Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (66 page)

“I prefer to think
of it as a criminal with certain convictions,” he corrected her blandly. 
“Morality is a
very
grey area for a man such as myself.  I simply have a
code that I try to adhere to as much as I can.”

“Excuse me, but
from where I’m sitting and from what I know of you, I see more monster than
man,” Harmony replied even though Honor pinched her arm warningly.  She’d had
enough.  If this guy was gonna play with her like a cat that had already caught
the mouse, she was going to say exactly what she thought. 

“You’re not
completely wrong,” he agreed, lifting his cigarette between long elegant
fingers and putting it to his lips.  Inhaling the smoke, he looked at Harmony. 
“Many think I’m the thing that makes monsters shrivel in fear.”

“Now that’s not
hard to believe,” Honor muttered, hazarding a small look in Diego’s direction.

Diego offered her a
small smile.  “I can only imagine what you of all people must think of me,” he
replied softly, his gaze quietly contemplative as he eyed her.  Looking between
the two women, he continued, “You must first know that I did not employ your
ex-husband, Harmony.  My father did.  They met in Mexico.”  Clearing his
throat, his jaw tightened as he shared, “My father and Tanner Suarez share a
twisted love for the same kind of sick brutality.  I am not proud of this, but
I can assure you that I do not share their depravity.”

“Okay,” Honor
whispered.  “I’m feeling a little bit better about the drug lord.  Not a lot,
but a little.”

“Don’t,” Harmony
ordered sternly, gripping her sister’s hand.  “He’s still a very bad man and
responsible for Jake’s sister’s death.  Just because he won’t rape us doesn’t
mean he wouldn’t kill us if it serves his purpose.  Does it, Diego?” she asked
with narrowed eyes.

“I have no
intention of killing either of you.  Quite the opposite.  I’m trying to keep
you both from harm,” Diego answered evenly.

“By kidnapping us,”
Harmony snapped.

“It was either I
act quickly and force your hand or Tanner grabbed you both and perhaps, injure
more of your family in the process.  Would you have preferred that, Miss
McKinnon?” he asked Harmony harshly.

Pressing her lips together,
Harmony bit her tongue.  She had to play this smart.  Honor, Jake, and Heaven
were depending on her.  “Maybe you should tell us your story, Diego.  Or at
least the part Tanner plays in it since he seems to have been the one who
started this mess.”

Diego nodded
curtly.  “My father hired Tanner because your ex-husband indicated that he
could obtain a base of operations to feed drugs into this portion of the United
States.  Our cartel had been looking for a way to make inroads here, and Tanner
convinced my father that he had the perfect plan.  You see, he told my father
that his bitch of an ex-wife had the perfect piece of property well suited for
our needs and he could get it.  He filled Esteban’s head with tales of your
hideous marriage, rallying the old man into a frenzy with promises of how he
could get everything my father wanted plus bear witness to your destruction. 
Since I, as Esteban’s son, was spearheading this effort to expand on our base
of operations, your ex-husband came under my command.  When I arrived, I had no
idea how complicated this little mission would become.  You see, I’ve been
working with the DEA for over two decades to systematically destroy my father
from the inside of his own camp.”  He paused for a moment, then shrugged his
shoulders.  “I believe I am what they call a Trojan horse.  This operation here
in Paradise was to be the final nail in my father’s coffin.  My last act of
retribution for taking the woman I loved from me.  This was to be the final act
in my play to bring Esteban Fuentes down in a way he’d never recover.  Unfortunately,
fate seems to be conspiring against me.”

Harmony and Honor
exchanged a perplexed look before unanimously turning to face Diego.  “Huh?”
Harmony grunted, shaking her head.

Leaning toward her
sister, Honor murmured shakily, “Do you feel like you’ve been trapped into
watching a Mexican soap opera and can’t find the remote to change the channel?”

Diego’s lips
twitched at that remark.  “We call them telenovelas in my country, and yes, I
often feel this way myself.  Sadly, I can see that I’m creating more questions
than I’m answering here,” he noted, his eyes shifting from sister to sister.

“Caught on to that,
did you?” Harmony asked sarcastically as she skewered Diego with a look of
contempt.  “You killed Jake’s sister, Diego.  You might not have put a bullet
in her, but you murdered her all the same!  How the hell can you possibly think
that I’d believe anything you have to say?”

Diego’s body went
solid as Harmony’s accusation hung heavily in the thick air around them.  “Careful,
mujer,” he cautioned ruthlessly, his warm brown eyes going almost black with
rage.  “In this, you know
nothing
! And neither does your man.”

Clasping Harmony’s
hand tightly, Honor squeezed.  “Then, maybe you’d share with us what we don’t
know, Mr. Fuentes,” Honor suggested, her sweet voice conciliatory, almost
pleading.  “We want to understand what we’re missing here.  We both do.”

Her sister’s gentle
tone seemed to soothe Diego almost instantly and some of the tension evaporated
from the room.   Keeping still, she waited for Diego to take another draw from
his cigarette before murmuring, “Honor’s right.  I’d like to know what I’m
missing.”

“I didn’t kill
Vanessa.  My father did,” Diego informed them starkly, his eyes staring out the
window above the sink.  “I loved her more than any woman I’ve I ever had before
or have had since.”  Slowly leaning forward, he pulled an expensive leather
wallet from his pocket and flipped it open.  Pulling a photograph from one of
the laminated pockets, he held it out to Honor.  “Take it.  You should see her. 
My Vanessa was a vision.”

Honor took the
photograph with a shaking hand and stared down at it.  Harmony peered at the
snapshot over her shoulder and was surprised to find that it was the same one
that Jake carried in his wallet.  Same girl, same mischievous smile.

“She was lovely,”
Honor murmured, looking down at the photo in her hand.

“She was beautiful,
was she not?” Diego asked huskily, watching as the women viewed the picture. 
“Her laugh… I can still hear it in my head.  It was infectious.  Loud….so big a
sound from such a tiny little woman.”

“Jake said the same
thing,” Harmony confided involuntarily, her chest tightening.  “And yes, she
was gorgeous.”  She looked up to find Diego smiling sadly as he nodded.  He
looked heartbroken, and she didn’t expect the deep abiding sadness burning in
his gaze when his eyes met hers.

“She was my
everything,” he whispered.  “And my father took her from me.  He used her to
punish me and he had her killed.”

Harmony’s jaw
dropped.  “Diego, you have to know…this isn’t what Jake told me.”  It wasn’t, but
she could tell by the unguarded look on Diego’s face that the man was telling
the truth, and he was as tortured by Vanessa’s death as Jake was.

“I know what Jacob
thinks,” Diego said softly.  “And in many ways, he’s not wrong.  I’m
responsible for her death, but I didn’t
kill
her.”

“Explain,” Harmony
insisted tightly.

“Vanessa and I met
at a nightclub several months before she died.  Back then, I worked as a
pusher.  I’m not proud of it,” he said quickly, shooting the sisters a sheepish
look.  “But, when you are raised as I was, you are expected to follow in the
family business.  At any rate, Nessie approached me.  She was beautiful, even
high off her ass and too thin by far, she was the most beguiling thing I’d ever
seen.  I wanted her from the moment she opened her mouth.  And she wanted me,
too.”  Looking at Harmony, he continued, “Despite who I was then…who my father
was… I tried to get her clean.  I didn’t want her to be with me because I could
provide her product and she’d be an easy lay; I wanted her for her.  And to
have her…
all of her
… she needed to be clean.  So, that’s what I did.”

“You got her
clean?” Honor repeated, her eyebrows furrowing.

Diego nodded once.  “For
a brief time,” he whispered.  “But for that time, we were happy. 
Truly happy.  I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life.”  Clearing his
throat, he looked away.  “I began to think about leaving the cartel… getting
away from the drugs and living clean.  Vanessa deserved that.  A clean life.  I
wanted to give it to her.  I wanted her to have the best.  I wanted to give her
everything
.”

Harmony already
knew this story had an unhappy ending and she could feel her body tightening…
bracing for what came next.  “Go on, Diego,” she invited gently.

Meeting Harmony’s
somber blue eyes, he swallowed.  “Word reached my father that I was debating
the merits of leaving our life.  As you may or may not understand, one simply
does not decide to leave the cartel.  In that, we are much like the mafia.  To
say he was displeased would be an understatement.  You see, he’d never liked my
gringa, as he called her.  He hated the fact that she wasn’t Mexican… that she
wasn’t dark-haired and subservient. The fact that I was deliberating leaving
the family business for her only infuriated him more.”  Sighing heavily, Diego
shook his head.  “I should have seen it coming.  I should have protected
Vanessa better, but I never imagined that he’d go so far.”

“What did he do?”
Harmony asked tightly, though God help her, she already knew.

“He arranged to send
me out of town on a drug run.  I was working for him, and no one said no to
Esteban when he gave an order.  Even his blood.  While I was gone, he had
tainted cocaine delivered to my apartment.  I’ve never been able to find out if
she took the drugs willingly or they were forced on her.  I can’t imagine why
she’d take them willingly; she was in a good place when I left her.  In the
end, I suppose it doesn’t matter.  The result was the same.  She overdosed.  I
found her the next day when I came home.  She was all alone in the bathroom on
the floor.  Cold.  So cold and still,” he shared bleakly, his face filled with
a pain that couldn’t be faked.

“You really didn’t
kill her,” Harmony whispered, shocked.  “You actually loved her!”

“I have never loved
another,” Diego said truthfully.  “I will never put a woman at that kind of
risk again.  Not as long as my father lives.”

Honor swiped at the
tears on her cheeks.  “That’s so… sad.”

“Experience is a
valuable teacher, but I was a rapt student, little flower.  No other woman will
suffer because of me.  That includes both of you.  I had no idea the danger
that I was bringing to your door.  I didn’t obtain the full story of the crimes
Tanner had committed against you until just a few days ago.”

Harmony slid
forward in her seat as she demanded, “Why the hell have you never told Jake
this?!  He’s spent his entire career trying to destroy you, Diego, and he’s
been going after the wrong damned man.”

Diego’s eyes
drifted back to Harmony and pinned her to her chair.  “I’m not innocent, Miss
McKinnon.  At the end of every day, I live with the knowledge that I cost Jacob
Stone his sister.  I might not have forced that cocaine into Nessa’s system,
but it’s because of
me
that she overdosed.  These facts have not
changed.  I will not, however, cost him the woman he loves or any of his newly
found family,” he added with a look at Honor. 

Stubbing out his
cigarette in the ashtray on the table, he continued, “I’ve tried to help Jacob where
I could.  It was at my request that he was taken on as an agent by the DEA.  It
was one of the few demands I made in exchange for my assistance.  I also
arranged that he be allowed to handle the man that delivered the cocaine to
Vanessa.  He doesn’t know it, but he killed the man directly responsible for
Nessa’s death in a case he worked three years ago.  That might offer him some
comfort when you tell this story to him, Harmony.”

Harmony shook her
head dumbly, overwhelmed by everything she had learned.  “I don’t know what to
do with
any
of this, Diego.”

“I hope you will
offer your lover some peace of mind.  If he still comes for me, I accept that. 
I only hope he will allow me to finish what I’ve started with my father. 
Killing Esteban would have been too easy.  Effective, yes, but it’s much more
satisfying to take the business which he loves more than anything on Earth and
watch his power crumble as I systematically destroy it.  As for Tanner, he has
become… unstable and problematic.  There’s also the added bonus that he’s a
sadistic lunatic that deserves to die an ugly death.” Diego frowned, his
forehead wrinkling heavily under the strain. “He is aware that he has
displeased me, and he made a desperate play to achieve my forgiveness with his
rash act today.  Another of your sisters was injured by him, and I am sorry for
this.  His efforts to appease my anger were fruitless, I assure you.  He will
be dealt with.  Swiftly.  I brought you here, first, because I didn’t want his
evil hands anywhere near you.  He was going to bring you to me one way or another,
and I simply wanted to spare you both from that contact.  Second, I also wanted
you to know that I will no longer be pressing you for your land.  I will find
another way to bring down my father.  The DEA will assist me in this.  Your
family has endured enough because of mine.”