Seven

Attorney Peter Brown opened the newspaper, settling in behind his large oak desk in his home in north Chicago. The headlines stunned him.

“I’ll be goddamned,” he muttered. “Jake did it again.”

He smiled and shook his head as he read the stunning, bold print.

JAKE HARKNER FOILS BANK ROBBERY IN BOULDER, COLORADO!

From outlaw to lawman to hero, Jake Harkner, the notorious outlaw turned U.S. Marshal, reprised his lawman instincts on June twelfth in Boulder, Colorado, when he shot it out with nine men who intended to rob the Boulder City Bank. The robbers were led by George Callahan, the nemesis of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The robbers killed bank teller John Drake and Boulder’s Sheriff Mike Billings. Harkner himself was seriously wounded, but is expected to recover. He single-handedly killed five of the nine men and wounded the other four. Callahan was among those killed.

“Of course he was,” Peter said softly. “The man seldom shoots to wound.”

Witnesses claim Harkner not only foiled the robbery, but also saved four hostages, his own wife and granddaughter among them. The other two hostages were a Mexican woman named Teresa Ramon and a retired school teacher, Mrs. Susan Bird, a resident of Boulder.

The article was by Jeff Truebridge, the same reporter who had gotten famous off that book about Jake three years ago. The man had news connections everywhere. Someone must have phoned him or wired him the news for the Chicago papers as soon as it happened.

Jeff lived in Chicago now, but had remained good friends with Jake and his family, and with Peter himself, who had his own fond but sometimes painful memories of Jake Harkner…and his wife. The article went on about the incident and about highlights from Jake’s past.

Peter didn’t have to read most of that. He already knew it all. He’d lived the wild story of Jake Harkner, U.S. Marshal, when he’d practiced law in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

He took a moment to reminisce. “My God, what a life that man has led,” he muttered. He reread the first part of the article.

…hostages…Jake’s own wife and granddaughter…

“Randy,” he said softly, “how much more will you suffer?” Peter had loved his first wife, still missed her since she’d died. And he loved Treena now. They were both getting older, he fifty-two and Treena forty-seven, and had been friends well before they married. When her husband passed, he and Treena had just seemed to fall in together as though it was only natural.

But she knew. Treena knew. He’d talked about Randy and how much he loved her before he and Treena had even thought about marriage. Truth be known, if he could have his way, Randy would be running his mansion even now, ordering the servants around, accompanying him to the opera and concerts and business gatherings. And oh, how beautiful she’d be! Not many women possessed that kind of beauty, especially as they aged. He’d met her back in Guthrie, when she worked for him during the times when Jake was off in No Man’s Land chasing the worst of humanity. He’d watched her quietly worry, never knowing if her husband would make it back alive.

She’d been through so much—running from the law, gun battles, Jake spending time in prison, lonely years when Jake would leave because he thought she’d be better off without him. God only knew what he’d done during those missing years. Some of his best friends were prostitutes, for heaven’s sake. But Randy took him back. She always took him back. There was no way she would ever leave her husband—no way she would ever love or give herself to another man. God knew he’d tried to reason with her. He’d offered her the world, but she’d turned him down for Jake.

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 the 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.