by Tina Leonard
She did.
And he was crazy about her.
* * *
“DID YOU TELL HIM?” Dante asked Ash the next day as she walked into the kitchen to grab two mugs of coffee.
It was two weeks until Christmas. All she wanted was the joy of being home with her family, to celebrate the holidays the way only a family could—together. They’d worked so hard for this for so long. And she had these beautiful babies to be thankful for, a miracle that she could never have envisioned. The babies had been bathed, fed and dressed in darling soft, warm, matching pajamas. They’d looked like tiny candy canes in their bassinets when she’d left them, slumbering with their big, handsome father. “No. I didn’t tell him. I tried to tell Xav he had to go, but the discussion got waylaid.” Ash smiled to herself, remembering how Xav had loved her—and then loved her again. It had been like old times—almost. He’d whispered some nonsense about how it was better this time because they were in a bed together for the first time—as if he was sentimental about such things—and then he’d told her he wasn’t sure he knew how to make love to her without keeping one eye on the lookout and maybe he couldn’t make love to her behind a closed door. There was no breeze blowing against his ass, and no sandy grit blowing in his eyes. Under these softer, more private and less primitive conditions, how could he make love to her?
She’d laughed, told him to shut up and get on with it.
He’d sunk into her, and she’d closed her eyes in ecstasy, realizing all his teasing had just been a way to keep the moment light. But it hadn’t been light—it had been heavy, intense, earth-shattering.
She couldn’t send him away.
“I think we all agreed it’s safest. They’re going to come for him.”
“We don’t know that.” She turned to face her brothers as they ganged up on her in the kitchen. They were stuffing their faces with Fiona’s good pancakes, grits and eggs, slurping coffee, generally plowing through enough food to feed a platoon. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. He wouldn’t leave if I told him to.”
It wasn’t the whole truth. She’d mentioned witness protection to Xav—then he’d pulled the tiny red thong off with his teeth, finding something to occupy himself with that made her gasp with sheer pleasure, the conversation had ended. It didn’t come up again.
They’d made love, and when the babies awakened for their feeding, they’d made an assembly line of feeding, diapering, burping, comforting. She’d thought she was too exhausted after that to make love again, but Xav surprised her, gently loving her, telling her to relax in his arms, that he’d take care of her.
He had, and she was still smiling this morning.
“You’ll have to tell him,” Tighe said. “This is not his battle.”
“He’s a new father,” Jace said quietly. “He has to realize that sooner or later, the cartel will figure out what happened. He was the only person in Wild with you.”
“Maybe they don’t know that.” Even as she said it, Ash knew that wasn’t likely.
“Somebody took those bodies,” Falcon said. “They didn’t just get up and walk away on their own.”
“Unless they weren’t dead,” Galen said, his voice hopeful.
“I should have killed him the first time.” Ash heard the cold flatness in her voice, the soft, incandescent memories of last night in Xav’s arms fleeing from her. It had been her responsibility to deal with Wolf—she’d been born for that moment.
“You know what you have to do,” Sloan said after a long moment, and then her brothers faded out of the kitchen, heading off to do chores.
She sat on a stool, stared at the wreckage of empty plates and depleted coffeepots. It was still dark outside, 5:30 a.m. on a frosty cold morning. She’d left Xav sleeping, his big body hogging the bed, one arm thrown over her pillow where she’d pushed him off her, a leg dangling off the side of the bed. It was the first time they’d ever slept together, and she’d intended to tease him today that she’d tamed him.
She couldn’t tease him now. Her brothers were right. She was living in a dreamworld.
She heard a sound, glanced toward the kitchen window. Wolf’s face peered in at her, his eyes fixed on her, nightmarish in their intensity and hatred, and a scream ripped out of her, right out of her soul.
Chapter Seven
Something stabbed at Xav, warning him that something was terribly wrong with Ash.
He jumped out of bed and fumbled in the dark for his clothes. By the soft glow of the night-light, he saw his four babies snoozing, undisturbed and content. Taking a deep breath, he tried to tell himself he had just had a bad dream.
But the crazy wild adrenaline in his veins wouldn’t subside. He grabbed his clothes, stuck his gun in the holster at his back. “Off we go to the main house. We’re going to check on your mother, who should be in bed next to me, but isn’t.” He put his children in the big-wheeled stroller, felt guilty for taking them out in the bitter cold across the snow-covered grounds, but decided they were wrapped as well as enchiladas and with a heavy blanket over them, they’d never notice.
Skye’s eyes opened when he moved her, and he could have sworn she looked right at him and knew exactly what he was doing. “It’s okay, little angel. Go back to sleep. Nothing’s going to happen to you. Daddy’s going to make sure of that.” He slipped her in next to her brothers and sister, and hauled ass with the stroller.
He could hear shouting and yells, realized the Callahans were already on the scene. Xav picked up his pace, fearful for the first time in his life.
“What the hell?” he demanded, lifting the stroller up over the kitchen stoop and wheeling the babies inside.
The place was a shambles. Ash was in the center of her brothers. Fiona furiously cleaned the kitchen and Burke hunched at a window with a shotgun in his lap, staring out. The hidden gun cabinet was unlocked and open for the first time he could ever remember. Also, the door to the secret elevator was open. “What’s going on in here?”
He hurried to Ash, kissing her, taking her in his arms just as the babies set up a furious wailing, probably not happy that the stroller had quit rolling. Fiona and some Callahans hurried over to grab up babies, and Xav was amazed by how handy the big men were at comforting the little ones.
Lots of practice.
“What happened, babe?”
Ash stared up at him, almost blankly, as if she was in shock. “I saw Wolf. He was here.”
“No.” He held her close. “He wasn’t, Ash. You saw something in the snow. Or had a—” He didn’t want to say nightmare, she was awake, but maybe a vision? Was it possible?
“It was Wolf,” Ash said. “I saw him.”
He lifted her chin so he could look deep into her eyes. “Honey, Wolf is dead. So is Rhein.”
“There were no bodies.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’re never coming back.” In spite of his brave words, he could see Ash was really shaken up. He could feel her trembling. Ash wasn’t given to flights of fancy and imagination. If she said she saw something, she had—and whatever it was had scared the bejesus out of her. “I won’t leave you again. I promise.”
“I left you,” she said. “I came to get both of us coffee. I wanted to visit with Fiona. Talking to her in the early morning is one of my favorite things.” She indicated the broken mugs on the floor.
“No worries. Just sit here and rest.” He started to clean up the mess but Fiona handed him Skye and said, “You just take care of your family.”
She put two fresh mugs beside him and he smiled at Fiona gratefully. “Hey, beautiful,” he said to Ash, “why don’t you let me put you in bed for a nap?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to leave here.”
He nodded. “Galen,” he said, and Galen looked up. “Maybe you should do a doc check on your sister,” he murmured. “She seems a little t
raumatized.”
Galen took Ash’s hand, leading her out of the kitchen into the den. Xav followed with Skye.
“Ash,” he heard Galen say, “you’re safe.”
“I know,” she said. “Galen, we’re not winning.”
“We are. We will,” Galen said. “We’re not beaten yet. You’re just frightened, and that’s understandable.” He rubbed his sister’s shoulders. “We only let him win when we allow him to make us afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” Ash murmured.
“We know who we are,” Galen said, his voice hypnotic and strange. Xav leaned close to hear better, and even little Skye appeared to listen intently. “We know why we’re here, and we know we’re strong. We’re a family. No one comes in, and no one goes out without our choosing.”
“Okay,” Ash said, sounding tired all of a sudden but no longer panicked. She allowed Galen to lay her on the sofa, putting her feet up. Galen moved his hand in front of her eyes, whispered, “Sleep now,” and Ash’s body appeared to give up its tension and relax.
She didn’t move again.
“She’ll rest now,” Galen said, getting up. “She’ll be fine.”
Skye was asleep in Xav’s arms, too. He looked at Galen.
“If she says Wolf was here, then he was,” Galen said, and took Skye from him, placing the baby against her mother’s side, tucked between Ash and the sofa cushion. Neither of them moved, as if a spell had been cast over them.
“How?” Xav asked. “How could he be here?”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Galen said, and departed.
Xav stared at his wife and daughter, promising himself that no matter what, he was never leaving Ash—or their family—ever.
Whatever evil was coming to Rancho Diablo was going to have to get through him.
* * *
“HERE,” FIONA SAID, appearing beside him in the den three hours later, “I’ll keep an eye on them. You go figure out your life.”
Xav shook his head, followed her into the kitchen while Ash slept on, a sleeping beauty to his worried gaze. It was late morning, and he’d checked on Ash and Skye several times, both of them content in their peaceful sleep. Skye hadn’t awakened yet for a feeding, though he’d been on watch for the call. The kitchen had cleared out, the brothers long gone, the gun cabinet locked, the coffeepot full and percolating again—as if nothing had happened. Late-morning light seemed to have chased away all the demons of the dark.
Yet the calmness was deceptive. “What should I be figuring out?”
Fiona gave him a shrewd look. “First of all, I’d say you need to head into town to find truck tires. Yours have been slashed.”
The coffee mug he’d been holding didn’t quite make it to his lips. “When did that happen?”
“While we were all inside this morning with Ash.”
“So Ash did see someone. Maybe not Wolf, but someone.”
“I don’t know.” Fiona brought a fragrant spice cake out of the oven, setting it on the counter to cool. “Could have been a vision.”
“I don’t believe in visions.”
“Don’t say that too loudly around here.” Fiona smiled, studied her recipe. “I think brownies, too, don’t you? Roast in the Crock-Pot for dinner, with green chili corn bread and perhaps a fruit compote.”
She was paying him no attention. “Fiona, Ash didn’t have a vision. There was no hobgoblin or ghost out there. I know everyone here believes in things that go boo in the night, but I don’t. I’m a simple man, the son of a tough-as-nails man who built his own international company selling heavy equipment, and I’m telling you, Gil Phillips would no more have tolerated dreams and visions than talk of leprechauns. He thought Santa Claus was a radical retailing plot.”
Fiona gasped. “Don’t say that so loud! Skye is just in the other room! And the babies are in my room with Burke! Sound travels!”
“Sorry, sorry.” He took the warm slice of cake she handed him, perching on a barstool and tucking in. “I’m just saying, someone was here, and it wasn’t a ghost. Ash didn’t have some kind of phantasmagoric nightmare. The problem at Rancho Diablo isn’t superstitious folklore, it’s criminals. We just have to solve that.”
“Fancy talk coming from a suit,” Fiona said, her gaze on him.
“Maybe, but the suit in me is practical. The way to run a business is to believe in numbers and facts. Statistics.”
“You don’t believe in magic?”
“I don’t believe in anything I can’t see, Fiona.”
She sighed. “So if we look at everything through the lens of the hard-baked realist, what are you going to do now with your wife and four Christmas angels?” She gazed at him woefully. “I know Galen and the brothers and Ash think you should go into hiding, but I’m just old and selfish enough to not want you to. I am getting old,” she said on a dramatic sigh, “I came to this country from Ireland to take care of six Callahan boys, my sister Molly’s children, because she and her husband, Jeremiah, knew they’d stirred up a real hornet’s next, and they opted not to separate the boys and put them through a life on the run. I know they were right, and I know Carlos and Julia were right for doing the same and leaving their family in the tribe, but now, I’m hoping your path can be different. I just don’t want to give up Skye and Thorn and Briar and Valor. Or anyone anymore,” Fiona said, and padded off down the hall, her usual whirlwind gait lacking and slow.
Xav stared after her. He felt her life force tiring, the weight and strain of the years of standing in the face of danger protecting the Callahan creed and clan wearing her down. He didn’t believe in magic and spiritual things, but he did believe people’s hearts and minds created the magic of life, and Fiona had done that for the Callahan family.
He would do it for his now. He remembered the strange sensation of warning, a sixth sense kicking in this morning that something was dreadfully wrong with Ash, that had sent him running to find her. If his wife-to-be, whom he loved more than the breath of life itself, wanted to stay here, he was staying, too—no matter how hard she tried to run him off.
Besides, he’d never been much good at running away. He had too much Gil Phillips in him for that.
* * *
“THERE WAS NO Christmas ball this year,” Fiona announced to Ash after she’d awakened. She sat up, staring at her tiny aunt perched on the chair across from her, holding baby Skye in her arms. “No Christmas ball, so don’t fear that you missed anything. I had no holiday spirit without you, and I hope you don’t go away again.”
Ash pushed her sluggish brain back into focus. “How long was I asleep?”
“Well, let’s see,” Fiona said cheerfully. “It was about six this morning, or earlier, when you gave me a fright I won’t soon forget. You shrieked like a banshee, and we all came running. It’s now five in the afternoon, so you must have really needed your rest. And thankfully for the babies, there was plenty of breast milk in the freezer.”
“I need to go take care of that,” she said, feeling heavy and sore. But the sleep had been fabulous. She remembered Wolf’s face staring in at her and suppressed a shiver. “Where is everybody?”
“Running thither and yon as usual.” Fiona looked at her. “I will say you’re more beautiful than when you left Rancho Diablo, niece. Although I wish you hadn’t gone in the first place.”
“I didn’t want to go.” Ash stood, went to hug Fiona. “I wish you’d had your annual Christmas ball.”
“There’s always next year. I’m just getting old and sentimental, I’m afraid.”
“You’re darling, and I love you.”
Fiona cleared her throat. “Are you in love with Xav?”
Ash blinked. “I have been for years.”
“Then you should try on the magic wedding dress,” Fiona said softly. “It’s been waiting all these
years for you.”
Ash laughed. “Fiona, dresses don’t wait. They’re not alive. You and that dress!” she said, laughing again. “Sometimes I think you believe it really is magic.”
“What does one believe in, I ask you, if not magic? Fairy tales? The supernatural?” Fiona looked offended. “Even when I go to church, I feel the Holy Spirit. The unexplainable is a good thing.”
“No, no,” Ash said hurriedly, “I didn’t mean to offend you, Auntie. I know the magic wedding dress is very special. I’m thrilled you want me to try it on.”
“But?” Fiona demanded. “I hear a but.”
“I’m just not ready. I’m all spooked and wrinkled up from seeing Wolf this morning.”
“Ash, that wasn’t Wolf you saw,” Fiona said. “Honey, you had a daymare.”
“I don’t think so.” Yet she didn’t want to frighten Fiona, either, so she said, “I’m going to check on the babies, pump some breast milk and shower up. Then,” she said, dropping a kiss on Fiona’s cheek and one on Skye’s, “if you really want me to, I’ll try on the dress. Just for grins, not because I’m getting married. But if it’ll make you happy, we’ll both satisfy our curiosity on what I’d look like in a wedding dress. I’m not the lacy-dress kind of girl, as everyone knows,” Ash said, “but it’ll be a bonding moment for you and me.”
Fiona beamed. “If you only knew how long I’ve waited for this, Ashlyn. All the other brides married into the family, but you’re the only Callahan who will have ever tried on the dress. Not even Julia and Molly got to, of course, nor did I. The magic reminds me that happy endings are still possible. Even here.”
She took Skye and left the den, a delighted smile on her face. Ash went to find her other children and her husband, unable to completely put away the terror she’d felt at seeing Wolf’s face at the window.
It had been no daymare.
Chapter Eight
Running Bear approached Xav at the stone-and-fire ring in the canyons as Xav stared out across the sandy, winding arroyo that led to the other ranch, which the brothers called Loco Diablo and which Ash called Sister Wind Ranch.