His Callahan Bride's Baby (Callahan Cowboys) (17 page)

Taylor leaned against his shoulder. “Your uncle says he’s not going to give up. He said it wasn’t his idea to take Emma—that was all Rhine’s—and he was just on his way into the grocery story to buy diapers. He said he enjoyed getting to hold his great-niece, even if she did have a smelly situation going on.”

“That’s my girl,” Falcon told Emma. “Doesn’t let a thing bother her. She’s going to be a tough spirit like her mother.”

They got into the truck and strapped Emma into her car seat. “I wasn’t really tough until I met you.”

“I don’t believe you. No one grows bravery skills in a day.”

Taylor smiled, leaned over their daughter to kiss him on the lips. “You did,” she said, and Falcon figured that was true. It had taken him months to finally get up the courage to ask Taylor to marry him, but when he finally had, there’d been no looking back. That night in the diner had changed everything.

“Come on, Emma,” he said. “Let’s go take you home so we can let your aunts and uncles off the hook. They’re suffering intense guilt.”

“I feel so sorry for them,” Taylor said. “You handled the whole thing much better than I thought you would, Falcon. I believe you’re beginning to—”

“If you’re going to say I’m starting to calm down about this dad thing, I wouldn’t be too optimistic. I was about to have a heart attack. I wanted to yell my brothers’ ears off, but I didn’t have time.” Falcon smiled a bit smugly. “It was enough to see them suffering.”

“That’s mean,” Taylor murmured. “They love Emma. Anyway, it’s not their fault. Wolf and Co. are sneaky.”

“True.”

“So, about finishing school for Emma,” Taylor said, and Falcon said, “I’ll probably send the applications off tomorrow.”

Taylor shook her head and looked out the window, but she reached over to take his hand in hers, and he thought maybe she was trying not to laugh.

She had no idea that after he dropped her off at home, he had a small run to make to the canyons. Just a quick one. That’s all the time he’d need, to set his uncle straight once and for all.

It was all about protecting his family. If Wolf wanted to talk to him so badly, he was going to get that opportunity.

Chapter Eighteen

“Uncle Wolf,” Falcon said, striding into the cave without hesitation. It was dark outside, and the only light in the cave came from a fire and a couple of flashlights, but Falcon didn’t need light. “Clear out.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Wolf said.

“We’ll see.” Falcon glanced at the two women Taylor called Ziha and Rose, then studied Rhine. “I see your gun. If you so much as touch it, you won’t be alive to eat breakfast in the morning. Just a friendly suggestion.” He looked at his uncle, fury boiling inside him. “You took my daughter. You took my wife.”

Wolf shrugged. “Opportunities present themselves.”

“There’ll be no more opportunities of any of the Callahan extended family tree.”

“Can’t make those promises,” Wolf said. “You understand my position.”

“I don’t. If you’re after our parents, we don’t know what happened to them. Mom and Dad have been gone for years. We assume something happened to them on some job they were on. Our grandfather never said more than that. And our cousins’ parents died long ago. So you’re on a mission with no satisfactory conclusion.”

“Wrong,” Wolf said. He lit a cigarette. “Your parents are in witness protection. We suspect the Callahans are, too. We never found graves or certificates of death, so—”

“Death certificates were filed for Molly and Jeremiah.” Falcon frowned. “It doesn’t matter. You took my daughter and my wife because you’re determined to sink our family. It stops today. Or I discount Running Bear’s instructions and I take you out.”

Wolf smiled. “You’d be the one to do it, too. I know the risks.”

“Who’s backing you? Who hired you?” Falcon demanded.

“We’re not going to talk about specifics today.”

“We’ll probably talk about specifics today,” Galen said, walking into the cave, “because your troublemaking stops now, just like my brother told you.”

“That’s right,” Ash said, coming to stand beside her brothers. “Turns out blood isn’t that thick, after all. Not where you’re concerned.”

Sloan and Jace backed them up.

“How’d you know?” Falcon asked, and Ash shrugged.

“A little baby told us you’d gone out,” she said.

“My wife and daughter,” Falcon said, not surprised. “Okay, here’s the deal,” he told Wolf. “We’ve got nothing you want. Can’t help you. Don’t have control of Rancho Diablo. So you’re wasting your time with our family. And our wives and children are completely off-limits to all of you, or we tie you to a cactus and leave you to wither away. Good times,” Falcon said, looking over at Ziha and Rose. “For the record, my wife would disapprove of me discriminating against females. She’s big on being a team player.”

He thought they looked a bit pale, but wasn’t sure. It was so dim in the cave. “Take his gun, Ash,” he said, pointing to Rhine, and she did.

“So. You’re understanding me, uncle?”

Wolf spread his hands. “It’s not right. The tribe backed the purchase of the land. The mineral rights are the tribe’s. You don’t have the right to get it all.”

“Running Bear made those decisions. And why he chose to leave out his middle son, I don’t know. I don’t care.” Falcon was hard-pressed not to let his anger fly, but figured it was a waste of energy. Wolf had his own reasons for what he did. “Tell me who put you up to all this. I know you’re in deep with a cartel. You have to be, to sell out our family.”

Wolf spread his hands again. “I’d be a dead man if I talked.”

“You’re probably a dead man, anyway,” Falcon said. “It’s them or us.”

Wolf blinked. Hesitated.

And in that moment, Falcon knew the truth: Wolf wasn’t in control of this battle. He couldn’t stop it. He was just a minion. A greedy minion, true, who was willing to sell out his family to get what he considered his, but still, not the head honcho.

“All right.” Falcon drew a deep breath. “Look at our faces. See us united. Know that we will protect our families. You’ve picked the wrong side of the war, but that’s not our problem.”

He walked out, and his siblings followed.

“It’s not over,” Galen said.

“True,” Falcon said, “but now they know we’ll take them on.”

“I liked the part about the cactus,” Ash said cheerfully. “That would be awesome!”

“How do we proceed from here?” Sloan asked.

“Yeah, what’s the next step?” Jace wanted to know.

Falcon knew his uncle had been bottled only for the moment. There was too much at stake. Each side had too much to lose. And Wolf was guided by hatred for his brothers. Their uncle knew he’d been left behind by his own father, and that the spirit of the Diablos would never be under his control.

Unless he fought for it—hard.

They heard thunder in the canyons. The siblings looked toward the ring of fire and stone in the distance, and then they melted into the darkness.

* * *

“N
OW
,” F
ALCON
SAID
,
as he met his wife in their bedroom, “where were we, about six months ago?”

Taylor smiled. “I believe we were sharing Christmas Eve in front of a fire. Which reminds me, I never got to give you your Christmas gift. Fiona saved it for me.” She handed him the lone gift he’d seen under the tree.

“I don’t have a Christmas present for you,” Falcon said.

“Yes, you do.” She winked at him, and he was certain he saw a sexy gleam in his wife’s eyes. “But open that first.”

He tore into the box, more interested in getting to kiss his wife than the gift. Lifting the lid, he dug around in the tissue, pulling out a tiny pair of blue baby booties. “Does Emma like blue?”

Taylor smiled. “They’re for Emma’s baby brother. When he makes his presence known, in a year or so.”

Falcon swallowed. “You want another baby?”

“Well, it seems like you’re handling this fathering thing pretty well—”

“Some days.”

She leaned against him. He put the booties and box on the dresser so he had both hands free for his wife. Sighing, he wrapped her in his arms, holding her close. “You’re determined to see this through?”

Taylor smiled. “What? Being married to you?”

“Yeah.” He wondered sometimes. She definitely hadn’t got the best end of the deal. Ol’ Benton would have taken her fancy places, anywhere in the world, treated her like a princess. “I worry that Jillian was right. She said you’d be marrying down if you married me, and I guess you did.”

Taylor looked up at him. “Maybe.”

He gulped, worried.

“But then again, I never really agreed with Jillian’s assessment. I was so afraid you wouldn’t wait until December for me.”

“December?” He shook his head. “I ended up waiting until June for you. I would have been thrilled to marry you in December.”

Sudden banging on the door downstairs stopped what he was saying. “Hold on to that thought. It was going someplace.”

He went downstairs, Taylor following him. Opening the door, he found Storm Cash on the other side. “Evening, Storm.”

Storm nodded. “Do you have a moment?”

Falcon glanced at Taylor. “I guess. What’s up?”

“Remember when I told you I’d found evidence of squatters on my land?”

“Yes.”

“I caught them. Bring them up, Sheriff.”

Sheriff Cartwright brought Ziha and Rose to the door. Falcon looked at Taylor, who appeared vaguely worried.

“They claim they know you, Callahan. I doubt their story, though. Why would they camp on my land if they’re friends of yours?”

Falcon sighed. “They’re not friends of ours.”

“But do you know them?”

“What’s going on?” Fiona came to the door in her robe, with Burke not far behind her.

“And this guy, too,” one of the deputies said. He shoved Wolf toward the door. “He claims he’s your uncle, Falcon.”

Well, this was not good. His sister and brothers came to join him, standing around staring silently at the people on the porch.

“Hi, kids,” Wolf said. “Long time no see.”

“This is what you get for not tying him to the cactus when you had the chance,” Taylor whispered. She had Emma in her arms now, comforting her.

Falcon wondered if he was ever going to have one minute alone with his wife. “Where’d you find them, Storm?”

“Camping out in the open.”

Why would Wolf have moved from the cave to the open?

So he’d get caught. And get to lay claim to the Callahan family, officially.

Falcon looked his uncle in the eye. “Never saw him before in my life, Sheriff.” He closed the door. “Nothing more to see here, folks. Move along. Everyone back to bed.”

“Wait a minute,” Ash said. “What’s Wolf up to?”

“His next ploy is to move right on into the family.” Falcon shrugged, looked at Galen. “He’s tried to get what he wants in an underhanded manner, now he’s going into the open. Where we have to acknowledge him. Next thing we know, he’ll be spreading rumors about us around town. Mouthing off to everyone about how poorly we treat our family relations.”

Taylor kissed Emma on the head. “I feel sorry for Ziha and Rose.”

“See?” He looked at his family. “That’s how it starts. Playing us against each other. We can’t afford to let him.”

“I agree with Falcon,” Ash said. “We have no reason whatsoever to take that genie out of the bottle.”

For some reason, they all looked at Taylor. She looked back at them. “What?”

“You know them better than any of us,” Ash said. “Do you have any input?”

Taylor blinked. “I don’t know them. They’re not my family. I...”

She stopped, confused. Wolf was connected to her, since he was Falcon’s uncle. And she had lived with them, in the enemy’s lair, so to speak. “I don’t really know anything about Wolf. I didn’t see him that much. They didn’t seem all that cohesive. Rhine appears to do the dirty work. The girls are for protection, I think. I don’t think they like Wolf very much. And your uncle—” She shrugged. “He keeps to himself mostly. They’ll eat anything, that’s the best I can tell you.”

But it bothered her that they’d asked. She didn’t know why, but it did. Maybe she’d never seen herself as some kind of double agent. Or worse, that she’d been there willingly. Was that what Falcon was asking her?

“Your grandfather told me not to try to leave,” Taylor told Falcon. “He said the winter and spring were long, that before the real thaw tempers would fray, and then would be my chance.” She looked at her husband. “I didn’t want to be there.”

“I know you didn’t.” He looked surprised. “Believe me, none of us wanted you to be there.”

She nodded. “Okay. I’m going back to the nursery with Emma.”

Falcon followed. “Taylor, I didn’t mean that how it sounded. I didn’t mean that you were happy being there.”

“I know.” She put Emma in her crib. “Don’t you think you should be honest with the sheriff? Tell him that Wolf is your uncle and that he’s been causing all kinds of problems for your family?”

“I don’t know.” Falcon sank into the rocker, watching her as she rubbed Emma’s back. “My instinct is to keep Wolf completely out of our lives.”

She turned away. “You know better than me.”

He went to her, reaching out to draw her to him. “Taylor, those months you were gone, it killed me that I couldn’t go get you. I felt like the world’s biggest heel. I relied on Running Bear to know the best way to play his son. But it was hard as hell. And I am sorry.” He kissed the top of her head. “I just don’t want him anywhere near you or Emma ever again, and I’ll deny his existence up and down and in the face of angels if I have to. For me, he just doesn’t exist. He’s a black force I’m going to fight, but he’s not my uncle and he’s got no claim on Rancho Diablo.”

She nodded. “I know.”

“Or on our marriage. I love you, Taylor.”

She smiled, feeling as if all the clouds suddenly lifted. “I love you, too, Falcon.”

“Let me tell you a bedtime story, since Emma sacked out,” Falcon said, and Taylor pulled him down the hall to pick up where they’d left off so many months ago.

* * *

F
ALCON
WOKE
UP
EARLY
, kissed his sleeping wife with a tender smile. He would have dearly loved to awaken her for another sweet reunion, but he had to be satisfied that finally he had her back in his arms.

It had been too long.

Making love to her had been even more amazing than before, maybe because of everything they’d been through, or maybe because now she was his wife. Forever.

“I was just meant to be married,” he told his daughter, who was lying awake in her crib, playing happily with her toes. “You’re such a good girl. Why are you always so sweet? You get that from your mother’s side of the family, for certain.” He carried her down the hall and down the stairs, heading into the kitchen to warm up a bottle and read the paper with his tiny angel.

To his surprise, there was a knock on the front door. Since people they knew usually used the kitchen door, he wondered who would knock at this hour.

He opened it to find Sheriff Cartwright. “Good morning, Sheriff.”

The big man nodded. “I’m here on official business, I’m afraid.”

“Oh?”

“I need to speak to your wife, Falcon.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s up, Sheriff?”

“According to Mr. Wolf Chacon, whom we kept overnight on the trespassing inquiry, you do know him. And your wife stayed with him recently for a few months. Is that true?”

Falcon sighed. “All you need to know about Wolf Chacon is that he’s a criminal.”

“Who is it, Falcon?” Taylor came to stand behind him. Then he realized his siblings and Fiona and Burke were around her. She took Emma from him. “Good morning, Sheriff.”

He nodded. “Good morning, Callahans.”

“Come into the kitchen, Sheriff,” Fiona said. “I’ve got gingerbread on, and some hot coffee.”

“Official business, Fiona.” He looked at Taylor. “If I could have a moment of your time, please.”

She looked at Falcon. His heart felt like a stone inside him. How he wished he could protect her from this. But this was why Jillian had warned Taylor away from him, away from the Callahans.

He shrugged. She was going to have to make her own decisions about what she wanted to reveal. She was the one who’d been taken as a hostage; he wasn’t about to tell her how to address questions about that. It was her life. He just wanted to be in her life.