Man of Honor
by Sarah O’Rourke
Man of Honor by Sarah O’Rourke
Copyright © 2016 by Sarah O’Rourke
All rights reserved. No part of this publication or cover design artwork may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods in current use or to be developed in the future, without the prior express written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law (US. Copyright Act of 1976).
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and settings are fictitious, and are the sole property of Sarah O’Rourke. Any resemblance to actual events, names, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Any real setting, person, or situation is used in a fictitious manner with literary license. This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences.
If you steal our work, we’ll sic our Mommas on you. Crazy One’s Momma will hunt you down and make you pay in blood. Crazy Two’s Momma will pray “for” your eternal soul (which is obviously in great peril if you resorted to stealing some poor little indie author’s romance story...really??? Really???) And trust us...you won’t win when she goes to the Almighty. And if that doesn’t scare you, please be advised that we have an attorney on retainer who will sue you to Kingdom Come. Don’t risk it. This is us, being there for you.
Want to read more by Sarah O’Rourke? Check us out at
www.SarahORourke.info
www.amazon.com/author/SarahORourke
Dedication
This book is for every single girl who had to find the courage to overcome a personal demon. Your strength of spirit amazes us. May God bless you all.
Crazy One and Crazy Two
Trigger Warning
Please note that this novel contains limited flashback references to rape. While such references are NOT graphic, they may trigger emotional responses. If that subject is a trigger for you, please consider your options prior to reading. For anyone who has experienced a sexual assault, please know that our prayers are with you, and we encourage to call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
Table of Contents
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Part Two
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Part Three
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments – Crazy One
Acknowledgments – Crazy Two
Playlist
Part One
Chapter One
April, 2016
Zeke
Fear is a mysterious entity, complicated and dynamic in its components.
Science tells us that when the body experiences a flood of pure panic fueled by a powerful rush of adrenaline, a man can become capable of all manner of things he would have sworn were impossible prior to experiencing that life-changing deluge of emotion. Emotionally, a man can essentially become a crazed powerhouse, both desperate and volatile in actions and deeds. For instance, a father can lift a car off his young child after a car accident. A guy can rush into a burning building to save his dog and never feel his burns blanketing his skin until both man and beast are safely outside again.
And, for Sheriff Ezekiel Monroe, he learned that while suffering under extreme conditions of both stress and terror, he could actually hurl two fully-grown adult men through a plate-glass window when they both decided to get courageously stupid and try to keep him from the woman Zeke loved. Thankfully, one of those men was his brother, Ice, and the other man was a guy by the name of Jake Stone - a man that he hoped would one day be his brother-in-law if Zeke had anything to say about it.
Luckily, neither man would hold his actions against him. Both guys knew him and were his friends. They understood that Zeke hadn’t been thinking, only reacting to a situation so far beyond his control that it had pushed him right over the metaphorical edge. More importantly, Ice and Jake got where Ezekiel’s thoughts were because they each knew how much the sheriff loved the woman now fighting for her life.
Again.
More than even that… they understood what any thought of Honor McKinnon being hurt did to him.
Zeke wasn’t sure why this visit to the local ER was affecting him so badly. It wasn’t as though he was any stranger to fear. No, he had an intimate relationship with the feeling – especially where Honor was concerned. She’d given him enough scares over her short life to last him an entire lifetime and then some.
This time, however, things definitely felt different. There was a sense of urgency… a sick sensation of foreboding flooding his soul, something unspoken warning him that this situation wasn’t like the others they’d faced together. This time he felt desperate to see her – to put his eyes on her beautiful face and keep them there forever, watching vigilantly so nothing else could harm her. His own emotions reeled as he eyed the nurses standing just behind the glassed-in window of the admissions desk and wondered what was happening behind those heavy steel doors separating him and most of Honor’s family from the rest of the emergency room. The burning need he had to get to her side ate away at his gut like acid.
It was only the feel of a tiny feminine hand pressed against his chest to restrain him that stopped him from stampeding through those metal double doors. “Enough, Zeke! Get a handle on it because it’s not gonna help my sister in the slightest if you lose your frickin’ mind up in here,” Patience McKinnon Turner ordered on a harsh whisper, her worried face, pale and pinched with anxiety as her husband Abel moved behind her, gently squeezing her slim shoulders as he stood at her back in silent support. “Everybody here is already scared out of their ever-lovin’ minds. Don’t make it worse for yourself or for us by acting like a lunatic now. Crazy is just not your color, Sheriff. Hold it together!”
Swallowing hard as he stared into the familiar blue eyes that were so much like Honor’s that it made his chest ache, Zeke forced himself to nod stiffly as he reached up to squeeze her icy hand. Hold it together, she’d said. Hell, he could barely keep his head attached to his shoulders… how the hell was he gonna calm down and keep it together for Patience and the rest of the family when it felt like his heart was on the verge of exploding? Focus was gonna be key here, he reminded himself as he fought to keep his head clear.
“How is she, Patience?” he asked raggedly, staring at the woman with frantic dark eyes. “I was listening in on the emergency frequency as I drove
here… dispatch said she coded once in transit.”
For as long as he lived, he’d never forget the sickening, sinking dread he’d felt in the pit of his stomach or the heart-stopping fear that had gripped his heart when he’d heard the relay exchange between the paramedics and the hospital while the ambulance had rushed toward the ER. He’d been out on a call to the Haverly homestead about sixteen miles east of town. The old dairy farmer had found evidence of someone joyriding through his woods and knocking down a couple of fences the previous night. He’d been understandably upset and more than a little intent on filing a report for trespassing with the sheriff’s Department when Zeke had heard the radio he wore on his duty belt crackle to life. Dispatch sent through the emergency 9-1-1 call that Orla McKinnon had made after the old woman found Honor unconscious and unresponsive on the small loveseat in her office at family business, the I Don’t Care Café. His gut had clenched as he’d listened to Honor’s elderly aunt shakily describe what had happened, her normally lively voice rife with anxiety and concern.
After hearing the initial distress call transmitted over the open air, Zeke vaguely remembered running toward his Durango while telling Mr. Haverly over his shoulder that he’d have a deputy get in contact with him to finish completing his police report. Honestly, at that point, he could have given two shits about a couple of four-wheeling assholes joyriding through the woods. His only thoughts revolved around one special woman that had stolen his heart years ago with her sweetness and bravery.
He barely recalled the drive back into town, only knowing that he made the normal twenty minute trek in just over ten minutes, intent on making his way to Honor’s side whether the stubborn woman wanted him there or not.
Now, as he stood there and tried to read the third McKinnon sister’s face for any sign of just how bad this situation was, he wondered why he’d left Honor on her own this morning. He’d known she’d had a bad night, her nightmares awakening both of them at least three times throughout the late evening and early pre-dawn hours. The last time her screams had jarred him awake, he’d taken a stand and refused to leave her alone in her room, ignoring her protests and climbing into her bed to sleep on top of her covers until she’d calmed again, holding her trembling body firmly against his until she’d drifted back to a still restless sleep.
Damn it! He’d known something was wrong… or more to the point, he’d known something was more wrong than the usual wrong with his girl for far longer than he wanted to think about right now. Hell, Honor had seemed off for days – weeks, even. Tired, wan and unusually quiet, she’d been going through the motions of life like it was some kind of punishment. He’d questioned her about it, begged her to let him help her through whatever was twisting her up inside, but she’d claimed it was just a cold bringing her low. Nothing for him to worry about, she’d said. As he thought on it now, not once had he heard her cough, sneeze, or sniffle. He’d been trying to let it go, to give her the space she’d asked for; now, he realized he’d made a mistake. A big one – one that could cost her dearly.
Seeing as she’d been found unconscious, he could recognize that he hadn’t been overreacting in the slightest. In fact, he could kick himself in the teeth for not being more vigilant with Honor and to hell with her contrary nature.
“We’re still waiting for Cain or Mack to come out and tell us something. They were both on shift when the ambulance brought her into the hospital. Cain promised Aunt Orla that they’d be out to tell us something as soon as they know what they’re dealing with. Neither one of them will leave her until she’s stable, Zeke,” Harmony McKinnon Stone, the eldest McKinnon daughter, said softly. Her husband, Jake, sat beside her in one of the empty waiting room chairs and slipped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her against his side.
“Cain won’t let anything happen to her,” Faith McKinnon Turner said, her small voice scared but resolute in her belief that her physician husband, Cain, would move heaven and earth to protect their baby sister.
Zeke closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, reminding himself that yelling wasn’t going to accomplish anything other than getting him thrown out of the hospital. Cain Turner and Mackenzie Daniels were two of the best physicians he’d ever met. While both worked out of small practices located in their small town of Paradise, Zeke knew that was by their own choice, not necessity. Either man could have a successful, thriving practice wherever they chose to go. Zeke was just grateful that both men had chosen to stay local. Further, each man had played a role in saving Honor’s life in both the recent and the not-so-recent past. Each doctor was aware of Honor’s medical history and her extreme fear of hospitals. They would be careful with their patient and both handle Honor gently when the young woman regained consciousness. In his heart, he knew that if he couldn’t be with her, Honor would be in good hands with Mack and Cain. He knew it, but he didn’t have to like it.
Composing his face into a calm mask, he opened his eyes and focused on the person nearest him. “Patience,” he said softly, staring into the new mother’s eyes, “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Exhaling a shaky breath, Patience nodded toward the mostly filled chairs. “Aunt Orla was the one that found her. She was with Honor in the ambulance, too. She could tell you what was going on the best, Zeke, but remember,” Patience whispered, leaning closer to him. “She’s an old woman that’s had a hell of a fright, okay? Go easy.”
“I heard that Patience Orla,” the McKinnon sisters’ auntie said sharply, middle naming her namesake and pursing her lips at her niece before turning her weary hazel eyes to look at Zeke. “I’m old, but I ain’t deaf.”
“What?” Uncle Jethro yelled, cupping a hand over his ear as he squinted at his wife, his head cocked to the side. “What’d you say, Orla?”
Aunt Orla rolled her eyes and shook her head at her elderly husband. “Now Jethro, here, he’s deaf as a fencepost,” she grumbled, shaking her head in disgust as she settled back against her plastic chair, her knuckles white where they tightly gripped her plain black leather pocketbook in her lap. “Sit down, Lawman, and try to stop bein’ so intimidatin’. I’ll happily tell you what I know about our girl.”
Zeke offered the ancient woman a rueful half smile as he quickly gave her hand a grateful squeeze before taking the seat across from her. Of every member that made up their convoluted ragtag family unit, Miss Orla was the one person that had never tried to convince him to give up on his devoted pursuit of Honor. If anything, she’d been an often eager and willing ally, regularly giving him a heads up on where her youngest niece would be and what trouble she’d be finding while she was there so that he could do his level best to stay one step ahead of his tiny terror and keep his woman safe.
Hell, for as long as he could remember, Honor’s auntie had referred to Honor Grace McKinnon as ‘their’ girl, willingly sharing the responsibility for her young charge with him. Not that it surprised Zeke in the slightest. Orla McKinnon was a wise woman who knew exactly how deeply his feelings ran for her sweet niece. She had for a long time – probably longer than Zeke himself had known. Thankfully, the old woman had accepted long ago that his feelings for her niece were never going to change. So, instead of becoming his enemy, she’d become his champion, and Zeke couldn’t have loved her more if the woman had been his own mother. Meeting her timeworn gaze, Zeke reached out to grasp the woman’s wrinkled hand in his. “How bad is it, Miss Orla?” he asked softly.
Eyes filling with tears she stubbornly refused to shed, Orla sniffed. “Pretty bad, son. Probably as bad as I’ve ever seen her save for when they brought her in after… well, you know when,” she trailed off, her voice becoming fainter as she looked away from the sheriff.
Closing his eyes, Zeke hung his head. He knew exactly what Honor’s aunt was referring to and the knowledge sat in his gut like a lead balloon, weighing him down as much today as it had eight years ago. He still felt the impotent rage… still felt like he was choking on the utter helplessness and despair of knowing he’d failed
Honor McKinnon on that long ago night. She’d just been a young girl then – a sweet, sixteen year old kid with her whole life ahead of her, and like an idiot, he’d played a part in robbing her of having a normal adolescence. Every day Zeke lived with the devastation of knowing that he’d left that innocent angel – a baby really - on the side of the road to be kidnapped and abused, fodder for the ravening beasts that had taken and ravaged her. It was a bleak truth that he’d been forced to exist with every day since it happened, knowing with every heartbeat that nothing he could ever do would erase those horrible hours and days that Honor had endured at the hands of her rapists and would be-murderers.
Five men had stolen his woman’s innocence that long ago night, leaving her nearly lifeless body in a sinkhole while she’d prayed for a quick, merciful end. Zeke knew that’s what Honor had wanted because that’s what she’d begged him for when she’d been laying in a hospital bed, her body struggling to recover from injuries that should have killed her. She’d begged him through her tears to just let her die.
And those wrenchingly heartbreaking pleas still haunted him to this day.
After that, he’d poured every bit of his energy into hunting down the monsters who had hurt her. Honor had five bogeymen, and he’d vanquished three of them. If there was any justice in the world at all, he hoped he’d sent them plunging straight into the bowels of a fiery hell.
That still left two demons walking around in human form. And thanks to the dying words of Harmony’s ex-husband (and, in an awful twist, first man that had raped Honor on that distant October night) Tanner Suarez, those two faceless entities had returned with a vengeance to taunt and torture Honor’s every moment. Whether awake or asleep, thoughts of those two fiends were never far from the young woman’s fragile mind. Like ghosts from her past, they haunted her – now more than ever.
Before that nasty fucker, Tanner, had come back into all their lives and detonated an emotional bomb over the McKinnon clan, Honor had been making progress. It’d been slow… sorta like watching grass grow, but it had been happening. She’d slowly been regaining her confidence and forging ahead with her life – a life that Zeke was sure she was beginning to believe included him. Tanner’s bold deathbed assertion that those two bastards were out there, waiting and watching for an opportunity to hurt his angel again, though, was enough to send the recovering woman spinning onto a dark path that she seemed determined to travel alone. Every day, Zeke had watched as she’d disappeared just a little more before his eyes, receding into herself until there were some days that she only spoke a handful of words. Hell, if it hadn’t been for having Harmony’s daughter, Heaven, and Patience’s new triplets to concentrate her attention on, he wasn’t sure if she’d just wither away entirely. His woman had become a shadow, and over the last year, Honor had become just a faded replica of the woman she’d once been.
Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) Page 1