HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN

by Tina Leonard

  Whoa. She was hurting bad. He felt terrible about his awkward approach at comforting her. Jace wished he could fix it for her, force Xav Phillips to love her. But just like with him and Sawyer, love played out the way it was going to. You couldn’t make another person love you.

  Jace thought about his parents, and wondered how they’d ever managed to find each other, fall in love, make their relationship work. Seven children, and then witness protection.

  He thought about the cozy house in Colorado and felt a little peace. He, Galen, Dante, Tighe, Falcon, Sloan and Ash had done all right for themselves, thanks to the care of Running Bear and Fiona.

  But it could have all turned out so much differently.

  They’d been blessed. Fortunate. Watched over by angels or spirits, whatever one called the heavenly supernatural that guided them. So had their cousins, the Callahans, who now resided in Hell’s Colony, Texas, until they could one day come back home.

  When we’ve got this ranch locked down for our cousins, they can come back here, and we Chacon Callahans can go our way. Back to where we came from.

  They really had no home, though. Home was where your family was.

  His family was at Rancho Diablo: Sawyer and their children, Jason and Ashley. Jace smiled, thinking about his impending offspring. He’d felt them move inside Sawyer last night when he’d touched her stomach, almost afraid to make love to her. She’d urged him on, telling him it was fine. She’d whispered sweet words to him, tantalizing him, drawing him in.

  The worst part was that he went into the trap so easily.

  She was his family. He’d stay with her and the children no matter what.

  No matter how much it hurt to know she might not be playing him straight.

  * * *

  JACE RODE BACK to the ranch slowly, deep in his thoughts, until he realized Fiona was waving frantically at him from the back porch. He rode toward her, his heart catching at her worried face.

  “What is it?”

  “I couldn’t reach you on your cell! Sawyer’s having stomach pains! She didn’t want anyone to tell you, but you need to get her to the hospital now!”

  He slid off his horse and handed it over to a groom, rushing past his aunt into the house and hurrying up the stairs. “Did anybody call the doctor?”

  “Yes, but I think we’re past Doc Cartwright now. She needs to go straight to the hospital!” Fiona’s face was pale. “Galen’s looking her over.”

  Jace went into Sawyer’s room to find his brother in full physician mode, checking her heart rate, her pulse, gently trying to keep her calm. Sawyer looked up at Jace the moment he walked in the door.

  “Jace! I think the babies are trying to come. It’s too early!”

  “It’s okay,” he said, trying to soothe her. He went to sit beside her. He noted the pain on his wife’s face, glanced to read his brother’s.

  “Let’s take her in,” Galen said softly, and Jace’s blood turned cold. Granted, his brother was no gynecologist, but he was a skilled general practitioner of allopathic and holistic medicine. If he said a hospital was required, then something was wrong.

  “I’ll get the car. Don’t worry, babe, it’s going to be fine.” Jace kissed her and then hurried down the stairs.

  Fiona and Burke had already pulled the family van around. Jace gratefully nodded and hurried inside to carry his wife down.

  To his surprise, Sawyer was already downstairs, being helped out of a walled-off pantry in the kitchen by Ash and Running Bear.

  “What is this?” Jace demanded.

  “A secret,” Ash said. “A joint this large has hidden passageways, you know.”

  He glanced at the small elevator that had been disguised behind the wall he’d always thought held the locked and secret gun cabinet. There was no time to ask questions about this newest bit of Rancho Diablo information. Jace filed it away for later reference and scooped his wife up, carrying her to the van.

  “I feel awful, Jace. My stomach hurts so badly.”

  Sawyer laid her head against his shoulder, and Jace’s heart bled at the deep sadness and fear in her voice.

  He’d brought this on her by making love to her last night. He shouldn’t have; he’d known that deep in his heart. And yet, selfishly, he couldn’t resist her.

  He’d never been able to resist her. Which was what made him ripe for the fact he’d fallen for a woman who’d been working against his family.

  That couldn’t matter now. His children were in trouble. Sawyer’s pale face scared the hell out of him.

  He didn’t know what he’d do if something happened to her. She’d become his very life.

  Gently, he put Sawyer in the ranch van, and his sister and Fiona jumped in to comfort her as he sped toward the hospital, fearful that everything he loved most might be snatched away from him by the cruel winds of fate.

  Chapter Nine

  “Bed rest,” the doctor pronounced after Sawyer had been thoroughly examined. “Absolute bed rest. I’ll let you go home, because you’ve been stabilized for the moment with medication, but there’ll be a nurse out to check on you tomorrow, and I don’t want to hear that you’ve moved one inch from your bed. This is very serious,” he told Sawyer. “I know you’re used to a lot of activity, but you can consider yourself bedbound for now. It won’t be forever, but it’s important that we keep your babies inside you as long as we possibly can. The longer, the better,” he emphasized one last time. “No stairs, no nothing. The nurse will come out and give you medication by IV if you have any further cramping.”

  “Thank you,” Sawyer murmured, exhausted and frightened. She couldn’t look at Jace’s worried face again. His every thought was hidden behind a stoic expression, but she could read him every time he glanced at her.

  He was afraid they’d endangered the babies.

  She’d never be able to convince him that their lovemaking hadn’t negatively affected her pregnancy. He wouldn’t come near her now; that was clear in his stiff posture as he helped her slowly move to the wheelchair to be taken to the van.

  Her husband had heard the doctor’s warnings, and he wouldn’t take any chances.

  They already had too many things to regret. “Jace,” she said, as he pushed her wheelchair down the hall. “The doctor said what we did last night probably didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  He didn’t say anything, just silently wheeled her to the van, which Fiona and Ash had brought around for them. The ladies hopped out to help her, and Sawyer felt silly and useless as she was assisted into the front passenger’s seat.

  Everything hurt more than she dared to let on. Already Jace looked as if he was ready to lash her to a bed and keep her in it, so she didn’t say anything else as he closed the van door. A small tear threatened to fall from her eye, but she wouldn’t allow herself to feel hurt over the sudden distance she was picking up from her husband.

  She put a hand on her stomach, comforted by the doctor’s words that everything would be fine as long as she rested. Didn’t move.

  Jace would be tied to her. He wouldn’t want to let her out of his sight, which wasn’t good for Rancho Diablo. As a one-time ranch employee, she knew that every person had their job and their role. Rancho Diablo had stayed out of Wolf’s hands this long because all members of the family worked as a team.

  She wasn’t really part of the team.

  But that didn’t mean she wanted Jace having to stop his job to stand over her, guard her, for the rest of her pregnancy. She had every intention of keeping these babies inside her for at least the next two months.

  “Jace,” Sawyer said suddenly, “I’m going to stay at Uncle Storm’s place. Not his town house, but his place you bought, next door to Rancho Diablo. Since he and Lu are staying there now, they can keep an eye on me. It makes sense for everybod
y involved.”

  He glanced at her. From the back of the van, there wasn’t a peep. Fiona and Ash weren’t going to say a word—and that was exactly why she’d brought up her request now. Jace was far less likely to deny her wishes with his sister and aunt hearing what Sawyer felt was best for herself and the babies.

  And for Jace, if he only knew it.

  “If that’s what you want,” he said, his tone remote, and she felt a dagger of sadness lacerate her heart. He’d given up easily, more easily than she’d imagined, and that was good.

  The problem was, she didn’t know if she could make him understand that it wasn’t him she was running from this time.

  * * *

  JACE MOVED SAWYER into Storm Cash’s place because that’s what she wanted—not because he felt good about it. He didn’t. A wife belonged with her husband, but Sawyer had made it clear more than once that she simply wasn’t comfortable with him, and he supposed he couldn’t blame her.

  They’d been so far apart for so long that maybe there wasn’t a way to bridge the gap. He knew she felt that he didn’t trust her—what Callahan trusted a Cash, anyway?—and the truth was, anybody on the outside looking in would probably say Sawyer didn’t deserve to be trusted.

  He knew her better than she knew herself, though. She was the answer to everything he needed in his soul, and that made her good for Rancho Diablo.

  “So now what?” Ash demanded when he returned to Rancho Diablo at midnight. His sister sat in the kitchen, perched on a bar stool like a fey elf, discreetly waiting up for him, probably. She pushed a cup of coffee his way and pointed to a plate of gingersnaps that were on the counter. “I advise that the two of you do not separate for two months, and then try to kiss and make up when the babies are born. Not that you asked my opinion. No one ever does.”

  He ruffled his sister’s hair and sat down next to her. “Thanks for the joe.”

  “Don’t sit down. There’s a family meeting upstairs.”

  “Now?” He was exhausted, his mind consumed with Sawyer.

  “Yep.” Ash rose. “Pretty cool about the hidden passage, huh? Freaked you out a little.”

  He followed his giggling sister, carrying the plate of cookies and his mug with him. “If I got freaked out every time Rancho Diablo revealed one of its secrets, I’d have to go sit in the canyons and stare at cacti and mumble to myself.”

  “That’s actually not a bad life. I wouldn’t mind it,” Ash said wistfully as they went upstairs. “I’m going to tell Galen tonight that he has to split Sister Wind Ranch with all of us, the big egghead.”

  “It’s Loco Diablo, and Galen won’t do it. You don’t even have a family yet, and as we established, you’re not ready to settle down. So you wouldn’t be up for the ranch, anyway. Fiona’s rules are clear.”

  “I’m a rule breaker. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

  Ash pushed open the library door, ushering him by. The plate of cookies was promptly descended upon by his brothers. Tighe and Dante stuck their big paws in first, the latter tossing one to Galen.

  “Like little piglets,” Ash said with a sigh as Sloan reached to grab a few, and Falcon snagged the last. “Now that your munchies are satisfied, let business begin. Galen,” Ash said. “We’ve got trouble around here. The place is crawling with reporters and Feds. I came across a treasure hunter the other day trespassing with one of those treasure-hunting rigs.”

  “Metal detector,” Jace clarified.

  “Not only did it detect metal,” Ash said, “but this one could detect graves, hidden chambers, crypts and caves. Very sophisticated. You can imagine that I banished him from the property with all due haste.” She looked around at them. “I would like to submit to all of you that we are outmanned and outgunned. We can’t hold off Wolf’s minions any longer. And we’re a woman down.”

  Jace frowned. Sawyer wouldn’t be on the job anytime soon, though she would excoriate him if she heard him say that. “Getting to the fact that you’ve recently revealed a hidden passage yourself—”

  “That was Running Bear’s doing,” Ash said. “I didn’t know about it, either. Fiona never mentioned the kitchen dumbwaiter elevator thing to me, though I’m sure she knows about it.”

  “What could the trespasser have been hunting?” Dante asked.

  “Graves, hidden chambers, crypts and secret caves,” Ash said, exasperated. “Weren’t you listening, big brother?”

  “What did he say he wanted, Ash?” Galen demanded. “And why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

  “Because.” She shrugged. “We were kind of busy with the babies and all. I’m an aunt first and a trespasser-hunter second. Besides, I kept his toy, so it didn’t matter to me about the grave robber or whatever he was.”

  Jace stared at her, as dumbfounded as his brothers.

  “What do you mean, you kept his toy?” Sloan demanded.

  “He was happy to give it up, considering what I told him I’d do to him if he didn’t. I acquired his fancy computer that went with it, too. It’s quite an amazing doohickey.” She went to a cabinet in the library and pulled out the equipment.

  They all gathered around, eyeing the loot with astonishment.

  “Ash, you can’t just take someone’s stuff,” Jace said. “This is nice equipment.”

  “Can’t I?” she retorted. “I think I did. Like I said, he was happy to give it up in return for me not reporting him to the sheriff or kicking the daylights out of him.”

  “Ash,” Jace murmured, sitting her down on a leather sofa. His brothers followed him over, and they all looked down at their tiny sister. “Ash, you’re the baby. You’re not supposed to be this tough,” he said, feeling a bit lost. “We kick the bad guys around, and the trespassers, and the other enemy. We want you to...”

  He hesitated, and Ash glared up at her gang of brothers. “What? Comb my hair and put bows in it? Wear makeup? Heels?” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m tougher than all of you and you know it. Without me, this team would be lost.”

  Someone passed around the crystal tumblers of whiskey, and Jace gladly took one. He was disturbed, but he couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. Ash was being honest; she’d always been tough. Most of the Callahan women were tough.

  Not this tough.

  He looked to Galen for advice. His oldest brother shrugged, and judging by the others’ expressions, they were all stumped by Ash.

  She rolled her eyes at all of them and then looked at Galen, as well.

  “Galen, I move that you split the land across the canyons among all of us. Tonight. We’re no longer hostage to Fiona’s challenge. I have no plans to marry, and I deserve that land just as much as anyone in this room. I know Grandfather advised you to take the land to protect us from Wolf, but I can take care of myself.” She looked around at her brothers. “It’s a hotbed of smugglers and thieves who want to tear this place apart. I don’t have time to think about getting married. All of you have children now, but I won’t be having any. So I move that the challenge is over. Done. Finished.”

  Jace glanced at Galen again. “She’s right,” he said quietly. “She deserves her piece. In fact, we all deserve a home of our own. One day the Callahans will come back here, and that will be good. But our hearts are here now,” he said, thinking about Sawyer. She’d told Storm the Callahans could return any day. Why had she said that?

  And did it matter? She might be next door, but his heart was with her. If he had to pitch a tent and live in Storm’s garden, he’d do that to be with his family.

  “Actually,” Galen said, “I have news to report about that land. The Feds have discovered that it’s so overrun by tunnels and smugglers that it’s barely inhabitable.”

  “Fine,” Ash said. “We’ll fill in the tunnels and build an enormous amusement park. Shops and a mall. It wouldn’t hurt us to have a different
livelihood, and commercial real estate would suit me just fine. I’m sick to death of horses and oil wells and cows and those stupid peacocks out front. I haven’t seen the Diablos in weeks, and that’s very, very bad, as every single one of you know. It means we’ve failed at our mission. And that Wolf has won.” She looked at Jace. “I’m sorry to dump all this on you right now. We should be throwing you a wedding party, and helping you figure out where your baby nursery is going to be. I feel sorry for you and Sawyer, but we’re in a deep hole here.”

  Jace shrugged. “I doubt Sawyer wants anything more than going to term with the babies. We’ll figure out the nursery and other details later.” She wasn’t even wearing the ring he’d given her. He’d hoped that the lovely ring would be a peace offering, a silent commitment to the depth of his feelings for her, but he hadn’t seen it since he’d left it in her room.

  “Ash is right,” he continued. “They’re coming. No doubt they’re already here. Which means no one is safe. Wolf has outmaneuvered us. He just had more people, more resources. And maybe we never understood the blackness of our uncle’s heart. But the Diablos haven’t been around in a long time, and that is a very bad sign.”

  They all looked silently at each other.

  “If we divide the land,” Jace said suddenly, “it will be tough for Wolf to take it from us. Too many pieces to chase down.”

  “True,” Galen said. “Vote?”

  All hands went up. Ash grinned, triumphant. “All right, brothers,” she said, standing, “we’ll draw for the spaces. I’m not afraid of my stupid uncle, and I’m ready to pitch my tent there now. Tonight.” She glanced around at them, and Jace thought his sister looked a little wild, a bit untamed.

  “I’m not giving up on the only place I have to call home,” she said. “It’s been a long time since any of us had a place we could call our own. Besides the stone fire ring near the canyons, which Running Bear gave to us when we first came, we’ve had nothing, no stake that is ours. I will burn Uncle Wolf out before I allow him to take one square inch of what’s mine.”