Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (67 page)

Harmony wondered if
she could truly believe everything this man was telling her.  After all, he was
a drug-runner who had allowed her family to be terrorized up to this point  Was
there any reason to trust?  “All we want is for this to be over,” Harmony
replied shakily, rubbing her hand over her forehead.  “I want to go home to my
daughter and the man I love.  Please Diego, let us go. If you don’t, I
guarantee you that all hell is going to break loose and a lot of people are
going to be hurt.”

Diego opened his
mouth to speak just as the back door slammed against the wall, and he watched
as both women jumped in the chairs in front of him, gasping as they looked over
their shoulders at their uninvited guest.  Glaring as Tanner Suarez strutted
into the kitchen, Diego rose from his chair. “What the fuck are you doing here,
Suarez?” he barked, his eyes blazing as he faced the other man.

Grinning at Diego
with a wicked smile and gleaming eyes, Tanner laughed.  “I see you received the
gifts I sent you, Diego.  If you haven’t sampled one yet, I suggest you start
with the younger one,” he chuckled, reaching a hand out to touch Honor’s hair
and pulling a shriek from her lips. “I’m betting she still tastes just like a
peach on a hot summer’s day.”

As Jake and Zeke
picked their way around the last body Slade had left in his wake, he shook his
head as he stared down at the dead man at his feet.  “Jesus.  That guy’s like
the fuckin’ Terminator,” he muttered.  “They called me the Widowmaker, for
Christ sake, but this guy makes me look like a fuckin’ Care Bear.”  So far,
they’d come across three other kills Slade had made.  The guy at Jake’s feet
had his throat slit, but the others had their necks broken.  It was good to
know that Slade could be versatile, but this shit was beginning to alarm even
him.

Zeke glanced at the
man on the ground and shrugged his shoulders, unconcerned by the carnage they’d
encountered.  “Slade loves his cousins, and the man’s a machine when he’s on a
mission.”  Nodding to where the tall man waited about twenty yards from where
the tree line ended, he murmured, “He’s spotted something.”

Turning, Jake
walked quietly toward the waiting man, careful to step around the broken twigs
on the ground.  He knew one misstep could give away their location, and they
needed the element of surprise on their side.  “What do you see, Slade?” Jacob
asked when he reached the man, still staring at the house in the distance.

“That your guy
keepin’ watch on the porch?” he asked, nodding to the lone man standing on the
steps of the ramshackle cabin.

Squinting, Jake
spotted Luis standing there, almost as if he was waiting for him.  Nodding,
Jake murmured, “That’s him.”  Dragging his phone from his jean, he texted his
former partner quickly, lifting his eyes to watch if the other man checked his
phone.  Relieved when the man lifted a hand and tugged his ear, Jake’s
shoulders relaxed marginally.  “He got the message.  That’s our sign to come
ahead,” he told the two men with him.

“You sure?” Zeke
grunted.

“I worked with the
man a lot of years, Zeke.  Put my life in his hand countless times.  He’s an
undercover agent playing a role, but he’s clean,” Jake said before moving
toward the tree line.  Staying low, he moved toward the house, aware of Slade
and Zeke at his back as Luis lifted his gun and scanned their surroundings.

Climbing the porch
steps quickly, Jake growled in a low voice, “You got my woman?”

 “She’s not hurt,
Jake, but we got a problem,” Luis replied as the men heard a commotion inside
the house.  “Diego’s with them, but we got company,” the DEA agent growled. 
“Tanner’s just got here.  I saw him go in through the back. He’s armed.”

“You’re standing
out here while the guy that hurt our women is in the house with ‘em?  What the
fuck?” Jake bit out, his fingers tightening around his gun.  “And here I was
telling these guys that you were clean, Luis.  Tell me, you gone over to the
other side?”

“Fuck you, Jake. 
You know me better than that.  I was waiting for you and your guys, asshole,
but I’m telling you we need to play this smart.  Any cowboy shit could get
these girls dead,” he said tightly, looking around at the grim-faced men
surrounding him.

“We’re not playing
at all, you son of a bitch,” Zeke growled.  “Either you’re with us or you’re in
our way and we need to handle you.  Choose.  Now.”

Running a hand over
his sweating face, Luis shook his head.  “Jesus, fuck!” he snarled.  “It’s like
the Wild Fuckin’ West out here.  Can’t wait to get through with this shit and
take my ass back to the Gang Task Force.  This operation is good and fucked
anyway.”

“Not an answer,
Luis,” Jake spat.

“I’m fuckin’ with
you, man,” Luis muttered, glancing over his shoulder and into the house. 
“Look, Diego knows who I am,” he began, lifting a hand when Jake’s face turned
thunderous, “I’ll fuckin’ explain later, but suffice it to say, in a fight
between us and Tanner, Diego is on our side.  He doesn’t want your women hurt,
either, so don’t fuckin’ shoot him.  DEA is gonna need him.  Tanner, though, he
doesn’t know I’m an agent.  Let me go in there as Diego’s man and feel out the
situation.  Jake, you and your sheriff, come in behind me.  And Mr. Muscle,
there,” he said, nodding toward Slade, “He can go around back and see if he can
get a clean shot through the window.  Look alive, though, Diego has four of his
men out scanning the grounds.”

“Those four men are
no longer a problem,” Slade informed the other man tonelessly, his eyes meeting
Luis’s in a look that shared he could give a shit less about what he’d done.

“Holy fuck,” Luis
breathed, his eyes dilating slightly.

Looking toward
Slade, Zeke warned, “Ice is tryin’ to get up high.  Try not to block any shot
he could take.  He won’t miss if he gets one.”

Slade nodded once
and disappeared around the side of the house.

“That son of a
bitch took out all four guys?” Luis whispered, watching as Slade edged around
the corner of the cabin.

“He’s in a bad
mood,” Jake snapped.  “And we’re all running short on patience.  Get your ass
in there before I put a bullet in your head myself and do this my way.”

Returning Jake’s
irritated look with a baleful glare of his own, Dante opened the door to the
house with Jake and Zeke following closely behind him.

~~***~~

“What do you say,
Diego?  You ready to get this party started?”

Harmony’s stomach
dropped as she heard Tanner’s sickeningly familiar drawl behind her.  Watching
as her sister paled, blanching a shade of white she’d never seen before, she
felt her temper rising.  For Christ’s sake, it was enough.   More than enough. 
And when Tanner’s hand drifted over Honor’s shoulder to cup her breast,
twisting her nipple painfully and pulling a scream of sheer terror from her
mouth, Harmony decided it was time to let the bastard know she’d reached her
limit.

“These bitches
still giving you trouble, Diego?” Tanner asked from behind the women.  “I got
something that will help with getting that cooperation you need, amigo.” 
Pulling a long wicked blade from his waist, he slid it between Honor’s
breasts.  “You remember this don’t you, sugar?” he asked, bending his head to
whisper against Honor’s neck as he pressed the blade to her skin.  “You and me
had some real good fun with this steel, didn’t we?”

Honor screamed,
trying desperately to twist away from the blade as Diego growled low in his
throat and Dante strode through the kitchen doorway.  Her panic increased as he
cut the button’s from her shirt, the sides of her blouse parting and exposing
her scarred chest.  “Stop!” she screeched, clawing at the material with one
hand as Tanner laughed.

“What the fuck! 
Tanner, drop the knife, man!” Dante spat, drawing his own gun in one smooth
movement as Diego did the same.

Harmony raked her
nails down the side of Tanner’s face as Honor wrenched her body out of her
chair toward the door.  Diego and she watched helplessly as Tanner twisted his
hand cruelly in her sister’s hair, wrenching her backward and off balance. 
Gasping as Honor fell backward, striking her temple against the sharp edge of
the kitchen counter and falling to the floor in a heap, rage bloomed inside
Harmony’s belly.  Whirling, she slapped her ex-husband’s face.  “You bastard! 
Just let her be, you sick fuck!” she shrieked a second before her open palm
made contact with the side of his face.

“Still a fucking wildcat,
I see,” Tanner sneered, lifting a hand to wrap his hand around her neck and
squeezing painfully, cutting off her airway while he trailed his knife over
down her cheek to her neck.  “Should have killed you the night you thought to
test me.  Stupid of me.  I was so fucking trashed, I didn’t do the job right.  I’m
looking forward to rectifying that fucking mistake with you and your sister
now.  Waited a long fucking time for that moment.  As soon as you and that
bitch sign over that land, you’re mine.  Diego might not have any use for you
beyond that, but I’ve got a whole fucking lot I plan on doing to you.  First,
I’m gonna teach you the lesson you never got around to learning about fucking
with me and then, I’m gonna make you watch me fuck that precious sister of
yours in every hole she’s got.  You’re gonna be there to see it when I slit her
fucking throat from ear to ear!  I’m gonna love hearing you beg for mercy,
bitch,” he spat in her face as she struggled against him, the blade drawing
against her skin as a thin ribbon of blood leaked down her neck.

“Tanner, release
the woman
now
!” Diego snarled, aiming his weapon at Tanner as he held
Harmony in front of him.  “I will take care of them.  Your role here has been
played!” he barked, trying to find a clear shot around Harmony’s head.

“Do it, Tanner,”
Dante advised harshly, edging closer to Honor as she whimpered on the floor,
her body curling into a tight ball as she rested at Tanner’s feet.

“Stay where the
fuck you are, Dante, or I’ll stick this bitch right now.  It’s not like she’s
the one we really need anyway,” he threatened, pushing the blade deeper against
Harmony’s neck.  He chuckled in an ugly way, his beady eyes moving to narrow on
Diego’s hardened, enraged face.  “These bitches got to you, didn’t they? 
Fuck,” Tanner growled against Harmony’s cheek, “What is it about you cunts that
makes strong men stupid?  I had this one’s pussy for years.” Tightening his arm
around Harmony’s torso while he kept her in front of him, he blocked any shot
the men could have made. “And I’ve had her little sister on the floor.  They’re
good, hombre. Shit, their cunts are tight as fuck, but they’re not good enough
to disappoint your papa.  Not nearly good enough, man.  So, let me do you a
solid and take these whores out back and show ‘em what happens when they
disappoint the Fuentes cartel.  Trust me, when I’m done, I’ll get you that
land.”

“We’d both rather
die than give any of you what want you want, Tanner,” Harmony snarled, wincing
as the knife bit into her flesh again when she turned her head and tried to see
her sister.  God, she hated this man.  If she had to listen to much more of his
twisted perversion, she was going to completely lose what was left of her mind.

“You know, that can
be arranged.  It’s your baby sister that Diego really needs, bitch.  You,
you’re really just in the way,” she heard Tanner threaten as his hot rancid
breath fanned against her cheek turning her stomach.  “Maybe, it’s time to put
this bitch out of her…”

“Tanner!” Jake
barked, the swinging kitchen door bouncing against the wall as he moved into
the room followed closely behind by Zeke.  “Don’t do this.  Let her go and we’ll
allow you to walk away,” he bargained even as his spine tightened at the sight
of Harmony’s crimson blood rolling down her neck and dripping on her shirt.

“Honor!” Zeke bit
out, looking at her still body on the floor before turning enraged eyes on
Suarez.  “So, help me God, I’ll kill you for this.”

“Sheriff,” Diego
murmured, keeping his voice steady as he glanced toward Zeke.  “Your woman is still
breathing.  She’s stunned, but alive.  Calm down.”

Tanner’s lips
twisted cruelly.  “Lookie here, baby,” he whispered in Harmony’s ear.  “Your
own personal protective detail has shown up.  They’re a little late though, ‘specially
since I’ve got the fuckin’ knife at your throat and I got zero problems with
the thought of tearing it out for you!”  His angry eyes moved to Diego and he
shook his head as it registered that Diego was standing on the opposite side of
the law from him.  “You’re fuckin’ working with the goddamn law?  Daddy’s not
gonna like that at
all
.  You just cut your own fuckin’ throat!”

“Esteban will never
know,” Diego stated softly.  “You don’t realize this, but you aren’t leaving
here alive, Tanner.  You are what they call a dead man walking.  You’re a ghost
already; you just don’t understand that you are dead.  Let the woman go and
we’ll make this quick and painless.  Hurt her, and I’ll make your death a
torture you’ve never dreamed about in your worst nightmares.”

“Jesus, Harmony,
you fuck him that good before I got here?  That snatch of yours so good that
you can pussywhip a motherfucker like Diego Fuentes?  Or was it your sister? 
Now, from what I can remember, her pussy could definitely have done the trick,”
Tanner asked, enjoying the flush that climbed up Jacob’s neck and the way the
other man’s jaw clenched at the innuendo.  The low growl that emanated from Zeke’s
throat as he took aim only heightened Tanner’s enjoyment.  “How’s it feel to
know I’ve owned both your women’s cunts?” he asked them with a vicious smile. 
“Do you like knowing how they both howled for me long before either of you?”