Four Babies—and Her Whole Family—to Protect

Ashlyn Callahan has always known that her fate can only bring danger to those she loves. That’s why she flees Rancho Diablo—and the ornery cowboy she loves—to hide out in Texas Hill Country. But all hell breaks loose when Xavier Phillips finds her…and her four newborn babies.

Xav finally tracks down his warrior woman—only to discover she’s the mother of two perfect little boys and two perfect little girls. And he’s the father! Now Ash has to marry him. With the future of Ash’s entire clan at stake, Xav is ready to lay his life on the line to safeguard the family legacy. Not to mention create a homecoming—and a wedding!—worthy of his Chacon Callahan bride!

He needed this family. He needed her.

Xav pulled Ash toward him, wrapped her in his arms. “You still smell like peaches, you’re still soft as rain water and you still fit right under my heart.”

“I am the hunted one,” Ash said quietly. “You’re trying to protect me.”

“Gage, Shaman, Kendall and Ashlyn,” he said against her hair, drinking in the scent of her and the feel of her in his arms.

“What?”

“Those are the middle names I choose. And you should be impressed with my ability to select baby names when I didn’t even know I was a father four hours ago. Briar Kendall, Skye Ashlyn, Valor Shaman and Thorn Gage. Phillips. Named after my brothers and sister. Have to have the other side of the family represented.”

She moved out of his arms. “Callahan, not Phillips.”

He hauled her into his lap as he sat down on the poufy old-fashioned sofa. “Here’s the deal. You marry me, and you can pick all the names.”

Dear Reader,

We always knew that Ashlyn and Xav were destined to be together—but who knows if the Callahan family can survive the evil from the past that has long haunted them?

Ash Callahan is a free spirit, and in her soul rests the future of Rancho Diablo. There’s only one man who can help her find her family’s happy ending—but her four darling babies are a secret Ash must keep for now!

Xav Phillips knows only one thing: he must find Ash and bring her home to the ranch where she belongs in time for Christmas. It’s never easy to convince the silver-haired wild woman he has loved for so long about anything, but he knows his new—rather large—family is meant to live at Rancho Diablo. Convincing Ash to marry him and wear the magic wedding dress will be another challenge, yet as the past colors the future, Xav knows he must fight for a Callahan homecoming, the sweetest homecoming of all.

I hope you enjoy the final story in the Callahan legend. These were stories from my heart! The letters I’ve received about the Callahans let me know that this family touched your heart, too—thank you ever so much for your heartfelt support on this amazing journey!

Best wishes always,

Tina

www.TinaLeonard.com www.Facebook.com/AuthorTinaLeonard www.Facebook.com/TinaLeonardBooks www.Twitter.com/Tina_Leonard

Sweet Callahan Homecoming

Tina Leonard

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 Harlequin 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, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Grateful thanks to the many wonderful readers who walked with me on the journey to find the Callahan family’s happy ending—I have been so blessed.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Extract

“The spirits guide us, and we heed the call.”

—Chief Running Bear to his seven Callahan warriors

Prologue

Ashlyn Callahan’s six brothers stared at the man on the ground, then at their petite, silver-haired sister.

“Did you kill him, Ash?” Galen asked.

“Someone had to do it,” Ash said, glaring at the semicircle of men whom she’d summoned to the stone-and-fire ring where evil Uncle Wolf had surprised her. As if she’d known that this was the moment she was born for, Ash had swiftly raised her weapon and fired. “You’re the doctor, Galen. Check him out and see if it was a good hit.”

Dante knelt near Wolf as Galen looked him over. Tighe stood close by her side, and Jace watched the canyons, keeping a wary eye out for Wolf’s mercenaries. Falcon went to get Galen’s medical bag from the military jeep, and Sloan headed up onto a nearby rock ledge to act as lookout. Her brothers supported her, and that support made her strong.

“If he’s dead, know that I’m not sorry,” Ash said flatly. She’d aimed to kill, and she was willing to admit it to anyone who asked, even though all the Callahans had been warned not to hurt their treacherous uncle. Their grandfather, Chief Running Bear, had always said that no harm was to befall his son Wolf—at least not from the family.

But because of Wolf and his cartel thugs, and their attempted takeover of Rancho Diablo, the Chacon Callahan parents, Julia and Carlos, had been in hiding for years. So had their Callahan cousins’ parents, Jeremiah and Molly, who had built Rancho Diablo into the sprawling spread it was. The house—which was basically a castle as far as Ash was concerned—had seven chimneys and its Tudor style served as a beacon on the wide, panoramic landscape. But the ranch was more war zone than home ever since Wolf had decided to try to take it over. The Callahan children and grandchildren had never experienced what it was like to grow up here, as they were now in satellite safe locations, most of them in Hell’s Colony, Texas, at the Phillips’ compound.

It makes my blood boil. I suppose I snapped—but after Wolf tried to steal the black Diablos, after he incarcerated them in caves under the canyons, under our very ranch, and after he very nearly killed Jace, someone had to pull the trigger.

I’m always happy to pull the trigger, and this time it was especially rewarding.

Galen glanced up at her. “He’s not dead,” he said. “His pulse is very weak. With care, he can be saved.”

Ash shrugged. “If you turn your backs, I’ll roll him into the canyon for the vultures. If you save him to strike at us another day, I wash my hands of it.”

Her brothers stared at her, and Tighe pulled her into his arms for a brotherly, comforting hug.

“It’s okay, little sister,” he murmured. “You don’t always have to be the strong one.”

They were all strong. No family was stronger than hers. And although she carried her grandfather’s spirit, it warred with the part of her soul that bowed to no one.

The lightning strike tattoo on her shoulder burned. All of them had the same tattoo—only hers had a minuscule star beside it, setting her apart.

I always knew I was the hunted one that Grandfather foretold, the one destined to bring darkness and devastation to Rancho Diablo. I always knew it was me, and I was never afraid.

She watched dispassionately as Galen and her brothers loaded their uncle into the jeep to take him to the hospital.

“I’ll find my way back,” Ash said. “You, my brothers, can play ambulance driver.”

Sloan jumped down from the ledge and got in the vehicle. “Nice shooting, by the way. Wolf won’t be too happy when he regains consciousness. See you soon, sis.”

They drove away. She waited until they were long gone. Then Ash turned in the opposite direction, and with the stealth and speed she’d learned from Running Bear, she left the stone-and-fire ring—the place their grandfather had named as their home base while they fought for Rancho Diablo—and began the long journey away from her beloved family.

Chapter One

Nine months later

Xav Phillips had looked long and hard for Ash Callahan, and now, if his luck held, he might have finally caught up to her in a small town in Texas—Wild, Texas, to be precise. She’d done a good job of covering her tracks, but he’d learned a lot of beneficial things in the years he’d worked for the Callahans, and one of them was how to find something or somebody that didn’t want to be found.

He wasn’t sure what Ash saw in this bucolic place in the Hill Country in the heart of Texas, but he’d be willing to bet the serenity of the place had called to her.

Ashlyn Callahan had been in need of peace for many years.

He knocked on the door of the small, two-story white house perched on a grassy stretch of farmland. He noted the Christmas decorations twining the white posts on the porch and the twinkling tree situated in the window. Back at Rancho Diablo in New Mexico, Christmas would be in full swing. Aunt Fiona Callahan typically planned an annual Christmas ball—this year the ball had a fairy-tale theme—but she was missing the last Callahan to be raffled at one of her shindigs. Ash had left the ranch and the town of Diablo after she’d allegedly shot her uncle Wolf Chacon. Fiona had begged Xav to find her niece, not just because she wanted her to be the final Callahan raffle “victim” at the ball, but because it was the holidays. It was time for Ash to come home, Fiona proclaimed, adding, “I’m not getting any younger! I want my family around.”

So that was the excuse that sent him searching for Ash, but it wasn’t the real reason he had to find her. Truth be told, he missed her like hell—a fact he wouldn’t have admitted to a soul. Her six brawny brothers had no idea of the depth of his feelings for Ash, and there was no reason to share that with his employers.

And there were other urgent motives to find his platinum-haired girl. Most important, Ash didn’t know that she had not been the one to shoot her uncle Wolf. She’d certainly tried. But in the melee of her uncle’s appearance and Xav firing, Ash had never noticed that her weapon didn’t recoil.

If her gun had been loaded, he was certain Wolf wouldn’t have gotten off with only a punctured lung. Ash was a crack shooter.

But Ash’s gun wasn’t the one that fired the shot.

It had been his.

He’d unloaded Ash’s gun that afternoon while she’d napped—after they’d made love. He’d unloaded it because they were alone in the canyons, and he’d been about to propose.

One didn’t propose to Ash without taking proper precautions.

A man didn’t love a woman as long as he’d loved Ash and lay his heart on the line without being fairly sure of himself. But one never knew what Ash would say or do—and so he had to be prepared for a refusal.

He’d planned his seduction carefully. Make love, disarm her, then proffer the best argument he had for hitting up the closest altar.

He’d even had a diamond-and-sapphire ring in his pocket to mark the occasion, if she was inclined to accept his offer of a partnership between them. A joining of the Callahan and Phillips families at long last. A merger between them, a professional alliance—the smoothest lasso he could design to draw Ash over to his side without her kicking and screaming. Ash was a practical woman; since a great many of the Callahan families were living at the Hell’s Colony compound in Texas that he and his three siblings, Kendall, Gage and Shaman owned, it made sense to go easy on the emotions and heavy on practical.

But he’d never gotten to the proposal. Wolf had ambushed them, and Ash had shot him—or she thought she had. Xav had fired, too, and in the silence that fell as Wolf crumpled to the ground, Xav had taken her gun, fully intending to leave behind no trace of her involvement. There was no reason for her to be blamed.

Ash had sent him away, telling him this was a family matter, a fact with which he couldn’t argue. She was stone-cold in her demand, and he’d departed, fully cognizant that Ash was calling her family to clean up, and no doubt for advice. As an employee of Rancho Diablo, Xav knew very well how the Callahans worked. They’d get there in a flash, and little sister would be up to her delicate shell-shaped ears in backup and support. The Callahans wouldn’t let anything happen to Ash—and so he went off to ponder what he’d done over a beer.

He’d been stunned that he’d killed the uncle of the woman to whom he’d been about to propose. On the other hand, better he do it than Ash. As he knew too well, Chief Running Bear had forbidden his family to harm his son Wolf. Doing so would bring the family curse on them.

He’d wanted badly to protect Ash from that.

He’d fired so fast he wasn’t sure Ash knew that he had.

But when the dust settled in the ensuing weeks, he’d waited for Ash to seek him out, as she had many times over the years. When she hadn’t come, he’d gone looking for her at Rancho Diablo.

To his chagrin, he’d learned that his wild-at-heart angel hadn’t been seen since that fateful day. And it turned out Galen’s medical expertise had brought Wolf back from the brink. The old scoundrel had recovered and had slowly returned to taunting the Callahans. Yet Ash hadn’t been seen or heard from by her family again—except last month when she’d sent a text to her family to wish them happy holidays.

It was that holiday message that had nearly broken Fiona. Fiona had summoned him, sending him off to find her beloved niece.

He’d accepted the mission gladly, knowing it wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. Ash wasn’t easy to track. She used only cash. There were no phone calls, no computer emails to track. It was as if she’d disappeared—which she’d obviously intended to do.

In the end, he’d gone to Running Bear for direction, only to be amazed that Running Bear hadn’t heard from Ash, either. Those two shared the same untamed spirit.

But Xav got a pointer or two from Running Bear that sent him on a path to find her. Now he shifted on the white-painted porch, hearing footsteps inside, hoping his journey wasn’t a dead end. It had been too many months since he’d held the love of his life in his arms.

A middle-aged woman opened the door, a questioning frown on her face. “Yes?”

“Hi.” He gave her his most friendly smile. “I’m Xav Phillips, from Diablo, New Mexico. I’m looking for a woman named Ashlyn Callahan.”

The woman shook her head, glancing over her shoulder when a baby’s cry burst in the background. “I’m sorry, no. I’ve never heard of her.”

He couldn’t say what made him linger on the porch. Maybe it was because he’d come so far and was so disappointed to find his search turning up a dead end again. Another baby’s cries joined the first, sending up a wail of epic proportions between them, which made the woman anxiously begin to back away.

“Excuse me,” she said, “good luck finding whomever you’re looking for.”

She closed the door. Xav hesitated, then leaned his ear against the wood. He heard soft voices inside comforting the babies, and then unbelievably, he heard a voice he’d know any day, any night, whether he was awake, asleep or even in a coma.

“Sweet baby, don’t fuss. My little prince,” he heard Ash say, and in a flash, he slid over to the enormous glass window framing the Christmas tree so he could peer cautiously inside the house.

Behind the large, ruffle-branched Christmas tree, four white bassinets lay together in a room decorated for the holidays amid beautifully wrapped gifts. He held his breath, watching Ash comfort a tiny infant boy. Ash’s shock of pale hair had grown into a waterfall of silver liquid she wore in a ponytail. Xav grew warm all over despite the cold, and Cupid’s arrow shot right into his heart, the same way it had every time he’d ever gotten within two miles of her.

He was head over heels in love with her, and nine long months apart had done nothing to diminish those emotions. The ring in his pocket practically burned, reminding him how long he’d waited to ask her to marry him.

She put the baby down and picked up another, a sweet, pink-pajamaed little girl, and Xav’s heart felt like it splatted on the ground. She acted as if these were her children, so loving and gentle was she as she held them. Xav was poleaxed with new thoughts of making Ash a mother. Motherhood and Ash weren’t a combination he’d ever really put together in his head, but watching her with these children made him realize his original proposal wasn’t the one he wanted to offer her.

He didn’t want to fall back on a business arrangement to save his ego.

No, he was going all in. He was going to tell her the truth about the shot she’d allegedly fired at Wolf, because clearly that was why she was hiding out here, helping the older lady babysit her family’s babies. Or maybe she ran a babysitting service. It didn’t matter. The point was, Ash was in hiding and he was going to tell her the truth: she was not the hunted one. She was not destined to bring destruction to Rancho Diablo and her family.

And then he was going to ask her to be his wife. His real true wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and health, in good times and better times, forever.

Xav hadn’t realized he’d moved away from the protection of the twinkling Christmas tree in order to spy better, but Ash’s suddenly astonished eyes jolted him out of his reverie. She stared at him over the pink blanket-wrapped baby, her lips parted with shock to see him standing among the evergreen bushes at the window. And then, to his complete dismay, Ash snapped the curtains closed.

A screeching siren split the air. Someone had hit some kind of panic button inside the house, which meant police would be on the way. He was certain Ash had recognized him, but just to be certain she didn’t think he was an intruder, he leaped up on the porch and pushed the door open.

“Hi, beautiful,” Xav said, and she looked at him, completely speechless, and suddenly pain crashed through him. The last thing Xav remembered thinking was how lucky it was that he’d finally located the most footloose Callahan of them all.

He’d succeeded on Fiona’s mission.

Callahan bonus points for sure.

* * *

“WHAT DO WE DO WITH HIM?” Mallory McGrath asked, and Ash tried to force her flabbergasted mind to think rationally. It wasn’t easy, and not just because Mallory had set off the panic button on the security system, which was wailing like mad. She crossed to the system pad and shut the silly thing off before staring down at the lean cowboy sprawled on the floor. How many hours had she spent thinking about Xav Phillips over the past few months, especially during her pregnancy? How many times had she wanted to call him to come to her, yet knowing she couldn’t place him in that kind of danger? Anyone from Rancho Diablo who had any contact with her would be in jeopardy—the Callahans had learned that the hard way, time and again, over the many years they’d battled Uncle Wolf and the cartel. It was no game they were playing, but a full-fledged fight for survival.

Sometimes it felt as though they were losing. It almost always seemed as if they might not ever defeat an enemy that was determined to destroy the ranch and the Callahan legacy. Good didn’t always conquer evil.

Ash knelt down to move Xav’s long, ebony hair out of his face. “Poor Xav. I could have told you that you should stay away from me.” The tree twinkled, sending soft colorful light against his drawn skin. “What am I going to do with you now?” she asked him, though she knew she wouldn’t get an answer.

She was startled when he opened his eyes. “Marry me,” Xav said. “You can marry me, damn it, and tell the woman with the wrought-iron Santa Claus she whaled upside my noggin that I come in peace.”

“Xav!” She wanted to kiss him so badly, yet didn’t dare. Of course his marriage proposal wasn’t sincere; clearly a concussion rendered him temporarily senseless. “Can you sit up? Mallory, will you get him a glass of water?”

“Who is he?” Mallory asked, reluctantly setting down her festive weapon.

“Just a family friend,” Ash said, her gaze on Xav as his eyes locked on hers.

“Friend my ass,” Xav growled. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to find you? Do friends search every nook and cranny of Texas and parts in between to find each other?”

“Definitely a concussion,” Ash said, frowning at the big handsome man, all long body and sinewy muscles. “I’ve never heard him talk like that.”

“Hello, I’m right here,” Xav said crustily, trying to rise.

Ash pushed him back to the floor. “Take a minute to gather your wits, cowboy.”

“My wits have never been so gathered.” He sat up and glared at her, then stared at his brown cowboy hat mournfully. “She killed it.”

Mallory had the nerve to giggle, and Xav looked even more disgusted, as if he thought it rude that someone laughed at crushing his cowboy hat with a Santa Claus doorstop before they’d been introduced.

“It’ll be all right.” Ash took the hat from him, put it on a chair, inspected his head. “I do believe that hat saved your thick skull. There’s not a scratch on you.”

“Well, thanks for that.” He stood, and Ash steered him toward one of Mallory’s soft, old-fashioned Victorian sofas. Before she could get him past the babies and onto the sofa, Xav stopped, staring down into the bassinettes, transfixed by the tiny infants inside. The four babies slept peacefully, undisturbed by the strong, determined male visitor in their midst.

“Hmm,” Xav said, “pretty cute little stinkweeds.”

For all the times she’d envisioned introducing the babies to their father, never had she imagined he’d call his adorable offspring stinkweeds. Ash stiffened, her bubble bursting, and Mallory laughed and excused herself, saying she was going to go hunt up some tea and cinnamon cake.

“Stinkweeds?” Ash demanded. “Is that the best you can do?”

Xav hunkered down on the sofa, rubbed his head. “I think at the moment, yes. In a minute, when the headache passes, I can probably be more creative.” He looked at her. “You didn’t introduce me to your friend, but I assume these babies are her grandkids?”

He must have noted her astonished expression because he quickly said, “Or are you running a babysitting service?”

Great. He might seem fine after a crack on the head, but the truth was going to blow his mind.

On the other hand, maybe it was best if Xav didn’t know he was a father. She could convince him to go on his merry way and never look back.

No. That didn’t sound right, either. He’d tracked her down, he was here. These were his children. There was no going back.

“Actually, Xav,” she said, “these aren’t Mallory’s babies.”

“Ah, well. It’s not important.” He reached into a bassinet and touched one baby gently. “If I’d drawn them in a poker game, I’d say they were a perfect four of a kind.”

Her heart melted just a bit, dislodged from its frozen perch. “Really? You think they’re perfect?”

“Sure. I’ve seen tons of rugrats around Rancho Diablo. These are cute. Look a bit like tiny elves with scrunched red faces.” He stood, picked his hat up off the sofa where Mallory had put it, stared at the damaged crown with a raised brow. “But I didn’t come here to admire someone’s kids, Ash.” He looked into her eyes, and her heart responded with a dangerous flutter. “I’ve come to take you home for the holidays.”

Chapter Two

“That’s not possible, Xav,” Ash told him, her gaze sincere.

He hated it when someone told him something wasn’t possible. It reminded him of his father, Gil Phillips, of Gil Phillips, Inc., who’d run the business and the Hell’s Colony compound with an iron fist. Gil had never let anybody tell him something was impossible, and the only person on earth who’d ever been able to talk Gil off his high horse was their mother. In business, Gil wouldn’t have tolerated an employee who thought anything was impossible.

Xav was pretty certain he’d developed his father’s stubbornness, especially where Ash was concerned. He drank her in, wished he could sneak a kiss.

And a lot more.

“Everything’s possible, little darling. You wouldn’t deny your aunt Fiona the pleasure of having all her nephews and her niece home at Christmas, would you?”

“It’s not possible,” Ash said again with a shake of that platinum hair he loved so much, the ponytail swinging with her negative vibe.

Wasn’t she just too cute? She had no idea that he was a man who didn’t believe in impossible.

“I’ll give you five minutes to pack up,” he said, his tone kind and convincing, the tone he’d used many times in his father’s boardroom—before Xav had gone to live the Callahan way.

Life as a corporate suit was very far in his past. He had a few rougher edges now.

“Five minutes to pack,” he reiterated, “and if you’re not standing by my truck ready to hit the road, I’m tossing you over my shoulder and carrying you out of here, caveman-style. And don’t think I won’t do it, beautiful. I’m not going to be the man who disappoints Fiona at Christmas, not when she sent me on this quest to bring you home. It’s her heart’s desire.” He smiled at Ash. “It’s an assignment I have no intention of failing.”

“Well, you’ll have to.” Ash turned away from him. “I can’t go back.”

How well he knew this woman—he could practically read her mind. He knew the curve of her neck, and the way she crossed her arms denoting Callahan intractability. Xav walked up behind her, put his arms around her, comforting and close—but not too close.

Not as close as he wanted to be—not nearly close enough.

“I know you’re afraid,” he murmured, and Ash went straight as a board in his arms. “Bad word choice,” he backtracked. “I know you think you killed Wolf, Ash. You didn’t.”

She turned to face him. “I tried to kill him. If I didn’t, it doesn’t matter. I meant to. I’d shoot him again the first chance I got.”

He wanted to kiss her so badly. Maybe she sensed it, because she stepped out of his arms, away from him. Put three feet between them.

“I can never go home,” Ash said. “I’m staying here.” She looked at the sleeping babies with a sweet smile, then looked up at him. “How are my brothers? And Aunt Fiona? Uncle Burke? Grandfather Running Bear?”

He’d made love to this woman so many times that he practically knew her every thought, and right now, he knew she was avoiding his mission, dismissing it, as Ash dismissed everything that didn’t square with her worldview. Ash had always been fiercely independent, despite her six doting older brothers, and in a strange way, they depended on their sister more than she depended upon them.

Ash was the spirit of the Callahan clan.

She had to learn that she didn’t have to carry the weight of the world on her delicate shoulders forever.

And anyway, a man was only as good as his promises.

He picked her up, tossed her over one shoulder and marched her to the front door.

“Put me down!”

He spanked her bottom once lightly with a satisfying smack! against her jeans, drawing another outraged protest. She pinched him smartly under his arm, hard enough to force a grunt from him.

“Put me down!” she commanded again, as if he would have listened when he finally had her in his arms.

Two squad cars pulled in front of the house, and the next thing he knew, a couple of Wild’s finest were yelling at him to put the little lady down.

“I forgot to call and tell the sheriff it was a false alarm,” Ash said, apologetic, as he set her gently on the ground. She was breathless and a bit tousled from being upside down. “You’d better go.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you agree to go with me.” He could be just as stubborn as she. “Go tell the sheriff and his friends that their services aren’t needed.”

“It would be better if you go.”

She gazed up at him, and he caught a funny bit of desperation from her. “Nope,” he said, still wearing stubborn like a badge.

“Ash, is there a problem?” the sheriff asked, and Ash looked at Xav.

“Is there a problem?” she asked Xav, and he realized she was holding him hostage to her demand that he leave.

Well, he’d never been one to go down without a fight.

“Hell, yeah, there’s a problem, Sheriff. This woman won’t accept my marriage proposal. I drove all the way from Rancho Diablo in New Mexico to propose to her. Xav Phillips,” he said, shaking the sheriff’s hand.

The sheriff and his deputies snickered a little at his conundrum. Then the sheriff perked up. “Xav Phillips, Gil Phillips’s son, from Hell’s Colony?”

“Yes, sir,” Xav said politely.

“I knew your daddy before you were even a twinkle in his eye,” the sheriff said, drawing a groan from Ash. The sheriff turned to her.

“Ashlyn Callahan, you hit the panic button because some man has proposed to you? Again?” The sheriff shook his head. “He drives a nice truck, comes from a great family, practically Texas royalty. If Santa brings you a father for those four children of yours, you might treat him a little nicer than calling the law on him.” He tipped his hat to Ash, shook Xav’s hand again, and he and his deputies got back in their squad cars. “Good luck,” the sheriff said to Xav through his open window. “Probably five men in the county have offered to marry this lady, and she’s turned them all down flat.”

He nodded. “Forewarned, Sheriff. Thanks.”

“Are all of you through enjoying a manly guffaw at my expense?” Ash demanded. “Because if you are, I need to get back in the house. I have children who need me.”

“Good night, Sheriff.” He followed Ash back inside, his mind niggling with discomfort and alarm. Five men had proposed to her? Ash picked up a baby that was sending up a gentle wail and sat down on the old-fashioned sofa situated across from the Christmas tree.

He sat next to her. “Hey, Ash,” he said, “the sheriff said something about you needing a father for your children, that Santa had sent you one for Christmas. It was a figure of speech, right?” He looked at her, surprised but not displeased in the slightest that she was undoing the pearl buttons on her white sweater. She tossed a baby blanket over her shoulder, obscuring the baby’s face—and suddenly, it hit Xav like a thunderclap that Ash was nursing that baby.

Which would not be the slightest bit possible unless these were her children. He stared at Ash, and she looked back at him calmly, her denim-blue eyes unworried and clear.

“You’re a mother,” he said, feeling light-headed, and not from the crack Mallory had landed on his skull. “These are your babies?”

She nodded, and he got dizzy. The woman he loved was a mother, and somehow she’d had four children. This perfect four of a kind was hers.

It wasn’t possible. But he could hear gentle sucking sounds occasionally, and he knew it was as possible as the sun coming up the next day. He felt weak all over, weak-kneed in a way he’d never been, his heart splintering like shattered glass.

“Damn, Ash, your family...you haven’t told them.”

“No, I haven’t.”

A horrible realization sank into him, painful and searing. “Who’s the father?”

She frowned. “A dumb ornery cowboy.”

“That doesn’t sound like you. You wouldn’t fall for a dumb ornery cowboy.”

“Yes, I would,” Ash said. “I would, and I did.”

He looked at the tiny bundles of sweetness in their bassinets. Two girls, a boy, and he presumed that was a boy underneath the blanket at his mother’s breast, because each bassinet had colored blankets, two pink, two blue. Two of each. He felt sad, sick, really, that the woman he adored had found someone else in the nine months she’d been gone. He felt a little betrayed, sure that the two of them had shared something, although neither of them had ever tried to quantify exactly what it was they’d shared. “He really is dumb if he’s not here taking care of you,” Xav said, and it had to be the truth or she wouldn’t be living with the woman with the wicked swing who’d tried to crush his cranium. “Ash, I’ll marry you, and take care of you, and your children,” he said suddenly, realizing how he could finally catch the woman of his dreams without even appearing to be the love-struck schmuck that he was.

If anyone was father material, it was he.

* * *

“YOU’LL MARRY ME?” Ash repeated, outraged. “You’ll marry me, you big, dumb, ornery—”

He held up a hand. “Of course I will. I’d do anything for a friend, and I consider you one of my dearest friends. A sister. I’ll give your children my name, and I’ll protect you, Ash.”

If she hadn’t been nursing Thorn, she’d have given the gorgeous sexy hunk next to her another knock on the head to match the lump he probably already sported. “I don’t want to get married. And I certainly wouldn’t marry you.”

“You have to get married, Ash.” She heard the concern in his voice. “Your brothers are going to have a fit when they find out you’re a single mother and the father won’t step up. They’ll drag him to the altar for sure. And it won’t be pretty. Your brothers can be tough when crossed, you know that.”

Mallory bustled in with some cake and tea on a wicker tray. She handed Xav a cup and looked at him directly. “So, when’s the wedding?”

“Mallory,” Ash said, and Xav said, “As soon as I can convince Ash that getting married is the right thing to do.”

“I should think so,” Mallory said as she leaned over to pick up one of the girls. “After all, I would have thought you’d have been here for the birth. Ash said you’d never find her, but I had a feeling you would. A man belongs with his family.”

Xav’s gaze landed on her. She glared at Mallory, wishing her friend would cease with the barrage of information. “Mallory, Xav and I haven’t really had a chance to talk things out.”

“Oh, pooh,” Mallory told the baby she’d picked up. “If we wait on your mother to talk things out, you’ll never have a father. Xav, meet your daughter Skye.” She handed him the baby, which he took, and not as gingerly as Ash might have wanted. “And this is Valor,” Mallory continued, pointing to the last baby in his white bassinet, “and that little fellow being held by his mother is Thorn. This little angel is Briar. Children, meet your father. Please help yourself to the cake, Xav. You’d better eat while you can. Once these little babies get tuned up, they tend to want everything at once. It’s quite the diaper rodeo.”

Mallory left the room, pleased with herself. Ash could barely meet Xav’s eyes, but she made herself look at him.

He looked the way she’d known he would—thunderstruck. Astonished. Maybe even a little angry.

“I’m the big, dumb, ornery cowboy?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have phrased it quite that way.” The moment had come upon her so unexpectedly that she hadn’t handled any of it well. “I wish I’d found a different way to tell you, Xav.”

“These are my babies?” He sounded absolutely incredulous, rocked. Dumbfounded.

She nodded, words seeming inadequate.

He hesitated, stared at the baby in his arms. “I don’t understand. You’ve been gone a long time. When did this happen? When were you going to tell me?”

So many questions, so few answers. He wasn’t going to be happy with any answer she gave him, and she couldn’t blame him. “The night I shot Uncle Wolf,” she began, faltering a little at the expression in his eyes. He still looked angry. “The night I shot Wolf, I was going to tell you I’d just learned I was pregnant,” she rushed out.

The baby in his arms began a snuffling sort of wail, which startled the baby she was nursing. Which got the other two going, and suddenly there was no time to explain more.

An hour later, they collapsed on the sofa, worn out, all babies fed, changed and asleep in their bassinets.

“They’re down for twenty minutes,” Ash said. “You should probably go, while you still can.”

He looked at her. “We’ve got a thousand things to talk about, and a lot you have to tell me. But you can’t stay here. You can’t keep these babies from their family, from Rancho Diablo. You can’t keep them from Fiona.” He looked so serious, so very serious, that the automatic no died on her lips. “Can you imagine how her Christmas would explode with joy—times four? You can’t cheat her of Christmas with her whole family, not to mention you can’t deny your grandfather, Running Bear, knowing the next generation of his great-grandchildren.” He reached out to touch her hand. “These babies will never know their grandparents, Ash. You can’t keep them from their great-grandfather. The chief’s one of the finest men I’ve ever known.”

Tears jumped into her eyes. “Grandfather is one of the finest men to ever walk the planet,” Ash said. “Thank you for respecting him.”

“Respect him, hell. I want to be him.”

She smiled. “We all do.”

“Anyway,” Xav said, “in these babies flows Callahan blood. You’ve got to take them home, tell your family the truth of why you left.”

“I didn’t leave because I was pregnant. I left because I knew I’d brought trouble to Rancho Diablo and my family when I disobeyed Grandfather by killing Wolf. You don’t understand what it’s like to bring a curse upon your own family.”

“No, but I do understand you have a bigger problem, beautiful, which is what your brothers are going to do to you when they find out you had four little Callahans and kept them out of the whole process. You shared in all their pregnancies, the joy, the misery, all of it.” He shook his head.

“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. I didn’t make the decision to leave lightly. You were there, you know I went against Grandfather’s teachings.”

He shrugged. “Your brothers are still going to be hot with you about this. Not as hot as I am, but they’re going to be awfully let down.”

“I couldn’t tell you,” Ash said. “You’d have followed me anywhere I went if you’d known I was pregnant.”

“I followed you anyway. Babies didn’t figure into my equation, but I wasn’t about to let the trail go cold.” He looked at her and shook his head again. “You little devil. When were you going to tell me?”

That was the question she had asked herself many times: When should she tell Xav he was a father?

There had been no good answers. If she’d told him where she was, she’d have to tell all the family—hardly a way to keep them safe. “Xav, you don’t understand. I know you think you’re a Callahan now, but you’re not. You didn’t grow up understanding that some things just can’t be explained. Spiritual and mystical things.”

“The ghosts at Rancho Diablo aren’t any worse than the ones at the Phillips compound, I assure you.”

She shook her head impatiently. “I don’t mean secrets, I’m talking about spirits. We live our lives by the spirits. And there are evil spirits in the world. One of them is Uncle Wolf. I wasn’t about to bring tragedy on my children by exposing them to him.”

“It makes sense, but it also sounds like you don’t think I can protect you or my own flesh and blood. I assure you I can, and I will.”

It was so true what Xav said. Somehow she’d known he’d find her eventually. Their paths were meant to cross again.

She’d just thought it would be further in the future. Past the holidays, away from sentiment and the longing for home at Christmas that had come over her lately. “Like Mallory said, this is Briar,” she said, pointing to her firstborn, “and her sister is Skye. Skye’s my special one.” She reached a gentle finger to stroke Skye’s back. The baby slept on, undisturbed. “Skye is a Down’s syndrome baby, and my happiest spirit. She rarely fusses, just really wants to snuggle. Skye has Grandfather Running Bear’s spirit. It’s strong in her. Briar is strong physically. She always keeps her head turned toward her sister. I think she’s determined to protect her.” She looked at Xav. He was smiling, his eyes peaceful as he listened, so she continued. “This is Thorn. He was born second, and had some lung issues for a while. But the doctors expect him to make a full recovery. And this is Valor,” she said, gently patting her last son. “It was touch and go for him for a while, and I really thought I might lose him. All of them were underweight, of course, so there was a lot of time in the hospital. They’ve only been home with me for about three weeks. Valor became stronger and stronger, and now I really believe he’s going to be a warrior like Running Bear. I can feel him listening to the world around him, and I know he’s taking it all in.”

“When were they born?”

“October 15. Cesarean section. Briar came home first, then Valor. Thorn and Skye came home together the day before Thanksgiving, so I felt very blessed. Mallory’s been a rock. I couldn’t have done it without her.”

Xav got up, stalked to the window. “I wish I’d been here. I should have been here.”

“I wish things could have been different. But everything changed when I shot my uncle. It set things in motion I had no control over. And since you’ve spent the last several years working at Rancho Diablo, you know that as well as anyone.”

Chapter Three

Briar, Thorn, Skye and Valor—all strong names. Xav looked at his children with amazement and some lingering shock. How had this happened? How had he become a father of four, as easily as if a Fiona-style fairy godmother had waved her magic wand at him, gifting him with a full-blown family?

God, he couldn’t blame this on Fiona or even a fairy godmother, even though Fiona had totally and not too subtly plotted to enlarge her Callahan family tree. All the Callahans, every last one of them, had fallen to Fiona’s legendary and epic lures and chicanery to see her family with families of their own, but Ash won the prize for secret babypalooza. He stared in shock at his four offspring, trying to figure out how his world had changed when he wasn’t paying attention.

The “magic” had simply been an old-fashioned condom malfunction and his own raging desire to have the blonde sylph currently sitting on the sofa every which way from Sunday any chance he could reel her in.

She’d not been as reelable as he would have liked, and consequently, he’d spent most of his years with a serious case of unrequited longing. And every time he’d thought he’d had Ash, she’d disappeared again, leaving him satisfied for the moment but drained emotionally because who knew how long he’d have to wait until the next time she showed up in the canyons wearing a smile that made him virtually her love captive?

Undaunted, he’d played a waiting game, slightly uncomfortable because he felt guilty luring the sister of the men whom he considered good friends and employers. So he had to wait for Ash to come to him to lessen his guilt, when he really wanted to ride off with her into the canyons and drown himself in her for days.

“I left the middle names for you,” Ash said, snapping him out of his tangled thoughts. “I thought you’d want to have some say in naming your children.”

So Ash had eventually planned to tell him. He felt a little better. “How did four happen?”

She shrugged. “I wanted them, and they wanted me.”

What kind of an answer was that? Coming from Ash, it was almost reasonable, but he needed more grounding. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“I asked the spirits for a big family. I always wanted four children. I didn’t realize I’d get them all at once, but I feel really blessed.” She smiled, and she was the most beautiful woman in the world to his Ashlyn-starved eyes. “These babies agreed to be my family.”

The answer somehow made absolute sense to him. Whatever Ash wanted, Ash believed she would get—and so her wishes usually happened exactly the way she dreamed them. It was her force of spirit and confidence that commanded the earth and stars around her.

Except for Wolf, who she had no command over, and the reason she was here.

“Look, Ash, I know why you went away. I know you think you’re the hunted one your grandfather always warned about. But I shot Wolf. So you’re not the hunted one.” It was so important that she understand this, because they needed to put their family together.

He needed this family. He needed her.

Xav pulled her toward him, wrapped her in his arms. She seemed so surprised she didn’t fight him, so he took advantage of her momentary lull in willpower and enjoyed the moment. Memories washed over him. “You still smell like peaches, you’re still soft as rainwater and you still fit right under my heart.”

“I am the hunted one,” Ash said quietly. “You’re trying to protect me.”

“Gage, Shaman, Kendall and Ashlyn,” he said against her hair, drinking in the scent of her and the feel of her in his arms.

“What?”

“Those are the middle names I choose. And you should be impressed with my ability to select names when I didn’t even know I was a father four hours ago. Briar Kendall, Skye Ashlyn, Valor Shaman and Thorn Gage. Phillips. Named after my brothers and sister. Have to have the other side of the family represented.”

She moved out of his arms, and he decided not to try to pull her back. “Callahan, not Phillips.”

He hauled her into his lap as he sat down on the poufy old-fashioned sofa. “Here’s the deal. You marry me and you can pick all the names.”

“No,” Ash said, “I like the names you chose.”

“Great. Now,” he said, taking the diamond-and-sapphire ring from his pocket, “here’s what I was going to give you the last night we were together. Put it on your delicate little finger and tell me when and where we’re going to gather for a wedding.”

She stared at the ring. “Were you really going to give that to me before Wolf ambushed us?”

He nodded. “It was a very disappointing interruption, I’ll admit.” Nine months of an interruption. “I would have proposed at some appropriate point after I shot Wolf, but you disappeared. Which I would appreciate you not doing again.” He looked at his children. “I want to give these children my name as soon as possible.”

She handed him back the ring. “As beautiful as this ring is, I can’t marry you.”

“I can’t make love to you until you do.”

Ash cocked a brow. “Who says I want you to make love to me?”

He kissed her, taking his time, before she finally pushed him gently away. “You want me to make love to you right now, Ashlyn Callahan.”

Ash got out of his lap. “Xav, you don’t understand.”

“I understand that we belong together. That’s all I need to know. The only reason you’re saying no is because you don’t believe that I shot Wolf. Let me tell you how that went down,” Xav said. “I had unloaded your gun.”

“No one gets my gun away from me.” She looked at the babies with a fond smile. “Of course, that was before I became a mother. Now I never carry.”

“I made love to you, and while you dozed, I took the precaution of removing the bullets from your gun.”

“Why?” She shot him a suspicious look.

“Because, my sweet peach, you have your unpredictable moments, and I was about to propose.” He waved the ring box at her. “I figured my chances were fifty-fifty that you might say yes. Or you might decide to tell me to walk the plank.” He grinned, pleased with himself. “I’m a cautious man.”

“You thought I’d shoot you over a marriage proposal?”

“It was just a precaution. I like putting odds in my favor. I’ve learned a lot from the Callahans over the years.”

She sighed. “Xav, I appreciate you trying to lift the burden of guilt from me, but your story makes no sense whatsoever. I’d know if a gun I fired didn’t have a round in it. But you’re a hero for trying to make me think I’m not the hunted one. I know I am.”

She drifted out of the room, his gaze longingly on the petite body he remembered so well. Missed so much. When she was gone, he looked at his four children. “If you four got even a teaspoon of your mother’s obstinate streak, you’ll be able to survive anything the world throws at you.”

Mallory came in, set a tray in front of him. “Green chili? Tea?”

His stomach rumbled a bit since he hadn’t touched the cake she’d brought in before. “Both. Thanks.”

Mallory sat across from him, busied herself with the tray. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“All good, I hope.”

“You definitely live up to Ash’s description.”

“Which was what?”

“Tall, dark, handsome.”

Mallory had a wealth of freckles, sparkling eyes, and dark hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. She radiated good humor. “Thanks for helping out with my crew.”

“Ash also mentioned you weren’t the settling-down type,” Mallory continued.

“I just proposed,” Xav said. “Although the lady hasn’t accepted yet. She’s thinking it over.”

Mallory smiled. “Ash said she chased you for years, but that you weren’t a man who could be caught.”

He wondered why Ash would tell her friend such a story. “My proposal even came with a ring.”

“I believe you,” Mallory said. “I’m just giving you a little tip. I’m off to bake cupcakes before the babies wake up. They don’t sleep long during the day. Or the night. It’s nice to meet you, Xav. Feel free to stay in our home if Ash invites you.”

She left, and Xav considered his options. Of course he was staying here with his children!

Actually, Ash hadn’t invited him. He might not be invited. Even offering an engagement ring, a guy might find himself sleeping in his truck. And what was that business about him not being a man who could be caught?

It was Ash Callahan who’d run like the wind during their entire courtship, if one could call it a courtship.

He didn’t know what he was going to do with that crazy little gal. She had certain ideas about how things had been and how they hadn’t been—and the funny thing was, she was the mother of his children.

He was going to have to figure this out—fast.

He heard a snuffle from one of the bassinets, a small mewl, and he went to check on Skye. “Hey,” he whispered to his daughter, “you want to be picked up?”

The baby let out a tiny noise so he picked her up, nestled her against his chest. And something amazing, something strong, fabulous and true, landed right in his heart, igniting a burning love he’d never experienced before. He held his child, smelled her powdery skin, felt her soft, soft helpless body in his arms, and knew that he’d go to the ends of the earth to be with these children, to protect them, to shelter them, to shield them.

With every last breath in his body.

* * *

ASH STARED AT the big sexy cowboy sprawled out on the delicate curved sofa, sound asleep, his boots carefully hanging off Mallory’s beloved if old-fashioned furniture. He held Skye against his chest, and the two of them slept peacefully, like two parts of the same body.

Tears jumped into Ash’s eyes. Of all the ways she’d imagined Xav interacting with her babies, this wasn’t it—and it was better than she could have ever imagined.

She felt her heart spiraling into that same love-struck groove it had always been in where Xav was concerned.

It was the most helpless feeling in the world.

He opened his eyes, smiled at her. “Have a good shower?” he asked softly, so he wouldn’t wake the baby.

“I’m a new woman.” Ash sat in the chair across from him, the table in between. Mallory had obviously visited with her comfort food, and Xav had partaken. The homey scents of soup and cinnamon drifted to her. “Do you want me to take Skye?”

“She’s fine.” He stroked his daughter’s back. “She’s a content little thing once she’s picked up and held.”

“She’s an angel.” She looked at her children, all silent for once, a rarity. “I love these babies so much.”

“So how’d you end up here?” Xav asked, his gaze piercing as he stared at her. His seen-better-days cowboy hat had slipped forward just a bit as he napped with Skye; he’d probably thought he was lying down for a moment to comfort the baby and didn’t think he needed to take it off, then fell asleep. She wanted to remove it for him, smooth the long, dark hair with her fingers.

“Running Bear knew Mallory.”

“Of course he did,” Xav said. “All these months he kept your location secret from everyone?”

“Grandfather knew I needed to get away. He said I’d be safe here. Mallory’s married to a man in law enforcement. He works in another county so I’ve never met him, but all the local law enforcement and their wives keep a very close eye on Mallory. She’s a favorite town daughter.” Ash shrugged. “Running Bear said not only would I be safe here, I’d have a mother figure in my life. I said I didn’t need one, and he said maybe one day I would.”

“So he knew you were pregnant?”

Ash shook her head. “No.” She didn’t want Xav upset and thinking that the Callahans had been in on a plot to keep him from his children. “Well, no one really ever knows what Running Bear knows. He seems to discern things before anyone else does.”

Xav grunted. “I’d like to have known some things about your life, Ashlyn Callahan. About four really small things that should be wearing my last name.”

“I don’t blame you one bit for feeling that way.” Xav was a man of his word, he’d spent several years of his life dedicated to the Callahan cause. “I’m so sorry, Xav. I couldn’t tell anyone. And I didn’t know I was pregnant with multiples until my ob-gyn here sent me to Houston for a consultation with a doctor who specialized in high-risk pregnancies.”

“I would have taken care of you, Ash. Whatever you needed. I wish you’d have let me help you out. I’m sure it was hard to be away from your family while you were pregnant.”

It had been. “I was lonely, I’ll admit. It was a long time to be confined to a bed. I was often worried about my children.” She swallowed. “It was the first time in my life I knew real fear.”

“You’re a warrior, Ashlyn Callahan. Tough as rocks.”

“I know.” She smiled a little wistfully. “But even the toughest mother feels a bit helpless when she’s not sure if she can bring four babies into the world safely.”

“Come sit by Skye. She wants to hold your hand.”

She gave the hot cowboy a wry look, knowing very well who wanted to hold her hand. “She’s only going to sleep another five minutes. Then she’s going to wake up—and so will all of her siblings—and the circus begins again. I suggest you rest up, cowboy. You’re going to need your strength.”

* * *

IF XAV NEEDED STRENGTH, it wasn’t for the “baby circus” to which Ash referred. The strength he required was for going slowly, gingerly, trying to fit into her life, instead of trying to make her fit into his desperate wish that she’d marry him.

That conversation hadn’t gone off exactly as hoped, with an enthusiastic “Yes, I’ll marry you, Xav!”

But he’d been expecting that, and a man who planned well had backup paths to his desired outcome. After the circus—as Ash called it—was completed and the babies were snug in their bassinets and satisfied for the moment, Xav gestured to the babies who lay in the soft glow from the Christmas-tree lights. “I’ve been thinking, actually the children and I have been thinking. Skye suggests that if her mother is the hunted one, who is destined to bring hellfire and danger to Rancho Diablo and its inhabitants, you’re going to need backup. I’m applying for the job. Thorn said he thought it was about time I stepped up, and Briar said a father would make her feel safer than even the Marine Corps at her back. And Valor said it’d be good to turn the responsibility over to me until he’s old enough to handle it himself.”

Ash stayed far away from him at the other end of the sofa. “You’ve been conspiring with my children?”

“I’ve been conspiring with our children, yes. And we’ve come up with quite the remarkable plan. They’re very bright, you know.”

Ash let out a breath that sounded a bit exasperated. But he thought he was winning her over, because she said, “What is this remarkable plan?”

“You marry me, and we produce a formidable team that faces all challenges together. Including the damnation of being the hunted one.” He thought about that for a moment. “I’m still not sure about all the ramifications of that particular designation, but let the record reflect that I face it fearlessly.”

“I didn’t make the decision to come here lightly. I wouldn’t have left Rancho Diablo if I hadn’t known that it was best for everyone.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t make the decision to come here lightly, either. Let’s consider you stuck with me.”

“That’s your marriage proposal?”

“Sure. It’ll probably work better with you than the old-fashioned, hearts-and-flowers, on-bended-knee routine.”

“Maybe,” Ash said, sounding as if she might actually be considering his counterproposal, until the front door crashed open so hard the drapes at the window flew.

“Don’t move,” Wolf said, “or this time this kid gets it.”

He pointed a gun at Skye, and Ash gasped. Wolf’s right-hand man, Rhein, slipped in behind his boss, aiming his gun at Ash. “And little mama gets her payback for nearly killing you, Boss.”

Xav had never felt so helpless in his life. He’d taken off his holster after entering the house—not wanting to carry when he was around the children. That left him unarmed now, at the worst moment of his life. There was blood in Wolf’s eye and he was out for the prize, the biggest Callahan prize of all—the silver-haired only daughter of the Callahan clan—and right then Xav knew that Ash had been right all along.

She was indeed the hunted one.

Chapter Four

“Don’t even think about heroics,” Wolf said. “Here’s where you get lucky. I happen to be in a giving mood tonight. I take my niece, and leave you here alive with these bundles of joy.”

Ash looked terrified—and mad—as Rhein held her arms together, quickly binding them with nylon cuffs. Xav feared for her if things got out of control. Ash had a fiery temper and he hoped she didn’t unleash it. He started to say, “She’s nursing these babies, don’t be an idiot, take me instead,” then realized he couldn’t offer that deal because Wolf didn’t know these were Callahan children.

If Wolf knew, he’d be just as likely to kidnap them all.

“You don’t want her,” Xav said. “Taking her will bring down Callahan wrath on you.”

“I know what I’m doing. Thanks, though, for the generous advice.” Wolf jerked his head at Rhein to depart with Ash. She kicked Rhein in the shin, and he slapped her. Xav grit his teeth, reminding himself that the patient man left himself the most options.

“If you call the law, we’ll kill her,” Wolf said, waving his gun for emphasis.

“You’d kill your own niece,” Xav stated, his voice deadly quiet. Wolf had a hair-trigger temper as the door hanging by a hinge illustrated. He’d been spoiling for revenge for months.

“I probably will anyway, but that’s not your concern.” He glanced at the babies in the bassinets, sleeping soundly for the moment, thankfully. “Let me tell you how this is going to go down. This isn’t about you, it doesn’t concern you. If you come after us, we’ll shoot her on the spot. But if you give us an hour’s head start, she’ll live. Best deal I’ll offer you. Don’t make me have to shoot you, too,” Wolf said. “I’m kind of in a killing mood, to be honest. In case you don’t know, my dear angelic niece nearly killed me. She and I have things to talk about, but that’s none of your business.” He stared Xav down. “You get me?”

“I do. One hour head start, no more.”

“That’s all I need for the party I’m planning.” Wolf followed Rhein to his black truck.

Mallory peeked around the corner. “What is going on?”

“Just an unforeseen event that requires a bit of attention. Can you move the babies to the back of the house, quickly?”

Mallory grabbed up a baby, then another, and scrambled down the hall. Xav didn’t move, but watched Ash put up a helluva fight as Rhein and Wolf tried to get her into the truck. Mallory had the other two babies moved while Ash struggled, and Xav got his gun from the holster he’d laid on the sofa, unlocked it and checked the magazine.

“Do you want me to call the sheriff?” Mallory whispered from the kitchen.

“In a minute you’re going to hear two shots. After the second shot, you can call the sheriff.”

“Okay.”

He heard the kitchen door close and trained his eyes on Ash. Rhein and Wolf had finally managed to wrangle her into the truck, and were driving away when suddenly she fell out of the vehicle and started to run toward the woods across the street. The truck stopped and Wolf and Rhein ran after her, and from the front door, Xav fired once, twice.

He smiled.

Ash whirled to stare at him from two hundred yards away. Her hands were still bound. She bent down to stare at her uncle and gave Rhein a cursory glance. Stomping toward the house, she met him on the porch, her eyes blazing.

“You killed him!”

Xav shrugged. “He said he was in a killing mood. I decided to take care of his mood.”

“Running Bear said no one was to harm his son!”

He stared at the silver-haired spitfire he adored from her small feet to her big, wide navy eyes—Callahan eyes. “Your grandfather said none of you Callahans were to harm him. Me, I’m not a Callahan. I’m a Phillips. And as your uncle so clearly pointed out, his problem had nothing to do with me.” He tugged Ash to him, removing his knife from his boot to cut her free. “Now, the mother of my children has everything to do with me. There was no way on this planet I was going to let him drag off my babies’ mother.”

Ash slowly nodded and drew a shaky breath. “Thank you.”

He enveloped her in his arms. “I take it you’re not going to fire me, Callahan?”

She sniffled against his chest, and he realized his nerves-of-steel lady was shaken, frightened. He decided it was best not to injure her pride by commenting on her tears. Stroking her back, he let her know she was safe.

“Where are the babies?” she asked, her voice slightly unsteady.

“Safe in the nice warm kitchen with Mallory. She’s called the sheriff. You should go take a bath, try to relax.” He ran a hand down her long blond ponytail.

She drew in a hiccup breath. “I think I’ll go call Running Bear.”

“Even better idea.” The chief would calm Ash down, relieve her anxiety. She disappeared, and as the sun began setting in the sky, sending the gray of winter into the living room, Xav glanced at the empty bassinets and thought how lucky it was that he’d found Ash when he had. Things could have turned out so differently if Wolf had gotten here before he did.

But knowing the chief the way he did, the timing was probably no accident at all.

* * *

“THERE’RE NO BODIES anywhere out there,” Sheriff Lopez said thirty minutes later. He and his deputies had scoured the fields and woods across the way, returning to the house to make their report. “Are you sure you hit them? Because we find no evidence of blood or any type of struggle.”

Ash and Xav shared a startled glance. “I know they were dead,” Ash told the sheriff. “I’m sure Rhein was. And Wolf didn’t look very lively.”

They stood inside at the fireplace, warming themselves as the sheriff wrote up their statements. She’d offered him some hot cocoa, which he’d accepted gratefully. The weather outdoors was a bone-chilling fifteen degrees, and the sheriff and his men had been searching for Wolf and Rhein with no luck. Now it was dark—solidly black outside the big window. The Christmas-tree lights twinkled with soft color, but Ash didn’t feel any sense of holiday peace.

Not now.

“I shot both of them.” Xav leaned against the mantel, stared down at the fire. “I didn’t aim to merely wound. I saw them hit the ground.”

“Well, it’s a mystery,” Sheriff Lopez said, his tone cheerful for a man who’d been out hunting for dead thugs. “You should get some sleep, Ash. I’m sure those four angels of yours keep you quite busy.”

He tipped his hat to her, thanked her for the cocoa, told her to say goodbye to Mallory for him and slipped out the front door. She turned to Xav who studied her with his dark, intense gaze.

“That’s odd. Don’t you think? There’s no way the bodies weren’t out there,” Ash said.

“I know. I don’t understand it.”

She wanted to walk into Xav’s arms and stay there forever. She couldn’t. He’d killed two men because of her. She had brought darkness and devastation to him, just as Running Bear’s warning had foretold. “You’d never killed anyone before, had you?” she asked, destroyed by the knowledge he’d crossed a place in his soul he could never return from because of her.

“That’s not something I’m going to discuss.”

“You shouldn’t bear that because of me, because of my family.”

“I don’t bear anything, Ash. Two armed men entered your home with full intent to kidnap you. Perhaps they would have returned for the children.” He shrugged. “If there was a burden for me to bear, it would have been calling your brothers and telling them I’d let Wolf kidnap you. He clearly intended to harm you. I feel no burden at all. Besides which, your brothers don’t even know that you’ve had children. If they knew that you’d just been attacked, this place would be swarming with Callahans rushing to protect their sister. No, I feel no burden at all, just a sense of peace.”

“I don’t feel peace.” She glanced toward the window, at the darkness shrouding the house. “I feel unsettled. It didn’t take the sheriff but maybe thirty minutes to get here. What happened to the bodies?”

“I don’t know.” He pulled her into his arms and she went willingly. “But they were dead, Ash. They’re not ever coming back to hurt you or the children.”

“I know.” Goose pimples ran over her arms just the same, and a dizzying sense of worry swept her.

“I thought some potato soup and hot apple cider might be the thing to settle everyone’s nerves,” Mallory said, poking her head into the room. “Oh, the sheriff’s gone. Let me bring you two something to eat.”

“Thank you,” Ash said, glad for the interruption even if she didn’t feel like eating. Anything to feel like life was normal, and not a horrible nightmare from which she couldn’t wake.

“I would swear I’ve seen Mallory somewhere before,” Xav said, staring after the older woman. “I have the strangest feeling I know her.”

“You’re from Texas. Were you ever in Wild?”

“No. Kendall, Gage, Shaman and I have been through lots of the state with Gil Phillips, Inc., but somehow we never made it to Wild.”

“Maybe she reminds you of someone you met.” Ash left his arms and went to the tray to pour a cup of cider for him and one for her. “She’s been very good to me. Motherly, in a way.”

“I’m glad.” He sat across from her, took the mug she handed him. “What did Running Bear say when you called him?”

“That things happen the way they are meant to. That I should take care of the babies now.”

“He wants you to return to Rancho Diablo?”

“We didn’t discuss it. But I know it’s time.” Ash wanted her brothers to meet their new nieces and nephews; she wanted to hug Fiona and Burke. She’d been so homesick, though she wouldn’t say that out loud. “I’d like to be home for Christmas.”

“Consider my truck your sleigh, then,” Xav said, and Ash nodded, glad that her children’s father could be with them.

But she had a niggling feeling she’d brought darkness to Xav’s soul.

* * *

MALLORY CAME OUT to say goodbye, and help them put the babies in the SUV the sheriff had lent Ash and Xav to get home with their babies.

“I’ll miss them,” Mallory said.

“Come with us,” Ash said. “I could certainly use the help.” She would miss Mallory, too, and terribly so. The two of them had grown close during the months they’d spent together.

“I would love to come with you,” Mallory said, “but I’m better staying here. Feel free to return whenever you want to. Holidays, weekends, weekdays, whenever.”

Ash smiled and hugged Mallory. “I’ll remember that.”

“Keep up the fight,” Mallory whispered against her ear. “The fight is all that matters. And remember that so often what we think we see hides what we really should be seeing.”

Ash hesitated. “The fight?”

Mallory pulled away and thrust a bag into Ash’s hands. “These are snacks for the road. You’ll find just about everything one needs for good nutrition between here and Rancho Diablo without having to stop for fast food.” She smiled at Xav. “Thank you for keeping an eye on Ashlyn. She’s very special to me.”

“You won’t be worried to stay here by yourself?” Xav asked Mallory. Ash watched his gaze sweep the property before he shook Mallory’s hand.

“No. I’m not afraid. All is well with me here. Drive safely. Let me know when you arrive.”

They got in the truck, waved goodbye. “I don’t know what I’ll do without her,” Ash said.

“I know. She treats you like a long-lost daughter.” Xav started the truck and drove off. They waved to Mallory as she stood on the porch, watching them go.

“She said something about keeping up the fight,” Ash said. The rest of Mallory’s words echoed in her head, but she didn’t repeat them. “She’ll be safe, won’t she?”

“Sure. The sheriff will keep a tight eye on her.”

“I don’t understand where the bodies went. It worries me.” Mallory’s life had been uncomplicated before the Callahans had arrived.

“She’ll call if she needs help. She has my cell number.”

Ash looked at Xav, grateful for his calm strength. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He glanced at her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Just a little worried about Mallory.”

“She knew what she was getting into when Running Bear asked her if you could stay there, babe.”

“I wish she’d come with us.”

He put his hand over hers, lightly squeezing her fingers. “We’ll bring the babies back to see her soon.”

She looked at him. “Thank you for understanding. And for being here.”

It felt strange to be in a car with Xav, with their four children, considering the many years she’d spent chasing after him. “You know, in all the years I’ve know you, you never asked me out.”

A smile creased his nicely shaped lips, lips that Ash had loved kissing, wanted to kiss now. “You’re right. I didn’t.”

“Why not?” For so long she’d despaired of ever “catching” Xav. “It always felt like you were avoiding me.”

“I was.” He laughed at her gasp. “I could see no good reason to allow my employer’s wild little sister to seduce me. And it was clear that was what was on your mind.”

“I don’t know that you put up that much of a fight.”

He laughed. “I liked letting you catch me, I’m not going to lie.”

She arched a brow. “I don’t believe for a moment that you were afraid of my brothers.”

“Not afraid. Wary. Then again, I was faced with one tiny, loud, adorable lady who had a penchant for lovemaking while I was on duty. What’s a guy to do?”

Ash looked out the window. “Exactly what you did.”

“That’s right. And now I plan to marry you, make an honest woman of you. I’m not sure that’s entirely possible, but we’ll give it our best shot.”

“I never agreed to that.”

“You will,” he said cheerfully, “or no more lovemaking for you.”

She turned to him. “That’s your best bargaining chip?”

“It was good enough to get you into the canyons, beautiful, it’ll be good enough to get you to say ‘I do.’”

“We’ll see,” Ash said.

“Yes, we will,” Xav said, and kissed her hand like an old-fashioned prince in her personal fairy tale.

But he wasn’t. He’d shot her uncle and his thug, and they’d disappeared. He’d done that for her, and nothing was right about the price he’d had to pay for her.

She needed to talk to Running Bear in the worst way. Only he would understand that she couldn’t bring evil to her own family, and certainly not to the man she loved.

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