Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (64 page)

A shot echoed off
the trees as Dante pulled the trigger, and Juan went down to a knee, clutching
his shoulder and yowling in pain.  Harmony watched as Honor stumbled backward
against the trunk of the car, catching herself with one hand as her chest
heaved.  Tearing out of Dante’s arms, she lunged for her sister, jerking her
against her chest as she scanned her for bullet holes.  “Are you okay?” she
asked frantically, cupping Honor’s wet cheeks when she didn’t find any obvious
wounds and staring into her sister’s wide petrified eyes.

“She’s fine,” Dante
answered for her.  “I wasn’t aiming for your sister, and I always hit my mark,
don’t I, Juan?” he asked sharply, his gaze still filled with rage as he circled
the car to point his gun at the other man’s head.  “I fucking warned you.  Diego
wants them un-fucking-harmed!”

“I wasn’t doing
nothin’, motherfucker, and it’s not like the puta hasn’t been passed around
before,” Juan shouted, coming unsteadily back to his feet as he held one bloody
hand clapped against his shoulder.

Harmony held her
sister closer as her sister whimpered into her neck.  “What kind of animals are
you?” she snapped, looking between the men.  “My sister was gang raped!  By
your buddy, you son of a bitch!  She wasn’t at some party and decided to
entertain a bunch of men for the hell of it.  Tanner and his sick fucking
friends
kidnapped
and
raped
her!  She was a fucking
child
,
you bastard.”

Juan sneered at Harmony,
offering her a thin, cruel smile before he asked, “Can you really rape the
willing?  I can smell her pussy from here.  She’s like a bitch in heat just
waiting for a nice, big cock to service her.”

Harmony jerked as a
second bullet tore through the air, this one finding its mark in the center of
Juan’s forehead.  Stunned, she watched him drop, face first, into the dirt. 
Holding Honor close as her sister sobbed, Harmony’s head twisted in the direction
the bullet had come.  Seeing a well-dressed man in a suit standing on the porch
with a lit cigarette in one hand and a smoking gun in the other, she gasped.  A
few years older than Jake, she put his age around 45, give or take a year. 
Still good looking despite his age and the long scar that rode jaggedly down
one side of his jaw, Harmony recognized that while muscular, he didn’t carry
himself at all like a thug.  His posture was excellent and his bearing held an
almost palpable power.   He didn’t look like any typical hired muscle she’d
ever seen.  He was a different kind of dangerous altogether.

Honor followed her
gaze with her own and shuddered as she, too, stared at the man as he
disappeared inside the cabin.  “OhGodohGodohGodohGod,” she whispered over and
over again.

The man said
nothing, instead exchanging a long look with Diego and jerking his chin toward
the house before going inside himself.

“Let’s move this
inside,” Dante said, taking Harmony’s arm but carefully avoiding touching Honor
as two men appeared out of nowhere to drag Juan’s now dead body toward what
looked to be a shed toward the back of the property.

“Was that…” Harmony
began to ask if that man had been Diego Fuentes, but Dante cut her off.

“Inside.  Now,” he
repeated, hustling them all toward the rickety steps that led into the cabin.

Tightening her arm
around Honor’s waist, Harmony reluctantly followed Dante up the steps, inside
the door and through a dimly lit front room where a couple of men loitered on
stools, playing a game of cards on the table between them.  Following their
kidnapper/guard through another door, Harmony realized they were in a room that
could be considered a kitchen.  Looking around the dirty room, she saw several
used coffee cups in the old, stained sink, and discarded food wrappers littered
the floor. The table in the center of the room held what appeared to be the
remnants of Diego’s men’s last meal, dirty knives and food everywhere. 

“Sit,” Dante
ordered them as the kitchen door swung shut behind him.

Helping her still
shaken sister into one of the old ladder back chairs around the table, Harmony
glanced at Dante before taking the seat nearest Honor.  “What do you want from
us?” she asked as the man stood against the Formica counter watching her with
dark eyes.

Licking his lips,
he inhaled deeply.  “Do you know who I am?”

Harmony blinked,
wondering if this was some kind of trick question.  “Dante de la Cruz?  That’s
who you said you were.  I
know
you’re the man I chased around the side
of the Piggly Wiggly some weeks back, but that’s it.  That’s all I know.”

“Jake didn’t tell
you anything else?” he asked softly, tilting his head to the side.

Harmony’s eyes
widened slightly, but unsure whether she was being tricked, she shook her head.

“He didn’t mention
his inside man?” Dante asked, taking a step toward her.

Honor stiffened as
he approached them and Harmony reached for her hand.  “What do you want from
us?” Harmony asked again.

“I’m the inside
man, Harmony,” Dante said softly, barely loud enough to be heard.  “My real
name is Luis Vega and I was Jacob’s partner once upon a time.  Feels like a
different life now if you want to know the truth.  Does that put your mind at
ease a little bit?”

“You’re Jake’s
friend?” Harmony whispered as hope began to invade her limbs again. 

“I was.  I hope I
still will be after this is over, but I’ve got every confidence that he’s
probably gonna put a bullet in my head for this, but you’ve got to know that we
didn’t have a choice.  Diego needed to talk to you, but when Tanner got wind of
it, he thought he’d save his own ass with the Boss Man by being the one to
bring you here.  We had
no idea
about what he staged this afternoon. 
Neither I nor Diego did until after it was over.  That’s when he had me
intercede.  Originally, Tanner was going to snatch you and Honor himself. 
Neither one of us wanted that to happen,” he stated with a meaningful look at
Honor. 

Harmony frowned. 
“I don’t understand.  Diego
knows
about you?  About who you are and who
you work for?  How the hell are you not dead?” she whispered frantically.

“That’s a long
story that will make much better sense coming from Diego himself.  Suffice it
to say that I didn’t know who he was…not until three days ago when
communication went dark with Jake.  Command’s orders, Harmony.  It was a
decision made well above my pay grade and I didn’t have a choice.  I hope
you’ll believe that.”

“I’m lost,” Honor
whispered huskily, forcing himself to look at Dante/Luis.  “Are you a good guy
or a bad guy?”

“I’m a good guy
pretending to be a bad guy, preciosa,” Dante explained with a kind smile at a
pale faced Honor.  “But all the other men you’ll see here
are
bad guys.  Much
worse than anything you’ve been exposed to before.  Most of them were hired by
Diego’s father, and Diego’s father makes Diego look like a man of God, do you
understand what I’m saying?  Diego’s father has been the ultimate goal all
along.  He’s the definition of evil. Do what you’re told while you’re here, and
I’ll do everything I can to get this over for you both quickly.”

Trying to
comprehend everything she was being told, Harmony asked quickly, “And Diego? 
You said he’s working
with
you.  Is he a good guy?  Because, honestly,
it’s going to be next to impossible for me to believe that after everything
Jake has told me.”

Dante/Luis pursed
his lips, his face uncertain.  “He’s not a good guy, but he’s not a ‘bad’ bad
guy.  Honestly, the guy’s an enigma.  A criminal with a code of honor.  Not
going to lie, it’s the most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen, but according to my
bosses at the DEA, Diego has helped take down a lot of guys a whole lot worse
than he is.”

“He works for the
DEA?” Harmony asked incredulously, trying desperately to make sense of what
Jake’s former partner was sharing with her.

“No,” he denied
flatly.  “He’s more like an….ally.  An informant.  A double agent.  All those
would describe his role here.  But, no, I wouldn’t qualify him as a
good
guy.  He won’t, however, hurt you.  Or, allow anyone else to harm you if he can
help it.  That’s part of the reason he had me bring you here.  Up until now,
his entire role in this has been kept under wraps to all but a select few. 
Jake didn’t know about him.  Hell, I thought I was working to bring him down
until just a few days ago.  Turns out, he’s not the big catch.  His papa is.”

“Dante…or Luis, or
whoever you wanna be called, why are we
here
?  What does
any
of
this have to do with us?  Jake, Zeke and the rest of our family are probably
losing their minds by now!” Harmony said desperately, reaching out to grip the
man’s wrist when he would have taken a step backward.

“I think that’s a
question that I should answer,” a heavily accented voice said from the doorway.

“Damn it,” Jake
cursed, throwing his cell phone on the dashboard of Zeke’s SUV.  “That was the
last one I could think of calling.  Nobody seems to know anything about this
operation.  Either that, or they’re really good at playing stupid.”

Navigating the
curves of the highway, Zeke offered Jake a sidelong look.  “What about that
former Unit Chief of yours?  You think he’d help?”

“He might have if
he hadn’t had a fucking heart attack a week ago.  Man’s in the hospital undergoing
surgery for a blockage.”  Turning toward Zeke, Jake frowned.  “I’m afraid we’re
on our own here.”

“Probably for the
best,” Zeke grunted, focusing on the road as he stepped on the accelerator. 
“Less hassle that way.”

“Doesn’t sound much
like the lawman I’ve gotten to know the past few months,” Jake noted blandly,
watching Zeke’s face carefully as the man’s jaw tightened.

“Don’t feel much
like that man right now,” Zeke returned hollowly.  “You didn’t see them…either
of them… when we got the women back the last time.  Harmony, God bless her,
bruised and worked over by a man that was supposed to love and honor her all
his days…then, my Honor,” he muttered hoarsely as his shoulders visibly
tensed.  “My Honor looked like a shattered china doll.  Those animals had torn
her to pieces, literally and figuratively, Jake.”

“Zeke, they’re both
stronger now,” Jake said as much for the man beside him as he did for himself. 
He needed to believe that.  Otherwise, he was going to lose his mind.

“That’s what they
want us to believe.  Don’t know if it’s true or not.  Especially for Honor. 
She hides behind her apron and her stove, smiling like she’s happy, but avoiding
life like the fuckin’ plague.  I’ve waited for a shot with her for years,
Jake. 
Fucking years
, I’ve known she’s the only woman for me.  She’s my
one.  My everything.  Jesus, I’ve loved Honor for so long I’ve almost forgotten
the face of every other woman I’ve been with.  And I thought we were finally
getting somewhere this past year.  She’d been letting me get closer.  Not too
close, mind.  But closer.  This… these past few weeks, it’s like all that
progress just dried up like it never happened.  She’s slammed more doors in my
face in the past month than she has in six years combined.  And now, that
bastard has her.  Again!  So, no, I’m not lookin’ at this from the perspective
of Sheriff.  I’m looking at it from the perspective of a man that’s had the
woman he loves torn from him a-fucking-gain!”

“Maybe once you get
her back, you should see what you can do about keepin’ her at that side of
yours,” Jake suggested carefully.

“Excuse me?” Zeke
snapped.

Lifting a hand,
Jake shook his head.  “Don’t get me wrong.  I know all the sisters are
different, but I’m just saying that if I’d given Harmony a choice about me being
in her life, I wouldn’t be here right now.  Sometimes, you gotta push, Zeke. 
Sadly, sometimes you gotta really push
hard
.”

“If I push too
hard, Honor ends up terrified of me,” Zeke retorted harshly. 

“Maybe,” Jake
agreed.  “But you’ve
been
movin’ slow and easy with no sudden movements
for years, man.  Are you satisfied with where you’re at right now?”

“No,” Zeke muttered
as he watched the road ahead of them.

“It’s a risk either
way, Zeke,” Jake admitted gruffly, “I’m just saying that when we get our women
back, it might be time to mix it up a bit.  In the time I’ve had to get to know
Honor, she seems like a woman that’ll have no trouble tellin’ you where to go
if you overstep the mark.”

“
If
she’s
the same woman she was when all this is over,” Zeke mumbled.  “Her nightmares
are back with a vengeance.  Harmony told me.”

“Yeah,” Jake
acknowledged softly.  He’d heard Honor awaken screaming several times since
he’d moved in with the McKinnons, and the sound was enough to tear at the
strongest man’s soul.  Harmony always hurried out of their bed to Honor’s side,
and he knew when she came back to him she was always shaken, seeking comfort in
his arms.  “But if you, me and the others do our jobs the right way, nothing
will happen to either of them.  We’ll get both Harmony and Honor out before the
shit can hit the fan.” Jake was unwilling to consider any other outcome.  He’d
promised his new daughter that he’d bring her momma home and he had every
intention of fulfilling his promise.