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

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “My sister. Honor. A few years ago she wanted to give me a stake in the I Don’t Care Café, but I wouldn’t accept it because I couldn’t afford to buy into the restaurant. She threw a fit because she wanted it owned equally between all of us. I told her the only way I’d do it is if she took that land. So, she did. Grudgingly. It’s not exactly a well-known fact, but it’s hardly a secret either. I’m pretty sure the only ones that even know about it are us girls and my father’s old attorney. I don’t think Honor’s even mentioned it to Zeke, but it won’t take either Tanner or Diego long to find out who holds that deed if they take a notion to find out.” Harmony rubbed a weary hand over her forehead as she whispered, “And Jake, there is no way Honor is ever going to give that land to Tanner or Diego. But most especially not Tanner.”

  Jake sensed this had to do with the undercurrent he’d felt running between Harmony and Honor in the kitchen at the diner earlier. “Why, Harmony? What did Tanner do to Honor?” he asked, but God help him, he was pretty sure he already knew.

  Swallowing hard, Harmony shook her head. “I don’t know for certain,” she confided, staring down at their linked hands. “We haven’t had time to talk since everything happened today, but I think Honor remembered more about the day she was taken. Based on what Tanner said, what he did when he saw Honor, and the way he acted with her, I’m pretty sure he was there. I think he…” Harmony choked on a sob.

  “Christ,” Jacob bit off, cupping the back of Harmony’s neck and pulling her against his chest as her shoulder shook and the tears flowed.

  “I didn’t know,” she whispered over and over. “There was so much about that time that Honor doesn’t remember… that she doesn’t want to remember. Like I said, I can’t be positive yet, but…”

  “He raped her,” Jake growled, tightening his arms around Harmony as she nodded against his neck.

  “I think so. At the very least, I think he was there and he hurt her,” she whispered back. “I wish I’d killed him that night,” she added, crying harder. “I should have found a way to kill him.”

  “You didn’t know, baby. We’ll find a way to handle Suarez,” he promised against her temple. “He’ll pay, Harmony. I swear, he’ll pay.”

  “He threatened Heaven. He told me he’d take her from me,” Harmony informed him, pulling out of his arms. “He said he’d make me suffer and use my daughter to do it, Jake. My daughter was at risk today because you kept the truth from me. I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to forgive you for that.”

  “Harmony, that’s a regret that will sit in my gut and eat at me like acid for the rest of my life. If there’s one thing I could change about this whole clusterfuck we’ve found ourselves mixed up in, it’s that. But I swear on my life, nobody…not Tanner Suarez…. not Diego…. not anyone is going to harm one hair on that little girl’s head.”

  “You don’t know that and you can’t promise that,” she denied, shaking her head. “I think maybe that I should take her and leave. Just go.”

  “No.”

  “But…”

  “You run, Diego will follow. He’s rich and influential. He’d eventually find you no matter where you went. Especially if he thinks that you and Heaven are the way to manipulate Honor into signing over that land. We’re staying here.”

  “We?”

  “You, me, and Heaven,” Jake said evenly.

  “Did you miss the part where I told you that I’m not sure I can ever forgive what you did?”

  “No, but evidently you missed the part last night and just a few minutes ago where I told you that I loved you and Heaven. You’re angry and confused and scared. All are emotions that you’re entitled to have. I’m responsible for all of that shit, and I’ll have to live with what I did, but I warned you last night that once I had you, I’d never let go. This is me not letting go, Harmony. It’ll take time and work, but I’ll earn back your trust. I’ll work my ass off to do it. What I won’t do is walk away or allow you to walk away from me. We fight our way through it.”

  Harmony shook her head sadly. What he was asking was more than she might be able to give. “I don’t know if I can do that, Jake.”

  “I’m sure enough for both of us, baby. And in this, I’m not giving you a choice. I’m not letting go of any of you, Harmony. I finally feel like I found a place where I belong; I won’t give that up.”

  Harmony was suddenly overcome with exhaustion. “I can’t fight with you about this right now, Jacob. I need to go home, assure my sisters that you aren’t a mobster, serial killer or stalker, and then I have to talk to Honor. That’s gonna take all the energy that I have left.”

  “I’ll take you home, but I’m not leaving you there alone. Either you and Heaven come home with me, or I stay with you,” Jake replied evenly.

  “I can’t argue with you about that right now either. The best I’ll do is to tell you that we’ll see,” she murmured with a shrug.

  “I guess we will,” he agreed softly. “Harmony, you know that after you talk to Honor and get all the facts, you’ve gotta share with Zeke. That man deserves to know the truth.”

  “You’re not really one to talk about the truth, Jake,” Harmony pointed out a touch bitterly.

  “Maybe not, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m right. The Sheriff deserves to know what she remembered. He’s loved that woman a long time, darlin’. You can’t leave that poor bastard swingin’ in the wind like that. You might be pissed at him, Abel, and Cain right now, but at the end of the day, those men would bleed and die for any of you girls. Think on that before you make a final decision about sharing with Zeke, okay?”

  Harmony simply nodded because she couldn’t do anything else. Offering him a sidelong glance, she muttered, “Can we go now?”

  “Not yet. Look at me, Harmony,” he ordered softly, waiting until she turned her head toward him. Cupping her jaw, he bent to brush his lips against hers. “I’m sorry, darlin’. Sorry for what you’ve been through already and what I know is comin’. Sorrier than hell for my role in it. But I am not sorry for coming into your life. You and Heaven are the best thing that’s happened to me in forty-two years of livin’ on this earth. I wouldn’t trade or give back a single second of it. You understand?”

  Meeting his eyes, Harmony shook her head. “I hear you, Jake, but I’m not sure I’ll ever understand.”

  “Then I’ll work until you do, Harmony,” he vowed, brushing her lips with his again before rising from the bench and pulling her to her feet. “For now, I’ll take you home.”

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Faith and Cain Turner

  The McKinnon Farmhouse

  4:30 pm

  Cain Turner watched from the dining room table as his wife pulled the door to Heaven’s bedroom almost closed and walked into the kitchen. “She out?” he asked quietly, well aware by the look on his woman’s face that he was ranking as one of her least favorite people in the world at the moment.

  “Yep,” Faith answered tersely, carrying her glass to the sink and rinsing it out.

  “It’s awfully late for a nap, isn’t it?” Cain asked, glancing at the clock ticking on the wall.

  “Really?” Faith snapped, whirling to nail her husband with an icy, malice filled look. “This is what you wanna talk about, Cain? You want to chat about Heaven’s nap? She was exhausted after the morning and afternoon she had. She’s confused and scared. She wanted me to rock her and she fell asleep. I made a decision without you to let her do it. Does that bother you that you weren’t included? I can’t imagine how that feels!” she sneered.

  “Okay, Faith,” Cain replied calmly, rising from the wooden chair and slowly walking across the room to face her. “I get it. You’re pissed at me. You wanna let me have it, fine, but don’t be sarcastic. It doesn’t suit you, baby.”

  Faith pressed her lips together, silently seething. “You had no right, Cain. No right to keep things concerning my family from me. I thought we had an agreement that we would share everything
with each other. We said we would never keep secrets from each other after we worked through everything that happened in Afghanistan. You broke your promise, Cain,” she accused, jabbing him in the chest with her index finger.

  Dropping his hands to the curve of her hips, Cain nodded solemnly. “I did, Faith. I did it because I honestly believed it was the safest thing to do for everybody concerned. All I can say is that I didn’t do it to hurt you or your sisters. The rest of the guys and I talked about it and…”

  “Are you sleeping with any of those guys, Cain? You married to them?” Faith interrupted, her azure eyes glinting with temper as she felt her patience grow paper thin. While she had learned to trust him again before they got married just a few weeks ago, she was worried...worried that he was slipping into old habits. Her former soldier, now doctor husband still had a lot to learn about marriage.

  “You know I’m not,” he replied on a sigh.

  “Then your first obligation should have been to me and to us. This is my family that we’re talking about here. I deserved to have all the information that you had.”

  “It’s our family, baby,” he corrected seriously. “And you know that I would do anything I could for any one of them. I fucked up and kept shit from you, but you know that I did it with the best of intentions, don’t you?”

  “Good intentions or not, you pull this crap on me again, Cain, and you won’t like what happens,” Faith warned grimly. “You’ve got to remember that we sisters have been taking care of each other a lot longer than you all have been taking care of us. We deserve to know the truth about what’s happening in our own family.”

  “I think I got that now, Faith,” Cain acknowledged softly, pulling her soft body against his.

  “I hope you do,” Faith returned as she slowly relaxed against him, the warm heat of his body easing some of the tension from hers. “I really hope you do,” she mumbled before burying her face against his strong, wide shoulder. “Things are about to get bad, honey,” she whispered, remembering Harmony and Honor’s faces when they’d arrived in the kitchen this afternoon. “Really bad.”

  Wrapping his arms around his wife, Cain dropped a kiss against the top of her head and wrapped her blonde ponytail around his hand. “Things have been bad before, sweetheart. The good news is that they almost always get better. Look at us; we survived our fair share of shit and came out of it stronger than ever.”

  Lifting her head, Faith stared into his eyes. “For all our sakes, I pray you’re right.” Sadly, she was pretty sure it would be awhile before any of them felt better about anything.

  ~~***~~

  Patience McKinnon and Abel Turner

  The I Don’t Care Café

  5:03 pm

  Watching as Patience McKinnon reached for the amber bottle of tequila once more, Abel shook his head and stared into the sink full of dirty dishes again. “You know,” he noted drily, “we’d get done a lot faster if you’d spend a little less time with Jose and a little more time with the drying towel in your hand.”

  “What can I say? I like Jose a hell of a lot better than I like you,” Patience admitted with a shrug. “He’s the only man I don’t mind spending time with, he keeps the chatter to a minimum, he’s always there when I need him and never lets me down, and always, always remembers what my name is.”

  Throwing his soapy sponge back in the dirty dishwater, Abel turned to glare at her. “It’s been three years, Hellion. You ever gonna let it go?”

  Staring at him over the lip of the bottle, Patience merely lifted an eyebrow at him before slowly taking a swig and dropping the bottle back to the counter with a thud. “The short answer is nope,” she answered him easily.

  “So you’re just gonna carry this grudge against me to your grave?” he asked, growing angry. It always came back to this with them. One stupid night where he’d gotten drunk and acted on impulse was going to shape the entirety of their relationship, no matter how hard he tried to change things. He should have let it go a long time ago, but he wouldn’t. He should have just made his peace with the fact that this woman would never forgive him, but he couldn’t.

  And he knew exactly why.

  For better or worse, Patience McKinnon mattered to him in a big way.

  Cocking her head, Patience smiled. “Yep. That’s the plan.”

  “Jesus fuck, Patience. You sure you don’t have a degree in ball busting? You’re a fuckin’ expert at it.” Abel muttered, bracing both his hands against the sink and hanging his head.

  “Would you mind putting a sock in it, Abel?” Patience hopped up on the counter and pulled the bottle between her legs. “I’m trying to bask in the warm glow of my happy place,” she said, closing her eyes and tilting her head toward the ceiling.

  Watching her face get soft, he felt his lips tilt upward. Sitting there with her shapely legs swinging back and forth, her blonde and lavender hair styled around her heart-shaped face, she was gorgeous -- and his body reminded him adamantly of the fact. Shifting the material of his slacks, he asked softly, “Where’s your happy place, Hellion?”

  “Mmmmm… it’s this cozy little spot in the woods that I go to in my mind. See, it’s got this lovely fire pit where I imagine roasting your naked body over an open flame. I love it there; your screams always make the loveliest sound. Music to my ears,” she noted with a sigh and dreamy smile.

  His smile quickly dissolved into a frown at that piece of information. He only had himself to blame; he’d asked the question.

  “Still have that vicious little edge to your tongue, I see,” he growled, leaning forward and plucking the bottle from between her legs. “Words hurt, you know.”

  “You mean that’s all it takes to hurt you?” Patience asked brightly. “Awesome!” She pumped a fist in the air.

  “Swear to Christ, woman, you’re gonna drive me crazy one of these days,” he growled, tipping the bottle to his own lips and swallowing a shot of the liquor.

  “That’ll be a short trip,” Patience announced dryly, leaning forward to yank her bottle out of his hand. “And nobody puts his hands on Jose but me,” she added on a low growl.

  “You know, if you’d just talk to me about that night… let me attempt to explain where my head was at… instead of clinging to your title of Most Stubborn Pain in the Ass in Paradise County, then we might have somehow found our way to….

  “To what, Abel?” Patience snapped, her deep blue eyes darkening to almost navy. “Be friends? Fuck buddies? What do you think we could have been?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied truthfully. “You never gave me the chance to…”

  Lifting her chin, Patience squared her shoulders as she narrowed her eyes on the infuriating man that had been a thorn in her side for entirely too long. “You had your chance. I gave you my virginity – which for the record, a girl can only give once – to a three-pump chump that couldn’t even bother remembering my name. Your chance has come and gone…do excuse the pun,” she added acidly.

  “I was drunk, Patience, and I didn’t forget your name. If you remember correctly, I’d just come off a six-year relationship that same fucking night. I wasn’t exactly in a good place. I was disoriented when I woke up. Can’t you just…”

  “You mean when you sobered up.” Patience let out a low growl as she waved her hand in the air. “Just face it, you were a lousy lay, Abel. And coming from a woman that was a virgin, that says a lot. And calling me Angie the next morning just sealed the deal that you were a lousy human being, too. Awful sex plus shitty human being equals a lesson I will never, ever forget.”

  “Patience,” Abel began heavily, “No woman’s first time is gonna have her singing show tunes, darlin’.”

  “Oh, yeah? Your brother did okay. The way I heard the story, he rocked Faith’s world her first time. Unlike you, he knew how to work what God gave him. Trust me, the problem wasn’t me, Abel. The problem was your less than impressive equipment and the added bonus that you have the stamina of a jackrabbit,” she remarked,
eyeing his crotch critically. “All that, compounded by the fact that you’re the scum of the earth, was the reason I had a less than stellar initiation to womanhood.”

  “Sweetheart,” Abel breathed as he realized just how badly he’d fucked up. “Let me…”

  “And what was with the jewelry? I mean, it made for a great conversation piece when I shared the story with my girlfriends. Maggie particularly loved it. But I’m still not sure why a man would feel the need to put an ornament on top of his Christmas tree. Although, any tree in the forest would have had more wood than…..”

  “You know,” a deep, amused voice drawled from behind them, “I don’t know who this jackass was, darlin’, but you’ve been hangin’ around entirely the wrong sort of man if he couldn’t keep it up for you. I told you when I visited last time that you should have blown this town with me.”

  Abel stumbled as Patience hopped off the counter and ran across the room. Turning, his jaw clenched as he watched her vault into Zachariah ‘Ice’ Monroe’s strong arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him like a boa constrictor.

  “Ice! We weren’t expecting you until this evening!” Hugging the ruggedly good-looking man tightly, she drew back to plop a wet kiss on his cheek. “How long have you been here?”

  “’Bout thirty seconds, honey,” Ice murmured, returning her hug and meeting Abel’s fierce stare with one of his own. “I just rolled into town and saw your car outside. Had a little holdup just outside of town. Some crazy bitch threw her brakes on around Dead Man’s Curve just north of town, but I managed to get around the whack job pretty fast. She was a fine piece of tail,” he acknowledged with a grin, “But, I’d forgotten how mouthy they make you girls up here in this neck of the woods. Anyway, I figured I’d stop here first before I drove out to the McKinnon house.”

  “I’m so glad you did.” Patience squeezed his neck once more before releasing him. Dressed in a pair of faded Levi’s that had seen better days, a clean white tee shirt that molded to his strong body, and a pair of sturdy work boots, a woman would be dead not to find him drool worthy. Between the strands of grey threaded through his coal black hair and the deep lines around his eyes, Ice looked like what he was – a man that had played hard and lived harder.