Sweet Callahan Homecoming. Tina Leonard

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.