Tina Leonard - A Callahan Christmas Miracle

Galen loved this land.

“Chief,” he said, and the old man seated on the ground, eyes closed, face raised to the sky, nodded.

“When you have a moment, I need to pick your brains.”

“I have many moments.”

Galen seated himself on the earth next to his grandfather, felt the spring sun warm his skin. “There is no place like Rancho Diablo.”

“There are many spirits here. Mother Earth is strong and beautiful in this place.”

“But there’s a bad current running under her, Grandfather.”

“I know.”

Galen sighed. His grandfather was always one step ahead of them, and knew the beginning, middle and maybe even the end of the journey they were on. Running Bear had also warned the siblings that one of them was the hunted one, the one who would bring danger to the family. Sometimes Galen wondered if it was him. He’d rather it was, than any of his siblings. One day they would know—and no doubt the decision they would face would be difficult.

Today, he had to worry about trouble closer to home. “The enemy may have built reinforced tunnels under our ranch.” He looked into the distance, seeing the deep canyons and mesas that time had carved into the land. “We found some machinery in a cave. The only explanation is that it’s at the beginning of a tunnel, or underground bunkers. They could be right underneath the house.”

“I know.” Running Bear rested his palms on his knees. “They are not there. Yet.”

“But they’re coming.”

“They are. It’s their mission.”

“To what purpose?” Galen pulled his cowboy hat lower, shielding his face from the sun.

“To surround us. If they can do that, they’ll have a stranglehold here that will be hard to break.”

“How do we stop them? Make sure they don’t get here?”

“Buy the land from Storm.”

Galen considered that. They’d need a consortium of some kind to buy that much land without stretching the resources of Rancho Diablo. “We’ll be operating on limited manpower.”

“We’ll hire more people. Or bring the Callahan cousins home. Let them live here, where there are no tunnels. One of you would have had the land eventually, if you’d won Fiona’s raffle.”

“We always figured that was a fairy tale you guys cooked up to get us married and with families.”

“No,” Running Bear said. “Well, yes and no. Yes, Fiona will do anything to see you happy, as your married cousins and siblings are. But we always intended to grow the ranch. We knew they were building tunnels. We hoped you would come to love it here as much as your cousins do.”

“I do. The whole family does.”

“I know. But one of you must be the head of that ranch. We don’t want it broken up and weakened, making it easy for the cartel to move in.”

Galen shook his head. “I don’t like it. If Ash wins the ranch, she’ll be over there alone. She may not want us all living there. We need to stay together as a family. As a unit. We always have.”

“So win the land yourself.”

“I have no reason to expect that I’m in the running. I have no wife, probably won’t for years.” He’d taken care of his siblings so long he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to relax and have time for romance.

He thought about Rose next to him in bed last night and decided he could relax a little.

“Tell your brothers and sister that you want the land.”

Galen started. “I can’t do that. I can’t tell them I’m bumping them out of Fiona’s ploy.”

“You don’t want any of them living on land that only you knows has been compromised. It’s not safe.”

“Can’t we destroy the tunnels?”

“We would destroy acres and acres of good land with them.”

There were no good answers, no good choices. “It’s too dangerous to raise a family there now, so what difference would it make if we destroyed it? Those tunnels are how they’re getting to Rancho Diablo so easily, Grandfather.”

“Yes.” Running Bear nodded. “You must ask your ancestors what the right answer is.”

“The right answer to what?”

“Your path. What you are meant to do.”

“I say we burn them out. From burned ground comes new growth.”

“It would take many men to do it.”

That was also true. He’d had lots of military training. Teamwork wasn’t unknown to him. “It would be expensive to bring in that much personnel.”

“Yes. But it can’t be done alone.”

“Explosives. I can think of a hundred ways to collapse tunnels.”

His grandfather opened his eyes to look at him. “You’d be put in jail. You can’t set fires and blow up land without breaking the law.”

“There has to be a way.” Galen just couldn’t think of one. But it made his blood hot with anger that the enemy was gaining on them by doing whatever they wanted, while he was confined by the law. “Some way I haven’t thought of yet.”

“Buy the land,” Running Bear advised. “Tell Storm you will.”

“By myself? Or you mean the family as a conglomerate?”

“You buy the land. Tell your cousins you need to use the resources of Rancho Diablo as collateral. Jonas Callahan will know what you need.”

The treasure of Rancho Diablo. Galen knew about it. There were a couple working oil wells, the fabled silver mine, the buried silver and gold, as well as the land and its holdings. But the black Diablo mustangs were the real wealth. They held the spirit of the land, kept it alive. “What does Wolf think he wants with Rancho Diablo?”

“The wealth. The riches.” Running Bear rose. “What my son does not understand is that he cannot have any of those things. They will never be his.”

Galen rose with his grandfather. “How is that?”

“Because evil never overcomes good. This ranch was built for good. The fight will be long. It will be difficult and costly. But it will not be lost. Think on what I have said, Galen.” His grandfather looked at him. “Tell Fiona the terms of the ranch raffle must change, if she’s going to get the last of you boys, and even Ash, to the altar.”

“Change how? And I don’t want to get married,” Galen said. “I’ve been alone too long. I like my life the way it is.”

“The shepherd must eventually have a flock.” Running Bear walked toward the gorges twisting through rocks carved by eons of wind and rain.

“I don’t need a flock,” Galen muttered. “And I don’t need a twenty-thousand acre ranch.” He sighed as he got in the jeep. “I don’t want the land. I want to burn them out,” he called after his grandfather. “Let the rest of them divide up the ranch over there.”

Silence met his words. Which meant the old chief had said all he planned to say on the matter.

Running Bear knew what had to happen.

Galen went back to Rancho Diablo to think.

* * *

SOMER STEVENS MET HIM as he drove up to the ranch house, a big smile on her face. “Just the man I was hoping to see.”

He parked the jeep, appreciating her dark beauty. And yet somehow she just didn’t ring his bell the way Rose did. “Why is that?”

“Wondered if you want to go riding. I’m fixing to take out Gray.”

“I’m afraid I can’t join you today,” Galen said, and wondered why she rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe because she was a shade too friendly.

“Next time, perhaps.” She disappeared into the barn, and Galen stared after her. He hoped she planned to exercise Gray in the corralled area of the ranch, where it was safest. What if it were Rose riding? Would she stay near the house, or stray off on an adventure?

Definitely stray off, for any reason.

Somer wasn’t his problem. She was Sloan and Kendall’s problem. She’d been hired to take Sawyer’s place guarding their twins. Occasionally she would switch and guard Tighe and River’s triplets. If she had an afternoon off, it wasn’t his business.