Guardian Angel: Callaghan Brothers, Book 5

by Abbie Zanders

  “WHAT?!?!” Aidan sat up so fast his coffee splashed over his lap.

  “Now, Aidan, you need to calm down.”

  “Calm down? CALM DOWN? Are you insane? What situation could possibly put you and Kane Callaghan together and he ends up getting shot?”

  “Well, I don’t know what he was doing there, but I was travelling with the Sisters of Mercy. We were delivering medical supplies to some of the poorer villages when we were attacked. Kane saved my life.” She shuddered, remembering the gleam in her captors’ eyes. “The bullet got him when he was trying to get me out of there.”

  “Son of a bitch. Not one of those bastards said a thing - ”

  “They didn’t know who I was, Aidan. It’s not like we exchanged ID’s. All I knew was his first name, and I never told him mine. We were running for our lives at the time. I never expected to see him again, especially in Pine Ridge of all places. I doubt he ever expected to see me again, either,” she added as an afterthought.

  “He saved your life?” he asked, still in shock. “What happened to the rest of your group?”

  Rebecca lowered her eyes and shook her head. “They’re all gone, Aidan,” she said quietly. “I had to identify the bodies when the clean-up team came in.”

  Aidan pulled her into his arms. “Oh, Becca. I’m so sorry.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered.

  Chapter Five

  “Not heading up to the cabin this weekend?” Michael asked casually several weeks later. Kane shot him a suspicious glance, but Michael had wisely turned his attention back to helping Maggie create “care packages” of cookies for the families still displaced by the flood. Their son Ryan was tucked against her hip, shooting Kane a baby-toothed grin around the slobbery cookie he held in his hands.

  “No.”

  It was the third weekend in a row that Kane had elected to stay in Pine Ridge, causing a lot of speculation among his brothers and sisters-in-law. No one was stupid enough to ask him outright, though they thought they had a pretty good idea of what was keeping him local these days, and it wasn’t his overwhelming desire to help the less fortunate.

  “Thanks for offering to take these down to the shelter, Kane,” Maggie said, placing the little bundles carefully into a larger box with her free hand. “Your haircut looks nice. And you shaved.” She leaned in a little closer and sniffed. “Mmmm, you smell good, too.”

  Kane’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked down and fixed her with one of his patented stares. Michael winced. It just wasn’t wise to say things like that around Kane; the man liked his privacy, and most definitely did not regard inquiries or suppositions into his life favorably. There was a reason no one had spoken to Kane about his uncharacteristic interest in Aidan’s sister. The Callaghan boys learned early on that when the eldest among them didn’t like something, it didn’t usually bode well for the rest of them.

  Maggie, however, apparently chose to ignore the unwritten family guidelines of interacting with Kane, and Michael’s protective instinct had him positioning himself between them, just in case.

  “What?” Maggie said innocently, pushing Michael out of the way with impatience. “He looks good!”

  To Michael’s great surprise, Kane actually smiled. It was a little smile, but a smile nonetheless. “Thanks, Maggie,” he said, his smile waning as he turned to glare at his brother. “Glad to see someone in this house has some balls.”

  * * *

  The flood waters receded, leaving behind a mess of mud and muck in their wake, but with the community-wide cleanup effort, the situation was improving every day. Most people had been cleared to go back to their homes and begin the task of assessing and repairing the damage. Those who had been hit the hardest were consolidated and relocated from the high school to other locations to allow for the upcoming start of the new school year, which had already been delayed. The second and third floors of Nicki’s youth center were among them.

  The National Guard had been redeployed elsewhere; people returned to their jobs and lives best they could, though donations still trickled in. A handful of volunteers kept the new shelter going, and, not surprisingly, Rebecca found herself among them. Her life settled into a comfortable routine. She spent the better part of her days at the shelter, and sometimes the nights, too.

  But at least a few times each week she could be found with her brother. At first it had been all about catching up with each other, but lately, things were changing. Aidan seemed to be under the impression that because she was staying with him she was his responsibility, and she was starting to feel the familiar claustrophobia in his presence. She loved him dearly, she really did, but he was so much like their parents sometimes. They’d never quite understood her need for independence, either.

  * * *

  Dinner was being served in the large communal kitchen when Kane arrived at the shelter. The autumn sun was just beginning to settle, muting the sky in soft hues. He didn’t bother checking the dining area; he knew by now that Rebecca would not be there. Instead, he dropped off Maggie’s care packages with the matronly woman who’d assumed control over the kitchen and strolled outside.

  He narrowed his eyes at the group of youths who hung out there, reiterating his silent warning, reminding them of his presence. One of them, a young man who seemed to be the one the others looked up to, was brave enough to meet Kane’s gaze for a few seconds. That kid, Kane knew, was Trouble with a capital “T”. He might just have to have a talk with Nicki about that one.

  Continuing on, Kane found Rebecca beneath a sprawling maple. Her legs were stretched out in front of her, her back against the tree, her eyes closed. It was one of the rare occasions where her hair was down, lifting slightly in the gentle, warm breeze. He caught the familiar light scent of Dove and smiled. It was ingrained in his mind and his body, solidly linked with the woman herself.

  “Hey,” he said in his deep voice as he approached. Not the most suave of greetings, perhaps, but heartfelt nonetheless. The sight of her lifted away his feelings of unease like a light summer breeze.

  She didn’t stir.

  “Hey,” he said again, a little louder this time, and still she did not react.

  He peered down, thinking she might be asleep, until she absently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and he saw the earbuds. Crouching beside her, he tapped her lightly on the ankle and she opened her eyes, removing the pieces from her ears and giving him a hundred-watt smile that lit him up from the inside out.

  “Kane!” she said, surprise and pleasure filling her voice. “Dropping off more care packages?”

  He loved how she seemed so happy to see him. So few people were. Most found themselves fleeing, uncomfortable in his presence, which for the most part, was just fine with him. But not her. He didn’t want her running away, and he regretted the fact that she hadn’t attempted to wrap her arms around him in greeting once since that first reunion in the school hallway. Each time he saw her he mentally prepared himself for it, just in case, determined not to make the same mistake twice, but so far, no such luck.

  “Guilty,” he said, feeling positively chatty for some reason. “Maggie’s outdone herself this time. What are you listening to?”

  “Um...” Rebecca pulled the mp3 from her pocket and checked the display. “Disturbed.”

  Kane raised an eyebrow at the mention of the heavy metal band. It was not what he was expecting. Something classical, or mellow, definitely. But this? Kane held out his hand and Rebecca obediently placed the small device into his large palm. He thumbed through the assortment of dark, explicit bands. “Did Taryn give you this? Or Nicki?”

  “No, JC did.”

  Kane couldn’t completely hide the frown on his face. JC was the cocky Goth kid who seemed to have a particular affinity for Rebecca - the tall one who had had the balls to meet Kane’s eyes only minutes earlier. Barely of legal age, with his pale skin and dark eyes, he could have been a poster child for teenage vamp movies; his inked arm sleeves and multitude of piercin
gs only added to one hell of a Goth image.

  For whatever reason, Rebecca seemed fascinated by him and his ilk. JC soaked up the interest like a sponge. It didn’t help that she often spent a good portion of her time with the younger crowd. She was one of the few adults they seemed to take to, and after learning that she had no concept of an iPad or a Wii, they’d taken it upon themselves to “educate her and bring her into the current century.” Nicki thought it was a great thing, that Rebecca was a positive influence on the kids. Kane was less inclined to applaud anything that put Rebecca in their midst so often.

  Kane didn’t like JC, not in the least. His instincts flared whenever he was around the kid, and Kane always trusted his instincts. The kid was up to no good, but Rebecca was too kind-hearted to see it. Kane wanted to beat the self-satisfied, gloating look out of the boy’s eyes every time he caught him looking at Rebecca with more than casual interest. She might have been more than ten years his senior, but she sure as hell didn’t look it. And despite the accumulation of life experiences, there was still a purity about her, an innocence that clung to her. It no doubt called out to the predator in the little weasel.

  “And you felt the need?” He tried to keep the dislike for the kid out of his voice. She got enough warnings and lectures from Aidan, and they didn’t seem to do anything other than strengthen her resolve to prove him wrong. No matter how much he might have agreed with Aidan on Rebecca’s naiveté when it came to the teens, he wasn’t about to do anything that would end up pushing her towards them even more.

  No, Kane had his own methods, and they included staying close by and keeping his thoughts to himself for as long as possible.

  She considered him thoughtfully, as if sensing his underlying worry. “I did, actually. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about a person by the music they listen to. And with these kids... there’s so much anger, so much violence in their eyes sometimes. I’m trying to wrap my mind around that, understand it. I mean, they have so much. What could possibly be making them so miserable?”

  Kane sat down on the ground, rather than walking away like he normally would have. Maybe Rebecca was more perceptive than she led any of them to believe. Still, she had repeatedly shown that just because she was aware of danger didn’t mean she would avoid it. Seemed to attract it, in fact. Which only served to strengthen Kane’s resolve to look out for her.

  “Doesn’t make sense, does it?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  For the first time, Kane glimpsed the raw pain in her eyes, the grief and sadness she hid from everyone else. It touched him, that small tendril of trust that slipped into his chest and gave his heart a little squeeze. But her next words wrapped around it completely.

  “Most people don’t understand,” she said quietly. “But you do, don’t you?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I do.”

  They sat in silence for awhile. It wasn’t awkward; it was... comfortable. One of Rebecca’s tiny bare feet – he noticed she rarely wore shoes if she could help it – tucked beneath his leg just a hair. She seemed unaware of the incidental contact, but he wasn’t. He made no move to shift away, not anymore. He’d accepted her need to touch; he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit to enjoying it a little, too. The fact that she wanted the contact with him, however chaste and innocent, was like a pleasant stroke to his male pride. She didn’t touch anyone else the way she touched him, he couldn’t help but notice, which kept him from having to kill anyone local.

  “Can I ask you something?” she said finally.

  Kane nodded. She could ask him anything. She was probably the only person in the world at the moment to whom he would extend that privilege.

  “Why were you there, in the jungle?”

  Shit. She had to ask him one of the few things he couldn’t answer. Everything about what he and his brothers did was strictly need to know, and no one outside of the family could be brought in to the fold without a unanimous vote from the brothers. So far the privilege had only been extended to wives.

  Kane looked away, pondering the lowering sun before answering. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you the details.”

  She nodded, as if she had expected as much. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  The thing was, Kane wanted to tell her. Something, at least. Something that might keep her from pulling away, because he liked her right where she was.

  “My brothers and I - sometimes we are called to go into bad situations when the government can’t. We try to make things... better.”

  * * *

  They had that much in common at least. She often found herself in situations where she could help when others could not, often because of the rules of whatever organization had sent them there in the first place. It was one of the reasons she didn’t belong to any one group officially, and why she was usually welcomed along. She didn’t have to play by the same rules.

  She paused, afraid to ask him anything further. This was the longest amount of time he’d ever spent with her – voluntarily, anyway. She didn’t want to do or say anything that would hasten his departure. Even if they just sat in silence, there was something about him that was ... she searched for the right word ... soothing.

  Not that that made any sense at all. He had to be one of the biggest, most lethal men she’d ever come across. In the jungle, she had seen first-hand just how deadly he could be. In a matter of seconds he had killed two men with sharpshooter accuracy, then sliced open the neck of a third to free her. And there had been no regret in his eyes at all. Just cold, calculated purpose.

  He wasn’t the friendliest of men, either. While the rest of the family seemed to have a calm, easygoing manner about them, Kane was different. He was a little rougher than the others, had a wilder intensity to him that excited and scared her at the same time. And even when he was among the others he seemed to remain on the fringes. Quiet. Watchful. Detached. It was something with which she could empathize.

  But despite all that, around him she felt safe, an instinctual knowledge that nothing bad would happen as long as he was around. And even more than that, deep down inside, he touched a part of her no one else had, not even Aidan. Her brother loved her, but Kane understood her. He was the only person she didn’t feel she had to pretend around, because even when she tried the look in his eyes told her he knew she was full of shit.

  “I never thanked you for saving my life.”

  Kane’s expression didn’t really change, but she felt the shift in energy around him. His eyes gained a new intensity, and she felt a surge of... something, like the way the air feels right before a thunderstorm. Though when he spoke, his voice was just as deep, just as resonant as any other time.

  “You saved mine. I can’t think of a better way of showing gratitude than that.”

  She smiled at that, knowing differently. Kane would have figured a way out of that mess, or his brothers would have. If anything, she probably made it more difficult on him. But for whatever reason, she hadn’t been able to leave him. Rebecca had no intention of sharing that particular tidbit with him. He’d probably walk away and never come back. Instead she simply went with it.

  “In some cultures we’d be indebted to each other for life, each responsible for the soul of the other.”

  Funny how that didn’t seem like such a bad thing. Their eyes met, an unmistakable awareness sparking between them. His eyes grew even more intense, transitioning from a clear blue ice to a luminescent sapphire until they practically glowed. She felt his gaze throughout her entire body, heating her up from the inside. Her skin tingled; she could feel the blood pumping through her body with increased force as her heart began to hammer against her chest.

  Kane was different, too, with his intensity. His seriousness. He was a kindred spirit. She sensed it, rather than knew it. He had it. All of the Callaghans did. It was in their eyes, in their faces, in the way they lived and looked out for each other, but she sensed it in Kane the most.

  It too
k every ounce of control she had to break his gaze and lower her eyes. If she didn’t, she feared what she might do next. Something completely bizarre and out of character no doubt, like throwing herself into his lap and begging him to kiss her, just once. The memory of him stiffening against her the night of the evacuation was still fairly fresh in her mind; she was not anxious for him to withdraw again, not when he was becoming comfortable in her presence. She didn’t want to jeopardize that.

  “So tell me,” she said, changing the subject. “What does Kane Callaghan do when he’s not secretly saving the world?”

  * * *

  Saving the world? Is that what she thought? Her shy smile and curious eyes gave nothing away; she could just be teasing him. He liked that. Most people were easy to read. It usually only took Kane a few minutes to get the full measure of a person, but she presented a bit of a challenge.

  Either way, he figured a straightforward answer would work best.

  “I’m an investor. I handle the family finances.”

  “Really?” she asked, genuinely surprised.

  “Really. Does that surprise you?”

  “Yes, actually. You don’t strike me as the Wall Street type.”

  He smiled, stretching the rarely used muscles around his mouth. She’d been exactly right about him not being a suit and tie kind of guy. But thanks to his brother the electronics genius, he could handle everything from anywhere accessible by satellite. And a series of customized scanner programs kept him up to date without him having to wade through all the bullshit.

  “I’m curious. What type do I strike you as, then?”

  “Hmmm.” Rebecca appeared to give it some serious thought. “A gladiator, perhaps. Or maybe one of those guys who did that Ultimate Fighting thing the teens are always watching on TV.”

  Somewhat boldly, she let her eyes rake him up and down. Kane was glad he was sitting with his body angled and one knee up so that she would not be able to see the effect her gaze was having on him.

  She laughed softly, her eyes sparkling. “I guess, based on our first meeting, that I thought you were part of the military.”