HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN

by Tina Leonard

  “It’s a trick, a dice roll. A man doesn’t know if the dress is on his side. I don’t need that kind of help.” Jace looked at the door again, debating knocking on it and demanding that Sawyer come out. She’d been in there far too long. “Are you sure there were no windows in there she could open?”

  “There may have been one,” Ash said, “but Sawyer isn’t the kind of woman who would ditch you in Vegas.”

  “She ditched me, as you say, for the past several months.” His chest felt very heavy with sadness. “You have no idea what I’ve been through with that woman. And now you put her in a room with a diabolical magic wedding dress, and I’m supposed to—”

  He glared when the door opened. Sawyer came out, wearing the same clothes she had been before. He looked at her, his breath tight.

  “Is it time?” she asked.

  He hesitated. “Time?”

  “To do this thing.”

  Jace swallowed. “Sure. If you’re ready.”

  “Are you?”

  He’d been ready far longer than he’d realized, but he didn’t want to seem overeager and scare her off. “Better now than never.”

  She didn’t look certain, and he shrugged, wanting to give her as much space as possible. With the way she clearly felt about getting married, it could do no good to keep pushing her. They said you could lead a horse to water but not make it drink, and Sawyer was as untamed as the black Diablo mustangs in the canyons around Rancho Diablo.

  “I am ready,” she said. “As long as we agree that we’ll revisit this marriage after the babies are born.”

  “Revisit it? I’m fine with what we’re doing.” He didn’t like the sound of that at all. He’d heard those cold-footed-bride tales from his brothers, too—and a very merry chase some of their women had led them on.

  “I’m well aware that your interest in marriage is purely because of the children, and I understand that.” She looked at his sister. “Thank you for bringing the dress, Ash. I appreciate the effort you made to get it here, I really do. More than anything, I’m honored that your aunt Fiona was willing to share a favorite Callahan tradition with me.” She looked back at Jace. “But I don’t feel like a real Callahan bride, and I don’t think I ever will.”

  No sooner had the words left her mouth than the small waiting area suddenly filled with Callahans and Cashs, all loud and happy, and perplexed to see Sawyer wearing a hot pink dress and not a magic wedding gown. Storm carted in a bridal bouquet for his niece, kissing her before glaring at Jace.

  “It’s a happy day!” Fiona exclaimed. “The last Callahan bachelor getting hitched!” She beamed with delight. “Come on, dear. Ash and I will help you change.”

  Jace raised a brow, watching Sawyer sputter her way out of Fiona’s clutches. He smiled, seeing his family envelop his bride-to-be with their overwhelming presence. No one irritated him more than his relatives at times, but it was great to have them at his back.

  The cake was delivered by two uniformed men who looked a bit seedy to Jace.

  “You’re putting that there?” Fiona demanded, as they set the cake down in the foyer. “Do we look like we eat wedding cake in doorways?”

  They shrugged, and Jace had an uncomfortable feeling he’d seen them before. “Aren’t you going to take it out of the box?” he asked.

  The men left without saying a word.

  “That was odd,” Sawyer said.

  “Very odd.” Ash went to undo the white box. “That bakery came highly recommended, and I’m going to give them a piece of my mind about their delivery service.” She peeled the sides of the box down and gasped.

  Instead of a plastic bride and groom there was a butcher knife, splendidly tied with satin ribbon, sticking up out of the top of the beautiful cake.

  * * *

  THE WHOLE THING was a disaster as far as Jace was concerned. Married hurriedly by a satin-wearing pastor who wanted them gone as fast as possible once he saw the butcher knife in the wedding cake—and wed apparently in name only to his pregnant love—Jace found it wasn’t a happy-ever-after type of event.

  And they’d slept in separate beds after his late-night partying family finally went to bed.

  “Very sad state of affairs,” he told Sawyer as they drove back toward Rancho Diablo the next day.

  She didn’t spare him a glance as she looked out the window. “What’s a very sad state of affairs?”

  “You. Me. That stupid wedding.” He gulped, certain that dire consequences might lie in his future. “The whole thing was wrong.”

  “Wrong?”

  “Not traditional.” Not done right, not written in stone, the butcher knife notwithstanding.

  Traditional was the way he wanted his relationship with Sawyer to be.

  “Stop thinking about the cake. It was an accident, like your aunt said. The delivery drivers were new, they didn’t know not to put the knife in the same box as the cake, and it somehow got stuck in it. These things happen at weddings.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Anyway, it was delicious. You said so yourself. And the bakery gave Ash a 50 percent discount and told her that if she ever got married, they’d do a cake for her for free.”

  He wasn’t calmed by his bride’s attempt to soothe him. Jace was sure he’d seen those delivery guys somewhere, and trying to remember where nagged at him. The bakery had said they’d sent two men to deliver the cake, and the Callahans hadn’t thought to ask for ID or names in the shock of the moment. “You could have at least pretended to want to wear the wedding dress Ash went to the trouble to bring you,” he groused, thinking he should probably be happy Sawyer had at least said I do. That was something.

  Heck, he’d wanted some enthusiasm from his bride. Perhaps even a smile. He was so out of sorts he wasn’t even sure why he was complaining.

  “I can’t feel good about this marriage, Jace. So wearing the dress would be dishonest. I’m too aware that your family doesn’t trust me, though they put on a happy face today for you.”

  So that’s what was bugging doll face. He couldn’t contradict her, either. The Chacon Callahans as a rule had never really trusted Sawyer’s uncle Storm—and Sawyer was assuming that some familial distrust was reflected on her, as well.

  “We trusted you enough to hire you, let you bodyguard our children.”

  “But when Somer and I were at Rose’s father’s place and fired on each other, and someone conked her father over the head, everything changed. You can’t deny that.”

  He heard the note of sadness in Sawyer’s voice. “It was a big misunderstanding. Your cousin and you probably saved Rose that night. Maybe Sheriff Carstairs, too. Hell, even my brother Galen. He’s never been a fast runner, though he claims he is, and you and Somer firing at each other gave him the cover he needed to make it inside to Rose.”

  “I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. But I know in my heart that I was always on a probationary basis with all of you. Only Galen really trusted me. And once I became pregnant...” She glanced at him. “Jace, be honest. It had to have crossed a few of your brothers’ minds that maybe I’d become pregnant as part of a plot to get inside Rancho Diablo permanently.”

  “No one mentioned it.” He shrugged. “But you’re part of the Callahan family now, and no one’s sending up warning flares. In fact, you’re the only one who seems bothered by the past. And anyway, we wouldn’t have agreed to buy Storm’s place if we hadn’t decided he was on our side. We don’t do business—any kind of business—with folks who are trying to kill us.”

  She didn’t say anything else, conversation over for the moment. He hadn’t convinced her that the family accepted her. Only time could solve that problem.

  Maybe he could appeal to her feminine side. All the Callahan brides seemed to favor the frilly white fairy tale.

&nb
sp; “Look at it this way. Would Ash have taken the time and the trouble to bring you the mystical treasured gown to wear down the aisle if the family didn’t consider you one of us?”

  Jace wished Sawyer would look at him, but she didn’t, nor did she answer. He drove on, wondering if a difficult beginning could ever turn into a happy ending.

  Chapter Four

  “So the holy grail, as I see it,” Jace said to his sister on his cell phone, as Sawyer selected some lunch offerings in a roadside café in New Mexico, “is keeping my bride out of Rancho Diablo.”

  “That’s the family vote. There are a hundred reasons for Sawyer not to be here, and no good ones we can think of for her to be. It’s just not safe. She’s too good of a bargaining chip. Now that Storm has managed to break any ties Wolf was hoping to bind him with, our uncle will certainly try to get even with hers.”

  Jace watched his delicate wife as she chatted with the owner of the small mom-and-pop restaurant. Roadside places this size could be greasy spoons, but this one was warm and welcoming. He liked the white paint on the building and the blue shutters that seemed to welcome weary travelers. The full parking lot had been testament to the good eats inside.

  “She won’t like it,” he told his sister.

  “We all agree that’s the likelihood. We hasten to warn you that Sawyer has left before, when she felt things were not optimum between you. This time, you’ll have to figure out how to keep her on the road with you. Unless you can convince her to go into temporary hiding, at least until after the babies are born. We had a family council, and we vote unanimously that less of you is more. Besides, you deserve a honeymoon, brother.”

  He could hear his sister’s giggle loud and clear. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Then that should be good enough. Tell Sawyer hello from the Callahan clan, and congratulations again. There must be a hundred wedding gifts here that she can open when you lovebirds return.”

  Ash hung up, and Jace went inside to sit in a sunny, cushy booth across from his wife.

  “I ordered for you.”

  “Thanks.” He glanced around, checking the other diners. “Ash says the family sends their...” He groped for a word she’d find acceptable.

  “Felicitations?”

  “Exactly.” A waitress put a steaming cup of coffee in front of him, and Jace waited until she was gone. “She says a few wedding gifts have arrived.”

  “I’ll write thank-you letters when we get home.”

  “Yeah, about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Ash also says that we need to stay gone awhile longer.”

  Sawyer gazed over her glass of tea at him. “Reason?”

  He hated to be the bearer of bad news. “Security.”

  “Your family’s afraid I’m on the other side.”

  “Will you stop?” he demanded impatiently. “They’re worried you’re a target now that your uncle has crossed Wolf, and therefore the cartel that Wolf is in cahoots with. It’s a dangerous situation for all.”

  Her brow furrowed. “I never thought of that.”

  “Yeah, well. Neither did I. I’d like to say Ash has worry overload, but considering the knife in the cake—”

  “Accidental. Don’t let the Callahan love of drama make you see things that weren’t there.”

  His gaze drifted out the window. He saw a truck pass that looked a lot like the one that had been following them on the way to Vegas—and a lightning bolt hit him. The driver of the truck that had been following them had delivered the wedding cake. Maybe Jace couldn’t swear to it in a court of law, but there’d been something so familiar about those men.

  They’d hijacked the cake and stuck a warning in it.

  His neck prickled as he glanced around the diner again, scanning each patron.

  “So that’s all it is? The reason your family thinks we should stay on the road? Just garden-variety Callahan worry?” Sawyer looked hopeful.

  “No,” he said quietly. “Ash and my brothers are right. It would be best if we stayed away from the ranch for now.”

  “If I stay away from the ranch,” Sawyer said. “You aren’t supposed to go back to your home because of me.”

  “We’re together,” Jace said. “A team.”

  “Being married isn’t about being guarded, and that’s what you’re doing.”

  He shrugged. The waitress laid a piece of apple pie in front of him and a salad in front of Sawyer. She topped off his coffee, then left.

  “Salad for you, pie for me?”

  Sawyer arched a brow. “I’ve worked for the Callahans long enough to know what acts like a charm around Rancho Diablo. Nothing brings you running like Fiona’s fresh-baked pies and cookies.”

  This was true. He eyed her salad. “And you don’t have a sweet tooth, or are you eating healthy for the babies?”

  She waved a fork at his pie. “Just eat, cowboy. I’ll take care of myself.”

  “What would you say,” Jace said, looking into her beautiful blue eyes, “to honeymooning in Paris?”

  “I would say no, thank you. I’m going back home. A honeymoon isn’t necessary.” She ate her salad with apparent contentment, which was sort of funny, because he had the calorie-laden, sugar-sprinkled treat, and it tasted like paste to him. It was probably a delicious pie, but he couldn’t focus on the tastiness thanks to the woman across from him.

  He remembered how good Sawyer’s lips felt under his, how amazing it felt to hold her. The pie just wasn’t as satisfying.

  “I’d take you anywhere in the world you want to go.”

  “I know.” She looked up from her plate. “I get that. I appreciate that you’re trying to keep me safe.”

  “You and my children.”

  “But you need to be working at Rancho Diablo. You don’t need to be babysitting me. I’ll be fine.” She went back to eating. “Nothing should change because of a wedding ring.”

  “Everything changed.” He drummed the table. “You know that Wolf and the cartel have tunnels running under the land across the canyons? We’ve bought the property, but there’s very little we can do about the underground infrastructure that’s already in place. We’re pretty certain Wolf intends—or the cartel intends—to try to attack Rancho Diablo from their underground operations center.”

  “You think they’ll eventually tunnel under Rancho Diablo? Why wouldn’t they stop at the land across the canyons?”

  “Because the goal is to take over the whole ranch.” Jace sighed heavily. “Wolf wants the Diablos that live in the canyons. He wants the fabled silver mine, not to mention the ranch itself.”

  “Is it true about the silver treasure at Rancho Diablo?” she asked curiously.

  He started to say, “Hell, yeah, it’s true,” and stopped himself.

  In that moment, he saw the light of curiosity in his wife’s eyes die.

  But he couldn’t tell her the truth.

  “I shouldn’t have asked,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry. I forgot I’m Storm’s niece, an outsider, a woman whose uncle once trusted Wolf. Uncle Storm regrets that. He’s said a hundred times he wishes he’d never listened to Wolf’s lies about your family. But what’s done is done.”

  “Sawyer—”

  “It’s okay. Really. I’ll wait for you in the truck. We need to get on the road if we’re going to make it back to Rancho Diablo by nightfall.”

  She left, and Jace closed his eyes.

  She was right on so many levels. And he didn’t see any way to change that conflict between them.

  Without honesty, a new marriage would have a tough time, especially when it had started as theirs had. Sawyer knew that, too.

  He refused to face that ending.

  * * *

  AS JACE DROVE, Sawyer sat quietly, regretting that she
’d mentioned the fabled silver treasure supposedly buried somewhere at Rancho Diablo. She’d asked only because the rumor was local lore, but the moment the words were out of her mouth, she’d known she had made a mistake. It was said curiosity killed the cat. In her case, it certainly killed trust. Jace’s eyes had darkened and he’d looked away, his mouth tight when she’d asked about the legend—and he hadn’t said much since.

  She was keeping a secret of her own, a secret that nearly guaranteed an end to their marriage if Jace ever found out. Especially if he was so sensitive about her mentioning a well-known legend in the town of Diablo.

  Her uncle Storm had told her to apply at Rancho Diablo, and when she’d gotten the job, he’d asked her to keep an eye out, let him know exactly what was going on with the Callahans. She’d been a sort of double agent, she supposed, working for the Callahans but reporting to Storm, in the beginning.

  It wasn’t merely idle nosiness, either, not that Jace would understand if she ever admitted her past role. Storm had been approached by Wolf and given a sad story about how his land and mineral rights had been stolen by the Callahans. Storm hadn’t known what to think. He’d figured it was none of his business, until he’d caught several scouts trespassing on his ranch, men who worked for Wolf. Wolf had claimed that his “scouts” were doing their job by keeping an eye on land that was rightfully his, which would be borne out by the courts soon enough.

  Uncle Storm had done some horse-trading many years back with Jace’s aunt Fiona, said matters had gone well enough. He trusted the Chacon Callahans, he’d claimed—except that they didn’t trust him, and didn’t seem to like him.

  Which had made him wonder what they might be hiding. The Chacon Callahans had lived at Rancho Diablo for only the past four years or so. They’d taken over from their cousins, six Callahan boys who’d grown up at Rancho Diablo. Those Callahans had all married, and left in order to keep their families safe—as had their parents.

  Her husband’s parents, Carlos and Julia Chacon, had gone into hiding, and Running Bear had raised their seven children in the tribe. Jace’s Callahan cousins’ parents, Jeremiah and Molly, who’d built Rancho Diablo, had also gone into hiding when they’d turned in information about the cartel to federal agents. It had killed Jeremiah and Molly to leave their six boys, their friends, the wonderful Tudor-style home they’d built, Diablo itself. Molly’s sister, Fiona, had come from Ireland to raise the six Callahans—as she now tried to take care of the seven Chacon Callahans.