Free HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN by Tina Leonard

hers.
    He’d brought the enemy to Rancho Diablo. And made her a Callahan.

Chapter Six
    “She’s gone,” Ash said, when he walked back inside the small cabin the next morning. His sister looked nonplussed as she snacked on some cookies and a cup of coffee.
    “She isn’t gone.” Jace tossed his coat into a chair. He’d spent an uncomfortable night on the front porch, unaware of the time passing as he watched the snow drift down. It had piled up, maybe three inches, while he’d sat and stared at it. He’d felt dead inside, immune to cold and fear.
    All he could do was play over and over in his mind how Sawyer could have betrayed him—and how he could have been too blind to recognize it. “Sawyer couldn’t have left. I was sitting out front the entire night. Anyway, she’s my wife. Right now, she needs me. She’s pregnant with twins.”
    “I know.” His sister brought him a mug of black coffee. “You forget she’s a very well-trained bodyguard. Perhaps you even forget how skilled she is at not just protection, but evasion. It’s why Kendall felt secure hiring her for the twins. Don’t you remember this?”
    “She must still be here, Ash. There’s no place for her to go.”
    They were halfway up the mountain, maybe more. The road down would be a challenge, even if she’d stolen his truck.
    “She took my Jeep,” Ash said.
    He stared at his sister, reality socking him in the face. “How in the hell did that happen?”
    Ash shrugged. “I gave her my keys.”
    His jaw dropped. “What?”
    “She wanted to go. I gave her my keys, told her how to get off the mountain without driving past your snowbound lair out there.”
    “You had my pregnant wife drive up to the top of this mountain and go down the other side, in this weather, without even knowing if the roads were passable at the top?” He slumped into a chair at the table, unable to look away from Ash’s gamine face. She stared at him calmly.
    “You can’t keep her prisoner.”
    “I know that! She wasn’t a prisoner, damn it. We had things to work out.” She’d kissed him just as passionately as he’d kissed her last night, and he’d been pretty certain they were about to finally find out what making love together in a bed would be like.
    And now this bombshell.
    He felt wrecked.
    “I’m so sorry, brother,” Ash said. “I usually don’t get involved in people’s personal lives.”
    “You always get involved in everybody’s personal lives,” Jace said.
    “What I mean is that I would never have done it, except that I can’t bear for anything to be trapped. You know that.” Ash stared at him. “Sawyer seemed as lost as the animals I do rescue work with. I wanted her spirit to be as free as the Diablos. You know how important that is.”
    He grunted, not happy.
    Ash put a hand on his arm as she sat next to him. “Brother, it’s bad to start off a marriage with one person feeling trapped. That’s not the way you want Sawyer.”
    He just wanted her. He didn’t really care how he got her.
    Which was a problem.
    “She’ll come to you,” Ash said.
    “Runaway brides usually run for a reason.”
    His sister sighed. “Okay, I don’t know that she’ll come back for sure. But you two have a lot to build on.”
    “Not really.”
    “The children, Jace. They’ll be a huge part of your lives.”
    He nodded. “Sharing custody with my wife isn’t what I had in mind.” No doubt Sawyer would want to divorce him now. Maybe even annul the marriage. Damn it, she might ask for a divorce and an annulment, which would stink to high heaven.
    “She’s just heartbroken,” Ash said.
    “Sawyer is heartbroken?” He got up and moved to stare out at the dawning sky.
    “She knows you don’t trust her.”
    “That’s a whole other problem.”
    “Jace, relationships are built on mutual trust and respect.”
    He shook his head. “There’s no reason for us to stay here. Come on. Pack your bags.”
    “Bags? Since when do I travel with a