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Still, no matter what, she was in a less than desirable situation.
She could walk back to his truck and hope he hadn’t locked it. There’d been a rifle on the rack, and likely he had bullets close by. She was a proficient shot, so she’d at least be safe.
Taylor swung the flashlight around her one last time, peering at the ground, making certain she didn’t step into Falcon’s possible Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole—and that’s when she heard the definite sounds of all-out war.
She ran to the truck, grabbed the rifle, saw a box of ammo she gratefully snatched several bullets out of, and took off toward the ruckus. She tripped over something—probably an innocent rock—and forced herself to gather her wits enough to load ammo into the weapon. She crept forward, amazed when she spied Falcon fighting with an enormous man at the mouth of a cave, with two women acting as lookouts and one other male waiting to take a swing at Falcon.
Taylor took aim at the second man’s foot, squeezed off a shot. He screamed and clutched his foot, and the two women pulled guns, crouching. When the big man’s attention was caught by his friend’s distress, he hesitated, and Falcon smashed him into a wall. The man slumped to the ground.
She liked these odds better. Taylor came out of hiding and walked into the cave, pointing the rifle at the two women. “Falcon’s going to take your guns, ladies. I’m an excellent markswoman, so my best advice is for you to go sit back there, and take your bleeding friend with you.”
“I thought you’d never come,” Falcon said.
Taylor kept the rifle leveled at the two women, who headed off as she’d demanded. “You said we were ghost hunting. You didn’t say you were looking for trouble in the flesh.”
The big man on the ground began to revive, which seemed to encourage the man who’d removed his boot to stare at his bleeding foot. “You shot off my big toe,” he told Taylor. “You’ll be sorry.”
She shrugged. “You’ve got one big toe left for balance. Keep talking, and I’ll fix that.”
“She’s a tough one,” Falcon told the four glaring at them. “I could have told you that. At any rate, we’ll be going now. Would like to say it’s been a pleasure, Uncle Wolf, but as always, it really hasn’t.”
He dragged Taylor from the cave.
“They’re going to follow us,” she said, gasping as they ran.
“It’s okay. I’ve got some discouragement.” He fired a few rounds from a gun she hadn’t realized he was carrying, so Taylor concentrated on getting to the truck.
“Give me your keys,” Taylor said. “I’m driving.”
“I like a take-charge woman.” Falcon tossed her his keys and they jumped into the vehicle. Taylor shoved the key into the ignition, roared the engine to life and took off, praying no shots hit their tires or windows.
“This date didn’t turn out the way I’d planned,” Falcon said. “It’s usually a little more exciting.”
“I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“Take me to the ranch,” Falcon said. “My family will fix me right up.”
She hit the main road, barreling toward Rancho Diablo. “Whatever you say.”
“You know you want to go out with me again.”
He was incorrigible. “Did I hear you call that man ‘uncle’?”
“Yeah. Uncle Wolf is the black sheep of the family. Don’t concern yourself with him. We don’t have to invite him to the wedding.”
She tried not to laugh out loud. Falcon was just so ridiculous. “I’m not marrying a man whose uncle tries to kill him.”
“Why not? We make a great team. Has it occurred to you that maybe you’re meant to be my guardian angel?”
Taylor pulled into the Callahan ranch, stopped the truck and looked at him. “You’re bleeding a bit more than your aunt Fiona is used to seeing, I’m sure. Have a towel in the truck?”
“It’s all right. Fiona’s used to a few bumps and bruises. She doesn’t panic.”
Taylor could believe that. Between the six Callahans, and now their cousins, Fiona had probably seen her fair share of scuffed-up men. Taylor followed him into the house. “I guess that’s good.”
“Stick with me,” he told her. “Life is an adventure.”
“You don’t say.” She stared at Falcon, who was bruised and bleeding, but still the most handsome rascal she’d ever laid eyes on. “How could I ever refuse that offer?”
She wouldn’t—and he knew it.
* * *
S O AS FIRST DATES WENT, it was a bit of a bust. Falcon readily admitted that. Still, Taylor had surprised him, even though she was known to be a capable, spirited woman.
He didn’t think he’d made a great impression tonight. Of course he hadn’t. And when Taylor told her mother and Jillian what had happened, he wasn’t exactly going to come off as knight-in-shining-armor material.
“That’s enough henpecking,” he told his brother Galen, who was stitching the split skin above his right eye, where Wolf apparently had delivered a decent shot. “It’s just a little knick.”
Taylor leaned close. “Maybe more than a knick. Better sit still. Your brother’s doing a pretty good job.”
He smirked sourly, but minded the advice. He liked Taylor standing near him, and maybe if he sat still, she’d stay close.
“What did Uncle Wolf want?” Ash handed him a glass of whiskey he didn’t really want, but when Taylor accepted a goblet of wine, he decided to be a good sport, too. Couldn’t hurt to appear social; this was supposed to be a date, after all.
“He shared some dissatisfaction about the treatment he received from Sloan.” He glanced over at his brother, who shrugged. Sloan was uncharacteristically mellow, despite the reference to Wolf kidnapping Kendall months ago.
Kendall smiled at Taylor. “Did Wolf have his dynamic duo with him? Two women who are generally unpleasant and have a thing for stealing great footwear?”
“Two women and another man. They didn’t inquire about my boots, but honestly, plain brown Ropers might not be their thing.”
Taylor leaned in to look at Galen’s handiwork again, and Falcon caught a whiff of a sweet floral fragrance. He batted his brother away so only Taylor was close to him. “Let’s go for a drive.”
She looked at him, and he felt a tingling sensation way down in his soul.
“Again?” she asked. “Haven’t you had enough adventure for one night?”
“I still want to count some stars with you.” He didn’t have much to offer her, but he was throwing a lasso around hope, anyway.
She smiled. “I need to get home to Mom.”
He hadn’t expected her to say yes, not after what had happened. “You’re brave, you know.”
“I know. Come on, drive me home.”
His brothers shot him sympathetic glances, knowing he was batting zero. Falcon got up, resigned to the fact that she was never going out with him again, and trying to keep his disappointment off his face, which was sore enough at the moment without adding the persona of Droopy Dog to it.
Fiona sailed into the room, full of her customary good cheer. “Hello, everyone!” She enjoyed the chorus of hellos from her family, then glanced at Falcon.
“Rough night?” she asked.
“Perhaps a bit,” he admitted.
“Well, we have those around here,” his aunt said cheerfully. “Good to see you, Taylor. I talked to Jillian today.”
Falcon glanced at Taylor, who was smiling at Fiona. He loved her smile. Just seeing Taylor looking happy made his face feel better.
“I understand you have a big date tomorrow night,” Fiona said, “courtesy of Jillian.”
Falcon’s heart just about stopped. Taylor nodded.
“Not really a date,” she said. “More like a cattle drive.”
“With a state senator’s son,” Fiona said. “That’s big game in these parts.”
The whole room went silent. Falcon could feel his heart jump with a painful, stuttering beat. As if it was dying.
“It was great to see everybody again,” Taylor said. “Falcon, can you drive?”
Of course he could—to the ends of the earth if she wanted. He grabbed his keys, trying not to look at the expressions of sympathy on his family’s faces.
“Good night, everyone,” Taylor said.
“Thanks for rescuing our brother,” Tighe said.
“Yeah,” his twin, Dante, said. “Falcon usually needs bodyguarding from the ladies. He wasn’t expecting to get jumped by family.”
This was all just great, Falcon thought with disgust. His own clan, helping his case not at all. He waved a hand to hush them, and he and Taylor left.
“You shouldn’t have told them I shot your uncle’s friend’s toe off,” Taylor told him as she got into his truck. “You exaggerated. I barely nicked him. Saying I got his whole toe makes me sound kind of mean.”
“It makes you sound like a helluva woman,” Falcon said.
“It was no big deal.” She looked out the window, but Falcon knew it had been a big deal. Taylor had been honest when she’d said his gnarly family tree precluded serious consideration of marriage.
He really couldn’t compete with the level of eligible bachelors Jillian was going to throw at his sharpshooting gal. He knew his wily aunt too well—she was in on it, too.
Everybody loved Taylor.
“I don’t understand what they wanted with you.”
Falcon wasn’t certain, either. There was a possibility that Taylor could have been the target—like Kendall had been—but he doubted it. Wolf didn’t usually make mistakes. “Wolf will do anything to get the ranch. If he could pick one of us off, or someone we care about, maybe we’ll get scared and give up.”
“You won’t.”
He shook his head. “It’s not in our nature to give up. We’re all stubborn that way.” Pulling into her driveway, he switched off the engine. “I’ll walk you to the door.”
She opened her door and got out, turning to look at him only briefly. “That won’t be necessary. I hope you heal fast, Falcon. Good night.”
Taylor shut the door and took off into her house. She didn’t even look back. Stunned, Falcon sat, amazed by how fast his evening had just ended.
But he got it. The whole evening had been awkward. No doubt weird, from Taylor’s point of view. Of course it was weird. How many girls had to rescue their date? He glanced at the rifle she’d left in the rack, just as it had been before, as if it had never been fired—but it had.
There was no changing what had happened. And tomorrow night Taylor had a date with Mr. Right.
Falcon pondered that for a moment, then realized what his next move had to be.
Chapter Four
“The thing is,” Taylor told Jillian the next night, “I really think I could like Falcon except for all the obvious reasons not to. None of which my heart is paying attention to, of course, which is a very bad sign. This only happened to me once before, when I fell for a completely inappropriate man. Luckily, the insanity eventually passed.”
Jillian put some glasses away behind the bar. “Callahans have been known to devastate the females of the population. I vote you gird your heart and go home and paint your toenails a pretty pink for your date.” Jillian smiled at her. “You should know the phone’s been ringing off the hook with men wanting to take you out.”
“Why?” Taylor sank onto a bar stool. She really didn’t want to go out with anyone besides Falcon. Then again, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go out with him again, considering last evening. Jillian was right: dating a Callahan was fraught with complications. “Why do men want to take me out?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I did hear a rumor that Fiona Callahan and her friends—conspirators, some call them—at the Books’n’Bingo Society decided this was the perfect opportunity to showcase Diablo’s most eligible bachelorette. I think they rented a barn roof near the highway to advertise that we had a Diablo princess. Any eligible bachelor was invited to call a number for vetting. Fiona said they’ve had a hundred calls, and only found three worthy of the princess. I think she designated the process Pick-a-Prince. I’d call her tone pleased.”
“The thing is,” Taylor said, ignoring the thought of three unfortunate princes Fiona might foist on her, “when I saw Falcon fighting, so big and strong, I’m pretty sure my heart sat up and noticed. He was like John Wayne, but dark and somehow calling to all my forbidden desires. My heart definitely sat up, Jillian.”
“Tell it to sit back down,” she advised. “You don’t need a fighter. You need a lover.”
Taylor would bet Falcon could do both. Through the Diablo grapevine, she’d heard that he had taken those horses she’d been worried about to Rancho Diablo, and had a vet and farrier brought out to care for them. If that didn’t warm a girl’s heart, nothing would. She dusted off the counter and began wiping down booths. “He told me we were going ghost hunting, and then he disappeared, and my first thought was that he was rude for trying to scare me to death. You warned me he was a rascal.” She sighed. “I think the evening might have scared up some of my own ghosts.”
Jillian smiled. “Fear of commitment, fear of love, fear of falling for a big, handsome Callahan. You can’t say I didn’t warn you to try to avoid temptation. There’s only one solution.”
“I know. Paint my toenails pink for tonight.”
“I’ll even let you off early so you can get started. The way to get your mind off one rascal is to get your mind on a different one.”
Blind dates were the pits. Nothing good could come of it, especially when she had a yen for a dark-eyed rebel—a different kind of prince entirely.
* * *
“N OW HERE ’ S THE DEAL,” Fiona told her nephew, “I’m on your side. But you’re going to have to be more forthcoming about some things. Right now it feels like we’re at cross purposes.”
Falcon put the saddle he was carrying onto one of the many split-rail fences that lined Rancho Diablo. “You’re running the prince pick-a-thon for Taylor. How are you on my side?”
“Don’t you worry about that.” Fiona gazed up at her nephew. He stood a good foot above her, but Fiona always gave the impression that she was the more powerful force. Her white hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense knot from which a strand rarely came loose. She wore her customary rubber boots, which gave her traction, she said, for the ups and downs of a busy life. “I expect you to have plenty of gumption where Taylor is concerned. You won’t disappoint me, I’m sure.”
He leaned against a wood rail, recognizing his aunt had something on her mind. “Forthcoming about what?”
“What Wolf wants.”
“I don’t know.”
She shook her head. “He didn’t try to drag you off for a chat because he’s the world’s most caring uncle.” Fiona touched Falcon’s cheek lightly over the bruise. “I’m sorry this happened. But you’re going to have to be straightforward with me.”
“Says the aunt who’s trying to fix up the woman I like with a string of bachelors.” He grimaced. “My guess is Wolf is trying to scare us. This is his second attack. Since he tried to take Kendall before, he either thinks he can get information from us, or he believes we’ll get spooked. Spooked people make mistakes.”
