Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (56 page)

“You’re angry,”
Jake replied softly, taking in her flushed cheeks and glittering eyes.

“No shit,” she
snapped.  “You got that, did you?”

“Yeah, I did.  I
was out of line, saying those things, but that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong.   You’re
trying to stage a coup to assert your independence. It is too fucking unsafe
for you to go about your normal routine, Harmony.  The contact I had inside
Diego’s camp has gone dark.  This is
not
a good thing.  We have no clue
what Tanner and Diego are planning for the future.  Walking out there now is
like waving a red flag at a bull, darlin’.  Vigilance is our best bet right
now.”

“Don’t you ‘darlin’’
me, Stone.  Tossing out a few casual endearments isn’t going to bend me to your
will,” she warned, crossing her arms over her chest and squaring her shoulders. 
“Honor and I have sat inside this house for a week while you guys ran down
leads that have gone nowhere.  You don’t know where Tanner or Diego are and
you’re no closer to learning their whereabouts than you were when you decided
to put us under lockdown.  You think we’re gonna live that way indefinitely? 
Hell, those bastards could be back in Mexico for all we know.  Diego might have
found out I can’t give him what he wants and lost interest.  In the meantime,
we all still have a business to run.  I have TWO!  And this,” she announced,
gesturing at the assembly of men in the kitchen, “is hampering our ability to
successfully run those businesses!  I’m done letting assholes dictate my life,
Jake.  Either get on board and help us do this safely or get out of the way. 
Those are your options.”

“You won’t be
running anything from six feet under the ground.  Which, incidentally, is
exactly
where Diego will put you if he thinks it’ll intimidate Honor into giving up her
claim on that land,” Jake clipped, feeling himself growing angrier the longer
Harmony stood stubbornly in front of him.  “You think I’m on some kind of power
trip here?  No, God dammit!  I know how these guys work!  I know what they do
to you if they think they can get away with it.”

“So do we,” Honor
interjected with quiet dignity before her sister could respond.  Eyes drifting
over Jacob as he stood stiffly in front of Harmony, she asked, “Or, have you
forgotten just how much Harmony and I have suffered at Tanner Suarez’s hands?”

Looking from
Harmony’s mulish face to Honor’s remarkably impassive expression, Jake silently
cursed.  “I would never try to minimize what you’ve been through, Honor.  Not
ever.  But Diego Fuentes adds an explosive component to this situation.  If
he’s pulling Tanner’s strings – and we’re almost positive he
is-
then an
already bad situation gets exponentially worse here.”

Harmony crossed her
arms over her chest.  “Contrary to your opinion, I’m not stupid.  I know this
is a calculated risk, Jake, but I’m taking it.  I’m not going to be this woman
that sits here and hides while he gets to be out there living his life”

How could he make
them both understand how serious this moment truly was?  He had explained it to
them all until he was blue in the face, and he had thought it had made a
difference.  Until now.  Taking a deep breath, he looked at Harmony then at
Honor.  “Try to understand.  Tanner has disappointed Diego.  He made the guy
think this would be a simple plan.  He made Fuentes think he could breeze back
into Paradise, intimidate Harmony, and get her to sign over the land.  That
didn’t happen.  So, now, Tanner not only has us to worry about, but Diego,
too.  Men do
not
disappoint Fuentes and often live to tell the tale; Suarez
knows this.  He’ll be desperate to get back into Fuentes’ good graces, and a
desperate men will do just about anything to save his own skin.  We don’t want
any of you caught in the crosshairs.  Neither one of these men are going to
give up and go away.  Their motivations are entirely different, but their
ultimate goal is the same.  And that goal,” he said, leaning toward Harmony and
staring in her mutinous eyes, “is to do whatever they have to do to you ladies
to get that land.  You’d be sitting ducks out there,” he growled, slicing a
hand toward the window. 

Harmony slammed her
coffee cup down on the counter before she whirled back to Jake.  “I’m not going
to stop living my life because of a threat hanging over our heads.  That’s
not
living!  Tanner robbed me of enough of my life!”

“She’s right. 
We’ve handed Tanner and this Diego person enough power,” Honor agreed with a firm
nod, throwing the dishrag she held toward the sink.  “When Harmony goes to the
café, I’m going with her.”

“The hell you are,”
Zeke retorted, stiffening as his gaze swung toward Honor.

Jake threw his
hands in the air.  “Oh, so
now
you have something to say.”

“Now, we’re
standing in my fucking barn,” Zeke growled, glaring at Honor.  “And evidently,
my kitten has lost her damn feline mind.”

“I am
not
your kitten,” Honor spat, grabbing the knife she’d been using to slice apples
earlier and pointing it at him, “And by God, if you call me that one more time,
I’m gonna use something a lot sharper than claws to carve into you!” she
threatened, waving the knife in his direction.

“You’ve both lost
your minds,” Abel muttered, shifting his eyes between Harmony and Honor.

“You don’t get an
opinion, Asshat,” Patience retorted, turning to punch him in the arm.  “For the
record, however, I’m with Harmony and Honor.  Cowering in the house isn’t
really the McKinnon style.”

“No, it isn’t,”
Faith acknowledged softly.  “I’m in, too.”

“No, you are not,”
Cain objected sharply.  “She’s not,” he repeated with a look at Harmony.

“Cain,” Faith
returned softly, turning to look at her husband.

“No,” he declared
flatly.  “No, you’re not putting yourself in danger, too.  I almost lost you
once through my own stupidity.  I’m not taking any chances, and you damn well know
why.”

“That isn’t the
same thing,” Faith dismissed him.  “This is completely….”

“No,” Cain repeated
forcefully, wrapping his hand around her waist.  “And they’ll agree with me
when you tell them why.”

“Cain!” Faith
hissed, going up on her tiptoes and jabbing a finger underneath his nose. 
“Don’t you dare!”

Tilting her head as
she watched the exchange between husband and wife, Harmony zeroed in on Faith’s
pale, uncomfortable face.  “What’s he talking about, Faith?  What don’t the
rest of us know?”

“Nothing,” Faith
retorted without looking away from Cain.

“Liar,” Patience said,
her own eyes narrowing on Faith.  “Her eye twitched!  We all know that’s her
tell.  I saw it, Harmony.”

When Faith remained
silent, Cain turned to stare at her sisters.  “Faith is three weeks pregnant. 
We found out yesterday,” he informed them all calmly.

“What?!” Harmony
yelled, jerking in surprise.  “You’re pregnant?”

“Oh, my,” Honor
whispered, steadying herself against the kitchen table.  “Another baby.”

“Well, that
explains the hurling on my shoes last night,” Patience muttered underneath her
breath.  “By the way, you owe me a new pair of Nikes, Cain.”

“Why wouldn’t you
tell us something this important?” Harmony asked, blinking her eyes as she
stared at her guilty-looking sister.

Shooting Cain a
look that conveyed that an ass chewing would be imminent, Faith moved her focus
to Harmony.  “I wanted to wait until I was past the twelfth week marker.  It’s
still really early and if something happened, I just didn’t want to get
everybody’s hopes up and then dash them.  Nobody ever finds out this early. 
Not even the mother.  Mr. Dependable over here, though,” she said with a nod
toward Cain, “has my cycles memorized.  I was a day late and he had me peeing
on a stick.  We confirmed it yesterday with blood work.”

Harmony beamed,
hurrying toward Faith and hugging her tightly. “Still!  A baby!”

“Congrats,
brother!” Abel offered with a grin as he clapped a hand to Cain’s shoulder.

“It’s wonderful
news,” Honor agreed with a gentle smile.  “But, given your current condition,
Cain is right, Faith.  Unless he’s with you, from now on, you’re nowhere near
the café.”

“What?” Faith
balked.  “What about sisterly solidarity?”

“Pregnancy trumps
it,” Zeke stated unapologetically.

Watching as relief
flooded Cain’s face, Honor sighed.  “Faith, it’s one thing to take a risk when
it’s just you on the line, but you’ve got a passenger along for the ride.  A
passenger about which your husband has an equal say.  That, however,” she said
with a pointed look at Zeke, “is not the case with myself, Harmony or
Patience.”

Patience breathed
gratefully “Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.”

“If that’s all it’s
gonna take to keep your ass here where it belongs, give me a half hour upstairs
with no condoms and I’ll solve this problem,” Jake said to Harmony in a low
voice.

“Spoken like a true
barbarian,” Harmony retorted, rolling her eyes.  “My mind hasn’t changed,
Jake.  I have a client that expects her wedding to go off without a hitch
tomorrow.  She’s a bride that deserves a perfect day, and she’s depending on me
to make that happen.  Today, I need to meet with the preacher, the florist
and
the caterers responsible for the main course.  Honor has to make the wedding
cake and the appetizers.  Our family restaurant is in chaos.  This week alone,
one waitress has quit and Aunt Orla needed to fire another one for stealing. 
Our employees are dropping like flies, and we can’t expect Patience or Orla to
handle it all.  We have responsibilities to fulfill.”

“I agree,” Honor
backed Harmony up.  “Our parents didn’t work as hard as they did for us to just
let our business fall apart now.”

“Your parents would
be screaming at the top of their lungs for you girls to keep your butts planted
here where you’re all safe if they were alive, Honor,” Zeke returned severely. 
“They’d want you to put your safety first.”

“We can be safe at
the café!” Honor countered.  “Park your deputies all over the place.  I’ll feed
them pie and give them all the coffee they can handle, Zeke, but I will
not
hide
in this house any longer.”

Holding up both
hands, Jake barked out, “Will you two please just stop and think about what’s
at stake here?”

Lifting her chin,
Harmony glared at him.  “I
know
exactly what I’m risking.  And I’m
telling
you that I’m done with this.  If Tanner and Diego want to find me, give them
directions.  You’re all standing around waiting for something to happen?  Well,
let’s make it easier.  Maybe you’ll finally catch these monsters and we can all
get the hell on with our lives!”   

“Son of a bitch! You’re
trying to use yourself as bait!” he accused harshly, slamming his fist against
the kitchen counter.  “You both are!” he yelled, shifting his gaze to an
expressionless Honor.  “Have you both lost your minds?”

Looking at Honor,
Zeke’s face hardened.  “You do
not
play games with these men, Honor
Grace.  You do not get anywhere near this, you hear me?”

Honor blinked.  “Oh,
I hear you,” she acknowledged softly.  “Now, you hear
me
.  I’ve let
Tanner Suarez have the last piece of me he’s going to get.  Not he nor Diego
Fuentes is taking one more thing from me, including my freedom.  I’m going with
Harmony today, and not you, the  Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost is going to
stop me, Ezekiel Monroe, so I suggest you find a way for us to do this as
safely as possible.”

“Fuck!” Jake
snarled, whirling on his booted heel and stomping toward the window, staring
sightlessly out at the bright day as he tried to think of a way to talk them
out of their foolish plan.  The truth was that if Harmony was anybody else,
he’d jump all over the plan of drawing out Suarez.  But Harmony wasn’t just
anybody, she was the woman he loved.  And she was talking about a hell of a
risk.

Staring at Honor a
long minute, Zeke’s jaw clenched.  “If something happens to you…”

“Then make it so nothing
will,” Honor snapped impatiently, propping one hand on her hip.

“We’re serious,
Jake.  With or without your protection, I’m doing this.  In fact, I’ve got a
meeting with the florist for the McCafferty wedding at the café in less than an
hour.  What’s it going to be?” Harmony asked, staring at him with resolute
eyes.

“Shit,” Jake
muttered, hanging his head.  He knew Harmony well enough to recognize her ‘Damn
the torpedoes, full speed ahead’ voice.  Hell, he loved that sassy attitude
when it wasn’t putting her perfect ass on the line.  Turning, he locked eyes
with her.  “You’re never out of my sight.  You arrange to take
all
your
meetings at the café.  And you are never, under any circumstances, to leave the
premises.  No matter what happens, you’ll keep your ass inside the café.  And
Heaven and Aunt Orla remain here with Ice.” 

“Agreed,” Harmony
replied breathlessly, her lips curving into a wide smile.

“No.  Nuh uh,” he
denied, shaking his head.  “Don’t grin at me.  I still think this is a huge
mistake, but if you’re determined to go through with it, we do it my way.” 
Looking at Zeke, he asked, “Can you spare a couple of your deputies?  Post ‘em
around the café?”