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

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “I don’t belong to Zeke,” Honor retorted. Even scared out of her mind, those words were enough to tug at her temper. “Why does everybody keep saying that?”

  “Perhaps because it’s true, little flower,” Diego replied, his caramel colored eyes still glittering warmly.

  “Mr. Fuentes, why…”

  “Diego,” he interrupted her flatly, turning his attention back to Harmony. “Only my men call me Mr. Fuentes. You may call me by my Christian name.”

  “Fine, Diego then,” Harmony continued impatiently. “Why have you brought us here? You have to know that our family is going to come after us. Has my ex-husband actually managed to convince you that this was a good idea?” she asked, gesturing between herself and Honor. “Jacob already wants you dead for what you’ve done to his family. He’ll kill you for this.”

  “He’ll try,” Diego agreed with a heavy sigh, then said ominously, “But then, your Jacob doesn’t possess all the facts. He never did. But after all these years, it’s past time that he did. Then, if he wants to kill me; he can take his best shot.”

  “You killed his sister. You’ve kidnapped the woman he loves and her sister. Quite probably to do them more harm than your muscled thug already tried to do outside. I don’t think there’s a lot left for Jake to understand about you. I think he had your number all along.”

  Diego’s face darkened at that and his body seemed to harden to stone. “First, I handled the thug that manhandled your sister as soon as I saw his transgression. I resolved the problem in a way that he will never harm another woman, did I not? I regret that you both had to witness my anger, but I don’t tolerate violence toward women in any way.”

  Laughing hollowly, Harmony shook her head as fury spread throughout her body, firing her blood and loosening her tongue. “Oh, really? Yet, one of your head lackeys is a child-molesting rapist! He’s a man that took a sick amount of pleasure in leading a gang rape and violating an innocent teenager and then nearly beating his wife to death! Or, has Tanner convinced you that my sister and I actually enjoyed the way he treated us? Either you are a lousy liar or very stupid, Mr. Fuentes. I’m curious; which is it?” she asked viciously without a thought for her own safety.

  “Enough!” Diego’s deep resonating voice thundered throughout the room as he stood, his chair crashing to the floor as he took a threatening step toward the sisters.

  “No!!!” Honor screamed, throwing up an arm as she threw her body toward Harmony.

  Catching himself against the round kitchen table as he watched Harmony’s younger sister’s reaction, Diego grimaced and took several steps backward. “I’m sorry,” he apologized quietly as Honor sobbed against Harmony’s side. Keeping his hands well away from the gun gleaming at his side, he held his palms in the air again. “Miss McKinnon…Honor, please. I’m not a threat to you. I swear to you on my mother’s grave I don’t condone the violence that was done to you. It turns my stomach,” he confided softly, his face twisted with remorse as he stared at the woman quietly falling apart in her sister’s arms. “No woman should suffer as you have. As you both have,” he amended, shifting his eyes to an irate Harmony.

  “He’s your man,” Harmony accused, her arms wrapping around her sobbing sister. “You know what Tanner did to us, and he’s still alive. Don’t you dare tell me you don’t condone his violence when you’re keeping him employed!”

  “Up until now, he’s served a purpose. I needed him. He no longer does, I assure you.”

  Seeing the obvious confusion on both women’s faces, he frowned, wrapping a hand around the nape of his neck and squeezing tightly. “Please,” he said, bending to pick up his toppled chair. “I want to explain this to you as best as I can if you’d allow it.”

  “Do we have a choice?” Harmony snapped, tightening her arm around Honor and glaring at him.

  “No. You don’t,” Diego replied simply, righting the chair and placing it a foot or so away from the table. Looking at Honor, he winced. “Honor, I’m going to sit here… well away from you. I’m not going to hurt you. Please, try to relax enough to listen to me. Would either of you like a drink to soothe your nerves?” he asked, gesturing toward the bottles of alcohol on the counter.

  Honor’s eyes drifted to the liquor he indicated, her breath coming in a hiccup. “Is the drug kingpin offering us a cocktail?” she asked her sister with a disbelieving whisper.

  “Think so,” Harmony muttered, keeping Honor in the curve of her arm even as she kept her eyes on Diego. “What we want is to go home.”

  Sighing, Diego nodded. “I can understand that,” he murmured, subsiding back in his chair as he pulled a slim pack of cigarettes from his coat. “Do you mind?” he asked, holding them up for the women to see.

  Harmony simply stared back at him with dubious eyes, trying to process the mountain of contradictions that seemed to make up this man. She’d watched him kill a man without a hint of hesitation, and yet, he was considerate enough to offer them a drink and request permission to smoke. Who did that?

  “I’ll take your non-answer as assent,” Diego muttered, tapping out a cigarette and flicking open a silver lighter.

  The women watched as he lit his cigarette with steady hands and took a deep drag. Blowing out the smoke, he unbuttoned his suit jacket and got comfortable.

  “To answer your earlier question, I’m not a liar nor am I stupid, Harmony,” Diego began softly, crossing his long legs as he settled in front of her. “What I am is a bad man that is trying to redeem myself. I’m a criminal, but I do have a code.”

  “So, you’re a criminal with some kind of skewed moral compass,” Harmony retorted derisively, shaking her head. “Lucky us.”

  “I prefer to think of it as a criminal with certain convictions,” he corrected her blandly. “Morality is a very grey area for a man such as myself. I simply have a code that I try to adhere to as much as I can.”

  “Excuse me, but from where I’m sitting and from what I know of you, I see more monster than man,” Harmony replied even though Honor pinched her arm warningly. She’d had enough. If this guy was gonna play with her like a cat that had already caught the mouse, she was going to say exactly what she thought.

  “You’re not completely wrong,” he agreed, lifting his cigarette between long elegant fingers and putting it to his lips. Inhaling the smoke, he looked at Harmony. “Many think I’m the thing that makes monsters shrivel in fear.”

  “Now that’s not hard to believe,” Honor muttered, hazarding a small look in Diego’s direction.

  Diego offered her a small smile. “I can only imagine what you of all people must think of me,” he replied softly, his gaze quietly contemplative as he eyed her. Looking between the two women, he continued, “You must first know that I did not employ your ex-husband, Harmony. My father did. They met in Mexico.” Clearing his throat, his jaw tightened as he shared, “My father and Tanner Suarez share a twisted love for the same kind of sick brutality. I am not proud of this, but I can assure you that I do not share their depravity.”

  “Okay,” Honor whispered. “I’m feeling a little bit better about the drug lord. Not a lot, but a little.”

  “Don’t,” Harmony ordered sternly, gripping her sister’s hand. “He’s still a very bad man and responsible for Jake’s sister’s death. Just because he won’t rape us doesn’t mean he wouldn’t kill us if it serves his purpose. Does it, Diego?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

  “I have no intention of killing either of you. Quite the opposite. I’m trying to keep you both from harm,” Diego answered evenly.

  “By kidnapping us,” Harmony snapped.

  “It was either I act quickly and force your hand or Tanner grabbed you both and perhaps, injure more of your family in the process. Would you have preferred that, Miss McKinnon?” he asked Harmony harshly.

  Pressing her lips together, Harmony bit her tongue. She had to play this smart. Honor, Jake, and Heaven were depending on her. “Maybe you should tell us your story, Diego. Or at leas
t the part Tanner plays in it since he seems to have been the one who started this mess.”

  Diego nodded curtly. “My father hired Tanner because your ex-husband indicated that he could obtain a base of operations to feed drugs into this portion of the United States. Our cartel had been looking for a way to make inroads here, and Tanner convinced my father that he had the perfect plan. You see, he told my father that his bitch of an ex-wife had the perfect piece of property well suited for our needs and he could get it. He filled Esteban’s head with tales of your hideous marriage, rallying the old man into a frenzy with promises of how he could get everything my father wanted plus bear witness to your destruction. Since I, as Esteban’s son, was spearheading this effort to expand on our base of operations, your ex-husband came under my command. When I arrived, I had no idea how complicated this little mission would become. You see, I’ve been working with the DEA for over two decades to systematically destroy my father from the inside of his own camp.” He paused for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. “I believe I am what they call a Trojan horse. This operation here in Paradise was to be the final nail in my father’s coffin. My last act of retribution for taking the woman I loved from me. This was to be the final act in my play to bring Esteban Fuentes down in a way he’d never recover. Unfortunately, fate seems to be conspiring against me.”

  Harmony and Honor exchanged a perplexed look before unanimously turning to face Diego. “Huh?” Harmony grunted, shaking her head.

  Leaning toward her sister, Honor murmured shakily, “Do you feel like you’ve been trapped into watching a Mexican soap opera and can’t find the remote to change the channel?”

  Diego’s lips twitched at that remark. “We call them telenovelas in my country, and yes, I often feel this way myself. Sadly, I can see that I’m creating more questions than I’m answering here,” he noted, his eyes shifting from sister to sister.

  “Caught on to that, did you?” Harmony asked sarcastically as she skewered Diego with a look of contempt. “You killed Jake’s sister, Diego. You might not have put a bullet in her, but you murdered her all the same! How the hell can you possibly think that I’d believe anything you have to say?”

  Diego’s body went solid as Harmony’s accusation hung heavily in the thick air around them. “Careful, mujer,” he cautioned ruthlessly, his warm brown eyes going almost black with rage. “In this, you know nothing! And neither does your man.”

  Clasping Harmony’s hand tightly, Honor squeezed. “Then, maybe you’d share with us what we don’t know, Mr. Fuentes,” Honor suggested, her sweet voice conciliatory, almost pleading. “We want to understand what we’re missing here. We both do.”

  Her sister’s gentle tone seemed to soothe Diego almost instantly and some of the tension evaporated from the room. Keeping still, she waited for Diego to take another draw from his cigarette before murmuring, “Honor’s right. I’d like to know what I’m missing.”

  “I didn’t kill Vanessa. My father did,” Diego informed them starkly, his eyes staring out the window above the sink. “I loved her more than any woman I’ve I ever had before or have had since.” Slowly leaning forward, he pulled an expensive leather wallet from his pocket and flipped it open. Pulling a photograph from one of the laminated pockets, he held it out to Honor. “Take it. You should see her. My Vanessa was a vision.”

  Honor took the photograph with a shaking hand and stared down at it. Harmony peered at the snapshot over her shoulder and was surprised to find that it was the same one that Jake carried in his wallet. Same girl, same mischievous smile.

  “She was lovely,” Honor murmured, looking down at the photo in her hand.

  “She was beautiful, was she not?” Diego asked huskily, watching as the women viewed the picture. “Her laugh… I can still hear it in my head. It was infectious. Loud….so big a sound from such a tiny little woman.”

  “Jake said the same thing,” Harmony confided involuntarily, her chest tightening. “And yes, she was gorgeous.” She looked up to find Diego smiling sadly as he nodded. He looked heartbroken, and she didn’t expect the deep abiding sadness burning in his gaze when his eyes met hers.

  “She was my everything,” he whispered. “And my father took her from me. He used her to punish me and he had her killed.”

  Harmony’s jaw dropped. “Diego, you have to know…this isn’t what Jake told me.” It wasn’t, but she could tell by the unguarded look on Diego’s face that the man was telling the truth, and he was as tortured by Vanessa’s death as Jake was.

  “I know what Jacob thinks,” Diego said softly. “And in many ways, he’s not wrong. I’m responsible for her death, but I didn’t kill her.”

  “Explain,” Harmony insisted tightly.

  “Vanessa and I met at a nightclub several months before she died. Back then, I worked as a pusher. I’m not proud of it,” he said quickly, shooting the sisters a sheepish look. “But, when you are raised as I was, you are expected to follow in the family business. At any rate, Nessie approached me. She was beautiful, even high off her ass and too thin by far, she was the most beguiling thing I’d ever seen. I wanted her from the moment she opened her mouth. And she wanted me, too.” Looking at Harmony, he continued, “Despite who I was then…who my father was… I tried to get her clean. I didn’t want her to be with me because I could provide her product and she’d be an easy lay; I wanted her for her. And to have her… all of her… she needed to be clean. So, that’s what I did.”

  “You got her clean?” Honor repeated, her eyebrows furrowing.

  Diego nodded once. “For a brief time,” he whispered. “But for that time, we were happy.

  Truly happy. I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life.” Clearing his throat, he looked away. “I began to think about leaving the cartel… getting away from the drugs and living clean. Vanessa deserved that. A clean life. I wanted to give it to her. I wanted her to have the best. I wanted to give her everything.”

  Harmony already knew this story had an unhappy ending and she could feel her body tightening… bracing for what came next. “Go on, Diego,” she invited gently.

  Meeting Harmony’s somber blue eyes, he swallowed. “Word reached my father that I was debating the merits of leaving our life. As you may or may not understand, one simply does not decide to leave the cartel. In that, we are much like the mafia. To say he was displeased would be an understatement. You see, he’d never liked my gringa, as he called her. He hated the fact that she wasn’t Mexican… that she wasn’t dark-haired and subservient. The fact that I was deliberating leaving the family business for her only infuriated him more.” Sighing heavily, Diego shook his head. “I should have seen it coming. I should have protected Vanessa better, but I never imagined that he’d go so far.”

  “What did he do?” Harmony asked tightly, though God help her, she already knew.

  “He arranged to send me out of town on a drug run. I was working for him, and no one said no to Esteban when he gave an order. Even his blood. While I was gone, he had tainted cocaine delivered to my apartment. I’ve never been able to find out if she took the drugs willingly or they were forced on her. I can’t imagine why she’d take them willingly; she was in a good place when I left her. In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter. The result was the same. She overdosed. I found her the next day when I came home. She was all alone in the bathroom on the floor. Cold. So cold and still,” he shared bleakly, his face filled with a pain that couldn’t be faked.

  “You really didn’t kill her,” Harmony whispered, shocked. “You actually loved her!”

  “I have never loved another,” Diego said truthfully. “I will never put a woman at that kind of risk again. Not as long as my father lives.”

  Honor swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “That’s so… sad.”

  “Experience is a valuable teacher, but I was a rapt student, little flower. No other woman will suffer because of me. That includes both of you. I had no idea the danger that I was bringing to your door. I didn’t obt
ain the full story of the crimes Tanner had committed against you until just a few days ago.”

  Harmony slid forward in her seat as she demanded, “Why the hell have you never told Jake this?! He’s spent his entire career trying to destroy you, Diego, and he’s been going after the wrong damned man.”

  Diego’s eyes drifted back to Harmony and pinned her to her chair. “I’m not innocent, Miss McKinnon. At the end of every day, I live with the knowledge that I cost Jacob Stone his sister. I might not have forced that cocaine into Nessa’s system, but it’s because of me that she overdosed. These facts have not changed. I will not, however, cost him the woman he loves or any of his newly found family,” he added with a look at Honor.

  Stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table, he continued, “I’ve tried to help Jacob where I could. It was at my request that he was taken on as an agent by the DEA. It was one of the few demands I made in exchange for my assistance. I also arranged that he be allowed to handle the man that delivered the cocaine to Vanessa. He doesn’t know it, but he killed the man directly responsible for Nessa’s death in a case he worked three years ago. That might offer him some comfort when you tell this story to him, Harmony.”

  Harmony shook her head dumbly, overwhelmed by everything she had learned. “I don’t know what to do with any of this, Diego.”

  “I hope you will offer your lover some peace of mind. If he still comes for me, I accept that. I only hope he will allow me to finish what I’ve started with my father. Killing Esteban would have been too easy. Effective, yes, but it’s much more satisfying to take the business which he loves more than anything on Earth and watch his power crumble as I systematically destroy it. As for Tanner, he has become… unstable and problematic. There’s also the added bonus that he’s a sadistic lunatic that deserves to die an ugly death.” Diego frowned, his forehead wrinkling heavily under the strain. “He is aware that he has displeased me, and he made a desperate play to achieve my forgiveness with his rash act today. Another of your sisters was injured by him, and I am sorry for this. His efforts to appease my anger were fruitless, I assure you. He will be dealt with. Swiftly. I brought you here, first, because I didn’t want his evil hands anywhere near you. He was going to bring you to me one way or another, and I simply wanted to spare you both from that contact. Second, I also wanted you to know that I will no longer be pressing you for your land. I will find another way to bring down my father. The DEA will assist me in this. Your family has endured enough because of mine.”