Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (42 page)

“I
had
a
sister,” Jacob corrected softly, his jaw clamping as he felt his throat get
tight.  “She died while I was in Kuwait.”

Harmony inhaled
sharply.  She knew too well what it felt like to
nearly
lose a sister,
but to actually have to bury one?  She couldn’t imagine anything worse.  “Jake,
I’m so sorry,” she whispered, involuntarily reaching out to clasp his hand in
hers.

“Me, too,” he
whispered, flipping open his wallet again to pull out a faded picture.  Passing
it to her, he nodded down at the often handled photograph.  “That was Vanessa. 
She was gorgeous, wasn’t she?”

Handling the
snapshot with care, Harmony stared down at the smiling teenager in the
picture.  “Yes, she was.  She has your eyes,” she noted, carefully passing the
photo back to him.

“She had my temper,
too.  The girl could cuss like a soldier on leave when she got riled.  I once
saw her tree a guy she was dating just with a look,” he chuckled, gazing at the
picture for a few seconds before slipping it back into his wallet and reaching
for Harmony’s hand again.  This time, she didn’t resist and allowed him to lace
his fingers through hers.

“She sounds like
quite a girl,” Harmony returned quietly.

“She was,” Jacob
affirmed with a slow nod.  “Quite a girl.  Until…” He trailed off, his own eyes
staring off into the distance as memories of Nessa played through his mind like
a movie on fast forward.

“What happened to
her, Jake?” Harmony prodded gently, squeezing his hand to bring him back to
her.

Licking his lips,
he shook his head.  “Life happened.  After I left, Nessa went wild.  Drinking,
partying, men, drugs, you name it.  I think she tried it all.  See, I’d run
from the memories of our family, but she was stuck there with hers.  So, she
found a different way to escape.”

Listening as Jake’s
voice took on a jagged edge, Harmony waited.

“Nessa graduated college
by the skin of her teeth, but after that, Mom lost what little control she had
of her.  I was gone, and mom was dealing with losing Dad.  Nessa was more’n she
could handle.  She got so deep into booze and drugs that Mom had to ask her to
leave.  Strange men were showing up at the house at all hours of the day and
night, and these fellas were not the kind that a mother just asked into the
house.  They were rough and scary.  They were
not
what mom wanted for
Ness, but she was a stubborn little shit.  After one of ‘em broke in on Mom
while she was alone and terrified the crap out of her, she made Nessa choose. 
Her lifestyle or her family.  My sister chose wrong.”

“She was young,
Jake.  Girls do stupid things when they’re that age- especially when they’re
grieving,” Harmony pointed out carefully.  “You can’t hold yourself responsible
for that,” she added, knowing the whole time she spoke that he did and he
probably always would.

“Wouldn’t have
happened if I’d been there.  None of it would.”

“You don’t know
that,” Harmony denied, shivering slightly as a burst of wind rustled the dry
leaves on the ground.

“I do, and I’ve got
to live with that.  At any rate, Nessa’s taste in men only got worse after she
moved out of mom’s house.  She hooked up with a mid-level thug in Atlanta by
the name of Diego Fuentes.”

That name struck
Harmony, but she didn’t have time to think about it because Jake was continuing
with his story.

“Fuentes was a just
a pusher then, but his father ran a cartel out of Mexico.  That kind of power
was like an aphrodisiac to a young woman from a small town outside Atlanta. 
Diego wrapped my sister up in the best designer labels and jewelry, put the
best booze in her hand, and shoved the
very
best coke he could provide
up her nose.  What he didn’t do was monitor her consumption of it.  She OD’d on
his bathroom floor in his penthouse.  All alone.”

Harmony gasped. 
“Jacob…”

“She died all
alone.  Fuentes didn’t even find her until the next day,” Jacob whispered, his
face hardening as he continued to speak.  “I’ll never forget getting the news.  I’d
just walked out of the mess tent and saw my First Sergeant walking toward me. 
I spotted the Red Cross message in his hand and remember going solid.  I knew
what it was – what it meant.  I’d seen enough of the other guys get ‘em while I
was over there.  I just assumed it was my mother,” he whispered.  “I never
expected it to be Vanessa.  I told the guy he had to be wrong.  I’m pretty sure
I took a swing at him.  Luckily, he was a decent guy and let it go.  Some of my
friends got to me… locked me down until the shock wore off.  Before that day,
I’d killed men, Harmony, but I’d never
wanted
to kill one.  After that,
I knew what it was like to actually want somebody dead because I wanted to
watch Diego Fuentes
burn.
  I still do.”

Pausing for a
minute, Jake inhaled the frigid air, letting the burn soothe his nerves.  After
a while, he continued, “Nessa’s funeral was the first time I went home after
signing up with the Army.  We buried her on a Saturday afternoon...just Mom and
me.  Do you know who
wasn’t
there to say goodbye to her?  Fucking
Fuentes.”

Privately, Harmony
thought that was probably a pretty good thing.  The man she’d gotten to know
over the past six weeks would have no problem slitting that guy’s throat.  If
they’d crossed paths while Jake’s grief had been fresh and raw, the result
would have probably been real bloody.

“His papa had
scooped his boy up and sent him packing back to Mexico.  If I wanted the son of
a bitch, I’d have to go hunting and I had a job to get back to doing.”

Harmony frowned. 
“Jake, I’m sorry all this happened to you, but I don’t understand what this has
to do with my sisters or me.”

“Just stay with me
awhile longer, darlin’,” Jacob urged, squeezing her hand in his.  “Please?” he
asked as the arm he had draped over the back of the bench moved to settle over
her shoulders.

“Okay,” she
whispered.  She could listen.  That much she was capable of offering him.

“I went back to
Fort Campbell.  My unit had come home while I was on leave.  No matter how hard
I worked, though, the need for vengeance was like a fire in my blood.  My
captain saw it.  Word had gotten around and he knew my story.  He also knew
that I was coming up on my re-up date.”

“Your re-up date?”
Harmony repeated, tilting her head to the side.

“The date my enlistment
was up.  It’s the day I had to choose whether I was gonna stay with the Army or
take a different path.  I’d been in four years and I was a sergeant.  I’d
climbed in rank fast and had a great service record. I was combat trained and
tested.  Anyway, my captain knew all of this.  This guy also had a brother in
the DEA and had taken the liberty of having a talk about me with him.  Turns
out, they wanted me.  I applied formally and they accepted me the next week. 
The agency offered me a way to find some justice for my sister.  Oh, I knew I
wouldn’t have it right away, but it was the road I needed to take in order to
get it.”

“Wow,” Harmony
murmured.  “But you haven’t gotten this Fuentes guy yet, right?  You said that
you still wanted to watch him burn.”

“I do,” Jacob
agreed roughly.  “And no, he isn’t in custody yet.  Just stay with me a while
longer, Harmony, and this will come together for you.”

Shoulders sagging
underneath his arm, she just nodded.

“Now, this next
part, you’re not going to like, but I’m done with hiding shit from you so
you’re gonna get all of it.”

“Great,” she
muttered under her breath.

“When I joined up
with the DEA, I was an undercover operative.  That means that I often
infiltrated a less than desirable group, Harmony.  I did things when I was
involved with them.  Bad things.  Things you wouldn’t agree with, but I did
them with the best of intentions.  I did them with the ultimate goal of putting
these people behind bars or under the ground, baby.”

“What things?”
Harmony queried reluctantly.  She felt Jake get tense beside her, his arm
tightening convulsively around her shoulders.

“I’ve done drugs
when it was necessary.  I’ve slept with women to get information.  I’ve killed
people, more than a few but less than a lot. I’ve…”

“Stop!” Harmony
threw up a hand.  “That’s enough.  I don’t wanna know anymore.”

“I was undercover,
Harmony.  My survival depended on my ability to blend in with the people I was
targeting.  I never did anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.  I’m not
proud of it, but I’m not ashamed either.”

Harmony felt sick. 
Her stomach churned and her head pounded with knowledge she didn’t want to
possess.  “Why?  Why are you telling me this?” she asked faintly, squeezing her
eyes shut.

“I’m telling you
because you need to know the things I’ve done.  You also need to understand
that the things I’ve had to do to get my jobs done do not define the man I am. 
Especially the man I am with you now.”

Running a hand
through her hair, Harmony dug her nails into her scalp.  “Jesus, I slept with
you.  I know we used protection, but still,” she whispered frantically, jerking
her gaze to him.  “Are you even…”

“I’m clean,
Harmony.  I’d never put you at risk if I thought there was a possibility that I
was unhealthy.  I can provide you with my medical records if it will put your
mind at ease.”

“Seems fair since
you’ve already seen mine,” Harmony grunted, trying to shrug off his hand.  God,
she wanted to get away.  Far, far away.  Maybe China.  Or Antarctica.   

“Don’t do that,”
Jake snapped, pulling her against his side when she would have stood to flee. 
“Don’t put a wall between us because I made choices in my past that you don’t
agree with.  I told you what I did, and I told you why.  I’m being honest. 
Don’t punish me for it.”

“Jake, this is a
lot,” Harmony yelped, turning wide eyes on him.  “And by a lot, I mean too
fucking much!”  Her eyes darted around the park, searching for a spot where she
could just hide and lick her wounds.    But all she saw was a few ducks
slipping into the rippling water, the park otherwise quiet and deserted.

“I’m sorry, baby. 
I truly am.  I’m sorry you’re overwhelmed, but giving it to you in small doses
won’t make the truth go down any easier.  Let me get it all out so that we can
deal with it and move on.”

“Jesus Christ!  How
much more is there?” Harmony shouted weakly.  “Honest to God, Jake, I can’t
take much more.  I’m going to snap.  And it’s gonna be ugly.  Especially since
there isn’t a fucking cookie in sight.”  Taking a deep breath, she forced herself
to stare at him.  “Tell me why you’re here in Paradise.  Were you supposed to
be here for an undercover assignment?”

“No,” he denied
simply.  “I’m here because Diego Fuentes is making a move to bring his drug
business into the area and I needed to be sure that neither you nor your
sisters were involved with him, Suarez, or anything to do with the drug cartel. 
Or, at least that’s why I came here to start with, but a lot of things have
changed since then.  Now I’m here because I fell in love with a woman, her kid,
and her family that happen to be in a whole heap of danger and it’s up to me to
protect her and them.”

Harmony stared at
him a long minute before she began to laugh hysterically.  “You thought me and
my sisters were drug dealers?” she cackled, her hand pressed against her
stomach.  “Us?  Have you met us?  I think the strongest thing any of us has
ever had is morphine and that was in the fucking hospital!  Oh, my GOD!  You
must suck as an agent if you thought
we
were criminals.  Star DEA agent,
my
ass!
”

Jake watched as
Harmony bent, her face to her knees, as she continued giggling and his own lips
twitched in amusement because…well, she had a point.  The McKinnon sisters were
probably the farthest thing you could get from criminals.  Winding a hand through
the silky strands of the hair at the back of her head, he tugged gently.  “I
had to be sure, Harmony,” he informed her softly.  “I’ve seen stranger shit
happen, but it took me about thirty seconds in your presence to figure out that
you were clueless about what your ex-husband and Diego Fuentes are up to.”

“Glad to know you
were sharp enough to figure that out all on your own,” Harmony snickered,
wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.  “Jesus, Jake, you could have just
asked
.”

“In my experience,
telling the truth isn’t really in a criminal’s wheelhouse.”

“Or a DEA agent’s. 
Explain the files I found,” Harmony demanded, her face becoming serious as she
looked at him again.

“Most of it, I had
when I arrived.   Technically, I wasn’t assigned to this operation for the
obvious reasons, but my commander suggested I take some of the vacation time I
never used to come up here and scope things out.  He gave me the basic
information in those files.  I gathered the rest of the info after I got here. 
I’d heard the stories around town about what Tanner did to you, and I
wanted…no, I needed to see everything there was.  Zeke and Cain provided me the
information I wanted to see.”

“So, to recap,
Tanner and Diego are working together.  Cain, Abel, and Zeke are working with
you.  Diego wants to expand his drug industry into our neck of the woods, and
he is using Tanner’s connection to me and Heaven to do it.  I assume this is
why Tanner wants the land my granny left me,” she guessed succinctly, her eyes
closing as she took in the entire scope.