Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (34 page)

“I thought it was
too soon for that kind of… commitment.”

Her pink lips
turning down in a frown, Honor rolled her eyes at her sister.  “But breaking
and entering is just another bonding experience for us McKinnon girls.” 

“Damn straight,”
Patience drawled, her eyes glittering with mischief.  “It’s not like it’s the
first time…. If I remember, you led the charge when we broke into Momma and
Daddy’s closet that year lookin’ for our Christmas presents. 
And
the
time we busted into Daddy’s liquor cabinet on your 13
^th
birthday,
Little Miss Holier than Thou,” she reminded Honor with a wink.  “You weren’t
waving a caution flag then.”

“I was a
child
,”
Honor hissed.

Faith laughed as
she leaned against the porch railing.  “Not the way you downed Daddy’s bourbon,
you weren’t.”

“You drank that
bourbon with me,” Honor huffed, glaring at Faith.  “And this is different. 
That was
family
.  Jake isn’t family.  At least, he isn’t yet.  He
could
very well put us all in the pokey if we get caught.”

Staring at her
sister, Harmony whispered, “I need this, Honor.  I can’t be wrong again.  I
can’t risk my heart on a man that could be dangerous.  I can’t risk being hurt. 
Not when I have Heaven to think about.”

Honor’s eyes closed
for a second as she processed Harmony’s low statement.  When she opened them
again, her gaze was clear with intent.  “Fine, I’m in!  Let’s just do this.”

“That’s the
spirit,” Patience agreed with a nod.  “We just need to find…”

 “We are not gonna
throw any bricks or rocks or other projectile missiles through Jacob Stone’s
window, Patience,” Honor mandated firmly, casting a glare toward Patience. 
“Think of something else.  And think fast before we start drawing attention,”
she ordered, looking over her shoulder toward the main road.  “The last thing
we need are witnesses.”

“Buzzkill,”
Patience muttered.  “A brick makes a statement.”

“We only need to
make a statement if Jake is guilty of something,” Faith pointed out, reaching
out and plucking a bobby pin from Honor’s neat chignon.   “Since it doesn’t
look like Jake has put in a dead bolt yet and that’s a skeleton key lock, I
suggest that we should go with picking the lock.  Less fuss, less muss.  Who
wants to try first?” she inquired with twinkling eyes.

Reaching for the
bobby pin, Harmony exchanged a small smile with Faith.  “Good idea.  See, this
is why I invited you guys to the party.  You’ve got all the good ideas.”

~~***~~

Fifteen minutes
later

“Seriously, I think
I should find a rock or something,” Patience informed the sisters as she peered
over Harmony’s shoulder where her sister sat, crouched on her knees, fiddling
desperately with the lock.

“No rocks,” Honor
argued, wincing as another car passed the house on the road ahead. 

“No rocks, no
bricks, no
fun
,” Patience growled, mimicking the youngest McKinnon
sister.  “I swear, Honor, if I hadn’t been at the hospital when Momma and Daddy
had you, I’d think you were adopted.  You gotta learn to live a little.”

“Well, excuse me
all over the place, Patience.  I already faced potential incarceration once
today.  I’m not lookin’ to try my luck a second time,” Honor growled back,
tapping her foot impatiently against the wooden planks of porch.

“Jiggle it,” Faith
demanded from behind Harmony.  “To the left!  I thought I heard it click once. 
Jiggle, Harmony!  Jiggle!”

Wriggling the bobby
pin in the lock, Harmony ground her teeth.  “I
am jiggling. 
Everything
I’ve got is jiggling, Faith,” she bit out through clenched teeth as she shook
the bobby pin in the lock.  Frustrated, she felt like she’d been at this lock
for days and was no closer to getting inside than she’d been when she started. 
Honestly, the rock through the window idea was sounding better and better. 
Huffing out a sigh, she rolled her shoulders.  “I can’t get it,” she moaned.

“Oh, for heaven’s
sake,” Honor muttered, coming to stand at Harmony’s side.  “Move.”

Looking up at her
sister, Harmony tilted her head.  “Move?”  Surely her sister wasn’t going to
try and jimmy the lock.  After all, it was one thing to offer moral support to
a wannabe intruder, but it was an altogether different thing to participate. 
She wasn’t sure her baby sister was cut out for a life of crime.

“Yes, move,” Honor
snapped, her blue eyes flashing.   “Or are you forgetting what Patience pointed
out not fifteen minutes ago?  That
I
was the one that picked the lock on
both the liquor cabinet
and
the closet door when we were kids.” she
asked when her sister didn’t shift out of the way fast enough.  “Besides, our
local pain-in-the-ass sheriff already wants me for reckless drivin’,
destruction of town property and attempted murder.  I might as well add B&E
to my rap sheet.  I’d hate for the other inmates not to consider me a
well-rounded criminal.  Maybe it’ll buy me some credibility on the cell block,”
she grumbled, taking the bobby pin from Harmony when her big sister scooted
over so she could kneel in front of the door.

“That’s the spirit,
Peanut,” Patience enthused, using the sisters’ nickname for their youngest
sister as she tugged on Honor’s hair.  “Now, you sound like one of us.”

“I’m sooooo thrilled,”
Honor muttered, concentrating on the door.

Harmony watched
Honor press her ear to the door and twist her wrist carefully to the right. 
Catching her breath as she heard the lock tumble and click, she nearly shouted
her excitement.  “You got it!” she hissed, grabbing Honor’s elbow as the woman
used her other hand to twist the door knob.

“I got it!” Honor
announced with a satisfied smile as the door swung open.  “Now, let’s get
inside before anybody notices the four of us crouched on Paradise’s newest
resident’s porch,” she added, getting to her feet and sliding inside the house.

Quickly herding
Patience and Faith in the door, Harmony shot one last look over her shoulder at
the sky.  It remained clear, cloudless and blue, but she could sense it - a
storm was brewing on the horizon.  Following her family into the house, she
shook her head sadly.  The rain was on its way.  Somehow, she just knew it.

She just prayed
like hell that the lightening wasn’t about to strike her twice in a lifetime.

Closing the solid
oak door behind her back, Harmony felt the looks her sisters gave her, a wide
mixture of alarmed, eager, and resolved facing her.

“Okay,” Faith said,
breaking the silence, “we’re in, Harmony.  Where do you want us to go from
here, honey?” she asked gently.

Harmony’s gut
churned as she looked around the foyer.  “I saw the file in Jake’s den.  I’ll
start there.  Maybe you guys could take a walk through the rest of the house?”
she suggested, rubbing her suddenly cold hands together.

“How intensive do you
want this search to be, big sister?  We talking surfaces only or the digging
through closets variety?” Patience asked, perching one hand on her hip.

“Surface only…
unless we find something in one of the other rooms,” Harmony returned.  This
felt awful, invading Jake’s privacy, but with her and her kid’s emotional
well-being on the line, she wasn’t willing to take chances.

“I’ll take the
kitchen,” Honor offered, craning her neck toward the room.  “It seems like it
would be pretty safe.”

“I’ll take the
bedrooms,” Patience said, heading for the stairs.

“I’ll take a look
in his formal living room,” Faith offered, spinning on her heel to hurry in
that direction.

“Then, we’ll all meet
in the den when we’re done,” Honor remarked, sharing a look with the sisters. 
“You still sure about this, Harm?” she asked, offering her sister one last
opportunity to back out of her plan.  “Nobody is gonna say one word if you
wanna walk out the front door right now.”

“N-no,” Harmony
denied with a shake of her head.  “It has to be done.  I’ll see you in the den
when you’re finished.”

The sisters
scattered quickly as she voiced her final decision, and Harmony followed Honor
into the kitchen.  “You think I’m horrible, don’t you?” she asked her younger
sister softly, pausing at the door off the kitchen that led into Jake’s
office/den.

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.”