Read Online BRANDED BY A CALLAHAN by Tina Leonard - Free Book Online Page A

painfully aware that they thought he was the equivalent of the classroom dolt. “She can’t be gone! She would never leave those little boys, she loves them...” He let his voice trail off as the faces staring at him became even more sorrowful. “Where did she go?”
    “We don’t know,” Fiona said.
    Ash came to tuck her head onto his shoulder, and though her silent support was bracing, it was horrible that everyone felt so sorry for him. I’m gone for her, I knew I was crazy about Ana, and everybody else did, too, except Ana.
    Maybe that was for the best.
    “Well, I guess Ana did what she had to.” He thought his tone sounded quite practical. “Women. Who can predict what they’ll do?”
    That remark didn’t draw him anything but puzzled stares. Dante decided to head off with the shreds of his dignity hanging in tatters but at least still partly available to him. “Glad you’re feeling better, Aunt Fiona. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.” He kissed her cheek.
    She grabbed his hand. “You did make sure the gown was tucked away carefully?”
    He couldn’t lie. He just couldn’t. Never had, didn’t plan to start now. “Aunt Fiona, the dress disappeared.”
    “Disappeared?” She looked at him, her lower lip trembling slightly. “What do you mean? Did Ana borrow it?”
    “I don’t think so.” He patted Fiona’s hand. “It just simply filtered away.”
    She blinked. “Oh, disappeared, disappeared. I see.”
    She didn’t see, and he didn’t, either. His aunt probably thought he’d exacted his revenge on the evanescent cloth, as he’d threatened. Gowns just didn’t vanish into the ozone, nothing did, not really, and so, he’d gone from hero to heel in a fraction of a second.
    Fiona released his hand and leaned back against the snow-white pillows again. She looked somehow more fragile than she had just thirty seconds before. He glanced around at his family, who didn’t hide their disappointed expressions.
    There was only so much a man could take.
    “I’m going out for a while,” Dante said, departing to the relative safety of anywhere but Rancho Diablo.
    * * *
    T HE OBVIOUS THING to do was to go talk to River. Ana’s friend and colleague would know more than anybody about what had upset Ana enough to make her leave her precocious, adorable charges. Dante decided he had nothing to lose by stopping in to see if he could dislodge any information from the woman who had given his twin little to no encouragement.
    Tighe was in the same boat he was—a sinking boat—though his brother didn’t seem to know it yet.
    He knocked on the door. River opened it with Sloan and Kendall’s two toddlers hanging on to her, precious with their wide eyes and wondering expressions.
    “Hi, Dante,” River said. “Your twin just came by. Busy day at the ranch, huh?”
    “I guess.” He waited until she waved him inside. “I heard Ana might have gone out for a bit.”
    She knelt on the floor to stack blocks with the kids. “It’s true. We have a sub coming in a couple of hours.”
    “A substitute bodyguard?”
    “Absolutely. Sloan would never allow Kendall and the kids to stay here unless they were completely covered, especially not after what happened in Hell’s Colony with the sniper getting hit and all. And of course you and Ana getting dragged off.”
    His many transgressions were stacking up on him. “I guess I’m not exactly dream-date material.”
    She smiled. “Probably not.”
    There was little he could do about that. Rancho Diablo was a hot location; it was impossible to predict from where the next attack could come.
    “If it makes you feel any better,” River said, “Ana did say that the night she spent with you was amazing.”
    Amazing, hell . They hadn’t made love, hadn’t kissed. She’d know amazing when he finally got her in his arms. He shoved his hat back on his head. “Do you know why Ana left?”
    “There’s only so much I feel I can tell.”
    She’d actually said more