chief squatted next to the fire, waved a hand over it. “You have nineteen children, six wives and two elderly people on the ranch, Jonas. It is best to have your cousins remain in this place so they can keep a lookout.”
“I’d watch calling Aunt Fiona and Uncle Burke elderly,” Jonas replied. “Chief, we can establish our own lookouts.” He glanced across the fire at his new kin.
Sloan knew exactly how Jonas felt. “Why again is this our problem?”
“Brother takes care of brother.” The chief let that sink in for a moment. “Remember that only blood matters. Stay together and yet separate. There is strength in all of you, but even a chain can be broken if the weakest link is not reinforced,” the chief said, rising. “Here the past and the future become one. What comes now will change you all.”
He disappeared, and the fire dimmed. Hoofbeats echoed eerily in the darkness.
Sloan had little patience for open-ended missions with little purpose, and slackers who couldn’t take care of themselves. He appointed himself troubleshooter, deciding to go ahead and shoot this trouble in the head before it took over their lives. “I take it you’re in some kind of jam, cousins,” he said. “Not really sure we can help you.”
“I’m Jonas Callahan. And as far as I knew when I woke up this morning, the only jam in my world was on my toast. We thought we were doing just fine until you showed up.”
Sloan took the hand stretched out to him, giving it a brief shake. “Sloan. These are my brothers and sister. Falcon, Galen, Jace, Dante, Tighe and Ashlyn.”
Ashlyn’s diminutive size caught Jonas’s attention. He glanced at Sloan.
“She’s not the weak link,” Sloan said drily. “Trust me on that. Five feet two of meanness if you cross her.”
“Good,” Jonas said. “No offense, Ashlyn.”
“Not a problem,” she said.
Jonas looked at Sloan. “These are my brothers. Creed, Pete, Sam, Rafe and Judah.”
“Seven of us, six of you?” Sloan asked.
“Guess your father was more prolific,” Jonas said.
“Or he was determined to have a girl,” Ashlyn said, her tone sweet.
Jonas eyed Sloan. “We’ll head on now.”
He nodded. Sloan glanced around at the rest of the Callahans on the opposite side of the fire. There was definitely a strong resemblance, but they didn’t feel like family.
Yet they were supposed to fight for a common cause, against something dangerous that affected all of them.
Sloan didn’t get it. Frankly, if the seven of them had been brought in to help these six, he wasn’t all that interested.
His family could stand on their own.
Too bad if theirs couldn’t.
Chapter Two
Kendall Phillips looked down at the sleeping man, unsure how to wake him. He slept like he was dead, which he probably should be, considering he’d spent the night on the ground at Rancho Diablo. In the not-quite-dawn light, she saw that the fire had gone out, perhaps hours ago.
The next thing Kendall knew, she was flat on her backside in the dust. “Ow!” Her fanny smarted—and now this guest of Jonas’s was on her very bad side. “Let go of me, you gorilla!”
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” he demanded.
She noted he didn’t release her, and she squelched the great desire to pull off one of her high-heeled Manolo Blahniks and pierce him with it. “I’m Kendall Phillips. I was sent with coffee and to bring you in to meet the family while it’s still dark. Let go of my ankle!”
She slapped his hand, but he didn’t seem to mind. He slowly released her, his fingers lingering against her skin—as if he wasn’t used to feeling anything soft.
Chills ran up her legs.
“Sorry,” he said. “Not used to a chuck wagon showing up to greet me, nor a female.”
Kendall stood, turning to look at her white Chanel skirt, which now bore a target-size dirt mark on it, very visible despite the dimness still covering the ranch. “Apology not accepted. I was trying to wake you gently, you...” She sized the man up as he stood. “You do look like a Callahan.”
“That’s because I am.” He glanced around. “Do me a favor. Don’t tell my brothers and sister you made it to the fire without me taking you out.”
“I beg your pardon,” Kendall said, “but I can assure you that you and I will never be going out.”
“It’s okay. We had a bead on her all along,” a female voice said. Five large men and one much smaller woman appeared out of the darkness. Kendall thought it was amazing how silently they could move.
“You sleep like a bear in winter,” the petite blonde said to her brother, who looked embarrassed at her comment. “If she can sneak up on us in those shoes, you’re going to stink as a lookout. That’s got to change.”
“This is all very nice, but not my issue,” Kendall said. “Do you want coffee or not?” She put full-force attitude into her voice, letting these people know that she might have gotten dumped on her butt, but it wouldn’t happen again.
“Sure,” the blonde said. “You’re kind of fancy for a rancher, aren’t you?”
Kendall was about to let her have it—she hadn’t driven a military jeep out to the corner of nowhere to put up with this—but just then her twin brother, Xav, rode up on his big stallion, and the little blonde’s eyes went huge in her face.
“Everything all right, Kendall?” Xav asked.
She nodded. “We’re getting to know each other, all of us,” she said, her gaze on the man who’d spilled her on the ground. “It may take a while. We have different methods of saying hello.”
Sloan shrugged. “Where’s the coffee, Barbie?”
Kendall sucked in a breath. “Did you just call me Barbie?”
The big man looked at her curiously. “Is that a problem?”
His brothers shifted, and as slight streaks of dawn began slowly lighting the sky, she realized that all these people looked very Callahan—and a little dangerous.
Darn Jonas for saddling me with this mission.
“My name is Kendall Phillips,” she said. “This is my twin, Xavier. We help out at the Callahan ranches.”
“Not dressed like that, you don’t,” Sloan said. “Unless you’re the party planner.”
“That’s right,” Kendall said. “That’s what I am, the party planner.” She glared at him, not caring that he was disgustingly
