by Tina Leonard
Ash stalked around the room, upset. “We were on our way here. He’d just put the hamper in the truck when—” her eyes widened as she looked at Sawyer “—when someone shot him.”
Sawyer gasped. “Shot him!”
“Don’t worry. The doctors wasted no time getting him into the O.R. And Galen’s in there overseeing everything, and no doubt whispering the words of healing to him.”
“I’ve got to see him!” Sawyer wished she could get out of this stupid bed. She was tired of being helpless. “Find a nurse who will wheel me to his room.”
“No nurse will. There’s not a one who will risk her job, so you can forget that. And don’t ask me, I’m already in enough trouble.” Ash was clearly miserable. “I shouldn’t have even told you. Your uncle Storm told me not to. I thought that was good advice. But I’m so worried that I blabbed!” she said with a wail. “I never blab!”
Ash was so upset about her brother that she wasn’t herself. Sawyer tried to stay calm despite the panic swamping her. “He’ll be all right, won’t he? Where’d he get shot?”
“The bullet hit a lung,” Ash said, sobbing into a tissue. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have told you. I should have listened to your uncle.” She blew her nose again, wiped her eyes, and Sawyer felt herself grow cold inside. Tight and angry. Someone had shot her husband, had tried to take away the father of her children. Whoever it was had meant business, aiming, no doubt, for his heart.
Wolf had meant to kill his nephew. Wolf, or perhaps one of his minions, had done his best to steal away what she wanted more than anything on this earth.
She’d shot Wolf with the Taser, and he’d returned the favor.
“I’m going to kill him,” she muttered under her breath, and Ash straightened at her furious words.
“You’ll have to beat me to it,” she said softly, and Sawyer’s skin crawled at her tone. “I don’t care what Running Bear says. It’s my life’s mission to make sure my uncle never tries to hurt any of my family ever again.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jace awakened, feeling like death. He was groggy, he hurt like hell and something wasn’t right with his body. It was out of focus in some strange way. And he wasn’t at home. Something had happened to him. He was going to be with his babies at their births, and then he’d fallen. He remembered that much, because of the deep beauty of the sky overhead and Ash’s face hovering over him, her navy eyes wide with fear. That’s what was wrong—Ash was never afraid.
His sister had been terrified.
“You awake?” he heard someone ask.
He peered at the corner of the room. “Where am I?” he asked.
“In the hospital,” the soothing voice replied.
He knew that voice. It spoke to his soul, reminded him of who he was. “Grandfather. What happened?”
“You were shot.” Running Bear stepped closer to the bed to look down at him. “Coming from the north, where the canyons are, three scouts crossed Rancho Diablo. One of them shot you.”
It made sense. “Don’t worry. I’ve been shot before, when I was in... When I was somewhere.”
“You were overseas,” Running Bear murmured. “In Iraq. But the enemy here meant to kill you, too.”
“Why?”
“My son is evil. There is no purpose to his desire to kill. His heart is black, and it can never be clean again. He has forgotten the old ways, his ancestors, the ancient words, loyalty to family. Everything has left him. So you must live.”
Jace grunted, but it came out more like a pained groan. “Of course I’m going to live. I survived Iraq. I can survive my uncle.”
His grandfather touched Jace’s forehead, put a hand over his heart, and Jace felt strength flood into him.
“Energy transfer,” Running Bear said. “Rest. Galen was in the O.R. with you. He spoke the healing words. You will live to fight another day.”
“I’ll live to fight many years.” He looked up at his grandfather. “I have babies to teach the ways to. Where are my children? Where’s Sawyer?”
“One floor down. You’ll see her soon.”
“I’ll see her now.” He struggled to sit up, but his grandfather pushed him gently back into the bed.
“I’ve got to go,” Jace said. “Sawyer needs to know that I’m all right. I’m going to take care of her and protect her always.”
“She knows.” Running Bear’s hand pressed against him. “You can’t take danger to her.”
Jace stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“You now walk with a shadow. It’s not safe to go there.”
A chill sliced into Jace. “Am I the one you spoke of, the hunted one?” he asked desperately. “The one who’ll bring devastation and danger to the family?”
One of the seven Callahan siblings was the hunted one, but he’d never thought it was him. Jace had always been the family man, the one who longed for tribe, for community, for his own to hold. “Am I?” he demanded.
“I don’t know,” Running Bear said. “I only know the mysteries, not who puts them in motion.”
“It’s not me.” Jace again tried to make it to the edge of the bed. “It’s not me. And I have to be with Sawyer. She’s my heart, my life, Grandfather.”
“I know. But don’t take danger to her door.”
“How?” He looked at the chief impatiently. “Are they here? Will they try to kill me again? Even here?”
Running Bear sighed. “I do not know the answers.”
“You didn’t know I was going to be shot, either.”
“I did not. Evil hides itself in many forms. Where my son is concerned, I do not always see.” His dark eyes looked deeply sad.
He put a hand in front of Jace’s face briefly. “Now sleep,” he told him. “Sleep and heal. You were born a warrior. You are a shepherd to the land and your family. Sleep, and let healing chase away the evil.”
Jace was about to tell his grandfather that he was sorry, he had to get to his wife and babies no matter what—but then he was overcome by weariness so profound that he fell back into the hospital bed, worn-out.
And then peace claimed him. He dreamed of the Diablos running through the canyons, wild and free. He rode a Diablo, and his children rode with him, and his heart was alive and shining with the mysticism and beauty of the spirits. Sawyer stood on a mesa far away, watching proudly. It was a dark, mystical dream, infused with wonder and breathtaking splendor, and Jace was content to watch from afar, called by the majesty, resting in the knowledge that Sawyer and his children were in good hands.
And while he watched himself riding with his children, he heard his grandfather’s voice in the background, murmuring the ancient words without pause. Jace heard soft music from a flute that played the lullabies he’d heard in the tribe, as his grandfather’s voice reminded him of the spirits.
He was hypnotized and calm, and safe.
For now.
* * *
SALLY CLAUSEN CAME to check on Sawyer, and Sawyer realized the nurse was exactly the visitor she needed. “I have to see my husband.”
“You will soon,” Sally said. “For now it’s important that you rest. Your body’s been through a lot.”
“Sally, help me get to my husband,” Sawyer begged. “If I leave here with anyone but a nurse, I’ll get put right back in my bed. I know you can spring me. Wheel me to the nursery so I can see my children, and then slip me into my husband’s room. Please.”
“I can’t.” Sally’s eyes were huge with concern. “Sawyer, I’d do anything for you, but there’s a guard on your husband’s door in the ICU. No one’s getting in except the chief.”
“Chief Running Bear?”
“Yes.” The nurse nodded. “He’s not really supposed to be in there, but he’s in a trance or something. No one dares d
isturb him, especially not since Jace is doing so much better. It was really touch and go for a while.”
Sally’s eyes widened further at Sawyer’s gasp.
“I think I’ve said too much already,” the nurse stated. “Look, you rest, Sawyer. You want to be strong when your husband is ready to wake up, don’t you?”
“Wake up?” Sawyer glared at her. “What do you mean, wake up?”
Sally sighed. “He’s in a slight coma.”
“It is either a coma or it’s not.” Her blood roared in her ears. “You go out there and you find the chief of staff of this hospital, and you tell him that I want to see my husband. Today.”
Sally backed up at Sawyer’s ferocity. “I’ll tell the head nurse and she’ll pass the word along. But I doubt they’ll let you. It’s important that Jace rest. Even Ash can’t get in to see him.”
“Oh, Ash will find a way. Nothing keeps Ash from her brothers, trust me on that.” Sawyer slumped back in the bed. “Fine. You pass my message along to the chief of staff. And I’m sorry I crabbed on you, Sally. You’ve been a really good friend, and I’m...”
“Just feeling at your wits’ end. I know. I would be, too. Get some rest.” She went out the door, her cheerful sunniness restored, and Sawyer told herself she wasn’t going to have any friends left if she didn’t quit snapping at everyone who came into her room. She was just so afraid for Jace! “I should have aimed for Wolf’s heart with that Taser,” she muttered crankily. “Maybe I could have short-circuited it since it’s such a tiny, black piece of evil.”
She was stunned when Running Bear walked into the room, his dark face lined with exhaustion. “Running Bear!”
“Hello, Sawyer.”
She’d never seen the chief look so tired. “There’s Rancho Diablo coffee in that thermos, and cookies in the tin. Fiona brings by a truckload of stuff every day, she says to bribe the nursing staff to take good care of her Callahans. Please, help yourself. I’m pretty sure you need Fiona’s sugar jump.”
It was a well-known fact that the chief had a sweet tooth for Fiona’s baking, not that it showed on his lean frame.
“Your babies are strong,” he said.
Sawyer smiled. “Small, but very strong, according to the doctors.”
“They have mighty spirits. Their bodies will grow and they will gain weight. All will be well.” He munched on a cookie, his color returning a bit. “You have a strong spirit, too.”
“I don’t think I do,” Sawyer said. “I’m so scared, I feel weak.”
“Jace is fine. You will see.”
She looked at the chief. “I thought he was in a coma.”
“He will awaken because he lives for you.”
Their marriage hadn’t exactly been a bedrock of marital bliss. “I don’t know if he’d agree.”
“Jace is strong because of you, and you’re strong because of him. That can’t be broken, unless one of you chooses it.”
Was that a warning or just a bland statement? “What can I do to help him? They won’t let me see him.”
“You will tonight. When you do, tell him what you’ve been wanting to tell him for a long time.”
She looked at Running Bear. “I will.”
“It will help him to hear the words. Tell him, too, about his children. That will give him the will to heal faster.”
“I’ll gladly do it, Running Bear.” Time had seemed to be moving so quickly for her and Jace, and she’d never really felt comfortable falling for him. As if she’d somehow taken advantage of the Callahan family. She’d felt awkward because of why she’d hired on at Rancho Diablo—but always, always, she’d loved Jace.
“We understand loyalty in our family,” Running Bear said. “Do not be afraid that you are loyal. You would not be right for Jace if you were not true to your family.”
“Thank you,” she murmured. “How will I see him tonight? No one will take me.”
“Jace needs his family. He always has. It’s from family that he draws his strength.” Running Bear left the room as silently as he’d walked in, and Sawyer sank back against the pillow.
She had to devise a plot to get to her husband. Tomorrow she’d be released, so she’d be free then. She could visit the babies as she liked, too. But the sooner Jace got well, the sooner they could all be together.
Running Bear said Jace was strong because of her. If that was true, then he needed her now.
She got up, pain shooting through her abdomen.
Fiona announced herself just then in a flurry of pink, the scent of warm cinnamon surrounding her like a cloud. “Hello, Sawyer!”
Sawyer grabbed a pair of sandals she’d planned to wear home. “Hi, Fiona.”
“What are you doing?” She came over to help with the sandals so Sawyer wouldn’t pull the stitches in her stomach.
“Going to see Jace.”
“Oh,” his aunt said mildly. “I happened to note that the nursing staff at the desk seem to be a bit preoccupied.”
“You just happened to notice that?” Sawyer asked, knowing Fiona loved to meddle.
“I’m a very observant person.” She shrugged. “And Running Bear told me you might need some help.”
“He thinks my place is with Jace.”
“Exactly! The two of you need a total restart, in my opinion. No more of this halfway-married business.”
“Halfway married?”
“Indeed. The two of you don’t live together. If I hadn’t seen your check from the ball, and cashed it, I wouldn’t have believed you were the woman who bid so hard for my nephew.”
“Fiona, do you have something on your mind?” Sawyer asked, a bit startled by the unusual amount of opinions the woman was sharing.
“Is there ever a time I don’t?”
She sat on the bed. “Feel free to share it. But hurry. I’m on a mission.” Sawyer waited, her gaze on the tiny woman who ran Rancho Diablo.
“My nephew was shot, I believe, because Wolf is angry that Jace married you. You were supposed to be Wolf’s ace in the hole, and as you know, aces are very important.”
Sawyer swallowed hard against the guilt rising inside her. “He did say he’d make me regret turning on him. Those were his words.”
“But you were never on his side.”
“No. I wasn’t.”
“You must make Wolf believe you have seen the error of your ways.”
Sawyer stared at the determined woman who was the backbone for Diablo. “All I care about is my husband and my children. Whatever Wolf thinks is immaterial. He can take a flying leap. And if I were he, I’d be watching my back. I believe he may have a Callahan after him who’s not easily intimidated.”
Fiona shook her head. “For Jace’s sake, for your children’s sake, you may have to appear to be more Team Wolf than Team Callahan for the time being.”
“I won’t do it.”
“Not even if it calms Wolf down? Keeps him from sending more agents after your husband? Or your children?” Fiona looked at her curiously. “Then what’s your plan?”
“My plan right now is to sneak down the hall to see my husband. When my babies are stronger and the hospital says they can be released, when my husband is well enough, I’m taking him home. We’re going to be a family. And I don’t care what Wolf thinks about that. I can protect my own family.”
“All a very fine plan, except that you can’t expect Jace to live holed up in that tiny duplex with you. He belongs at Rancho Diablo.”
“It may be months before he’s healed. Jace is off your team for now.” Fiona didn’t understand. Sawyer was going to do whatever she had to do to keep her family safe—and if that meant moving to the ends of the earth, that’s what they’d do. “Jace already said we should go into hiding. He took me to Colorado for that purpose.” She walk
ed to the door of the hospital room. “Running Bear specifically said at that time that we should be in hiding. I should have listened to his very wise advice. Now,” she said, holding Fiona in front of her, “walk slowly past the nurses’ station, but not too slowly, because you’re always a whirlwind. But I can’t keep up with you if you walk your normal flying-aunt gait.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m taking a walk down the hall with my dear one-time employer,” Sawyer said, “which is good, because the nurses advised me to walk a little.”
“A little,” Fiona said. “Not to the ICU to see your husband.”
“Just walk, Fiona.”
The older woman sighed. “I don’t like being a part of a plot.”
“You love being part of a plot. Keep that cheery smile on your face as we stroll to the nursery window so I can see my babies.”
“That’s better,” Fiona said, perking up and not looking so worried. “We can just stand here and look at Jason and Ashley and think about planning their christenings. I’m thinking matching gowns—”
“Continuing on,” Sawyer said, as they stopped in front of the nursery window. She took a deep breath at the sight of her children sleeping peacefully, watched over by nurses, and then took Fiona’s arm again. “You’re doing this for Jace. Keep walking, please.”
Fiona sighed, pressed the elevator button. “I’ve done a lot over the years for my nephews and niece. Twelve nephews and one niece I have, and I don’t think any of them ever involved me in a shenanigan like this.”
“First time for everything. And I really appreciate you helping me out. I’m desperate to see my husband.” They stopped outside Jace’s room. “Don’t desert me, please.”
“I should think not! Make it snappy!” Fiona glanced around the hall. “I’ll have you know the Callahans put a wing on this hospital, and have flooded it with Christmas charity ball funds over the years. I’m an honorary chairman of some such. I can’t be seen disobeying hospital protocols and orders. Just lay eyes on him and get out!”
The guard who was parked outside the door straightened when he saw Fiona, obviously recognizing her. Then ever so slowly, he turned his head away, a signal that he didn’t see them enter Jace’s room.