a pot of coffee and a shotgun if any of Gibbons’s fellers show up.”
Jake hurried across Main Street and cut down an alley. He crossed Second Street, his thoughts on where those children might be. They couldn’t have gone far. He thought of Luke and gave a slight nod. If anybody could find them, Luke could. He’d get Livy safely back to the orphanage and see if he could find the boy.
A grim wave of disquiet wove through his gut. After what he’d seen tonight, he wouldn’t put it past Gibbons and his men to do whatever it took to silence those kids.
He’d almost made it to Emma’s when a shout pulled him up short. It sounded like Luke. Breaking into a jog, he headed down an alley, listening for the sound again.
“Let me go,” Luke yelled.
Jake skidded around a corner and saw one of Gibbons’s hired guns wrap a beefy hand around the boy’s neck. Another boy dashed forward and swung a length of two-by-four. The wood cracked against the man’s back, but he swatted the boy away like a pesky fly.
Lungs burning, Jake plowed into the fray. He took the man down. But before he could reach for his gun, the man jumped up, balancing on the balls of his feet.
Jake rolled and scrambled to his feet. His assailant threw a punch, but Jake sidestepped, letting the blow glance off his bicep. He planted his left boot and threw a right cross. Contact! Jake’s knuckles screamed as bone met bone.
Taking a step to advance on his opponent, he walked into a jab. Pain streaked across his chin. Air whooshed from his lungs as another blow landed in his gut.
Adrenaline pushed harder. Jake swung at the man, missing with another right cross but hitting the target with a left uppercut to his chin.
Wham!
The middle of Jake’s spine burned with white-hot pain. He pivoted to face a second attacker, blocking the next blow.
“Aaarrrghhh!”
Through blurred vision, he saw Luke come in swinging, the two-by-four gripped in both hands.
He tried to yell for Luke to get away, to go for help, but all his energy focused on anticipating the wicked uppercuts coming toward him.
He couldn’t tell what the men looked like in the dark, other than that both were big, beefy men with fists of iron, much like those he’d seen with Gibbons. He didn’t doubt they’d kill him and the boys if they could.
His fist made contact, and one of his attackers went down like a felled oak.
Luke and his friends rushed the remaining thug, boards and sticks flying in every direction. Jake ducked.
Two fists exploded in his face, and Livy flashed across his befuddled mind.
Lord, please don’t let them find Livy.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You’re falling in love with him, aren’t you?”
The first light of dawn streaked across the sky; the miners would troop through the door soon. Since neither Emma nor Livy could sleep, they’d cooked breakfast and peeled and cut up the vegetables for half a dozen meat pies for the evening meal. They’d even baked three blackberry cobblers. The savory aromas of cobbler and baking bread filled the café.
“I don’t know. I’m worried sick about him.” The knife slipped and nicked Livy’s finger. She wiped the blood on the voluminous brown work dress Emma had lent her. She bit her lip and slanted a look at her employer.
Emma snorted, rolling out biscuits faster than Georgie could devour tea cakes. “Well, I’m worried about him too, but that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him.”
Livy smiled, her face softening. “Strange as it may seem, Emma, I do love him.” She smiled, her hands falling to her lap, her chores forgotten. “From the beginning I liked him, but I was afraid. Afraid of men, afraid of marriage, of having babies, and afraid of someone finding out about my past.”
Emma threw her a glance. “Most of us have pasts we’re not proud of.”
“I know, but Jake’s a sheriff’s deputy, and his family are pillars of the community. I’m just a pickpocket from—”
“Don’t say that. You’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Your sins are washed away, never to be remembered. God’s given you a new life and a passion to help children who don’t have anybody else. If Jake—or anybody else in this town—can’t see that, they’re dumber than a lump of coal. And trust me, Jake’s not dumb.”
“His attitude toward the street kids has changed, especially since Luke brought Bobby to the orphanage. I think he realizes they don’t choose