Chapter 8

Dakota's bet with Nick was a bit more convoluted, since Dakota had not been paid yet for his work and he had little cash. Dakota suggested that if he broke the horse, Nick would pay him twice the wages he was due on the spot. If Dakota could not break the horse, he would forego any wages he'd earned up to that point.

Nick was a bit taken aback by the suggested bet, mainly because he hadn't considered that he would be paying his brother any wages at all. He had assumed Dakota's funds would come from the accounts at the bank, but then he didn't know that so far, Dakota was refusing those moneys. When he found out that Dakota had very little money left from his wages at the Carlisle spread, Nick agreed to the bet. Secretly, he hoped he'd be paying off on it, but outwardly he razzed his brother about it. "You're gonna be hitting the dirt so much that your back pockets are gonna be peeled off and you won't have anyplace to put any money anyway."

"We'll see, Nick, but I think you're in for a shock," Dakota said. "But to lessen the pain, what say we go into town after I break that stallion and I'll buy you a beer. If I don't break him, you buy."

"You're on," Nick said quickly.

But Victoria had heard something different. "How do you plan to deal with Harold James if he threatens you in town?"

"Like I told you, head on," Dakota said. "Is there really any other way to deal with somebody like that?"

Victoria worried for a moment, but then she remembered all her advice about how Barkleys face threats, and she knew Dakota had to handle James his own way. It just happened that it was the Barkley way, so she just said, "Be very careful."

"James is probably just full of hot air, Mother," Nick said. "He won't take on the three of us."

"And we'll have other hands with us," Heath said. "Nothing will happen tomorrow night."

Victoria smiled and nodded, but Audra remained concerned. "We just don't want to lose our big brother now that we're getting him back."

Dakota was a little uncomfortable with the way Audra put that. He didn't feel like the big brother who was coming back, not yet. But he didn't say anything to contradict her. He only said, "I'll be careful. I promise."

The women nodded, and the subject of Harold James was dropped.

XXXXX

The next day, a fairly large crowd of ranch hands watched as Dakota climbed into the saddle of the stallion he'd picked out. A few minutes and three times bucked off later, Dakota eased the horse around the corral in a gentle gallop, and he spent more time teaching the horse how to react to the reins and how to accept a kick in the side without bucking.

As Dakota got the stallion somewhat used to him, Heath held his hand out to the brother standing beside him. "Pay up, Nick."

Nick handed him a dollar. "Gonna owe Dakota a lot more. I really didn't think he could do it."

"I had faith," Heath said. "What you forgot is that Brother Jarrod tends to accomplish what he works at, and he's been working at this for a year."

A year he was lost to us, a year we don't know anything about, Nick thought. Watching his older brother guide his new horse around, he suddenly missed the old Jarrod so much he thought he was going to cry. But this Jarrod – this Jarrod was something else, something new, maybe the something he'd have been if he'd never become a lawyer. Maybe the rancher his father always wanted him to be but gave up to gain a lawyer. Which Jarrod was the one that really should have been?

Dakota ultimately dismounted and handed the horse off to the handler who'd been caring for him. "I don't think he's ready for the stable yet. I'll come here and saddle and ride him a bit tomorrow and we'll see."

Dakota came over to his brothers then, and with a big smile, held his hand out to Nick. "Got my earnings, Boss?"

Nick smirked, reached into his pocket, and peeled off the appropriate number of bills from his money clip.

"Ah, it's good to have some cash again," Dakota said and pocketed the money. "When do you boys want to go into town for a beer?"

"I'm ready now," Nick said. "Maybe I'll have more luck at a poker table than I've had out here."

XXXXXX

Luck at the poker table was not going Nick's way either – it was going Heath's and Dakota's. It seemed like between the two of them, they were winning half the pots, and the two other men at the table were winning the rest. One of the men was Carl Wheeler, a good friend of Nick's who had known Jarrod most of his life. It took him a few minutes to get used to Dakota, but as soon as Dakota started taking his money, Carl was getting to know him well. The other man was someone no one knew, a man not too friendly who was a stranger in town.

None of them knew the man was Harold James. Only Dakota had ever seen him before, and of course, Dakota could not remember him. When asked his name, he just said, "Hal." He said next to nothing after that.

The game went on, but Nick ran low on money and had to back out first. He went up to the bar and bought himself another beer, then watched from a distance until Sheriff Madden came in. Nick gave him a smile. "Evening, Fred."

"Nick," the sheriff said and looked down on the poker game. "They cleaned you out, huh?"

"Between this game and the bet I lost to Dakota this morning, I am a little low on funds."

The sheriff was watching the game when the man named Hal looked up. Startled to see him at a poker table with Jarrod Barkley, he said, "There hasn't been any trouble, has there?"

"No," Nick said. "Should there be?"

"Do you know who that stranger at the table is?"

"Says his name is Hal, or something like that."

"Nick, that's Harold James."

Nick straightened up, glaring. "What?"

"That's Harold James," Sheriff Madden said. "Didn't you know?"

"I never met the man, and he was here before Heath's time," Nick said. "And Jarrod doesn't remember him."

The sheriff sighed. "I think I'll stick around here for a little bit. Game's winding down, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Nick said, and he kept his glare solid on "Hal."

Dakota won the next two hands that Nick and the sheriff were watching, and then the game broke up. James left the saloon without another word. Dakota, Heath and Carl came up to the bar.

"One thing your brother hasn't forgotten is how to play poker," Carl said.

Dakota smiled. "An art I've had plenty of chance to perfect over the last year."

"Jarrod – " the sheriff said, then corrected himself, "Dakota – the other man at the table."

"Yeah?" Dakota asked. "What about him?"

"That was Harold James, Dakota. The man who threatened you."

"When did he threaten you?" Carl asked.

"So long ago, I have no memory of it," Dakota said. He raised an eyebrow, as did Heath and Carl. "Well, he never said anything threatening tonight, and I took a whole lot of his money."

The sheriff turned and left, saying, "I think I'll just remind him I'm watching."

"At least now we all know what he looks like," Heath said.

"We best be careful when we walk out of here," Nick said. "Fred will be keeping an eye on him, but I'd rather not take any chances."

"Let's give it another beer," Dakota said and signaled for one.

Carl and Heath each took one as well, and it was another 30 minutes before the four of them left the saloon together. Carl bid them good night and went down the street for his horse. The horses the Barkley men rode in were tethered right out in front of the saloon.

Heath scanned the street, looking for James and for the sheriff, but he didn't see either one. He let his brothers take the lead out of town, while he rode at the back, looking around. They got out of town without incident.

It was Nick who had been holding his breath too much. They were almost five miles out of town before he breathed normally again. "I'm glad we haven't seen hide nor hair of James since we left, but I can't believe we played poker with him most of the night and didn't know who he was."

"Sorry, but he didn't look familiar to me at all," Dakota said.

"Not your fault," Nick said. "Now he will."

Heath overheard them, and said, "Dakota, you're gonna have to keep your eyes open when you come into town with Mother and Audra tomorrow."

Dakota looked surprised. "Am I coming in with them tomorrow?"

Heath realized he'd let something out he probably shouldn't have. "They said they were going to hornswaggle you into helping with some shopping. Guess they haven't sprung that on you yet."

Dakota wondered if another attempt at a trip to the bank was in the offing, but he kept that to himself.

"Maybe it ought to be one of us that comes in with them, Heath," Nick said, then rapidly added, "just to be sure there's no trouble while the women are along."

"I'd have thought he'd have made a try for me tonight," Dakota said, "before we all got to know what he looks like."

"As far as I know, he doesn't know you don't remember him," Nick said.

"He probably knows now," Dakota said.

"That might add insult to injury," Heath said. "Might make him madder to know you don't recognize him. He doesn't know about your amnesia."

"He might have picked it up in town," Nick said. "That poker game may have been him scoping you out."

Dakota gave an uncertain grunt. "Tonight, I don't care much what it was. I'm just happy that this morning, I didn't have a dollar to my name, and tonight, I have nearly fifty." He gave his brothers a smug grin.

Heath laughed, and even Nick chuckled.