HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN

by Tina Leonard

  He wasn’t feeling it yet. Jace stuck his hand under the plank and dug out a key, which was just where the chief had said it would be.

  “Whose house is this?”

  He patted the board back into place and stood, fitting the key into the lock and turning it. The door opened with a whiney creak, and as he stepped inside he was struck at once by the smell of flowers in the cabin. A vase full of beautiful wildflowers graced the table, welcoming weary strangers. “A friend of the chief’s.”

  Sawyer went into the kitchen. “A good friend. The fridge is stocked.”

  “Nice.” He went to start a fire in the fireplace. There was wood piled up at the back door, so he wouldn’t have to gather his own, not for a while.

  Depended on how long they were here.

  “I’ll get you a plate,” Sawyer said.

  “Thanks.” There was central heat and electricity, so this house wasn’t completely a rustic hideaway. For that Jace was grateful. He hadn’t been sure how much roughing it they might have to do.

  “Tea, beer or water? There’s even a couple of sodas in here if you’re inclined.”

  “Hot tea sounds fine.” Sawyer had to be cold, too. A hot drink would warm them up. He glanced into the kitchen to check on her, suddenly struck by how beautiful she was. Her red hair caught the light from the hanging copper lamps as she filled a kettle with water.

  That beautiful woman is my wife.

  Holy smokes, I’m actually married.

  It was the most amazing realization, and it sent warmth rushing inside him. Pride. Contentment.

  He’d be lying if he didn’t admit that lust hit him, too. But that part of the marriage was impossible, right?

  He’d tell himself a lie: that he’d been driving too long—nearly sixteen hours—and couldn’t make love even if Sawyer offered.

  Yeah, I could.

  He eyed the leather sofa, pretty certain that was going to be his bed for a while. Still, it wasn’t his truck, which might be where he slept if he didn’t stay out of the doghouse.

  “What’s wrong?” Sawyer asked, and he glanced up to find her staring at him.

  “Nothing.” But something was wrong. He had a psychic flare of warning, which didn’t make sense, because they were far from danger. He went back to building a fire in the stone fireplace.

  “You had the strangest look on your face.”

  “Probably happens more than I’d like.” He held a match under the paper and kindling, and the fire slowly caught.

  “Here you go.” Sawyer set a red plate on the coffee table. “The tea will be ready in a moment.”

  He sat dutifully, eyeing the plate. She’d placed a couple slices of cheese, some crackers, a few store-bought cookies and a pile of what looked like delicious chicken salad on it. “That’s a feast.”

  “Somebody was kind enough to save us a trip to the grocery store tonight. Or we ran someone out of their home, and like Goldilocks, we’re taking full advantage.”

  “I don’t know. Grandfather doesn’t always give the game plan.”

  “So we’re not going to wake up with someone’s shotgun aimed at us?”

  “I’m not promising that won’t happen.”

  She sighed, picked up a carrot stick. “It’s kind of weird that we spent all those months sneaking around, and now we’re in a cabin together with a roof over our heads.”

  And a bed nearby. There’s got to be one in this joint. I’d like to have my wife in a bed just once.

  Unfortunately, I think those days of Sawyer seducing me are long gone.

  It really stinks.

  “You’ve got that funny look on your face again,” Sawyer said, “like you’re in pain. Isn’t the salad good?”

  “It’s great,” he said, as if he cared about anything except Sawyer at the moment, which he didn’t. He ate some chicken salad and tried not to think about how much he wanted her, failing miserably.

  She gave him a long look, then put her own plate back on the coffee table. “I think I’ll try to find some sheets for the beds.”

  Beds plural. He nodded, sighing inside. What was he, a man of steel? Being on the run with Sawyer was going to drive him mad.

  All he wanted to do was take her in his arms and make love to her, the way he had many, many times before, which had been amazing and awesome, and the reason they were here together now as man and wife.

  He was shocked a moment later when Sawyer returned and took his hand. He glanced up, meeting her eyes.

  “The beds are made. Sheets are fresh. The rooms are really beautiful. I picked one out.”

  She was beautiful. Why was she holding his hand? “Guess we got lucky.”

  Sawyer’s gaze didn’t leave his. She pulled on his hand, and he hesitated—then suddenly got smacked in the face with what was happening.

  Maybe.

  He didn’t dare hope.

  Sawyer pulled him down the hall, drawing him into a room that had a large bed with an attractive gold-and-brown comforter on it. A rocking chair and lamp and gold-painted dresser finished the decor.

  But he didn’t have long to assess the surroundings. Sawyer looked at him, her eyes big with what seemed like hope and invitation, and he dragged her toward the bed.

  It was just like old times, with the heat and the passion and the hot desire running through him.

  Yet this time would be different. There was a bed, they were married and he was going to be a father.

  It was very different. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

  “I don’t do things I’m not sure about.”

  Jace drew a deep breath. “I’m going to enjoy the hell out of every moment of this.”

  Sawyer smiled and he took her in his arms.

  “Seems odd,” she said. “There’s a ceiling overhead.”

  “I know. But you’ll still see stars. I promise you that.”

  Those seemed to be the words needed to trigger the sexy tigress he’d always known Sawyer to be. They pulled each other’s clothes off, tossing them to the floor in abandoned piles, and only once did they stop their fevered kissing.

  Suddenly, she jerked upright in the bed. “Did you hear something? It sounded like a door swinging shut.”

  “It was a just a shutter blowing in the wind. It’s kicking up out there.” Jace was half-naked and his wife’s hands had been busily undoing his jeans. He didn’t care if Santa was about to scoot down the chimney for a February surprise. Sawyer wanted him, and nothing else mattered.

  “I’ll go check it out,” she said.

  “Damn it.” Jace got up, zipping his jeans. “You’re not the bodyguard in this relationship anymore. You’re a mother. You have enough to do. You get naked and be in those sheets when I return. Hell, I don’t even care if you’re in the sheets. Just be naked when I get back.”

  The sound had been nothing more than the creak and pop of an unfamiliar house, but his wife’s hearing and caution were admirable. Personally, he had so much blood and desire screaming through his head that he’d probably kill any unfortunate intruder that may have crept inside the cabin.

  Ash sat in front of the fireplace, warming her hands.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Jace demanded, lust fleeing like a ghost.

  His sister shook her head. “I’ve been assigned to be your lookout. And I’m not happy about it.”

  “That makes two of us.” He sat across from her, and she picked up the plate of food that he’d barely touched.

  “Do you mind?” she asked. “I’m starved.”

  “Have at it.” He looked at her. “How’d you get here?”

  “I rode a broom,” she said, put out with the whole situation. “How do you think? I drove. Grandfather gave me the meet point and here I am. I’d
have been here sooner but I had a flat tire in Alamosa.” She snacked on the cookies without much enthusiasm. “I always miss Fiona’s cooking when I’m away from home.”

  “You could have gotten here later and that would have been fine,” Jace said.

  She looked at him, then at Sawyer as she walked into the room wearing his T-shirt and a bathrobe she’d grabbed from somewhere. “Oh. Sorry. Did I interrupt the honeymooning?”

  Sawyer smiled. “I don’t know if you can really call this honeymooning.”

  The hell they hadn’t been. He’d been about to send his wife into a serious pleasure overdrive, and if that wasn’t the definition of honeymoon, he didn’t know what was. Jace went to the fridge and grabbed a beer to mask his grumpiness.

  “The chief says he doesn’t want any trouble this time,” Ash said. “I’m here as an equalizer should any trouble try to rear its head.”

  “If you’ve been sent to help, does that mean this is home for a while?” Sawyer asked.

  Ash shrugged, crossing her legs underneath her as she finished off her brother’s plate of food. “The Feds plan to dynamite the tunnels under Sister Wind Ranch.”

  “Under Loco Diablo,” Jace automatically said, and Ash said, “Whatever. It’s going to be my ranch.”

  “What does Galen think about that?” Jace asked. “His ranch being dynamited?”

  “Who cares what Galen thinks?” She smiled at Sawyer. “I don’t pay attention to what any of my brothers think if I can help it.”

  “About the tunnels,” Sawyer said. “If they’re being dynamited, then that’s going to flush out Wolf and his gang, isn’t it?”

  “That’s the problem,” Ash replied. “Wolf blames this whole situation on your uncle.”

  Jace watched his wife’s expression turn fearful. “It’ll be all right,” he said quickly, but Sawyer stared at Ash.

  “How could it be my uncle’s fault?”

  She shrugged. “Wolf let your uncle know that he blames him for the deal falling apart. If Storm had stayed put and not sold his place to us, then Wolf would have continued to have ranch land he could operate from that bordered ours. Now he’s out in the open.”

  “What does that have to do with the tunnels?” Jace asked.

  Sawyer looked at him. “Your uncle Wolf thinks I turned on my uncle to marry you.”

  Jace started to shake his head, then noticed his sister was nodding hers. “I don’t exactly get it.”

  “You’ll have to tell him one day,” Ash said to Sawyer, who slowly nodded.

  “You remember that I told you my uncle wanted me to report to him on anything suspicious your family might be doing, because he wasn’t sure who the bad guys and the good guys were?”

  “Yeah,” Jace said, aware by the pained look on his sister’s face that he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear, “but I don’t care about that. You’re my wife. You’re having my children. Everything else is in the past.”

  “I told my uncle that your family was thinking about leaving the ranch one day,” Sawyer said. “Especially since so many of you were married. And since Galen had bought the land across the canyons.”

  “Sister Wind Ranch,” Ash said.

  “Loco Diablo,” Jace said, trying to figure out why Sawyer was so upset. “I don’t see what’s wrong. We will go home eventually. When the land and the family are safe again, we’ll go back where we came from, and our cousins will return to their home.”

  “I told my uncle that the Callahans could return home any day,” Sawyer said miserably. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just wanted to calm him down. He’s been so worried for so long. Wolf has really kept him rattled. He started out so friendly, but over time began to change, got more threatening. Uncle Storm panicked, knowing that Wolf’s men were close, and realizing that major trouble was coming if your family left Rancho Diablo. As far as my uncle is concerned, your family is strong, and maybe the only people capable of keeping Wolf at bay. So he sold out—to you. Wolf wanted him to sell to him,” Sawyer finished. “He’s furious with my uncle and promised to take revenge on him the moment his back was turned.”

  Jace frowned. “This is typical Wolf stuff. If I listened to every threat that came out of Uncle Wolf, I’d be deaf.”

  “But then the tunnels were reported to the Feds,” Ash interjected, “and Wolf believes Storm ratted him out.”

  “How could he? Storm didn’t know about the tunnels.”

  “He did,” Sawyer said with a sigh, “because of me.”

  Jace felt a dawning sense of dread wash over him. “So? Wolf couldn’t know that your uncle knew.”

  “Wolf knew,” Ash said, “because your wife was wired up.”

  Jace stared at his wife, stunned. “Wired?”

  “I thought I’d been wired by the Feds,” Sawyer said miserably. “But it was Wolf’s men, trying to get intel on your family.”

  Her pretty blue eyes welled with tears, and Jace’s world turned on its head. “You ended up giving information to the enemy about your own uncle?”

  “And you,” Sawyer said. “About the Callahans.”

  “It’s not possible that you’re a double agent!” Jace felt his heart stop in his chest. “You were sleeping with me every chance we got.”

  She blushed, and he felt a twinge for embarrassing her in front of Ash. But her betrayal had sent the words rocketing out of his mouth.

  “Again, I thought I’d been wired by the Feds. They told me it was to protect your family, in case another one of the Callahans was kidnapped. They said Ash was wearing a wire, too.”

  “You didn’t ask my sister if any Feds had questioned her about the tunnels? Or wired her?” Jace demanded.

  “Actually,” Ash said, “I was wired. But I knew it was a trick, and I just played along to find out what I could about Wolf’s operations.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Jace demanded of his sister. “Do you realize the danger you put yourself in? What if Wolf had snatched you?” Anger rose inside him as he stared at the two most important women in his life. “Go outside,” he said to his sister. “I have to talk to my wife.”

  Ash got up, slipped on her coat and went out the door. He heard a rocker scrape as she pulled a chair to the rail so she could stare into the forest. He glared at Sawyer, who tugged the blue robe around her more tightly. “I don’t think I completely understand why you did what you did. But what I do understand is that you’re not quite the bodyguard our family thought you were.”

  “Jace—”

  He held up a hand. “You’ve endangered yourself, you’ve endangered my children, your uncle, my family.” Jace stared at her. “I can’t trust you.”

  “Were you ever going to trust a Cash?” she asked, her tone bitter.

  Jace looked at her, wondering if the overwhelming pull he’d always felt for Sawyer had somehow clouded his mind, kept him from seeing her for what she really was. Maybe it had. He’d missed her like hell when she’d left Rancho Diablo. When she’d returned, he’d been relieved, and most of all, felt alive again.

  “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Maybe I was too blind to see it.” Perhaps what he loved most about Sawyer was that she was life on the edge, the walk on the wild side that brought amazing emotions rushing through him. “Maybe trusting you was my Achilles’ heel. A weakness I brought on my own family.”

  He left the kitchen and went to sit outside on the front porch, away from his sister, and definitely as far away from his wife as he could get. The moon hung full overhead, and the sky promised cold, and no doubt snow by morning. A tinge of fear gripped him, and his grandfather’s warning crept into his mind: one of the Chacon Callahans was the hunted one, the one who would bring danger and darkness to the family. Jace had always been so certain it wasn’t him. He felt his roots deeply, both in the t
ribe and in his Callahan lineage.

  But he had brought danger to the family by marrying Sawyer. He’d married her, for God’s sake.

  There’d been no choice. Not just because of the children, but because he loved her. He wouldn’t admit that to a single soul, but he was in love with a woman who seemed to have different faces, different lives.

  The lightning-strike tattoo on his shoulder, which all the Callahan siblings had—the sign of their bond—burned suddenly, as if he was being branded.

  Jace looked up at the full moon above and wished like hell he hadn’t found out who his wife really was.

  He’d been sleeping with the enemy. For many long, tortured nights, he’d known his soul was hers.

  He’d brought the enemy to Rancho Diablo. And made her a Callahan.

  Chapter Six

  “She’s gone,” Ash said, when he walked back inside the small cabin the next morning. His sister looked nonplussed as she snacked on some cookies and a cup of coffee.

  “She isn’t gone.” Jace tossed his coat into a chair. He’d spent an uncomfortable night on the front porch, unaware of the time passing as he watched the snow drift down. It had piled up, maybe three inches, while he’d sat and stared at it. He’d felt dead inside, immune to cold and fear.

  All he could do was play over and over in his mind how Sawyer could have betrayed him—and how he could have been too blind to recognize it. “Sawyer couldn’t have left. I was sitting out front the entire night. Anyway, she’s my wife. Right now, she needs me. She’s pregnant with twins.”

  “I know.” His sister brought him a mug of black coffee. “You forget she’s a very well-trained bodyguard. Perhaps you even forget how skilled she is at not just protection, but evasion. It’s why Kendall felt secure hiring her for the twins. Don’t you remember this?”

  “She must still be here, Ash. There’s no place for her to go.”

  They were halfway up the mountain, maybe more. The road down would be a challenge, even if she’d stolen his truck.

  “She took my Jeep,” Ash said.