Sweet Callahan Homecoming By Tina Leonard
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.”
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.