as they made their way down the escarpment, Randy voicing little squeals at a few precarious slips on wet needles. Jake kept a firm grip on her arm as they made their way over and around fallen logs and broken limbs, skinny pine branches snapping under their feet.

“What a relief!” Randy exclaimed when they reached the flatter pathway.

“Must have rained harder than we thought last night.” Jake helped her remount and handed her the reins to the packhorse again. He untied and mounted Midnight, and they headed farther along, ever downward, until they reached the vast expanse of green valley below the cabin.

Randy glanced up at the line shack, feeling a little sad wondering if and when they would go back again. Their last three days there were the sweetest, most peaceful, most satisfying days they had ever spent together. It was as though all the bad things they'd ever faced together never happened, as though he was thirty again and she was twenty and they were starting over. “Jake?”

“Yeah?” He kept riding ahead of her, heading even farther into the valley, where they would turn south and head closer to home.

“I really enjoyed our time at the line shack. We can go back again sometime, can't we? Maybe after roundup?”

“Sure we can. It's just that I can't take you with me every time I leave the house. I have my ranch work, and you have work to share with Evie and Katie—and the grandkids would have a fit if Grandma was gone all the time. They are probably already asking about you.”

“Oh, I know that. I wouldn't
want
to be gone all the time. It's just that this time together seemed so special. I'm glad I came along.”

Jake slowed his horse and let her catch up. He looked her over lovingly. “I'm glad, too. But I love you, and I want you to be safe.”

“I'm always safe when I'm with you.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Well, out here it's the unexpected things that even
I
can't stop that worry me. And I like you at home because, after days of mending fence and herding and branding cattle and seeing nothing but the ass end of cows and horses, I look forward to coming home to something that looks a lot better.”

Randy laughed. “It's nice to know you think I look better than a cow's hind end.”

“Woman, your own hind end is the prettiest thing I've ever seen.” He rode off again. “And if we don't stop this kind of talk, I'll end up dragging you back up to that cabin.”

I wouldn't mind
, she thought. She remembered another time he'd ridden away, back in Kansas a lifetime ago after she'd nursed him back to health from a gunshot wound—when he was a wanted man and thought it was best that he leave her before things became too serious between them. She remembered wanting to beg him to stay because she'd fallen in love with him. She knew even then that Jake Harkner had lost his heart, too—that for the first time in his life, he'd begun to understand what love felt like. Back then it scared him to death.

“If you don't stay home next time I leave, how can I come home to you all warm and comfortable and rested and baking that great homemade bread?” he called out, interrupting her thoughts.

He rode a little faster, and Randy nudged Shortbread into a faster trot to keep up. What a contrast he was to the angry, mean, unhappy, wanted outlaw he was when they met. It had been a long time since she'd seen that dark, brooding side of her husband, the look that came into his eyes when something happened to threaten anyone he loved, or something came along to wake up ugly memories. He was a man capable of extreme gentleness for his size and demeanor—but also capable of extreme violence against anyone who threatened those he cared about.

“Have I told you how you fit this land?” she told him, urging Shortbread up beside him. “When I watch you from behind, I see a big, tall man on a big horse, handling a big ranch in big, big country. You fit this land, Jake. It's like Jeff said in his book.”

Randy loved Jeff's description of Jake, saying that he had a way of filling up a room with his bold presence—that sometimes it seemed he filled up the whole land.

Jake turned and bridled closer, then reached out and pulled her off her horse and onto his own horse in front of him. “Ma'am, if you don't quit your flirting, we'll never make it home. I'll end up making camp early, and we'll be cavorting right out in the open. Some of my men could show up any time and catch us in a very compromising position.”

Randy laughed and sat sideways, removing her hat and resting her head on his chest as he kept his horse at a slow walk. Jake reached over and grasped Shortbread's bridle, pulling the horse close enough to grab the reins. “Here.”

Randy wrapped the strings of her hat around Shortbread's saddle horn, then took the horse's reins. Jake urged Midnight around so he could grab hold of the packhorse. “Hell, between hanging on to the packhorse and handling my own reins, I can't put my arms around you.”

Randy wrapped her own arms around his waist, still clinging to Shortbread's reins. “I'll just hang on. I know we can't ride like this for long, but I like it.”

Jake kissed her hair. “So do I.”

“I love you, Jake.”

He didn't answer right away. Finally, he said, “To this day, after almost thirty years, I still have trouble figuring out
why
you love me. I've put you through so much.”

“You've loved me as deeply as any man can love a woman, and that's all that matters. After all these years, I feel like we're not just husband and wife, but lovers. Does that make any sense?”

He laughed lightly. “You are determined to make this ride difficult for me, aren't you?”

She leaned up and kissed him. “You're fun to be with when you're like this, all relaxed and happy. And you didn't answer when I said I love you.”

He kissed her hair again. “That's because
I love you
isn't good enough for the likes of you. I was trying to think of something better than that.”

She threw her head back and looked up at him. “Worship? Adore?”

“Something like that.”

They both laughed, and she hugged him again. But even without looking at him, she felt the sudden change. He halted his horse, and she felt his whole body stiffen. She leaned back again and saw the darker look of the old, defensive Jake Harkner, the wanted man always on the alert. He was looking past her.

“Jake?”

“Rustlers. They've seen us. Hang on to Shortbread.” He turned Midnight toward the foothills. “We're heading for those rocks to the west!” He urged the horses into a faster lope toward an outcropping of rocks that looked as though they'd tumbled there from nowhere. “Get down!” he told her when they reached cover. He hung on to her arm as she slid off his horse. Jake dismounted. “Tie the horses farther into the trees.” He yanked his rifle from its boot.

Randy pulled the horses into the trees, her heart pounding. In moments like this, she trusted her husband to know what to do. She obeyed every order.

Jake ducked behind a huge boulder. “Get the shotgun and my leather pack with the extra cartridges and buckshot,” he told her, cocking his repeating rifle.

Randy took the shotgun and ammunition from the packhorse and carried them over to him.

Jake set both rifle and shotgun against the rock while he checked his Colt .44s, the guns that had brought him so much notoriety…and often too much heartache. “You stay down, and I mean
down
,” he told her.

Randy knelt beside him and peeked through an opening between the boulder and another rock. In the distance a good six or seven men were herding a fair number of cattle south.

“How do you know it's not Pepper and some of the other men?”

“None of my men would be riding in bunches like that this time of year. They're spread out—a couple here, a couple there. And we aren't rounding up yet, at least not in this area. They wouldn't be out there with that many cattle.” He rested on one knee, picking up the Winchester and positioning it in the same opening to watch. “They're still a little too far away, damn it!”

“Jake, please don't take them on by yourself.”

“I don't think I'll have any choice. Take the shotgun and keep it handy. If anything happens to me,
use
it!” He handed her one of his six-guns. “And then shoot the rest of them with this if you have to.”

Shoot the rest of them?
“Jake, why not just let them ride on?”

“Because it's
my
cattle they're stealing, and besides that, they're already coming this way. Don't touch the trigger on my .44 till you have to. They have a feather pull, and you'll end up shooting me or yourself. Just set it aside for now, but be ready to use that shotgun.”

Randy carefully laid the six-gun on a flat rock, closing her eyes and praying she wouldn't have to use it, worried that all the sweet and wonderful things she and Jake had shared the last few days could end in disaster here and now. Crouched on her knees, she peeked around the other side of the second boulder to see five men drawing closer, all very well armed. Two more were making their way around either side of the boulders where she and Jake were holed up. Her only consolation was that if any one man could take on seven or more against him, it was Jake Harkner.