What is taking them so long? she thought. I hope everything is okay. Please, let everything be okay.
She thought about her father up there all on his own and hoped that nothing had happened to him. She didn’t know if she would be able to live with herself if he were hurt. She waited and waited until she saw Lonnie stepping out of the inn once again, her father at his side.
Her face burst into a smile and she ran toward her father, wrapping him in the tightest hug possible. He hugged her back, holding her as the world continued to move around them. She had him back.
“Lonnie, Lonnie, thank you,” she cried, hurrying over to him and kissing him hard on his lips.
She pulled away suddenly, looking up into Lonnie’s face that had suddenly twisted into a look of confusion. She turned to her father, who looked just as confused.
“Sorry,” she said, letting Lonnie go. “Heat of the moment.”
“Perfectly alright,” Lonnie said, his cheeks bright pink. “Mr. home, we should probably get you, Pierce, I mean, uh, Mr. Pierce we should probably get you home.”
Chapter 26
A couple of the men came back and reported that they couldn’t find Willard anywhere around the town. Lonnie briefed them on what had happened and sent some of them back to Kecheetah with Evelyn’s father. They rented a wagon for him, sending him on his way. If anything else, he would be safe now. The only thing he needed to do now was catch Willard.
Evelyn waved her father off with tears in her eyes. She really was happy that they had managed to get him back. Lonnie could hardly take credit for it though, once he’d caught Billy, she was the one who sweet-talked him into giving up where her father was. Lonnie had just gone to get him.
“Thank you,” Evelyn said.
“What for?”
“For letting me come with you.”
Lonnie snorted. “You weren’t going to let me leave without you,” he said. “But you’re welcome. You’re sure you want to stay here?” Lonnie added. “It’s not too late for you to jump on a horse and head back to Kecheetah, I won’t be offended.”
“I want to stay until the end,” Evelyn said. “I want to see him with my own eyes, and I want to see him locked up.”
“Evelyn—”
“I’ll be careful,” she said. “I promised you I would be careful. You tell me what to do and I’ll do it. What do we do now?”
“If he is here, we’ll find him,” he said. “But I don’t want you to get hurt if Willard appears and sees us. I know you want to help Evelyn, but you have to listen to me, I need to keep you safe, I just… I have to.”
“Why?”
Lonnie sighed. “I just can’t lose you again,” he said.
Evelyn could hardly believe what she was hearing. She looked a little overcome with emotion, her eyes glassy, her expression twisting to one of confusion. “What?”
“Even for those few days when you hated me, I hated not being near you,” he said. “You’re a captivating woman, Evelyn, and you caught me. So now that I’ve managed to catch you again, I have no intention of letting you go, do you understand that?”
Evelyn blushed.
“Apart from which,” Lonnie continued. “I would wager your father would quite like you home. I know he’s not often wise to what’s going on, but what happened to him today must have been pretty frightening. He will need you. So, if I tell you to run, you run, got it?”
Evelyn nodded. “Absolutely. Whatever you say I’ll—”
A gunshot rang out.
Lonnie spun around on his heel to look down the street and see Willard standing in the middle of the road. He had his gun in his hand and a mad look in his eye.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he shouted. “You’re not going anywhere without me, Evelyn, my love.”
“Don’t listen to him, Lon, he’s talking crazy!” Evelyn hissed. “You know I have nothing to do with him.”
“I do, sweetheart, I do,” Lonnie said. “Get behind me, okay?”
“Lonnie—”
“Get behind me,” he said, a little firmer this time.
“I want you, Evelyn!” Willard shouted, spinning his gun around his finger, starting toward them. People in the streets screamed and fled, but this wasn’t Willard coming out to cause trouble among the locals. He was here for one thing, and one thing only. Evelyn. “So, you get here, or I might end up doing something we’ll all regret.”
“Stand down, Willard!” Lonnie shouted. “We’ve got you outnumbered and outgunned. This is the end of the line.”
“Who do you think you are?” Willard shouted. “I am Wild Willard! You can’t talk to me like that, like some big shot sheriff. You’re nothing but a ranger who got too big for his boots.”
“I may only be a ranger, but it will only take a second for one of my men to bring you down, Willard,” Lonnie shouted. “We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. It’s up to you.”
Willard seemed to be thinking about it. He stroked at his beard while he stared Lonnie down. Lonnie’s hand was dancing around his gun, ready to grab it if he needed it. Willard seemed to be backing down, lowering his gun, looking around him and no doubt seeing the rest of Lonnie’s men that had him surrounded.
Then the world seemed to move very slowly. Just as Lonnie kept his eyes on him, watching his every move, Willard moved quickly. He gripped his gun a little tighter and aimed it squarely at Lonnie, firing and hitting Lonnie in the leg. Lonnie fell quickly, crying out in pain. He looked like he was about to shoot again, advancing on Lonnie, but Evelyn just happened to be faster.
She rushed forward and grabbed Lonnie’s gun, pulling it out and firing a single shot with near perfect aim, straight into Willard’s shoulder. His gun flew from his hand and he toppled to the ground. Evelyn took off from where she stood, running toward Willard and, with all her weight behind it, she planted her boot into his stomach.
“That’s for my father,” she said with a kick. “And that’s for me, for all the times you did me wrong, for everything you did to my little town!”
She stopped and looked down at him, at the pathetic, crumpled, weeping mess that was Willard Lane. He didn’t seem so tough now, didn’t seem so scary.
“Baby, please,” he growled, blood and spit mixing at the side of his mouth, dribbling down his face. “You don’t have to do this. We can still get away from it all, still see the world together.”
“Never in a million years,” she growled, just as Lonnie’s men advanced on him, tying him up, putting him in chains.
Lonnie watched it happen from his vantage point on the ground, his leg bleeding and his head feeling dizzy. He was in a lot of pain, more pain than the last time he was shot. He laughed a little to himself. There’s a thought I’d never imagined having.
Evelyn was at his side in an instant, ripping the hem of her dress and tying it around his wound, pulling it tight and trying to stop the flow of blood. She was crying. He could hear her sniffing and, when she looked over at him, her face was wet. She’d done an awful lot of crying today. It had been quite a day.
“You stop this nonsense,” she demanded. “You lying there looking all weak, like you’re about to die on me, you’ve been shot before and you were fine, for goodness sake, fine! Don’t you dare think about dying on me, Lonnie Steele, I won’t allow it.”
“Oh, you won’t?” Lonnie groaned. “Is that right?”
She shuffled along the ground and pulled him up to a sitting position, leaning his weight on her. She looked beautiful even when she was crying. The entire world was falling apart, and Evelyn Pierce was still as captivating as ever.
How does she manage that, eh? he thought.
“Now, now, stop looking at me all lovesick, Lon,” she said. “This isn’t the end, I’m telling you now, only the beginning.”
“Is that so?” He coughed a little.
“Yes, it is so!” she cried, fresh tears falling. “Come here!” She grabbed hold of him and pulled him into a kiss.
&
nbsp; Lonnie was shocked at first. He sat there for a moment, trying to process what was happening. Then he leaned into it. He was part of this one. This wasn’t the heat of the moment accident. This was love. This was what he’d been waiting for forever, ever since he first laid eyes on her. And here it was. He closed his eyes and he breathed her in. And all at once it was over. But the world had shifted in that moment, or at least, his had.
He looked at Evelyn and he smiled. She was grinning back at him.
“Was that all a ploy to stop me from dying?” he croaked. “Or did you really mean it?”
“I meant it,” she replied, rolling her eyes. She turned her gaze back to the men that had hauled Willard into a cart and were ready to take him away. “What’s going to happen to him?”
“They’re going to take him back to California where he’ll stand trial,” Lonnie said. “He’s committed a lot of crimes, Evelyn.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m just scared. He’s so—”
Lonnie reached out and took her hand, silencing her immediately. He slid his fingers into the spaces between hers and squeezed tightly. “You don’t need to worry about him anymore,” he said. “That part of your life is over. You can just look forward now.”
Lonnie let go of her hand and tried to get up.
“Don’t, Lonnie, stop, wait until someone can come over and help.” Evelyn tried to stop him from standing up. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Evelyn, there’s a bullet in my leg, I’m not sure I could get anymore hurt right now,” Lonnie replied.
He managed to drag himself to a standing position, Evelyn quickly following suit and taking hold of his arms to keep him steady. His leg really did hurt, but it was worth it for this moment.
There were a lot of things in Lonnie’s life that he’d never been sure of. He’d never been sure if he would ever be good enough for his father, he was never sure if he would ever be a good enough ranger for Kecheetah, but every now and then in life, something happens and it puts everything into perspective. He looked at Evelyn, crying in her dress, dust around the hem, having seen her just shoot a bandit like it was something she did every other day, and he’d never been more sure of anything in his entire life.
“Don’t panic,” he whispered.
“Why?” Evelyn asked. “What are you going to do?”
Lonnie took a deep breath and sank back down to the ground, placing his good knee behind him and taking hold of Evelyn’s hand. She gasped. A couple of people who were standing nearby shuffled a little closer to see what was going on. Evelyn had already started crying again.
“Evelyn Pierce—”
“Don’t you do this to me, Lonnie,” she sniffed. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m so serious,” Lonnie said. “Evelyn Pierce, will you marry me?”
“You’re out of your mind!” she replied, caught somewhere between laughing and crying. She didn’t know where to look. She barely knew what to say.
“Well?” Lonnie asked.
Evelyn took a deep breath and smiled. “Yes, of course I will, yes.”
Lonnie moved to stand up, but Evelyn stopped him, dropping to her knees and kissing him once again. Lonnie couldn’t believe his luck.
Chapter 27
With Willard out of the way, Evelyn couldn’t deny a feeling of lightness in her chest as she traveled back to Kecheetah with Lonnie. They wrapped him up and got him in the back of a wagon to go home, and Evelyn refused to leave his side. She’d spent so long without someone who cared for her like he did, that now she didn’t want to be anywhere but at his side.
Their wagon stopped a little way from her house and Evelyn could hear the hubbub of people. When she looked out, a crowd had gathered. News traveled fast, it seemed.
“What’s going on here?” Evelyn asked.
“I think they’re pleased to see you both back safely,” Rose said, appearing to help Evelyn down from the wagon. “I think they’re also wondering what on Earth took you so long?”
Evelyn shrugged. “Well, sometimes when you’re dispatching a bandit, you lose track of time,” she said with a laugh. “Could I get a little help?” she added.
A few of the men who had helped them round up Willard appeared, and helped Lonnie out of the wagon. An almighty cheer went up when people saw him, and he couldn’t seem to keep the smile off his face.
“Is this all for us?” he whispered.
“I think it’s all for you,” Evelyn corrected. “Look at you, you’re a hero.”
“Says the one who fired the final shot,” Lonnie said.
“I believe congratulations are in order!” The mayor had pushed his way through the crowd, extended a hand to Lonnie. News really did travel fast.
“What for?” Lonnie asked.
“Well, the two of you ridding us of Willard, for one,” the Mayor started. “The second being that we have a wedding to look forward to, is that right?”
Evelyn could feel her cheeks glowing. “That’s right,” she said. “All it took was a bullet to the leg to finally get him to ask.”
The Mayor laughed. “You should probably get some rest, Lon,” he said. “It can't be good for you to keep all that weight on your leg.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
“You’re not fine, you’re injured,” Evelyn snapped. “You don’t have to play tough with me, Lonnie, I know you better than that.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, you’re just a big old softie,” she said. “And I’ve only just got hold of you so I’m not about to let go because you won’t rest up from an injury.” She stared Lonnie down, the look in her eyes so intense that she could see him backing down.
Lonnie held his hands up. “Okay, okay, I hear you, I’ll rest, I promise.”
The mayor smiled. “You’ll want to keep an eye on this one Evelyn,” he said.
She smiled back. “I think you may be right.”
The Mayor turned and cleared a way for the two of them to get through. They started through the crowd, receiving smiles and congratulations, Evelyn feeling somewhat accepted for the first time in a long time. And with Willard gone, the sun seemed to be shining a little brighter. Everything in Kecheetah seemed to be a little bit better.
As they walked toward the house, Evelyn couldn’t help but notice that Lonnie was limping pretty badly. Her gaze kept moving over to him and she couldn’t hide her concern.
“You gotta stop looking at me, Evelyn, I think you’re making it worse,” Lonnie said. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’re not going to be fine, if you push yourself too hard,” she said. “I knew we shouldn’t have gotten out of that wagon.”
“I’m fine!”
“Lonnie!” she barked, stopping him in his tracks. “There is not a single thing about you wandering around with a limp that is ‘fine’. I was serious when I said I didn’t want to lose you, especially not to no bullet in the leg.”
“Then I’ll rest.”
“Let me help,” she said.
Lonnie looked confused. “How? You’re not a doctor, Evelyn, I’ll go and see him in the morning and then—”
“No, not like that,” she said. “Move in with me.”
“What? Evelyn—”
“I’m serious,” Evelyn said. “You need somebody to take care of you. I can’t have you going back to that little house all by yourself. You’re struggling to walk. I can see you’re in pain.”
“I’ll be alright,” he said. “You don’t have to care for me, besides your father—”
“He could probably do with the company,” she interrupted. “You know I’m right. It’s true most of the time, you just decide to ignore it.” He couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. “So, what do you say?”
Lonnie sighed. “I don’t know, Evelyn. I don’t want to be an imposition.”
“You won’t be.”
“Or any trouble.”
“You’re nothing but trouble whether you’re living with me or not,” s
he said with a smirk.
Lonnie sighed. “Fine, I’ll come and stay with you. But I won’t need that much care,” he said. “I’ll just be—”
In that moment, his leg seemed to give way underneath him. Evelyn leapt into action and caught hold of him before he properly bit the dust.
“I can see that,” she said. “You’re completely fine, no injury to see here.”
The Path To Tame a Wild Heart: A Historical Western Romance Novel Page 17
