“Just a game of cards,” Jake answered. “I’ve been on the trail a while and need some down time. I’m tired of all the bullshit of this job. Had to come through Hell’s Nest on my way to my next stop, so figured we’d get in a little card game.”
“Is that your name for this place?” another asked.
“Can you think of a better one?”
“Guess not. It’s just as good as any.” He looked Jake over. “What happened to your face?”
Jake lit a cigarette. “A little run-in with a shovel.”
“Did you fight back?”
“Beat it near to death,” Jake joked.
“More like whoever owned the shovel, I expect.”
“Something like that.”
All the while Jake is very alert to every single man in the room and who might have the information he needs. Something happens next that shakes up everybody in the saloon and reminds all of them that, joking or not, nobody crosses Jake Harkner!
He walked over to the bed and picked up a pillow, breathing deeply of the rose scent. He remembered how passionately they’d made love before he left. …
He squeezed the pillow tight, burying his face in it “Randy … Randy,” he groaned. He sat down on the edge of the bed and rocked with the pillow in his arms.
Sometimes all I need is your arms around me. He could hear her saying it, feel her in his arms right now, smell her on the pillow.
“Jake?”
He looked up to see Preacher Zilke standing in the doorway.
“You sent for me?”
Jake rose, laying the pillow on the bed. “Sometimes all you need is to breathe in someone’s scent to feel close to them.” … He turned away. “And right now I’m not sure there is a God after all. Why would He let this happen?”
Lloyd rode around from the other side of the house and up to Jake then. “I didn’t’ find anything, but I saw two men back there in the woods.”
“I saw them, too,” Jake said quietly.
Jessie gritted her teeth. “How in hell can you sit there on that horse, Jake Harkner, and tell me so casually about my son and my man bein’ dead – and you bein’ the one who killed them!”
Jake lit a cigarette and waved out the match before dropping it. “I can sit here and tell you casually because Lloyd and I saw what they did to an innocent girl. So – no – it didn’t bother me at all to shoot them both down and it doesn’t’ bother me to talk about it.”
Jessie finally set the gun aside. “They was still my husband and my son. Ain’t you got no feelin’s about that? You’ve got a son.”
“And my son knows that if he ever did something like what we found, I’d damn well shoot him myself for it! Are you saying it’s okay what they did? They raped a young girl and shot an innocent man in a bank robbery.”
Jessie looked away, blinking back tears. “Get the hell off my property, Harkner.”
“Well, right now you’re still basically a squatter in this part of Oklahoma, Jessie, and I’m a U.S. Marshal, so I have every right to be here. And before you claim I have no feelings I could easily have shot Brad all those weeks ago, but I didn’t. I thought about you losing Bo, so I took Brad down a different way so you’d have one son left.”
“Well, ain’t that just real decent of you!” The words were shouted from near the doorway, and a moment later Brad appeared, looking much thinner than the day Jeff watched Jake throw the kid off the board-walk in Guthrie. He walked outside, bent over like an old man. “I still can’t stand up straight, Harkner!”
“At least you’re alive,” Lloyd told him. “Consider yourself lucky, seeing as how it was Jake Harkner who took you down.”
“Yeah, well, your old man took me by surprise, else I’d have beat the shit out of him.”
“Well, when you’re all healed up, you come on into town and I’ll take you on myself,” Lloyd answered.
“There’s other ways of getting revenge,” Brad told him with a sneer.
“Yeah? What’s that?”
Brad grinned. “Just ways, that’s all. Family is family, Lloyd.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ole’ Jake here has a family of his own, that’s all. He ought to find out what it’s like to lose a loved one.”
As though sensing its rider’s fury, Lloyd’s horse whinnied and jerked backwards.
“You filthy sonofabitch!” Lloyd spat back. He reined his horse to a stand-still and started to dismount.
“Stay on your horse, Lloyd!” Jake warned, eyeing Jessie.
“He threatened the family!” Lloyd growled.
“Killing him won’t help!”
“Maybe not, but it would feel real good!” Lloyd glowered at Brad. “I’m real close to coming over there and breaking every rib in your body, you bastard! How does it feel having the shit kicked out of you by a fifty-six-year-old man? Kind of humiliating, isn’t it? Next time it will be somebody your own age, and you’ll spend a long time getting on your feet again, if ever!”
“You might not live long enough to try!”
Just then a movement came from Jake’s right. In an instant his gun was out and fired. Jeff’s horse skittered sideways, and a man at the far end of the porch fell with a hole in his chest.
The moment Jake fired the gun, Lloyd was off his horse, his gun drawn. He charged past Brad and into the house. … Jeff could hear him charging around inside the house, searching for anyone else who might be there.
(Jake questions Jessie and Brad, then gets into a confrontation with Brad as Lloyd exits the house)
Jessie started to reach for her rifle.
“Don’t do it, ma’am,” Lloyd told her, coming around the side of the house, his six-gun trained in her direction. “That’s my father, and woman or not, I’ll pull this trigger.”
(Jake has learned some terrible news – his beloved Randy, the woman he loves more than his own life, is very ill – she wakes up groggy from sedatives and Jake is trying very hard to lighten the moment, not wanting to tell her the truth (or even face it himself), which leads to the following conversation after he’s crawled into bed with her that morning …)
(Jake speaking) … “You’ve been out like you went on a drinking binge. You even talked to me, but like a drunk woman. You don’t remember?”
“No! I don’t remember a thing!” Randy turned onto her back. “What did you do to me after you undressed me?”
He grinned. “Unspeakable things … horrible … shameful … unspeakable things. You don’t even want to know. You’d never talk to me again. I’d be out in somebody’s dog house if I told you.”
She pushed at him. “You did not.”
“Oh, I figured I’d take advantage of the situation and I did all the things you’ve always been too embarrassed to let me do. Only the worst prostitute in the worst brothel in Oklahoma would let me do such things.”
Randy couldn’t help a smile. “And how would you know that?”
“I’ve seen it all and done it all.” He met her mouth in a deep kiss. “It was great.”
“You’d better be lying,” she told him when he moved his kisses back to her throat.
“I never lie to you. You have been properly ravished, mi querida. We had nothing but disrespectful sex last night.”
“Is there such a thing?”
“You bet. I got to know things about you I never realized in twenty-six years of sleeping with you.”
She laughed softly. “You’re being mean.”
“Mean is what I’m known for.”
Randy studied his eyes and saw the hint of fear behind all the joking. “What did Brian tell you?”
His smile faded a little. “He told me it’s okay to have sex with you.”
Her eyes widened. “ You didn’t ask him about that!”
“Of course I did. Do you think our son-in-law doesn’t know we still frolic in bed?”
“Jake, I will never be able to face him again.”
“Mrs. Harkner, who are you married to?”
“Jake Harkner.”
“Do you really think those closest to us don’t know a man like me still enjoys women?”
“Women? As in plural?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure I do. Did you really just take a bath at that brothel the last time you were gone?” she teased.
“I really did.”
“And who helped bathe you?”
“Me, myself and I.”
Randy grinned. “I’m not sure I believe that.”
“Who loves you more than his own life?”
“You.”
“And there is your answer.”
He started to kiss her again but she put her hand over his mouth. “What did Brian tell you? You’re avoiding the answer, Jake.”
(Reporter Jeff is having a conversation with Jake Harkner)
“Can you answer one question for me before I leave?” Jeff asked.
“If it doesn’t take a long story.”
“No. I just want to know how you would describe your wife if you could only use one or two words.”
A look of complete adoration and sorrow moved through Jake’s gaze. He smoked quietly, saying nothing at first. “The center of my universe,” he finally answered. “And the air I breathe. No man could ask for better.”
Jeff scribbled the words. “That’s a beautiful way to put it.”
“She’s a beautiful woman – inside and out. I have absolutely no idea how or why she puts up with me.”
“Pardon my forwardness, but I suspect it’s because she feels the same way about you, Jake. You are the air she breathes.”
Jake met Jeff’s gaze. “I had no right ever touching that woman, but I never wanted anything worse in my life than I wanted her the first time I saw her.”
I try so hard to write the best book I can write, and get so frustrated when I realize there are still so many millions of people out there who will never know about my books. I love writing so much, work so hard at it, but true success is always just out of reach. It’s so hard to keep going sometimes, amid the hurry and worry of everyday life; yet I cannot stop, even if I should end up a pauper, I cannot stop, because writing and the West are alive in me.
I live to write, and my spirit belongs to the West. It will never, never belong anyplace else. Someday the world will know this. I will make a name for my western writing. I will be famous for it. Perhaps God is only waiting for me to know this for sure – to know my destiny and never take it for granted, never think about the money or the fame, only about my destiny – my goals, my purpose for living, which is to WRITE – and to write about the West – only the American West. I desire nothing else, live for nothing else.
May God help me keep this spirit – keep the West alive in my mind and my heart even when I cannot be there. And may He remind me that I HAVE reached success, if only in the form of writing book after book and staying at the computer and doing what I love. If I can’t reach the whole world, I can at least reach hundreds, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of readers and teach them about the great history of the American West, respect it, love it.
The men inside the jail laughed. “Jake Harkner, kind and thoughtful toward kids, and a ruthless, murderin’ sonofabitch toward everybody else.”
“Something like that,” Jake answered. “You try anything, or hurt Sparky, and you’ll see the ruthless, murdering sonofabitch side of me.”
(Reporter Jeff is watching all of this) Five men against one, (he is thinking). Jeff wondered how he would manage to find his next breath.
“What about the hired gun, Bo?” Jake yelled. “Who is he?”
“Pierce Henry. He’s out in the street somewhere, waiting to shoot your ass if we can’t do it. One way or another, you’ll die today for killin’ Jack, and for what you done to Brad. The kid is hurtin’ real bad, Jake. He might not live.”
“He made his choice,” Jake yelled back. “Now come on out of there unless you’re ready to die. Give it some thought.”
It was then that everything changed. A little boy came running down the street on short little legs. “Gampa! Gampa!”
Jeff froze in terror. “My God, it’s Jake’s grandson!”
“Jesus Christ!” Jake swore.
After that, all hell broke loose. Jake charged off the boardwalk and literally leaped over a hitching post. He ducked and rolled his way toward his grandson while guns blazed from inside the jail.
Randy’s stomach fell a little watching him strap on the guns. She never quite got over the dread of what each new day could bring. … He tied the holsters to his thighs … and pulled on his leather vest, his badge already pinned to it.
Randy sighed. “I can already see a dark mood setting in, Jake.”
“And I don’t like having to look at Marty Bryant. I want to kill him and I can’t. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll give me an excuse.” He opened the bedroom door and started out.
“Jake, don’t you want breakfast?”
“No. I’ll just grab a hunk of bread on the way out and get a cup of coffee down at the jail.”
“Wait,.” Randy walked closer and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I’m telling you, I don’t have a good feeling about this. Lloyd would understand if you want to get him.”
“No. I’ll be all right on my own. And Sparky will be at the jail.”
Their gazes held.
“Jake, don’t lie to me.”
He turned away. “Just stay in the house today, will you? … That means even if you hear shooting. Don’t you dare go running out into the street, you hear me? If you’re needed, someone will come and get you.”
“Jake -“
“Promise me!”
She felt the tears wanting to come. “I promise.” She watched him leave, then closed her eyes and turned away, praying the same prayer she prayed every single morning. “God, be with him.”
A rather disgruntled Jake came down the steps. “What do you want? Give us a couple more days and you can come and talk to my wife when things calm down.”
“It’s not that.” Jeff looked back toward town. “Marshal, when I headed back to town, some men stopped me. They were watching you, and they … made threats … said now there was one more pretty woman in your family. One even said to tell you that Gordy says hello.”
Jeff watched all the soft side of Jake Harkner the family man turn to something else as Jake looked past him toward town. In one quick moment he’d become the man Jeff saw ride into Guthrie just yesterday.
“How many?” Jake asked.
“Three. Do you know who they are?”
Jake’s demeanor grew even darker. “You bet your ass I know them.”
(Reporter Jeff Truebridge is speaking)
“What’s your opinion of Jake, sheriff?”
The hefty man grunted as he took his feet down from the desk. “He’s a mean sonofabitch, and mean is probably an understatement. But he can be a damn good friend once he’s figured out you’re worth it. He’s the kind of man you want to have your back if you’re in trouble, but also the kind of man you don’t want to cross. My advice to you is to tread lightly. Jake doesn’t like people poking into personal affairs or bothering his family.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Sheriff Sparks grunted again as he stood up. “Good luck to you, kid.” He lit some oil lamps as the sun began to set behind the western landscape. “You all right in there, doc?” he asked Brian. (a doctor treating wounded prisoners)
“I’m almost done.”
“I’ll tell you about Harkner,” one of the prisoners yelled to Jeff. “He’s a murderin’ sonofabitch! Killed his own pa, they say!”
(Later, Jeff follows the doctor, Jake’s son-in-law, home)
“You’re married to Jake’s daughter, right?”
“I am. And Jake Harkner is one of the finest men I’ve known, so don’t be thinking I’m going to tell you horror stories about the man.” He turned away. “Not that he doesn’t have any horror stories to tell you himself.”
Jeff kept pursuing him as he walked. “Did he really kill his own father?”
“That’s a very touchy subject for him. I can only tell you he had good reason, but don’t think it doesn’t eat at him. … I’d be very careful asking him about it. You’d better get to know (Jake) pretty good before you even touch that subject.”
(Later in the conversation Brian tells the reporter …)
“…it’s Miranda you’ll need to deal with, not Jake. If he lets you write a book, it will be because Randy says it’s okay. Out there on the trail, he’s in full command. But when it comes to things like this, it’s like I told you, my mother-in-law owns that man. And if you do anything to offend her, you’ll have Jake to answer to.”
He met her mouth hungrily, his words spoken amid deep kisses. “If I wasn’t so needful of being inside you right now, I’d be tasting a lot more than your breasts.”
Randy’s smile faded to pleasure as his hands began searching just the right places that he knew awakened her womanly needs. She couldn’t help thinking how nice it was to be married to a man who knew every way there was to please a woman.
“Who do you belong to?” It was a ritualistic question he always asked before making love to her.
“Jake Harkner,” she answered, the words mumbled amid a searching kiss.
“And I’m just claiming what’s mine.”
Randy closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him, leather and fresh air and … man. She couldn’t think of another word for it. Just man. She took great satisfaction in giving this man who so sorely needed to be loved every enjoyment he wanted.
Jeff savored the opportunity to observe Harkner without having to approach him directly … yet. He searched for the right words to describe the man who’d made a name for himself in all the wrong ways yet had become nothing short of a hero in the eyes of the common man. How did someone who was at one time so lawless and ruthless become so well-liked?Notorious reputation, he quickly scribbled on his ever-handy note-pad. The way he carries himself – still a tall, slim, solid, hard-edged man with a look about him. What was that look? Danger. That was it. Like nitroglycerine - one wrong move and it explodes. …Jeff carefully mingled into the crowd that followed the marshal toward the jailhouse. It was obvious some of them just wanted to be near Jake Harkner so they could brag about knowing him. Fact was, Jeff wouldn’t mind having bragging rights himself, except his would be that he was the only man who’d convinced Jake Harkner to let him write a book about him. …Harkner wore the signature duster of a U.S. Marshal. He removed the coat, reaching around to lay it over his horses’s rump. Now Jeff could see his weapons – the infamous Colt .44 revolvers holstered on each hip, a Colt lightening magazine rifle and a sawed-off ten-gauge shotgun resting in loops on either side of his saddle. An extra cartridge belt hung across the man’s chest, and a third hand gun rested in a holster behind the marshal’s back. … Those prisoners he brought in who were still alive were in a bad way. … One had a bloody bandage around his forehead with dried blood on the side of his face. Another wore an eye patch and looked ready to fall off his horse. The third prisoner just hung his head but occasionally gave Harkner a dark look of hatred. The left sleeve of his shirt showed a huge blood stain. …The hard lines about Harkner’s eyes bespoke a man who’d led a very rough life. Everything about him spelled toughness – a man with not a soft spot on him.«««««Then … there she was. Jeff had never met her, but the woman hurrying down the street from the other end of town had to be Miranda Harkner. … The look of both relief and concern in her eyes said it all. After many years together, the woman was still very much in love with Jake Harkner. So small! Jeff quickly wrote. I expected a stout and somber woman. She was somehow bigger in my imagination. How does such a tiny woman handle a man like Jake Harkner?(The moment he saw her) the rugged, dangerous-looking Harkner halted his horse and dismounted, removing the extra belt slung over his shoulder and hanging it around his horse’s neck. He threw down his cigarette and walked up to the woman. … In a surprisingly gentle move, Jake put an arm around her shoulders and led her a few feet away. She smiled at him, and Jeff could hardly believe it when Harkner leaned down and kissed her cheek before grasping her arm and gently pushing her aside. “Stay out of the way till I take care of (these men),” he warned.
Jake turned away, a feeling of numbness moving through his entire body. Suddenly there were no birds singing. Suddenly the beauty around him existed no more. He didn’ t want it to exist, for then he would have to face the fact that soon this freedom, the enjoyment of these simple things, all the love he had found these past years with his work and his family, all of it was going to be taken from him. … Lloyd! His son was going to discover the awful truth now! In the blink of an eye all their lives would be changed. As usual, his wise, patient, devoted wife had been right, and oh, how it would hurt Lloyd and Evie!
“You’ve got time to light out of here, Jake,” Jess told him. “You know I’ll look after the family till you can send for them again.”
A quick gust of wind swept down from the mountains and blew Jake’s hat off. He breathed deeply of the sweet smell of pine and mountain wildflowers. “No,” he answered, running a hand through his still-thick hair. Its near-black color now showed streaks of gray at the temples. “No more running. It wouldn’t do any good this time.”
The two men just looked at each other for several long silent seconds. There was no more running this time. Jake could be facing a firing squad or a noose before it was all over. Jess could see the man fighting tears as he put out his hand. “You’ve been a good friend, Jess. I’m trusting you to keep my family safe, help them however they need it.”
Jess grasped his hand and nodded, clearing his throat to find his voice. “This ain’t your fault, Jake, when you think about it. It’s your pa’s fault. If not for him, none of the other would have happened.”
Jake released his grip and walked to Jess’s horse, feeling as though someone had set a boulder on his chest. “Trouble is, Jess, Lloyd’s going to say the same thing. This is going to change his life, and he’s going to say it’s all my fault.” He mounted up. “And he’ll be right.”
…
Miranda lowered the rifle. “Good afternoon, Lieutenant.” She set the gun aside. “What brings you way out here?”
Gentry looked around warily. “Your husband about?”
“No.” Jake! He was here for Jake! Why? After all these years, why had God let this happen!
“How’d you get so good with guns, Pa? Mom told me your own father died when you were about my age and that your mother was already dead. You didn’t have anybody to teach you.”Jake smoked quietly for a moment, staring at the campfire. Tell him the truth, a little voice nagged him. There couldn’t be a better time. “I just taught myself,” he answered. “I was orphaned at your age, had no other family. That was back in Texas in the thirties. Things were pretty lawless then. A kid my age had to know how to defend himself, how to provide for himself.…Lloyd leaned closer over the fire and turned the spit. Fat dripped from the rabbit onto hot coals and made little hissing sounds. “You ever have to kill a man back then?” he asked.Jake met his eyes. Yeah, my own father. And a hell of a lot of others. How could he tell (his own son) that? The kid looked at him sometimes like he was a God. If he knew the truth …
“Somebody get Jake!” a man shouted.
Kennedy shot again, hitting the man in the back. Three innocent people! Miranda could see the stands now, heard shouting, more screams, children beginning to cry. Plenty of the men sported guns because of the shooting contest, but none seemed willing to get involved. A couple of men rode off on horses, deciding just to get out of there. The band stopped its playing. She could see Jake now, standing in the middle of the corral. To her horror, another man, obviously part of Kennedy’s bunch, held a crying Lloyd, pointing a gun to the baby’s head. The black stallion was trotting nervously in a circle around the inside of the corral fence. …
She took faint hope in the fact that Jake was still alive and standing, and he wore one of his revolvers. He had put it on because of the shooting contest, but it was only one gun with six bullets. How many men did Kennedy have along?
Now you know the kind of man your Jake used to be, Juan had told her. She would not believe he had ever been this bad. He would not stick a knife into a woman’s ribs. He would not threaten a little boy. Never. He would not rape, or come to something like this and shoot people down like rabbits. Still, he had ridden with these men at one time, and now it seemed he would pay a much higher price for it than if he had gone to prison. Her heart ached at the look in his eyes when Juan dragged her around the corral fence to stand next to the man who held Lloyd. The baby reached for her, screaming, “Mama!”
“Jake Harkner, put me down!” Randy liked to use his real name in private, felt he should hear it and learn to be proud of it. She made a mild protest when he dumped her on the bed and moved on top of her, but her weak objections vanished when his lips covered her own again in a penetrating kiss. This was so like the man she loved, spontaneous, gently demanding, sometimes a little wild and unpredictable. “Jake this is crazy.”
He moved his lips to her neck and ran his hand under her dress. It was warm, and she hadn’t bothered with extra slips. “Just a quick little sign of affection, mi querida,” he said softly. She felt her drawers coming off. “Maybe tonight we’ll do this again, take our time.”
Just the words brought on a surge of hot desire. When Jake Harkner “took his time” with a woman, he had the most exotic ways of taking her to a world of ecstasy. She never dreamed there were so many ways to make love. With Jake it always seemed so right and natural.
