Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (35 page)

Honor stared up at
him.  As usual, Zeke’s face remained impassive and completely unreadable.  “You
and that cop face.  One of these days, I’ll learn to read you,” she murmured
before jerking her chin toward the back door.  “It’s pretty out.  Let’s go out
to the picnic table,” she suggested.  Seeing his nod, Honor led the way back
outside.

Barely after ten in
the morning and already hot and muggy, the sun beat down on their heads as they
made their way across the lot to sit at one of the two wooden table under a
cluster of oak trees.  “It’s still hot, but at least we’re in the shade now,”
she remarked as she dropped to one of the benches.  “What’s going on?” she
asked as he sat down beside her and stretched one long arm out behind her to
cushion her back against the hard edge of the table.  When Zeke still didn’t
say anything a few moments later, Honor turned to study his profile.  Today, he
seemed grim, his lips set in a straight line and his jaw hard. Her stomach
twisted with dread.  “Zeke, you’re starting to scare me,” she worried aloud,
shifting her body toward him.  “What’s going on?”

Licking his lips
slowly, Zeke turned his eyes toward her.  “First, tell me about your session
today,” he encouraged her gently.  “I wanna hear something good.”

“I didn’t give into
the urge to impale Bree on her own letter opener when she gave me an asinine
homework assignment today.”

Zeke grinned.  “That
is
good.  Visiting you in the state pen would suck.  I know they say life is
short, but getting slapped with twenty to life would feel like an eternity.”

Honor returned his
smile.  “I don’t care what y’all say.  I think that woman is trying to kill me
with some of these field trips that she keeps sending me on in the name of
homework.  The one last month to that newfangled yoga studio that opened beside
Hooks and Books was bad enough.  I should have namaste’d my butt at home.  And
you can’t say you don’t agree about that one,” she said, pointing her index
finger at his nose as she narrowed her eyes.  “That whole thing had disaster
written all over it from the start.  From Aunt Orla’s insistence on
participating with me in full yoga regalia to the altercation I had with the
instructor when that man put his hand on my rear end to try to correct my
downward dog posture, it was a nightmare from start to finish and not even God
himself will convince me that I’m wrong on that!”

 Zeke’s grin
widened.  “Hand to God, I don’t know what was worse about that
afternoon…watching your elderly aunt squeeze into those yoga pants or nearly
coming unglued when that idiot put his hand on your ass.  Lucky for me, my girl
had it under control and I didn’t have to do a damn thing.  That elbow to the
throat you gave the moron made me proud, Kitten.  Those self-defense moves I
taught you paid off in spades.”

“Don’t remind me,”
she moaned.  “I’m lucky that poor man didn’t sue me.”

“No, he’s lucky he
didn’t have to have my boot surgically removed from his asshole after putting
you in that position in the first place.”

Honor remained silent
mostly because Zeke was right.  The guy had been lucky because Zeke had been
furious.  Whatever that yoga instructor might or might not have said to her,
she would never know since Zeke had sent the man scurrying with one single
dangerous look that afternoon.  It was one of the things she adored most about
the protective man; he didn’t tolerate fools well, lightly or often – and his
reputation preceded him everywhere he went.  “At any rate,” she finally shared
after a few seconds, “I’ve got to go over to Gatlinburg and pick up a few
things that Dr. Daniels insists I need.  She’s already ordered them for me.”

Zeke scowled. 
“Gatlinburg?  What things, exactly?”

Honor felt pinned
underneath the weight of Zeke’s serious gaze.  Tapping her foot nervously, she
waved a hand in the air.  “Oh, just a few items that I need to get in order to
do some homework before my Friday appointment.  I’m booked prepping food for
catering jobs when I’m not baking for the café the remainder of the week.  This
is my only free afternoon to make the drive over.”

Zeke shook his head. 
“Babe, I can’t get away nor can I spare a deputy, and there’s no way you’re
going alone.”

“What about if I got
Maggie to drive me.  You know she’s got a permit to legally carry concealed
because of her father’s nasty nature.  She’s always packing and she’s a crack
shot.  It’d just be a quick trip.  Straight there and back.”  She could tell
Zeke didn’t like it, but she also knew he would rather cut off his arm than do
anything that interfered with her therapy.  “Please?”

Zeke ran a frustrated
hand down his face.  “Fuck.”

Blinking at his rough
curse, Honor froze.  It wasn’t that she’d never heard Zeke swear; he did,
regularly.  It’s just that particular epithet he reserved for especially crappy
days and situations.  “Zeke?”

“I want a man in the
car with you, too.  I don’t care which…”

“Zeke, I’d really
feel more comfortable if I could keep this little outing confined to a girls
only
sort of trip,” Honor begged quietly, wondering how in the world she was
supposed to go to a sex store with one of her male family members in tow.

“Kitten, I could get
Ice…”

“No!” Her denial was
short, but sharp, and it made Zeke still beside her.

“Alright, that
refusal was a little too adamant.  Where exactly in Gatlinburg are you going,
Honor?”  His suspicion was evident in his face as he continued waiting for her
answer.

“I…she wants me
to…oh, hellfire and damnation!” Honor exclaimed unhappily, her face reddening. 
Leaning closer to him, she lowered her voice and hissed. “That demoness doctor
wants me to go to the naughty store, Zeke!” 

Zeke’s eyebrows shot
up to meet his hairline as his own slate gray dilated.  “Pardon?” he choked,
squinting in the sunlight as he peered down into her cherry red face.

“You heard me,” Honor
moaned piteously, unable to remain still as she began to fidget with the lone
aquamarine ring she wore, the pale blue gem glinting as she fiddled with it on
her finger.  “She wants me to get to know my body and is sending me up there to
buy a bullet.  I’d rather eat a real bullet than buy one right about now.”

Zeke opened and
closed his mouth a couple of times before finally clearing his throat.  “I can
see why you’d rather Ice didn’t tag along then,” he finally managed to comment
with a mostly straight face.

Narrowing her eyes as
she caught the amusement in his voice, Honor elbowed him in the ribs.  “This is
NOT the time to laugh at me, Ezekiel.  Right now, I’m pretty sure I can blame
this whole situation on YOU.”

“Me?”

“Oh, yeah.  As I
remember it, you’re the one that was convinced therapy was just exactly the
cure for what ailed me.  Well, congratulations.  You’ve got me fetchin’
medicine from a sex store, Sheriff!”

Zeke struggled
against laughing as he stared up at the clear sky.  “Sweetheart, I can see where
you aren’t exactly thrilled to be doing this, but I’m sure Bree has a plan. 
She’s not steered you wrong yet.  But there
are
several stores where you
could get what you need a whole lot closer to home.”

“I am
not
risking
running into somebody I know, Zeke.  If I’m doing this, it’s gonna be under a
cover of anonymity.  Besides, Bree knows the lady that runs the boutique where
I’m supposed to go.”

Zeke nodded silently
and after a minute relented.  “Fine,” he acknowledged softly.  “You call me
when you leave.  You call me at the mid-way point.  You call me when you arrive
back in town.  I go more than an hour without hearing your voice, and I call
out the fuckin’ army.  You stay with Maggie at all times.  No excuses.  I mean
it, Honor.  You stay in her sight at all time.  And you take my back-up piece,”
he demanded, pulling a small gun from his ankle holster.  “I know you know how
to shoot it.  Take it.”

Honor took the weapon
with careful fingers.  “What’s going on, Zeke?  You’re taking protective to a
whole new level.”

“I don’t want you to
panic,” he began calmly, reaching for her hand.

Honor scoffed.  “You
do realize the world’s quickest way to convince a woman to panic completely is
to tell her not to, right?”

“Today, I got a phone
call.  We finally have a lead on the person that’s been calling you.  The lab
was finally able to trace a couple of the burner phones numbers that are being
used to call and harass you back to a lot of phones that was purchased by one
of the convenience stores here in town.  The Stop & Shop over on Ellis
Road.”

Honor’s body trembled
despite the summer temperature, her entire body turning cold.  She’d known for
months and months that her nightmare wasn’t over, that there was still a
monster lurking, waiting for another opportunity to destroy all the good she’d
managed to rebuild in her life.  But hearing it loomed so very close… just a
few roads away.  “So, at least one of the men that hurt me is still here.  He’s
local.”

A muscle in Zeke’s
jaw flexed.  “We don’t know for sure there’s a connection yet, Kitten.”

Honor’s eyes found
Zeke’s and held them prisoner.  “Maybe not officially, but yeah, we really do,
Zeke.  That man, whoever he is, is partially responsible for the hell I’ve been
through.  I just know it,” she whispered as he tightened his fingers around
hers.  Worrying her lower lip with her top teeth, Honor thought for a minute. 
“Hey, Stop & Shop is Henry Watson’s store, isn’t it?  Maybe he’s got some
kind of video surveillance system and we could go back and see who did this to
me. You know, Henry used to be sweet on me; I bet he’ll help us.”  Honestly,
Honor wasn’t sure she wouldn’t make a deal with the Devil at this point if it
got them the answers to their questions.  And in Paradise, real estate
developer and wannabe mogul, Henry Watkins was about as close to Satan as you
could get.  He’d pursued Honor for years, asking her on dates and trying to
charm her out of her grandmother’s land that she’d bought from Harmony years
ago.  First Tanner had tried to terrorize her and her sisters to get it to use
to run Esteban Fuentes’ drugs through the mountains, and recently, Henry had
been begging to purchase it for some retirement community he wanted to build. 
The last time she’d declined his offer had been last week and he’d made her a
little nervous when he’d stormed out of the café without another word to her.

“Not smart to remind
me that asshat is interested in you, baby,” Zeke growled, his arm contracting
around Honor as his nostrils flared slightly and his eyes shine with contained
fury.  “’I’ve never liked the way that son of a bitch watched you, much less
talked to you.  Besides, if the store had anything useful, we wouldn’t need
Watson’s help.  I’d just get a warrant and take what we need.  Problem is, I
talked to Merle Edwards earlier.  He’s the manager over there.  They only keep
surveillance for twenty four hours and then they re-record over it.”

“Crap,” Honor
muttered, pursing her lips before shrugging.  “Well, it’s not like I was
looking forward to asking Henry for a favor anyway.  Especially not after last
week.”

“What happened last
week?” Zeke looked down at her, frowning when Honor averted her gaze.

“Oh, Henry was just
bein’ Henry.  He wants to buy that same land Tanner and Esteban was after us
girls for, only he wants to put a retirement community on it.” 

“Honor that’s not
even possible.  There’s no access back there.  Not for roads or water… not
unless he comes right through McKinnon lands with them.”

Honor lifted her
hands, palm up.  “I know that, I’m just telling you what he told me.  He’s been
askin’ for a while, but this last time I finally told him that I was deeding
the land over to your brother so that Ice can begin work on that log cabin he
wants to build out there.  Henry was noticeably peeved at my decision.”

“How peeved?” Zeke’s
eyes glittered ominously.

“Peeved enough that
he threw charm out the window and stormed out of here madder than a tomcat with
his tail caught beneath a rocking chair.  He came back and apologized the next
day, but I could tell he was still plenty upset about it.  He asked me to have
dinner with him so that he could tell me more about his plan for the land if
I’d reconsider, but I said no.”

“You’ve been sayin’
no to that jackass’s invitations for years, Honor, but he never quite manages
to hear you.  Maybe it’s time he heard it from somebody a whole lot bigger and
louder than you,” Zeke mused, his eyes taking on an almost silver sheen in the
sunlight. 

There was once a time
when Honor might have argued with the man beside her, but feeling his strong
arm wrapped securely around her, today she only wanted to lean against him and
let him deal with all the jerks determined to make her life more difficult. 
Lately, Henry definitely qualified as one of those irritants and she was more
than willing to let Zeke handle him if he became a bigger thorn in her side
than he already was.  “Whatever you think,” Honor murmured.

“You’re letting me
get my way? I don’t believe it” Zeke claimed incredulously against the silky
hair on top of the crown of her head.  “Alright, who are you and what have you
done with my Honor?” he continued playfully.