Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (65 page)

Inhaling deeply,
Zeke nodded, his jaw hardening.  “You’re right,” he replied.  “Right now, I’ll
settle for getting her back any way she comes to me.  The rest, I can wait for
as long as I need to wait.  Just as long as she’s safe and unhurt.”

“Amen to that,”
Jake agreed as the radio between them crackled to life.

“Zeke?” Ice’s voice
called, the static sound breaking in as the other man pulled off his radio and
waited for a response.

Picking up the
radio, Zeke clicked a button on the side of the radio.  “Yeah?  You got
something?”

“Slow down. 
There’s a lane about two hundred yards ahead on the left.  Turn there and pull
over.  Twiggy over here says movement has stopped,” Ice replied evenly,
Maggie’s voice muffled in the background.

Following his
brother’s directions, Zeke pulled into the lane just enough to allow Ice’s
rusted truck and Slade’s Jeep to slide in behind them.  Both men were out of
the vehicle before the engine had completely died.

“According to
Twiggy’s iPad and satellite map, there’s an old cabin about a mile and a half
up this road,” Ice informed them, nodding toward the winding lane.  “Property
records say the cabin is owned by a Carter Hensley.  The guy’s been in a
retirement home for the past decade and a half, so you can bet the place is
pretty well deserted.”

Looking at a coolly
impassive Slade, Zeke asked, “You up for scouting ahead and taking care of any
stray problems you find, man?”

“Feels like old
times,” the former Seal replied with a twist of his lips that Jacob guessed
passed for his version of a smile.  He hadn’t gotten to know the man all that
well, but from what Cain and Zeke had shared, he was a guy that knew his work
and had found his way out of more than one tight spot while under fire.  He was
also Harmony’s and Honor’s kinfolk.  And in this part of the South, that
counted for a hell of a lot.

“I’ll call in our
location to my deputies, and Jake and I will follow behind you.  We should have
backup here within a half hour,” Zeke told the other man as he checked the clip
on his 9 mil.  

“Sounds good.  I’ll
clear a path for you,” Slade replied before disappearing into the woods.

“I’m gonna take
Margaret and get high.  Hopefully, I can find a location with a clear shot
path,” Ice remarked to both men.  “I’d go with you, but I promised Abel I’d
keep her safe,” he said in a low voice, nodding his head toward where Maggie
still sat tapping on her iPad.

“I can keep myself
safe, thank you very much.  Look!” she exclaimed, dropping her iPad and digging
through her Fendi bag and coming up with a pink-jeweled handgun.  “See, I have
this,” she announced, waving around the firearm. 

Jake sighed as he
watched Ice argue with Maggie about the safety of the weapon and her firearm
training, which consisted of two entire sessions.  He whistled sharply, cutting
off all discussion.  “Let’s move out. Now.”

Tapping the roof of
the truck, Zeke nodded.  “Be safe.”

“You, too,” Ice
declared before slamming his truck door shut and backing up his truck and
heading back to the road.

Looking at Jake,
Zeke muttered, “You ready for this?”

“More than,” Jake
stated with a grim nod, eyeing the road ahead of them and drawing out his own
gun.  “Let’s go get our girls.”

It was time to find
their women and get them home where they belonged.

Diego stood in the
doorway, his eyes never leaving the two women.  “Clear the living room of our
men, Dante.  I would suggest a perimeter scan.  Let my father’s sheep act as
fodder for the lions; you stay close to the house.”  Shifting his warm caramel
colored gaze to the women, he paused for a moment.  He seemed uncertain what to
say next as his fingers tapped against the expensive material of his trousers.  
“I would presume that we’ll be having some unexpected guests quite soon, and my
intelligence indicates that the McKinnons have some quite resourceful
admirers.  A former Army sniper and a former Navy Seal among them, isn’t that
right?”

Harmony remained
stonily silent as she met the man’s eyes while Honor shuffled her wooden chair
closer.  Reaching for her sister’s hand, she squeezed it gently.

Diego’s eagle eyes
missed nothing, and he watched the sisterly exchange without comment.  “Neither
myself nor Dante intend for any harm to come to either of you,” he stated
slowly as Dante moved toward the door. 

“Is that why you
intimidated us into leaving the hospital and coming with you?  The citizens of
this country would call that kidnapping, Mr. Fuentes, if that’s even who you
are
. 
What you’ve done is a crime here even if it isn’t considered that in Mexico. 
One that’s punishable by hard time in prison,” Harmony replied, her voice
remaining steady even though every organ in her body trembled with fear. 

Eyes going to
Dante, Diego’s lips formed a faint smile.  “You are right.  She is a handful.”

“Told you she was,”
the other man muttered before shooting Harmony an incredulous look that
conveyed he thought she was either part crazy or part stupid.  “But, she’s
Jake’s, and if you’re trying to stem the bad blood between the two of you,
pissing off his woman isn’t really the way to go, Diego,” he warned the other
man before going through the door into the living room and loudly ordering all
the men outside.

Waiting until he
heard the men shuffling outside, Diego took a step toward the table and noted
each sister’s stiffening posture.  Holding up his hands, he showed them that
nothing was in them.  “I won’t hurt either of you.  Believe it or not, I do not
believe in harming innocents,” he said calmly, silently noting the disbelieving
look Harmony shot him.  “I merely want to sit and explain some things to you
that you don’t know.”

“I think we know
everything about you that we need to know.  You’re a murderer, a kidnapper, and
a drug kingpin.  You consort with rapists, child molesters and wife beaters. 
You’ve brought us to a remote location for what I think I can safely assume are
nefarious reasons, and you seem determined to chat about it before you do
whatever it is that you’re going to do to us,” Harmony bit off angrily as she
lost what was left of her fraying temper.  “Exactly how close am I, Mr.
Fuentes?”

“Harmony, let’s not
anger the dangerous drug czar any more than he already is, okay?” Honor
murmured faintly from beside her, her hand tightening around Harmony’s in a
vice like grip.

“You said we should
be fearless,” Harmony muttered out the side of her mouth as she felt Diego’s
eyes studying her.

“Fearless, yes. 
Not stupid.  Fearless is good; stupid is bad,” Honor squeaked as the man turned
his attention to her.

Diego laughed.  It
was a rich sound, full of amusement and humor, and the sound froze both women
in their seats.  “I see it now; why your men are so enamored with you.  Why
they’d wade through the fires of Hell – and my men – to get to you.  I think I
now understand completely,” he murmured, more to himself than to them.  “Jacob
is, indeed, a lucky man.  And your Sheriff,” he said with a look at Honor, “he
knows he has a treasure.”

“I don’t belong to
Zeke,” Honor retorted.  Even scared out of her mind, those words were enough to
tug at her temper.  “
Why
does everybody keep saying that?”

“Perhaps because
it’s true, little flower,” Diego replied, his caramel colored eyes still
glittering warmly. 

“Mr. Fuentes, why…”

“Diego,” he
interrupted her flatly, turning his attention back to Harmony.  “Only my men
call me Mr. Fuentes.  You may call me by my Christian name.”

“Fine,
Diego
then,”
Harmony continued impatiently.  “Why have you brought us here?  You have to
know that our family is going to come after us.  Has my ex-husband actually
managed to convince you that
this
was a good idea?” she asked, gesturing
between herself and Honor.  “Jacob
already wants you dead for what
you’ve done to his family.  He’ll
kill
you for this.”

“He’ll try,” Diego
agreed with a heavy sigh, then said ominously, “But then, your Jacob doesn’t
possess all the facts.  He never did. But after all these years, it’s past time
that he did.  Then, if he wants to kill me; he can take his best shot.”

“You killed his
sister.  You’ve kidnapped the woman he loves and her sister.  Quite probably to
do them more harm than your muscled thug already tried to do outside.  I don’t
think there’s a lot left for Jake to understand about you.  I think he had your
number all along.”

Diego’s face
darkened at that and his body seemed to harden to stone.  “First, I handled the
thug that manhandled your sister as soon as I saw his transgression.  I resolved
the problem in a way that he will never harm another woman, did I not?  I
regret that you both had to witness my anger, but I don’t tolerate violence
toward women in any way.”

Laughing hollowly,
Harmony shook her head as fury spread throughout her body, firing her blood and
loosening her tongue.  “Oh, really?  Yet, one of your head lackeys is a child-molesting
rapist!  He’s a man that took a sick amount of pleasure in leading a gang rape
and violating an innocent teenager and then nearly beating his wife to death!  Or,
has Tanner convinced you that my sister and I actually enjoyed the way he
treated us?  Either you are a lousy liar or
very
stupid,
Mr. Fuentes
. 
I’m curious; which is it?” she asked viciously without a thought for her own
safety. 

“Enough!” Diego’s
deep resonating voice thundered throughout the room as he stood, his chair
crashing to the floor as he took a threatening step toward the sisters.

“No!!!” Honor
screamed, throwing up an arm as she threw her body toward Harmony. 

Catching himself
against the round kitchen table as he watched Harmony’s younger sister’s
reaction, Diego grimaced and took several steps backward.  “I’m sorry,” he
apologized quietly as Honor sobbed against Harmony’s side.  Keeping his hands
well away from the gun gleaming at his side, he held his palms in the air again. 
“Miss McKinnon…Honor, please.  I’m not a threat to you.  I swear to you on my
mother’s grave I don’t condone the violence that was done to you.  It turns my
stomach,” he confided softly, his face twisted with remorse as he stared at the
woman quietly falling apart in her sister’s arms.  “No woman should suffer as
you have.  As you
both
have,” he amended, shifting his eyes to an irate
Harmony. 

“He’s your man,”
Harmony accused, her arms wrapping around her sobbing sister.  “You know what
Tanner did to us, and he’s still alive.  Don’t you dare tell me you don’t
condone his violence when you’re keeping him employed!”

“Up until now, he’s
served a purpose.  I needed him.  He no longer does, I assure you.”

Seeing the obvious
confusion on both women’s faces, he frowned, wrapping a hand around the nape of
his neck and squeezing tightly.  “Please,” he said, bending to pick up his
toppled chair.  “I want to explain this to you as best as I can if you’d allow
it.”

“Do we have a
choice?” Harmony snapped, tightening her arm around Honor and glaring at him.

“No.  You don’t,”
Diego replied simply, righting the chair and placing it a foot or so away from
the table.  Looking at Honor, he winced.  “Honor, I’m going to sit here… well
away from you.  I’m not going to hurt you.  Please, try to relax enough to
listen to me.  Would either of you like a drink to soothe your nerves?” he
asked, gesturing toward the bottles of alcohol on the counter.

Honor’s eyes
drifted to the liquor he indicated, her breath coming in a hiccup.  “Is the
drug kingpin offering us a cocktail?” she asked her sister with a disbelieving
whisper.

“Think so,” Harmony
muttered, keeping Honor in the curve of her arm even as she kept her eyes on
Diego.  “What we want is to go home.”

Sighing, Diego
nodded.  “I can understand that,” he murmured, subsiding back in his chair as
he pulled a slim pack of cigarettes from his coat.  “Do you mind?” he asked,
holding them up for the women to see.

Harmony simply
stared back at him with dubious eyes, trying to process the mountain of
contradictions that seemed to make up this man.  She’d watched him kill a man
without a hint of hesitation, and yet, he was considerate enough to offer them
a drink and request permission to smoke.  Who did that?

“I’ll take your
non-answer as assent,” Diego muttered, tapping out a cigarette and flicking
open a silver lighter.

The women watched
as he lit his cigarette with steady hands and took a deep drag.  Blowing out
the smoke, he unbuttoned his suit jacket and got comfortable. 

“To answer your
earlier question, I’m not a liar nor am I stupid, Harmony,” Diego began softly,
crossing his long legs as he settled in front of her.  “What I am is a bad man
that is trying to redeem myself.  I’m a criminal, but I do have a code.”

“So, you’re a
criminal with some kind of skewed moral compass,” Harmony retorted derisively,
shaking her head.  “Lucky us.”