Chapter Thirty-Two
“Poppy!” Neil called out to her, and when she looked at him, he was scrambling to grab the gun that Finn had dropped. He came to his feet and aimed it straight at him while she stepped away from her captor.
Finn was kneeling on the ground, his body swaying slightly. He reached up to where the rock had hit him, and blood poured in streams from a gash at his temple. That rock seemed to have rattled him more than Poppy could have hoped for.
“Poppy,” Neil said again, a little gentler this time, and she could see that he was stepping toward her.
“Sweetheart,” he added softly, and something inside of Poppy cracked wide open.
Tears of relief streamed over her dirty face.
Whatever had possessed her to believe Lucy—to leave the ranch, her new life, Neil—all of it evaporated into thin air, and all she could see was the fact that her husband had come to save her and Sophie.
“Neil!” she exclaimed, her voice breaking.
He opened his arm, and she ran straight toward him and into his embrace. Her fists clamped onto his shirt, and she burrowed her face into his broad chest as his free arm wrapped tightly around her.
“Tell your men to back off!” Neil demanded harshly as he turned to Finn.
Some of the fighting nearby seemed to stop.
Paul got away from the two men who had been fighting him.
There were other men a little further up the road, too, some of which hurried toward them.
Others seemed to flee in opposite directions.
Poppy couldn’t really decipher who was who.
Everybody seemed to be out of breath, and several were bleeding, some heavier than others.
“Where is Sophie?” Neil asked worriedly into her hair as he gently stroked her back. “Are you both all right?” Poppy nodded.
“I told her to hide behind the rocks over there, where she’d be safe until I came to get her.” She pointed a little ways away from the burning wagon, but didn’t move away from Neil. “How did you find us?”
“We were watching Finn’s house all day,” Paul said, limping toward them from the side. He held his own revolver, pointing it away from them in the other direction, obviously guarding Neil’s back. “Your husband was ready to take on a dozen men all by himself to save you two.”
Poppy choked a sob when she heard that and clung even tighter to Neil. Her emotions warred between uncertainty and gratitude. She still didn’t really know what had happened between him and Lucy that day, but the fact that he had come after them spoke volumes.
“What will happen now?” Poppy asked, tentatively looking up at Neil. His eyes dropped to hers, and there was so much adoration and warmth in them it took her breath away.
“I’ll take you both home, and I’ll never let you go again,” he said with a raspy voice. There was a soft smile on his lips. Poppy melted into his arms.
Then she heard a shriek.
“Not so fast,” a familiar voice exclaimed, and Poppy instantly turned away from Neil.
Lucy stepped into the flickering light of the flames. She held Sophie in front of her like a shield and a small pistol to the little girl’s head.
Poppy screamed when she saw her, and Sophie’s eyes were wide with fear. Neil pulled Poppy back and behind him and aimed his revolver at Lucy. Finn didn’t seem to pose a threat anymore. He looked beaten.
“What are you doing here?” Finn asked. He sounded annoyed. “I told you to stay home! This is none of your business!” He pulled a face, seemingly in pain. Lucy scoffed at him as she stopped a few feet next to him.
“So I’d miss out on all the fun?” she asked with a mean laugh, but her face quickly took on a menacing expression. “You can’t tell me what to do!”
Poppy noticed the tension in Lucy’s shoulders and the slight twitch in her hands. There was a strange glint in her wide eyes. She was clearly furious.
“You’ll never tell me what to do ever again!” Lucy screamed then. “None of you will!” She pointed the small pistol at everyone there when she said it, before she pushed it against Sophie’s head again. Sophie squinted when the tiny metal barrel pushed against her temple.
“Why don’t we talk about this calmly?” Paul tried, but Lucy didn’t want calm.
“No!” she screeched. Her voice sounded almost unnatural. “There is no more talking! This ends tonight!” she yelled. The way she kept waving the pistol at everybody was unsettling. Poppy didn’t know what to do. Her heart was pumping out of her chest.
“Be quiet, Lucy!” Finn said dismissively, as if her words didn’t matter. “What are you gonna do? None of this pertains to you.”
“Everything does!” she screamed hysterically and stomped her foot.
“You’ve been trying to take down Neil for eternity, but you were never able to do it by yourself!
You’re useless, Finn! You needed my help!
I was the one who provided you with all the papers you needed to cut his deals!
I was the one who provided you with all the secret information you needed to know where he was at what time! ”
Finn laughed at her, but Lucy wasn’t finished.
“It should all be mine!” she continued. Poppy didn’t think it was possible that her voice could get louder, but it did.
“All of it! Your house, your land, your money! I’ve worked harder for it than anybody!
All those years of turning people against each other and stealing their money—I got away with all of it because that’s what I’ve been using you for, Finn!
I never loved you!” Then Lucy stared directly at Neil.
“I only ever loved you, Neil!” she said with a much softer, almost pleading voice. “I still do! You should be with me! I should be your wife!” Poppy’s head was spinning. Hadn’t this woman admitted to stealing from him mere seconds ago?
“You tried to ruin his life!” Poppy exclaimed, and she wanted to step in front of Neil. In fact, she had half a mind to go over there and slap that pistol out of Lucy’s hand, but Neil’s arm held her firmly in place. Lucy’s eyes shot daggers at her.
“What you did is much worse, you hussy!” Lucy yelled back at her. “You were a prostitute for Marveau Marvels! Do you think he would have married you if he knew?”
Poppy closed her eyes. The shame crashing down over her was too much.
She released Neil's arm and stumbled backward, but Neil’s hand grabbed hers before Poppy could step away from him.
He gently pulled her back, shaking his head almost unnoticeably.
Poppy was utterly confused. Had he not heard what she’d just said?
“It’s okay,” he whispered to her. “Let her talk.”
“Yeah!” Lucy yelled. “Did you know that you married a working girl, Neil? She lied to you about her past to betray you! I didn’t even have to lie to her. Her own guilt made her leave you without even blinking an eye! She doesn’t love you, Neil! I love you! I’ve always loved you, and I always will!”
Lucy paused with a heaving chest and looked at every single face with a victorious smile. She clearly waited for some kind of reaction to her big revelation, but nobody moved or said anything. Her face shifted into a bewildered mask as she bared her teeth.
Poppy was utterly perplexed at the whole thing. Neil was still holding her hand. His thumb even stroked over the back of it tenderly. He didn’t seem shocked or distraught about the accusation against Poppy. How could this be?
“Didn’t you work at that tiny saloon in Sherman?” Finn interjected. He tried to get back up on his feet but gave up. “I am pretty sure that you worked in the same profession—”
“No!” Lucy screamed at him, wiggling the pistol in his face. “That was—”
Before she could finish the sentence, Poppy saw a small, shadowy figure run up to Lucy from behind. Suddenly, Lucy’s head swung abruptly back, as if something had forcefully kicked her. She screamed as she stumbled to her knees and fell face-first into the dirt. The pistol flew out of her hand.
It landed too close to where Finn sat.
“Sophie! Run!” a young boy’s voice called out. Sophie was thrown to the side, but she caught herself and ran straight toward Poppy and Neil.
Finn was about to grab that pistol, but a much smaller hand snatched it away from him.
“Barley?” Paul asked, bewildered. The young boy held up the pistol as he ran toward him. “What are you doing here?” Barley jumped into Paul’s arms and hugged him fiercely.
“I did it!” Barley exclaimed, beaming from ear to ear. Then he looked over to Poppy, who hugged Sophie as tight as she could. “Is she all right?” Barley asked.
Poppy was overwhelmed with love for her sister and the boy, and she and Sophie nodded before she burst into tears. Poppy assumed that it was because she was relieved to finally be safe. This had been a horrendous ordeal for both of them.
“Why are you here?” Paul asked again. Barley smiled at him.
“I got the sheriff! They’re on their way,” he replied. Poppy’s eyebrows shot up when she heard that. Paul and Neil seemed equally as surprised.
“Well, I couldn’t really come out here to fight, could I,” Barley said matter-of-factly. “So when I heard about your ambush, I volunteered to go get the sheriff instead.” He looked over his shoulder. “They were right behind me when I left to come find you.”
“You are a hero, you know that?” Paul exclaimed with moist eyes as he hugged his son.
“I’ve learned that from you,” Barley said solemnly.
Poppy couldn’t hold it back. She choked a sob and hid her face in Sophie’s hair against Neil’s chest. When she looked up again, she saw most of their workers joining the circle.
They all looked worse for wear. Some had to hold up others who were limping or wounded, but they all smiled at Neil and Paul.
Meanwhile, Lucy had scrambled back onto her feet. Her face was dirty from the sandy ground, and she was bleeding from her mouth.
“You will pay for this, you brat!” she threatened, as she stepped forward, but then something stopped her. She seemed to roll something around in her mouth, then she spat it into her open gloved hand. “My tooth!” she exclaimed. “You knocked out my tooth!”