by Tina Leonard
“I chased you for years,” Ash said. “I’m crazy about you.”
“So you’re ready to do the big I do.”
“We just need time.”
“If I was milk, I’d have curdled by now I’ve had so much time. Hell, I’d have aged into cheese. These babies need a family, and nothing else matters.”
Ash shook her head, put the other babies in the large stroller. “Nothing good can come of you marrying me.”
“I don’t believe in curses or bad karma or jujitsu,” Xav said flatly. “And even if there were such things, I’m a pretty hard-baked guy. I can take care of myself.”
“Juju,” she murmured, “not jujitsu.”
“Whatever. What I do believe in is hearing wedding bells.”
“Christmas Eve,” she said suddenly.
He narrowed his gaze. “You want to get married on Christmas Eve? I can do that.”
“Then tell my brothers the plans, and pick a best man.”
“One of my brothers, of course. Shaman or Gage.”
“Fiona can be my matron of honor.” She looked at him. “Christmas Eve will give her time to do plenty of planning.”
He wondered about her sudden change of heart. “Less than two weeks isn’t plenty.”
“It is for Fiona. She’s got all her notes and routes planned. She can run a wedding like nobody else.”
He turned her back toward him as she started to wheel the babies out the door. “Why are you changing your mind?”
“I just don’t want a quickie in Vegas.”
“But you’ll still be cursed by Christmas Eve, won’t you? Not that I care, I kind of like you that way, obviously. In fact, maybe I don’t want you uncursed. It’s not affecting my desire for you, so don’t worry about that, sugarplum. In fact, it’s probably got me hotter than ever. Obviously your bad-girl vibe works for me quite well.”
She shook her head. “Xav, never tease about such things.”
“It’s hard not to. I’m a facts-and-figures kind of guy. My father was a hard-core pragmatist. In fact, some people called him a hard-core asshole. I’m just saying, I don’t normally let myself be bothered by—”
He stopped at the look in Ash’s eyes, quickly noting he was walking on thin ice.
“I don’t worry too much about things I can’t see,” he finished. “So, I can tell the deacon to get his rig ready for Christmas Eve? We’d better do it really early, like three in the afternoon, if we don’t want to conflict with the Christmas Eve church schedule.”
“It will be all right.” She pushed the bundled up babies out the door, and he stared after her.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“To see my grandfather,” she said. “He hasn’t been to see his great-grandchildren, and I’m going to make sure he meets them.”
“I’ll go with you,” Xav said quickly, not wanting his tiny wife out near the canyons by herself with their four babies. He settled Skye in the stroller.
“This is something I have to do on my own,” Ash said and, blowing him a kiss, she rolled off.
He was probably going to have a heart attack, courtesy of his independent wife.
* * *
XAV PACED, THEN HEADED to the burned-out barn. If the lady didn’t want to be accompanied, he knew Ash well enough to understand that there’d be all kinds of blowback if he shadowed her journey. He didn’t like it, but he had to trust that she knew what she was doing.
He tried to comfort himself with her promise to marry him soon.
Those two weeks were going to feel like a lifetime. Xav had the worst feeling that time was not his friend; craziness had been known to hit the fan around Rancho Diablo with the speed of light.
Xav studied the barn’s blackened beams, the remaining walls that were covered with soot. The sheriff had come out to take a look and insisted on an arson team taking a look, as well. Whoever had set the fire had been too clever to leave any trace of accelerants around, nor any overt sign of arson. They were left with the sheriff’s pronouncement that the fire might have been started by something as simple as an electrical failure, given the barn’s age.
Xav doubted it, and he didn’t think the Callahan brothers thought much of that, either.
He heard something move behind him, braced himself for whatever lurked in the barn. The fire had eaten holes in the roof, leaving it unusable until it was repaired, so there was plenty of light in the building on this sunny but cold day. Xav glanced around, tensed to pull his firearm.
Nothing but a cold, stern breeze whipping through the building from end to end. Xav walked outside, looked toward the canyons to see if he could see the jeep. He figured Ash must be planning to hunt Running Bear up in the canyons. The elderly Navajo chief hadn’t been around the house as much as he had been in the past, enjoying Fiona’s baking. Why hadn’t he yet visited the babies?
This seemed highly unusual to Xav, but the chief had a lot on his hands. Xav shrugged it off.
He tried to shrug off the noise he’d heard in the barn, too—nothing but creaking timbers weakened by the fire.
Maybe he’d just head out and pretend he had canyon duty. The truth was he had no duty at the moment, his future brothers-in-law telling him he needed to spend time with his children. He went to the main barn to saddle his horse and then walked him out into the sunshine.
“Where are you going?” Fiona demanded as she walked past him with an armload of Christmas decorations.
“The canyons.”
“Ash went that way,” Fiona said, indicating the main road with a nod. “She was trundling toward town.”
He frowned. “Are you sure? She said she was going to hunt up Running Bear.”
“I’m sure,” Fiona said. “You’re not far behind her, I’d imagine.”
He wheeled his horse in the direction of Diablo and called over his shoulder, “Thanks, Fiona!”
She went in the house, and he went after Ash at a cautious canter, not wanting her to yell at him for creeping after her. She’d tell him he was overbearing, that she could take care of herself, it was a bright, sunny day and Wolf wouldn’t bother her in broad daylight—he could hear everything she’d say.
And those reasons made him even more nervous.
* * *
THE ONLY WAY to find out the truth was to draw Wolf into the open. Ash strolled her babies toward the main road, and when Dante pulled up at their meeting place, she put the babies in the car seats in his truck.
“What’d you tell Xav?” Dante asked.
“That I was going to find Running Bear to show him the babies. It’s partially true.” She looked at her brother. “Is everyone in position?”
“Yes. Your beau’s going to chew all our ears off for letting you do this.”
“He’s not a Callahan. Drive.”
Dante nodded and pulled away. Ash pushed the stroller toward the main road, her scalp prickling. If everything went as they’d planned, hopefully Wolf would follow her right into the trap they’d set for him. As Xav had said, a lone wolf was dangerous. Now that his right-hand man was dead, Wolf had every reason to want to strike.
She heard a horse canter up behind her, turned. “Xav!”
He pulled alongside her. “Hi, babe. What’s up?”
She stopped, caught.
He looked in the stroller, met her gaze. “Where are the babies?”
She sighed. “Headed back to the house.”
“You’re running an operation?” He sounded outraged, and she couldn’t blame him.
“Yes, we are. I couldn’t tell you because this isn’t your problem.”
She could see her big, sexy cowboy didn’t appreciate being left out of the plan.
“I’m going with you,” he said.
“You can’t.
Wolf will never show himself if you’re with me.”
He got off the horse, put his hand on the stroller. “You’re bait?”
“I’m just drawing him out in the open for my brothers,” Ash said. “It’s really not dangerous at all. I’m simply a decoy.”
He stared at her. “Your brothers are using you as bait? I’m going to kick their collective asses.”
“He’s after me, Xav.” She rolled the stroller on. “He told my brothers a long time ago that he had his eye on the biggest Callahan prize when he kidnapped Fiona, that there was a more valuable prize than even her, which would help him neutralize Running Bear. The only thing that furthers his goal is to get to me. That’s what he’s been after all along.”
“Why?” Xav demanded. “Not that I’m happy about this, but why?”
“I told you. If he can get to me, he gets to Running Bear. And that’s what he’s wanted more than anything. I knew it when the magic wedding dress burned away, and when the barn caught on fire.”
“What does one have to do with the other?”
“It means,” Ash said patiently, “Wolf is making his move and is determined to destroy the spirit of Rancho Diablo.”
“He already tried taking the Diablos. It’s not necessary to endanger yourself just to trap Wolf. Nothing will work out for him.”
“He gets closer all the time out of desperation. The best way to lure him is to make him think he can win. If he thinks he can kidnap me, he’ll make a mistake. And then we can sweep him off the ranch once and for all.”
“I’m going with you. I can’t take the chance of losing you. You’re not an operative anymore. You’re going to be my wife.”
She was an operative. She always would be. Ash looked at the father of her children, glowering at her, not understanding because there was no way he could. He hadn’t grown up all his life trained for this mission.
She had no other choice. “Xav,” Ash said slowly, “you need to understand that I may never be your wife. There’s a possibility it’s just not meant to be, no matter how much I hope it is.”
He shook his head. “Listen, darling, when and where we get married is to be determined. What you wear is obviously up for grabs, but I’m not much for what you wear to the altar as much as what you don’t wear when you’re in my bed. We have four little babies who need us, and long after Rancho Diablo is no longer standing, that’s what will be written in history.” Xav stared at her, his gaze firm, sexy, determined as hell. “You’re just going to have to get good with the fact that you chased me for years, and now you’ve got me. For good.”
Chapter Thirteen
“I have to say, I kind of admire his thickheadedness,” Dante said when the seven of them gathered at the stone-and-fire ring to discuss the failed mission. “Xav’s pretty tough for a suit.”
“He hasn’t been a suit for years,” Galen pointed out. “Clearly we misjudged that.”
“Put in too much time at Rancho Diablo,” Sloan said. “It tends to put concrete in a man’s soul, gives him focus.”
“And he’s certainly focused on li’l sister,” Tighe said, ruffling her hair, and her six brothers chuckled, well-pleased with their observation.
She wasn’t pleased at all. “I can’t work when he keeps such close tabs on me. I swear I don’t think he even sleeps, because he’s got one eye on me all the time.”
Jace grinned. “And that may be his most redeeming quality.”
“You guys can laugh, but he’s pretty pissed at all of you. He’s not happy at all with your plan to use me to draw Wolf out. He thinks he owns me now,” Ash said with righteous indignation, and her brothers about broke their ribs laughing at her.
Ash sighed and stared over the canyons at Sister Wind Ranch. It was all so close. Maybe no one felt that but her; she didn’t feel defeated anymore. The land at Sister Wind Ranch was alive, despite what Wolf and his men had done to scar it.
It just needed a few well-placed sticks of dynamite and some other incendiary devices to take out those tunnels for good. The feds thought they’d closed them off, but they didn’t understand that all they’d done was slowed the cartel’s efforts. Like ants, with one path closed to them, they chose another.
Sister Wind Ranch was going to be hers, despite Wolf, despite the cartel and despite her well-meaning husband’s attempts to sabotage the mission. Yesterday could have been the day they’d put Wolf behind them for good.
Dead and buried.
Oh, heckfire. I just thought of Xav as my husband.
This is so not good.
He’s really getting into my head with all this marriage talk.
“If you marry him, it would give him peace,” Falcon said, and they all stared at their heretofore silent brother.
“Peace?” Ash demanded.
Falcon shrugged. “One has to consider every person’s goals. In your particular situation, you have a man whose life mission is to make you his wife. Just like your life’s mission is to save Rancho Diablo, he’s not going to rest until he achieves his goal.”
“So you’re saying,” Dante said, “that if Ash marries Xav, he’ll quit hawk-eyeing her.”
“Not totally,” Falcon said. “But it will ease him. He’s fighting for his children’s heritage.”
“I see,” Galen said. “Brother has a point. He doesn’t make them often, but when he does, they’re worth an extra thought or two.”
“That’s the dumbest reason I ever heard to get married,” Ash said hotly. “I’m not going to marry Xav just because he’s turned into my personal bodyguard.”
“He can’t possibly understand entirely why we live the way we do,” Tighe pointed out.
“It’s worth a try,” Jace said. “Hell, we all just got married because we’d finally found a woman who would stick with us despite the insanity.”
“Oh, my God,” Ash said. “Part of me thinks my brothers are totally insane. The other part of me suddenly realizes I could be stuck with all of you for the rest of my life if I don’t seal the deal with Xav.”
“Exactly,” Galen said. “The best part is, you love him, he loves you. You guys have four amazing children. Family should stick together.”
“It’s a different kind of mission,” Sloan said. “But really, what else are we fighting for besides family?”
She saw everything in a brand-new, almost blinding light. “I doubt very seriously Xav will get less possessive and demanding just because he puts a ring on my finger.”
“No, but you’ll have your guy, and isn’t that why you chased him all those years, anyway?” Dante asked.
“Not exactly.” I chased him because he was the hottest, sexiest man I’d ever laid eyes on, and I wanted him like nothing I’d ever wanted. He swept me off my feet, and I fell for him like a stone.
“Still,” Tighe said, “you have to admire someone that’s so willing to come over to our dark side. He’s been on Team Callahan from the start, even if we always thought he was all about our baby sister.”
“Actually, I never thought she’d catch him,” Galen said, and they all smirked at that one, nodding.
“You thought that? All of you?” Ash demanded, staring at each of her brothers, seeing by their sheepish faces that the sentiment had been pretty unanimous. “You’re all dumb.”
“So now what?” Falcon asked.
“Now,” Ash said, looking back at Sister Wind Ranch with longing, “now we plan a new mission. The one I think we should have planned all along.”
They followed her gaze across the canyons.
“Ash, I know what you’re thinking,” Galen said, and she held up a hand.
“It’s my land,” she said. “It might be divided up for all of us, but in my heart, I know that’s where we belong and where my children belong.” She took a deep breath. “
It’s my fight.”
“I don’t know,” Sloan said. “As ticked as Xav is with us, if we’re going to do this, we have to involve him this time, Ash.”
“I vote no,” Jace said. “Ash, you could go to jail.”
“Or worse,” Dante said, his voice deep with concern. “You could find yourself forced into hiding. Think about the babies. Do you really want Thorn, Briar, Skye and Valor to grow up without their mother?”
What was right and what was wrong? Was not saving the land from the destruction happening to it right? Was not ensuring the Diablos’ freedom a mission of dire need? What about the families who might one day settle on that land, or take their children to a future hospital, or send them to schools and libraries there? Twenty thousand acres could mean much to a lot of people. Lives could be enriched, the land a mother to all.
Could she leave behind four children to understand later her decision to fight for the greater good?
“I could take them with me. I was in hiding with them in Wild.”
“You’d be found. You were found by Wolf and Rhein,” Galen said. “Eventually, there’s no place to hide.”
They fell silent, no doubt thinking the same thing she was: what had happened to their parents and their Callahan cousins’ parents? Did they regret their decision to give up everything, their own lives, their own families?
It wasn’t just about Rancho Diablo. Saving one ranch didn’t mean anything in the overall paradigm. What mattered were people’s lives, and the spirit of a community. So many people had helped them over the years the best they could, unrecognized warriors supporting the fight silently. Mavis Night, Corinne Abernathy and Nadine Waters, for starters. They ran a bookstore and tearoom in town, which wouldn’t be there but for Molly and Jeremiah’s sacrifice so many years ago. People came from as far away as Tempest for their treats and the camaraderie of good friends. What about Fiona’s annual Christmas ball and raffle? Certainly that holiday wonderland wouldn’t be held every year, and folks came from cities and states around for the fun of Christmas enchantment Diablo-style. What about the good sheriff and his men, whose families were here, schools, which educated so many people who returned their skills to the fabric of the community?
