BRANDED BY A CALLAHAN

by Tina Leonard

  “True,” he conceded, “but I still think I’d get bids. A woman would think she could tame my inner wolf.”

  “All right. I could spread the rumor that you’re going to be a father. That would dampen the ladies’ enthusiasm, don’t you think?”

  He laughed. “Of the three, I’d go with the werewolf story. It’s the only one anybody might possibly believe.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Thanks for the encouragement. I’m ready now to do my duty.”

  “That’s nice,” Ana said, slightly miffed that Dante hadn’t even given an iota of credence to the idea that he might be a father. “Good luck.”

  “I expect praise when I bring home the bacon,” Dante said. “In fact, plan on taking me out to dinner to celebrate.”

  He went off, his ego fully restored, apparently. Ana sighed, put her mask back on and stared at the eight hundred dollars he’d given her.

  It wouldn’t be enough. She knew that. Not a woman had moved from the theater as they waited for midnight, the hour the “Grand Prize” went on stage.

  Ten minutes.

  Ten minutes until another woman won Dante.

  She tossed the money into Tighe’s barrel.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ash went by, carrying a tray, and Ana grabbed her arm. “If I was to bid at the auction, can I pay with a check, Ash?”

  Ashlyn raised a brow. “You’re not going to bid on my brother, are you?”

  Ana shrugged. “I’m considering it.”

  “What are you thinking of doing?”

  “Nothing.” Ana didn’t want to share her thoughts.

  “If you tell me, I’ll help,” Ash said.

  “I don’t know if I can trust you. You told Galen about the baby, and I’m afraid he’s going to tell Dante before I do!”

  Ash grinned, looking elfin and mischievous with her silver-blond hair curling around her face and her mask on. “You are going to bid on him!”

  “If I can write a check, I might.”

  “Fiona would take a check from you,” Ash said, “she knows you.”

  “Okay.” Ana took a deep breath, thought through her best scenarios. She didn’t want to use Dante’s money to bid; if she was going to do this, she wanted to do it on her own, with her own funds. “What did the grand prize go for last year?”

  “I’m not sure we had one. Frankly, I think Fiona’s just trying to smoke you out.”

  Ana’s eyes widened. “You mean this is a setup?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t put it past Fiona to try to flush you out into the open.” Ash smiled. “I mean think of it. You’d see all these women throwing themselves at my handsome brother, you’d get jealous, start rethinking your notion of not wanting to be tied down—”

  “I never said I didn’t want to be tied down. Dante is the commitmentphobe. Although my parents aren’t married. They were, but now they’re not. They live in separate houses, and they get along better than ever. We have holidays together and everything. Sometimes marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’m okay with it.” She took a deep breath. “Dante never said he loved me, or that he cared about me. I wanted a child more than anything in the world, and I knew Dante was my kind of father material. If I held out for marriage, I’d be holding my breath forever.”

  “Wow,” Ash said, her eyes huge behind the mask, “how come you never told me any of that before?”

  “Because you’re a blabbermouth,” Ana said, teasing. “You don’t keep any secrets from your brothers.”

  “I do, too.” Ash glanced around at the excited women pushing toward the stage, waiting for Dante to come out. “I’m just not very good at it, is all.”

  “Like when you go to the canyons when you’re not supposed to.”

  “That wasn’t my fault. My brothers would have never found out about that, if Xav and I hadn’t gotten tied up. I still think it was some of Uncle Wolf’s goons,” she said on a whisper, “but I’m starting to get suspicious of that Sawyer girl, too.”

  “I thought you said it was men who tied you guys up.”

  “Yeah. But I heard a woman’s voice, too. Could have been her. I don’t like the way she’s bidding on my brothers.” Ashlyn frowned. “I think that’s a setup, too.”

  “What, Sawyer’s going to win one of the guys and get cozy with him and sweet-talk him out of all the family secrets? Like Mata Hari or something?”

  “You laugh,” Ashlyn said, “but what other reason would she have for suddenly showing up and throwing herself at my adorably hot brothers?” Ash shook her head. “I don’t like it.”

  “Anyway,” Ana said, not wanting to delve further into Ash’s theories, “I haven’t decided to bid. I just wanted to know how it works.”

  “Yeah, well, I think all you have to do is raise your paddle, girlfriend. No big deal. Although then you have to decide what you’d do with him if you do win him.” Ash winked at her. “I’ll try to help you out if I see you waving your paddle around.”

  “Uh, thanks.” Ana wasn’t sure she needed any help from Ash. It wasn’t always a good thing, since Ash was as tricky as her aunt Fiona. Ash went off with her tray, and Ana went into a side room to pull her phone from her purse to check her account, see what she could afford to pony up for a hot cowboy—and the father of her child.

  There was terrible reception in this tiny room. She managed to pull up her account—five thousand dollars was all she had to her name. Ana closed her eyes for a second.

  It would be worth every penny if she spent it to win Dante. He’d wanted her to rescue him. Maybe it was the best thing to do.

  Who was she kidding? It would be a dream fantasy to win him any way she could get him.

  “All right,” Ana said, “I’ll do it.”

  She slid her phone into her small gold bag, hesitating when she heard a click behind her. Whirling, she saw that she was still alone in the room. Hurrying to the door, she tried to open it.

  Locked.

  She banged on the door. “Hey! I’m in here!”

  Of course no one came. “Because that would be too easy since I just made up my mind to go get the man of my dreams,” she muttered, pulling out her cell phone.

  It wasn’t quite dead—close, but not completely dead—but there wasn’t any reception now. No windows, and the door locked, a room not much bigger than a laundry room. Ana banged on the door again, knowing that the room was too far down the hall from the noisy stage. Her banging couldn’t be heard, at least not over the music and excited chatter of so many people. It was a party after all, and Fiona wouldn’t have wanted her party to be a quiet affair.

  Ana took off her mask. She didn’t like being shut up in small, airless rooms, and she was cranky at being bested by someone. When she found out who’d locked her in here right before the grand prize auction, they were going to have some serious explaining to do.

  * * *

  DANTE GLANCED AT ASH before he went up on the stage, his heart jumping. “I don’t see Ana.”

  “She’s around somewhere. Go,” Ash told him. “Be amazing. Get the dough, brother. You can do it.” She straightened his tux tie, and he grimaced impatiently.

  “Ana should be here. Go find her, Ash. Please.”

  “And leave you? No way. Every guy needs his sister. Besides, I have it from Ana’s own mouth that she’ll be here to watch you smash all previous records.”

  He didn’t want to get on stage. He didn’t want to be auctioned. Why had he let his aunt and brother goad him into this? “I’m about to forfeit and just donate a few grand to Fiona’s roof project. I could claim that I just became engaged and am therefore ineligible to take another lady out.”

  “You could,” Ash said, “but that would be a lie.”

  It would be a lie, but not a huge one. He’d love to be engaged
to Ana, if he could ever settle the woman down. She was harder to slow down than...than he was.

  “Maybe that’s why I like her so much,” he muttered, and Ash said, “What?”

  “Nothing. Please go find Ana.”

  She shook her head. “Pitiful.”

  “Yeah, but I really don’t have a problem with that.”

  Ash sighed in disgust. “If you like Ana so much, why don’t you tell her?”

  How did one explain such things to their little sister? “Look, for the first year and a half that Ana was here, she barely gave me the time of day. I would have sworn up and down that she didn’t want anything to do with me, while all the way she and River acted like Jace was the cat’s meow.”

  “They treat him like a kid brother.”

  “True, but—” He glanced around. “Please go find my girl.”

  “Your girl?”

  “Yes. She’s got a lot of my money, and I want to see it spent.”

  “Pathetic,” Ash said. “I’m not going to hunt Ana up. If she wanted to be here, she would. If she was smart, she’d take your money and go vacation in Canada.”

  “At this time of year? Too dang cold when she could be right here with me warming her up.” He glanced around, realizing that Fiona was waving at him to get on stage. “Please find her. Mavis or Corinne have probably got her stuck in a kissing booth or something. Anything for a buck around here. But I don’t want to be won by anyone but Ana,” he told his sister. “Just like you wouldn’t want to be won by anyone but Xav.”

  “That’s not fair,” Ash murmured. “Anyway, I’m not dumb enough to put myself in a position to be with anyone but him. Even if he doesn’t really want to be in said position with me, I’m pretty sure I’m wearing him down.”

  Dante patted his sister’s shoulder. “You could wear down a saint, sister. Go find my bodyguard and tell her it’s time for her to protect someone. Namely me.”

  He got on the stage, scooted behind the curtain where Fiona pointed for him to stand so he could make a grand entrance.

  “Be electrifying,” Fiona told him. “I’m looking for you to bring in a big haul.”

  “Aunt Fiona,” Dante said, “let me just give you whatever Tighe went for and call it even, okay?”

  His aunt’s eyes were huge. She opened the curtain a crack. “Do you see all those man-starved women out there? They’ve hung around until the stroke of midnight to win you. You can’t let them down! They want their handsome prince!”

  Of course he was no prince, was he? If he was, he’d catch a bodyguard princess. Ana sure had looked like one tonight, but then again, he’d had a thing for her since she’d first come to Rancho Diablo. A quick scan of the front rows of excited women revealed that there was no red-gowned female with a mysterious black mask waiting to rescue him, even though he’d given her the means to do so.

  He sighed, nodded at his aunt. “Lead me to the slaughter.”

  “Such an attitude!” Fiona shook her head. “Any right-thinking, red-blooded male would give his best saddle to have so many women vying for his attention.”

  “True,” Dante said, “but nobody has ever accused me of right-thinking.”

  “You’ll get in the swing of it when the bright light hits you,” Fiona said. “Goodness knows I thought Tighe was going to die of stage fright.”

  “Really?”

  Aunt Fiona rolled her eyes. “No, but I’m trying to give you a little mental energy, nephew. You’re flat as a pancake. Makes it hard for me to sell you when I get out there. And we’re only short the full cost of the roof by about five grand!” She looked at him. “Picture the number five in your mind’s eye, followed by three zeroes. Now go get it!”

  She shoved him onto the stage, the spotlight hit him, women shrieked and squealed, the music roared to a fever pitch—and something happened to Dante, pretty much like when Firefreak had cannoned forward out of the chute—he went into survival mode.

  * * *

  ASH GLANCED AROUND WILDLY for Ana, not seeing her in the crowd. “Jace, go find Ana. She’s probably still parceling out goody bags. She’s going to miss the auction!”

  “Does she care?” Jace demanded.

  Ash gave him a sisterly punch in the side. “Of course she cares! What woman doesn’t care about the father of her child getting auctioned off to another woman?”

  “What father of what child?” Jace asked, sounding stunned, and Ash clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “Never mind,” Ash said.

  Jace’s eyes were huge. Around them, women jostled and shoved to get closer to the stage, where Dante was gyrating and dancing to make a puppet blush. The ladies were eating it up, and paddles were flashing furiously as Fiona egged on the bids. “Go find her! Hurry!”

  “Is Ana pregnant with Dante’s baby?” Jace asked.

  “Yes, and if you don’t go find her, you’re never going to be able to get a lady pregnant, if you get my drift!” Ash glared at him. “Go!”

  “Hell’s bell’s, Ash!” Jace said, streaking off.

  Sawyer Cash was clearly not to be outdone. She and the rose gown that had annoyed Ana were in a bidding war, the bids going over two thousand. Dante tossed his hat into the crowd, then a handful of kisses. Ash rolled her eyes, wondered how to stop the train that was bearing down on her dunce of a brother. “Really, all of them are dunces,” she muttered. “It’s such a shame.”

  Maybe those two would run out of cash soon. Perhaps there was a dark horse who hadn’t yet bid. Ana wouldn’t be happy about either of these women going out on a date with Dante. She glanced at the door, hoping to see Jace returning with Ana.

  Maybe Ana wouldn’t bid, though. She was stubborn that way. Ash had never seen two people who were so right for each other fight it so hard. But there was a baby to consider.

  Of course Dante didn’t know about that. If he did, he’d be hell-bent for leather to get Ana to the altar.

  Which was exactly what Ana didn’t want. Ash understood that—she wouldn’t want a man to want to marry her just because she was pregnant, either. No woman wanted that!

  The bidding went over three thousand dollars, Fiona practically crowing her excitement over the microphone. Dante undid his tie, tossed it aside, undid three buttons on his shirt, then in what Ash thought was a remarkable return to his wild side, Dante ripped his shirt off with a flourish.

  The room erupted, at least ten more paddles furiously waving with bids, encouraging her brother to make an even bigger donkey of himself. Something had to be done. Dante didn’t need to be on a date with anyone but Ana, in Ash’s estimation.

  But what to do? Grab Fiona’s microphone and make an announcement that Dante was expecting a child he didn’t know about? That would sure silence the bidding. The women would evaporate like water on a stove.

  But that wouldn’t be fair to Ana. She’d promised not to tell Dante. Or anyone for that matter, though she’d had a slip here and there. Still, she couldn’t do it.

  There had to be another way.

  She eyed the fire alarm on the far wall of the packed theater. It was against the law, of course. Punishable by fines and probably some time in Sheriff Cartwright’s jail.

  Sometimes, you had to stand for something—it was live by the sword, die by the sword.

  On stage Dante flexed his muscles like a bodybuilder, and the women went crazy. Something had to be done to save her brother from himself.

  Ash took a deep breath.

  * * *

  ANA PERKED UP WHEN SHE thought she heard someone calling her name. “In here!” She banged fiercely on the door. “I’m in here!”

  Jace opened the door. “Ana! Why are you in the old theater prop room?”

  “Is that what this is?”

  “It was before everything was rebuilt. Now I
think it’s a storage closet.” He frowned. “You’re missing Dante, and Ash says you better hurry.” He looked at her. “Is it true that you’re pregnant with Dante’s baby?”

  “I— Oh, Jace, don’t tell anyone, all right? I need to talk to Dante first.” She went running down the hall into the theater. “Five thousand dollars!” Ana yelled at the top of her lungs. “I bid five... What happened? Why is everyone standing around? Is the auction over?”

  The entire roomful of women turned to gawk at her. On stage, Dante stared at her. The music had stopped and the room was silent as an empty cave, her loud announcement as she’d dashed into the room echoing to all four corners.

  Dante took the microphone from his aunt. “Ana, is there something you want to tell me?”

  Ana glanced at Ashlyn, shocked.

  “I’m sorry, Ana! I had to do something!” Ash’s face wasn’t exactly apologetic, but she did look very worried. “It was tell the truth or pull the fire alarm, and I really didn’t want to go to jail at Christmas!”

  The ladies burst into dismayed chatter as Dante left the stage. Seeing her big jackpot slip away, Fiona called, “Don’t leave unhappy, ladies! Luckily I have—” She quickly glanced around, her gaze falling on her nephews. “Galen, come on up! Jace, you, too! We’ve got women here who want a date with a handsome unattached Callahan cowboy, and fortunately, I can offer you two for the price of one! How’s that for an even better grand prize?”

  Galen glanced at Jace, who’d stuck close to Ana as she’d dashed down the hall. “I spent enough time serving my country and going to med school that I can’t think of anything more wonderful than going out with a beautiful woman who wants to buy me. What do you think, Jace?” Galen asked.

  Jace grinned. “I’m game. Look at all those hot ladies.” Then he yelled, “I say let the bidding begin!”

  He hopped on stage and Galen followed with enthusiasm, and the room erupted in cheers. Fiona looked like she said, “Phew,” but Ana felt no relief at all as Dante bore down on her, his handsome face not happy at all. He finished buttoning his shirt up as he approached. “When were you going to tell me?”