The Callahan's: Secret Sins Part 37

Her mother wiped desperately at her tears while her father inhaled sharply and blinked back the moisture in his eyes furiously.

"We were so scared, Anna," her momma rasped, her tear-roughened voice strained. "We never knew when he would call or what he would demand. All we knew was that we were losing you more and more every year. And more and more every year my soul was dying." She sobbed. "I had lost one child already, I couldn't bear to lose another."

"You are our daughter," her da stated hoa.r.s.ely. "No matter what you feel, or what you will feel later, you are and always will be our daughter, Anna. I loved my sister. She was the baby of the family, treasured and cherished. And you were her child. But you're our daughter."

Her grandfather pulled his handkerchief free and wiped his face with trembling hands. "The day we buried your parents, you were quiet. The perfect baby," he said. "For a while. When you heard Crowe scream at me when he learned he wasn't coming back to the ranch with us, you woke instantly."

Anna's heart shattered at the knowledge that Crowe had suffered far more than she had.

"You screamed for hours," her grandfather said. "You were sobbing for him, I knew. I was sure you couldn't cry anymore, that your tears had to empty themselves, but even after we returned to the ranch, you still screamed. And that day I would have given my life, Anna, my life, if I could have had both of my grandchildren here. If I could have helped Crowe with his grief, if I could have sheltered him. I would have given everything, all the b.a.s.t.a.r.d would have had to do was tell me what he wanted."

As Anna's lips parted, a sudden pounding on the back gate had her swinging around and watching in shock as it was suddenly pushed inward and fury itself stepped onto the patio.

Crowe stood like a dark visage of death, his amber-brown eyes filled with murderous fury as they swept the room and found her.

The look didn't change, but the tension, the killing rage that tightened his body eased somewhat.

"Crowe?" Archer questioned the entrance as they all came instantly to their feet.

Crowe's gaze sliced to John Corbin. "Well, if it isn't the martyr of Corbin County," he sneered. "Tell me, old man, have you sacrificed yourself for anyone else this year? h.e.l.l, I hope not. Your brand of help sucks."

Surprisingly enough it was his grandmother who reacted.

"James Crowe Callahan, your mother raised you better than that, and I know she did," Genoa rasped, her voice weak, and for the first time Anna noticed the tear tracks that glistened on her lined face.

Crowe's jaw tensed until Anna thought it would crack.

For a moment, she actually thought he would ignore her.

"Look at you," Genoa said. "As proud and stubborn as your daddy, but with your momma's eyes and with her way of staring at a person like you could run through them."

"Don't do this." His voice wasn't as cruel, but neither was it respectful. "You haven't been a grandmother since I was ten, and I don't need one now."

"I've always been your grandmother," she told him. "And you need one now, Crowe, far more than ever. Let's hope you don't wait too late to ask your own questions."

"I don't have any questions," he told her, the anger throbbing in his voice. "I don't have any questions, requests, or time to play these games." He turned to Archer. "We found Amelia Sorenson and a young woman, Elizabeth Haley, bound and suffering dehydration and exposure on the front porch of my cabin." His voice was so harsh, so filled with fury it was animalistic.

"Amelia?" Lisa whispered in a tone filled with the same shock Anna could feel tearing through her. "Why?"

"According to Amory Wyatt," Crowe sneered, "because Wayne wasn't playing by the rules." He turned to Archer. "Amelia is prepared to testify it was her father, Archer. She's-" He shook his head wearily before rubbing the back of his neck. "She's with Doc Mabry and his wife. Cayna's keeping an eye on her."

Leaning against Archer, his arm wrapped tightly around her, Anna could only stare back at Crowe, barely able to comprehend everything.

Amelia had disappeared from the hospital in the early hours of the morning.

"I was heading here when Amory called me," he continued, and the look he gave her parents and grandparents was savage.

"Don't leave without me," she told Archer softly, drawing his gaze as the emotional upheaval tore her apart inside.

"Never," he promised. "Let me see what's going on, and I'll be right back."

"Rafe and Logan are outside," Crowe all but snarled. "Along with those d.a.m.ned Resnova misfits that won't stay the h.e.l.l out of my business."

Bending his head, Archer kissed her cheek gently. "Give me ten minutes."

Anna nodded, watching as he strode from the patio with Crowe following close behind.

Anna turned back to her family, her gaze settling on the two who had nurtured and raised her.

"You're my parents," she told them, clasping her hands in front of her, her fingers twisting and twining together as she watched her momma and da warily. "If you don't want to be my parents, then I can't force you, just as I can't force them." She glanced back at her grandparents. "But I love you," she said, the tears falling again as she faced life without the man and woman she'd always called Momma and Da. "Crowe will always be my brother and I hope some way, one of these days, we can find that relations.h.i.+p as it should have been, and I'll wish I had known the man and woman that gave me life. But you gave me manners, honesty, security as best you could, and I always thought, until I was forced from my home, you taught me to love." Her voice broke as she lifted her hands, covering her face for a moment, hoping to stem the tears. "But you also taught me to fight for what I want. And I want to be in Corbin County. I want to be a part of my brother's and cousins' lives, and yours."

But nothing could stem the pain resonating inside her. Just as nothing could change the love she felt for this family. Faults and all, and in spite of the past that had nearly destroyed them all.

Her father's arms went around her.

She knew the feel of them.

Other than for the first three weeks of her life, this man's arms had held her, this woman's had comforted her, and the grandparents she so loved had done their best to spoil her.

And her momma was there. Pulling Anna to her, Lisa Corbin tucked the only daughter she had ever truly known against her heart, and they sobbed together as her gran'pop and gran'momma came to her, their hugs, their whispers of love perhaps not healing, but easing her heart.

They had lost time, years spent in fear and fighting to protect the child who stole their hearts with her broken sobs at such a young age.

They were praying the tears were over.

"My baby girl." Her momma said as Anna stepped back. "No matter the name you carry, you'll always be our baby girl."

CHAPTER 25.

She felt broken when they returned to Archer's house that evening.

Amory Wyatt and Wayne Sorenson had disappeared entirely.

Thankfully, Rory Malone was coming out of the hospital in a day or so with a clean bill of health.

"Hey, babe." Archer entered the kitchen after his shower, moving to her to place a gentle kiss at her nape. "I ordered dinner in. It should be here soon."

Anna stared back at him, her heart aching at the warmth in his gaze.

She knew just this: the warmth and s.e.xual need would never be enough. She needed his love. She deserved his love.

"Thank you," she said. "I'd forgotten about dinner."

The doorbell sounded at that moment, an announcement that the food had arrived.

Archer winked back at her with wicked, l.u.s.tful intent. "You can show me how appreciative you are after dinner."

And she would, because she needed him. Because his touch, his warmth would haunt her once this was over.

Archer returned to the patio with the food long minutes later. Stopping in the kitchen, he'd transferred the still hot fries and sandwiches to plates, collected the salt, pepper, ketchup, mayo, and hot sauce.

Stepping back to the patio area for a second, Archer was taken aback by the sight of Anna and the romantic glow the fire cast around her.

Dressed in the ankle-length, full gypsy-type cotton skirt and pale peach camisole top that revealed soft shoulders gleaming with a silken sheen. The tops of her firm, rounded b.r.e.a.s.t.s with a hint of a lacy bra pulled at his gaze and had his mouth watering to taste her nipples.

Long dark hair hung loose around her face, heavy curls falling over one shoulder to curl over the lush curve of her breast.

Lower, beneath the thin material of her blouse and the lace of her bra, her nipples pressed pebble hard, and waiting for the heat of his mouth.

Every inch of the tempting, curved body hardened his d.i.c.k and made him ache for her touch.

She was sinking inside him, he admitted silently. Never had he brought a lover to his home or dealt well with the thought of having some female imprinting her presence inside his house. But this woman, this lover-he simply couldn't imagine his home without her.

As they ate their food, conversation stilled, and the sounds of the waterfall in the far corner and the flames licking at the wood opposite turned the patio into an intimate, warm coc.o.o.n.

Intimacy couldn't dispel the concern that Wayne and Amory couldn't be found though, because of the threat they represented to Anna and to Cami, Skye, and now Amelia as well.

"You look worried," she stated as they finished the last of the food and the beer.

Archer watched her face, watched the light of the fire flicker over the pretty features, the somber cast of her eyes. She'd smiled at him earlier, and he swore his heart was going to beat right out of his chest with excitement.

A woman shouldn't be able to do that to a man, he told himself. It was d.a.m.ned dangerous. It started him thinking that maybe the fairy tale could be more than just an illusion.

"We have to figure out where Wayne and Amory are hiding," he breathed out roughly. "Neither Amelia nor Elizabeth knew where they were holding them, but they're certain the drive there was more than an hour, but no more than two."

Anna turned her eyes from Archer's and stared into the fire instead. The flames were lower now, the wood more than half consumed as they sat before it and ate.

"They can't hide forever," she stated as she rubbed her arms, knowing that as long as Wayne and Amory were free, they were dangerous.

"Do you know how it tortures me? I'm terrified I'll blink, and he'll s.n.a.t.c.h you again." he told her as he moved his chair closer to hers, then pulled her into his arms. "Knowing he's still out there, knowing he won't stop until he's dead."

And he wouldn't. Anna remembered the pure evil in his voice, as well as the need he'd felt to hurt her.

Leaning against his chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath her ear, she couldn't stop the chill that raced up her spine at the memory of it.

Tilting her head back, she stared up at him, catching his gaze as he stared down at her and seeing the determination inside him.

"If anyone can stop them, you will, Archer." She knew that to the bottom of her soul. "You're not the kind of man who will give up just because others think you should. You'll catch them, and when you do, Amory and Wayne both will regret each drop of blood they shed."

As she stared up at him, his head lowered, his lips brus.h.i.+ng against hers.

She was sinking inside him, and he had no idea how to make it stop, how to make her stop. The problem was, he didn't want it to stop. And that scared the s.h.i.+t out of him.

"I wish we had happened another way." The regret in her voice had him tightening his arms around her. "I used to imagine I could slip out to one of the socials. That you would see me. Your eyes would touch mine and in your eyes I'd see how much you wanted me." Tears might not be falling, but he swore he could feel them falling in her soul. "You'd walk across the dance square, all tall and handsome, and you'd take me in your arms. We'd dance until you danced me right into one of those little grottos, and there you'd kiss me. You'd tell me how you'd waited for me and were never going to let me go." Her head fell back against his shoulder, the long strands of her hair feathering out over his arm. "And now there's just not even a chance."

Because now it had already happened. They had come together in a way that was certain to tear them apart.

He hadn't invited her to move in with him after they became lovers. He had been forced to bring her to his home because she had no other place to go.

Archer turned her in his arms, one hand sliding into the back of her hair, clenching in the strands and sending pleasure racing through her nerve endings.

Lifting her gaze to his, she could see the hunger burning in his eyes, l.u.s.t and something more. Something she wished was love.

Then his lips were covering hers, easing over them, his tongue licking over the fullness of her lower lip before pressing inside and finding hers.

Anna moaned at the rich seductiveness of the kiss. The feel of his lips caressing hers, taking sipping kisses and burning her with the hunger in his touch, tore a whimpering cry from her.

He couldn't know how deeply her heart beat for him. How deep the hope that she could fill his heart went. And how wide was the certainty that when this was over, she would be without him.

Wrapping her arms around his neck and lifting to her toes, Anna parted her lips for him, taking his kiss with a need she didn't bother to control.

Her hold tightened.

Sliding her fingers into his hair, Anna moaned with rising pleasure, lifting against him, feeling the thick ridge of his c.o.c.k, iron hard, iron hot, pressing against her stomach as his tongue thrust inside her mouth and rubbed against her own.

Before she could stop him, he was drawing back, releasing her, then pulling her to the fire.

On the other side of the patio a wide lounge chair had been pushed against the house. Archer jerked the thick, heavy pad from it and tossed it to the patio in front of the fireplace.

A second later, he'd shed the sweatpants he wore before gripping the scarf she used as a sash around the elastic band of her skirt.

Staring into her eyes, he untied it, loosening the ends before gripping the elastic band and pus.h.i.+ng it over her hips and down her legs to pool at her feet.

With a flick of his fingers between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her bra was loosened, the straps pushed over her shoulders and smoothed down her arms until he could toss it away as well.

"Sweet G.o.d, have mercy on me," he breathed as he cupped her firm, sensitive b.r.e.a.s.t.s, his eyes caressing her nipples. "I love your b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Anna. And your sweet, berry ripe nipples. Do you know I dream of sucking those pretty little nipples?"

Bending to her, his lips surrounded one hard tip and sucked it into the heat of his mouth.

Staring down at him, her fingers feathering through the dark blond of his hair, Anna fought to control her accelerated breathing, to find enough strength in her legs to remain in place.

"What if someone sees us?"

"No one can see," he promised, brus.h.i.+ng his lips against her nipples before easing her to the wide, firm cus.h.i.+on he'd tossed in front of the fire. "You might want to watch those little cries when you come though. You never know if the neighbors are listening."

Lying before him, wearing only the pale peach panties riding low on her hips, Anna bit at her lower lip, wondering how in the h.e.l.l she was going to manage that.

Lowering himself beside her, his lips came down on hers again, stroking against them, licking over them as Anna fought to hold back a needy moan.

"Shhh," he murmured as his head lifted, his eyes glittering a rich golden brown as rising hunger reflected in the depths.

Calloused fingertips stroked her thigh as his lips moved across her jaw, down her neck.