Tina Leonard - Her Callahan Family Man

“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.”