Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (33 page)

Slamming the door
as she climbed out of the Mustang, Patience eyed her sister warily as she
walked toward the steps.  “Okay, I got the callout about half an hour ago. 
This better be good, sis!  Your kid was up until after two this morning!” she
threatened, tucking a lilac wisp of hair behind her ear.

“Two?” Harmony
balked.  “Her bedtime is nine, Patience!”

“Yeah, well, we got
creative.  We both took a nap after we got home from the cookout yesterday and
might have decided that a pan of brownies made a better choice for supper than
the lasagna Honor sent home with me.  The sugar rush hit us around midnight and
we had a Wiggles dance marathon.  Sue me.” She shrugged carelessly.  “I’m the
fun aunt.  You knew this when you enlisted my services.”

This was true. 
Patience wasn’t much on discipline.  Or diapers.  She had steadfastly refused
to hold Heaven for any length of time when she was a baby.  She’d had strict
potty control parameters.  But once her daughter had gotten older and was able
to maintain control of her bladder, her sister had kicked her auntly ass into
high gear, regularly stealing Heaven away for many a sugar-filled slumber
party.   It was a hard fact; Patience definitely loved her niece and wasn’t shy
about spoiling her now.

Ignoring the
thunderous look on Harmony’s face, Patience forged ahead with her typical
bluntness.  “Why the hell did you drag my flawless ass out of bed, Harm?  What’s
goin’ on?  Where’s Jake?” she asked, looking around and seeing his Harley
missing.  “Is he even here?”

Taking a deep
breath, Harmony replied, “Jake’s at some kind of business meeting.  He
shouldn’t be back for hours.  As for why I called, I’d rather explain that just
once.  Let’s wait for Honor and Faith.  They were gonna leave that new waitress
they hired last week in charge, but Honor wanted to make sure that Aunt Orla
could stay with her in case she had any problems.  They should be here
anytime.”

Tilting her head to
the side, Patience narrowed her eyes.  “Uh huh,” she grunted.  “Oh-kay.  I’ll
let the reason behind this impromptu mission go for now.  On the condition you
spill about last night,” she continued with a wink.  “I want details.  How
was
your sleepover with Mr. Badass Biker Babe?  Does he look as delicious in bed as
he does out of it?  And do those tats of his go anywhere interesting?”

“Patience!” Harmony
gaped, her eyes going wide as she felt her cheeks begin to burn.

“Hmmm.  I can see
by the fetching shade of bright red your face is turning that he was and they
did,” Patience cackled, propping a hip against the porch banister.  “So, are we
talkin’ cucumber or banana?”

“What?” Harmony
choked, shaking her head at her crazy sister’s probing questions.

“His dick,
Harmony!  Chicken snake or mighty Python?” she asked unrepentantly, an impish
smile curving her lips.  “C’mon!  I watched your kid so your hoo-hah could get
the workout it’s needed for freaking years!  Help your little sister out here. 
Let me live vicariously through you.  Jake looks like he’d be packin’.  Is he
packin’?” she asked eagerly.

“I am
not
telling you about Jake’s no-no, Patience Orla McKinnon!” Harmony proclaimed,
shaking her head vigorously as her sister’s face crumbled.

“Fine!” Patience
mock pouted.  “I’ll just use my imagination,” she said, closing her eyes and
tilting her face toward the sky.  “And in my mind, that man is
hung
.”

Harmony couldn’t
help it.  She giggled.  “You’ve got a good imagination.”

Cracking one
eyelid, Patience smirked.  “I
knew
it.  No man can look
that
fine
and not be packing at least seven inches.”

“Closer to nine,”
Harmony admitted sheepishly.

“You lucky bitch,”
Patience snarled under her breath, throwing a glare at her sister.  “On behalf
of all sexually frustrated, single women everywhere, I think I have to hate you
a little now,” she said grimly as Honor’s car pulled into the driveway.

Rolling her eyes,
Harmony waited until Honor pulled behind Patience, parking carefully and
turning the engine off before she and Faith slid out of the car.  Waving when
she saw Honor looking around for them, she called, “Hey! We’re up here.”

“What’s going on?”
Honor asked immediately.  “What’s so big an emergency that we couldn’t talk
about it at the café?  And where is Jake?”

“Jake’s not here
and hopefully won’t be back for some time,” Harmony answered as her remaining
two sisters climbed the steps toward her and Patience. 

Faith’s blond
ponytail swung in the wind as she jogged up the steps in front of Honor, her
hands stuffed in the front pockets of her Tennessee Titans sweatshirt.  “How
you doin’, sweetie?  You sounded off when you called me this morning.”

“According to my sources,
she did about nine inches last night.  She shoulda sounded thrilled…or in
pain.  Isn’t anything over seven inches considered just for show and tell? 
What kinda heat is Cain packing, Faith?  We talkin’ pistol or assault rifle?”

Faith’s lips twitched
in response.  “I’m not gonna talk outta school, but let’s say that my husband
has more than enough ammunition to keep my chamber secure.”

“Bitch,” Patience
muttered.

Her eyes drifting
over Harmony, Patience and Faith with a kind of horrified fascination, Honor
shook her head.  “Please tell me that
this
is not what we’re here to
discuss,” she demanded, one hand on her hip.  Tugging the edges of her peacock
blue coat together, she pursed her lips.  “I, for one, am not
interested
in what your men have between their legs.”

“That’s good, but I
seriously bet that Zeke…” Patience began, stopped when Faith slapped a palm
over her moving mouth.

“Don’t finish
that,” she muttered out the side of her mouth.  “The Sheriff is a sore subject this
morning.”

“Why?” Harmony
asked, looking to Honor.

Honor stomped her
foot on the wooden step as she drew in a deep breath.  “That man!  He showed up
at the front door this morning and informed me that I was riding to work with
him.  When I asked him why, he went on about how crime was on the rise and I
had to be careful.  I told him I was more than capable of seeing to myself and
had been doin’ it for years, and that blasted man had the audacity to roll his
eyes at me!  First thing in the morning!  I hadn’t even had my first cup of
coffee and…. Oh, blast!  The man’s insufferable!”

Harmony’s eyebrows
lifted as her gaze shifted to Faith as she took up the story.

“Long story cut
real short…our baby sister nearly ran the esteemed sheriff down this morning with
her car when she decided she wouldn’t be takin’ the kind offer of Zeke’s escort,”
Faith shared, trying desperately not to laugh. 

“If he’d offered, I
might have considered it, Faith.  He ordered.  There’s a difference,” Honor bit
out sharply.

“Uh huh, sure there
is, baby sister,” Faith tsked before turning her attention back to Patience and
Harmony.  “Anyway, after a high speed pursuit through the thankfully empty
streets of our fair town which nearly took out three streetlamps, an innocent
Chevy Trailblazer,
and
old lady Winslow, he finally caught up to her at
the diner.  When I got to the restaurant this morning, they were squared off
like two prizefighters in the ring, and Zeke was yellin’ about arresting Honor for
several of her sins.  I think they included, but were not limited to, reckless
driving, disturbing the peace, and attempted murder of an officer of the law.”

Harmony’s wide,
shocked eyes came back to a guilty looking Honor.  “Well, you’re still here and
not taking up residence in our local jail.  How’d you manage to get off the
hook?”

“She cried,” Faith
answered for her sister before Honor could open her mouth.  “Better yet, before
Zeke left, he was begging
her
forgiveness,” she added, unable to contain
her amusement as she burst out laughing.

“Well, he should
have apologized!  He started the whole darn thing,” Honor huffed, her pretty
face pinched with irritation.  “Besides, I took Miss Winslow a cherry pie to
say I was sorry and explain the situation, and she said that she’d have backed
the car up and made sure Ezekiel was under the tires if it’d been her!”

“Well, if the
man-hater of Paradise County says you were justified, then you surely are,”
Patience reasoned, somehow keeping a straight face.  Everybody in Paradise knew
Miss Winslow had as much use for a man as a gazelle had for a lion…that was to
say, none at all!

“If I ever doubted
how tightly our little sister has Ezekiel Monroe wrapped around her finger,
this morning cinched it for me,” Faith interjected, shaking her head at Honor. 
“Dear God, I wish I’d had time to sell tickets to that little showdown y’all had
this morning.  We’d have made a fortune.”

“Oh, enough about
this!” Honor sliced a hand through the air.  “What in the world are we all
doing here?  It’s cold and I’m feelin’ about half a brick shy of a load today,”
she complained, focusing her gaze on Harmony.

“Well, I’m hopin’ y’all
love me as much as I love all of you,” Harmony hedged, looking at the curious
faces of her family.  “We’re fixin’ to commit a felony, I think.”

“A felony?” the
three sisters echoed in disbelief.

“Girls, we’re gonna
break into Jacob Stone’s house,” Harmony informed them all.

Quickly filling her
sisters in on the reason for her impromptu turn toward the dark side, Harmony
explained about the file and the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. 
She concluded with, “Nobody
has
to go in there with me, but I gotta do
this.”

“Rock
on
!”
Patience screeched, bouncing on the balls of her feet.  “I’d absolutely break
in for you, sis.  Forewarned is forearmed and all that shit, right?  I totally
support your right to be proactive.  Besides, we haven’t committed a crime
together in
a while
.  I’m in!” She nodded eagerly.  “Whatcha need me to
do?  Offer an alibi?  Stand lookout and keep an eye out for the fuzz?  You want
me to find a brick to throw through the window?” she asked, looking around the
mostly bare porch for a missile.

“Ooooohhh!  I wanna
throw the brick.  In the interest of complete honesty, I’m gonna probably wanna
throw another one at Jake’s head if we find something incriminating in there,”
Faith warned, rubbing her hands together.

Holding up a hand,
Honor shot Patience a hard look.  “Hold on, Bonnie and Clyde!  Nobody is
throwing any bricks.  At least, not yet.  Do you know how much those windows
cost?” Honor hissed, jabbing a finger toward the expensive bay window Jake had
replaced when he moved into the house.  Turning toward her sister, Honor took a
deep breath.  “Harmony, are you sure about this?  I mean, why don’t you just
ask
Jake about what you saw?”

“Crap,” Patience
muttered, rolling her eyes at Honor.  “Do you always have to be so freaking
reasonable?  Just once, volunteer to throw the brick, sis!  It’s a liberating
experience, I promise!”

Harmony ignored Patience’s
complaint and instead focused on her youngest sister.  “I thought about it,
Honor.  But outside of the men in our immediate family, I don’t have the
greatest track record in the opposite sex department.  I have to make sure that
Jake is a safe choice for me and for Heaven.  It’s not just my life I’m playing
around with, but hers, too.  I’d love to ask him and be sure that he was
telling me the complete truth, but I’ve lived long enough to know that no man
is gonna voluntarily admit he’s a bad risk or doing something shady on the side.”

“Especially after
you’ve already spent the night in his bed bein’ repeatedly serviced by his nine
inch snake,” Patience noted with a smirk.

“That, too,”
Harmony grudgingly admitted, her lips twitching as Honor made a gagging noise.

Sighing heavily,
Honor’s shoulders sagged, but Harmony knew that her baby sister was going to
support her when she lifted her head and asked, “Are you sure we need to break
into his house?  Can’t you just sneak in and take a peek if we find a way to
keep him occupied?” 

“Thought of that,
but while I’m in there, I wanna make sure that there’s only that file to be
concerned about; to do an in depth recon, I need him gone.  We’ve got to fly
under the radar.  I know he’s gone now.  This is the time to move,” Harmony
explained, jerking her head toward the door.

“Good God, you
sound like Cain when he starts blathering on in military speak,” Faith
interjected with a grimace.  “I hate when he does that.”

 “Wait,” Honor
interrupted, her soft voice hopeful.  “I saw Jake offer you a key to his house
just last week.  And everyone knows that if you have a key, it’s not
really
a crime.  We’d be considered invited guests in a court of law, not burglars,”
she surmised, brightening considerably as the thought occurred to her.  

“I gave the key
back to him,” Harmony mumbled, averting her gaze from Honor’s penetrating
stare.

“You gave him back
the key,” Honor repeated dumbly, her face dissolving from hope into pained resignation.