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

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “I’m not going to hurt your sister,” Jake countered quietly. “It’s the last thing I ever want to do.” Christ, the thought of causing Harmony pain tore him to shreds. He knew he was bound to cause her to shed some tears when he told her the truth, but he hoped like hell she’d understand why he’d made difficult choices. He had to believe that all the good they had between them would outweigh whatever betrayal she might feel.

  She took a long draw on her bottle. “Good. That’s real good, Jake. Because as much as I like you, I don’t trust you. See, you’re not Zeke. We don’t have history. I don’t know you at all other than what very little you’ve told us about yourself. You’re a mystery…an unknown… a big ole question mark in terms of what manner of man you are. So you need to understand that if you hurt either Harmony or Heaven, I’ve got no trouble with the thought of dismembering your admittedly amazing body and dropping the pieces up and down the Smoky Mountains for the buzzards to fight over,” she informed him cheerfully. “So, we on the same page about all that?”

  “Same chapter, same page, and same paragraph, Spitfire,” Jacob returned softly, meeting her eyes without fear. “Consider me warned.”

  “Well, good.” Patience grinned with a wink. “Don’t fuck this up, Biker Boy. Bein’ loved by one of my sisters is about the best thing that could happen to a man. They’re fierce and funny and loyal. And as an extra bonus, you get a little bonus McKinnon thrown in the mix with Harmony,” she said, shooting a fond look toward her niece.

  Following Patience’s gaze, he smiled at Heaven. “I’m gonna do my best. The one vow I will make you right now is that I’ll die before I allow them to be hurt again the way they were in the past.”

  “Those are pretty words, but I’d rather see you back them up with actions. Oh, and do me a favor and make me one more promise. Rock my sister’s world tonight. After being married to the world’s biggest, most selfish douche on Earth, she deserves a good lovin’ touch.”

  Lips twitching as he saw Zeke’s SUV turn in the driveway and slide into the slot behind his Harley, Jacob nodded. “That’s one promise that I’ll be happy to keep, darlin’.”

  “Yeah,” Patience chuckled, clearly amused as she followed his line of sight to her sister climbing out of Zeke’s vehicle. “I gotta feelin’ that you’ll be all over keepin’ that promise, Biker Boy. Just remember, a condom a lay keeps the babies away,” she sang as she sauntered away from him.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  It was over an hour later before Jake was able to come up with a way to get Zeke and the rest of the men alone without being overheard by any of the women. Thankfully, each of them were now consumed with either the task of cleaning up after the meal or organizing the rest of their afternoon. They had unanimously decided over lunch that this was the perfect afternoon to paint his kitchen, not that he cared much. He fully intended that that room would eventually be Harmony’s domain anyway, and deciding whether canary or sunshine yellow was the more appropriate choice wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time. Besides, he could tell by the dark look that the Sheriff had carried on his face throughout the meal that the other man had something he needed to share. Sparing a moment to brush Harmony’s damp lips with his, he grinned.

  “I think it’s about time for these boys to earn their lunch, baby. Have fun with the kitchen. Do whatever you think looks good, okay?”

  Harmony wrinkled her nose as she began to argue. “But, Jake, it’s your kitchen. Don’t you wanna have a little input into the way the room is going to look?”

  “Baby, if it was left up to me, we’d leave the walls the way they are in there,” he said just to needle her. Truthfully, the walls were as ugly as sin. Anything she and her sisters decided would be a vast improvement.

  “You are such a man.” Harmony rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Those walls are avocado, Jacob. In other words, the nastiest shade of green known to man,” she said flatly, barely suppressing a shudder. “They’re hideous. No kitchen should have avocado walls. Ever.”

  “Then it’s a really good thing that you and your sisters are taking over the kitchen renovations, isn’t it?” he asked with a wink before he stole another kiss and rose from his seat. “Just make sure you don’t tire yourself out. Patience mentioned that we have a free evening together, Ms. McKinnon, and I know just how I intend to fill it,” he murmured against her ear, enjoying the way her breath seemed to catch at his innuendo.

  Jerking his head toward the garage, he called to the group of men still seated around the picnic table, “Hey, you guys wanna help me carry the carpet up to the bedroom? Between the five of us, it shouldn’t take long to knock out the rooms I wanna get done today.”

  “Sounds good,” Zeke agreed, meeting Jacob’s gaze and exchanging a look with him.

  Leading the way into the shadowy garage, Jacob hit the light on the wall as Zeke’s boots echoed against the concrete floor on the mostly empty space. “We’re alone in here. It’s safe to talk. It’s obvious something happened, so talk,” Jake ordered, not wasting any time as Zeke and the rest of the men faced him, their faces tight. Obviously he wasn’t the only one that had noticed Zeke’s grim attitude during the meal. Each man looked concerned as they focused their attention on the Sheriff.

  “Time is up, Agent Stone. He’s here,” Zeke informed him bluntly, his dark eyes boring into Jacob as he came to a stop in the center of the garage. “Tanner Suarez is back in town.”

  Jacob froze, his hands forming fists at his side as white-hot anger suffused him. “You’re sure?” he questioned softly.

  Glaring at him, Zeke’s jaw hardened. “Don’t ask me stupid questions. I saw him myself. So did Harmony, although she thinks she was seein’ things. One of Tanner’s dogs intercepted her before she could see him there. His goon made Harmony think she’d just confused him with somebody else. They were both Mexican-American with about the same build. She put on a brave face, but you could tell she was rattled pretty hard by the experience.” Zeke growled as he took a step forward. “What I want to know is did you fucking know he was in our town?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Jake snapped, pissed at the other man’s obvious distrust of him. “Do you think I would have let her out of my sight if I had?” he bit out, his own eyes flashing as they collided with Zeke’s.

  “I have no clue what you’d do,” Zeke retorted as the two men faced off with each other.

  Jake could feel the others shifting uneasily behind Zeke, their eyes silently condemning him. And damn it, he was guilty. Not of bringing this shit to their doorstep. No, this showdown was gonna happen whether he’d shown up in this town or not. What ate at his soul and filled him with remorse was that he hadn’t been there when Tanner made his first move. “I got a text last night from my contact on the inside of Diego’s inner circle. Based on my intelligence, we still have about three days before Diego makes any move in the area. If they’ve sped up the timetable, I don’t have any knowledge of it.” His gut churned with a mixture of fear and rage as he barked, “Tell me what the fuck happened. How close did he get to her?”

  “Close enough to scare the fuck out of me,” Zeke hissed, keeping his voice low. “You’ve got to tell Harmony what’s happening, Jake. Keeping her in the dark could get her dead. I told you, we’d all keep our mouths shut as long as I didn’t think she was in imminent danger. That’s changed. The motherfucker is watching her! His campaign of terror has started. Don’t you give a shit that he scared the hell out of the woman you claimed this afternoon?”

  “It’s not that simple, Zeke. Telling her could endanger the entire operation the DEA has going. Do you realize the lives that could be put on the line if Harmony or any of her sisters panic?”

  “Do you realize that by not telling her, you could lose her forever?” Cain asked sharply from the corner. “Take it from somebody that’s been there, anything less than complete honesty could wreck every dream you have for a future with Harmony, Jake. If this all goes sideways, she’l
l hold YOU directly responsible, despite all your best intentions. And if her girl gets hurt in the crossfire? Fuck, forget about forgiving you. She’ll hate you, and she’ll have good cause for it. You seem like a good guy and you’re obviously on the right side of the law here… just tell her the damn truth. Explain to her what’s on the line here.”

  Abel looked around the garage. “Look, I’m not advocatin’ one way or another, but legally, Jake’s hands may be tied,” he pointed out calmly. “Jake’s already broken all kinds of laws bringing us in on this, guys. I don’t think the DEA will look kindly on our boy here blowing up an entire op that’s in play.”

  “You’re takin’ his side? I don’t give a fuck what kind of trouble Jake lands in for breaking the so-called rules! This is about family,” Zeke spat out, turning his furious stare on Abel. “You do realize that this shit is puttin’ all the women at risk. Even yours, Abel.”

  “First, Patience isn’t mine. She never has been and never will be,” Abel returned, his own hands flexing at his side. “She’s made that perfectly fucking clear to me time and again.”

  “Oh, bullshit,” Cain mumbled, his lips turning down at his brother’s remark. “That woman was made for you.”

  Quelling his brother with a glare, Abel continued. “That said, whether the women know the details on what’s happening or not, it’s not gonna change our actions. We’re still gonna protect them by any means necessary. You should make no mistake about that,” he stated, his tone vaguely menacing as he shot Jake a look. “My concern is, should we really burden them with something they have no control over?”

  “Yeah, son, you should,” Abel’s father interrupted, his aged voice wise as he pointed out the truth. “Forewarned is forearmed. Those girls will have a care if they know they should. They ain’t stupid. Right now, however, they’re out there, flying blind, completely unaware of the risk that surrounds them.”

  Zeke gestured at Seth Turner as he muttered, “Thank Christ somebody in this garage has a brain.”

  Abel held up a hand to stall any further comments. “Hey, I have a brain, man. I’m fully aware that if any one of these women suspect that we’ve known about this shit for as long as we have, we’re dead men walking. I mean, seriously, a firing squad will look like a day at Disneyland. They will gut us and stuff us before we can even say, ‘It was all Jake’s idea!’ I’m simply sayin’ that maybe it’s worth the risk if they can all breathe a little easier without this cloud hangin’ over their heads… at least until we have a better feel for what Tanner and this Diego fella are plannin’,” Abel reasoned. Turning his intelligent gaze on Jake, he said, “It’s only fair to let you know that Patience has a shot that rivals Zeke’s when you put a gun in her hand. This is not a sister that you should trifle with, Stone. She will fuck you up. And if she gets fucked up in the process, I’m gonna put you in the ground myself.”

  “Faith’s no slouch either. She can nail you with a coffee mug at fifty paces,” Cain said, his arms crossed heavily over his chest. “My wife has an arm on her. That said, if something happens to my woman while you’re workin’ this shit out, I’m not only gonna want Tanner and Diego’s blood, but yours as well, Stone,” he warned, glaring at Jake.

  “Don’t get me started on what Honor’s capable of when her sisters are threatened,” Zeke growled, still scowling at Jake. “That woman could give Al Qaeda a run for their money in torture techniques.”

  Holding up his hands, Jacob glared at Zeke. “You think I’m worried about covering my own ass here? I’m not. I couldn’t give a shit what happens to me. I’m worried about keeping Heaven and Harmony safe from not one, but two very fucking evil bastards. You don’t know Diego Fuentes. I do. If I tell Harmony the truth and she panics and spooks Diego, he’ll kill her without hesitation. If he thinks she’s anything other than a pawn he can play to get what he wants, he’ll have her eliminated without hesitation. If he thinks she or any of the women in this family could fuck up his master plan, he’ll hurt them and have a good time doing it. I need time to fuckin’ prepare Harmony for what this man is.”

  “You’ve had time,” Zeke countered, his voice hard as steel. “You wasted it. For the record, Harmony’s familiar with evil. She lived with it. She survived it. She knows that the smart route is to stay the hell away from it.”

  “Yeah, well, that evil is not gonna stay away from her, Ezekiel. If I could stop it, I would. I can’t, Goddamn it! The only thing I can do is make fucking sure that I’m standing in front of her when danger comes callin’ at the door. Now that I know Tanner is close, we’ll make sure that one of us is always near.” Reaching inside his jeans’ pocket, Jacob pulled out his cell. Hands flying over the keys on his phone, he growled, “I’m scheduling a meet with my contact for tomorrow morning. Let me go there and find out what the score is. That way, when I sit Harmony down and tell her what’s happening, I have all the information. While I’m at it, I’ll contact my boss at the DEA and get formal permission to read Harmony into everything. Twenty-four hours, Zeke. That’s what I need. Then, I’ll tell Harmony everything. We’ll tell all the women everything.”

  Zeke offered Jake a long look, his gaze sizing up the measure of the man in front of him. “Twenty-four hours, Stone. Then, if you don’t share, I will. Until then, we all stay close and we keep eyes on the girls,” he said, glancing at Abel and Cain.

  “Agreed,” Abel muttered.

  Cain nodded as he sighed. “I’ve got a shift at the hospital tomorrow, but I can try to move things around.”

  “I’ll cover you, bro,” Abel assured his brother with a long look. “You don’t go to work and Faith’s gonna know something is off. Especially since you only just started back at the hospital.”

  “I’ll make sure to spend my morning at the diner,” Seth added to reassure his sons as Jacob’s phone beeped.

  Looking down at the display, Jacob read the text message quickly before passing his phone to Zeke. “I’ve got a meet at eleven.”

  “Good,” Zeke grunted, scanning the message. “Get some answers, Stone, and get whatever fuckin’ clearances you need from your superiors. You may answer to them, but I answer to this town and Honor McKinnon. The DEA can go get fucked as far as I’m concerned.”

  Jacob nodded as his jaw flexed. He could only hope tomorrow’s meeting was the beginning of the end of this nightmare Diego Fuentes had brought to Paradise and Harmony McKinnon’s life.

  .

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Several hours later, Harmony took a step back and looked around the bright, clean walls of Jake’s newly painted kitchen. Her sisters had long since left, leaving her to put the finishing touches on the trim surrounding the windows. She’d chosen a nice creamy white to offset the buttercup yellow walls, and it looked good if she did say so herself.

  “Proud of yourself, huh?” she heard Jake grunt from behind her.

  Turning, she offered him a lopsided smile. “Kinda. It looks great, doesn’t it?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she pivoted on the toes of her sneakers to face him. “Much better than that sad green the previous owners had smeared on the walls.”

  “If you’re happy, I’m happy, darlin’,” Jacob replied, leaning one shoulder against the doorframe as he watched her spin and look at the fruits of her labor again. “But I agree, that green was shit in here. This is much more our style.”

  “Our?” Harmony echoed, bringing her spinning body to an abrupt halt. “Did you just say ‘our’?” she questioned, tilting her head as she met his dancing eyes.

  “Nothing gets past you, does it, darlin?” Jacob teased, watching as her bright blue eyes dilated. “What did you think was happening here, Harmony? I wouldn’t have given you free rein in the kitchen – or any of the other rooms, for that matter - if I didn’t plan on you actually spending time in them.”

  “I…I don’t know,” she blundered uncertainly, her good mood fizzling as she watched his face become serious.

  “I think you do know, you�
��re just avoiding talking about something that makes you uncomfortable,” Jacob countered, crossing his arms over his chest as he faced her. “I bought a house in Paradise, Harmony, because I wanted to be near you. It would be kinda hard to deepen a relationship with somebody that called Atlanta home, wouldn’t it? I plan for you and Heaven to be spending a lot of time here. The house should reflect everybody’s taste, not just mine.”

  Harmony’s heart warmed as she realized that he was making an effort to include both her and her daughter in his life. “You’re right. I guess it was just a surprise to hear you referring to something as ours even if it was something as abstract as style.”

  “Get used to it,” Jacob recommended softly. “We’re in this together, Harmony. We’ve been together for some weeks now. You, me, and Heaven. That isn’t going to change. Especially after tonight.”

  Harmony shivered at the whisper of dark, erotic promise she heard in his voice. “So, you don’t mind me making arrangements for an overnight sleepover for Heaven,” she surmised with a mischievous smile.

  “Not at all,” Jacob replied as he moved toward her. “Although, I didn’t just bust my ass putting down pink carpet in the upstairs bedroom for no reason. Eventually, Heaven is going to use that bedroom, but I’m pretty sure she’d appreciate having a bed in it first. I’ll take care of that this week. She and I can go pick out one that she likes while you’re working one afternoon. You’ve got a planning meeting for the Baker wedding on Wednesday, don’t you? And while we’re on the subject of Heaven, she told me that she wants a puppy. I’m thinking German Shepherd but I’ll compromise on a chocolate Lab if you insist,” he informed her graciously as he looped his arms around her waist and tugged her against his lean body.

  Wait. What? Harmony blinked up into Jake’s thoughtful face. Maybe she hadn’t heard all that correctly. “Would you repeat that?” she asked, staring at him as she tried to process the words he’d just uttered. Pink carpet and a puppy? No, she had to have misunderstood him somewhere along the way. He couldn’t have just said that not only had he chosen a pink carpet for a room he’d already labeled as her daughter’s, but that he intended to obtain a pet for her as well. Had she somehow hit the fast forward button on her life? When had everything begun moving at warp speed? Not that she necessarily minded the thought of things moving forward with Jake, but had she missed an important relationship memo?