Unable to tear his eyes away from the hastily written message, Jake shook his head, barely hearing Ice’s words much less comprehending them. “He threatened her with Heaven, Zeke. He had to have; it’s the only thing that would have convinced her to take this kind of risk. There’s no way Harmony would put Honor in harm’s way if he hadn’t held something big over her.” He was going to kill Tanner for this. If it took the rest of his life, he’d send that bastard to hell where he belonged. He tried not to imagine the fear that Harmony and Honor would be experiencing right now. When he did, he couldn’t think, and if he was gonna get them back alive, his mind needed to remain unclouded by emotion. Tamping down on the fear, he forced himself to focus on the Sheriff.
“Harmony couldn’t have stopped her, Stone,” Zeke declared with a negative shake of his dark head, taking deep breaths to keep from putting his fist through the mirror. “I know Honor almost as well as I know myself. There’s no way she would have let her sister face that bastard on her own no matter how scared she was.”
Jake hear Ice assure them that they would get the ladies back, then turned as he heard a deep voice call his name from the doorway. He found himself facing the concerned gaze of Abel and Cain’s father, Seth. “Yeah?” he asked gruffly.
“Margaret wants you boys back in the waiting room double time,” Seth informed them quickly, sweeping his eyes over the men. “She’s been clickin’ on that newfangled computer of hers and says to tell you that she’s got a lead. She thinks she knows the direction the girls have been taken.”
“Thank fuck.” Jacob whispered and felt a flash of hope warm his heart. Harmony had told him a lot about Margaret Winstead in the last few days and he could heartily admit she’d be a good woman to have on their side right now. Beyond being extremely wealthy and having connections he could never dream about having, Maggie was a whiz with computers. Hopefully, she’d found something to at least give them a starting point.
“Dad, did you find Jake?” Jake heard Abel shout from the hallway, his footsteps growing closer.
“Yeah, Jake and the boys are still in here,” Seth returned over his shoulder, holding the door open for his son.
Abel hit the restroom door at the same time Zeke swung around to face them. “She got something good?” he asked, pinning Abel with a look that promised he’d be unamused if he wasted his time.
Nodding, Abel jerked his head toward the waiting room. “She’s waiting for you. Patience is with her, and even stoned off her ass, she realizes what’s happening and is about two seconds from finding somebody to launch a nuclear bomb over the town. The only thing stopping her is Mags promising she can find them.”
“I wanna see what she’s got. Let’s go, Zeke,” Jake said with a measured look toward the tense sheriff.
Filing out of the bathroom, the men trudged into the waiting room, forming a loose circle around Maggie as she tapped furiously on her iPad, her fingers flying against the keys faster than Jake had ever seen anybody move as Patience and Faith sat on either side of her, staring over her shoulder at the screen. “Seth and Abel said you’ve got something, Maggie,” he interrupted the redhead gruffly.
“Yeah.” She nodded at them eagerly, her red hair bouncing against her shoulders as she tapped her screen. “I’ve got a lock on their signal, but they’re still moving. They haven’t stopped yet.”
“What?” Zeke barked, his head jerking quickly. “How?”
“More importantly,” Jacob growled, “Where?”
Looking between the two men, Maggie rolled her green eyes. “The where remains unknown at present. They haven’t stopped moving yet. The what is Harmony and Honor and the how….well, I’d rather not say.”
“Maggie,” Abel warned, staring at the woman, “How are you tracking them?”
“Spill it,” Zeke demanded harshly. “We don’t have time to waste.”
“Fine!” she snapped. “I chipped them.”
“You chipped them,” Jake echoed dumbly.
“Yes, like a dog. I chipped them. I figured that when this mess started a couple of weeks ago, it was better to be on the safe side. And since it worked out so well for my poodle, it couldn’t hurt with the McKinnon sisters. So, you’re all chipped,” she announced, turning her head to look at Patience.
“Holy crap,” Faith muttered, her eyes wide as she reached for Cain’s hand.
“You can sue me for violating your human rights later,” Margaret mumbled, turning her head back to the screen.
“Gotta hand it to Twiggy, it’s kinda ingenious,” Ice murmured to no one in particular, looking at the model worthy Margaret with glimmering eyes and something that looked suspiciously like newfound respect.
“How did you…” Patience began with a frown. “I mean, where is it?” she asked, waving her good arm up and down her body.
“Different places on each of you,” Margaret replied dismissively, shrugging her slim shoulders. “Harmony’s is in her phone – it’s always attached to her hand because she has Heaven. For Honor, she’s never without that diamond watch Zeke gave her for her eighteenth birthday, so I put it there. Faith’s is in that locket Cain gave her when they got back together.”
Faith touched the necklace in question, which was indeed around her neck. “That’s why you asked to see it a couple of weeks ago? You weren’t looking at the picture like you said you were!”
“Nope,” Margaret replied simply, not looking away from her computer tablet as she continued to tap.
“And me?” Patience asked, raising one eyebrow.
“Your keychain,” Maggie replied absently, her brows furrowing as she focused her attention on the screen. “You never let anybody near that old car of yours and you always have your keys in your pocket.”
“Wait a second! Have you chipped me, too?” Abel growled, stiffening as he skewered her with a look that promised he’d get even with her. “Is that how you always know where I am?”
“Of course not,” Maggie returned with a snort as she concentrated on the screen. “There are some animals you hope never find their way home, but they always do anyway. You’re just predictable, Abel. That’s how I can always find you.”
Zeke pounded his fist against the nearest wall. “Location, Margaret. I need one. That son of a bitch has had our women almost half an hour.”
“I don’t have one, Ezekiel. Based on the map I’m viewing, they’re headed west toward the outskirts of Paradise on Highway 17, but I can’t tell you where they’re going because they haven’t stopped.”
“Not much out there,” Seth Turner remarked with a frown.
“A few old hunting cabins and houses, but that’s about all I know of up there,” Uncle Jethro’s voice rattled, speaking for the first time as he slipped an arm around Orla’s shoulders as Heaven turned in the old woman’s arms.
Jacob couldn’t stand there any longer, not when he knew that every moment they lost could lead to a horror he never wanted to imagine. “Let’s get on the road. Now.”
“We go in quiet first,” Zeke agreed. “Get the lay of the land. Then we’ll call in for backup.”
“Shouldn’t you get in contact with your DEA buddies?” Cain asked slowly, sliding his eyes toward Jake. “You said they had a man inside, Jake. This might be part of some bigger plan.”
“Fuck the DEA and their operational plans,” Jake retorted, his eyes flashing. “Diego Fuentes and Tanner Suarez have my woman. I’m not waiting for the bureaucratic cogs in the wheel to turn. I’m getting her back!”
“I’m going, too,” Margaret said, rising with her iPad in her hands.
“Me, too,” Patience added, wincing and holding her injured arm stiffly at her side as she moved to stand up beside Maggie.
Faith rose, too. “Well, if Patience is going…” Her husband grabbed her elbow, stopping her as he muttered into her ear.
“The hell you are! Neither of you are moving an inch,” Abel returned on a growl. “You just got shot by these assholes, Hellion. You aren’t going
anywhere near this. Neither of you are,” he added with a stony look at Margaret.
“Quit beating your chest, Abel. You need me there. You all do,” Maggie informed the men at large, but focused her gaze on the Sheriff. “I’m the one with the coordinates, Zeke,” she hissed, shaking the thin iPad she held between her hands for emphasis. “Unless one of you can figure out how to work this program in the next five minutes, I’m tagging along.”
“No. It’s too dangerous to have a civilian out there,” Zeke denied, the muscle in his jaw ticking furiously.
Staring at Maggie, Ice stepped toward her. “I’ll keep her safe, brother,” he offered softly. “Plus, you may need me and my rifle up there. Two birds, one stone. I’ll never leave Margaret’s side.”
“I don’t need a bodyguard, Mountain Man,” Margaret retorted, turning her head to glare at Zeke’s brother. “But, I will take the ride.”
A sleepy voice interrupted the fray just then. “Where my Momma? Jake, where Momma?”
The room seemed to freeze as they all heard Heaven’s small uncertain voice. The sound brought every head in the room swinging toward her. Her face flushed from her nap, the child now sat between her Aunt Orla and Uncle Jethro. Staring at Jake, her eyes were wide and bewildered as she took in the room full of jumpy adults. “I want Momma,” she whispered, her eyes tearing as her face scrunched.
Taking the two steps it took to kneel in front of the girl he already considered his daughter, Jake caught her underneath her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. “Momma’s not here, Princess, but I’m gonna go get her and bring her home to us.”
Heaven’s eyes clouded. “Da bad man gots momma, don’t he?” she whispered. “Da one from da kitchen. He a mean man.” Her tiny voice shook with fear and anxiousness that no kid should ever have to feel.
“You don’t need to worry about the bad man, baby. I’m gonna take care of him and bring Momma home where she belongs,” Jake promised her gently, sweeping his thumb against the little girl’s cheek. “Then, you, me, and Momma are gonna be a family, okay?” Jake’s heart twisted when she started chewing her lower lip the same way Harmony did when she was scared.
“You gonna marry Momma and be my Daddy den?” she asked hopefully, trust shining from her eyes as she stared at Jake.
Jake swallowed hard at that. He knew that nobody who knew him before he’d stumbled into this tiny town would ever believe that the man they all believed had a heart as hard as stone could ever be softened. He’d been too cold… too calculating to ever let something as trivial as love alter his plans for retribution against his sister’s killer. That had been true… right up until he’d met his girls. They’d achieved what many had claimed impossible. Jake ‘The Widowmaker’ Stone had been tamed…by a four-year-old and her courageous mother. This child… hell, this entire family had domesticated the shit out of him.
And he did not give one single flying fuck.
“Yeah, Princess, that’s exactly what I’m going to do, but you don’t need to wait that long to call me Daddy. If you want me to be, I’m already your Daddy,” he agreed huskily, lifting a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
Jake heard Faith and Patience sniffling behind him as Heaven nodded solemnly. “I told Momma you was gonna be and she telled me that she hoped you would,” he heard her say, his heart catching in his chest. He could almost see Harmony’s smile as he heard her say those words in his mind. “I wanna real family like my friends got wif a Momma and a Daddy,” she whispered to him.
“Then that’s what you’re going to have, Heaven. I’m gonna make sure of it,” Jake whispered, his throat thick with emotion he couldn’t afford to have right now. “Now, I want you to stay here with your aunts and uncle and be a brave girl for me and Momma, okay? We’re gonna be back as soon as we can. I love you, Princess.” He curled her against him, burying his nose in her sweet smelling hair.
“Love you too, Daddy,” he heard her mumble against his chest, her little nose buried against his collar bone. His arms squeezed her to him tightly one last time before he lifted her back to the seat between Orla and Jethro and rose back to his feet. Meeting Faith’s terrified eyes, then Patience’s more resolved gaze, he growled, “We’ll bring them back. I promise you; I’m not coming back without them both.”
Both women remained strong and Jake had to wonder if they had backbones made of titanium. Christ, every one of the McKinnon girls had endured hell, and they all managed to keep rolling with the punches. Now wasn’t any different; they merely nodded at him before he shifted his attention to where an impassive faced Zeke waited not so patiently by the door for him. Only his eyes gave away the other man’s rage, and those eyes burned with a fire that promised he’d deliver hell on Earth to the bastards that had taken Honor from him. It was clear that the Sheriff was obviously feeling this situation as much as he was. If anybody understood the danger their women were facing, it was Zeke. They’d both nearly lost the women they loved to one of these bastards once in their life; neither was anxious to repeat the experience, and both would do anything in their power to stop it from happening again. Their eyes connected and held for a long, intense moment and Jake knew they’d reached a silent understanding.
All bets were off. Whatever happened, whatever they had to do, they were going to bring their girls home where they belonged.
Chapter Fifty-one
Grimacing as the sedan they were riding inside hit another deep rut in the winding road, Harmony stared out the window. Each side of the narrow path was surrounded by overgrown forest trees, and she’d long ago lost sight of the main road behind them. “Do you have any idea where this leads?” Harmony asked her sister in a whisper.
“Not a clue. I’m not even sure we’re in Paradise County anymore,” Honor replied, her voice faint with fear as she stared out her own window. “It’s like a scene out of Deliverance. I expect to hear the banjos start any time now.”
“Silencio,” the driver snarled, glaring at them in the rearview mirror.
Turning, Dante shot them a warning look over his shoulder. “We arrive shortly. Stay quiet.”
Harmony felt Honor’s fingers tighten painfully as the driver offered them another look in the mirror, openly leering at them now.
“Harmony,” Honor whispered breathlessly, edging nearer her sister.
Harmony’s eyes flew toward the driver. Scooting closer, she wrapped her arm around her trembling sister and glared at the pervert making her uncomfortable. “Mr. de la Cruz, would you mind reminding your colleague of your earlier statement. He’s making my sister and me extremely nervous back here.”
“Juan!” Dante barked. “Eyes on the road.”
Both sisters relaxed slightly as Juan returned his eyes to the broken path that seemed to constitute Dante’s idea of a road. In the distance, Harmony spotted a plain, weather-beaten cottage with a slanted roof. “I think we’re here, Peanut,” she whispered.
Honor lifted her bowed head and looked around, taking a quick breath as the driver braked in front of the structure. Watching as both men opened their doors, she jerked when the door beside her opened. Squeaking in terror as the driver wrapped his hand in her hair and yanked violently, Honor’s body lurched toward the door.
“Hey! Stop it!” Harmony screamed from the other side of the car as Juan threw Honor against the vehicle, pushing his body against her own. “Let her go!” Harmony shrieked as she tried to shove past Dante’s body to get to her sister.
“So, chica, are you as sweet as Tanner says you are?” Juan asked against Honor’s ear as she twisted her head to the side to evade his lips. “Give me a taste,” he urged, thrusting his torso against her as Honor’s broken scream echoed through the woods.
“Juan, enough,” Dante barked, holding Harmony back with one arm around her waist as she struggled against him and drawing his gun with the other, aiming it at the other man. “Let the woman go! Now!”
Ignoring his partner, the other man rolled his hips against Honor
again in a crude facsimile of the sex act as he breathed in her ear, “He says you taste like peaches. I bet you do. I bet you’re a real sweet treat. After Diego’s done with you, hopefully, he’ll give the rest of us a…”
A shot echoed off the trees as Dante pulled the trigger, and Juan went down to a knee, clutching his shoulder and yowling in pain. Harmony watched as Honor stumbled backward against the trunk of the car, catching herself with one hand as her chest heaved. Tearing out of Dante’s arms, she lunged for her sister, jerking her against her chest as she scanned her for bullet holes. “Are you okay?” she asked frantically, cupping Honor’s wet cheeks when she didn’t find any obvious wounds and staring into her sister’s wide petrified eyes.
“She’s fine,” Dante answered for her. “I wasn’t aiming for your sister, and I always hit my mark, don’t I, Juan?” he asked sharply, his gaze still filled with rage as he circled the car to point his gun at the other man’s head. “I fucking warned you. Diego wants them un-fucking-harmed!”
“I wasn’t doing nothin’, motherfucker, and it’s not like the puta hasn’t been passed around before,” Juan shouted, coming unsteadily back to his feet as he held one bloody hand clapped against his shoulder.
Harmony held her sister closer as her sister whimpered into her neck. “What kind of animals are you?” she snapped, looking between the men. “My sister was gang raped! By your buddy, you son of a bitch! She wasn’t at some party and decided to entertain a bunch of men for the hell of it. Tanner and his sick fucking friends kidnapped and raped her! She was a fucking child, you bastard.”
Juan sneered at Harmony, offering her a thin, cruel smile before he asked, “Can you really rape the willing? I can smell her pussy from here. She’s like a bitch in heat just waiting for a nice, big cock to service her.”
Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) Page 45
