Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (50 page)

“It’s begun, Harm. 
Keep going,” Faith murmured, her eyes glued to Honor’s crumbled face.

“She’s right,”
Patience agreed without looking up from where she stared sightlessly at her
clenched face. “Honor,” she said, lifting her head as she scooted closer to her
sister, “Keep going, baby.  Get it out.”

She wiped her wet
cheeks with a trembling hand.  “I guess I stood there staring down the road for
a few minutes when I heard a car coming up behind me.  It was dark and the
headlights blinded me when I turned around.  It was cold and I was wearing my
cheerleading outfit.  The wind was blowing and I was concentrating on keeping
my skirt down around my legs when I heard two car doors slam and then the
laughing.  Men were laughing, but I couldn’t see them for the bright lights on
the car.”

Honor’s voice was
growing more panicked by the second and Harmony moved closer.  “Breathe,
Peanut,” she urged, somehow keeping her own voice calm even though her mind
screamed at her to stop this nightmare for her sister.  Of course, she
couldn’t.  This nightmare had already played out, and these were just the
memories.  Memories that they all needed to hear.  “Just take a couple of deep
breaths.”

Honor’s breaths
were choppy as she continued.  “Something touched my neck.  It hurt,” she noted
distantly, one hand lifting to touch the area where Harmony and the others knew
that the prongs of a stun gun had burned her flesh.

“That was a stun
gun, Baby Girl,” Patience explained, filling in the blanks for Honor.  “The
police said that was how they immobilized you when you were taken.”

“Oh,” Honor
murmured weakly, rubbing the spot where two faint scars remained.  “I guess
that makes a weird kind of sense.  I was out of it, but I remember being
lifted.  They must have dumped me in the trunk.  I remember the smell of gas
and motor oil, but I kept my eyes shut.  I should have looked for a way out,
but I was so scared.  I just closed my eyes and prayed that I’d wake up.  I
thought maybe I was dreaming, you know?  When I opened my eyes, I thought I’d be
home safe in my bed.”

Harmony felt tears
strangling her, but managed to nod.  “I think that’s probably a natural
reaction.  I used to do it when Tanner beat me.  I’d close my eyes and wait to
wake up back in my bed in Momma and Daddy’s house.”

“That’s what I did,
too.”  Honor’s wide eyes stared up at Harmony’s face.  “It didn’t work,” she
whispered.  Sniffling, she continued, “It was a bumpy road, but I guess I must
have passed out.  When I opened my eyes…”  She tensed in the bed and seemed to
shrink into herself.  “It was bad when I woke up.  So bad.”

“I know it was
awful, Honor, but you’ve got to remember that it’s
over
now,” Harmony
stressed.

“There were more
than the two men that Zeke and the police found,” Honor whispered.  “I swear I
didn’t remember it until today.  I didn’t even really remember the two.  I just
remember hands and legs and hurting, but when….when this one guy grabbed me, it
was like a curtain lifted and no matter how hard I tried not to look behind the
curtain, I couldn’t avoid seeing.”

“Honor, that’s
okay.  You needed to see, honey.  Who was behind that curtain?  Do you know who
hurt you?”

“Only one,” she
whispered.  “But I didn’t know it until this afternoon.  I mean, I know about
the two that Ezekiel found because you told me about them… that they were gone
and couldn’t hurt me anymore,” she choked, revulsion filling her pretty face. 
“But the others…If I’d known, I’d have told you.  I swear I would have,” she
said desperately, rolling in the bed to clutch Harmony’s arm.

“I believe you,”
Harmony assured her steadily, holding Honor’s tearful gaze.  “I do.  One of
those men… one was my ex-husband, wasn’t it, baby?  Tanner was one of the men
who raped you.”

“I don’t want you
to hurt, Harmony.  You’ve hurt enough,” Honor whispered painfully, her cloudy
eyes filled with so much agony that it hurt to look at her.

“You didn’t hurt
me, Honor.  He did,” Harmony replied huskily, lifting a hand to cradle her
sister’s face.  “Now, tell me.”

“Yes.”

It was the one word
that confirmed all her worst fears.  Yes, she’d suspected from the moment she’d
watched Tanner approach Honor that afternoon, but knowing it was a fact -- a
cold, unchangeable certainty – that knowledge turned her blood to ice.  “I’m so
sorry,” Harmony apologized on a choked sob as Honor launched herself against
Harmony’s chest, burying her face as shudders wracked her tiny body.  “This is
my fault.  I brought him into our family,” Harmony whispered as she felt
Patience wrap her arms around both of them.  “I did this to us.”

“Nobody did this to
us but those monsters that hurt our sister,” Faith gasped through her tears as
she crawled up the bed to Honor’s other side.  “It isn’t any of our faults
except theirs.”

Harmony knew
otherwise, and no amount of pretty words from her sisters was going to change
it.  The guilt was crippling, a weight on her heart she wasn’t sure she’d be
able to withstand.  Hearing scuffling noises in the hallway, she knew that they
had to get the whole story from Honor.  She drew in a deep breath and attempted
to stop the tears that were refusing to abate.  “How many men were there,
Peanut?” she asked quietly.

“Five,” Honor
answered, her voice small and scared.  “There were five of them.  Big.  Scary. 
They wore masks over their faces and every one of them smelled like stale beer
and cigarettes.  The things they did to me…. Oh, my God!” she gasped,
tightening her arms around Harmony as the memories became real once again.  “Th-three
of them put on c-condoms, but the other two didn’t.  And one of them, he kept
shying away from me – like he didn’t wanna be there.  It was like he wasn’t
sure if he wanted to hurt me, but the others, they goaded him… called him names
until finally he…. He hurt me, too, but he kept whispering in my ear.  He kept
saying, ‘I’m sorry!  I’m so sorry!’”

Honor shook in her
arms and all Harmony could do was hold on to her.  One by one, she told them
about each assault.  She closed her eyes when Honor started talking about the
last one.”

“I knew the final
one was Tanner because he whispered in my ear that I tasted like a peach.  He
liked that I was innocent.  I knew his voice,” Honor said woodenly, her voice
almost gone and barely a whisper.  “But I was really sure it was him because
he’s the only one I saw.  I fought.  I struggled against each one of them, but
they all took turns holding me down.”  Her sobs echoed throughout the otherwise
quiet room once again. “One of them lost his grip on one of my arms while Tanner
was on top of me.  I hit him and my ring snagged on his mask and pulled it off
his face.  I made that scar when my nails got his face.  I saw him, Harmony! I
saw him and he was laughing,” she shrieked in a whisper, her thin voice ragged
with unspeakable pain.

Every woman in the
room was openly crying by the time of that admission.  Rocking Honor in her
arms just the way she did when Heaven was hurting, Harmony felt the hot tears
rolling down her cheeks.

Honor clutched at
Harmony’s shirt, her fingers clawed into the fabric as her knees drew up
against her stomach.  “A-after they were done, I heard Tanner say that they had
to get rid of me.  That I’d seen his face and couldn’t live.  He tossed a knife
toward one of them and told them to have fun.  I remember one of them stomping
toward me and that knife swinging down.  I heard the one that had seemed not to
want to hurt me yelling, but the other two held him back.  I felt the knife go
into me, then, nothing else…not until I heard Cain yelling my name as they
lowered him down that sinkhole where they dumped me.”  Her voice faltered, and
she sighed hard as she pressed her nose against her sister. “Everything is
foggy from there on out.  I don’t wanna ‘member anything else, okay?  I don’t
wanna, please?  I’m done now!”

Honor’s voice
sounded so childlike that it reminded her of Heaven, and the mother in Harmony
responded.  “Shhhh…baby, you’re done.  You don’t have to talk anymore.  I’m so
proud of you, Honor.  You did good, sweetie.  You survived.  You survived for
us, and that’s all that matters.”

“Didn’t wanna,”
Honor mumbled into Harmony’s chest, shaking her head.  “Didn’t wanna live.”

“But you
did
!”
Harmony returned fiercely.  “You did because you matter to so many people that
love you.”

“They broke me.”

“No,” Harmony
denied firmly, squeezing Honor in her arms.  “They didn’t.  They injured your
spirit and hurt your body, but they did
not
break you.  You were
stronger than they were.  You defied them all, Honor, and
lived
.  That
means you won that fight.”

“This doesn’t feel
like winning.” Honor breathed raggedly, holding onto her sister.  “Not even a
little bit.”

Feeling someone
nudge her shoulder, Harmony turned her head to see Aunt Orla holding out a pill
and a cup of water. 

“Cain said she
could have another one.  It’ll help her get some rest,” the old woman
whispered.

Nodding, Harmony
took the pill between her thumb and index finger.  Turning back to Honor, she
shifted her sister against her.  “Peanut, take your medicine,” she ordered
gently.  And unlike her earlier anger at being secretly medicated, this time
Honor accepted the pill and the relief she knew it would provide almost
eagerly, popping it between her lips and taking the glass of water Aunt Orla
held in front of her face.  Easing her baby sister back to the pillows, Harmony
curled around one side of her body as Faith did the same on the opposite side
of the bed.

The sisters all sat
in silence as Honor slowly grew sleepier, her breathing growing more even in
the stillness of the room.  Watching as her wet eyelashes, still spiked with
tears, fluttered against her pale cheeks, Harmony released the breath she was
holding as her sister slipped from wakefulness to slumber.

Distantly, everyone
in the room heard the door creak as Zeke pushed it open and filled the doorway,
Jake and Ice standing on either side of him.  Biting her lip as his tortured
gaze locked with hers, Harmony’s chin trembled as his eyes moved to Honor’s
still, wan face.  She saw her sister exactly as Zeke did – dressed in a simple
floral print gown, she looked like a fragile doll, her blond hair fanned
against the ivory pillowcase with her hands curled on either side of her head. 
The image alone was enough to make the most jaded soul want to weep.

Choking back a sob
as she heard Zeke make a broken sound low in his throat, she watched him spin
on his heel and stomp down the hallway.  She could hear footsteps following him
and knew that the men had followed him out of the house.

“Alright, girls,”
Aunt Orla said after a tense moment of complete silence.  “You all need some
air,” she remarked sternly, taking in each shattered face around Honor.  “Go,
take some time and deal with all you’ve heard.  Tomorrow, Honor will need her
sisters’ strength.”

“I don’t want to
leave her,” Faith argued in a whisper, her eyes shifting from Honor to Orla.

“Me either,”
Patience added on a husky murmur.

Taking a deep
breath, Harmony cleared her throat softly.  “Aunt Orla is right,” she said
softly.  “We’ll take turns sitting with her tonight, okay?”

“And I’m going
first,” Aunt Orla declared firmly.  “Go on.” She jerked her head toward the
open door.  “Eventually Zeke will settle and he’ll want his time in here.  Y’all
need to go get yourselves calmed down.  I’ll take care of your sister.”

Slowly, each of the
girls acquiesced to Orla’s demand.  Rising carefully from the bed, she followed
Patience and Faith out the door and down the hallway to the living room.  Faith
walked straight into Cain’s arms; Harmony envied her that tight embrace.

“Jake’s outside
with Zeke,” Cain shared quietly, staring at Harmony over Faith’s head as he
held the crying woman against his chest.  “Ice is, too.  Slade left. He
needed…he needed a break.”

“Me, too.  I need
air.  And tequila,” Patience declared, her voice tight as she went into the
kitchen and grabbed her bottle of Jose Cuervo from the counter before hurtling
toward the back door, Abel close on her heels.

Burying both her
hands in her hair, Harmony dug her nails into her scalp as she turned blindly toward
the stairs.  She needed a minute… somewhere quiet to still the screaming voices
in her head.  And mindlessly, she moved toward her daughter’s room.

An hour later,
Jacob Stone quietly climbed the stairs of the McKinnon house, carefully making
as little noise as possible.  Pausing to peek inside what Faith had told him
was Harmony’s bedroom, a quick scan of the room confirmed it was empty.  He’d
known the chances of finding her inside were slim, but he figured he’d try there
first.  Moving to the next door in the hallway, he opened Heaven’s bedroom
door.

His eyes adjusted
to the darkness easily and he found Harmony sitting on the edge of Heaven’s
bed, staring at her daughter silently.  She was exactly where he’d thought
she’d be.  “Harmony,” he murmured softly, keeping his voice low, “You need to
get some rest.”