LITMIR.BIZ

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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,

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