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Her Callahan Family Man
Tina Leonard
A Callahan And A Cash—Forever?Sawyer Cash pregnant? With twins? The fiery-haired bodyguard who had secretly shared Jace Callahan’s bed just rocked his world. The only solution is a quickie Vegas wedding. Then it’s back to Rancho Diablo, where Jace can keep an eagle eye on his bride and babies-to-be while waging war against the Callahan nemesis hell-bent on stealing his land.Jace knows Sawyer thinks she’s only brought trouble to his door by marrying him. She wanted to catch a Callahan and now she and their baby boy and girl are right in the line of fire. But doesn’t Sawyer know she’s the only woman for him, even if her family might be in the enemy camp? With things reaching a boiling point, Jace vows to fight for his family’s future as only a Callahan can!


A Callahan And A Cash—Forever?
Sawyer Cash pregnant? With twins? The fiery-haired bodyguard who had secretly shared Jace Callahan’s bed just rocked his world. The only solution is a quickie Vegas wedding. Then it’s back to Rancho Diablo, where Jace can keep an eagle eye on his bride and babies-to-be while waging war against the Callahan nemesis hell-bent on stealing his land.
Jace knows Sawyer thinks she’s only brought him trouble. She wanted to catch a Callahan and now she and their baby boy and girl are right in the line of fire. But doesn’t Sawyer know she’s the only woman for him, even if her family might be in the enemy camp? With things reaching a boiling point, Jace vows to fight for his family’s future as only a Callahan can!
“I can’t believe I’m going to be a father to a little girl and boy. It’s so unreal. And wonderful.”
It was hard not to soften under the pride in his deep voice. She’d always loved Jace’s voice, so warm and enveloping and inviting, especially when he whispered to her in the dark.
Sawyer sensed those days were long gone. Nothing could be the same now that they were married, and married under circumstances he’d no doubt come to regret one day. Speaking of regret, she figured she might as well put everything in the open now. She took a deep breath.
“Jace, here’s the main reason you and I have a marriage that’s probably going to be difficult. I know your family really never trusted mine.”
“Sort of stating it too harshly,” Jace said. “We didn’t know what to think. Besides, we’ve put all that to rest with our marriage.”
Dear Reader,
The final Callahan bachelor is about to fall, and the journey was so much fun to write! Was there ever a man more destined for love and family than Jace? And yet falling for one’s neighbor—considered no friend of the family—can’t be all that good an idea, can it? But Sawyer Cash has long been Jace’s siren call—the petite, red-haired fireball tempts him madly! Sleeping with the enemy has never been so satisfying…until twin babies enter the picture. Double trouble!
What does a hunky cowboy do when everything he’s ever wanted is on the wrong side of the fence? Jace will need all the mystical assistance Rancho Diablo has to offer if he’s ever to win Sawyer Cash’s heart.
I hope you enjoy Jace’s story. And then, on to little sister Ash’s own perilous trek to love.
Best wishes and happy reading always,
Tina
Her Callahan
Family Man
Tina Leonard

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tina Leonard is a USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty projects, including several popular miniseries for the Mills & Boon American Romance line. Known for bad-boy heroes and smart, adventurous heroines, her books have made the USA TODAY, Waldenbooks, Ingram and Nielsen BookScan bestseller lists. Born on a military base, Tina lived in many states before eventually marrying the boy who did her crayon printing for her in the first grade. You can visit her at www.tinaleonard.com (http://www.tinaleonard.com), and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Many thanks to the wonderful readers who have taken the Callahan family into their hearts—your enthusiasm has made their stories possible.
Contents
Chapter One (#ua1172f2d-2ffe-5e7a-822d-e3993338ed89)
Chapter Two (#udcb69d5c-7e11-50b8-af1b-ef4797ce9281)
Chapter Three (#ucd424c76-f9e2-519c-9cc9-f2c6b9665e8e)
Chapter Four (#u20f8d027-95f4-519b-8a53-f3d16cacd644)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
“The Callahans fight to win. They’d rather die than give an inch.
And there’s not an inch of quit in them.”
—Neighboring ranch owner Bode Jenkins, when asked by a reporter why the
Callahans simply didn’t move away from Rancho Diablo
Chapter One
Jace Chacon Callahan stared back at the petite fireball glaring at him. Sawyer Cash was his nemesis, his nightmare, the one woman that could keep him awake at night, racked by desire. Her killer body and haunting smile stayed lodged in his never-at-rest brain. And now here she was, red hair aflame and blue eyes focused, oblivious to the fact that his mind was never quite free of her. “You’re the bidder who won me at the Christmas ball?” Jace demanded.
Sawyer shrugged. “Don’t freak out about it. Someone had to bid on you. I was just trying to contribute to your aunt Fiona’s charity. Are we going to do this thing or not?”
He seemed to be locked in place, thunderstruck. For starters, Sawyer was telling a whopper of a fib. There’d been plenty of ladies bidding a few weeks ago for the chance of winning a dinner date with a Callahan bachelor, which happened to be him.
But what had him completely poleaxed was that the little darling who had such spunk—and whatever else you wanted to call the sass that made her an excellent bodyguard and a torture to his soul—was that Sawyer was quite clearly, this fine February day, as pregnant as a busy bunny in spring.
In a curve-hugging, hot pink dress with long sleeves and a high waist, she made no effort to hide it. Taupe boots adorned her feet, and she looked sexy as a goddess, but for the glare she wore just for him.
A pregnant Sawyer Cash was a thorny issue, especially since she was the niece of their Rancho Diablo neighbor Storm Cash. The Chacon Callahans didn’t quite trust Storm, yet in spite of that fact they’d hired Sawyer to guard the Callahan kinder.
But then Sawyer had simply vanished off the face of the earth, leaving only a note of resignation behind. No forwarding address, a slight he’d known was directed at him.
Jace knew this because for the past year he and Sawyer had had “a thing,” a secret they’d worked hard to keep completely concealed from everyone.
He’d missed sleeping with her these past months. Standing here looking at her brought all the familiar desire back like a screaming banshee.
Yet clearly they had a problem. Best to face facts right up front. “Is that why you went away from Rancho Diablo?” he asked, pointing to her tummy.
She raised her chin. “Are we going on this date or not? Although it won’t surprise me if you back out, Jace. You were never one for commitment.”
Commitment, his boot. Of his six siblings, which consisted of a sister and five brothers, he’d been the one who’d most wanted to settle down, maybe even return to his roots in the tribe. By now he’d been fighting the good fight for Rancho Diablo for such a long time he never thought about living anywhere but here, or at least no farther away than the land across the canyons, which his brother Galen had shocked them all by acquiring, in a direct assault on Aunt Fiona’s marriage raffle for the property.
The siblings thought Galen had cheated, or at least “rigged” the ranch deal in his favor. Jace and Ash hadn’t had a chance to marry and have babies, all prerequisites for Fiona’s ranch raffle. Ash was still steamed as heck with her big brother, Galen, whom she adored—although not when it came to acquiring the ranch she’d already named Sister Wind Ranch, which was actually called Loco Diablo by him and his brothers.
Jace wanted the land for himself, but he’d never pushed hard enough to find a lady with whom he could settle down and start a family, a necessary component of the marriage raffle. He’d been too busy chasing Sawyer night and day—or, to be more precise, letting himself get caught by her.
He gazed at her stomach again, impressed by the righteous size to which she’d grown in the short months since he’d last seen her—and slept with her.
He wished he could drag her to his bed right now.
“I’m your prize, beautiful,” he said. “No worries about that. But before we go, you’re going to admit whether that child you’re carrying is mine or not.” He wouldn’t be able to eat a bite, thinking about another man finding his way into Sawyer’s sweet bed. Jace broke into an uncomfortable sweat just imagining someone else with his adorable darling.
“I’m hungry, and in no mood to chat.” Sawyer turned to walk away, and he caught her hand to stop her, pulling her toward him. That she was avoiding the topic told him everything he needed to know.
“It’s my baby,” he stated quietly, his gaze pinning hers. “Don’t deny it.”
“I’m not.”
Her perfume wrapped around him; her heart-shaped lips were close enough to kiss. His ears rang with her admission, and Jace struggled to take in that he’d awakened this frosty February morning in Diablo, New Mexico, a free man—and would go to bed a caught man, and a father. “You’re having my baby?”
She gazed at him with those blue eyes that had long intoxicated him, even though he knew she was sexy trouble. “I’m having your babies.”
If he hadn’t been such a strong person, a man of steel forged by fire, as he frequently told himself, he’d have raised an eyebrow with surprise. “Babies?”
“Twins. One boy, one girl, if the doctor’s correct.”
Stunned was too gentle a word for the emotion searing him. The vixen who’d avoided him these past four months, not even letting him know where she was—who’d made him believe he was never going to hold her in his arms again—was the sin to which he was now tied.
His family was going to razz him a good one—and they weren’t going to toss confetti in congratulations. They’d say he’d gone over to the dark side, had slept with the enemy’s niece.
Hell, yeah, I did. And she’s having my children.
I’m on top of the world, even if I’m going to Hell.
* * *
SAWYER CASH GREW wary as the handsome cowboy she’d spent months dreaming about steered her toward his truck. She didn’t like the sudden glint in his eye when he’d realized she was pregnant with his children—and she knew the Callahans well enough to know that a glint in the eye meant their wild side was kicking in. “Where are we going?”
“On the date you bid for and won, darling. Be a lamb and hop in my truck,” Jace said, opening the door for her.
She’d always love the wild in Jace Chacon Callahan. His eyes were that navy color all the Callahan men had, but his were both a little distant and a little crazy. His hair was always tousled, dark strands going haywire except when tamed by a cowboy hat. Even his laugh was a bit wild, tinged with the devil-may-care attitude that most of the Callahan men possessed.
She’d always been attracted to Jace—but right now he made her nervous.
“Since I won you, I get to pick the date parameters, right? I mean, I paid for something.”
He smiled, slow and sexy, heating her with memories of snatched passion they should never have shared. “Whatever you want, little darling. Now slide in so I can buckle you up good and tight.”
Warnings howled in her psyche. She didn’t like anything about his sudden determined mood. “There’s a cute little restaurant in Tempest we could check out.”
“Tempest.” He buckled her in with care and stared into her eyes, just inches from her face. “It’s a funny thing, but the night of the Christmas ball, all I learned about the woman who won me was that she was from Tempest.”
“At the time I bid, I was working for your brother Galen in Tempest,” she said, a little breathless at the devilish look in Jace’s eyes. “At Sheriff Carstairs’s place. You know about what happened there.”
He had to have heard about the night Sawyer and her cousin Somer had taken shots at each other, quite by accident. Hired by Galen, Sawyer had been doing her job—and Jace hadn’t had any idea she was only a short truck ride away in Tempest, which was how she’d wanted it.
All the same, it had been hard not to drive “home” to Rancho Diablo to see him. But she’d known that to see Jace meant falling under his spell and into his arms.
She’d done far too much of that. Obviously.
“You covered your tracks real well.” He checked her seat belt again and she smacked his hand away, making him laugh in a throaty, teasing growl. He was just itching to get on her nerves in every way, and he was certainly succeeding. “Disappeared for months, then took a job with Galen, which I consider a bit traitorlike on your part. Then deliberately won me at Aunt Fiona’s auction. As I recall, the bidding went sky-high that night. I, the last Chacon Callahan bachelor to be on the block, fetched the highest price ever. Which you paid, and no one twisted your arm at all.”
She couldn’t look away from the knowing laughter in his eyes. “You’re a bit of an ass, Jace.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He closed the door, went around to the driver’s side. She could hear him guffawing with delight at her admission that she wanted him.
Well, she had wanted him, and she had paid a record amount for him at the Christmas ball, determined that no other woman should win him that night, not when she’d just learned she was pregnant. Five thousand dollars had gone to Fiona’s favorite charity, thanks to her sexy nephew. Jace’s aunt had no idea how many times Sawyer had fallen under Jace’s spell, seduced by the hot cowboy with a wicked penchant for frequent, enthusiastic lovemaking.
She couldn’t even comfort herself with the thought that he was a dud of a lover, or lacked the skills or attributes a female adored. No, he was pretty much perfect as a lover. And darn well aware of it, too. “So, we’ll head to Tempest for dinner?”
He started the truck, pulled out from the driveway at Rancho Diablo, where she’d agreed to meet him as his mystery date. “Sure, we can eat there. But not tonight. Tonight, we’re going to take a romantic drive.” He glanced over at her. “You cute little thing, trying to sneak up on me with this surprise pregnancy. You didn’t have to win me at the auction just to tell me about the babies. I would’ve married you even if you hadn’t bid for me. You could have had me for free.”
He was so arrogant! “I did not want, and do not want, to marry you. Put that right out of your insane mind.”
Apparently Jace thought her words were a real thigh-slapper. Sawyer’s brows drew together in a frown as he laughed. “Something funny?” she asked.
“Reverse psychology is an excellent tool.” He glanced over and stroked her cheek. “You didn’t pay five grand just to have dinner with me, doll face.”
He was insufferable. Why had she bothered to try to keep another woman from getting her manicured hands on him?
Sawyer should have thrown him to the wolves with a smile on her face.
“Jace, tonight is about dinner only. I’ve lived without you just fine for the first several months of this pregnancy, and I can continue to do well on my own. I suggest you try to grasp that. While you and I may have some parenting details to work out, there’ll be no resumption of our former relationship.”
“Could you classify that former relationship for me?”
He was definitely digging down to find his deepest layer of smart-ass. “Working professionals with benefits. You know that as well as I.”
“And now that you’re pregnant, those benefits are no longer beneficial?”
She could hear the smirk in his voice. “That’s right.”
He hit the main road, but they weren’t heading for Tempest. “I believe you went the wrong way,” Sawyer stated.
“I’m going the only way we need to go,” Jace said. “You and I are taking a side trip to Vegas. We’re going to give my children my name. Then if you want to sleep alone, that’s your choice. I won’t fight you about that. But being a father to my children, Sawyer, I will fight for.” He glanced at her, his smile slightly amused. “I’m a pretty good fighter.”
She knew that. All the Callahans were stubborn, steeped in loyalty to family and land. It was one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with Jace. Now he wanted to marry her, have a quickie wedding to seal the torrid love affair they’d shared under the family radar. She was a Cash and he was a Callahan, and the two were never supposed to meet on more than a professional basis.
“We can do this without marriage,” Sawyer said a bit desperately as he sped toward Vegas. “We can divide custody with the use of legal instruments instead of a marriage ceremony.”
“We’ve come this far, we may as well go all out. My family’s going to flip out when they find out I’ve...” He hesitated, then glanced at her with a grin. “That I’m having children.”
“That you’ve impregnated the enemy?” She glared at him. “I can’t think of a worse reason to get married.”
“I can’t, either, but we’re apparently past needing a reason and are moving swiftly on to cause. Those children deserve a proper start in life. That’s all there is to this, Sawyer Cash. Don’t feel guilty because you’ve worked your wiles on me, and are finally getting what you wanted all along, when you made your way into my bed.”
“Not your bed.” Not with the furtive lovemaking they’d enjoyed. There’d been nothing traditional about their stolen moments together.
“Doesn’t matter if it was truck bed, front seat, barn, canyon or Rancho Diablo roof. We misused ye olde condom somehow, and now the piper must be paid.”
She rolled her eyes. “About that time on the roof...”
“You said you wanted to see the stars. I believe we achieved your goal.”
He really was an insufferable jackass, quite confident that his lovemaking was the end-all to a woman’s dreams, the gold buckle of mind-blowing sex.
She couldn’t argue the point. She’d left Rancho Diablo when she’d realized she’d fallen head over heels in love with him, and that he had zero desire for a serious romance between them. He’d never said it in so many words, but she knew the difficulty of their relationship as well as anyone.
She’d thought she was in the clear, had made her escape with her pride intact. And then the morning sickness had begun.
“I don’t want to get married, Jace.”
“It’s not about you. It’s about our children. Now try to get some rest. There’s a blanket in the backseat if you want it. When you awaken, it’ll be time for us to find the fastest house of I do in Vegas.”
Great. That sounded like a wedding she could always look back on with a fond smile. No magic wedding dress for her, no marriage at the beautiful seven-chimneyed mansion at Rancho Diablo like all the other Callahan brides.
Drat. I had to fall for the one Callahan for whom a quickie, no-strings-attached marriage is just ducky.
Sawyer pulled the blanket over herself and closed her eyes so she wouldn’t think about what she’d done, blowing her entire bank account on the wildest, wooliest Callahan of all. When she’d known quite well that the Callahans and the Cashs were never, ever going to trust each other.
Babies notwithstanding.
Chapter Two
“It does trouble me that you felt like you had to win me to have this conversation,” Jace told Sawyer an hour later, as he sped toward Las Vegas. “I’m flattered you spent several months of your Rancho Diablo salary keeping me from another woman, but I would have withdrawn myself from Aunt Fiona’s bachelor raffle if I’d known I was a father.”
He looked over at Sawyer, noting that the spicy redhead looked as if she wanted to give him a piece of her mind, and probably would in a moment. He remembered the first time he’d ever laid eyes on her. Galen and he had played backup to Dante when he went over to see Storm Cash, and Sawyer had opened the door instead of her uncle, catching all of them off guard. Jace had seen a big smile, a slender, athletic body, cute freckles across a tiny nose, big blue eyes twinkling at him, and felt himself fall into deep, fiery lust—lust so strong that every time he saw her, he wanted her.
Of course, he’d known better. There were some lines one could cross, but sleeping with the enemy was a mistake only a man with his mind anywhere but on his job would make. But then she’d been hired on at Rancho Diablo by his brother Sloan and Sloan’s wife, Kendall—and suddenly the red-hot neighbor sex-bomb was in Jace’s sights like a tornado he couldn’t avoid.
It hadn’t taken him long to respond to the magnet pulling him toward Sawyer—only to discover that she seemed to feel the same desire. They’d made love as often as possible, as discreetly as possible, keeping their affair completely locked away. Sawyer didn’t want to jeopardize her job, knowing that she still had to earn Callahan trust—and Jace hadn’t wanted his family harping on his lack of loyalty.
His family was in for a big shock, but right now, he had to make certain his little firecracker mama got to the altar.
One thing about the Callahans: they were deadly serious about their ladies once they found them. But rare was the Callahan bride who’d made her way to the altar quietly.
He intended to avoid that unnecessary heartburn.
“I did not,” Sawyer said with annoyance, “want you to withdraw from Fiona’s event. You’d been advertised on barn roofs and billboards for months as Diablo’s prize of the century. It wouldn’t have been right to tell you at Christmas that you were going to be a father, and make you withdraw. That would have devastated Fiona, taken all the fun out of the Christmas ball and denied the charities that she funds much needed revenue, which comes from the purses of women who are hoping to win the dream man lottery.”
Jace perked up at the idea that Sawyer might think he was a dream man, suddenly hopeful that shoehorning her into marrying him would be simpler than it had first seemed. She didn’t appear all that anxious to say I do.
Unaware of his hopeful state, Sawyer took a deep breath and stated, “I took care of the obvious problem of my children’s father hanging out with another woman simply by winning you. It wasn’t that big of a deal, Jace.”
“You cute little thing.” He smiled at her, impressed by the starch in her attitude. “I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not thrilled to find out you’re my mystery girl. I’ll be happy to put a ring on your finger tonight, Sawyer.” And then, if good fortune smiled on him, maybe after the I dos were said, he’d finally get his little darling into a real bed, in a room with a closed door that locked, so he could enjoy her for hours on end.
“It’s going to feel great not to rush things anymore,” he said, not really aware he was speaking out loud, and Sawyer said, “I feel pretty certain we’re rushing marriage. Marriage is the one thing in life that shouldn’t be rushed at all.”
“Well, that cow is long out of the barn, so we won’t worry about that. Let’s move on to big decision number two.”
“I’m not even sure I want to be a Callahan,” Sawyer said. “I think I’ll keep my maiden name.”
He nearly stomped on the brakes. “That’s not going to happen, sweet cheeks. You and I are going to be Mr. and Mrs. Callahan, just like all my brothers and their wives. We share the children, we share the last name.”
She sent him a frown. “I’m not persuaded.”
“You will be. That’s my gift, persuasion.” He hoped she bought that corny line, and plowed on, “The second most important decision we make in life is where to live. I think the babies should be at the ranch, but everything’s hot around there right now, as you know.” They’d hired Sawyer in the first place because they’d needed bodyguards for the Callahan children. But later, they’d brought in more personnel to help keep Fiona and any other weaker links safe.
Of course, his redoubtable aunt would bean him a good one if she ever heard him refer to her as a weak link. But whether she liked it or not, she and Burke were getting up there in years.
“I can take care of myself. And the babies,” Sawyer said. “It won’t be much different from when I took care of Kendall’s twins.”
“I don’t like it,” Jace murmured, thinking out loud.
“No one asked you to like it.”
“The problem is, bodyguards are supposed to be unemotional about their assignment. You can’t be unemotional about your own children. No, I’ll have to look into hiring someone for you and the babies.”
“No, you won’t,” Sawyer said, and it sounded as if she spoke through tightly clenched teeth. “I don’t want a bodyguard. I’m not planning on living with you.”
He checked her expression. Yep, she had that serious look on her face, and he recognized yet another hurdle in his relationship with the saucy redhead.
She didn’t want him in her bed. That’s what this was all about.
His wooing would have to be played very smoothly, because he absolutely would be in a real bed with Sawyer, undressing her, with a ceiling overhead and not the sky. He wanted to hold her in his arms and make her cry his name, without having to quietly rush through each and every encounter.
Sooner rather than later he intended to have his way with the beautiful bodyguard, sharing lovemaking that would be record-breaking in length and very, very satisfying. That was the plan for tonight—if he could figure out the key to the tight lock she was trying to keep on her heart.
Lucky for him, he was really good at picking locks.
* * *
THEY WERE HALFWAY across Arizona, halfway to Las Vegas and the Little Wedding Chapel, when Sawyer hit him with a bombshell.
“Several members of your family are on the way to witness our wedding.”
To say his jaw dropped nearly to his lap would be putting it mildly. “My family?”
“Yes, and my uncle Storm, and his wife, Lulu Feinstrom.” Sawyer beamed at Jace. “I know how your family loves a wedding, so I texted them. They’ll be on the family plane soon and on their way, ready for wedding cake. At least that’s what your sister said. Ash also mentioned she ordered us a whopper of a cake, because everyone in your family has had a sweet tooth since they were born. Her comment, not mine.” Sawyer smiled, delighted that she’d outplayed him.
He’d seen her busily working on her phone, but he’d assumed she was looking up places to wed. Her decisive strategy meant Aunt Fiona and maybe even Uncle Burke were on their way. Jace knew he’d never get Sawyer into a bed for hours tonight, not with his partying family there. They’d want to kick up their heels and spend the evening giving him grief about how he’d surprised them with this sudden dash to the altar, blah, blah, blah, and they’d talk him to death, when he should be concentrating on undressing the redhead next to him.
It was really all he had on his mind.
Instead, he was going to get a whopper of a wedding cake.
“I don’t have much of a sweet tooth,” he said, casting a longing glance at her body in her hot pink dress. “I prefer spicier fare.”
“I’ll try not to feed you too big of a bite, then.” She went back to texting, and he wondered if it was too late to text his family and explain that, while he loved them, he really wanted to handle this momentous occasion alone, because he was going to have a devil of a challenge getting his wife into a bed with him. He didn’t have time for celebrating and family hijinks. Every second of his life until these babies were born had to be spent romancing his wife. After they arrived, he’d have precious little time alone with her, and he hadn’t yet enjoyed his woman the way he wanted to.
He felt like a man who’d starved a long while in plain view of the most delicious meal he’d ever seen.
“It was nice of you to invite my relatives,” he said, even though family was the last thing he wanted around.
“And mine,” she said, her voice bright. “No bride wants to be married without someone to give her away.”
There was the problem. His family and hers didn’t get along, making the situation ripe for discomfort and fireworks.
“Anyway, I knew your family wouldn’t want to miss the last Callahan bachelor getting married.” Sawyer smiled at him, her big blue eyes completely innocent, when he knew that she was trying to put as much distance between them as possible.
“If we’re going to marry, I want us to start out on the right foot with the in-laws and the outlaws,” Sawyer said. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving them out.”
“Where are they booking rooms?” Jace asked.
“I don’t know. But I’m booking us rooms at a bed-and-breakfast nearby.”
He swallowed. “Rooms?”
She glanced up from the sudden storm of texts she was sending. “I meant room.”
No, she hadn’t. Jace could tell he was going to have to keep a very close eye on his little woman. No drinking too much and finding out she’d shuttled him into a room with his family. No visiting too much, or he’d probably find her headed back to Diablo without him. “Sex is what got us into this, darling.”
“That’s how it works,” Sawyer said.
“Yet I have the strangest feeling you don’t want to be alone with me.”
“Callahans are known to have a lot of strange qualities. I wouldn’t let it bother me now, if I were you.”
“We’ll stop and get you a ring,” he said, giving up on sex for the moment.
“I don’t need a ring. The vows are more than I want.”
He grunted. “The ring is part of the ceremony. You’ll have a ring.”
“Are you going to wear one?”
He hadn’t planned on it, but he sensed this was treacherous water. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know.” She ran a considering eye over him. “But if you are, I will.”
“Back to our discussion of our domicile,” he said.
“I’m planning on going to Rancho Diablo,” Sawyer stated.
He blinked, hearing the thing he’d been sensing, the trouble at the end of the supposedly peaceful road. “Like, as soon as the ‘I do’ leaves your mouth?”
“Well, not until we’ve cut the cake.” She looked at him, puzzled. “Of course I plan to stay for the cake your sister ordered. It would be rude to leave!”
Great. Nothing said love like worrying about the sister’s cake purchase. “I was thinking we’d live together.”
“This morning, you didn’t even know you were a father. So we don’t have plans,” Sawyer pointed out. “Spur-of-the-moment decisions are rarely a good idea.”
“As in getting married in Vegas?”
“As in getting married in Vegas.” She nodded. “I liked our relationship just the way it was.”
He shook his head. “We didn’t have a relationship. We had sex, but not a relationship.”
She met his gaze. “Was there a problem?”
The problem had come when she’d left, and he realized he’d been parked at the gates of heaven for too long. Now he was hoping to crash through those gates and land in the paradise waiting for him—if he could just figure out how to explain that to Sawyer. How could a man tell his woman that, while frequent, horny sex had been fun, and fired by the forbidden, he sensed the next phase of their relationship could be that much sweeter?
Especially since she didn’t seem inclined to recognize the possibility for an ongoing, more meaningful relationship between them.
“Not a problem, exactly,” he said carefully. “But it seems that we should be open to the idea of a new phase in our friendship.”
She didn’t reply. “I know this pregnancy changes your life significantly,” he added.
“Yes. It does.” Sawyer turned her head to gaze out the window.
He had one reluctant little mama on his hands.
“Yours, too,” she said. “I know the Callahans have a pattern. You find out you’re expecting, and immediately want to get married. Then the wife gets shuttled off to a safe location.” Sawyer finally looked his way. “I’ll expect you to treat our pregnancy differently.”
“How differently?”
“By not trying to send me off to your family in Hell’s Colony, or Tempest.”
He swallowed. That had been the next plan. “The reason my brothers have been so determined for their wives and children to be in another location is because Rancho Diablo isn’t safe. You know as well as anyone that my uncle Wolf has made things very difficult at the ranch. It’s even worse now. Which is why your uncle Storm sold us his ranch and moved into town with Lulu Feinstrom.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve already rented out a room from Fiona. Didn’t she tell you? I called and asked her about renting a room before I came back to Rancho Diablo for our date. I do need a place to live now that my job in Tempest is completed.”
“You rented a room?”
Sawyer nodded. “A marriage license won’t mean I want to be a wife in anything other than name.”
Well, there was nothing he could say to that. She’d ridden all over his poor flailing heart. It beat wildly in his chest, stressed and unhappy with his current circumstances.
There was only one thing to do.
He pulled over at the next rest stop and parked the truck. Then he pulled Sawyer close and laid a kiss to end all kisses on her. He didn’t let her go, either, making certain she knew how much he desired her, kissing her long and thoroughly, communicating in a different way what he couldn’t say out loud. And searching for that answer he wanted so badly: that she did, in fact, still want him.
It was a risky move, but when he felt her lips mold against his, Jace knew his belief in high risk, high reward had paid off.
His little darling still had the hots for him big-time—no matter how tightly she was trying to close those sweet, pearly gates.
* * *
SAWYER WAS SO annoyed with herself for giving in to Jace’s charm that she sat stiffly staring out at the landscape rushing past. He’d caught her off guard, that was all. If she’d had a second’s notice of his intention, she could have controlled her reaction better.
Jace drove down the road with a sexy, confident, “I win” curve to his lips, a true cat that ate the canary. Sharing that kiss was a huge setback to her plan, and devastating to her heart.
I promised myself that wouldn’t happen. No more falling under his spell. Not one woman who married a Callahan kept her independence. It was as if they got their wedding ring and poof! instant Callahan copy. Babies and bliss.
Babies and bliss in every corner.
“I’m renting a room from Fiona because I’ll be in Diablo only until the babies are born. Four months after that I’ll be living in New York,” Sawyer said.
That wiped the smirk off his face. “New York?”
“Yes. I’ve taken a job with a firm that provides security for high-profile clients.”
“You’re going to be a bodyguard while you should be staying at home with my children?” Jace shook his head. “I can see two big problems with your plan, doll face. One, my children aren’t going anywhere without me. Two, it’s going to be terribly hard for you to be a homeroom mother and a bake sale coordinator while you’re working. My children need you more than high-profile clients do.”
She stiffened. “I’m sure you’re hoping I’ll thank you for your opinion. However, I’m fully capable of making my own decisions.”
“Yes, you are. And I trust you’ll make decisions that are in the best interest of our family, not harebrained ones that are purely designed to keep you and me from sharing a bed.”
He’d gotten pretty close to the truth. “That’s not the reason I took the job, Jace. I’m a very good bodyguard, and there’s still a lot I want to do and learn.”
“Yes, but your days of living on the edge are over. You can get your fill of that at Rancho Diablo.”
“So you’d be all right with me and the children living at Rancho Diablo?”
He hesitated. “I didn’t exactly say that.”
“Then we have nothing to discuss.”
“We have plenty to discuss. And now that we’ve just passed the Nevada state line, we’re getting closer to our destination, so I won’t hesitate to mention that this is the happiest day of my life.”
She gave him a curious glance. “Why?”
“It’s not every day a man finds out he’s going to be married and a father.” He glanced at her. “Even better, that the woman who’s providing all this excitement wanted him badly enough to pay five grand for him, thereby scuttling all other females’ chances. Just so very cute of you.” He laughed out loud, pleased with himself. “You put up stop signs, but there’s lots of green lights flashing all over you, Sawyer Cash.”
He was angling for a good hard takedown to his ego. Sawyer told herself Jace had always been a goofball, and ignored him.
“Have you asked Galen to hire you on again at Rancho Diablo?” Jace asked, stunning her.
“No.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shrug.
“We’re always looking for staff we can trust.”
“Are you saying you trust me?” Sawyer asked.
“Are you insinuating I can’t? Or shouldn’t?”
His gaze met hers, and she found herself drawn in, the way he’d always drawn her in. With the memory of his hot kiss still warm on her lips, she’d be lying to herself if she tried to pretend she didn’t want to experience once again what he could do with those wandering hands of his. Experience the sweet satisfaction of what miracles he worked with a mouth that never ceased talking smack, and the to-die-for sexy things he whispered to her during lovemaking.
But she couldn’t allow herself to get caught in the snare of sex. The goal was far more important than the pleasure.
“I’m not insinuating anything. I don’t want you and your family to give me busywork.” Sawyer knew how this story would play out. The moon would be promised—and she’d wind up with nothing but a crash to earth. “I’m not the kind of woman who’ll be happy staying home to wash your socks, Jace.”
He laughed, and Sawyer favored him with a frown.
“My socks?” Jace chuckled again. “You have a problem with my socks?”
“I don’t want to be a Callahan housewife. I intend to keep doing what I do.”
“You’re jumping the mark, sister. No one ever said you can’t work. I encourage it.”
“You do?”
“Sure thing.” He grinned. “In fact, I’ll stay home with the babies. How’s that for a compromise?”
She blinked, not certain where he was going with that. While all the Callahan men stayed close to home once married, she didn’t think Jace would be happy as a Mr. Mom while she earned the family bread. “You’ll do diapers and bath time?”
“Sure.” He shrugged, not fazed at all. “The babies will have organic food I prepare myself, too—none of that jar stuff. Baths with lavender oil, and a nightly de-stress rubdown. I’ll sing lullabies and tell them stories I heard when I was a child in the tribe.” He looked satisfied with that plan. “I’ll have to see if Grandfather Running Bear can add to my collection.”
“I don’t believe a word you’re saying.”
He picked her hand up, brushed it against his lips. “Believe it. You work, and I’ll be the best stay-at-home dad you ever saw.”
“You’re too much of a chauvinist, Jace.”
“I resent that remark, darling. Don’t you worry about a thing. This is going to work out so well, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without me. Be the best five grand you ever spent.”
She raised a brow. “That really wound your ego up, didn’t it? Me spending that kind of money for a date with you?”
“Oh, angel.” He kissed her hand again. “You paid that kind of cash for exactly what you’re getting—a husband.”
She sucked in a breath. “Jace, honestly, I don’t know how you fit in this truck with your ego.”
He laughed. “I bought the biggest truck I could.”
There was nothing else to say to such enthusiastic patting of his own back. Anyway, she’d already gotten two concessions out of him: she could live at Rancho Diablo and she could keep her job.
His ego could take a flying leap.
Jace’s phone buzzed. “Excuse me,” he told Sawyer. “I have to take this.” His gaze slid over to her as he pulled off the road so he could talk on the phone. “Hello, Grandfather.”
Whenever Chief Running Bear spoke, everybody listened. The man said almost nothing unless it was important. Sawyer couldn’t tell much of what was being communicated, but it was clear Jace’s attention was clearly engaged.
“That’s interesting news. I’ll see what I can do.”
He hung up, then steered the truck back onto the highway again. “Running Bear suggests we go into hiding immediately.”
Sawyer gasped. “Hiding! Why?”
“Apparently Wolf’s right-hand man, Rhein, was arrested today on suspicion of smuggling. This means the Feds have decided to clamp down on the illegal operations that are being run across the canyons. Running Bear says this will have the effect of ramping up Wolf’s goal of taking over Rancho Diablo. He says that because of your pregnancy, it would probably be best. Wolf will post bail for Rhein soon enough, and no doubt the sheep will hit the fauna.”
Sawyer shook her head at his attempt to be lighthearted about something that wasn’t funny at all. “I’m not going into hiding.”
“I thought you’d feel that way,” Jace said. “We have another option.”
She didn’t smile at the devilish wink he sent her. “What option?”
“I’ll guard you.”
“You mean I would be assigned to you as a bodyguard,” Sawyer said. “You have no experience.”
He grinned. “However you want to play it, babe. I’d let you guard my body any day.”
“It won’t work. You wouldn’t take it seriously.” She shook her head. “Once I’m on bed rest, you’d drive me insane. The two of us working together would be an unfocused assignment.” She thought about the babies, and what she would do once they were born. They’d be targets; they’d need special protection. She’d worked for the Callahans long enough to know that Running Bear’s words were worth heeding. If he said that Rhein’s arrest would add to the heat at Rancho Diablo, it couldn’t be ignored. “If that was your only option, it wasn’t a serious one.”
“We’re either on the road in hiding, or we stick together like glue. I guess it’s going to depend on how you feel. When will the babies be born?”
“I’m five and a half months pregnant. I’m hoping to make it at least as far as April. But I know your sisters-in-law didn’t carry their twins and trips quite as long as they would have liked. I’m in good shape, and the doctor says I’m on track for a normal pregnancy. So we’ll see what happens.”
“Okay. The goal is keeping you stress-free and resting. Hard to rest if you’re on the run.”
“Are we seriously talking about this?” She looked at him. “It’s not in me to be afraid.”
“I’ll do it for both of us.” He glanced at the rearview mirror. “In fact, we’re being followed, and it’s not by a Callahan. Aren’t you glad you won me now, beautiful?”
Chapter Three
Jace didn’t want to scare Sawyer, but she’d been around Rancho Diablo long enough to know the odds against them were long. There wasn’t time to coddle her into seeing things his way. He was going to have to give her a push; Sawyer and the babies were his number one priority right now. “How are you for train travel?”
“I’m not,” Sawyer said, “going into hiding. I’m not running.”
“We are going into hiding. Take your pick. It’s either a sunny locale or the mountains. What’s your preference?”
“My preference is that you take me home right now. I’ll stay in the house my uncle is selling your family, so I’ll be close enough for you to keep an eye on.”
“This isn’t a game,” Jace said quietly. “You know that, Sawyer. You know what Wolf is capable of. He means business. I’m not going to risk anything happening to you and the children.”
The thought filled him with dread. There was good reason to worry. Taylor, his brother Falcon’s wife, had been kidnapped and taken to Montana for months during her pregnancy. Aunt Fiona had been kidnapped, and she’d burned down Wolf’s hideout during her rescue. The memory made him smile—but it was also a compelling reason to treat this newest threat seriously. Wolf had a long memory.
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do. We’re driving to Texas,” Jace said. “We’ll get married, and we’ll call our long road trip a honeymoon.”
“You’re not going to whitewash us going into hiding by calling it a honeymoon.”
He had one unhappy lady on his hands. But what else could he do?
In Texas he had family. He couldn’t go to Hell’s Colony—it was too hot right now with the Wolf situation, and there was no reason to bring the heat to his Callahan cousins. But they could find a nice, out-of-the-way cabin deep in the piney woods of East Texas that would be really hard for Wolf to find.
If Jace had learned anything from the past few years of being hounded by Wolf, it was that caution was as important as bravery.
His mind made up, Jace sped toward Vegas and, hopefully, a slew of Wedding Elvises eager to say wedding vows as quickly as possible.
* * *
“I ABSOLUTELY AM not going to marry him,” Sawyer told Ashlyn Callahan when they met at the chapel in Vegas. The place was white, but that was its only concession to being a wedding stop.
Ash glanced at the pastor and his doughy little wife. The man had on a tall top hat and wore a white satin suit. His wife was arrayed in a vintage period gown, purple with red feathers. “Maybe it wouldn’t be my first choice, either. But it’s a good first start.”
“First start?” Sawyer stared at Jace’s silver-blond-haired sister. Ash had always seemed like an ethereal fairy to her—and yet it was said that of all the Callahans, she was the most dangerous. “A marriage only gets started once, doesn’t it?”
Ash shrugged. “Where you say the words isn’t important. Getting you and my niece and nephew safe is.”
A chill swept Sawyer. How did Ash have so much information about her pregnancy, so soon? Callahan gossip always spread like wildfire.
“I just figure it’d be like Jace to split the deck. No commitment.” Ash looked at her. “Except to you, it seems.”
Sawyer shook her head. “Jace isn’t committed to anything except his children. And Rancho Diablo.”
“Don’t go on what he says, is my advice. My brother never really was much of a talker, not about anything that made much sense.” Ash smiled, looking pleased with herself when she realized Jace had caught her jibe. He came over to ruffle her hair.
“Jace, if you mess up my hair, you’ll have a scary sister in your wedding photos,” she complained. “Your bride thinks you have commitment issues.”
He looked at Sawyer and grinned. “I do. But not to the degree that Sawyer does.”
She met his gaze. “I’m not marrying you here.”
“Well, you have to,” Ash said. “At least, you have to try on the magic wedding dress. Fiona sent it with me, said you should try it on. I always think my aunt’s advice should be heeded,” she said, tugging Sawyer away from Jace’s suddenly interested gaze.
Sawyer made herself follow Ash down the hall and into a private room. “I don’t want to try on a dress.”
“This one you do,” Sawyer said. “It’s magic.”
“That’s a myth, a fairy tale.” She’d heard about the dress’s supposedly supernatural qualities and didn’t believe it. “There’s nothing wrong with the dress I have on.”
Ash glanced back at her before opening a closet where a long, white bag hung. “If you’re going to be a runaway bride, at least do it in style. This dress,” she said, pointing to the bag, “exudes style. High fashion, even.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Sawyer said. She wasn’t getting near it, wouldn’t be enticed to even take a peek. “I saw the dress on Rose when she and Galen were married. It’s beautiful and traditional, but not high fashion.”
Ash stared at the bag. “I thought a gown that made every woman beautiful would be considered high fashion.”
“No. It would be considered lucky.”
“Oh,” Ash said, recoiling. “We don’t do lucky in our family. Mysticism and respect and ancient lore, and perhaps a little supernatural wonder, but never luck.”
Sawyer shook her head. “I’m fine wearing what I have on.”
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll regret it?” Ash asked. “You’ve been rendezvousing with my brother secretly for a long time. You might as well admit you’re in love with him. And when a woman’s in love, she wants to be beautiful on her wedding day.”
Sawyer didn’t know what to say to that outrageous statement. Down the hall, a wedding march played—probably for the couple who’d been waiting in the hall nervously when she and Jace had walked into the chapel.
“I’ll leave you alone,” Ash said. “Give you a chance to collect your thoughts. I won’t be far if you want to do some more sisterly bonding. Feel free to call me if you do.”
She went out, closing the door behind her. Sawyer glared at the garment bag. It wasn’t going to work. She wasn’t going to try on the gown, which was exactly what Ash wanted. Temptation—the Callahans were very good at temptation.
* * *
“IT MAY BE mission failure,” Ash said, coming to stand next to Jace as he waited anxiously for whatever his bride and sister decided. He was well aware that Sawyer would need to be coaxed into marrying him. He’d seen some reluctant brides in his time, but she seemed to take reticence to a new level. He shook his head as his sister patted his back in sympathy.
“It’s not mission failure. She wants to marry me.” He refused to believe that after all they’d shared, Sawyer didn’t want him. She had to know it wasn’t just sex for him—and yet he was pretty certain that’s what she’d say if he asked her what she thought it was the two of them had going.
He wasn’t about to ask how she defined their relationship.
“She probably thinks you were sowing your wild oats, brother,” Ash said cheerfully. “After all, you never stepped up to the plate meaningfully.”
“Thank you,” he said, “I think I had that much figured out. Now if you can wave your magic wand and tell me how to fix it, I’d be happy to listen to that advice.”
She fluffed her silvery hair, glancing in a mirror that was hanging in the foyer. “You and I may be doomed to never ease our wild hearts.”
He refused to accept that. Sawyer and he had been seeing each other a long time. It had been wild and passionate in the beginning, but then she’d left, and he’d had way too much time to think. To miss her. “What’s she doing? Is she ever coming out of that room? Did you make sure there were no open windows?”
Ash looked at him. “I was trying to talk her into trying on the magic wedding dress.”
He felt his stomach pitch. “Sawyer won’t wear Fiona’s magic wedding dress.”
Ash gave him a look that said he was crazy, and maybe he was. “Of course Sawyer should be married in the Callahan tradition!”
“I can’t believe you dragged that thing all the way here.” Struck by a sudden thought, Jace glanced wildly at the door. “You have no idea the trouble it caused our brothers. In almost every single case, that gown tried to wreck everything.”
Ash gasped. “Jace! That’s not true!”
“It is true.” He remembered tales from their brothers with some horror. One bride hadn’t seen her one true love—as she’d believed she would, according to Fiona’s fairy tale—and had taken off running out the door. That brother had barely been able to get his chosen bride to give the gown a second chance.
Jace had heard other tales, too, and they all made his blood pressure skyrocket with an attack of premonition.
“What about River? The gown saved her in Montana.”
“It’s a trick, a dice roll. A man doesn’t know if the dress is on his side. I don’t need that kind of help.” Jace looked at the door again, debating knocking on it and demanding that Sawyer come out. She’d been in there far too long. “Are you sure there were no windows in there she could open?”
“There may have been one,” Ash said, “but Sawyer isn’t the kind of woman who would ditch you in Vegas.”
“She ditched me, as you say, for the past several months.” His chest felt very heavy with sadness. “You have no idea what I’ve been through with that woman. And now you put her in a room with a diabolical magic wedding dress, and I’m supposed to—”
He glared when the door opened. Sawyer came out, wearing the same clothes she had been before. He looked at her, his breath tight.
“Is it time?” she asked.
He hesitated. “Time?”
“To do this thing.”
Jace swallowed. “Sure. If you’re ready.”
“Are you?”
He’d been ready far longer than he’d realized, but he didn’t want to seem overeager and scare her off. “Better now than never.”
She didn’t look certain, and he shrugged, wanting to give her as much space as possible. With the way she clearly felt about getting married, it could do no good to keep pushing her. They said you could lead a horse to water but not make it drink, and Sawyer was as untamed as the black Diablo mustangs in the canyons around Rancho Diablo.
“I am ready,” she said. “As long as we agree that we’ll revisit this marriage after the babies are born.”
“Revisit it? I’m fine with what we’re doing.” He didn’t like the sound of that at all. He’d heard those cold-footed-bride tales from his brothers, too—and a very merry chase some of their women had led them on.
“I’m well aware that your interest in marriage is purely because of the children, and I understand that.” She looked at his sister. “Thank you for bringing the dress, Ash. I appreciate the effort you made to get it here, I really do. More than anything, I’m honored that your aunt Fiona was willing to share a favorite Callahan tradition with me.” She looked back at Jace. “But I don’t feel like a real Callahan bride, and I don’t think I ever will.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the small waiting area suddenly filled with Callahans and Cashs, all loud and happy, and perplexed to see Sawyer wearing a hot pink dress and not a magic wedding gown. Storm carted in a bridal bouquet for his niece, kissing her before glaring at Jace.
“It’s a happy day!” Fiona exclaimed. “The last Callahan bachelor getting hitched!” She beamed with delight. “Come on, dear. Ash and I will help you change.”
Jace raised a brow, watching Sawyer sputter her way out of Fiona’s clutches. He smiled, seeing his family envelop his bride-to-be with their overwhelming presence. No one irritated him more than his relatives at times, but it was great to have them at his back.
The cake was delivered by two uniformed men who looked a bit seedy to Jace.
“You’re putting that there?” Fiona demanded, as they set the cake down in the foyer. “Do we look like we eat wedding cake in doorways?”
They shrugged, and Jace had an uncomfortable feeling he’d seen them before. “Aren’t you going to take it out of the box?” he asked.
The men left without saying a word.
“That was odd,” Sawyer said.
“Very odd.” Ash went to undo the white box. “That bakery came highly recommended, and I’m going to give them a piece of my mind about their delivery service.” She peeled the sides of the box down and gasped.
Instead of a plastic bride and groom there was a butcher knife, splendidly tied with satin ribbon, sticking up out of the top of the beautiful cake.
* * *
THE WHOLE THING was a disaster as far as Jace was concerned. Married hurriedly by a satin-wearing pastor who wanted them gone as fast as possible once he saw the butcher knife in the wedding cake—and wed apparently in name only to his pregnant love—Jace found it wasn’t a happy-ever-after type of event.
And they’d slept in separate beds after his late-night partying family finally went to bed.
“Very sad state of affairs,” he told Sawyer as they drove back toward Rancho Diablo the next day.
She didn’t spare him a glance as she looked out the window. “What’s a very sad state of affairs?”
“You. Me. That stupid wedding.” He gulped, certain that dire consequences might lie in his future. “The whole thing was wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“Not traditional.” Not done right, not written in stone, the butcher knife notwithstanding.
Traditional was the way he wanted his relationship with Sawyer to be.
“Stop thinking about the cake. It was an accident, like your aunt said. The delivery drivers were new, they didn’t know not to put the knife in the same box as the cake, and it somehow got stuck in it. These things happen at weddings.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Anyway, it was delicious. You said so yourself. And the bakery gave Ash a 50 percent discount and told her that if she ever got married, they’d do a cake for her for free.”
He wasn’t calmed by his bride’s attempt to soothe him. Jace was sure he’d seen those delivery guys somewhere, and trying to remember where nagged at him. The bakery had said they’d sent two men to deliver the cake, and the Callahans hadn’t thought to ask for ID or names in the shock of the moment. “You could have at least pretended to want to wear the wedding dress Ash went to the trouble to bring you,” he groused, thinking he should probably be happy Sawyer had at least said I do. That was something.
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.
* * *
AS JACE 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.”
She shook her head. “You can take me straight back to the ranch.”
“Babe, listen—”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me. I’m not going anywhere except home. I shouldn’t have married you, so don’t press your luck.”
He sighed, and she gazed out the window again, refusing to bend from her position. “Look, we’re married. But that’s it. I’ll continue to make my own decisions, Jace.”
“I expect you to. But eventually, we’re going to have to talk about the children and what’s best for them.”
“So talk.” He could talk all he liked, but she wasn’t moving to Virginia—or anywhere else—just because he had a nervous streak.
“What about the children?”
She didn’t reply, and he continued, “We can’t just call them ‘the babies.’ They need names. I’ve always liked—”
“I was thinking Jason and Ashley.”
“Jason and Ashley?”
“Yes. Jason, obviously, is a variation of your name, and Ashley because I like your sister, Ashlyn.”
“I approve. And my sister will be thrilled, I’m sure you know.”
Secretly, Sawyer was pleased, though she didn’t want to say so.
“I can’t believe I’m going to be a father to a little girl and boy. It’s so unreal. And wonderful.”
It was hard not to soften, hearing the pride in his deep voice. She’d always loved Jace’s voice, so warm and enveloping and inviting somehow, especially when he whispered to her in the dark.
She sensed those days were long gone. Nothing could be the same now that they were married, and married under spurious circumstances he’d no doubt come to regret one day. Speaking of regret, she figured she might as well put everything out in the open now. She took a deep breath.
“Jace, here’s the main reason you and I have a marriage that’s probably going to be in a difficult spot, even if we didn’t have a few other notable issues. I know your family really never trusted mine.”
“Sort of stating it too harshly,” Jace said. “We didn’t know what to think. Besides, we’ve put all that to rest with our marriage.”
Sawyer knew better. “In a sense, your family’s fears were well-founded. Uncle Storm did ask me to keep an eye on your family.”
She turned to look at him, met his surprised gaze. “I’m sorry. I just think you should know the truth.”
“We kept an eye on Storm, and will continue to. We keep an eye on everyone. No big deal.”
She waved a hand. “You can’t brush that off. I was working for you, and reporting to my uncle whenever I saw anything that I thought might be a problem for him.”
“Why? We never had anything to do with Storm. Didn’t wish him ill.” Jace shrugged. “We just didn’t fully trust him.”
“Yet you hired me.”
“We weren’t worried about you.”
She didn’t know if she should be flattered, or insulted by the sheer arrogance of Jace thinking she wasn’t a threat. “Because I’m a woman?”
“No. I wasn’t worried about you because—”
“Oh, no,” Sawyer interrupted, suddenly annoyed. “You weren’t worried about me because you thought you’d locked me down.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t have put it that way, but I would say that I feel I’m a pretty good judge of women. You never struck me as a devious sort. I could tell you liked me. Women who are hot for a guy usually have strong loyalty to him.”
“Really. Yet I reported on you to Uncle Storm.”
Jace shrugged again. “Probably a wise thing to do. Now that you’ve gotten that off your conscience, should we stop for the night? I don’t want you getting too tired. My children need their rest.”
She stared at him, not happy at all. “Please drive on. I don’t want to spend a night with you.” They’d never shared a real bed before; no sense in starting tonight. Her resolve would weaken if she got near her handsome husband and a bed, with no Callahan drama to keep them apart.
“You’re having second thoughts? I’m not the date you had in mind when you spent your hard-earned money on me?”
She turned away, glanced out the window. Oh, he was every bit what she’d had in mind, and then some. She was married to the man of her dreams and the father of her children.
What more could a woman ask for from a bachelor raffle?
“You’re going to have to help me get Loco Diablo away from Galen,” Jace said, “or at least what should be my share of it. Now that you’ve proved you have a devious streak, that shouldn’t be a problem at all, princess.”

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