SWEET CALLAHAN HOMECOMING (13 page)

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?

None of that would be there if the cartel had been allowed to take it over so many years ago.

Ash shook her head and silently walked away from her brothers, leaving the stone-and-fire ring—their home in their hearts and that which marked her—behind. Her tattoo burned on her shoulder, and her spirit heated with fire. She could feel it spreading inside her, taking over, preparing her for what was to come.

She needed guidance. And there was only one place to get that.

* * *

A
SH
WENT
INTO
THE
CAVE
and sat down beside her grandfather, saying nothing. He was in a trance, and she could feel his spirit humming. His aura was strong, shimmering.

She closed her eyes and let the wisdom wash over her.

It was cold inside the cave, and she welcomed the crisp air. A draft blew against her face, and clumps of snow stuck to the bottom of her boots. She could smell a fire burning in the cave, the scent of wood a warm backdrop to the chill outside. The ground she sat on was hard-packed dirt, over which her grandfather had laid a woven Navajo blanket, coarse and yet beautiful.

So much of Rancho Diablo was like that. And life, too.

She let herself fall into the meditative trance, releasing her thoughts to the greater understanding.

Xav tried to edge into her thoughts, but she pushed him away, then pulled him back to her. To a man, her brothers probably couldn’t understand how much she loved Xav. How much she loved the children they’d made together.

It was all worth fighting for.

She saw the magic wedding dress suddenly, beckoning from a dark lair where it was alone and untouched. The dress hung, a shadow of its former splendidness, no longer sparkling and radiant.

Silver burst inside her mind, reminding her of the wealth of Rancho Diablo buried where Wolf had not yet found it, and where it was guarded by Fiona and Burke. They had been excellent guardians.

Silver in the basement, the magic wedding dress in the attic. The Diablos outside, wild and free. The images coursed through her mind in a dark endless curl through the canyons, led by a beautiful silver mare. The one that had been found trapped in the canyons by Wolf.

They were all trapped by Wolf. The magic itself, and the spirit of Rancho Diablo, was held hostage continuously.

Time, as Fiona had pointed out, would march on, their lives stolen. And yet, life was about sacrifice, duty, commitment to the greater good.

Fire exploded in her brain, flames like those which had consumed the magic wedding dress. A fire that was determined to burn everything in its path.

But then—green. Refreshment and renewal.

Ash’s eyes snapped open and she gasped.

Looked at her grandfather, who hadn’t moved. She’d long known she was Running Bear’s heart. She possessed his spirit, as Skye possessed it, too. The gift of spirit was something that couldn’t be determined or taken, no matter how much Wolf might wish it different.

Even the seemingly smallest gifts one received in this life were gifts to be appreciated and grown, their responsibility to nurture and share.

But to whom much was given, much, much more was demanded. Those were the guardian spirits of the earth, and mankind.

Ash leaned over, kissed her grandfather’s weathered, brown cheek, hugged his shoulders through the worn blanket he was wrapped in and left the cave.

Chapter Fourteen

Xav found Ash feeding the babies in their room as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. As if she hadn’t tried to draw Wolf out on her own, without even giving him a heads-up of the plan. He scowled at the woman of his heart as she held Thorn.

“It would kill me if I ever lost you,” he said flatly. “Kill me deader than a dinosaur.”

She smiled at him, and he felt like a flashlight had just shined on the darkest places of his soul.

“You’re not going to lose me,” Ash said. “One thing I don’t think I understood about you is what a worrywart you are.”

He slumped into a chair, picked up Briar who was waiting patiently for her turn to be fed. He grabbed a bottle and began the honors. “Worrywart, my ass. I’m pretty certain most men in my situation would have died of cardiac arrest if they’d found their petite, fragile angel out trying to beard a baddie.”

Ash shook her head. “There’s no reason to be so fearful.”

“That’s what you think. My beautiful girl acting as a decoy just about makes me pop one,” Xav said. “Can we agree that you always let me know the mission? That way I won’t expire from worry, and I won’t ride in hell-bent-for-leather on whatever the plans are. It’s a double benefit, not to mention I’ll just be able to get myself out of a knot if I know the plans. I’m not good with surprises.”

“I promise not to leave you out of the plans anymore.”

He looked at her, making sure she didn’t have any fingers crossed. “All right,” he said gruffly. “I’m sorry I was ready to go Rambo this morning. But it’s my job to protect you. And these babies of ours.”

“We’ll work together from now on.”

“Really?” He wasn’t certain what to think about this more amenable Ash.

“I need you. I worked hard to catch you.”

“I know. Believe me, I know. There were times when I thought you wouldn’t be able to, you know.”

She looked at him, outraged. “That’s exactly what my brothers said!”

He laughed. “I have a bone to pick with them over yesterday’s failed mission, but at least they’re on my side.” Briar fed so sweetly, so trustingly, and he stroked her cheek, overwhelmed by a fierce desire to protect her and all his family. “So now what?”

“My brothers say we need to get married, and then you’ll calm down,” Ash said. “I want you to know that I’ll definitely be Mrs. Xav Phillips on Christmas Eve.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard today,” Xav said, perking up. “Tell my future brothers-in-law I welcome them to my clan.”

“Likewise.” Ash looked at him. “And then, I need your help with a mission.”

“Anything, doll, anything.” Right now, he’d give her the moon he was so happy.

“I want to blow up the tunnels beneath Sister Wind Ranch,” Ash said, and he started so hard that Briar flailed in his arms, looking up at him over her bottle with questioning eyes.

“Sorry, sorry,” he murmured to Briar, “your mother just threw a kink into her sweet determination to marry me.” He looked at Ash. “Is that going to be our honeymoon? How do we plan this? I’ll make sure you pack the proper explosives and detonating devices, and you’ll make sure I don’t forget a book of matches?”

“This is important, Xav. It’s the only way to set the land free from the evil that curses it.”

She meant to flush Wolf and the cartel out. “If this is your brothers’ harebrained idea, I really am going to kick their butts.”

“This one’s all me. That’s why it’s going to work.”

He looked at his silver-haired darling with great concern. God, he loved her, he loved her mind, her spirit, her fire.

“Not gonna do it, buttercup.” He grinned at his charming pixie. “That’s no way to spend a honeymoon.”

She looked at him. “You have a better idea?”

“It so happens I don’t. But any idea is better than you ending up in jail, as far as I and the children are concerned.”

“This is important, Xav.”

“Oh, I know. Believe me, I know. I may be late to the Callahan party, but I have some sense of what this family’s all about. Family first, all for one and one for all. That’s why you’re not going to jail on my watch.”

“Who says I would?”

“Stands to reason.” He shrugged, and as Briar was finished with her bottle, he diapered her and put her in her bassinet, picked up Valor to start all over again. “You can’t destroy land, even if it’s yours.”

“It’s a rebirth, not destruction.”

“Just the same, anything could go wrong, and then I’d end up without a wife. I have the strangest idea you’re planning this little boondoggle for before Christmas Eve. Am I right?”

“Can’t happen soon enough.”

He smiled at the fierceness in her voice. “There are other ways to get rid of your uncle and the cartel.”

She stared at him. “Don’t you think if we had a better idea we would have tried it?”

“That’s why you hired me. I’m supposed to be the canyon runner, the first line of defense.”

“That doesn’t mean you have better ideas. Fiona usually comes up with the smartest plans. And even if they’re a bit squirrelly, they’re at least fun.” She glowered at him. “Xav, if you had a better idea, you’d have shared it long ago. Especially since you were the one who, as you say, was the first line of defense and practically living out in the open.”

“Exactly.” He looked down at his son, smiling at his brave boy growing, it seemed, right before his very eyes. He loved these children. He loved Ash. “We’re going to get married. You’ll get your parcel, and then nobody will care what you do with it. And then, I’ll help you build the best, biggest hospital, school, library or rodeo your heart can conjure up.”

“How does that change things?”

“We’ll squeeze Wolf and the cartel out. Think of it, Ash, all the people who would settle there. We’ll make it so awesome that people stand in line to live there, raise their families. It’ll be almost as popular as one of Fiona’s Christmas balls.”

She settled Thorn and picked up Skye. “I think you know you’re speaking to my heart when you talk about building communities.”

“Exactly. And I’ve got plenty of business knowledge and tricks I picked up from the old man. In fact, my sister and brothers aren’t too shabby on the business side, either. Just think, the Callahan legacy would live on forever. Everything Jeremiah and Molly, and Carlos and Julia, fought for would stand the test of time.”

He saw her eyes sparkle, wondered if she was going to cry. But she leaned over Skye to kiss him and said, “I really never needed a magic wedding dress to tell me that you are the man of my dreams.”

Xav grinned, feeling pretty much as if he’d solved world peace. “So, Christmas Eve for sure, huh? You and me—it’s a date?”

“It’s a date,” Ash said. “There’s no going back now.”

“That’s right,” Xav said, thinking what a lucky man he was. It was the two of them against the world—and nothing and no one—could beat that.

* * *

“H
E
’
S
TRYING
TO
CHANGE
ME
,” Ash told Fiona when she took the babies over to help Fiona send out wedding invitations. “Xav’s made me promise not to do anything he would list as foolhardy.”

“Burke always said the same thing to me. Hasn’t really worked,” Fiona said, and Ash smiled.

“I see his point, though,” Ash said.

“He’s a build-a-better-mousetrap kind of guy. Chip off the old block. And you’re a chip off your old block,” Fiona said. She addressed some envelopes with delicate calligraphy. “It will all work out.”

Ash nodded. “I hope so. I want him to be happy.”

Xav said she made him happy. Ash pressed stamps on the envelopes Fiona addressed, glancing at her babies in the four-seated stroller. “Where are my brothers?”

“I have no idea,” Fiona said, her tone serene.

That wasn’t right. Fiona almost always knew exactly what was going on with her family. She looked at her aunt carefully, but Fiona went on addressing the cream-colored envelopes in a beautiful, looping hand. Ash glanced into the den at the twinkling tree, seeing the holiday-wrapped gifts that had started to stack up under it. A wealth of stockings hung from the mantel, so many it looked like an elf sock convention, except far prettier.

She sealed some envelopes, put the stamps on, set them in the to-be-mailed pile. Fiona was awfully quiet, for her. “Thank you for planning my wedding, Aunt Fiona. It’s going to be lovely.”

She beamed. “Of course it will! And you’ll wear the magic wedding dress, and it will be perfect!”

Ash cleared her throat. “I’ve been putting off this conversation, actually, Aunt Fiona, hoping I’d wake up and realize I’d dreamed the whole thing. But I didn’t dream it.”

“It’s okay, dear,” Fiona said absently. “Dreams are just our brains unwinding. Don’t be afraid of your dreams.”

Ash shook her head. “You’ve been so kind to us, Aunt. We all love you so dearly. I don’t know if I could have been as unselfish as you’ve been by leaving your—”

“Nonsense,” Fiona interrupted. “You heed the call whenever it comes. There’s no point in sitting around doubting one’s call. It would be like arguing with a shadow.” She smiled as she neatly stacked the pile of invitations. “You’ll do it when the time comes.”

She had to make a clean confession, and she should have done it sooner, except that she’d desperately hoped the dress would magically return. Somehow. “Fiona, your beautiful wedding dress burned up when I went to try it on.”

Fiona looked at her. “Burned up?”

“Just...set itself on fire until it was nothing but a puff of smoke.” It was so hard to look at Fiona’s bewildered face. Ash was so upset she wanted to cry.

“Oh, dear,” Fiona murmured. “It hasn’t come back?”

“I don’t know,” Ash said. “I haven’t been upstairs. Xav went up to check on it and he said there’s a gown hanging up there, but you know Xav, he doesn’t believe in anything supernatural or even out of the ordinary. Has no clue what the magic wedding dress looks like.” She teared up a little, surprising herself. “How I ever fell for such a practical, by-the-numbers man I’ll never know.”

“Well, if it’s gone, it’s gone,” Fiona said, ignoring Ash’s question. “I’ll go check.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Ash asked.

“Absolutely not. You finish stamping the envelopes and stay with your children. I’m sure everything is just as it should be in the attic, so don’t move.”

Ash shook her head as Fiona left the room. She placed the envelopes in the pile of outgoing mail, then put the babies on a soft pallet beside the Christmas tree. Her ears were stretched out for any sound from upstairs, but there was nothing.

Fiona returned, sailing into the den and plopping herself in front of the fireplace. “You’re both right,” she announced. “The magic wedding dress is gone, and there is in fact a gown up there.”

Ash blinked. “Who would put a wedding dress in the attic?”

“I have no idea. Strangest thing, really.” Fiona scratched at her silvery-white curls, pondered the snow boots she wore almost all the time in the winter, since she said she was always in and out, and didn’t have time to wriggle into a different pair of shoes every five minutes. “I don’t like it, either. It’s rather ugly, I thought.”

“Ugly!” Ash was astonished. She frowned as Fiona fanned herself. “Are you feeling all right, Aunt?”

“I’m fine. Just a bit warm.”

“Maybe move away from the fire?” She touched her aunt’s hand, but it was cold, not warm at all. “Fiona?”

Fiona sighed. “Maybe some tea, sweet niece.”

She jumped up to get tea, worried. “Do you want me to call Burke?” she said over her shoulder.

“No, I’m fine, dear. Truly.”

Fiona’s voice sounded a bit quavering.

She hurried back in with a cup of tea and a slice of pumpkin pie. Fiona was gone, and so was Skye. Ash glanced around the room and down the hall. “Fiona?”

Something was wrong, she could feel it. Her aunt always seemed a bit fey, but never rattled, never overwrought. She looked out into the chilly darkness. No bootprints led away from the house.

She was being silly. Fiona had probably gone upstairs to get something from the nursery for the babies, had taken Skye with her. “Fiona?” she called up the stairs, then realized the basement door was open. With a quick glance at her babies, she looked down the stairs. “Fiona?”

“Here!” Fiona called back.

“Fiona, do you have Skye?”

“Yes, I do!” Fiona’s head popped around the corner. “I’m showing her some things.”

Fiona kept her myriad Christmas ornaments and decorations downstairs, and the colored lights she had separated by holiday and season. It was also the place she stored her canned vegetables and fruits. “Showing her what things, Fiona?”

“Just things,” Fiona said. “We’ll be right up, niece!”

She took a deep breath. Xav walked in, and she turned to him. “Aunt Fiona is showing Skye something in the basement.”

Xav shrugged. “Go join them. I’ll watch the babies. I’ve been planning to read them
’Twas the Night Before Christmas
.”

“Thank you.” She hurried downstairs. “Fiona?”

She stopped, seeing Fiona looking down at a scar in the dirt floor, a long, deep rectangle that would have fit a coffin if required. But it wasn’t a coffin, nor had there ever been a grave. She heard Fiona murmuring to Skye, and she went to stand beside her.

“What are you telling my baby?” she asked Fiona.

“That she’s special, and an angel, and that she will always be taken care of.”

“This is the silver treasure,” Ash said. “This is where it’s hidden.”

“Yes,” Fiona said.

“Why are you showing it to Skye?”

“Because it’s her heritage. All the Callahan children will one day run Rancho Diablo.”

“How do you know?” Ash asked. She never felt that certain of anything.

“You’re strong.” She kissed Skye’s cheek. “Because you’re strong and the future is in your hands.” She looked at Skye. “These babies make me so happy! I always feel better when I hold them.”

Ash knew exactly how she felt.

Fiona turned to look at her. “You can wear that dress in the attic if you wish.”

“You said it was ugly!”