HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN (4 page)

Heck, he’d wanted some enthusiasm from his bride. Perhaps even a smile. He was so out of sorts he wasn’t even sure why he was complaining.

“I can’t feel good about this marriage, Jace. So wearing the dress would be dishonest. I’m too aware that your family doesn’t trust me, though they put on a happy face today for you.”

So that’s what was bugging doll face. He couldn’t contradict her, either. The Chacon Callahans as a rule had never really trusted Sawyer’s uncle Storm—and Sawyer was assuming that some familial distrust was reflected on her, as well.

“We trusted you enough to hire you, let you bodyguard our children.”

“But when Somer and I were at Rose’s father’s place and fired on each other, and someone conked her father over the head, everything changed. You can’t deny that.”

He heard the note of sadness in Sawyer’s voice. “It was a big misunderstanding. Your cousin and you probably saved Rose that night. Maybe Sheriff Carstairs, too. Hell, even my brother Galen. He’s never been a fast runner, though he claims he is, and you and Somer firing at each other gave him the cover he needed to make it inside to Rose.”

“I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. But I know in my heart that I was always on a probationary basis with all of you. Only Galen really trusted me. And once I became pregnant...” She glanced at him. “Jace, be honest. It had to have crossed a few of your brothers’ minds that maybe I’d become pregnant as part of a plot to get inside Rancho Diablo permanently.”

“No one mentioned it.” He shrugged. “But you’re part of the Callahan family now, and no one’s sending up warning flares. In fact, you’re the only one who seems bothered by the past. And anyway, we wouldn’t have agreed to buy Storm’s place if we hadn’t decided he was on our side. We don’t do business—any kind of business—with folks who are trying to kill us.”

She didn’t say anything else, conversation over for the moment. He hadn’t convinced her that the family accepted her. Only time could solve that problem.

Maybe he could appeal to her feminine side. All the Callahan brides seemed to favor the frilly white fairy tale.

“Look at it this way. Would Ash have taken the time and the trouble to bring you the mystical treasured gown to wear down the aisle if the family didn’t consider you one of us?”

Jace wished Sawyer would look at him, but she didn’t, nor did she answer. He drove on, wondering if a difficult beginning could ever turn into a happy ending.

Chapter Four

“So the holy grail, as I see it,” Jace said to his sister on his cell phone, as Sawyer selected some lunch offerings in a roadside café in New Mexico, “is keeping my bride out of Rancho Diablo.”

“That’s the family vote. There are a hundred reasons for Sawyer not to be here, and no good ones we can think of for her to be. It’s just not safe. She’s too good of a bargaining chip. Now that Storm has managed to break any ties Wolf was hoping to bind him with, our uncle will certainly try to get even with hers.”

Jace watched his delicate wife as she chatted with the owner of the small mom-and-pop restaurant. Roadside places this size could be greasy spoons, but this one was warm and welcoming. He liked the white paint on the building and the blue shutters that seemed to welcome weary travelers. The full parking lot had been testament to the good eats inside.

“She won’t like it,” he told his sister.

“We all agree that’s the likelihood. We hasten to warn you that Sawyer has left before, when she felt things were not optimum between you. This time, you’ll have to figure out how to keep her on the road with you. Unless you can convince her to go into temporary hiding, at least until after the babies are born. We had a family council, and we vote unanimously that less of you is more. Besides, you deserve a honeymoon, brother.”

He could hear his sister’s giggle loud and clear. “I’ll do my best.”

“Then that should be good enough. Tell Sawyer hello from the Callahan clan, and congratulations again. There must be a hundred wedding gifts here that she can open when you lovebirds return.”

Ash hung up, and Jace went inside to sit in a sunny, cushy booth across from his wife.

“I ordered for you.”

“Thanks.” He glanced around, checking the other diners. “Ash says the family sends their...” He groped for a word she’d find acceptable.

“Felicitations?”

“Exactly.” A waitress put a steaming cup of coffee in front of him, and Jace waited until she was gone. “She says a few wedding gifts have arrived.”

“I’ll write thank-you letters when we get home.”

“Yeah, about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Ash also says that we need to stay gone awhile longer.”

Sawyer gazed over her glass of tea at him. “Reason?”

He hated to be the bearer of bad news. “Security.”

“Your family’s afraid I’m on the other side.”

“Will you stop?” he demanded impatiently. “They’re worried you’re a target now that your uncle has crossed Wolf, and therefore the cartel that Wolf is in cahoots with. It’s a dangerous situation for all.”

Her brow furrowed. “I never thought of that.”

“Yeah, well. Neither did I. I’d like to say Ash has worry overload, but considering the knife in the cake—”

“Accidental. Don’t let the Callahan love of drama make you see things that weren’t there.”

His gaze drifted out the window. He saw a truck pass that looked a lot like the one that had been following them on the way to Vegas—and a lightning bolt hit him. The driver of the truck that had been following them had delivered the wedding cake. Maybe Jace couldn’t swear to it in a court of law, but there’d been something so familiar about those men.

They’d hijacked the cake and stuck a warning in it.

His neck prickled as he glanced around the diner again, scanning each patron.

“So that’s all it is? The reason your family thinks we should stay on the road? Just garden-variety Callahan worry?” Sawyer looked hopeful.

“No,” he said quietly. “Ash and my brothers are right. It would be best if we stayed away from the ranch for now.”

“If
I
stay away from the ranch,” Sawyer said. “You aren’t supposed to go back to your home because of me.”

“We’re together,” Jace said. “A team.”

“Being married isn’t about being guarded, and that’s what you’re doing.”

He shrugged. The waitress laid a piece of apple pie in front of him and a salad in front of Sawyer. She topped off his coffee, then left.

“Salad for you, pie for me?”

Sawyer arched a brow. “I’ve worked for the Callahans long enough to know what acts like a charm around Rancho Diablo. Nothing brings you running like Fiona’s fresh-baked pies and cookies.”

This was true. He eyed her salad. “And you don’t have a sweet tooth, or are you eating healthy for the babies?”

She waved a fork at his pie. “Just eat, cowboy. I’ll take care of myself.”

“What would you say,” Jace said, looking into her beautiful blue eyes, “to honeymooning in Paris?”

“I would say no, thank you. I’m going back home. A honeymoon isn’t necessary.” She ate her salad with apparent contentment, which was sort of funny, because he had the calorie-laden, sugar-sprinkled treat, and it tasted like paste to him. It was probably a delicious pie, but he couldn’t focus on the tastiness thanks to the woman across from him.

He remembered how good Sawyer’s lips felt under his, how amazing it felt to hold her. The pie just wasn’t as satisfying.

“I’d take you anywhere in the world you want to go.”

“I know.” She looked up from her plate. “I get that. I appreciate that you’re trying to keep me safe.”

“You and my children.”

“But you need to be working at Rancho Diablo. You don’t need to be babysitting me. I’ll be fine.” She went back to eating. “Nothing should change because of a wedding ring.”

“Everything changed.” He drummed the table. “You know that Wolf and the cartel have tunnels running under the land across the canyons? We’ve bought the property, but there’s very little we can do about the underground infrastructure that’s already in place. We’re pretty certain Wolf intends—or the cartel intends—to try to attack Rancho Diablo from their underground operations center.”

“You think they’ll eventually tunnel under Rancho Diablo? Why wouldn’t they stop at the land across the canyons?”

“Because the goal is to take over the whole ranch.” Jace sighed heavily. “Wolf wants the Diablos that live in the canyons. He wants the fabled silver mine, not to mention the ranch itself.”

“Is it true about the silver treasure at Rancho Diablo?” she asked curiously.

He started to say, “Hell, yeah, it’s true,” and stopped himself.

In that moment, he saw the light of curiosity in his wife’s eyes die.

But he couldn’t tell her the truth.

“I shouldn’t have asked,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry. I forgot I’m Storm’s niece, an outsider, a woman whose uncle once trusted Wolf. Uncle Storm regrets that. He’s said a hundred times he wishes he’d never listened to Wolf’s lies about your family. But what’s done is done.”

“Sawyer—”

“It’s okay. Really. I’ll wait for you in the truck. We need to get on the road if we’re going to make it back to Rancho Diablo by nightfall.”

She left, and Jace closed his eyes.

She was right on so many levels. And he didn’t see any way to change that conflict between them.

Without honesty, a new marriage would have a tough time, especially when it had started as theirs had. Sawyer knew that, too.

He refused to face that ending.

* * *

A
S
J
ACE
DROVE
, Sawyer sat quietly, regretting that she’d mentioned the fabled silver treasure supposedly buried somewhere at Rancho Diablo. She’d asked only because the rumor was local lore, but the moment the words were out of her mouth, she’d known she had made a mistake. It was said curiosity killed the cat. In her case, it certainly killed trust. Jace’s eyes had darkened and he’d looked away, his mouth tight when she’d asked about the legend—and he hadn’t said much since.

She was keeping a secret of her own, a secret that nearly guaranteed an end to their marriage if Jace ever found out. Especially if he was so sensitive about her mentioning a well-known legend in the town of Diablo.

Her uncle Storm had told her to apply at Rancho Diablo, and when she’d gotten the job, he’d asked her to keep an eye out, let him know exactly what was going on with the Callahans. She’d been a sort of double agent, she supposed, working for the Callahans but reporting to Storm, in the beginning.

It wasn’t merely idle nosiness, either, not that Jace would understand if she ever admitted her past role. Storm had been approached by Wolf and given a sad story about how his land and mineral rights had been stolen by the Callahans. Storm hadn’t known what to think. He’d figured it was none of his business, until he’d caught several scouts trespassing on his ranch, men who worked for Wolf. Wolf had claimed that his “scouts” were doing their job by keeping an eye on land that was rightfully his, which would be borne out by the courts soon enough.

Uncle Storm had done some horse-trading many years back with Jace’s aunt Fiona, said matters had gone well enough. He trusted the Chacon Callahans, he’d claimed—except that they didn’t trust him, and didn’t seem to like him.

Which had made him wonder what they might be hiding. The Chacon Callahans had lived at Rancho Diablo for only the past four years or so. They’d taken over from their cousins, six Callahan boys who’d grown up at Rancho Diablo. Those Callahans had all married, and left in order to keep their families safe—as had their parents.

Her husband’s parents, Carlos and Julia Chacon, had gone into hiding, and Running Bear had raised their seven children in the tribe. Jace’s Callahan cousins’ parents, Jeremiah and Molly, who’d built Rancho Diablo, had also gone into hiding when they’d turned in information about the cartel to federal agents. It had killed Jeremiah and Molly to leave their six boys, their friends, the wonderful Tudor-style home they’d built, Diablo itself. Molly’s sister, Fiona, had come from Ireland to raise the six Callahans—as she now tried to take care of the seven Chacon Callahans.

Rancho Diablo was a tempting prize for Wolf, the one son who hadn’t fit in, as Jeremiah and Carlos had. Running Bear called Wolf his bad seed, and said sometimes there was no fixing such a black-hearted individual.

There was an awful lot of money at the Callahan place, and the wealth just seemed to grow. Everything the Callahans touched turned to gold—or silver. Times were tough economically for lots of people in the country. How could one family seem to endlessly reap financial rewards, unless maybe they had cut Wolf Chacon out of his portion?

Sawyer’s uncle hadn’t wanted to get involved, but he’d found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Between the Chacon Callahans and their uncle Wolf, who’d told Storm his small ranch would be safe if he turned a blind eye to the scouts who roamed his land.

He’d thought to warn the Callahans, had gone over there a few times with wedding or baby gifts, or just to chat, but they’d always seemed to flat out distrust him. He’d been a bit hurt by this, as he’d considered Fiona an honest trading partner. Obviously, times had changed with this new crop of leaner, tougher Callahans.

Yet Uncle Storm didn’t trust Wolf, either, and it didn’t matter that the man tried to be nice to him. He’d grown uncomfortable, and disliking the neighborly tension, had asked Sawyer to apply for work at Rancho Diablo when her last bodyguard position ended. She had, and to her surprise, was hired.

To her greater surprise, she’d found herself devotedly pursued by Jace. It was said that once you were a Callahan’s woman, you were pretty much ruined for all other men, and she believed it. Jace Callahan had completely dashed her desire to even talk to another man, let alone kiss one.

When they were apart, she thought about him constantly.

When they were together, she didn’t think at all. She just lived in the moment, in his arms, despite knowing very well that at the end of that silken, sexy road lay unhappiness. No way would a Callahan marry a Cash.

“I think Galen named that land across the canyons Loco Diablo,” Jace said, startling her.

She blinked. “Crazy Devil? That’s going to be the ranch name?”

“He figured the Callahan cousins own Rancho Diablo, and Dark Diablo in Tempest. So to keep with the naming history, he went with Loco Diablo.”

“That’s very organized of him.”

“Yeah. Ash is roasting him about it. In her mind, she was going to win the ranch.”

“Sister Wind Ranch,” Sawyer said softly.

He nodded. “But Loco Diablo it is.”

“Which is somehow fitting, given that the name was chosen by a Chacon Callahan.”

Jace glanced over and caught the smile she hadn’t hidden quickly enough.

“You laugh, but you’re part of Loco Diablo now. It’s where our children will grow up.”

She shook her head. “Pretty sure that’s not going to happen, Callahan.”

“No?” He sneaked a palm over to her tummy, which felt like a pumpkin sitting in her lap. She removed his hand at once. “Where do you figure the children will live, once we get past our Uncle Wolf problem?”

Sawyer wasn’t going to let herself consider a future together. “Jace, you know—and everyone knows—that Loco Diablo will never be safe. Even if they blew up the tunnels that are underneath the ranch, even if you somehow managed to run the cartel and your uncle Wolf out of your lives, it still wouldn’t be secure. And don’t even try to tell me that you’ve got Wolf on the run. He’s never going to give up.”

“No argument from me,” Jace said cheerfully. “That’s why you and I are staying on the road for now. I’m determined to keep you safe.”

“I’m the bodyguard,” Sawyer said with a touch of heat. “You’re the cowboy. I’d be protecting you.”

He laughed. “And I’ll let you.”

Great.
He couldn’t be serious about anything, least of all how important her independence was, how determined she was to keep maximum separation between them. “This isn’t going to work.”

“It’s going to work, because there are two children counting on us to make it work. We need to choose names for them. That can be our road game until we get to Texas.”

“Texas!” She glared at him. “You said you were taking me to Rancho Diablo!”

“Yeah. That was about a hundred miles ago. Now we’re driving to Texas, and then on to Virginia. There are some military bases in the Tidewater. But we won’t be hanging out in the officers’ club or on the strip. We’ll be much more undercover than that.”