The Last Outlaw

by Rosanne Bittner

  How did anyone fight a man like that? He studied the article again, feeling how excited Jeff must have been when writing it. Jeff had been tracking and writing about Jake ever since meeting him and actually getting to ride with him back in Oklahoma. He was a big-time reporter now, but back then…

  He picked up the telephone. “Yes, please get me the Chicago Journal,” he told the operator. “Jeff Truebridge. I’m not sure of the number. You’ll have to look it up.” He glanced up when his wife walked into his office, her dark hair looking perfectly coifed and lovely, as always. As he waited on the telephone, he pointed to the newspaper. Treena picked up the paper as Jeff answered the phone.

  “Jeff! This is Peter. I saw the article about Jake.” Peter watched his wife as she read the article. She just smiled and shook her head. “Yeah, looks like he did it again.” Peter laughed. “Trouble follows Jake like his own shadow, but looks like this time it was of someone else’s doing. The man’s a damn hero—I can just imagine the look on George Callahan’s face when he found out who was in town when he decided to rob that bank. I’m just a little worried about Randy. The article says she was one of the hostages.” He noticed the look of chagrin on his wife’s face when he mentioned Randy.

  “Those men picked the wrong day and the wrong town,” Jeff told him on the other end of the line.

  Peter could hear the clicking of several typewriters in the background. He couldn’t help a good laugh at Jeff’s remark…but deeper inside he felt bad for Randy. How many times had he wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right? This was one of them. “You know anything about Jake’s wounds?”

  “Head wound, but grazed, not penetrated. I guess they’re more concerned about a wound in his left side, but my sources say he’ll be okay. I wish I’d been there to see it all happen. There’s nothing more exciting than watching Jake Harkner in action.”

  “Yes, well, we’ve both seen that, haven’t we? You going out to the J&L this summer again?”

  “Can’t go this year. The wife is carrying again and she’s having problems, so I’d better stay home. You?”

  “I don’t know, Jeff. Maybe I will. Randy might need some help. Hey, you take care, and I hope things go all right with your wife and the baby. Your first one is only about six or eight months old, isn’t he?”

  “Eight. We didn’t want another one this soon, but human nature is human nature.”

  Both men laughed. “Keep me informed on whatever you hear about Jake, Jeff.”

  “I’m going to keep in touch with my connections in Boulder. Looks like I finished that book too soon. I didn’t know so many more things would happen. By the way, is Randy all right? Have you heard from her?”

  “Sure. She writes my wife. Why?”

  “I don’t know. Her last letter sounded kind of…I’m not sure…despondent, maybe. Could be my imagination. Just wondering if something happened we don’t know about, or if something has changed.”

  “It didn’t seem that way in her letters to Treena,” Peter told Jeff. “I’ll ask her about it. You take care, and let’s go to lunch when I’m in the city.”

  “I’d love that. And I’ll let you know when I hear how Jake is doing.”

  “You do that. I’ll talk to you soon.” Peter hung up the earpiece to the phone and just stared absently at the opposite wall for a few quiet seconds.

  “Looks like the magnificent Jake Harkner has struck again,” Treena told him, interrupting his thoughts.

  Peter blinked and finally met her gaze. “You have to stop calling him that. You know he gets embarrassed by that description.”

  Treena laughed lightly. “I wish I’d been there when they got that letter from us and when they read that part. I couldn’t help it.” She set the paper on Peter’s desk. “And that horse he gave me as a gift when we visited them is so magnificent!” Treena sat down across from him, sobering. “You’re worried about Randy, aren’t you?”

  Peter rubbed at the back of his neck. “Have you noticed anything different about her letters? Any clue something might be wrong?”

  Treena thought a moment. “Not really. Why?”

  Peter sighed and leaned back in his chair again. “Jeff thought he caught something in her last letter. I’m thinking maybe we should go back to the J&L this summer. You loved it there.”

  “Yes, I did, but I have other plans. That’s why I came in here—to talk to you about going to Paris. I’d like to visit my mother and sisters. Mother is getting on in age, and I feel I should go. I think a cruise on the ocean would do us good.”

  Peter shook his head. “I can’t be gone for that long. I have too many clients and too many cases coming up in court. I have to stay here.”

  “Well, it’s important that you take some kind of break, Peter. You work much too hard.”

  They exchanged a look that told her everything.

  “You want to go to the J&L,” Treena said gently. “You’re worried about Randy, after this latest incident.”

  “A little.” Peter rubbed at his eyes. “I’m sorry, Treena. There are just times when I feel like she might need me.”

  “Jake Harkner is her life. He runs right in her blood, Peter. I love watching them together. It’s like every time he breathes in, she breathes out his own breath.”

  Jeff stared at the newspaper article. “Yeah.”

  Treena pushed back a tendril of her black hair. She would need to get it properly curled up for the lawyers’ banquet they were attending this evening in the city. “Peter, we have an understanding. I know you love me, and you are a good, kind man. I know you also love another woman, one you can’t have. If it makes you feel better, go out to the J&L this summer. I’ll feel better knowing you’re having a good rest while I go to Paris. I know the relationship you share with Jake and Randy. If you think either one of them might need you, as a friend, or for your services, then go to them. I’m a big girl.”

  Peter smiled. “Come here.”

  Treena rose and walked around his desk, taking him up on his offer to sit on his lap. He took hold of her hands. “You are a wondrous woman, Treena Brown. Thank you for loving me like you do. You’ve filled a deep void in my life. I do love you—very much.”

  Treena leaned in and they kissed deeply. She smoothed back his still-thick hair, studied his blue eyes. “I hope you find that everything is okay when you get to the J&L. I’m sure Jake and Randy will both be glad to see you again.”

  Peter pulled her to him and kissed her again. “There’s that darker side to him, Treena—that part of him that still can’t quite get over his childhood. He can be one ruthless sonofabitch, and it’s when Randy or anyone else in his family is threatened that it comes roaring out of him. I just wonder what this particular situation was like, for both of them.”

  Treena touched his face. “You don’t mind if I go to Paris?”

  Peter smiled and took hold of her wrist, kissing her palm. “I don’t mind, as long as you don’t mind if I take a couple of weeks on the J&L. It’s so beautiful there, and I like being with Jake’s family.”

  “You’d better wire them first.”

  Peter shrugged. “I think I’ll surprise them this time. It might be better for Randy. I have a feeling she does too much preparation and fussing when she knows company is coming.”

  Treena stood up and patted his shoulder. “You do what you need to do, and I’ll go see my family. I think I’ll leave in about three weeks and probably stay a couple of months. Can you live that long without me?”

  “I won’t like it, but I’ll be busy, so hopefully it will go by fast.”

  Treena leaned down and kissed him yet again. “I’ll miss you terribly.”

  Peter squeezed her hand. “And I’ll miss you. I’ll leave a little later than you. I have a big tax case coming up I need to take care of before I can go anywhere, so we may get home at around t
he same time. I don’t want to rattle around in this big, twenty-room castle of a house by myself.”

  Treena got up and walked around the desk and back to the door. “Well, today you have to rattle around upstairs and pick out something to wear to the lawyers’ banquet. I’ll be upstairs myself letting Mattie fix my hair.” She gave Peter a smile and walked out.

  Peter picked up the paper again, rereading the article. What’s going on with you, Randy? How did you make it through this one? Randy had always been so strong in times of crisis, but last summer had been the kicker, seeing her son get shot, thinking Jake could go to prison…

  But she still had her Jake. That’s how she always put it. As long as I have Jake, I’m fine. He thinks I’m the strong one, and that he needs me to stay sane and be strong, she once told him. But I’m the one who needs him. I’m the one who couldn’t survive without his strength and without his arms around me.

  Could anything break the woman? Jeff’s comments worried him. It was none of his damn business, and God knew no man would dare try to move in on Jake Harkner’s woman, but he had to know she was okay. He thanked the Good Lord for Treena’s understanding. They were the best of friends, and their lovemaking was sweet, but he suspected Treena knew that every time he made love to her, he saw someone else in his bed.

  Eight

  Jake smelled the scent of roses before he even opened his eyes. He knew the hair that had fallen across his chin was Randy’s. He realized she was lying by his side, an arm across his middle and her head on his upper chest, as though she wanted to make sure his heart was still beating.

  He moved one hand to pet her hair. “Randy?”

  She jerked awake, raising her head and looking confused at first. Then she smiled.

  “Jake! You finally woke up!” She straightened, her hair a mess, her eyes puffy from crying.

  “Randy, what—” He started to rise, only to be met with stinging pain deep in his left side. He groaned and put his head back down.

  “Jake, you shouldn’t move yet. You were shot.” Randy leaned over him and kissed his cheek. “You’ve been out since Doctor Snow took the bullet out of your side yesterday. It’s—” She glanced at a clock on the wall, its pendulum swinging to a soft, ticking sound. “It’s nearly three in the afternoon now.” She rubbed at her eyes. “You also have a head wound.”

  Jake lay there, trying to gather his senses. Out since yesterday? Had Randy been here by his side the entire time? He put a hand to his head, realizing then that he had bandages wrapped around it.

  “Jake, how do you feel?” Randy took his hand. “Are you fully awake? The doctor was a little worried about concussion.”

  Still gathering his thoughts, Jake looked her over and realized she was wearing the same dress as yesterday. There was blood on the skirt. He bent one leg and tried to sit up more, but he grunted with pain again. “I’ll tell you…how I feel. Like someone stuck a pine cone inside of me and then sewed me up.” He put a hand to his head. “I hardly remember anything.”

  Randy pushed some of her hair behind one ear and sat up straighter. “Jake, you’re the hero of Boulder. You foiled that bank robbery and killed all but four of the robbers. George Callahan was one of those who was killed.” Her eyes teared. “I thought I’d lost you when I saw you down in the street.” Her lips quivered, and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Jake, I was so scared.”

  He looked around the room, memories of the shoot-out flooding back to him. “Tricia!”

  “She’s fine.” Randy jerked with a sob. “She’s…at the hotel with…Teresa.” She turned away and started to rise. “I’ll get Doctor Snow.”

  Jake caught her arm. “Wait!” His faculties returning and his mind clearer, he took a good look at her. “Jesus, Randy, look at you! There’s blood on your dress! You haven’t washed or changed. Have you eaten?”

  Randy quickly wiped at her eyes. “No. How could I? I thought you might die this time. I had to stay with you.”

  Jake saw the terror return to her eyes. “Randy Harkner, you have to live for me! At this rate you’re the one who will die!” Anger at her condition brought back some of his resolve to get out of bed and help her. Again, he tried to sit up. This time, in spite of incredible pain, he managed to do so. Randy quickly propped some pillows behind him.

  “Jake, you shouldn’t be moving around! You’ll break open your stitches!” she fussed. “Are you hungry? Should I get you something to eat?”

  “No!” He grimaced again. “You need to eat!” He called out louder, “Nurse! Anyone out there? Get in here!”

  “Jake, don’t do this. Please calm down. You’ve just had serious surgery and you lost so much blood.”

  Jake grasped her wrist again, squeezing lightly. “I’m more worried about you! This has to stop, Randy! I can’t believe you managed to get through this. And the doctor should have made you go take care of yourself. Look at you! He should have made you eat, made you clean up, given you a bed to sleep in beside me instead of letting you lay half-on and half-off this cot!”

  “I’ll…I’ll be all right.”

  “No, you won’t!” He kept hold of her wrist and laid his head back against the pillows. “I wish Lloyd were here. He wouldn’t have allowed this.”

  “I sent for him. Please don’t be angry, Jake. I can’t eat. How can I eat or sleep when you might need me?”

  “I do need you!”

  A nurse came in, followed by Doctor Snow.

  “Well, look who’s awake!” the doctor exclaimed. “Let’s have a look at that—”

  “Why have you let my wife just lie here with hardly any sleep and nothing to eat?” Jake asked angrily.

  “Well, I… She insisted.”

  “You’re a doctor, aren’t you?”

  “Of course, Mr. Harkner, but—”

  “But nothing! This woman needs nourishment and rest. She’s been losing too much weight, and you should have noticed the state she’s in. You should have ordered her to eat and given her something to help her sleep. She hasn’t been well. You could have set up a bed beside mine if she didn’t want to leave!”

  “We were just too concerned about you, Mr. Harkner.”

  “And I’m a goddamned worthless sonofabitch compared to this woman! Someone go to the nearest restaurant and get her some food—something nourishing and something with fat in it that will stick to her bony ribs! Bring it back here, because I intend to watch her eat it and make sure she swallows every last bite!”

  Doctor Snow turned to his nurse. “Well, no more wondering when this man will wake up and regain his strength. Constance, go to the café two doors down and bring back some food for his wife.”

  The nurse glanced at Jake with a scowl. “Would you like something, Mr. Harkner?”

  “I’d like my guns. Where are they?”

  Constance glanced at Doctor Snow.

  “They are in a trunk in my office,” the doctor told him.

  “Get them! People will know I’m in a weak state. You’d be surprised how many men might decide to take advantage of that.” Jake turned to the nurse. “Go get that food.”

  “Jake, don’t be rude,” Randy argued. “I’m fine.”

  “I’ll be rude when it comes to you being neglected. And you’re not fine. In fact, I want the doctor to look you over and give you a tonic or something that might help you get your strength back. And I mean it about eating. You’re wasting away to nothing.” He looked at the doctor again. “And send someone to get her companion, the Mexican woman called Teresa. She’s over at the Gold Dust Hotel with my little granddaughter. Have her pack some things and bring them over here so my wife can wash up and change her clothes.”

  Constance left, and the doctor moved to Jake’s side. “I want to look at your stitches.”

  “Go right ahead. Are you sure you didn’t leave a knife in me or something? It sure fe
els like you did.”

  “I assure you, it’s just the bullet damage. It will get better.”

  “I’ve felt that before, too many times to count.”

  The doctor stood at his side and folded his arms. “You know, Jake, somewhere amid all of this someone said something about you being too mean to die. In fact, I think you’re the one who said it. I’m beginning to agree with that comment. I’d like to think your personality has changed because of your head wound, but I have a strong suspicion that this behavior is common for you.”

  Jake closed his eyes and leaned back. “Jesus, I’m sorry, Doc. I just woke up and saw the state my wife is in, and that really woke me up! And I am too mean to die, so start helping Randy, not me. And I’m sorry about your nurse. I don’t usually yell at women.”

  The doctor sighed, walking over to a cabinet to take out some scissors and clean gauze, along with a brown bottle. “This iodine will help stave off infection. I’ll put more on those stitches as soon as I have a look at them.” He pulled a chair to the side of Jake’s bed and cut off the gauze. A little dried blood made the gauze stick, and Jake winced when the doctor pulled it away. “Someone named Jeff called while you were still unconscious,” he told Jake. “I spoke with him and explained what happened and what kind of injuries you have.”

  The mention of Jeff brought a faint smile to Jake’s lips. He glanced at Randy, who still sat on the edge of the bed, wiping at her eyes with her other hand.

  “Oh, Jake, it’s nice to know Jeff called,” she told him. “Isn’t that typical of him?”

  The doctor gently applied iodine to Jake’s stitches, and he winced with pain. “It sure is,” he answered Randy. “I’ll bet he’s madder than hell that he wasn’t here to see the shoot-out.” The doctor began taping a clean patch of gauze over his stitches. “I can just imagine what Jeff is thinking right now,” Jake continued. “He and Peter are probably shaking their heads over this one.”