chapter Five
Xav and Ash spent the night in the first town they hit in New Mexico, but staying in a hotel with four babies proved to be an experience Xav didn’t want to repeat. The entire time they were there Xav had the eerie feeling they were being watched, and he had no good way to protect his family.
Glad as he was to finally arrive at Rancho Diablo, he was somewhat apprehensive about facing the Callahans. According to Ash, she hadn’t told them about the fact that she was pregnant when she’d left Rancho Diablo, nor that she’d had four children—and they didn’t know he’d killed Wolf. The conversation was destined to be Callahan crazy. Xav took a deep breath and looked around, trying to decide if he felt as if he was at home, or in the enemy camp.
He’d know soon enough.
The stunning Tudor-style house with the seven chimneys had always seemed like something out of a legendary tale, a backdrop to the immense beauty of New Mexico. As comfortable as his own compound at Hell’s Colony was—where the Callahan cousins currently resided with their many children for safekeeping, and several of the Chacon Callahan wives and children, too—his statuesque mansion always struck Xav as nothing short of an architectural ode to freedom and spirit. Now Sloan, Falcon, Tighe, Tighe’s twin, Dante, Jace and Galen Chacon Callahan eyed him as Sloan handed him a whiskey in the beautiful upstairs library where the family meetings were always held—his first time to be included.
He almost thought the gesture felt a little ominous, but since he’d texted the brothers to say he was coming home with their sister and would like to request a meeting, maybe they were giving him a courtesy by inviting him into the vaunted private area.
The Callahan brothers took seats on the fine dark leather sofas and looked at him expectantly.
“So, you called this meeting,” Galen said. “We were a little surprised you returned. Hell, we were surprised that you left. Didn’t know you’d left to find our sister until Fiona finally told us.”
“I did give notice of my departure,” Xav reminded the brothers.
“Yes,” Tighe said, “but you didn’t say you were going to find Ash. We figured you were going to visit your family.”
“Or take a well-deserved vacation.” Jace grinned. “Actually, we figured you were going off for a major bender. Or had found a new lady you—”
“No,” Xav said, interrupting to head off that train of thought. Crap, why would they imagine he was looking at anyone besides their sister? He hadn’t since the moment he first saw her. If he counted the years he’d been in love with Ash and waited to have her, he’d certainly put in enough time to grow a beard to his boots. “I did not go off on a bender or with a woman. I went to bring Ash home, as Fiona asked.”
There was general nodding from the brothers. Fiona’s wish was typically her command, and when she gave one everyone jumped. Xav swallowed the whiskey, realizing the atmosphere was tense. Perhaps best to change the subject. “Maybe you’ve heard through the grapevine that I shot Wolf. And Rhein.”
Falcon nodded. “We did hear about that from Ash.”
The room was very still; no one moved. Xav swallowed uncomfortably. He didn’t know if they’d thank him or tell him he’d crossed some huge Callahan boundary. “I know the rule that governs you where Wolf was concerned, but I had no choice. They were kidnapping Ash.” His blood still boiled at the memory.
The Callahans wore grave expressions, displeased by the threat to their beloved sister. He heard a few muttered curse words, some dire venting of temper soaked up by whiskey sipping.
“The problem is, they disappeared,” Xav said. “Wolf and Rhein were dead, as far as I could tell. But when the sheriff went to find them, he said he couldn’t locate the bodies.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Dante said. “It worries me.”
“You got off clean shots?” Galen asked.
“They were taking Ash,” Xav said, his jaw tensing. “I wasn’t going to let that happen. The shots were clean.”
“Ash says they definitely looked dead.” Tighe shrugged. “Ash would know.”
He’d aimed to kill. “They were as dead as I could make them,” Xav said flatly. “Unless they’re immortal.”
“Then you did your job well,” Jace said. “For that we thank you.”
“Do we?” Sloan asked. “Besides the fact that he didn’t let our sister get kidnapped—which I have no doubt would have ended very badly for all—we were told by Grandfather not to kill his son.”
“Xav’s only a Callahan in spirit,” Falcon said. “Whatever Running Bear is worried about should not apply to Xav.”
“Okay,” Galen said, “so why have you returned?”
The question surprised Xav. “Why wouldn’t Ash want to return to Rancho Diablo? It’s the Christmas season. She’s been gone almost a year.”
“Yes,” Galen said, “but it’s still not safe here.”
“Tell your sister that,” Xav said. “I went to go get her, true, but she wanted to come home after Wolf—” He stopped, not really sure how to proceed. “Why did Ash tell you she wanted to come home?”
“She said you found her, asked her to marry you,” Sloan said. “She says she doesn’t want to marry you.”
They looked quite defensive of their sister, and not impressed with his offer of marriage. If he hadn’t expected some blowback, he might have wilted a bit in the face of this lack of enthusiasm for his marriage suit.
But one expected tricky curves in the road from the Callahans. They were totally unpredictable—and proud of it.
“Look, your sister’s in a difficult spot right now.”
“But you do want to marry her?” Falcon asked.
“Of course I do!” Xav glared at the men who would be his brothers-in-law. “Didn’t you want to marry the mother of your offspring?”
They all looked at him curiously.
“Offspring?” Dante asked. “Has something sprung?”
“What is an offspring, anyway?” Tighe asked his twin. “Offspring. That word makes no sense. It has nothing to do with babies, or children, or anything else.” He looked at Xav. “Ash has no offspring, if you clumsily mean children.”
Xav blinked at his employers. “Ash drew a four of a kind when you fellows weren’t looking.”
“Four of a kind?” Jace looked perplexed. “Ash doesn’t play poker. She can play a mean hand of old maid, but she prefers chess as a rule.”
Xav wondered if they were deliberately being obtuse, joshing him about his new dad status. The Callahans were known to be tricksters, and nobody loved playing a practical joke more than they did.
He realized with some approbation that as Ash had been driving the truck when they’d finally made it back to Rancho Diablo, she’d dropped him off out in front of the house, saying that Fiona was waiting for her in the kitchen. Fiona could help her with the babies and Ash asked Xav to go find her brothers to let them know she was home. Her brothers would likely be scattered around the ranch, and texts would need to be sent, she’d said. Besides, she wanted to walk in the back door where the scent of Fiona’s baking would be in the kitchen, one of her fondest memories.
Xav had agreed, and gone to start locating Callahans, a job anyone knew could be like herding cats. “Didn’t you talk to Ash?”
“She sent a group text, said you were calling a meeting, which we already knew from your text.” Galen shrugged. “We figured something had to be up. Right now, we just want to see her. Where the hell is she?”
That little minx. She’d told him to hunt up her brothers, then pulled a disappearing act. She’d sent him on a fool’s errand to give her time to sneak in the house. She had no intention of being the one to tell her brothers she had four babies. She was going to let him be the bearer of shocking news—and put one over on her brothers. Xav frowned. “The race for that ranch land across the canyons was called off, wasn’t it? Didn’t you buy all that land?” he asked Galen.
“Loco Diablo?” Galen nodded. “I bought it, and then I parceled it out to my siblings, including Ash. She doesn’t know yet because she’s been gone. Nobody gets their share until they have a family, according to Fiona’s dictates, so Ash’s is still being held in trust until she marries. Why do you ask? Thinking of proposing properly?”
“I have proposed properly! About a hundred times!” What was wrong with these thickheaded Callahans? Didn’t they understand that he was crazy about their sister? “She won’t marry me. We have four children together, but your sister has a thousand reasons, most of them superstitious mumbo jumbo, in my opinion, to avoid giving my children my name!”
They stared at him blankly.
“Babies?” Dante said. “You said a four of a kind. You didn’t say Ash had babies. Is that what you’re trying to say in a rather ham-handed fashion?”
“Ash and I are the parents of four beautiful babies,” Xav said, slowly, enunciating, so they could understand that this was a moment for celebration and not for being thick as milk shakes.
“Four?” Jace guffawed. He clapped Xav on the back. “Nice try. Our sister doesn’t have four children. That would make her the outright winner of Loco Diablo. It would mean our tiny little sister, who couldn’t be tamed if someone spent years trying, is a mother. The whole thing is so impossible that if it were true, we’d basically have to give her Loco Diablo as an homage to her accomplishment. Four children! Ha-ha-ha,” Jace said, obviously very amused and well pleased with his jibe at Xav.
The brothers chuckled, eyed Xav with patient, laughing eyes. As if he was simple as a stone.
Galen shook his head. “Where would Ash get four children? And is that why you asked about Loco Diablo? You hoping for a cut, slick?”
He was so close to punching his employers in their Callahan noses.
“While we appreciate you taking care of our sister and doing the deed on Uncle Wolf, we don’t give out land,” Falcon said. “It’s not ours to give. It’s really our Callahan cousins, as is this house, because they’d get a vote in anything that happens here. We consider ourselves merely warriors.”
“In fact,” Tighe said, “if Uncle Wolf is really dead, our cousins can come home. And we can move on!”
They all stared at each other, realization sinking in.
“My God, we’re free,” Sloan said.
“Free,” Dante repeated. “Thanks to you, Xav.”
“Is anyone listening?” Xav demanded. “I’m in love with your sister, and I want to marry her, and we have four children, and no, I don’t want your stupid land, but I could use some backup here! Little sister isn’t gonna be exactly easy to drag to the altar, and I assume you’d like her married now that she’s a mother!”
“Whoa,” Sloan said. “Easy, brother.”
“Chill,” Falcon said. “Let your spirit be calm.”
“Deep breaths,” Tighe said. “Breathe from the air which blesses us.”
“Think of yourself as spirit, untroubled, free,” Dante said, his voice hypnotic.
“Have some more whiskey,” Jace said, topping off his crystal tumbler.
“Meditate,” Galen said. “Meditation is the key to a peaceful soul.”
Xav sank back into the leather. “You’re all certifiable. Nutty as fruitcakes.”
Ash walked into the library, and her brothers stared at the huge stroller she rolled in front of her. “Thank heaven for the secret elevator,” she announced. “I can’t run up and down the stairs all day with four babies.”
The brothers rushed to stare down into the stroller and hug their sister. She was surrounded by big, muscle-bound Callahans, and Xav could barely see her platinum hair through the meatheaded scrum engulfing her.
“Holy crap,” Sloan said. “There’s four babies in here!”
“Two boys, two girls,” Falcon said. “That’s not a four of a kind, it’s two pair. Still pretty good. Competitive, even.”
“Where’d you get four babies, Ash?” Jace asked. “Are we babysitting?”
“They’re mine, doofuses,” Ash told her brothers fondly. “What do you think?”
They looked her up and down, glanced at Xav who grinned proudly. “What did I tell you?” Xav asked.
“You didn’t tell us this,” Dante said, and Xav shook his head. Dante looked at his sister. “Ash, what the hell? These can’t be your babies!”
His twin agreed. “If these babies were yours, you would have notified us at once that we were uncles. You’re pulling our legs.”
“And they don’t look like you,” Sloan said. “They’re beautiful.”
Ash popped Sloan on the arm. “Pick up a baby and quit being a weenie. All of you. Babies, meet your uncles. You’ll meet lightbulbs brighter than them in your lifetimes, but they’re more softhearted than softheaded.”
Galen gingerly picked up Skye. “Ash, what the hell?” he asked, dumbfounded. “When did this happen?”
“It happened over a period of about eight months,” Ash said, watching with pride as her knuckleheaded brothers began jostling with each other to see who could grab a baby and who would get left out.
Xav watched the clown act and decided he could use one last small topper on his whiskey. “This is some homecoming,” he told Ash. “Did you realize your brothers are uniformly dysfunctional?”
She laughed. “We’re all dysfunctional. You know that by now.”
“Yeah, but I thought there’d be, you know, cigars. High fives. Huzzahs.” He thought Ash was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life, and he couldn’t believe this wonderful woman had borne his children. “They can’t get it through their leather-tough scalps that I want to marry you. Like, today.”
“Marriage!” the Callahans said, and Xav found himself the target of six pairs of navy-blue eyes.
“You want to marry him, Ash?” Sloan asked. “Because if you don’t, we’ll run him off for you.”
“Even if he did take out our worst enemy, we won’t let him hang around,” Falcon said, “if you don’t want him.”
“Don’t feed him,” Dante said. “That’s the key. If you don’t feed him, he’ll move on.”
“Or expire,” Tighe said.
Xav’s lips folded as he listened to the nonsense spouting from the Callahans. “Of course Ash is going to marry me. I just need your permission to formally ask her for her hand in marriage.”
“Well, now,” Galen said, his chest puffing a bit, “we’ll have to have a family meeting to talk it over.”
“This is a family meeting,” Xav pointed out.
“No,” Jace said, “you’re here, dude. And you’re not family. Yet.”
“You guys are being mean to the father of my children,” Ash said, laughing. “Xav, they’re just teasing you.”
Xav looked at the Callahans warily. “Teasing?”
The brothers burst out laughing. “Yeah, we’re teasing you,” Dante said. “We’re not saying Ash will marry you or anything, so don’t get excited. We were going to make you repeat your proposal about a hundred times, and then tell you we’d arranged a marriage for Ash. We wanted to see that famous cool of yours melt like a snowman in Fiona’s oven.”
He hadn’t been cool since he’d found out he was a dad. The Callahans laughed like hyenas at their practical joke, came over and pounded him on the back. Xav thought he was going to cough up a lung.
“Dude, if you’re going to be part of the family, you’re going to have to get with the program,” Tighe said.
“Yeah, we stay loose around here,” Sloan said.
“Oh, good grief,” Ash said, “you’re only loose in your brains. Someone give him his cigar, his new dad shirt and his Callahan badge of honor.”
Xav felt better now that he realized he’d been part of some colossal ribbing. Jace dragged out a bottle of fine whiskey, handed it to Xav with great fanfare.
“Congratulations,” Galen said. “You win the prize.”
“See what four of a kind gets you?” Falcon said.
“It’s two pair, nothing to get excited about,” Tighe said, staring down at baby Thorn in his arms. “These babies look like their mother, thank God.”
They grinned as a pack. Xav glanced at Ash. “Now that I’ve survived the Callahan gauntlet, I want to hear yes out of you,” he said to Ash. “‘Yes, Xav, you studly fellow’ would work for me.”
Ash snorted and sat on a sofa, watched her brothers handling her babies, cooing to them and making puppet faces with wide mouths and pop eyes. Xav thought they looked ridiculous but totally happy. Fiona came in silently, snapping photos like mad before anyone realized the family meeting had been breached by the intrepid aunt.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Ash said. “Planning a wedding’s going to have to wait. First on the agenda is finding out what happened to Wolf.”
“How can we find that out?” Xav asked. “No stall tactics, please. Callahans, will you please tell your sister that the children you’re holding deserve a father? My last name? This is a very serious matter.”
Galen raised his head. “Something wrong with Chacon Callahan for a last name?”
“Yes, there is, damn it,” Xav said. “It’s not my name, and I’m the father.”
“He does have a point,” Sloan said. “You have to give him credit for making an important point.”
“We give him credit,” Jace said, “but not our sister.”
Xav sighed. “I feel like I’m talking to Jell-O that keeps sliding around.”
Falcon shook his head. “Exaggeration and hyperbole is no way to make your case.”
“True,” Tighe said. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Why should we let you marry our sister?” Sloan asked.
“Wait a darn minute,” Ash said. “While I appreciate you doing the courteous thing by asking my brothers for my hand, you’re going about this all wrong,” she told Xav. “They’ll put you through the wringer before they ever say yes. Don’t go down a hard path, for your own sanity.” She glared at her six brothers. “Besides which, I make my own decisions on whom I’m going to marry, thank you all very little for overdoing the brother act.”
“It was fun,” Dante said. “Kind of wish you wouldn’t make us quit.”
“Not fun for me,” Xav said. “I’ve been through a lot to catch this woman.”
“You’ve been through a lot? Try carrying quadruplets and then birthing them and nursing them,” Ash said.
“Look, I just want to marry you,” Xav said. “No matter what quest I have to go on, you’re going to be my wife. We’re going to be a family, you, me, Thorn, Skye, Briar and Valor.”
“Man,” Jace said, looking at his sister, “you probably better let him off the hook. I remember the feeling, and it sucks when you can’t get the girl.”
“Really stinks,” Galen said, “but we did say you’d be the worst one to tie down, Ash. It’s coming true.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult,” Ash said. “I’m trying to tell you that I can’t get married. I’m the hunted one.”
They stared at their sister, and Xav watched their faces practically droop with astonished concern.
“No, you’re not, Ash,” Galen said, his tone big-brother comforting. “You’re not the one who brings the curse.”
“No,” Sloan said, “it’s...” His gaze flew wildly around the room. “Well, obviously it’s Dante because he’s crazy as a bedbug, anyway.”
“Probably it’s Tighe,” Dante said. “My twin put the bad word on all of us. Remember? He spoke into the wind that he hoped we’d all go hard into the marriage chase, and we did. It was hard as hell on every last one of us.”
“Not in front of the aunt, please,” Galen said. “Fiona, tell Ash she’s not the hunted one.”
Fiona wandered out the door. “I’ll bring chocolate chip cookies up,” she called over her shoulder.
Ash’s brothers stared at her silently. Xav reached over and took her hand. “Babe, it’s going to be all right. I’ve got your back on this hunted thing.”
“You can’t fight things you don’t understand.”
“No, but I did shoot your uncle, and I’m living large on those laurels for now,” Xav said cheerfully. “Now, where’s my dad badge you said you had for me?”