The new ranger? Lonnie? she thought.
What on Earth was he thinking leaving roses for her on her doorstep? He didn’t even know her properly.
Opening the hardware store could wait, she needed to track him down. Without wasting another second, she marched away from the town square and towards the sheriff's office. It was a squat building right near the center of town, the general store nearby, the tavern just a stone’s throw away.
She marched inside without warning, startling Tommy Hawker who nearly fell off his chair.
“Evelyn Pierce, to what do I—”
“I’m looking for your ranger,” she said through gritted teeth. “Have you seen him?”
“He’s out on patrol, can I—”
She didn’t wait for him to finish speaking, slamming the door behind her as she started to walk through the town looking for him. She saw him a little way ahead, standing outside the general store in conversation with Miss Sylvia and one of her friends. Evelyn thought her name was Jean, but she didn’t really care, it wasn’t any of her concern just now.
“Hey! Officer!”
Lonnie looked up, his face brightening to a smile when he noticed she was carrying the rose. It only made Evelyn burn more. Did he think he was winning her over? Did he really think that she had come to find him to congratulate him on all he was doing to win her heart? Absolutely not!
She walked up to him and slammed the rose on his chest. He looked startled, scared almost, like she might be about to hit him. If he wasn’t an officer of the law, she would certainly consider it.
“You think you’re some kind of heartbreaker coming in to sweep me off my feet?” she spat. “That you’re going to win my heart with a few roses, and then brag about it to every other girl in town?”
He laughed. “If you want me to break your heart, you’ll have to give it to me first,” he said.
“Haven’t you heard what they say about me?” she said, throwing a glance at Sylvia who was staring at her intently, no doubt enjoying this little bit of drama in her day. “I don’t have a heart.”
She turned and walked away, marching back toward the hardware store.
“Wait, Evelyn, wait up!”
She turned to see him running after her.
“You’re being too harsh on yourself I—”
“What?” she snapped. “What did you think you were doing, Lonnie? What did you think you were going to achieve by leaving me flowers? Did you think that it would take a couple of roses for me to fall at your feet? You must be out of your mind.”
“That’s not what I was thinking at all I—”
“Listen, if you try it on with one of those floozies up by the general store, you’ll have a bit more luck.”
She didn’t wait for him to answer, instead she turned on her heel and headed back toward the hardware store. Her blood was boiling, every single part of her was on fire. She unlocked the door to the hardware store and walked inside, closing the door behind her and letting the tears roll down her face. Her body was shaking, the rage coursing through her... She didn’t want anything to do with him. Besides, what could he want with someone like her?
The rest of the day passed her by fairly uneventfully. The store was quiet, only an occasional customer coming in, sometimes to just walk down an aisle and leave. She knew that a lot of them were out for gossip but, no matter what was said, Evelyn refused to bite. All she could really think about was Lonnie.
Why did he do that? she thought to herself over and over again. We don’t even know each other. I have no desire to get to know him, why would he want to get to know me?
It baffled her, and it continued to baffle her until the day was over and she was making her way back home.
Still feeling her rage, she stomped through the aisles of the general store, hurrying past anyone who even dared to look at her, collecting the things she needed, and getting out. She wanted to cook something that might take her mind off the awful events of the previous night and the strange events of the day.
Evelyn was sure she’d seen Lonnie in the general store. If anything, it just made her shop even faster.
When she made it home, her father was on the porch again, looking out as the sun was setting. She greeted him, receiving nothing but a confused look back, but she wouldn’t let it deter her.
Evelyn walked inside and started cooking, letting the smell of steak, and hash, and eggs fill the house. It made everything feel a little more homely, like she didn’t totally hate it here.
“Pops?” she called out when she was done. “Pops? Dinner’s ready!”
When he didn’t show up a minute or so later, Evelyn headed out onto the porch to collect him personally.
“Well, you’re just going to go hungry if you stay sitting out here,” she said, forcing a smile onto her face. “I’ve made steak and eggs—”
“Steak and eggs!” Pops echoed.
So, he remembers he likes steak and eggs, but he doesn’t remember his own daughter, she thought with a defeated shrug.
She helped him from where he was sitting on the swing, letting him rest his arm in the crook of hers as she guided him inside. She set him up at the table, tying a napkin around his neck, and sat with him. When he needed help, she gave it to him, cutting up his food, making sure he got more of it in his mouth than he did down his front.
When they were done, she got him ready for bed.
For the most part, her father could do a lot of it by himself. He managed all day without her and whatever food she left out for him was always gone by the time she got back, so he wasn’t struggling. It’s just that some days were harder than others. There were days when he would greet her with a smile and a laugh, excited to see what she’d come up with in the kitchen, and there were other days when he looked at her as if he’d never seen her in his life. Those days were the hardest. At least today he hadn’t made it difficult for her.
Evelyn tidied, swept, and cleaned the kitchen before heading outside with a cup of tea in her hands. The night had cooled somewhat, taking the heat of the day with it and leaving the purple night fresh and clear. The sky was pinpricked with stars, tiny specks of light glittering over her.
With a hefty sigh, she took a seat on the porch swing and stared up into the night. The day had been strange. Beyond strange in fact. From the rose left on the doorstep, to Lonnie acting like he was all loved up for no good reason.
She scoffed and took a sip of her tea. He must be out of his mind, she thought.
But as the night wore on, the silence started to gnaw at her, digging into the back of her mind. The only voice that was anywhere near was the one in her head, the one telling her that Lonnie was crazy and that no man would ever come close to impressing her.
She sighed and stared up at the stars, hoping against hope, deep inside her heart, that she wasn’t right about all that. Because she couldn’t stand to think of a future where, after her father was gone, she was all on her own. She didn’t think her heart would be able to take it.
Chapter 7
All Lonnie could do was watch her walk away. The girls on the porch outside the general store were laughing with one another, he could catch pieces of conversation, and he heard Evelyn’s name being dragged through the dirt, but he paid them no mind.
He knew she was being theatrical and a little over the top. Maybe he’d pushed a little too hard. She was something of a closed book to a lot of people in this town, and maybe sending her flowers was too much too soon. He’d win her over though. Whenever he caught sight of her, she seemed to be looking at him. He’d noticed that much. This was a test.
He returned to Sheriff Hawker’s office in a panic.
“Where have you been, Steele?” he barked. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Patrolling, sir,” Lonnie replied. “Something the matter?”
“I’ve heard word of bandits just outside the town,” he said. “Men, three or four of them, each one of them apparently associated with W
illard Lane.”
Lonnie felt his blood run cold. “What?”
“There are men waiting for you at the saloon, all you have to do is lead them,” Sheriff Hawker said. “I would come with you but—”
“You need your rest, sir,” Lonnie said.
“Lonnie, now don’t go doing anything stupid,” Tommy warned. “I got myself into a scrape and look at me, out of action until heaven knows when.”
“I won’t sir, I promise,” Lonnie said. “We won’t let you down.”
Lonnie hurried back to the saloon, rounding up the men that Sheriff Hawker had promised him. On horseback, they galloped out onto the plains with dust kicking up around them, guns at their waists waiting to be fired. They seemed to have the element of surprise on their side because when they arrived, the bandits were sitting around a campfire. Ensnaring the first two was easy, it was the third that caused them a little bother because he tried to run.
Lonnie gave chase on horseback, wanting to bring him in alive so that he could be questioned, knowing that this could be his chance to get closer to catching Willard Lane, and to really make an impact on this town.
He prepared a lasso, throwing it so it caught around the bandit’s midriff. He tumbled to the ground, crashing into the dirt with a thud. All he had to do was question them. Lonnie thought he would be able to make them talk. And if he could make them talk… Willard would be no more.
He was praised by Sheriff Hawker when he got back to his office, putting the three men in chains and throwing them in the jail cells. He took the first one to be questioned, keeping him in chains, making sure he couldn’t move too much and that even the slightest struggle caused him pain. He wasn’t trying to hurt the man, but he needed him to talk.
“You can’t prove anything,” the man growled. “I haven’t done nothing. We were camping.”
“You were found with enough dynamite to level this entire town and enough gold to build it back four times over,” Lonnie snapped. “But I’m not here to talk to you about that.” The man looked surprised. Suddenly he was struggling less, he seemed like he was actually listening. “Can I get your name, sir?” he asked.
“Phil,” the man grumbled.
“Phil, I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about the men you and your friends associate with,” he started. “It’s nothing serious, just a few questions and then you can be on your way.”
Phil shrugged. Lonnie took that to mean he could start asking his questions.
“I want you to tell me what you know about a man called Willard Lane,” Lonnie asked calmly.
The man responded by going into a frenzy, trying to get out of the chains again, doing anything he could to get away.
“I don’t know him, you hear?” he shouted. “I don’t have anything to do with that whack job, not a thing!”
“I just need to know what you know,” Lonnie shouted over the man’s cries. “I’m not trying to catch you out. I just want to know where he is so we can apprehend him. We want to stop him, and we need your help.”
“Not a chance,” Phil spat. “I won’t say a word. Nobody will.”
Lonnie was starting to get frustrated. He thought he’d done the hard part, but this was like getting blood out of a stone.
“Tell me where he is.”
“I’m not saying a thing,” Phil growled. “Do what you want with me. Lock me up and throw away the key, haul me behind a cart, put a noose around my neck; any of that is better than getting on the wrong side of Wild Willard.”
Wild Willard, Lonnie thought. He’d really made a name for himself. Enough of a name that these other bandits were running scared. He had to catch him, he just had to. It was what he’d come to this town to do, and if these guys weren’t going to help him, he’d just have to figure out a way to do it himself.
He tried talking to the other men, a man who went by the name of Noah, another who went by the name of Shaun, but nobody would talk. Not a single one wanted to give up the whereabouts of Willard, and Lonnie was sure, from the way that they’d reacted, that they knew a lot more than they were letting on. He put them back in their cells and left the office.
He knew what he wanted. Lonnie wanted to see Willard behind steel bars and he wanted to get close to Evelyn. These two things went hand in hand in his head, no matter how hard he tried to separate them. He couldn’t see Evelyn letting him get anywhere near her while Willard was on the loose. He needed to prove himself to her, and maybe that would be the only way to do it. Until then, he just wanted to keep an eye on her, make sure she was okay.
On the slower days at the sheriff’s office, Lonnie made it his business to be around town, in places where he could see Evelyn if he was lucky enough. He helped with construction work in town, helping to fix up the front of the saloon, helping people mend their carts, change wheels, groom horses, anything he could to make sure he was where he was needed.
There were days when he caught her looking at him, watching him from the shop window. Those were the days he loved the most, because he’d smile at her. She wouldn’t smile back. She was so stubborn, it was almost sweet.
“You got anyone to help you fix that window?” he asked her when she came out of the shop as he worked on the bank with a few of the other guys, getting it back into a decent state after what Willard did to it. “I’d be more than happy to—”
“I don’t need anybody’s help, Lonnie,” she said sharply. “I’m more than capable of fixing a window.”
He shrugged. “I never said you weren’t, ma’am,” he said. “All I was doing was offering my assistance.”
“Consider your assistance unnecessary.” She sent him a foul look, as she often did, turning her back on him and disappearing back into the shop. He was determined to win her over. He just needed to figure out how.
“Can you come into my office, Lon?” Sheriff Hawker approached Lonnie just as he walked in that morning. The two walked inside, past the now empty cells and into Sheriff Hawker’s tiny office. The window was open, letting in the slightest breeze, though not enough to combat the stuffiness of the room. Lonnie was already sweating and he’d barely been in there a second. “You alright?”
“I’ve been better,” Lonnie grumbled. A couple of days before, they’d had to let their prisoners go. There was no reason to keep them. They hadn’t done anything wrong and they wouldn’t give Willard up. There was nothing they could do. “I couldn’t get a single one of those guys to talk. I thought it was going to be the break that we needed, but now it’s like we’re back to having nothing.”
“Don’t let it get in your head,” Sheriff Hawker said. “Those guys are either loyal or scared, I’m not sure which, but there are other ways of getting to our man.”
This piqued Lonnie’s interest. “Like how?”
“We gotta get ‘im, Lon,” he said. “We just have to. The fate of this entire town depends on it. Every day he is out there, is another day that he could come back to cause us all trouble. He’s unpredictable. It’s like this whole town is balancing on a knife-edge.”
Lonnie knew that already. “And what do we do about it?” he asked.
“I know you’re getting close to Evelyn Pierce—”
“I wouldn’t exactly say close, sir,” he said. “She’s pretty closed off.”
Sheriff Hawker scoffed. “A little hothead, that one,” he said. “Has she mentioned Willard at all?”
Lonnie shook his head. “Only to let me know that she’s had no contact with him. Doesn’t want a thing to do with him after everything that happened at the bank. As far as she’s concerned it’s over.”
Sheriff Hawker took his hat off and started fanning himself. His brow furrowed, his lips pursed, something about that clearly didn’t sit right with him.
“That doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Those two were as close as anyone, apparently they were going to get married, people said. She has to know something more.”
“I really don’t think she does, sir,” Lonnie said,
and he truly believed that. She’d made it clear to him when the break-in happened that things were over between them.
“She must know something,” Tommy said, hammering his fist against his desk. He looked over at Lonnie, locking eyes with him and watching him close. “You must get to know her better, Lon. You’ve got to find out if she knows anything.”
“How?”
“Any way you can,” Sheriff Hawker said. “Maybe they’re plotting something, maybe there is something already in motion that we just don’t know about yet.”
“That can’t be true, I’ve been watching her,” Lonnie said. “She’s minding her own business, trying to keep to herself. There’s no way she’d be causing any trouble.”
Tommy laughed. “Look, Lonnie, I’ve been here an awfully long time. I’ve known Evelyn for a long time too, and she’s a wild one, a little firecracker. Don’t believe everything that you’re seeing, that girl is no angel, let me tell you.” Tommy sighed. “If we’re going to find out where Willard is hiding, I am sure that Evelyn will be the one to tell us. She’s got to know something, and it is only a matter of time before she slips up.”
The Path To Tame a Wild Heart: A Historical Western Romance Novel Page 5