BRANDED BY A CALLAHAN (16 page)

“Yeah. Then it’s just you, and me, and baby. Nothing comes between us. We work out all the difficulties after we say I do.”

“Dante,” Ana said, “why did you go on the rodeo circuit?”

He sat on the bed, pulled her into his lap. “To save my brother from himself.”

“You went,” Ana said, “because you’re the kind of man who doesn’t like to settle in one place.”

“Actually, I went to keep my mind off of you, gorgeous.”

“That’s not true,” Ana protested. “You’d barely talked to me before you left.”

“
You’d
barely talked to
me
. I practically stood on my head trying to get your attention.” He moved her hand over his heart. “You were already pretty married to your job. Didn’t ever look my way once.”

She smiled. “I thought about you, Callahan.”

He kissed her—but just briefly. “Get the dress. We’re going. It’s past time I got an ‘I do’ out of you.”

“I can’t get the dress. It’s gone.”

He looked at her. “Gone?”

“Disappeared. Just like that. If I hadn’t hurried home, I would have been naked. I felt the dress changing while we were standing in the square.”

“Naked wouldn’t have been good,” Dante said, “unless it’s just for me.” He looked worried. “Look in your closet.”

She got up, looked inside the closet. “No gown.”

“I’ll check the attic storage.”

Ana could tell Dante was worried by the way he shot up the stairs. She followed, still holding the one golden pump, wondering what was going on. In the attic, he flipped on the lights and flung open the storage door. “Nothing.”

He turned to look at her. She swallowed nervously. “It just appeared in my closet tonight, Dante. With the shoes and the purse. I don’t know why it disappeared.”

“I know why,” Dante said. “I’ve figured it out. It keeps disappearing because you have doubts. About you and me.”

Chapter Seventeen

Ana shook her head, but Dante knew he’d hit the reason behind the gown’s mysterious appearances and disappearances. “You’re not sure. That’s why you didn’t see me before, when you tried the gown on originally.”

“I don’t know,” Ana said. “I don’t believe in superstitions and magic and fairy dust, Dante. I do think that if we were both certain that we belonged together, a relationship would have come to us more naturally. You’re a bona fide bachelor, and I’m—”

“A bona fide bachelorette.” Dante leaned against a post in the attic and sighed. “That’s what this is about. It’s not because of me, it’s because you’re worried about commitment from your end, doll face.”

She wrinkled up her cute nose. “All Callahans have a reputation for being hard to tie down.”

“True. But eventually, Callahans get caught.”

“Catching you wasn’t part of my plan,” Ana said. “I don’t believe in that, either.”

“You’re going to have to make up your mind, sweetheart. My son isn’t going to like it when he asks you one day why you didn’t marry Daddy, and you have to be honest and tell him it was because you had supercold feet when it came to commitment.” He shook his head. “I don’t think my son will like it at all. He’s going to want a more traditional mother.”

“You can’t expect me to believe that you want to get married just because of a baby.” She snapped her fingers. “Everything changes in a few hours, just because you find out you’re going to be a father?” Ana stared at him. “You never proposed to me before.”

“That’s because,” Dante said, “you’ve never given me a whole lot of reason to hope.”

“I was trying to be professional. It seemed very unprofessional to be employed here and hit on my employer. While you weren’t my direct employer, it wouldn’t have been right to date you. River feels the same way about Tighe.”

“She does?” Dante considered that. “No wonder he keeps bashing his brains out on a brick wall.” He laughed. “Are you saying Tighe can keep trying to get River to go out with him, but it’s not going to happen?” He couldn’t help chuckling at his brother’s plight. Once upon a time, he’d been there himself.

“Why are you laughing?” Ana asked.

“Because Tighe’s making himself crazy for nothing.” He turned serious. “But you’re not employed here anymore, beautiful, so you just ran out of run as far as I’m concerned.”

She looked at him. “I just don’t know that you’re ready to be married, Dante. You should have seen yourself on the stage tonight with your shirt off. The women were ready to rush the stage and carry you off.”

“I was waiting for you to show up. By the way, you weren’t in much of a hurry.”

“Since I was stuck in the prop room, no, I couldn’t rescue you as quickly as I wanted.”

He smiled, unable to resist teasing her just a bit—his little doll just did not want to admit how crazy for him she was. “I was annoyed with you for making me suffer in front of a hundred sexy women in mysterious masks for so long,” he said with typical macho relish. “Still, you redeemed yourself when you ran in yelling, ‘Five thousand dollars!’ at the top of your lungs.” He enjoyed letting her know that he was completely aware how much she dug him. “I forgave you on the— Wait, maybe we should talk more about why you were stuck in the prop room. What were you doing in there?”

Ana shot him a look of pure exasperation. It was such a darling expression he wanted to grab her up and kiss her until all the irritation melted from her face.

“Someone locked me in. So I couldn’t rescue you as quickly as I’d promised—although if you asked me to rescue you again, I’m sure I’d refuse. Letting the she-wolves have you would be your just deserts.”

He blinked. “Someone locked you in—and the first thing you did when you drew a free breath was sprint down the hall to shout out the winning bid for me. Ana St. John, you are lying like a rug if you say you don’t want to marry me. No woman puts in a top bid unless she’s serious about getting her man.” He pulled her into his arms. “I know you’re serious about me, sweetheart. Even if you haven’t figured it out yet.”

She wriggled away. “I said I’d rescue you, you oaf. And I was going to keep my word.”

“I have to say,” he said, regretting that he’d let her out of his arms so easily—she really was a stubborn thing, “that you could have heard a pin drop when Ash yelled out that the auction had to be cancelled due to the fact that I had a prior commitment. And that I was going to be a father, so my eligibility for the auction was suspect. I thought Fiona was going to fall over. But then her eyes were twinkling, and I realized she was thrilled at the fact that one more of us was going to take the fall.”

Ana sniffed. “Ash is a blabbermouth.”

He reached out to draw her back to him. “I could have told you that. But I love her anyway. So who locked you in?”

“My guess is Sawyer, though I can’t say for certain. She was determined to win you or your brother tonight. She didn’t bother to bid on any of the other offerings. And if I ever have a chance to tell her just what I think of her little tricks, I will.”

“You’re jealous. I like it.” He smiled broadly, unable to help himself.

She stiffened up like a cat confronted by a dog. “I am no such thing.”

“You sure didn’t want anybody else to win me.” He kissed her, taking his time with her sweet lips. She unbent just a little, enough to let him know that even if she claimed she didn’t believe in magic, there was plenty of it between them. “You won me. I suggest you seal the deal.”

She left his arms. “If I say yes, it will change everything.”

“Everything has already changed. I’d get on with tying me down, if I were you.”

“Would you stop saying that? You’re not helping.” Ana glared at him. “No woman likes to feel that she’s tying a man down. We like to be the catchee, not the catcher.”

“If you want me to tie you down, beautiful, I’m more than happy to oblige, in more ways than one.”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re not serious about anything, Dante.” She rewarded his teasing with a frown. “We’re trying to talk about marriage, and you offer a sexual innuendo.”

He smiled. “Yes, and my offer stands.”

She sighed. “I think it’s the pregnancy hormones that’re muddling my thinking. I should be happy I won a Callahan, shouldn’t I? That’s what every woman there tonight wanted.”

“Absolutely,” Dante agreed, happy they both finally saw the situation the same way. “You won, fair and square. I say we hit Vegas and celebrate your success.” He smiled, trying to coax her into losing her pensive expression. “I plan on celebrating by drinking champagne from your belly button. None for you, of course, because my son won’t have his first alcoholic beverage until I buy it for him.”

She sighed. “You will not drink champagne from my belly button.”

“A man has to celebrate.”

“They have glasses in Vegas, I feel certain.” She shook her head. “Do you think I could get my old job back?”

He hesitated. “With Sloan and Kendall and the boys?”

She nodded.

“You can’t be a bodyguard now, babe. You’re pregnant. You’re going to be a mom. You can’t jeopardize our baby with a dangerous job.”

“So that’s it? I marry you, and I become a doll that sits on a shelf waiting for you to come home?”

“Uh-oh,” Dante said, “this is the part of the conversation that’s fraught with complexity. You’re trying to sort out the future, when you should be thinking romance. Don’t be practical right now, sugar lips. I’m trying to sweep you off your feet.”

“What will happen, Dante?” she asked softly. “After we get married?”

“Well,” he said slowly, realizing Ana’s question was born of worry, which he very much understood, “you’ll go to Hell’s Colony with the other Callahans until the baby is born. Unless you wanted to go back to South Dakota.”

She looked at him. “And if I want to stay here with you?”

“You of all people know it’s not safe here.”

“Because I’m not a bodyguard anymore. I’m a mom. I’d be a wife.”

He didn’t mistake the tension in her tone. “Things have changed.”

She nodded. “Yes, they have.”

Rats. She didn’t look too thrilled. There wasn’t anything he could do about the state of matters at the ranch. “You’ve been here long enough to know that everybody sacrifices. At least until things are fixed.”

“It may never be fixed,” Ana said. “Wolf may never be stopped. The cartel may never give up. I’ll never be a bodyguard again.”

“You’ll be a mother,” Dante said softly, “and that’s what you wanted.”

She brightened. “Yes. Exactly. But I want to be a mother who’s respected for the skills she has.”

“You want to stay here at the ranch, and safeguard your child.”

“I can take care of myself, and my child,” Ana pointed out. “I don’t want to be put in a bow-wrapped box just because I’ve become a mother.”

“I get it,” Dante said, “but it will make me crazy.”

“You’re already crazy. Will something change?”

“No,” he said carefully, “but all the other mothers left.”

“You may have to compromise,” Ana said.

“I suppose we could hire a bodyguard like Kendall did,” Dante began, but Ana shook her head.

“Your hearing is going, Callahan. I can take care of my own child. I don’t want to be sent away. I want to be respected for what I do. I’m a damn good bodyguard.”

“I know. You saved me a time or two.” He scratched his head. “You’re asking me to go against my male chauvinistic grain. You’re asking a leopard to change its spots. You’re—”

“It’s okay,” Ana said. “You’d survive the slight knock to your ego.”

“I don’t know if I would. It’s pretty much my stock in trade.”

Ana went down the stairs. He followed her, wondering if maybe she was softening her stance just a bit. Maybe he finally had her convinced to marry him. He could pretend that he was allowing her to stay at the ranch, and then send her off to Hell’s Colony on some pretext. Or he could station a few separate guards on her without mentioning it. Compromise was something he could live with—on his terms.

“So, are we going?” he asked Ana as she went out the door. “To Vegas? Or someplace that does quickies? I really think we should teach our child the value of timeliness and promptitude.”

Ana turned, gave him a long look. “Am I staying here at the ranch? With you? Instead of you sending me off?”

He hedged. “You know, if I were still in the military and I was deployed again, I’d be leaving and that would just be that. Why don’t we just consider you leaving the ranch your deployment?”

She gave him a look of disgust. “Because I’m fine. I want to be a real wife, not a marriage of convenience wife, just because you wanted to win the ranch land.”

“That’s dumb,” he said, “there is no ranch land. There is no race for it. I want you to be my wife because you’re having my baby, and mostly because you make me crazy. Good crazy.”

“You were crazy, Dante,” Ana said, “long before I ever came along. And there’s something I think you’re overlooking. Someone went to Hell’s Colony on Halloween and took out the sniper, then you and I were kidnapped. Ash and Xav were tied up and left in the canyon by someone who intended to go back and get them. Then I got shoved into a prop room at the masquerade ball.”

He tried to see her point, had to admit that once again, she was thinking more strategically than he was. “Someone has a thing for bondage and revenge?”

She sighed. “Fiona has floated a fairy tale for you Callahans. She says Storm Cash bought the land, but somehow, Rancho Diablo is still under siege from your uncle Wolf’s mercenaries. Storm’s niece Sawyer pushes me into a closet to put a winning bid on you.”

“She bid for Tighe, too. And won.”

“Exactly. The goal was to get one of you alone with her.”

“Ah, a sexy spy thing,” he said. “Maybe you’re just a tiny bit jealous?”

“What I am trying to tell you is that Storm is setting you guys up. Fiona actually bought the land, but Storm wanted it. Wolf asked Storm to buy the land, told him that he’d quit trespassing on his land if he did, and that he’d use the land north of the canyons to trespass instead. But if you look through the county records, Fiona’s and Running Bear’s names are on the deed for that land. Wolf’s annoyed that Fiona got the property—bought it right out from under him, when he thought the old farmer was going to do a deal with Storm. The whole thing with us being kidnapped, and Xav and Ash getting attacked, is because Wolf is desperately trying to make Fiona give up the land. That’s why Sawyer winning Tighe tonight is troubling. Someone has to keep an eye on Fiona, and Kendall and the boys. No one can do it better than me and River.”

He stared at Ana, thunderstruck. “Where are you getting all this?”

“It’s my job as a bodyguard to be observant.”

“Yeah, but you—you’re touting some pretty incredible stuff. Why wouldn’t Fiona keep dangling the ranch land in front of us if she owns it?”

“Because she and Running Bear are planning to split the ranch up, bring your Callahan cousins home from Hell’s Colony, start a new arm of the Callahan operation. Fiona says it’s time to bring the family home from Hell’s Colony, Texas.” She stared at Dante. “They don’t want you all to marry in hopes for land, just in case she has to split it up.”

He sank onto a kitchen bar stool, staring at Ana. “How do you know all this?”

“If I tell you, you have to accept that I belong here. That I’m good at what I do, and that you and I should work together, as a team. Not you sending the little woman off to be safe. I really can’t stand it when you act like a he-man,” Ana said, and he thought it was cute when she was a little huffy. “You say you’ll compromise, but when you say that, you really mean as long as it’s all on your terms.”

“Well,” he said, not really wanting to admit she’d pegged him dead center, “I could go along with the teamwork notion. I guess. Reluctantly. If you marry me.”

“Not reluctantly. Enthusiastically. As in, you have my back and I have yours. No sneaking around me, trying to protect me.”

“You
are
carrying my child,” he pointed out, suppressing his queasiness at the thought of Wolf kidnapping his darling, opinionated bodyguard–baby mama.