Outlaw Hearts (57 page)

The man turned back to Jake before Miranda could say a word. “You must have done some fast talkin' to get a woman like that, Jake. She's about the prettiest thing I ever laid eyes on, and God knows I've laid eyes on a lot of women.” The man laughed again, finally letting go of Jake's hand. “This the woman you was pinin' over last time you was hangin' around these parts? Wasn't that right after you shot the hell out of Bill Kennedy and his bunch back in California?”

“It was.” Jake looked at Randy, a hint of apology in his eyes for the way Charlie talked. “Jess and I both knew Charlie back during the war,” he explained. “I saw him a time or two when I came here after California.”

Miranda nodded to him. “How do you do, Mr. Tate.”

The man laughed again, showing tobacco-stained teeth. He was a big man, but Miranda guessed it was more fat than muscle. He was obviously older than Jake, but looked sturdy in spite of his big belly. “Damned if I don't do just fine,” he answered.

“What the hell are you doing still hanging around these parts?” Jake asked the man. “I figured you'd have moved on by now, or else got yourself shot.”

“Hell, I ain't fit for no place else. I help out the Wild Bunch sometimes—you know, Butch Cassidy and them—worked for the James boys back in the seventies. I rebrand their cattle for them, sell stolen goods, that kind of thing. I make good whiskey money, that's about all, but hell, what else does a man need but good whiskey and a hungry woman in his bed at night? There's plenty of both all along this trail. I expect you sure as hell know that.”

Miranda reddened, turning away and walking back to her horse, again fighting old jealousies. She never had asked Jake if he had turned to any prostitutes in their two-year separation, and she decided it didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered now but finding Lloyd and all of them being a family again.

“I don't have time for reminiscing, Charlie. Downing says you expected I'd show up. You must know why I'm here. I'm looking for my son. Downing says Latimer's got him. I intend to get him back. Can you help me?”

“I can help,” Charlie was saying. “Hell, I rode with Latimer myself for a while, but I got out of that bunch. They're bad, Jake. I've done a lot of wrong things in my life, but I ain't that bad.”

Jake puffed on the cheroot, and Miranda could feel his fury. She walked back to his side. “Do you think Lloyd is still alive?” Jake asked Charlie.

Charlie was sober now. He glanced at Miranda, back at Jake. “Could be. Latimer don't like to kill somebody quick, if you know what I mean.”

Jake took a deep breath for control. “You've got to show me where Latimer's place is, Charlie. I'll pay you. You don't have to go in yourself if you don't want. Just guide me there. I'll do the rest.”

“Hell, Jake, I'll take you there. You don't have to pay me. I don't think you can do it alone, though. There must be fifteen men out there.”

“I'm gonna help,” Downing told Charlie. “I hate the sonofabitch, but I could never go after him on my own. I figure the best chance I'll ever have is if it's Jake Harkner who's after the man, if Jake here is as good as everybody says he is.”

Charlie watched Jake, feeling a little sorry for him. “He is. Ain't nobody faster. Anybody who can take on Bill Kennedy's bunch twice and live to tell about it has to be good.” He walked closer to Jake. “I'll do what I can too, Jake, for old times' sake. I'll get you in there. I know a way we can take that we won't be seen. What we need is ol' Jess helpin' too. Where is he?”

Jake held his eyes. “Jess died a few months back—lung cancer.”

Miranda was surprised at the genuine sorrow in Charlie's eyes. How strange that these men could be so vulgar and lawless, yet be capable of affection and loyalty to each other. “I'm damn sorry to hear that. I know you was good friends.”

“You know Lloyd, then?” Jake asked, his eyes bloodshot from fury and terror for his son.

Charlie nodded. “I seen him quite a few months ago down at Brown's Park. He was drunk as a skunk, hangin' with some rustlers, goin' around wantin' to know if anybody had heard of his father, the notorious Jake Harkner, sayin' it real sarcastic like. I tried talkin' to him, had a feelin' you wouldn't like him hangin' around these parts. He just shoved me away and told me to mind my own business, but I could see right through him. That boy loves you, Jake. He just ain't about to admit it.”

Jake glanced at Miranda, and she saw the deep pain in his eyes. He turned to his horse then and mounted up. “There's no time to waste. Go get dressed, Charlie. There's plenty of daylight left.”

The man nodded. “Just before we get there, I'll draw you a layout of the place.”

The man turned, and Jake called after him. “You don't have to do this.” He looked at Downing. “Neither one of you. You're risking your lives.”

Downing just grinned. “I figure havin' you along is worth five, maybe six men. Besides, some men will do anything for money.”

Jake adjusted his hat against the wind. “Money or not, I'm obliged.”

“Hell, we've both been gettin' a little bored anyway,” Charlie spoke up, but Miranda did not miss the worry in his eyes. She was grateful to the man, a little surprised that he and Hank Downing had offered to help. Apparently a lot of these men were like Jake, rough on the outside, but some of them had heart.

She mounted up, and Jake looked at her. “Where do you think you're going?”

“I'm going with you,” she answered, surprised by his question.

Jake looked at Charlie. “Can those women in there be trusted to watch after her while we're gone?”

Charlie nodded. “Sure they can.”

“No!” Miranda protested vehemently. “Lloyd could be hurt bad by now! I have to be there, Jake! I'll go crazy waiting here!”

“It's too dangerous!”

“I've come this far, Jake Harkner! I'll not wait here like some fainting flower! Why did you bother teaching me to shoot this pistol and that shotgun? I might be able to help you, and besides that, you or Hank or Charlie could get hurt. You
need
me, and that's my
son
out there! If I have to kill someone to get to him, then I'll do it! I've forgiven you for a lot of things, Jake Harkner, but I won't forgive you for leaving me behind now after the hell I've been through coming this far!”

Jake felt torn at the look of terror and helplessness in her eyes. She was right. She'd been through more hell than any woman should know in the years she had been with him, especially these last four years that Lloyd had been missing. “All right,” he agreed. “You can go partway, but not all the way in. We'll find a place to hide you until I can come for you. That way you'll be close but safe.” He wanted to hold her, but he was too full of fury and dread, too tense and full of thoughts of murder to have any gentle feelings for the moment.

Hank Downing mounted his horse, and Charlie stood at the door to the whorehouse, chuckling. “Now I know why you married her,” he told Jake with a wink. “You finally come across somebody you couldn't whip. Takes a strong woman to handle the likes of you. I reckon you found one.” He laughed again, going inside.

Jake turned to Miranda, edging his horse closer. “I reckon I did,” he mimicked Charlie. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out his mother's cross and rosary beads. He put them into Miranda's hand. “Keep these for me. Your prayers seem to have a lot of power, woman. Let's hope they're more powerful than Jube Latimer and my guns put together.”

***

They stopped near the waterfall under which Charlie claimed Miranda could hide. The Bighorn River rushed past them as everyone dismounted and Charlie knelt to the sand along the bank of the river and began drawing a layout of Latimer's ranch.

“We're here, to the southwest,” he explained. “The ranch is just on the other side of them bluffs we come past. The bluffs is what hid us. Now we're close to a couple of isolated buttes that form the south entrance to the ranch. They ain't very high, but big enough to shelter the entrance. There's always a man up top of each one keepin' watch. We're still safe along the river here where there's so much overgrowth.” He pointed to a flat-topped butte just to the north of them. “That's the last barrier that's keepin' them from seein' us. I'm gonna move across the river, get your wife and her horse hid under that there waterfall. There's plenty of room underneath. She'll be safe there.”

He looked at Miranda. “If nobody comes for you by nightfall, you head back come mornin'. The river will take you right back to Hole-in-the-Wall. You go to Ella's place. They ain't your kind of women, but Ella will see that you find somebody you can trust to take you back to Laramie. Nobody around Hole-in-the-Wall will give you trouble on account of you're Jake's woman.”

Miranda tried to control the sick feeling the man's words had brought to her stomach.
If
nobody
comes
for
you
by
nightfall…

“Do exactly what he says,” Jake told her. “And don't you move from under that waterfall.”

Their eyes held for a moment before he looked back at Charlie's drawing, and Miranda knew there would not even be a chance for a last good-bye, one more embrace.

“I'll head up the west butte the back way,” Charlie was saying. “I think I can get to the guard there from behind. I'll knife him if I can, keep things quiet a little longer to give you time to position yourself to shoot down the man at the top of the east butte. Once you've killed your man, Hank can ride around the east side of the butte where you'll be and come in on the east side of the ranch. There's trees and fencing there to hide behind, and there's bound to be a couple of men out in this area where they keep stolen horses. Hank will take care of them, if he can keep himself from gettin' shot. From then on it's every man for himself. Jake, you can ride straight in. Hank will be to your right, I'll be to your left comin' in on the west side here. I'll head for the bunkhouse. It's right here.”

The man drew a square at the northwest corner of the ranch. “To the right of that is a barn, and then a shed. There's liable to be men in every building and in the main house, which is right here in the center. We'll just have to take down whatever comes at us. Our only advantage is surprise, and your accuracy with them guns, Jake. Ordinarily I'd say we should just ride in there and demand Latimer hand over your son, but he don't behave like other men. We'd just end up with ourselves surrounded, and he'd have the pleasure of sayin' he killed both the Harkners. He thinks he's a big man. Fact is, I have a feelin' he didn't go after Lloyd just because the boy shot a couple of his men. He's probably figurin' like some of the rest of us, that you'd come after the kid once you was freed. He'd like to have your head mounted on his wall so's he can say he was the one to shoot Jake Harkner, even though he don't even know you. It's the name that counts.” The man rose, looking from Jake to Hank. “You two ready?”

“You bet,” Jake answered. He drew his shotgun and rifle from his horse and handed the shotgun to Miranda. “You use that if you have to, and remember what I said about not hesitating. These men will kill anything, including women and kids, so don't feel sorry for them. Just remember they've hurt our son.”

She took the shotgun. “I'll do whatever I have to do.”

Jake handed her a leather bagful of extra shells. “Just in case you need more.”

Their eyes held as Miranda took the bag. “I'll be all right, Jake,” she assured him.

“You and Hank take your horses,” Charlie told Jake. “You can go in at a dead ride then. I'll leave mine here with your wife and go up the back side of that butte on foot. You and Hank go on this way, headin' east. Hide in the brush till you see my man go down, then draw a bead on the other guard. Once he's down, start ridin', Jake right up the center, Hank around here to the right like I said. Let's go.”

The man took hold of the reins to his horse and to Miranda's and headed across a shallow section of the river toward the waterfall. Miranda looked at Jake, struggling against tears of terror. “I'll be watching for you,” she told him.

He nodded. “
Vaya
con
Dios, mi querida
,” he told her softly. He turned and mounted up then, and Hank followed, both men heading east along the riverbank.

Miranda watched Jake a moment longer, then hurried to catch up with Charlie, not wanting to slow anyone down. Charlie already had his and Miranda's horses tied to a fallen branch not far from the other side of the waterfall, where they would be difficult for an intruder to see. He motioned for her to come and stand under the raging water. She waded through the shallow river and stepped along slippery, flat rocks to come and stand beside the man.

“Remember what Jake said. You stay right here. You're close enough here to help your son real quick-like, once Jake's got him.” He gave her a wink. “Don't you fret. They don't come any better than Jake.”

“Thank you for helping, Charlie. You be careful too.”

The man looked her over appreciatively. “Ol' Jake sure outdid himself when he put a ring on your finger. I got a feelin' that man would walk through fire for you.” He chuckled again and shook his head, turning and disappearing into the underbrush.

Miranda breathed deeply in an effort to relax, but it was almost impossible. The waterfall roared in her ears, and she wondered if she would even be able to hear gunshots while standing under it. She set the shotgun aside and took the shells from the bag they were in and began stuffing them into the pockets of her jacket so she would have nothing to carry but the shotgun itself. Her pistol rested in its holster. She picked up the shotgun again and sat down on a rock that rested against the much larger boulder over which the water cascaded into the river. There was nothing to do now but wait.