HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN (17 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Reality brought Jace crashing to earth the next day when he paid a visit to Wolf. Jace didn’t tell Sawyer when he left. He knew she would either send a team along or insist on coming with him herself. Probably would have ripped up the magic wedding dress and burned it in a blazing bonfire in the canyons if he’d tried to leave her behind.

After seeing his wife wearing the splendid dress, he fully intended to allow her the magical moment of which all Callahan brides dreamed. He wouldn’t take that from her.

But first things first, and he had a bullet and a scarred lung to thank Wolf for—not to mention a warning to deliver, since Sawyer was absolutely determined to stay at Rancho Diablo with him and the babies. She said he was a family man, and that was what she loved most about him, and that he wouldn’t be happy living out of duffel bags and backpacks. That he was more the soccer coach and ballet recital kind of dad.

He loved her all the more for knowing him as well as she did.

“Wolf Chacon!” he yelled when he got to the stone and fire ring. Many moons ago Running Bear had brought all the siblings here to meet their Callahan cousins. He’d told them this was their home now, that they would hold Rancho Diablo in their hearts. Their parents’ mission had become theirs.

This was the perfect place to face his uncle. Jace figured that as soon as he’d left the ranch and ridden toward the canyons, his progress had been marked.

When his uncle appeared at the fire ring, Jace knew he’d been right.

“You want to see me?” Wolf demanded.

“Damn right I do.”

“Come for another bullet, nephew?”

Jace smiled grimly. “Where are your bodyguards? The minions who put knives in wedding cakes and do all your dirty work?”

Wolf laughed. “Don’t worry. They’re never far away.”

Jace thought about the secret passage in Rancho Diablo’s kitchen he’d never known about, the missing Diablos and the silver treasure, which was supposedly hidden on the ranch. He thought about the kindness and gentleness of the people of the town of Diablo, who were always willing to help, and he thought about his family, every last one of them committed to the heartbeat of Rancho Diablo.

“You really don’t understand, do you?” Jace said. “You can’t ever win, Wolf. You can’t possess Rancho Diablo. It’s a
spirit,
a spirit wind that can’t be held by anyone.”

“You’ve been listening to Running Bear’s nonsense far too long. Trust me, land is easily held. I won’t have any problem doing it.”

“You will,” Jace said. “You will because you don’t understand the land. To you it’s a thing that can be bought and sold, drained of its resources and life.”

“It’s called making money, son. If you hadn’t fallen for Running Bear’s fairy tales, you’d be making money instead of working for your cousins for nothing.”

Jace frowned. “You can’t understand the calling of the spirit.”

“Blah, blah, blah.” Wolf laughed, pulled his black cowboy hat down over his eyes. “I understand the calling of money. Cash is king. If you were a smarter man, you’d learn that lesson. And that wife of yours—”

“Tread carefully,” Jace warned.

“That wife of yours is just like her uncle, always trying to do the right thing. Gets folks in trouble every time. You see, when you believe that people are inherently good, you fail to understand their dark side. Everyone has a dark side, Jace. Sawyer hasn’t seen yours. But it’s there. Eventually, it will trip you up.”

Jace’s skin chilled despite the hot sun. “And then what? You think we’ll join your cause?”

Wolf shrugged. “Either that or I’ll just keep picking you off, one by one. Or two by two, in your case, right? You have two little babies by that sweet bodyguard wife—”

Jace’s fist slammed into Wolf’s jaw so fast he didn’t see it coming. Wolf lay crumpled by the fire, stunned for a moment, before he got to his feet.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

Jace shrugged. “Whatever trouble you have with me, you stay away from my wife.”

“Everyone has a dark side, and she’s shown hers,” Wolf said, rubbing his jaw. “She’s fair game now.”

It was too easy. Jace could kill his uncle right here, and no one could stop him. Wolf didn’t think he’d do it; that’s why he’d come alone. He knew quite well that Running Bear had said none of the Callahans were to harm their uncle.

But Wolf was right: Jace did have a dark side.

And killing Wolf would be so sweet.

* * *

“W
HERE
HAVE
YOU
been?” Sawyer asked anxiously when he walked inside the bunkhouse.

“Out checking on a few things. Everything good?” He glanced at the babies, snug in the laps of Ash and of Fiona. Recently released from the hospital, Fiona moved more slowly now, and complained that they were making her sit around too much for no reason at all. Ash stayed very close to her, so close that only Burke ever really got any time with his wife without Ash hanging around.

“Everything’s fine.” Sawyer put on a hat and her boots while he watched her suspiciously. He looked at the tight black leggings and long-sleeved T-shirt she wore—pretty warm stuff for weather that was as hot as a pistol outside. Not to mention that she looked as if she was on her way to a raid.

“Are we supposed to be going somewhere?” Jace asked.

“You’re going shopping for the grand wedding I’m throwing,” Fiona said, beaming. “You realize I got up off my deathbed for your marriage, which will be the event of the year.”

Sawyer glanced at him. “She’s very excited about us saying our vows again.”

Now that sounded better. For a moment, his wife’s serious face had puzzled him; he thought he’d forgotten something important. “Shopping it is.” He looked at Sawyer’s clothes a bit doubtfully, thinking his wife really looked more like she was in recon mode than shopping mode. “I really don’t like you to be out long. You should still be resting.” He kissed both his babies on their small downy heads.

“Yes, but you don’t like me to be out without you, either, so I have to wait for you to bring your muscles home. And you were gone longer than I expected,” Sawyer said, glancing out the window, though he wasn’t sure what she was looking for. “So now we have to hurry. The sun will go down in about an hour.”

What the sun’s positioning had to do with wedding preparations, he couldn’t have said, but he kissed his babies again, kissed his aunt, tugged his sister’s platinum ponytail and took his wife’s hand to lead her out the door. “We’ll be back in a bit,” he told his family. “Wedding stuff should be a piece of cake.”

Ash laughed. “Keep thinking that, brother.”

Sawyer hurried to the truck. She hopped in and buckled her seat belt. “We’re making a detour to the house you bought from my uncle.”

That wasn’t so strange, he supposed. Though the Callahan conglomerate now owned Storm’s ranch, maybe she wanted to return for sentimental reasons. He backed up the truck. “I thought we were going to do fantasy bride stuff?”

She shook her head. “You can call this fantasy bride stuff if you want to. Just hurry. We don’t have much time, because if we don’t get to the stores to pick out the stuff Fiona wants us to, she’ll know we didn’t go. But we have a very small errand to run first.”

“I guess all wisdom will be revealed to me in due time,” Jace said, heading for Storm’s old ranch. The place was probably thick with Feds, and cartel thugs, too, since it was practically deserted these days. He wanted no part of his family being over here until the ranch was cleaned up.

Storm had been right to move away.

Sometimes Jace thought Ash was right, and that they should dynamite the land across the canyons, cover it over with concrete and turn it into Callahan Rodeo Land, to flush out the bad guys.

“Speaking of fantasy bride stuff, you sure did look like an angel in Fiona’s magic rag.”

Sawyer gasped. “You can’t call it that! Your aunt would be appalled if she thought you were making fun of the magic. And anyway, you aren’t supposed to see me wearing the gown before the big day. I’m pretending you didn’t, and that you were just my special Callahan vision.”

He laughed. “It was very good luck for me. In fact, it was all I could do not to make that fairy-tale frock disappear from your goddesslike body and make princely love to you.”

“Every Callahan bride has supposedly seen the man of her dreams when she’s worn the gown.”

“You did see me. Only it was even better, because I was there in the flesh.” He reached for her hand, raised it to his lips, kissed her fingers. “You can’t believe everything my aunt tells you. Most of it’s wonderfully childlike, romantic tales, to get us to do what she wants us to do.”

“What she believes is best for you,” Sawyer amended. “Her track record is pretty amazing so far.”

“I know. So what’s this we’re going to see?”

“Remember when Ash commandeered the treasure-hunting equipment from the trespasser?”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot all about that.” Jace laughed out loud. “My sister has nerves of steel. Did the guy come wanting his equipment back?”

“No, surprisingly. And that got my curiosity up. Remember how Uncle Storm got used by Wolf to buy this ranch, so Wolf could get access to the land through him? Obviously, Wolf didn’t want to buy it. He doesn’t have the resources, and the land he really wants is Rancho Diablo. Which he wanted access to.”

“Through your uncle’s land, and this land.” Jace parked the truck. “I’m with you so far.”

“I was thinking about why he wanted my uncle to help him so much, and then got so mad at me when he felt I’d betrayed him. And I thought it was odd that the man from whom Ash took the equipment never made a stink about it. Plus I remembered Uncle Storm telling me that Wolf was always asking him a lot of questions about selling horses, buying horses, etc.”

Jace followed his wife as she pulled the metal detector from the back of the truck. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to have that out here. Wolf’s thugs have eyes on everything.”

“It’s okay. I don’t really care.” She took off at a good clip across the ranch, carrying the equipment.

She was scaring the hell out of him. A tingle hit him, a sense of karma colliding—and suddenly, he remembered the dream he’d had in the hospital, which had seemed so much like a vision. He and Sawyer had been here—only she’d been atop a mesa, and he’d been far away, riding a Diablo. It was an impossible dream, because the Diablos hadn’t been seen or heard in a long time—but a sudden premonition told Jace there was danger here. He followed Sawyer quickly, glad he was armed, wishing he had backup.

Once Sawyer reached a particular destination—he happened to know that it was near the cave Galen had been held in some months ago, but didn’t want to say so to Sawyer, because with his luck, she’d decide to go spelunking—she stopped and looked toward Rancho Diablo. “It’s beautiful, no matter where you stand to look at it.”

He eyed the seven chimneys of the main house, rising in the distance. “It is.”

“If you stood here and looked at that long enough, you might wish you lived there.”

“I do live there.”

She ignored his lame attempt at humor. “One day I’m going to take our babies riding on this land,” Sawyer said, “and it’s going to be free and safe.”

He hoped she was right, yet his scalp prickled all the same. “Let me carry this thing. It’s too heavy for you.” He took the metal detector from her, still not sure why they needed it, but not about to interrupt his wife when she was on a mission. Everyone had a holy grail, and if this was hers, far be it from him to throw a wrench in the works. He glanced around, made certain they weren’t being followed as she strode toward the canyons.

When Sawyer stopped at the edge, looking over, he gulped. “Please don’t do what I think you’re going to do.”

“That’s where the Diablos run,” she whispered. “This is the yellow brick road.”

“Yes, but we haven’t seen them in months.”

“I know.” She looked across the canyons at the burned-out farmhouse, then turned back to stare at Rancho Diablo. “If you had always lived there, and looked across these canyons, you might have wished life had gone differently for you.”

“Maybe, but Rancho Diablo’s been built up over many years. Three, four decades?”

“And all those years, that farmer watched. And you know who else watched?”

“Wolf,” Jace said.

“That’s right. The man who lived in that house was a friend of Wolf’s. All those years, he was a spy for him, until Wolf was ready to put his plan into action.”

“How do you know all this?” Jace’s heart began an uncomfortable thumping.

“Because I asked him. I looked at the property deed at the county courthouse and found the gentleman’s name, and after I got out of the hospital and had time to think things through, I went and asked him everything I wanted to know. When you were shot, I knew we hadn’t heard the whole story, and I knew someone else had to have pieces of it.”

Jace swallowed hard. “You were supposed to be resting.”

“And you were supposed to stay alive so you could be my husband,” Sawyer told him. “I knew it wasn’t my uncle who’d given up information. He didn’t know anything. So someone had been feeding information to Wolf. The only person who could have kept a closer eye on things than my uncle was the man who owned that land over there. And that’s exactly what happened. He was quite willing to tell me everything, because Wolf reneged on his promise of land and Rancho Diablo silver.”

“Still, why are we standing out here with Ash’s nefariously acquired equipment?”

“Because,” Sawyer said, “we both know the silver is important, but it’s not the ranch’s most prized possession. Life according to Running Bear states that the most important part of the ranch is the spirit. The
spirits
. And that’s what your uncle simply can’t get through his thick skull.”

“I just love how your mind works,” Jace said admiringly. “All this time I thought you were just a gorgeous face, a redhead with a body to drive me mad.”

“You thought nothing of the sort.”

“I swear I did.”

“Good. Hang on for the ride, cowboy. I’m about to drive you really mad.”