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

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “No shit? I had no idea,” Patience retorted sarcastically, her pain-filled eyes glittering ominously as she tried to move, wincing. “Is that what the freakin’ hole in my arm is all about? Just let me up and…”

  “Patience, calm down,” Harmony soothed her sister, pressing her hand to Patience’s uninjured shoulder as Cain crouched beside his brother.

  “Calm down?” Patience echoed, focusing on Harmony’s face. “Those assholes shot up our diner! And this one,” she yelled, jerking her head toward a pale Abel, “He pushed me into the bullet!”

  Harmony’s eyebrows lifted, and she heard Abel growl low in his throat. “I did not!” he hissed as he moved his hands for his brother to examine the wound. “If I hadn’t pushed you down, the fucking bullet would have hit your heart instead of your arm, Hellion! God damn it! You just robbed me of at least ten years of my life with that stunt. When I tell you to get down, you get the fuck down! By God, if anybody’s gonna take you out, I’m doin’ it – hell, I’ve earned the right - not some piece of shit with a grudge!” he bellowed back at her, pushing a lilac strand of her hair back from her face with a shaking hand.

  “You didn’t get down?” Honor asked shrilly, crouching next to Harmony. “You always get down, Patience. If there is gunfire, you duck! It’s lesson number one!”

  “Ouch, shit!” Patience groaned, jerking when Cain rolled her to her side to look at the wound. “I was getting down, Honor. Then, Mr. Bulldozer mowed me down and right into the path of….crap, that hurts, Cain!”

  “I see an exit wound. It’s a through and through,” Cain muttered, his jaw tight. “I don’t think it’ll need surgery, but it’s definitely gonna require a trip to the hospital. She’s lost a lot of blood.”

  “Oh, just sew it up here. I’ll be fine,” Patience hissed as her body was moved again. “I swear, when I get my hands on Tanner Suarez, I’m gonna reach down his throat and rip off his scrotum.”

  “Not if I find him first,” Abel muttered ominously, his eyes never leaving Patience’s pale face.

  Harmony looked up to see Jake and Zeke coming back through the front door of the restaurant, their faces like granite. “Where did you go?” she asked Jake as more deputies poured into the café.

  “Perimeter check,” Jake replied before turning his attention to Patience. “How you doin’, Spitfire?” he asked, kneeling at her head and running a finger over her cheek.

  “This looks way cooler on television,” Patience said with a growl as she closed her eyes. “And a hell of a lot less painful.” She hissed as Cain began wrapping her arm with a towel Faith brought him.

  “You’re lucky to be alive, Patience,” Harmony whispered, squeezing her sister’s hand. Looking at Jake, she whispered fearfully, “Heaven? Aunt Orla?”

  “Already spoke to Ice, darlin’. He’s bringing them both to the hospital. He’s got two deputies tailing him. They’ll be okay,” he assured her calmly.

  “Is that a good idea?” Honor asked, looking at Zeke.

  “I want everybody in one location until we locate the car that did the drive-by. My deputies have a pretty good description of it. I’ve got every cop in a hundred-mile radius looking for it.”

  “This is my fault,” Harmony whispered as paramedics bustled in the door.

  “Ow! Bullshit!” Patience cursed, glaring at her sister. “Don’t you dare try to take this on your shoulders, Harm. This is Tanner and his crew of fucktards fault. Not yours!”

  “That’s the blood loss talking,” Harmony replied with a sniffle, shrugging her shoulder and wiping her tears on her sleeve.

  Turning her head to look at Cain, Patience complained, “Is an ambulance really necessary? I mean, I think if you’d just let me up, I could…”

  “What?” Abel snapped, keeping his hand on Patience’s belly when she would have tried to sit up. “Walk it off? You just had a bullet tear through a part of your body, Hellion. I’ve got your blood all over me! You’re going to the fucking hospital if I have to sit on you to get you there.”

  “Fine,” Patience huffed petulantly. “Will I get the good drugs?” she asked Cain hopefully, her eyelids growing heavy as her brother-in-law continued applying pressure to the gunshot wound.

  “All the morphine you can handle,” Cain promised, straight-faced.

  “Thasss niceeee,” Patience slurred, her eyelids fluttering before closing completely.

  “Patience!” Harmony, Faith and Honor screamed in unison.

  “Cain, what’s happening?” Abel barked, his eyes growing wild as he watched Patience lose consciousness.

  “Pain and blood loss. They’ll give her a couple of units of blood and a nice IV drip of morphine when we get her to the hospital,” Cain returned evenly, helping the paramedics shift Patience onto the gurney. Thankfully, the two men had worked with Cain before, and asked few questions as they relied on the doctor to fill them on the details while they quickly attached all manner of tubes to their patient.

  Climbing to his feet, Abel gripped the gurney. “I’m not leaving her,” he clipped, glaring at one of the paramedics as they began rolling her toward the door.

  “Faith, ride with Zeke to the hospital,” Cain ordered over his shoulder, staring at the Sheriff and seeing Zeke nod his agreement. “I’ll go with Abel.”

  “We’ll be right behind you,” Harmony said, following behind them with Jake’s arm around her waist. She knew the others trailed them out of the restaurant. Looking over her shoulder, she found Honor’s dazed eyes. “Do not leave Zeke’s sight. You either, Faith,” she ordered.

  Both sisters nodded as Jake opened the door of his truck and helped Harmony inside. Automatically moving to fasten her seatbelt, it took her three tries to try and fasten the latch. Cursing her numb fingers, she fought tears as Jake brushed her hands aside and latched the catch for her. Lifting her eyes to his, she whispered, “If I’d stayed home like you told me to, none of this….none of it would have happened. If ever there was an I-told-you-so moment, this is it.”

  “No, it’s not. If this hadn’t happened here, it could have happened at home, baby. These guys are getting desperate and they made a play today. Luckily, our girl was safely at home and away from the action. I want to rip the shooter’s arms off for hurting Patience, but I’m glad if it had to happen that Heaven wasn’t here,” he replied, starting the truck before reaching for her hand and gripping it tightly in his.

  “I like that,” Harmony whispered, staring out the window as she watched deputies mill around the entrance of the café, securing the area.

  “Like what, darlin’?” Jacob asked, his voice distracted as he pulled onto the highway behind Zeke.

  “How you call Heaven ‘our girl’,” Harmony confided.

  Turning his head, Jacob frowned for a moment. “What else would I call her, Harmony? She is our girl.”

  “Not really. I wish it were different, but she’s not yours. She’s…”

  “She’s mine,” Jacob cut her off harshly with a hard squeeze to her hand. “She became mine the same time you did, Harmony. I was real clear on that.”

  “But…”

  “No,” he denied with a shake of his head as he steered the truck with one hand, closely tailing Zeke’s SUV. “Sharing some DNA with a kid doesn’t make a father, Harmony, and thank God for that because no child should be stuck with Tanner Suarez. A father reads stories, and jumps on trampolines, and kisses boo boos better and watches My Little Pony videos until his ears bleed because it makes his little girl giggle. He fuckin’ loves that sound so much that he’ll put up with those stupid songs that he can’t get out of his head and those freakin’ pastel ponies.” Running a frustrated hand down his face, he shook his head and took a deep breath. “Heaven’s mine, Harmony. I’ve claimed her. Christ, I’ve loved that kid from the second you let me near her, and that feeling has only gotten stronger every day that I’ve spent with her. You came with strings, Harmony, but darlin’, they’re the best kind of strings. They’re the kind a guy would
happily wrap himself up in for the rest of his life if it means he gets to be with both of you.”

  “Tanner’s never gonna let us be happy, Jake,” Harmony replied, giving voice to her greatest fear.

  “He’s not gonna have a fucking choice,” Jacob growled. “He’s a dead man walking, Harmony. He just doesn’t know it yet,” he stated quietly, turning into the ER parking lot behind Zeke. Pulling into one of the slots, he killed the engine and looked at the woman beside him. “This isn’t the way our life is going to always be, baby. This will end.”

  “He could have killed Patience. He could have killed all of us,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. Any of you! I don’t think I could live with it. Maybe we should…”

  Covering her lips with his hand, Jacob shook his head. “Whatever you’re going to say, don’t. I’m not going anywhere. I’m sure as hell not leaving you and Heaven at this bastard’s mercy. I love you. I love Heaven. We’re together, Harmony, and that’s not going to change. Say you understand me,” he demanded, swiping his thumb against her lips.

  “I understand, Jake,” Harmony whispered. “I love you, too.”

  “Good. Now, let’s go make sure your sister is okay.”

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Harmony and Jake walked into the ER just as they unloaded Patience from the back of the ambulance.

  “The rest of the family is already inside in the waiting room,” Cain called to them from one side of the gurney as they rolled Patience toward the entrance.

  “Harmony!” Patience yelled, lifting her head and holding out her uninjured arm. “They gave me gooooooddddd drugs on da bus! Did you know that’s what they call an amblance…I mean inbalance. I mean…”

  “Ambulance?” Harmony offered helpfully, hurrying toward her sister.

  “Uh huh!” Patience chirped. “That’s it!”

  “They gave her something to take the edge off the pain because her blood pressure spiked in route,” Abel explained, keeping one hand on Patience’s forehead as he kept pace with the moving gurney.

  “Is that normal? The blood pressure thing?” Harmony fired at Cain as she clutched Patience’s hand.

  “Dunno if it’s normal, but it feels goooooooddddd! Even Abel looks yummy on this stuff,” she admitted, staring up at Abel with glazed eyes as she held up the IV in her good arm for Harmony to see. “I didn’t think I’d e-ver wanna do him again, but now….ROAR,” she snapped her teeth at the attorney.

  “Wh-what?” Harmony gasped, turning startled eyes to Abel. “You… you and Patience…together? Like together together?”

  “Yep, sounds like some amazing drugs,” Jake choked from behind Abel, trying desperately not to bust a gut at the rapidly paling man.

  “I….we….it’s a long, complicated story,” Abel stammered as Harmony stared at him with shocked eyes.

  “No, it’s not. It was short. Realllllyyyyy short. Like, the sex succcckkkkeed short! Abel is quick draw McGraw!” Patience giggled. “A one minute wonder! A wayyyyy too eager beaver! A-“

  Clapping a hand over Patience’s mouth, Abel shook his head. “She’s drugged. Pay no attention to the stoned woman,” he ordered, looking around at their small group.

  Choking on his laughter, Cain looked over at the middle-aged nurse accompanying them. “Who’s the attending on shift, Madge?”

  “Doc Weaver,” she replied, her lips twitching with amusement as Patience continued to make noises behind Abel’s hand.

  “Ouch!” Abel yelped, staring down at Patience. “You bit me,” he growled, jerking his hand back from her mouth.

  Tugging on Harmony’s yellow tee shirt, Patience grinned. “This is pretty. I like this color on you. It’s bright and happy. Did you know Abel’s junk is pierced!? I think he uses the jewelry as a detraction…”

  “You mean distraction?” Harmony asked, her eyes tearing up as she tried hard not to giggle.

  “Uh huh!” Patience nodded eagerly. Her face fell then as she said sadly, her words slurring as she glared at Abel, “Didn’t work. I still noticed when he called me by her name.”

  “Patience, baby, please…can we talk about this when you’re not high as a kite?” Abel begged, smoothing her hair off her face as they steered her gurney into a tiny cubicle. “How the hell much of that shit did you give her, Cain?”

  “Not enough,” Patience sing-songed. “I want more, more, more!!! Tell ‘em to give me more, Harmony! I said that to Abel the night he screwed me, but he just didn’t have no more to give. I really hope this joint is better prepared than he was.”

  “Oh, holy Christ,” Jake whispered, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “What was it man, performance anxiety?” he asked Abel gruffly.

  “Fuck off,” Abel grunted, unable to tear his gaze away from Patience.

  Cain interrupted the drama just then, holding up a hand as he gestured at the nurse. “Madge, Weaver’s a hack. He’s not touching my sister-in-law. Is Dr. Daniels still up in OB?”

  “Think so,” the woman replied hooking her patient up to the heart monitors. “Want me to page him?”

  “Yeah.” Cain nodded, wrapping the blood pressure cuff around Patience’s good arm. “And I think it goes without saying that anything you’ve heard from our patient….”

  “I’m a vault, doctor. Besides,” she said with a long, regretful look in Abel’s direction, “Nobody would believe me anyway.”

  Grabbing the nurse’s arm, Patience lifted her head. “I’ll be your witness, Madge. Just bring me back some more nummy drugs, ‘kay?”

  Patting her hand, Madge nodded solemnly. “Only if you promise to tell me more about the lagging pierced junk later.”

  “Deal,” Patience announced with a firm nod.

  Watching the nurse hustle out of the room, the thin curtain swishing behind her, Harmony inhaled deeply. “Somebody needs to go outside and fill Honor and Faith in on what’s going on.”

  “I’ll go. I wanna make sure Heaven and Miss Orla got here, too. I’ll be back in five,” Jake murmured, moving beside Harmony to brush a kiss against her cheek. “Hang in there, Spitfire,” he ordered Patience with a wink. “I wanna here more about the most terrible sex ever when I get back.”

  “Again, fuck off,” Abel growled, shooting Jake a hostile look.

  “”Kay!” Patience waved. “He’s sweet, Harmony. I like Jake.” Turning her drugged eyes towards Abel she continued, “Harmony got a stud that gave her nine inches worth of lovin’ whenever she wants it. Faith married the guy that took her virginity AND rocked her world. I got a dude with a decorated, but highly defective dick. Life’s not fair. You’re the bad twin, Abel. Bad, bad, bad.”

  Gripping the rails of her gurney, Abel bent until they were nose to nose. “That’s it, sweetheart. You get out of this hospital bed, I’m getting a do-over. My dick is not defective; I was having a bad night. I promise when I’m done with you….”

  Cain cleared her throat from the other side of the bed. “Uhmmmm, Abel?”

  “…you are gonna feel me so deep you’ll swear that the first night I touched you was just a bad memory. First, I’ll….”

  “Abel!” Harmony yelled, elbowing him in the side and nodding toward the curtain.

  Looking up, he found Faith and Honor staring at him with wide, surprised eyes. “Well, hell,” he muttered.

  “Well, I think we’ve finally learned the source of Patience’s animosity toward Abel,” Faith remarked with a grin.

  “You slept with my sister?” Honor growled, narrowing her eyes on him.

  “Yep! But he was really bad at it so it doesn’t really count,” Patience shared with a smile. “Did they bring me more drugs yet, Cain? I gotta an owie and it’s starting to really ache again,” she said, lifting her injured arm and crying out.

  “Don’t move,” Harmony ordered, helping Patience lower her arm back to the bed again.

  All attention shifted a moment later when a deep, irritated voice yelled from outside in the hallway, “Why in the na
me of Hell did somebody page me to the ER for a gunshot wound? I deliver babies, for crying out loud!”

  Turning, Cain parted the curtain and stuck his head out into the hallway. “That was me, Mack! I paged you. Get in here. The patient is my sister-in-law,” he ordered.

  “Whoa!” the man objected. “Which one?” he asked suspiciously. “The sweet one, the nice one, or the crazy one?”

  “The crazy one,” Cain growled.

  “I resent that,” Patience called out, lifting her head off the gurney to frown at Cain’s back.

  “No, you resemble that,” Harmony returned with a sigh. “Lie back.”

  “Of course it’s the crazy one,” the Voice grumbled. “I’ve been up for thirty-seven straight hours, and God sees fit to send me the crazy McKinnon sister. I hate this town.”

  Harmony watched as Cain took a step back an incredibly tall, broad man stepped inside the cubicle with them. With messy blonde hair and golden brown eyes, he could have been considered handsome if he didn’t look so rumpled and exhausted.

  Barely sparing Patience a glance, he asked, “Is she shot in the uterus, Cain? If not, I’m not your man.”

  “Oh, I wish,” Patience moaned. “I don’t need my uterus. It’s just a space filler. I need my arm.”

  Cain glared at the other doctor. “No, it’s a through and through in the upper arm, but Weaver’s on shift.”

  “Weaver’s a hack,” Dr. Daniels retorted, echoing Cain’s earlier sentiment about Paradise’s oldest doctor.

  “That’s why I had them page you, asshole. I can’t treat her; she’s family. I went to med school with you, Mack. I know you’re capable of taking care of this,” Cain pointed out.

  “Fuck. I was going home, Cain,” the other man complained, reaching into his pocket for a pair of gloves. “To my scotch. And my dog. And my bed. None of which I’ve seen in the past day and a half.”

  “You wanna quit bitching and take care of her,” Abel bit out, glaring at the man as Cain moved out of the way. “She’s in pain!”