about. Tighe isn’t Dante. He isn’t smart like Galen. He’s not tough like Ash. If it’s true what Grandfather Running Bear says about one of us being the hunted one, the one who’ll bring destruction to the family, it’d be Tighe. He’s always on a quest, but he never quite achieves it. You get what I’m saying?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” River said, “I’ve worked for the Callahans for quite a while. I know the drill.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you’d feel guilty, River. Your job is to be a bodyguard. Protecting Callahans is what you do, right?” Jace leaned back, a popcorn-eating philosopher. “Protecting Tighe from himself is no different from your normal job description.”
“Whatever.” River’s nerves were jangling. “I don’t feel guilty, just for the record.”
“You did the best you could.”
“Shush, Jace,” she said, “I can’t hear the announcer. I don’t want to miss Tighe ride.”
“True, if we blink we’ll miss him,” Jace said, laughing.
“You guys are mean. Tighe’s on a mission.” River felt compelled to stand up for him, even if she’d been part of the plot to keep him off the bounty bull. Secretly, she hoped Tighe met his desired goal, whatever it was that urged him on—because then...
Then he might want to settle down like his Callahan brothers, Sloan, Falcon and Dante.
That was treacherous thinking. One night of sexy lovemaking didn’t mean anything—at least, it probably hadn’t to Tighe.
But it had to her. If the opportunity presented itself again, she doubted she’d refuse another night in Tighe’s arms.
In fact, she knew she wouldn’t.
She might even instigate it.
* * *
IT WAS TIME: the moment of truth. Either he could take it or he couldn’t; it was time to find out if he could pin the tail on the donkey.
“Good luck,” said Galen, who’d come out to watch his fall from grace. But Tighe had told him in no uncertain terms that he was going to stay on Firefreak for the whole eight seconds, come hell or high water.
“Thanks.” He took a deep breath, approached the chute. “Is River watching?”
“I’m sure she has every intention of watching you win the buckle, bro,” Galen said, and Tighe swallowed hard.
“Great.” He had to make eight seconds. What price being a hero? Priceless, no matter how many bruised ribs. He got on the chute amid muttered encouragement from the other cowboys helping load up Firefreak’s slayer. He mounted the massive body, which had been relatively still until he seated himself, and began wrapping his hand—then crashes, curses and fear rang through his ears in a tunnel of mindless noise. He nodded, the chute jerked open and Firefreak burst into action.
Tighe stared up at the arena ceiling, shocked to find himself on his back. A bullfighter yelled, helped guide him in a headlong rush to the corral side as Tighe gasped from the pain flooding his leg. Firefreak danced a wild jig of triumph before being chased from the ring.
Tighe glanced at the time.
Three seconds. He’d made it three seconds.
And he was pretty certain he’d done something to his leg. Heat and white-hot pain shot up to his groin. Worse, he’d proved his family right—in front of River.
“Are you all right, Tighe?” River asked, suddenly at his side as Galen checked him over.
Tighe stumbled toward a bench and let his brothers help him out of his gear. “I’m fine. Nothing damaged but my pride.”
“And his leg,” Galen announced. “Brother, you’re going to be bed-bound for a while.”
“I’m fine.” Tighe was bothered that he hadn’t had the epiphany he’d been expecting while on Firefreak. True, Dante had been known to exaggerate—and maybe he’d even told a wee fib just to goad Tighe on. But Dante had sworn to his siblings that for the few seconds he’d been on that bull, he’d been absolutely, mindlessly free of his demons.
“You’re not fine.” Galen moved a practiced hand over his leg, divining what would take other doctors X-rays to learn. “You have a fracture, brother. And a groin tear. You’ll be out of commission a good six weeks.”
“And we were already shorthanded,” Ashlyn said, not sparing words as his other siblings grouped around him. “You’ll have to learn to take care of yourself from your bed. None of us can give up ranch duties to tend you, when we told you that riding Firefreak was practically a death wish for you.”
He wasn’t the big zero on the back of a bull they thought he was. “I’ll be fine.” He looked at River, saw the worry on her face, tried to smile reassuringly. “I am fine.”
“I’ll nurse him.” She looked at him, then around at his siblings. “Goodness knows he’s a pain, but I can bring the twins and watch all three of them.”
“Three children,” Ash said. “Somehow seems fitting.” She glared at her brother.
“You guys can be as annoyed as you want,” Tighe said. “As soon as I’m healed, I’m getting right back on that ornery son of a gun.”
“He hit his head.” Jace shook his own numskull, not understanding his brother’s determination. “You must have, or you wouldn’t say something so dumb.”
“I’m getting back on him,” Tighe repeated, “Firefreak is a pussycat.”
“Maybe you can talk some sense into my intelligence-challenged brother,” Ash whispered to River.
Tighe smiled. Dante said that riding Firefreak had brought him closer to Ana, and now River was going to take care of him while he was bed-bound.
Firefreak’s the best thing that ever happened to me. “Awesome,” Tighe said, swallowing back a slight moan as Galen and Jace began fitting a board to his leg so they could get him to a hospital. Tighe winked at River, the woman to whom he’d made love last night—sweet as an angel—the only woman worth pulling his groin over just to get her attention.
* * *
AFTER A TRIP to the hospital and then a visit to an orthopedist that didn’t do much for his mental state, which at the moment was black and aggrieved, Tighe sat in Jace’s truck, his leg up on the backseat, thrilled to be going home. The seven-chimney, Tudor-style mansion that Molly and Jeremiah Callahan had built long ago to house their young family of six sturdy Callahan boys—the Chacon Callahans’ cousins—rose like a beautiful postcard from its New Mexico grounds. Backed by panoramic spools of canyons and gorges, Rancho Diablo was an amazing sight. Tighe didn’t think he’d ever get over the breathtaking beauty of the ranch. He’d been born and raised in the Chacon tribe, then served in the military, where life was a whole lot different than here. He loved the ranch and the small town of Diablo, loved being with his family, enjoying a new closeness they hadn’t been able to share in many years. Even the constant threat of danger couldn’t always rub the shine off Rancho Diablo’s surroundings.
But
