He glared at her. “No. Take me to the bunkhouse, or the main house. I would rather suffer in silence than be just another—”
“Helpless person River has to keep an eye on?” Ash prodded.
“The trouble is, you don’t suffer in silence. Come on.” Jace put his shoulder under Tighe’s to give him support as he unsteadily maneuvered himself out of the truck. “You’re lucky we don’t just leave you out in the peacock pens to heal, where we can’t hear you moan and groan.”
It was too humiliating. He wouldn’t look like a warrior, wouldn’t be a hero with badass courageous qualities if his woman tossed him in with the kiddies as an extra responsibility.
“Either you take me to the bunkhouse or I’m going to the canyons.” After making fierce love to that little lady practically all night long, he wasn’t about to appear anything less than a stud—and he couldn’t be that if he was laid out on a sofa. “The weather’s fine. The canyons suit me just as well as anywhere.”
“Be a sitting duck for Uncle Wolf and his cretinous crew,” Jace said. “Come on, be practical, bro.”
Jace didn’t understand practical. Practical was when you could think past the sirens that screamed in your head every time the woman you had a thing for got within ten feet. Tighe had lost his practicality a long time ago. “Canyons or bunkhouse. Take your pick. Can’t promise to stay either place.”
Ash sighed. “Flip a coin. Either decision is bad. Fiona will roost on the bunkhouse if you stay there, she’ll be so worried that you’re an easy mark. The canyons and you’re even more of a sitting duck.”
That sounded very much like conditions he’d lived under in Afghanistan. He could survive there by his wits, and wouldn’t be taking up any of the family’s time. Tighe brightened. “The canyons. Who’s riding canyon right now?”
“You were supposed to,” Jace said sourly. “It was your shift. Now Xav Phillips says he’ll come back and take over, which isn’t a good idea.” Jace glanced at Ash, who was talking on a cell phone to River, complaining that Tighe was a stubborn ass. “We don’t need Xav in the canyons, dude, as you well know, because Ash will find a thousand reasons and ways to get down there to haunt her favorite cowboy.”
“Who’s got a favorite cowboy?” Ash asked, returning. “Apparently, not River right now. She’s annoyed with you, Tighe.” Ash grinned. “She says you have to go to Sloan’s, because she can’t leave the twins to visit you in the bunkhouse.”
Even better. He didn’t want River around while he healed. A lightning flash of intuition told him he’d be better off returning when he was all better, a hero again—not the poor sap everyone was annoyed with. “Really, I’m such a pain in the ass, the only place I can be is the canyons.”
“I agree completely. Still, a bad idea,” Jace said.
“But—” Ash began, and Tighe waved her to silence.
“I’ve made up my mind.” What use was he as a man if he was on par with the twins? “I got myself into this mess and I’ll get myself out. As a matter of fact, just take me to the stone and fire ring. All I need is a bottle of whiskey and some girlie mags. I’ll be fine.”
Ash and Jace stared at him, their expressions dismayed.
“Okay, no girlie mags,” Tighe said, loving messing with his siblings. They thought he wasn’t big and bad right now. Well, he was; he was a monster pain in the butt, and that was just the way a man should be.
“You’ll be unprotected,” Ash said. “Much as you’re the only one among us with such disregard for yourself, you still do not want to put yourself out there with a bull’s-eye on you for Wolf and his gang. Listen to me,” she pleaded. “I’ll worry myself sick.”
“Sick about what?” River asked.
The three Callahans stared at the tall woman who’d just walked up, catching the last words of their conversation. Just the sight of that gorgeous creature made his blood pound. River gave him the wild, mad dreams of a man who’d tasted heaven once and was determined to do it again. Once he was healed, he was coming back for her.
“Nobody’s worried about a thing,” Tighe said.
“I’m worried.” Ash looked at River for help. “My jackass of a brother wants to camp out in the open instead of stay in the house with you and the twins. In the open,” she emphasized.
River didn’t miss Ash’s message. She met his gaze, didn’t look away. Peered deep inside him, until he felt her reaching into his soul.
The woman practically stole his very breath.
“I’ll drive you out there,” River said.
Chapter Three
After he’d packed up some gear and run the gauntlet of a protesting aunt Fiona and family, River hustled Tighe into the military jeep and steered it toward the canyons. He glanced over at the goddess next to him, trying to decipher the change in her mood. She certainly wasn’t the cooing, sexy tigress he’d had in his arms last night.
He’d have to call River’s mood elusive, which didn’t sit well with him at all. It almost felt as if she was abandoning him without a thought.
“Thanks for the ride. My siblings weren’t going to bring me.”
Glossy dark strands of hair blew around her face as she drove, rather speedily, he thought, given the uneven terrain. She could at least quit mashing the pedal.
“It’s not my worry if you’ve got a death wish. I have no desire to keep you from your fondest desires, Tighe.”
That didn’t sound right. She was his fondest desire. “I don’t have a death wish.”
“Don’t you?” She leveled him with brown eyes that held not a care in them. “First Firefreak. Now sleeping in the open, when you know that the ranch has been under siege for forever. For longer than either you or I have even been here.”
Aw, she was fretting about him, the cute little thing. He reached over and gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze.
She batted away his hand. His brows rose. “Regretting last night?”
She turned to him, her forehead pinched in a frown. “Regretting what?”
He hardly knew what to say, since this darling angel seemed to have suddenly sprouted a ten-inch layer of cactus needles around herself. “You and me.”
“Hardly,” she shot back. “It didn’t mean a thing, cowboy.”
He tried not to let his jaw fall open. “Nothing?”
“Should it have?”
It certainly had to him. Hell, he’d gotten on Firefreak for her! Making love to her, plus facing his greatest challenge since coming to Diablo—well, it was the greatest cocktail of adrenaline and gut-punching life he’d ever experienced. “You know me. It’s just all about getting naked,” he bragged, trying
