Do Not Forsake Me by Rosanne Bittner Read Free Book Online

he’s gonna have to start watchin’ his back twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” Marty told the doctor. “He done put my eye out a few months ago, and if that ain’t bad enough, now he’s killed my best friend.”
    â€œHe deserved it,” Brian answered as he put supplies back in his bag.
    â€œHarkner ain’t got the right to be judge and jury! He’ll pay! He won’t be safe no place now! Same goes for his kin! Even if we don’t get the chance to get him for this, Brad will! He ain’t gonna forget what Jake did to him, or that Jake killed his pa!”
    Brian took the brown bottle from him and corked it. “Jake should have shot you dead, Marty. Be glad you’re breathing. You should thank him.”
    â€œ Thank him? He wounds men and then brings them back here for his son-in-law to patch up so’s the government can turn around and send them to prison or to hang ! Pretty good setup, ain’t it? Even you make money off it. I’ll find a way to get you too. You’ve got a good-lookin’ wife, Doc, and her bein’ Jake’s daughter makes the thought I’m havin’ even sweeter.”
    Brian put the bottle of laudanum back into his bag. “You touch my wife and Jake will have you begging for death when he’s done with you, and you damn well know it. And I have ways of making wounds hurt even more ! You remember that, you worthless sonofabitch.”
    â€œWhoo, you touched a nerve, Marty!” the one called Stu joked. “Doc Stewart don’t often cuss.”
    â€œWhy don’t you give some of that painkiller stuff to poor Brad over there?” Marty grumbled to Brian.
    â€œHe can’t even sit up to drink it. If he starts choking, it will lead to coughing, which will in turn bring him unbearable pain,” Brian explained. “He could even vomit and gag to death, so he’s got to just lie there and not move for a few days.” He rose and asked Sheriff Sparks to let him out of Marty’s cell.
    Sparks rose and took a ring of keys from where they hung on the brick wall of the jail, then came over and unlocked the cell door, immediately pulling his six-gun and holding it on the prisoners until the doctor exited and Sparks again locked the door.
    â€œHey, you want to know somethin’ else about Harkner?” Marty shouted to Trubridge. “He cheats on his wife! He’s supposed to be a great family man. Bullshit! On our way back, he stopped off at a brothel—got a bath and a shave, and you can bet he got somethin’ else, ’cuz he slept there the whole night! I wonder what that perfect wife of his thinks about that!” He laughed. “How about you, Doc? Your father-in-law cheats on your mother-in-law when he’s out there supposedly doin’ good work for the government. And he’s gettin’ paid for it!”
    Brian Stewart glanced at Jeff Trubridge, ignoring the remark. “I told you not to bother Jake any more today,” he told Jeff.
    Jeff followed Brian out the door. “I understand. Maybe you would talk to me?”
    Scowling, Brian faced him. “Anything you want to know, it’s Jake’s place to tell you, not mine.”
    Jeff studied the well-built, good-looking young man who stood about five feet ten inches but had electric-blue eyes. “You’re married to Jake’s daughter, right?”
    â€œI 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 again. “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?”
    â€œThat’s a very touchy subject for him. I’d be very careful asking him about it. You’d better get his wife’s permission to ask any questions at all first, and even then,