by Tina Leonard
“Well, now,” Galen said, his chest puffing a bit, “we’ll have to have a family meeting to talk it over.”
“This is a family meeting,” Xav pointed out.
“No,” Jace said, “you’re here, dude. And you’re not family. Yet.”
“You guys are being mean to the father of my children,” Ash said, laughing. “Xav, they’re just teasing you.”
Xav looked at the Callahans warily. “Teasing?”
The brothers burst out laughing. “Yeah, we’re teasing you,” Dante said. “We’re not saying Ash will marry you or anything, so don’t get excited. We were going to make you repeat your proposal about a hundred times, and then tell you we’d arranged a marriage for Ash. We wanted to see that famous cool of yours melt like a snowman in Fiona’s oven.”
He hadn’t been cool since he’d found out he was a dad. The Callahans laughed like hyenas at their practical joke, came over and pounded him on the back. Xav thought he was going to cough up a lung.
“Dude, if you’re going to be part of the family, you’re going to have to get with the program,” Tighe said.
“Yeah, we stay loose around here,” Sloan said.
“Oh, good grief,” Ash said, “you’re only loose in your brains. Someone give him his cigar, his new dad shirt and his Callahan badge of honor.”
Xav felt better now that he realized he’d been part of some colossal ribbing. Jace dragged out a bottle of fine whiskey, handed it to Xav with great fanfare.
“Congratulations,” Galen said. “You win the prize.”
“See what four of a kind gets you?” Falcon said.
“It’s two pair, nothing to get excited about,” Tighe said, staring down at baby Thorn in his arms. “These babies look like their mother, thank God.”
They grinned as a pack. Xav glanced at Ash. “Now that I’ve survived the Callahan gauntlet, I want to hear yes out of you,” he said to Ash. “‘Yes, Xav, you studly fellow’ would work for me.”
Ash snorted and sat on a sofa, watched her brothers handling her babies, cooing to them and making puppet faces with wide mouths and pop eyes. Xav thought they looked ridiculous but totally happy. Fiona came in silently, snapping photos like mad before anyone realized the family meeting had been breached by the intrepid aunt.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Ash said. “Planning a wedding’s going to have to wait. First on the agenda is finding out what happened to Wolf.”
“How can we find that out?” Xav asked. “No stall tactics, please. Callahans, will you please tell your sister that the children you’re holding deserve a father? My last name? This is a very serious matter.”
Galen raised his head. “Something wrong with Chacon Callahan for a last name?”
“Yes, there is, damn it,” Xav said. “It’s not my name, and I’m the father.”
“He does have a point,” Sloan said. “You have to give him credit for making an important point.”
“We give him credit,” Jace said, “but not our sister.”
Xav sighed. “I feel like I’m talking to Jell-O that keeps sliding around.”
Falcon shook his head. “Exaggeration and hyperbole is no way to make your case.”
“True,” Tighe said. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Why should we let you marry our sister?” Sloan asked.
“Wait a darn minute,” Ash said. “While I appreciate you doing the courteous thing by asking my brothers for my hand, you’re going about this all wrong,” she told Xav. “They’ll put you through the wringer before they ever say yes. Don’t go down a hard path, for your own sanity.” She glared at her six brothers. “Besides which, I make my own decisions on whom I’m going to marry, thank you all very little for overdoing the brother act.”
“It was fun,” Dante said. “Kind of wish you wouldn’t make us quit.”
“Not fun for me,” Xav said. “I’ve been through a lot to catch this woman.”
“You’ve been through a lot? Try carrying quadruplets and then birthing them and nursing them,” Ash said.
“Look, I just want to marry you,” Xav said. “No matter what quest I have to go on, you’re going to be my wife. We’re going to be a family, you, me, Thorn, Skye, Briar and Valor.”
“Man,” Jace said, looking at his sister, “you probably better let him off the hook. I remember the feeling, and it sucks when you can’t get the girl.”
“Really stinks,” Galen said, “but we did say you’d be the worst one to tie down, Ash. It’s coming true.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult,” Ash said. “I’m trying to tell you that I can’t get married. I’m the hunted one.”
They stared at their sister, and Xav watched their faces practically droop with astonished concern.
“No, you’re not, Ash,” Galen said, his tone big-brother comforting. “You’re not the one who brings the curse.”
“No,” Sloan said, “it’s...” His gaze flew wildly around the room. “Well, obviously it’s Dante because he’s crazy as a bedbug, anyway.”
“Probably it’s Tighe,” Dante said. “My twin put the bad word on all of us. Remember? He spoke into the wind that he hoped we’d all go hard into the marriage chase, and we did. It was hard as hell on every last one of us.”
“Not in front of the aunt, please,” Galen said. “Fiona, tell Ash she’s not the hunted one.”
Fiona wandered out the door. “I’ll bring chocolate chip cookies up,” she called over her shoulder.
Ash’s brothers stared at her silently. Xav reached over and took her hand. “Babe, it’s going to be all right. I’ve got your back on this hunted thing.”
“You can’t fight things you don’t understand.”
“No, but I did shoot your uncle, and I’m living large on those laurels for now,” Xav said cheerfully. “Now, where’s my dad badge you said you had for me?”
Chapter Six
“That was mean,” Ash said, after Xav left with the children to visit Fiona and Burke and put the babies to bed. She’d said she was going to do it, but Xav wanted to find out where Fiona thought would be best for them all to sleep, wheeling the enormous stroller/pram out of the library. The stroller was a Callahan hand-me-down, and she loved it already. Burke had invented it by combining two double-strollers, so that all babies had plenty of room to nest in blankets or ride when they were a bit older. There were usually scads of Callahan babies around Rancho Diablo, so the stroller was almost never out of service. But transporting babies was the least of her worries at the moment. “You guys can’t pick on Xav like that.”
“Are you going to marry him?” Jace asked. “Because if you are, you might want to tell him so he can quit holding his breath. He seems a bit gaunt around the eyes, like a dog with a juicy bone just out of reach.”
“Agreed,” Sloan said. “Did we have it that bad?”
“Nah,” Falcon said. “We were all in control of our emotions where our women were concerned.”
Ash waited for a big, windy guffaw from her brothers at the exaggerated bragging, but when none came, she realized they really believed they’d been in control of the women in their lives. And their destinies. “Whatever. But you can’t just gang up on Xav.”
“So you are going to marry him,” Tighe said. “You sound like you’re in love.”
“I do love him, and no, I’m not going to marry him. Have you been listening? He shot Wolf because of me. Nothing good can come of this.” She shook her head. “If we were all being honest, we would tell Xav right now that witness protection is the place for him.”
They stared at her in silence, then looked down. Up at the ceiling. At the cookies Fiona had quietly brought in before departing without saying a word. They looked anywhere but at her.
Chickens.
&n
bsp; “She’s right,” Galen said, sounding defeated. “Xav’s going to have to go into hiding, and witness protection might even be advisable.”
“I don’t want to tell him,” Dante finally said. “He’s going to punch the bearer of that bad news. Hard.”
They considered their dilemma. Ash could feel her heart get heavier by the moment. How was it possible that the man she loved with all her soul needed to be in hiding? She had chased Xav endlessly for years, her spirit following his, knowing that he was the only man she could ever feel so strongly about.
Yet to protect her, he’d done what none of them would do. And would pay a terrible price.
“He won’t go,” Jace said. “I don’t care what we say to him, Xav isn’t going into witness protection.”
“He knows our story,” Dante said. “He knows we were raised without our parents in the tribe. That our cousins were mostly raised without theirs. He knows what it cost our family. He came here willingly because of that cost, because he wanted to help. I agree with Jace. Xav won’t go anywhere.”
Ash shook her head, not wanting to hear the words, and yet her heart leaped just the same. She didn’t want to lose him. She didn’t want her children growing up without their father. She thought about her babies’ sweet faces and their tiny little bodies. When they lay against her, she could feel their heartbeats, and fierce love swept her. She’d do anything to protect her children, keep them safe.
No doubt her parents had felt that very same emotion about her and her brothers. Hot determination poured through her, making her strong.
“You could go with him,” Galen said, his voice quiet.
No one said a word. They got up, went to face the windows that overlooked the ranch now wrapped in darkness, frost on the windowpanes, the smell of cocoa drifting up from downstairs. They stood close to their sister, shielding her, and she felt their support of whatever decision she had to make.
Suddenly the sound of pounding hooves rose on the air, a distant, rhythmic music they’d heard many times.
“The Diablos,” Galen murmured. “They’ve returned.”
Legend had it that the spirit horses were a mystical portent of things to come. Wolf had wanted the Diablos, the very spirit of their home. He’d even trapped them at one point, determined to steal the very heart of the Callahan wealth. The cartel that hired Wolf wanted the Callahan parents, Jeremiah and Molly, dead, and the Chacon Callahan parents, Carlos and Julia, dead, as well. Wolf had sold his brothers Carlos and Jeremiah out to the cartel, determined to have their land, the fabled silver treasure, and the Diablos. Running Bear despaired of his son Wolf but was proud of his sons Carlos and Jeremiah, proud that they’d understood the heritage of the land and fought the good fight. What affected Rancho Diablo also affected the homespun, tight-knit town of Diablo, and Jeremiah and Carlos had long ago made the decision that they couldn’t allow the cartel and Wolf to destroy the town and its people, as well. Livelihoods would have been ruined, families moved away, and the community fabric would have been ripped apart. Here would lie a barren wasteland if not for the sacrifices their parents had made.
Now Ash had decisions to make. Just because Wolf was gone didn’t mean Rancho Diablo was safe.
A chill touched her skin as she saw the future laid out before her, hanging in the distance like a mirage, bleak and bare, the echo of the pounding hooves reminding her that the war had not been won.
Yet.
* * *
“THE THING IS, ASH,” Xav said, staring down at his tiny bundles of joy as they slept peacefully in their bassinettes. They had all been placed in the bunkhouse at the end of Rancho Diablo, nearest the canyons. “The thing is, I was a reluctant suitor. I freely admit that.”
Ash smiled at Thorn, adjusting his diaper. The baby slept on, wiped out because of the crying jag he’d just experienced. Thorn seemed prone to those, but Xav didn’t mind the late-afternoon crying spells; it was proof to him that the underdeveloped lungs his son had been born with were a thing of the past.
“Ash,” Xav said, “I’m not a reluctant suitor anymore.”
She looked at him, and he thought he’d never seen eyes with such depth that could knock him to his knees. “It’s enough to know you care, Xav.”
Care? He loved this sexily stubborn woman. “Yeah, well, it’s time we get married. These children need to be christened. A house needs to be bought. Schools need to be chosen. We’ll of course need to visit colleges and military schools as soon as possible so the kids can get an idea of their future.”
Ash shook her head. “We have different plans to make.”
That sounded better—at least his little darling was in a planning mood, and indicated that she intended to include him. “Go for it. I’m listening.”
“You need to go away, Xav,” she said softly, and his heart turned over, fell to the ground, flailed like a dying thing.
“Go away?”
“I’m afraid so.”
He saw tears glimmer in her eyes, and realized she was dead serious. “I’m not going anywhere, babe. Those are my children, and you’re my...my dream come true. That may sound kind of sappy but sappy’s good sometimes.”
“You’re going to have to go into hiding.”
She didn’t sound sappy at all, she sounded very direct, clearheaded and matter-of-fact. “I don’t think so. I’m not a hiding kind of guy. I’m an up-front-and-personal kind of guy. Where you go, I go.”
“Then maybe that’s the answer,” Ash said, her voice very, very quiet. “Maybe we go away. All of us.”
He sat next to her. “What’s going on? Do your brothers want you to run me out of town on a rail?”
“Something’s going to have to happen.”
“This is going to happen,” he said, and kissed her, taking his sweet time about it, the memories of their lovemaking crashing down on him. This was where he belonged, with her, and nothing was ever going to separate them. Nothing.
Her lips pressed against his, kissing him passionately and his heart sang with joy, with a realization that all the months apart had done nothing to change the way they were together. “If you’re trying to seduce me into something, it’s probably working,” Xav said, “unless you’re trying to seduce me into agreeing to leave you, and then that’s not going to happen. Fair warning.”
She sat on his lap facing him, her legs behind his back. He thought he might explode from the desire screaming through him.
“What’s going on, little lady? You’re going dangerous places.”
Ash looked in his eyes. “I’m going in your bed right now. We’ll talk later about what you don’t want to talk about.”
“Oh, no, you don’t. Not that it doesn’t kill me to say that.” He kissed her again. “You think lovemaking is the way to my heart after nine long months, and it is. So the answer’s no, beautiful.” He put her off his lap, and his body—and wiser parts of him—complained vigorously.
She got right back in his lap, and he didn’t have the strength to remove her again. There was only so much a man could stand when a woman had seduction on her mind, and he was a very weak man when it came to Ashlyn Callahan.
She darn well knew it.
“Xav, I’m not going to beg.”
“No, probably I’ll be doing the begging, and I really have no problem doing it, either.” He sighed, kissed her, thought about his options, realized his little lady was trying to sidetrack him from some serious decisions. “Ash, I’m not going to leave you, the babies or Rancho Diablo.”
“Okay.”
He raised his brows. “Just like that.”
“Yes. Now let’s get in bed.”
“While you sound very much more like the hot lady that liked to make love to me when we were dating—”
She leaned back to look at him. “Dating? We didn’t dat
e. I chased you and you ran like a little girl.”
He laughed. “Not a little girl, surely.”
“A scared rabbit.”
“I wasn’t afraid of making love to you, gorgeous.”
“Really? I spent at least four years sure that that was exactly what you were afraid of. Every time I caught you, you ran a little farther away again.”
He nibbled on her shoulder. “Made it all that much better for you when you caught me, though, didn’t it?”
“Not necessarily.”
A baby squeaked in its bassinet and they both looked over at Briar. “I think you’re bothering our children, my love,” Xav said.
She took off her blouse, and his heart practically stopped beating. “Holy Christmas. Dressed for the holidays, babe?” He stared at the red lacy bra barely covering her nipples.
“You could say that. And there’s matching panties, if you can remember your way.”
He was having trouble breathing. “Ash, I really think we need to talk this out. You haven’t been yourself since I told you that it was me who shot your uncle at Rancho—” His words stopped and his breath choked off as she got out of his lap and dropped her short black leather skirt to the floor. She hadn’t been exaggerating—a red lace valentine stared at him, and she turned slowly, letting him see that her fanny cheeks were bare, beautiful, and sweetly divided by a sexy red lace thong.
Okay, so there was going to be no more talking tonight.
He snatched Ash up, cradled her in his arms.
“Change your mind?” she asked, her voice oh-too-innocent.
“Strangely enough, I have.”
He sank into bed with his prize, made short work of the hot lingerie, felt his whole body sigh with the relief of having her back in his arms again. “God, this is good,” he said with a bone-deep sigh, inhaling her perfume and the scent of her skin. “I missed the hell out of you. This is better than good.”
“We haven’t done anything yet,” she said, her voice teasing.
She thought she was so smart, thought she had his number.