Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (47 page)

“Now, Maggie,” Zeke
began in a placating voice, “I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding.”

“Jesus, Twiggy. 
Get a grip,” Ice snorted, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets as he leaned
insolently against the wall, his lips twisting sardonically.  “It’s a pair of sparkly
shoes and a skirt that was too short for you anyway, for Christ sake.  I mean,
I thought you looked crazy hot in the get-up, but now you’re lookin’ just plain
crazy.”

Stepping between
Zach and Maggie when the woman would have lunged across the room for his
throat, Honor spoke quickly.  “He’s family, Maggie,” she defended with a
quelling look at Ice.  “As much as he may deserve it, we can’t kill family in
cold blood.”

“Family?” Maggie
echoed dumbly, shifting her eyes to an amused-looking Slade and frowning before
settling her attention on a markedly unconcerned Ice.  “Are we talkin’ blood
relations or is he more of a step-cousin you’d barely miss?”

“Well, it’s more of
a family by association kind of thing.  Like you are, honey.”  Honor smiled
weakly, her aching head once again making her wince.  “Zachariah, or Ice as
everybody calls him, is Zeke’s brother.  And we need his help.”

“Zeke’s brother,”
she repeated, her eyes drifting to the man that had ruined some of her favorite
clothing.  “Wait.  He’s the sniper, isn’t he?  The retired Green Beret?”

Honor nodded. “That’s
right.”

Pressing her lips
together, Maggie slowly, but reluctantly, nodded.  “Fine, I’ll let him live.  For
now.
But after this is over, I am reserving my right to collect my pound
of flesh from him.  I loved those shoes.”  Smoothing her dress over her hips,
she turned her attention back to Abel.  “You can sit down.  You won’t have to
defend me in a court of law… at least not yet.  Evidently, you
need
the
Neanderthal.”

“Let’s move on,”
Abel suggested, relief evident in his voice.  “Did you bring Harmony’s file,
Maggie?” he asked calmly, moving back to his chair as Cain did the same.

“Of course I
brought the file, Abel,” Maggie snapped waspishly.  “I’m excellent at my job,
and the stupid paperwork is the reason you dragged me here.”

“And here I thought
you’d be more of a pretty ornament to decorate his office.  Wonders never cease,”
Ice drawled, his eyes lingering on Maggie’s face as he moved toward the table. 
“Looks are deceiving, aren’t they?”

“If the mountain
man continues to speak, I cannot guarantee his continued safety or my reactions
to his very special brand of asshole speak,” she warned Zeke, pinning him with
her narrowed eyes.

“Ice, shut it,”
Zeke ordered his brother with a hard look.

“Yes, please do,”
Honor added, shaking her head at Ice.  “Let’s get on with this.”

“Are family
meetings always like this?” Jake murmured against Harmony’s hair as his hand
slipped around the nape of her neck.  “Because, seriously, if it is, we need to
get this shit on video.  We could make a fortune.”

“Shhh, be quiet. 
The key to surviving these meets is to not draw attention to yourself,” Harmony
replied under her breath as Maggie leaned across the table for the folder and
flipped it open.  Pulling out the documents inside, she pushed them toward Abel.

“Abel, you can
look, but everything is in order.  All the documents are there,” Maggie noted
as Abel bent his head to examine the paperwork.  Looking at Harmony, she
continued, “Legally, you
and
Heaven are covered where Tanner is
concerned, Harmony.  Abel said that the jerk threatened you this afternoon with
taking Heaven from you.  Based on the documents that Zeke and Abel encouraged
him to sign years ago, he has zero rights.  He signed not only divorce papers,
but a waiver of paternity as well.  So, in a court of law, he would have no
standing.  He might claim coercion, but it’s not likely.”

“It’s also not
likely that this fight is gonna happen in a court of law,” Ice muttered,
casting Margaret a baleful look.

“Hey, Redneck, I
offered to have this problem erased in a permanent way four years ago when the
bastard hurt Harmony the first time,” Maggie retorted, narrowing her green eyes
on Ice.  “They,” she continued, jerking her head toward Zeke and Abel, “wanted
to handle it a different way.  In that vein, however, I will say that I’m more
than happy to kick in a couple of million if we want to pursue that direction
now,” she offered Harmony with an eager smile.  “I’m sure I can find a hitman
or commando somewhere with nothing but time on his hands.  The Internet is a
wonderful thing; you can find almost anything there.  Hell, for that matter,
you’ve got cousins that would do the job for a six pack and a smile.”

“This is very true.”
Slade’s deep voice resounded in the room, his grey eyes moving to Harmony. 
“Just say the word.”

“No one is engaging
the services of either a hitman or commando,” Honor decreed, tilting her face
toward the ceiling and shaking her head.

Harmony smiled
weakly as she felt Jake’s hand tighten against her shoulder.  “As much as I
appreciate the offer, Honor is right.  Besides, there’s a lot more going on
than just what he did to me, Mags.  Things are complicated.”

“Aren’t they
always,” Maggie muttered with a sigh. 

Lifting his head,
Abel glanced at Harmony, “Maggie is right about one thing.  I wanted to make sure
all of our legal ducks were in a row.  They are,” he declared with a nod,
holding up the sheath of papers.  “Legally, you’re covered.  We got the
paternity relinquishment after the divorce agreement, but they’re both sound.”

“Good,” Harmony
whispered shakily as Jake squeezed her neck.

Maggie leaned
forward and leaned her elbows on the large table.  “Okay. Now that’s out of the
way, let’s get to the good stuff,” she said, reaching into her Hermes bag and
pulling out a plain manila folder.  “Since I was fairly certain nobody was
going to let me hire a covert assassin, I did some digging and found some
information that you might be able to use.  That’s why I was so late getting
out here.”

Abel arched an
eyebrow.  “Some digging?”

“Mmm,” Maggie
hummed, pulling out a sheet of paper from the folder.  Sliding it in front of
Zeke, she continued.  “That’s a list of Tanner Suarez’s most recent credit card
purchases,” she explained, tapping a finger against the page.  “As you can see
by the most recent purchase an hour ago, he’s no longer in Paradise.”

Leaning over Zeke’s
shoulder to look at the printout, Patience demanded, “How the hell did you get
that, Mags?”

Shifting nervously,
Maggie shook her head.  “I’d really prefer not to say in the presence of law
enforcement.”

Sighing, Zeke
looked over his shoulder at the woman.  “Damn it, Margaret, we’ve had words
about this.  Hacking is illegal even if it’s for a good cause!  Do you
want
to go to jail?”

“What you see as
hacking, I choose to call a creative form of investigation,” Margaret dismissed
Zeke easily.  “Besides, I got that information in the quarter of a time it
would have taken you to get a warrant, and you know that I only use my
superpowers for good, not evil. 

“That doesn’t make
it legal,” Zeke muttered before passing the paper over to Jake.  “According to
this, he’s in Knoxville.”

“He’s probably
going back to meet with Fuentes,” Jake grunted, scanning the paper.  “It’s
easier for Diego to fly under the radar in a city like Knoxville.”

Rising from the
table, Zeke nodded.  “I’ll step in the kitchen and call it in.  Maybe we’ll get
lucky and Knoxville PD will be able to pick him up.”

Maggie snickered as
the Sheriff passed her on the way out of the room. “You’re welcome, Zeke.”

“Don’t push it,
Mags.  Zeke’s walking a fine line right now,” Abel warned softly, shaking his
head at his assistant.  “You got anything else for us?”

“Not much.  When I
ran into Henry Watson this evening at the service station, I asked him if any
heavy hitters had been nosing around the real estate in Paradise; he said no.”

Jake looked at
Abel.  “Who’s Henry Watson?”

“Local real estate
mogul.  He’s an asshole, but if you were looking to buy property, he’s the guy
you’d see.  You would have met him if Harmony hadn’t already known about your
place being available. I thought maybe if Fuentes was moving into the area, he
might try purchasing some land for himself and setting up shop,” Abel replied,
scratching his chin.  “I asked Mags to check into it.”

“Sorry.  No luck,”
Maggie said, shrugging her shoulders. “Henry said nobody has been biting at any
of his properties.  In the meantime, I have set the system to email me if
Tanner makes another credit card purchase.  Maybe we’ll find him that way.  If
I get anything, I’ll let you know immediately.  Otherwise, just call if you
need me for anything.  I mean it, Harmony.”

Rising, Harmony
walked around the table to hug Maggie tightly.  “It means a lot to me that you
put yourself on the line for me and my family, Mags,” she whispered in her
friend’s ear.  “Thank you.  We’re all in your debt.”

Releasing Harmony,
Maggie stepped back but didn’t release Harmony’s hand.  Looking between Harmony
and Honor, she shook her head.  “No thanks are necessary.  I told you ladies a
long time ago that we broken women have to hobble along together as best as we
can in this world.  We’ll never get
anywhere
otherwise.” 

“You did,” Honor
acknowledged quietly with a nod of her head.  “And it’s still as true today as
it was then, Mags.”

Squeezing Harmony’s
hand before releasing it, Maggie nodded.  “
You
,” she said imperiously,
directing her gaze toward Ice, “Will be receiving an invoice for my ruined
outfit.  I don’t care if I
am
rich.  You broke it, you bought it,
Mountain Man.  As for the rest of you, I’ll see you all soon,” she whispered
before disappearing out the door.

Watching as
Margaret’s attractive backside sashayed out of the room, Ice turned his gaze to
Orla who sat silently at one end of the long table. “What did she mean by
that?  The broken women comment?”

“I’d like to know
that, too,” Jacob interjected, frowning at Orla as he watched Harmony sadly
shake her head out of the corner of his eye.

Aunt Orla’s
normally dancing eyes dimmed for a moment as they stared after Maggie.  “Let’s
just say that our Margaret has as many layers as an onion.  And that, my boys,”
she said softly, “is a long, troubling story to save for another day.”

“Yes, Aunt Orla is
right.  That’s for another day,” Honor agreed as Zeke came back into the room
and paused beside her chair, “It’s time for us to discuss what happens next
within our own family, and I’m a little afraid that my decisions aren’t going
to be very popular.”

Fifteen minutes
later, pandemonium reigned in the McKinnon family dining room as Honor sat silently
at the head of the table sipping a lukewarm cup of awfully bitter tea while she
shared a look with her elderly aunt at the other end of the table.  Her favorite
relative had warned her that her sisters’ reactions would be less than
thrilled, and per the usual, she was right.

“No!  No freaking
way,” Patience denied, her hair swinging back and forth over her shoulders as
she shook her head and glared indignantly at a smirking Abel.  “I won’t do it. 
I refuse.”

“Jake can NOT
live
here, Honor.  I’m not even sure that I can forgive him for the secrets he’s
kept to himself… secrets that have now affected our entire family.  How can you
possibly expect me to share a house with him?  We also have to think of Heaven
and what this will say to her.  Zeke can stay here and we’ll be just as safe,”
Harmony offered, turning beseeching eyes toward the sheriff.  “You’ll do that
won’t you, Zeke?”

Jake shook his head
as he looked across the table at Zeke.  “I’m not leaving, Harmony,” he denied,
his deep voice grim and serious.  “I don’t give a damn where Zeke puts head to
pillow, I’ll still be in this house with you.”

“And Ice can stay
with me,” Patience added, gesturing across the table toward Zeke’s brother as
she watched Harmony shoot Jake an ugly look.  “We’ll have a good time.  I
promise.” She winked at the smiling man.

“Ice is
not
staying with you,” Abel growled, glaring at the amused man across from him. 
“You’re staying with me at my place where I can keep you safe, just like Honor
said.”

“The hell I am,”
Patience snapped, swinging her head toward Abel.  “I’d sooner sleep with a rattlesnake
than share air with you.”

“Well, Ice is
already spoken for, missy,” Aunt Orla announced, resting a proprietary hand on
Ice’s arm.  “Now, tell me son, are you a boxer or brief man?  Doesn’t matter,”
she went on with a smile, “I just like to be prepared.”

Patience’s eyes
shot daggers at her elderly aunt as she asked scornfully, “You sure Uncle
Jethro won’t have a problem with
that
?”

“Since he’s almost
blind and all but totally deaf, I doubt he’ll notice at all,” Aunt Orla
chortled.

“Oh, dear Lord,”
Faith murmured to Cain, scooting her chair closer to her husband.  “Thank God
we’re married and nothing changes for us.”