Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (63 page)

“What?” Zeke
barked, his head jerking quickly.  “How?”

“More importantly,”
Jacob growled, “Where?”

Looking between the
two men, Maggie rolled her green eyes.  “The where remains unknown at present. 
They haven’t stopped moving yet.  The what is Harmony and Honor and the
how….well, I’d rather not say.”

“Maggie,” Abel
warned, staring at the woman, “How are you tracking them?”

“Spill it,” Zeke
demanded harshly.  “We don’t have time to waste.”

“Fine!” she
snapped.  “I chipped them.”

“You chipped them,”
Jake echoed dumbly.

“Yes, like a dog. 
I chipped them.  I figured that when this mess started a couple of weeks ago,
it was better to be on the safe side.  And since it worked out so well for my
poodle, it couldn’t hurt with the McKinnon sisters.  So, you’re all chipped,”
she announced, turning her head to look at Patience.

“Holy crap,” Faith
muttered, her eyes wide as she reached for Cain’s hand.

“You can sue me for
violating your human rights later,” Margaret mumbled, turning her head back to the
screen.

“Gotta hand it to
Twiggy, it’s kinda ingenious,” Ice murmured to no one in particular, looking at
the model worthy Margaret with glimmering eyes and something that looked
suspiciously like newfound respect.

“How did you…”
Patience began with a frown.  “I mean, where
is
it?” she asked, waving
her good arm up and down her body.

“Different places
on each of you,” Margaret replied dismissively, shrugging her slim shoulders. 
“Harmony’s is in her phone – it’s always attached to her hand because she has
Heaven.  For Honor, she’s never without that diamond watch Zeke gave her for
her eighteenth birthday, so I put it there.  Faith’s is in that locket Cain
gave her when they got back together.”

Faith touched the
necklace in question, which was indeed around her neck.  “That’s why you asked
to see it a couple of weeks ago?  You weren’t looking at the picture like you
said you were!”

“Nope,” Margaret
replied simply, not looking away from her computer tablet as she continued to
tap.

“And me?” Patience
asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Your keychain,”
Maggie replied absently, her brows furrowing as she focused her attention on
the screen.  “You never let anybody near that old car of yours and you always
have your keys in your pocket.”

“Wait a second! 
Have you chipped me, too?” Abel growled, stiffening as he skewered her with a
look that promised he’d get even with her.  “Is that how you always know where
I am?”

“Of course not,”
Maggie returned with a snort as she concentrated on the screen.  “There are
some animals you hope never find their way home, but they always do anyway. 
You’re just predictable, Abel. 
That’s
how I can always find you.”

Zeke pounded his
fist against the nearest wall.  “Location, Margaret. I need one.  That son of a
bitch has had our women almost half an hour.”

“I don’t
have
one, Ezekiel.  Based on the map I’m viewing, they’re headed west toward the
outskirts of Paradise on Highway 17, but I can’t tell you where they’re going
because they haven’t
stopped
.”

“Not much out
there,” Seth Turner remarked with a frown.

“A few old hunting
cabins and houses, but that’s about all I know of up there,” Uncle Jethro’s
voice rattled, speaking for the first time as he slipped an arm around Orla’s
shoulders as Heaven turned in the old woman’s arms.

Jacob couldn’t
stand there any longer, not when he knew that every moment they lost could lead
to a horror he never wanted to imagine.  “Let’s get on the road.  Now.”

“We go in quiet
first,” Zeke agreed.  “Get the lay of the land.  Then we’ll call in for backup.”

“Shouldn’t you get
in contact with your DEA buddies?” Cain asked slowly, sliding his eyes toward
Jake.  “You said they had a man inside, Jake.  This might be part of some
bigger plan.”

“Fuck the DEA and
their operational plans,” Jake retorted, his eyes flashing.  “Diego Fuentes and
Tanner Suarez have my woman.  I’m not waiting for the bureaucratic cogs in the
wheel to turn.  I’m getting her back!”

“I’m going, too,”
Margaret said, rising with her iPad in her hands.

“Me, too,” Patience
added, wincing and holding her injured arm stiffly at her side as she moved to
stand up beside Maggie.

Faith rose, too. “Well,
if Patience is going…” Her husband grabbed her elbow, stopping her as he
muttered into her ear.

“The hell you are! 
Neither of you are moving an inch,” Abel returned on a growl.  “You just got
shot by these assholes, Hellion.  You aren’t going anywhere near this.  Neither
of you are,” he added with a stony look at Margaret.

“Quit beating your
chest, Abel.  You need me there.  You all do,” Maggie informed the men at
large, but focused her gaze on the Sheriff.  “I’m the one with the coordinates,
Zeke,” she hissed, shaking the thin iPad she held between her hands for
emphasis.  “Unless one of
you
can figure out how to work this program in
the next five minutes, I’m tagging along.”

“No.  It’s too
dangerous to have a civilian out there,” Zeke denied, the muscle in his jaw
ticking furiously. 

Staring at Maggie,
Ice stepped toward her.  “I’ll keep her safe, brother,” he offered softly. 
“Plus, you may need me and my rifle up there.  Two birds, one stone.  I’ll
never leave Margaret’s side.”

“I don’t need a
bodyguard, Mountain Man,” Margaret retorted, turning her head to glare at
Zeke’s brother.  “But, I will take the ride.”

A sleepy voice
interrupted the fray just then. “Where my Momma?  Jake, where Momma?”

The room seemed to
freeze as they all heard Heaven’s small uncertain voice.  The sound brought
every head in the room swinging toward her.  Her face flushed from her nap, the
child now sat between her Aunt Orla and Uncle Jethro. Staring at Jake, her eyes
were wide and bewildered as she took in the room full of jumpy adults.  “I want
Momma,” she whispered, her eyes tearing as her face scrunched.

Taking the two
steps it took to kneel in front of the girl he already considered his daughter,
Jake caught her underneath her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. 
“Momma’s not here, Princess, but I’m gonna go get her and bring her home to
us.”

Heaven’s eyes
clouded.  “Da bad man gots momma, don’t he?” she whispered.  “Da one from da
kitchen.  He a
mean
man.”  Her tiny voice shook with fear and
anxiousness that no kid should ever have to feel.

“You don’t need to worry
about the bad man, baby.  I’m gonna take care of him and bring Momma home where
she belongs,” Jake promised her gently, sweeping his thumb against the little
girl’s cheek.  “Then, you, me, and Momma are gonna be a family, okay?”  Jake’s
heart twisted when she started chewing her lower lip the same way Harmony did
when she was scared.

“You gonna marry Momma
and be my Daddy den?” she asked hopefully, trust shining from her eyes as she
stared at Jake.

Jake swallowed hard
at that.  He knew that nobody who knew him before he’d stumbled into this tiny
town would ever believe that the man they all believed had a heart as hard as
stone could ever be softened.  He’d been too cold… too calculating to ever let
something as trivial as love alter his plans for retribution against his
sister’s killer.  That had been true… right up until he’d met his girls. 
They’d achieved what many had claimed impossible.   Jake ‘The Widowmaker’ Stone
had been tamed…by a four-year-old and her courageous mother.  This child… hell,
this entire family had domesticated the shit out of him.

And he did not give
one single flying fuck.

“Yeah, Princess, that’s
exactly what I’m going to do, but you don’t need to wait that long to call me Daddy. 
If you want me to be, I’m already your Daddy,” he agreed huskily, lifting a
hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.    

Jake heard Faith
and Patience sniffling behind him as Heaven nodded solemnly.  “I told Momma you
was gonna be and she telled me that she hoped you would,” he heard her say, his
heart catching in his chest.  He could almost see Harmony’s smile as he heard
her say those words in his mind.  “I wanna real family like my friends got wif
a Momma
and
a Daddy,” she whispered to him.

“Then that’s what
you’re going to have, Heaven.  I’m gonna make sure of it,” Jake whispered, his
throat thick with emotion he couldn’t afford to have right now.  “Now, I want
you to stay here with your aunts and uncle and be a brave girl for me and Momma,
okay?  We’re gonna be back as soon as we can.  I love you, Princess.”  He
curled her against him, burying his nose in her sweet smelling hair.

“Love you too, Daddy,”
he heard her mumble against his chest, her little nose buried against his
collar bone.  His arms squeezed her to him tightly one last time before he
lifted her back to the seat between Orla and Jethro and rose back to his feet. 
Meeting Faith’s terrified eyes, then Patience’s more resolved gaze, he growled,
“We’ll bring them back.  I promise you; I’m not coming back without them both.”

Both women remained
strong and Jake had to wonder if they had backbones made of titanium.  Christ,
every one of the McKinnon girls had endured hell, and they all managed to keep
rolling with the punches.  Now wasn’t any different; they merely nodded at him
before he shifted his attention to where an impassive faced Zeke waited not so
patiently by the door for him.  Only his eyes gave away the other man’s rage,
and those eyes burned with a fire that promised he’d deliver hell on Earth to
the bastards that had taken Honor from him.  It was clear that the Sheriff was
obviously feeling this situation as much as he was.  If anybody understood the
danger their women were facing, it was Zeke.  They’d both nearly lost the women
they loved to one of these bastards once in their life; neither was anxious to
repeat the experience, and both would do anything in their power to stop it
from happening again.  Their eyes connected and held for a long, intense moment
and Jake knew they’d reached a silent understanding.

All bets were off. 
Whatever happened, whatever they had to do, they were going to bring their
girls home where they belonged.

Grimacing as the
sedan they were riding inside hit another deep rut in the winding road, Harmony
stared out the window.  Each side of the narrow path was surrounded by
overgrown forest trees, and she’d long ago lost sight of the main road behind
them.  “Do you have any idea where this leads?” Harmony asked her sister in a
whisper.

“Not a clue.  I’m
not even sure we’re in Paradise County anymore,” Honor replied, her voice faint
with fear as she stared out her own window.  “It’s like a scene out of
Deliverance.  I expect to hear the banjos start any time now.”

“Silencio,” the
driver snarled, glaring at them in the rearview mirror.

Turning, Dante shot
them a warning look over his shoulder.  “We arrive shortly.  Stay quiet.”

Harmony felt
Honor’s fingers tighten painfully as the driver offered them another look in
the mirror, openly leering at them now. 

“Harmony,” Honor
whispered breathlessly, edging nearer her sister.

Harmony’s eyes flew
toward the driver.  Scooting closer, she wrapped her arm around her trembling
sister and glared at the pervert making her uncomfortable.  “Mr. de la Cruz,
would you mind reminding your colleague of your earlier statement.  He’s making
my sister and me extremely nervous back here.”

“Juan!” Dante
barked.  “Eyes on the road.”

Both sisters
relaxed slightly as Juan returned his eyes to the broken path that seemed to
constitute Dante’s idea of a road.  In the distance, Harmony spotted a plain,
weather-beaten cottage with a slanted roof.  “I think we’re here, Peanut,” she
whispered.

Honor lifted her
bowed head and looked around, taking a quick breath as the driver braked in
front of the structure.  Watching as both men opened their doors, she jerked
when the door beside her opened.  Squeaking in terror as the driver wrapped his
hand in her hair and yanked violently, Honor’s body lurched toward the door.

“Hey!  Stop it!”
Harmony screamed from the other side of the car as Juan threw Honor against the
vehicle, pushing his body against her own.  “Let her go!” Harmony shrieked as
she tried to shove past Dante’s body to get to her sister.

“So, chica, are you
as sweet as Tanner says you are?” Juan asked against Honor’s ear as she twisted
her head to the side to evade his lips.  “Give me a taste,” he urged, thrusting
his torso against her as Honor’s broken scream echoed through the woods.

“Juan, enough,”
Dante barked, holding Harmony back with one arm around her waist as she
struggled against him and drawing his gun with the other, aiming it at the
other man.  “Let the woman go!  Now!”

Ignoring his
partner, the other man rolled his hips against Honor again in a crude facsimile
of the sex act as he breathed in her ear, “He says you taste like peaches.  I
bet you do.  I bet you’re a real sweet treat.  After Diego’s done with you,
hopefully, he’ll give the rest of us a…”