Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  Honor turned in the act of opening one of the cabinet doors above the sink, surprise etched on her face. “What?”

  “Me. You think this is wrong, Honor. I know you do,” Harmony whispered, struggling with what she’d asked her sisters to do… what she was going to do.

  “I could never think you were horrible, Harmony,” Honor denied vehemently, shaking her head as her eyes went soft on her sister’s conflicted face. “You’re doing what you need to do to keep your family safe. I can’t fault you for that and I never would.”

  “You’d do things differently. I know you would,” Harmony mumbled, looking into the den and spotting the file exactly where it had been last night.

  “Doesn’t mean I’d choose the right way to handle things,” Honor snorted, opening another cabinet and finding nothing but canned goods. “I’m not exactly a risk taker either, Sis. If this little scavenger hunt will give you the peace of mind you need, get in there and make sure that there isn’t anything to worry about. I’m not going to fault you for it. If I thought what you were doing was wrong, I would never have opened the door for you.”

  Nodding, Honor’s words comforted her. It wasn’t absolution, but it was understanding. Squaring her shoulders, Harmony forced herself to walk into the den, skirting furniture as she made her way toward the oversized desk. Taking a deep breath as she reached the other side of the room, she snatched the innocent-looking folder into her hand and carried it around to Jake’s leather chair. Plopping down, she closed her eyes, said a quick prayer for forgiveness and opened the file.

  Then, as she scanned the first page, she felt the bottom fall out of her stomach.

  Flipping through the file, she found pages and pages of information about her – her school history, her work history, and credit reports. There were pages filled with information about her sisters, each containing a neatly stapled snapshot of them. Then, there were the pictures of her – pictures of her and Heaven, some recent and some not-so-recent. Pictures of her laughing. Pictures of her broken body the night Tanner had nearly beat her to death. Dear God, he even had medical reports detailing her injuries the night that Tanner had put her in the hospital and pages upon pages with notations about her pregnancy with Heaven. All of it was information he had no right to have.

  But that wasn’t even the worst part.

  No, the worst part was the final few pages of the file – all filled with color snapshots of Tanner Suarez. There were a handful that had been taken during their marriage, but more worrisome were pictures that were taken recently. Pictures that showed an older, meaner-looking Tanner, but he was a man she’d never forget and know anywhere at any time.

  “Son of a bitch,” she whispered, her fingers tightening on one of the photographs. He’d known everything about her, including where her ex-husband was, and she knew nothing about him. She’d given her mind, body, and soul over to a complete stranger.

  “Harmony?” Honor called, standing in the doorway and staring at her with alarm. “What’s the matter, honey? What did you find?” she asked, moving quickly toward where Harmony sat.

  Harmony’s eyes swam with tears as her eyes drifted over pages and pages of information that Jake shouldn’t have. “He knew me, Honor. He knew all of us all along, and I have no idea why he’s here.”

  “What?” Honor questioned, coming to stand behind Harmony as her eyes narrowed on the file strewn all over Jake’s formerly neat desk. “Oh my God,” she breathed, shaking her head from side to side as she braced herself against the chair Harmony sat on. Touching her sister’s stiff shoulder, Honor squeezed. “Breathe, Harmony. We don’t know….”

  “You’re absolutely right! We don’t know!” Harmony shrieked suddenly, her eyes widening in horror. “I slept with him. I shared with him! But, I don’t know him! I don’t know him at all!! God, I’m an idiot! How could I be that fucking stupid? I’m a complete fucking moron! Why would he have these, Honor!?” she screamed, picking up a picture of her lying broken and bleeding in a hospital bed. “Why the fuck is he here in our lives?”

  Alerted by the screams, her other two sisters rushed into the room as Honor wrapped her arms around Harmony. Shooting Patience and Faith hard looks, Honor asked, “Did you two find anything?”

  “No.” Faith shook her head, staring at Harmony as the eldest sister’s shoulders shook and her tears fell quickly down her cheeks. “What…”

  “Me either,” Patience interjected, her lips pressing together as she saw the condition Harmony was in. “But, I’m thinking y’all did.”

  “Tear the room apart,” Honor ordered harshly, holding Harmony protectively against her as she jerked her head toward the desk drawers. “We’ve found enough to know Jacob Stone didn’t just happen on this family,” she explained, nodding toward the scattered photographs and pictures on the desk. “Not even close.”

  Eyes widening as she took a look at the desk, Patience lifted shocked eyes to Honor. “Jesus,” she breathed, picking up a picture of Tanner. “What the fuck…”

  “We don’t know,” Honor interrupted her sister before Patience could lose her temper. “We don’t know anything yet, but we’re going to find out,” she bit out, her words a grim promise.

  Harmony watched in a state of shock as her sisters dug into Jacob’s desk, pulling out files on each one of them, Tanner, and a man named Diego Fuentes.

  Fingering a news article about her kidnapping, Honor’s face tightened. “Whoever Jake is, he certainly did his research on us.”

  Holding up a picture of a Hispanic man up for Harmony to see, Patience asked, “Do you recognize him, sis? He’s in a lot of these pictures with Tanner.”

  “Never seen him before in my life,” she denied huskily, eyeing the picture dispassionately as she wiped the tears off her cheeks.

  Patience frowned as she peered down at the file. “Based on these pictures, he and Tanner know each other pretty well,” she noted, showing Harmony a photograph of her ex-husband with his arm wrapped around the other Mexican man. “Why the fuck is Jake so interested in Tanner? And this Diego guy?” she murmured to herself, studying the pictures.

  “I have no idea,” Harmony replied numbly, turning toward Faith as the woman gasped behind them.

  Standing at the credenza, Faith took a faltering step backward as she gazed down into the drawer she’d just opened. “Uhmmm… y’all need to see this,” she called out in a voice the shook with equal parts worry and fear.

  Walking across the room on deadened legs, Harmony looked over Faith’s shoulder at what she’d found. “Oh, God,” she moaned as her eyes counted the guns lining the long drawer. “Who is this man?” she whimpered as Patience’s arm went around her waist.

  “Okay, let’s not panic,” Honor began calmly, turning to face Harmony and taking her shoulders in her hands. “You said Jake told you that he was in security….”

  “Honor, I love you, honey. But, unless Jake is security for the fuckin’ mob or a former mercenary on holiday in Paradise, no man, in security or not, has guns like those just layin’ around,” Patience argued, jabbing a finger toward the weapons on display. “Those are assault rifles, not BB guns, darlin’.”

  “We shouldn’t be here,” Harmony began to mutter as panic clawed up her throat. “We need to leave. We shouldn’t be here at all. I shouldn’t have asked you to come here. I put you all in danger, and now, we need to go!”

  “I would agree with that,” a deep voice drawled from the doorway. “Breaking and entering is a crime in fifty out of fifty states, I believe. Even if it is your boyfriend’s house.”

  All four sisters whirled at the sound of that familiar voice, coming face to face with three very grim faced men, each one staring intently at them.

  Chapter Thirty

  Harmony felt her knees shaking as she tried to take a step forward. She had gotten her sisters into her mess and she was going to have to be the one that got them out of it. Surely the three men staring at her would understand once she explained… once the
y saw what she’d uncovered.

  Then they’d help. They had to help; they were probably the only men left in the world that she could trust.

  But just as she opened her mouth, her brother-in-law lifted his hand and shook his head. Watching as Cain stepped to the side and crossed the room to Faith, she saw him lean forward to close the drawer holding the gun stash, whistling as he did. “I knew the son of a bitch was well-armed, but I haven’t seen some of that hardware since I was in Afghanistan,” he noted, shoving the drawer closed with one hand.

  Zeke raised a hand to tilt back his well-worn cowboy hat and shrugged. “We’re just lucky that he’s not had a reason to use any of them yet,” he muttered. “Even better that he wasn’t here and thought y’all were intruders,” he added with a pointed look in Honor’s direction. “That coulda gone real bad, real fast, ladies. I’d rather arrest you all than see any of you in the morgue. Damn it, every one of you should know better!” he growled, snatching off his hat to run a restless hand through his hair.

  Abel Turner shook his head as his eyes narrowed on Harmony’s pale face. “You alright, Harmony?” he asked, his voice worried as he took a half step toward the fragile looking woman.

  Alright? No, she wasn’t alright. She was a lot of things, but definitely not alright. Harmony’s eyes dilated and she jerked her head as she realized that while the men facing them were obviously mad, they weren’t shocked. Not by the fact that she’d broken into Jake’s house and not by the fact that she was standing here barely holding herself together.

  “Y-you knew,” she sputtered, her anxiety giving way to righteous indignation and quickly escalating toward a fury she’d never felt before in her life as she looked from Abel’s worried face to the Sheriff’s wary one. “All of you knew that this… this bastard wasn’t what he was portraying himself to be, didn’t you?” she yelled, jabbing a finger toward Zeke’s chest as she took a step forward.

  Patience narrowed her eyes on Abel as she moved toward Harmony. “What in the hell is going on here? Are you somehow involved in this circus, Abel?”

  “Hellion,” Abel began, holding up a hand to Patience, “This isn’t our story to tell. We’re just here to make sure you girls are okay.”

  “Bullshit! This is family! And you’ve been claiming for years that you’re that, Abel. Whoever knows what the story is should tell it,” Patience snapped. “And you just answered my question, you son of a bitch,” she hissed irately, her eyes promising retribution as she stared him down.

  “Yes, Cain, Patience is right,” Faith bit out as she looked toward her husband, who was guiltily staring at the wood floor. “Whoever knew what the hell was going on should have told us, and I’d like to know just how the hell you’re involved in this, too! This man has pictures of our entire family,” she yelled, gesturing toward Jake’s desk. “He’s been looking into all of us! Did you know about that?”

  “Baby, this is one of those times that you need to trust me,” Cain whispered, reaching a hand toward his wife as she jerked away from him, her pretty face set in a hard mask of angry disbelief.

  Honor remained silent as she met Ezekiel’s pained eyes. “Oh, they all knew,” she whispered, reaching for Harmony’s hand and tightening her fingers around it. “The question is, why did they choose to keep their fucking mouths shut?” she hissed, her eyes flashing dangerously as they bore into Zeke’s.

  Harmony’s jaw nearly dropped as she realized how furious her youngest sister was on her behalf. She never swore. Everyone knew that. Looking from Honor’s irate expression to Zeke’s tight face, she shook her head. “Doesn’t matter,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m done. I don’t know who the fuck Jacob Stone really is, but I’m finished with him and his twisted games! You tell him to stay the fuck away from me … from my daughter… and from my sisters! You care about any of us at all, you’ll do that, Sheriff,” Harmony sneered.

  Blocking her path when Harmony would have darted for the door, Zeke held up his hands. “Harmony, take a second and listen to me…”

  “Listen to you,” she echoed incredulously, her hands clenched at her side. “You knew! I don’t know what you knew, but you knew something, and you – a man I trusted – didn’t warn me that this son of a bitch knew me. You let me date him, Zeke. I fucked him last night! Did you know that?” she asked with a bitter laugh lacking any humor to those that heard it. “I gave myself to a man that has been stalking my family! The first man I let in after Tanner, and he’s a fucking psychopath with a shitload of big guns!” she screamed, her entire body trembling with the force of her emotions.

  Zeke’s face paled at Harmony’s words. “He wasn’t stalking you, sugar. I’d never have allowed that to happen. You need to talk to him, Harmony. You need to hear Jacob out and let him explain what’s happening here. There were reasons…”

  “Fuck his reasons! I don’t care! He had plenty of time to explain before I let him get between my thighs,” Harmony screamed, looking around the room. “You and Cain and Abel… you’re our family and you betrayed my trust! So, unless you’re gonna slap me in handcuffs, get the hell out of my way so that I can get as far from this bastard and these fucking memories as I can,” she demanded angrily.

  “I’m not gonna arrest you, Harmony, but I can’t let you leave here in this condition either, sweetheart,” Zeke said softly, capturing Harmony’s wrist when she would have bolted past him. “You’re shaking so hard you can barely stand. If you got hurt…”

  “Let my sister go, Ezekiel,” Honor commanded, her voice lashing the room like a whip. “Patience, you are going to drive Harmony back to the café. Stop and pick up Heaven on the way. Both of you stay there and tell Aunt Orla not to leave until I get back. Abel, follow my sisters to make sure they arrive safely. Cain, take Faith to the restaurant, too. For your safety, I suggest you both wait in the parking lot while the women go inside. I’ll meet you all there in a few minutes, but first, the good sheriff and I are going to have a conversation,” she said, her voice deceptively soft as she glared at Zeke.

  “Fine,” Faith muttered, “But, I’m riding with Harmony and Patience. I’m afraid I’ll claw my husband’s eyes out if I’m anywhere near him right now,” she said, her gaze silently condemning Cain to hell.

  “I don’t care,” Harmony shouted, overwhelmed and desperately in need of an escape route. “Can we please just get out of here before Jake gets back? If I see him, my hand to God, I will rip his fucking throat out and shove it up his ass. As it is, being here…remembering…I feel sick,” she begged, looking toward Honor.

  Zeke nodded slowly and released Harmony’s wrist. “Go,” he agreed hoarsely.

  Honor nodded as she watched her sisters each take one of Harmony’s arms and guide her out of the room, followed closely by Abel and Cain. Waiting until she and Zeke were alone in the room, she raised her chin, lifted her hand and slapped him full force across the face. “Liar!” she spat as his face snapped to the left, the hollow echo of the blow filling the air. “We trusted you. I trusted you. I asked you this morning if there was danger,” she whispered furiously, taking a step back when he righted his head and looked at her.

  Rubbing his tender, now red cheek, Zeke inhaled deeply and lifted his eyes to focus on hers, filled with pain and confusion. “I had that coming, but I didn’t lie. I answered you honestly. Crime is definitely on the rise, but it isn’t here in the form of Jacob Stone.” Watching her open her mouth, Zeke growled, “If it means keeping you safe, I’ll do whatever I have to do, Honor. If breaking your faith in me is the price I pay, I’ll pay it. I told you that six years ago. I meant it then; I mean it now. There’s not a single, fucking thing I won’t do to keep you safe, and by extension, your sisters, too. You wanna stand there and think that I’d deliberately hurt any of you for a single second, I can’t stop you. You want to hate me for the choices I’ve made; do it. Won’t change anything for me. I protect what’s mine, however I need to do it. First and always, Honor,” he replied, his deep voice tender a
s he imparted his truth on her.

  Honor’s lower lip trembled as she met his intense gaze. “Damn you, Zeke,” she whispered tremulously, badly wanting to hate the man in front of her for his secrets, but knowing, deep down, Ezekiel Monroe always had her best interests at heart. “Does Jacob have something to do with the reason you’ve been dogging me and the rest of the girls worse than you usually do? Is he the reason that you were at the house this morning? Are we in danger? If Harmony…”

  Taking Honor by the shoulders, Zeke shook her gently. “Listen to me, Honor,” he urged. “Jacob Stone is not a threat to Harmony. He’s not a threat to any of you. He’s…”

  “No!” Honor interrupted quickly, shaking her head. “I don’t want to know. Not before Harmony does. I’m not going to be one more person that stabs her in the back by not telling her the truth.” Swallowing hard, she whispered, “It’s enough to know that he’s not here to hurt her.”

  “Baby, he’d rather cut off his arm than let something or somebody do her harm,” Zeke assured her quietly, studying Honor’s pinched face. “He loves her, Honor.”

  “He’s already hurt her. She feels used, and I don’t blame her,” Honor countered, her lips twisting in a grimace. “Whether he loves her or not, Harmony isn’t gonna just forgive this,” she said, turning to gesture at the strewn photographs of her and the rest of the family. “I just pray for his sake that he’s got a good reason for all he’s done and Harmony isn’t armed when he tries to share his side of the story. Mark my words, all hell is fixin’ to break loose in Paradise, Zeke, and if I were you, I’d brace.” She stepped away from him and walked toward the door, then turned back. “In the meantime, I’d call him if you have his number. Warn him that there are a whole passel of McKinnons that would love to have a chat.”

  Staring after her, Ezekiel sighed heavily as he heard the front door open and close. Pulling his phone from his jeans pocket, he thumbed through his contacts quickly, hitting the number he needed while he watched Honor climb behind the wheel of her car from the kitchen window.