“You’re bleeding!” Honor countered with a hard frown as she took in the blood soaked towel pressed against her sister’s forehead. “Don’t you dare tell me that you’re fine!” she ordered, reaching to pull the temporary bandage away so she could see the damage for herself.
Faith watched her sister’s lips tighten at whatever she was seeing. “It doesn’t even hurt, Hon.”
Meeting her older sister’s gaze, Honor merely stared at her, her eyes piercing Faith in a way that made her shift uncomfortably.
“Okay, it hurts a little,” she amended, feeling the severity of her sister’s gaze. Honor hated to be lied to about anything and she knew that her youngest sister could tell she was fibbing now. “Abel and Patience think it needs stitches. Tell ‘em they’re wrong, okay?” she begged hopefully.
“Can’t,” Honor replied succinctly, bending to peer at the wound. “They happen to be right.”
“Fine,” Faith groaned, rolling her eyes. “We’ll get this place cleaned up after we get rid of Paradise’s finest and then…”
“The bar can wait. It won’t re-open until tomorrow night. I’m assuming the restaurant side is fine?” Honor asked with a glance toward the closed door that led into the dining room area of their business.
“Yeah,” Abel agreed quietly as Ezekiel Monroe joined their group. “Damage is confined to this room.”
Glancing up into the hardened face of the Paradise Sheriff, Faith offered the older man a half-hearted smile. “Come to arrest me, Sheriff?”
“I should,” Zeke growled as his gaze moved to each sister’s face. “You McKinnon girls are turning my hair gray. I heard about the bar fight over the radio. I decided to come on over and make sure everything was alright.”
“Does everything look alright to you, Sheriff?” Honor snapped at the man, her eyes flashing as she gazed at him. “My sister is bleeding and our bar is trashed. How do you keep getting re-elected when you ask the stupidest questions?”
Faith’s lips twitched. Her baby sister was sweet and kind to every soul in Paradise. In spite of what of the assault she’d endured when she was in high school and everything she’d been through, Honor had kept her generosity of spirit… her caring attitude. For some reason, however, where Sherriff Ezekiel Monroe was concerned, she could barely remain civil. It made things hard since Zeke basically dogged every one of Honor’s footsteps after they’d found her that long ago night she’d been abducted. The man had appointed himself her guardian, and he took the job seriously as hell....much to her sister’s consternation.
“Beg pardon, Miss Honor,” the Sheriff replied docilely, tipping his hat to the younger sister.
Faith had to give the police officer credit. He never let Honor’s temper rile him. For her alone, he was the most amiable man on Earth. Other’s feared his temper, but to her knowledge, he’d never even shown it to Honor.
“What I should have asked was what happened here?” Zeke continued, one eyebrow arching as he waited for an answer.
Faith, Patience, and Abel replied in perfect unison. “Bar fight.”
“I think we both figured that much out,” Honor replied tightly, looking around at the destruction surrounding them with barely concealed impatience.
“You tell it,” Faith muttered to Patience, rubbing her temple with one hand while she held the cloth to her head with the other. “I’ve already been over it twice with the deputies.” God, she just wanted to go home and take a long, hot bath. Being so near Cain’s twin was always disconcerting, but tonight it was wreaking havoc with her equilibrium. In attitude, the two men were as different as night and day. Abel was laid back and personable, while Cain had a quick temper and more introverted personality. In looks, however, they were too alike to be good for her fragile heart. Quite simply, it hurt to look at him.
“Okay, hon,” Patience murmured, patting Faith’s shoulder. Glancing around at the gathered group, Patience explained, “What you’re seeing around you is what happens when a drunk frat boy and a drunk trucker meet. Both of them seemed to have developed an affinity for our Faith during the course of the night, and when the frat boy made an ass grab on her, the trucker took offense. Mr. Trucker went for Mr. Frat Boy’s throat, and Faith got caught in the crossfire. She tripped over Frat Boy’s feet and cracked her skull open on the table, hence the gash in her head. Thankfully, Abel,” she continued, jerking her head toward the man beside her, “and that guy over there by the jukebox interceded and broke it up. One of the regulars and I got to Faith and hustled her behind the bar, and I called the cops.”
“My deputies are arresting both men and charging them with assault and public intoxication,” Zeke added, shifting his weight as he leaned against the bar.
Running a hand down her face, Honor nodded stiffly. “Okay,” she said softly. “Let’s get Faith to the hospital and get her stitched up. Abel, can you stay with Patience until she gets the bar closed for the night?”
“I’ll be fine on my own,” Patience interjected with a frown at her youngest sister even as Abel nodded agreement to Honor’s plan.
“No arguments. No McKinnon sister is gonna be out and about without protection after tonight,” Honor decreed in a tone that all the sisters knew well. Honor might be the youngest sibling, but she was also the heartbeat of their family. Each of them looked to her to lead, and none of the sisters argued with her decisions once they were made.
“I’ll drive you and Faith over to the Emergency Room,” Zeke stated quietly.
Faith watched as Honor nodded slightly. She wasn’t surprised. When it came to her, Patience, or Harmony, she knew that Honor would put her personal feelings aside in favor of what was best for the family. She murmured a thank you as Zeke helped her to her feet. It took a moment to find her balance, but once her vision stopped swimming, she followed Honor to the door.
The ride to the small town hospital was accomplished quickly, and thankfully the ER was virtually empty on a Wednesday night. Within an hour, she was the proud owner of three stitches in her forehead and a bottle of painkillers that she knew she’d never take.
Twenty minutes after that, Zeke was pulling his black Dodge Durango into the white clapboard farmhouse where Faith and her sisters had been raised. Opening the rear door, Faith climbed out of the SUV and shot the Sheriff a grateful smile. “Thanks, Zeke. I really appreciate what you did for me tonight.”
“Yes, thank you,” Honor added with a jerky nod as she straightened her sweater nervously as she stood beside the vehicle. “We’re in your debt. Again,” she mumbled, rather unhappily.
Glancing at her baby sister, Faith knew just how unhappy the other woman was with that fact.
“I’ll make sure one of the deputies gets your car home tonight, Honor,” Zeke replied without acknowledging their gratitude. Waiting until Honor nodded again, he ordered, “Get in the house, ladies. I’ll wait until you’re safely inside to leave.”
“Thanks again,” Faith said as her sister turned to walk toward the front porch. “Honor is grateful, too, even if she’s reluctant to admit it.”
“We take care of our own in Paradise,” Zeke declared with a dismissive smile even as his eyes lingered on Honor’s back. “I’ll get by the café tomorrow with an update on the frat boy and the trucker.”
“Sounds good.” Patting the door of the SUV, Faith smiled one last time before turning and following her sister up the steps to their porch.
Finally home, Faith dropped her purse to the kitchen table and shrugged out of her lightweight jacket. “I’m sorry about tonight, Honor,” she apologized quietly. If there was one thing she hated, it was worrying the youngest McKinnon.
Smiling at her older sister, Honor locked the door and watched as the Sheriff pulled out of their driveway. “It’s okay, sweetie. It isn’t exactly as though you invited a brawl tonight. These things are going to happen in a bar, I suppose, but we need to discuss what we can do to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.”
Faith nodded. Honor ha
d little to do with the bar side of their business. She and Patience primarily oversaw nighttime operations at the Café while Harmony and Honor handled things during the day. It just worked out better for everyone that way. Harmony had a kid, and Honor would never be able to handle a bunch of men drinking around her – not after everything she’d been through. “Listen, I’m wiped. I think I’m going to trash my bloody t-shirt and take a shower,” she said, gesturing down at her stained pink shirt. “We can talk about everything tomorrow once I’ve had some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
Truthfully, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could stay on her feet. She was exhausted...physically and mentally. Honor’s soft gaze seemed to indicate that she understood those feelings well.
“Get some rest,” her sister gently ordered. “Sleep late in the morning, Faith. You need it.”
“We’ll see,” Faith murmured before heading toward her bedroom, her tone doubtful. Both women knew that sleep was a valuable commodity for her these days. Faith never rested well since she’d received that awful letter from Cain that had broken both her heart and her engagement several months ago. He was always there, hovering on the periphery of her thoughts.
Stripping off her ruined shirt, Faith threw it in the trash can and quickly gathered a nightshirt and clean panties from her bureau drawer. Tiptoeing across the hall to the bathroom, clad only in her undies, she was careful to be as quiet as possible. Harmony’s room was right next to the washroom, and she knew that her eldest sister and niece needed their sleep, too.
Shutting the door softly behind her, Faith started the shower with efficient hands and pulled a clean towel from beneath the sink while she waited for the water to heat. Climbing into the antiquated claw foot tub a second later, she almost moaned as the warm water cascaded over her naked body. Careful to keep her bandaged forehead out of the spray, she tilted her head and soaped her long, blonde hair.
Good God, what a day, she silently lamented as she rinsed the suds from her head, tilting her neck and running her hands over her hair. A year ago, she would have been curled up against Cain while he rubbed the tension from her back and told her that everything would be okay.
Times had changed.
Now, the only thing she had to look forward to was an empty bed and even emptier heart. Usually, she could hold back the self-pitying tears, but tonight, she could feel her self-built dam breaking. Gripping the shower rod, she let the husky sobs overtake her.
Why? Why had Cain destroyed them?
As many times as she’d asked herself the question over the last six months, she never had been able to give herself an answer. His letter had told her to move on with her life and forget him. He’d said that she was better off without him. But never once had he offered her a reason why he’d decided he didn’t want her anymore.
From the moment she had first read that damned letter, her mind had imagined the worst. Perhaps he’d found another woman. Or maybe he’d realized that he never loved her at all. A thousand different scenarios had filtered through her mind in the past months, but none of them made sense to her.
Unfortunately, the only person that could answer her question was the one person she couldn’t ask. Every letter she’d written him had been returned to sender. She’d even swallowed her pride and asked his brother, Abel, and his father, Seth, if they knew how she could contact him.
Both men, while kind, had been clueless. Cain seemed to have cut them from his life, too. To her knowledge, he’d only called Abel twice since he’d sent that letter to her. Both times, Abel said that his brother had barely said anything at all and never once mentioned her.
That hurt.
She knew, however, that her life had to go on. Allowing one man to destroy her simply wasn’t who she was. She was a bright, intelligent woman with her whole life ahead of her. She couldn’t pine her life away for a man that had already admitted that he didn’t deserve her. She was pretty enough to attract a fair share of masculine appreciation. Hell, she’d had plenty of offers for a date since she’d forced herself to remove her engagement ring six months ago.
She’d refused every one of those invitations, but perhaps it was time to accept one. Maybe it was finally time to try to find some kind of happiness that didn’t revolve around Cain Turner.
Sniffling, she wiped her eyes and then twisted off the shower. Reaching outside the pale blue shower curtain, she wrapped her hand around her fluffy terrycloth towel and dried her body.
She was young. She was healthy. And she wasn’t the type of woman that wanted to spend her life alone.
She had to move on with her life.
Slipping her Hello Kitty nightshirt over her head, she stared in the mirror as she brushed the worst of the tangles from her hair. “You’re moving on,” she told her pale reflection sternly. “Starting tomorrow, you’re moving on with your life.”
Tossing the hairbrush back to the shelf above the sink, she offered the mirror a nod and turned to flip off the bathroom light and pad back to her bedroom.
Tomorrow, she’d begin again. Tonight, however, she silently acknowledged as she slid between her cool sheets, she knew she’d dream of Cain.
Chapter Three
Thursday morning dawned bright and clear and a crisp cool breeze shuffled dried leaves across the back parking lot of the I Don’t Care Café as Honor McKinnon climbed from behind the wheel of her grey Buick sedan. Tightening the apron she wore around her waist as she approached the restaurant’s back door, she knew she’d find it unlocked.
Her Aunt Orla always arrived an hour earlier than she did and started the morning breakfast menu preparations. They’d open at seven, but Honor always came in at six to begin the day’s baking while her elderly aunt took care of the customer orders that that their one morning waitress, Lexie, turned in.
Their tiny restaurant offered only simple fare in the mornings. Eggs, pancakes, waffles, omelets and a variety of breakfast meats were on the menu. Mostly, they simply had their regular traffic, townsfolk that had been eating there for years. Every now and then, though, they’d get a flood of customers off the interstate.
With less than four hours sleep to her name, Honor truly hoped today wasn’t one of those days. While the money would be nice, she simply didn’t have the energy for a busy morning.
Greeting her aunt as she walked through the back door, Honor paused long enough to kiss the old woman’s leathery cheek. At seventy-one, Orla should have been home, putting up her feet...or so Honor thought. But the ornery woman that had helped raise all the sisters after their parents died had other ideas that not even Honor was brave enough to contradict.
Hanging up her sweater, Honor met Aunt Orla’s eyes across the kitchen. “You need any help this morning, Aunt Orla?” she asked.
“Nope. Got it all covered,” Aunt Orla replied in an aged, cracked voice, then nodded toward the dining room. “You got company out front, Honor. Abel Turner’s out there waiting on you. I gave ‘im a cup of coffee and sat him down at the counter. He filled me in on what happened last night. Faith alright?”
“She’ll be fine, Auntie,” Honor assured the older woman before turning her head to peer out the kitchen’s window. “How long has Abel been here?” she asked with a frown.
“’Bout fifteen minutes or so,” Orla answered evenly, whipping the pancake batter she mixed with one hand. “He seems right pensive this mornin’,” she added pointedly.
Turning to grimace at the older woman, Honor admitted, “I left him here with Patience last night. I hope those two didn’t get into it again,” she added with a sigh. Patience and Abel got on like oil and water. You just couldn’t mix the two of them without consequences. “I didn’t have the heart to wake either Faith or Patience this morning, so I don’t know how everything turned out last night. Both of them needed sleep more than they needed to answer my questions.”
“Harmony comin’ in this morning?” Orla asked as she set her mixing bowl down on the metal table in the center
of the kitchen.
“After she drops Heaven off at the sitter,” Honor answered, lifting a hand to the loose knot of hair at the back of her head. Reaching for one of the brown hair nets from the box on the wall, she put it on. “She and Lexie are taking the early shift this mornin’,” Honor explained. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she told her aunt before heading out front.
Meeting Abel Turner’s gaze as she walked behind the long counter that separated the dining room from the kitchen, Honor smiled. “Abel! I didn’t expect to see you this morning. We don’t have much made up yet, but if you’d like some breakfast, I can…”
Holding up a large hand, Abel shook his head quickly. Dressed in a dark suit, he quickly tossed the file he’d been reviewing in his briefcase. A local attorney, the tall man was always working. “No, ma’am. Coffee was fine,” he stated with a nod toward the white enamel mug at his elbow. “How’s Faith?” he asked quickly.
“She’s fine. Three stitches, but she was sleeping when I left the house this morning. I’m just glad you were here last night. I don’t think I thanked you for your help, and I seriously doubt that Patience remembered her manners where you’re concerned.”
“Patience doesn’t have manners where I’m concerned,” the man grumbled under his breath. “But, I’m not here to talk about her. Honor, I need to come clean about something. What’s worse is that after that, I need to ask for a favor.”
Lifting her chin, Honor studied the older man’s face. “I’ve got a feeling that I’m gonna need my own cup of coffee to hear this,” she murmured, turning toward the coffee pot and reaching for another mug.
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Abel agreed regretfully. Waiting until the young woman had turned to face him again, Abel drew in a deep breath. “Cain is home, Honor.”
Stunned, Honor nearly dropped her coffee. Putting it on the counter with an unsteady hand, she stared at Abel. “What?” she whispered.
Cain's Salvation (Passion in Paradise - The Men of the McKinnon Sisters) Page 3
