Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (25 page)

“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’ll 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.

.

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.