LITMIR.BIZ

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hot as it was, because I was down in your room, but it’s still good.” She reached into the bag on her nightstand and offered him a cookie. “I’ve developed an addiction to your aunt’s baking.”

      “No cookie. No tea. You’re changing the subject, trying to get my mind off your text with some sugary lures.”

      “Maybe.” She sipped her tea in the darkness, loving the feel of the big, strong man tucked up next to her in bed. She could definitely get used to this. “I’m right.”

      “But you won’t go through with it on your own.”

      She sighed. “Just think about my plan for a few days. You’ve got to find out what’s happening under your own ranch.”

      “You won’t tell a soul,” Galen said. “Not Ash, not Jace, not Fiona, not anyone.”

      “Of course I won’t. It’s your ranch, your family.” She put her teacup back down. “I always dreamed of having a room like this.”

      “Didn’t you have a girlie room?”

      “Sort of girlie. Not very. My mom died when I was very young.”

      “I’m sorry,” Galen murmured.

      “I was, too.” Rose took a deep breath. “Anyway, after college I began a busy job at a financial planning company. Didn’t have time to girlie up my room. Lived in a square box in Manhattan with no closet to speak of.” She laughed. “I look back on those days with a smile, because I learned a lot. This room is a treat.”

      “You got me off the subject again.”

      “You asked. Anyway, I already swore myself to silence. Your secret is totally safe.”

      “All right. Then I’ll head back to my own bed and leave you to your snack.”

      She giggled. “Fiona says she’s baking gingerbread tomorrow. I’m going to get fat.”

      “I very much doubt it. But a pound or two will only enhance those great curves you’ve got going on.”

      The man was born to flirt. She tried not to take it too seriously, decided to turn the topic back to business. “You know, if I quit eating Fiona’s treats, I can easily fit back through that opening—”

      “No. If anybody goes back down in that hole, it’s going to be a Callahan. Maybe Ashlyn.”

      “You wouldn’t put your sister in danger,” Rose said. “That much I know about you already. In fact, you won’t even want your sister to know it’s there.”

      “A truer statement was never spoken in this room.” He got out of bed. “See you at breakfast.”

      “Bye,” Rose said, catching a glimpse of his physique as he passed the window. He was a scrumptious hunk of man, and she should tempt him to stay longer. “Good night.”

      “Good night.”

      He closed the door, and Rose leaned back in bed. She put the cookies down, drank the rest of her tea and then got up to brush her teeth. The cookies had been a sugary lure, as Galen had noted.

      Tomorrow, gingerbread.

      * * *

      GALEN DIDN’T GET much sleep, but then again, sleep wasn’t at the forefront of his mind. The gaping problem they’d unearthed last night deeply concerned him.

      In the morning, he went to the canyons to try to root out his grandfather. Running Bear sat at the fire ring, the stone circle where he’d brought them when they’d first arrived at Rancho Diablo. The chief had told the Chacon Callahan siblings that this was now their new home.

      Galen loved this land.

      “Chief,” he said, and the old man seated on the ground, eyes closed, face raised to the sky, nodded.

      “When you have a moment, I need to pick your brains.”

      “I have many moments.”

      Galen seated himself on the earth next to his grandfather, felt the spring sun warm his skin. “There is no place like Rancho Diablo.”

      “There are many spirits here. Mother Earth is strong and beautiful in this place.”

      “But there’s a bad current running under her, Grandfather.”

      “I know.”

      Galen sighed. His grandfather was always one step ahead of them, and knew the beginning, middle and maybe even the end of the journey they were on. Running Bear had also warned the siblings that one of them was the hunted one, the one who would bring danger to the family. Sometimes Galen wondered if it was him. He’d rather it was, than any of his siblings. One day they would know—and no doubt the decision they would face would be difficult.

      Today, he had to worry about trouble closer to home. “The enemy may have built reinforced tunnels under our ranch.” He looked into the distance, seeing the deep canyons and mesas that time had carved into the land. “We found some machinery in a cave. The only explanation is that it’s at the beginning of a tunnel, or underground bunkers. They could be right underneath the house.”

      “I know.” Running Bear rested his palms on his knees. “They are not there. Yet.”

      “But they’re coming.”

      “They are. It’s their mission.”

      “To what purpose?” Galen pulled his cowboy hat lower, shielding his face from the sun.

      “To surround us. If they can do that, they’ll have a stranglehold here that will be hard to break.”

      “How do we stop them? Make sure they don’t get here?”

      “Buy the land from Storm.”

      Galen considered that. They’d need a consortium of some kind to buy that much land without stretching the resources of Rancho Diablo. “We’ll be operating on limited manpower.”

      “We’ll hire more people. Or bring the Callahan cousins home. Let them live here, where there are no tunnels. One of you would have had the land eventually, if you’d won Fiona’s raffle.”

      “We always figured that was a fairy tale you guys cooked up to get us married and with families.”

      “No,” Running Bear said. “Well, yes and no. Yes, Fiona will do anything to see you happy, as your married cousins and siblings are. But we always intended to grow the ranch. We knew they were building tunnels. We hoped you would come to love it here as much as your cousins do.”

      “I do. The whole family does.”

      “I know. But one of you must be the head of that ranch. We don’t want it broken up and weakened, making it easy for the cartel to move in.”

      Galen shook his head. “I don’t like it. If Ash wins the ranch, she’ll be over there alone. She may not want us all living there. We need to stay together as a family. As a unit. We always have.”

      “So win the land yourself.”

      “I have no reason to expect that I’m in the running. I have no wife, probably won’t for years.” He’d taken care of his siblings so long he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to relax and have time for romance.

      He thought about Rose next to him in bed last night and decided he could relax a little.

      “Tell your brothers and sister that you want the land.”

      Galen started. “I can’t do that. I can’t tell them I’m bumping them out of Fiona’s ploy.”

      “You don’t want any of them living on land that only you knows has been compromised. It’s not safe.”

      “Can’t we destroy the tunnels?”

      “We would destroy acres and acres of good land with them.”

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