Read Online Love's Sweet Revenge by Rosanne Bittner - Free Book Online

middle of the week like this,” Jake commented. “What did he want?”
    Lloyd seemed hesitant. He sighed before answering. “It’s not exactly good news. Jeff Trubridge wired us about something he thought we should know right away. Trouble is, Jason gave the note to Evie, and it upset her. Brian is home now, though, so she’ll be all right. He always knows how to reassure her.”
    Jake came instantly alert, and Randy felt a sick alarm as they both faced Lloyd. “What’s wrong?” Jake asked.
    â€œLloyd, is Evie okay?” Randy pressed. “She’s going to have another baby and shouldn’t get upset.”
    â€œ Baby? Sis is pregnant again?”
    â€œYes, and don’t let on that you know. She’s going to tell us at Sunday dinner. I already told your father to act surprised.”
    â€œWhat the hell is wrong?” Jake asked, raising his voice more. “Why is Evie upset?”
    Lloyd rubbed at his eyes. “Shit. I didn’t know she was pregnant again. That just makes things worse.”
    â€œMakes what worse?” Jake asked.
    Lloyd pulled the note from his pocket and handed it to Jake, then looked at his mother. “Mike Holt is out of prison—won some kind of appeal. He’ll come after me as sure as the sun shines every day.” He turned to Jake. “The past just keeps on rearing its ugly head, doesn’t it?”
    Jake closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Thanks to me.”
    â€œI didn’t mean it that way, Pa. This one is my fault, too, for shooting Holt’s brother in the back. But after what happened to Evie—”
    Randy saw it then—that little flame of Jake Harkner that lived in her son. The dark, vengeful side. She always hated seeing it, because Lloyd was raised in love. He never knew the horrific childhood his father grew up with, and he was far more forgiving than Jake, but he had the ability to wreak revenge if warranted, the ability to shoot a man with no regrets if that man dared to harm one of his own.
    â€œI just don’t want that man to suddenly show his face to Evie,” Lloyd told Jake. “I don’t think she could handle it if she saw even one of those men again.”
    â€œWe should have killed every last one of them when we had the chance,” Jake grumbled.
    â€œWe couldn’t just execute the ones left alive, Pa, much as we would have liked to. You would have ended up back in prison, and Evie would have never lived that down. We couldn’t let her see her father and brother deliberately murder those men. And maybe she was able to forgive them, but having to face any of them again…who knows what that would do to her? She’s happy now, and thank God she has the best husband a woman like her could ask for. If she’s having another baby, that’s a damn good sign their marriage is healed. I’m just trying to figure out if we should discuss this with her or just leave it alone and hope the bastard doesn’t show up.”
    â€œI’ll decide when the time is right to talk to her about it,” Randy told them. “She might even bring it up herself.”
    â€œLet me talk to Brian first,” Jake told her.
    â€œKatie will be none too happy about this either,” Lloyd told them. “This will scare her to death after all that happened back in Guthrie. I left her in the barn and took off without even explaining anything, but she’ll find out before I get back, and she’ll be upset.”
    â€œYou probably should have stayed with her and let the other men come out here,” Jake told him.
    â€œWhen my parents could both be in trouble?” Lloyd tried to make light of the situation as he gave his mother a teasing grin. “I figured I’d better try to keep this old man from getting himself into more trouble. Sometimes I’m the only one who can do that.”
    Jake scowled at him. “I could