Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (5 page)

“Don’t fuck with
me, Stone.  I’d like to be your friend, but bein’ an enemy isn’t out of the
realm of possibility.”

As an olive branch,
Zeke’s statement sucked, but the truth was, both men needed each other if they
were gonna assure Harmony and Heaven’s safety.  He didn’t know the young woman
overly well yet, but what he knew, he definitely liked – especially the body. 
And the little girl… she was enough to put a smile on even the biggest
asshole’s face.   He didn’t want either of them harmed.  Not in any way.  And
that meant he needed the sheriff on his side.

“Look, being at
odds with each other won’t solve the problem loomin’ on the horizon,” Jacob
pointed out, forcing himself to adopt a calm tone that he didn’t quite feel.

“Hard to say since
I don’t have the first clue what exactly that problem is,” Zeke countered,
reaching up to adjust the cowboy hat sitting on top of his head.  “Why don’t
you enlighten me?”

His gaze scanned
the determined man sitting beside him.  Jacob Stone didn’t trust easily.  It
was actually his policy to trust no one; he even had those words tattooed on
his body to remind him of the sentiment.  It was hard, however, not to believe
in the sheriff sitting beside him.  One thing was certain; the other man’s
feelings for Honor and her sisters were genuine.  And that was enough of an
incentive for Jacob to break his own golden rule and place his faith in another
human being.

“Alright,” Jacob
agreed, “I’ll agree on the condition that this conversation remains completely confidential.”

“I can’t promise
that,” Zeke denied automatically.  “If what you say endangers Honor or her
sisters, then all bets are off.”

“Jesus, Zeke, I’m
already breaking protocol.  Cut me some slack here,” Jacob growled
impatiently.  “Even if you ran and blabbed everything I tell you to the ladies,
the only thing you’re gonna do is scare them to death.  Telling them won’t
change the way the DEA plays things out with the Fuentes cartel and it could
very well get one of them killed.”

“Talk, Stone,” Zeke
demanded through gritted teeth.  “We can talk about what I’m going to do
after
I know just what exactly the hell is goin’ on in my county.”

“Bottom line? 
Drugs.  That’s what’s going on,” Jacob replied emotionlessly.

“Drugs?” Zeke
repeated, narrowing his eyes at Jacob.  “Every town has some level of illegal
drug use, but our problem is primarily confined to the occasional pothead.  We
had a meth house a couple of years back, but I busted my ass to get that shit
gone.  For the most part, we’re a clean town.”

“It is.  For
now
,”
Jacob stressed, waiting while his meaning sank in with the sheriff.  “I hate to
be the one to share this, man, but the cartel is moving into your backyard.” 

“Son of a bitch,”
Zeke breathed.  “Fuentes.  Diego’s bringing his operation
here
?”

“You catch on fast.” 
Jacob paused as a car pulled into the Suds-n-Soak next door.  Waiting until the
elderly couple had carried their laundry inside, he looked at Zeke.  “It’s a
done deal as far as Diego’s concerned.  He wants to use Paradise as a
distribution point for his drugs into Eastern Tennessee, and Fuentes always
gets what he wants.  He’s got a neat little plan for it, too.”

“My guess?  This is
where Harmony is involved, right?” Zeke muttered, his frown deepening as he
waited for Jacob’s response.  “How the fuck have you somehow managed to involve
a good woman like her in this shitstorm, Stone?” he bit out angrily.

“I didn’t.  Her
connection to this oncoming train wreck predates me in a big way,” Jacob informed
Zeke with a grim look.

“What fucking
connection?  Harmony has lived in Paradise her entire life.  There isn’t a part
of her life that I haven’t either witnessed firsthand or known about.  She’s
got zero fucking ties to the Fuentes cartel,” Zeke virtually barked.

“Does the name
Tanner Suarez ring any bells for you?”

“Motherfucker!”
Zeke cursed, his concerned face contorting furiously.  “Harmony’s bastard of an
ex-husband,” he spat.  “How is that little prick involved in any of this?”

“That little prick
has become one of Diego Fuentes and his papa, Esteban’s, most trusted
lieutenants in the last few years.  Senor Suarez has been one busy hombre
climbing through the ranks of the Fuentes cartel, and he’s finally reached the
top.”

“Fucking Christ,”
Zeke snarled under his breath.  “I can’t believe he found somebody that could
stand being around him.”

“Assholes gravitate
toward even bigger assholes.”  Jacob shrugged.  “In our line of work, I’d have
figured you’d have learned that lesson by now.  The bottom feeders will always
stick together.”

“What’s Tanner’s
plan for Harmony?” Zeke asked gruffly, ignoring Stone’s sarcasm.

“You won’t like
it,” Jacob murmured.  He knew Zeke wouldn’t like it because Jacob fucking
hated
it.  Silently, he wondered how much he should tell the other man. 

“No shit,” Zeke
retorted on a grunt.  Casting Jacob a sidelong glance, he narrowed his eyes. 
“Now is
not
the fucking time for you to hold out on me.  Suarez was bad
news in a big way for Harmony.  If he’s coming back here to hurt her, I need to
know.” 

“According to what
my sources have told me, Tanner intends to use his daughter as a way back into
Harmony’s life.”

“Tanner never gave
two shits about his kid.  He didn’t even know Harmony was expecting until…”  Zeke
broke off, pressing his lips together and inhaling deeply.  “This is bullshit. 
Out of the blue, he wants to be a daddy?  My ass, he does.  The only person
Tanner Suarez ever gave a shit about was
Tanner fucking Suarez
.  You can
be damn sure that Harmony will never buy into his line of crap either.  And she
won’t let him anywhere near Heaven.  Not ever.”

“After watching
Harmony with Heaven, I can definitely agree with that.  Momma Bear definitely
will do anything to protect her cub.”  If he had his way, she’d never have to deal
with Tanner at
all
.  He intended to be standing right in front of her
when the bastard came callin’.

“What the fuck is
Tanner’s golden plan here?” Zeke asked harshly, pulling Jacob back from his
private thoughts.

“The way I heard
it, Diego has filled his head with a bunch of shit in the last few years.  He’s
got Tanner convinced that the bastard has inalienable rights where Heaven’s
concerned and it’s time to exert them.  Convenient, huh?  Tanner’s also gonna
want that 20-acre piece of land that he and Harmony owned out on Westgate Road. 
Compliments of the Fuentes family’s influence, Tanner is convinced that he’s
entitled to any-fucking-thing he wants to take.  The land, the daughter, the
ex-wife.”

“All this for a
shitty piece of unworkable land that Harmony’s maternal grandmother left her?”
Zeke shook his head.

 “You aren’t
thinkin’ it through, man.  You know where I’m talkin’ about, right?  That
acreage with the little shack out in the middle of nowhere?  It’s surrounded by
woods, hidden in the heart of the boonies.  Nobody around for fuckin’ miles…”

“Fuck,” Zeke
muttered.  “Diego’s distribution point.  That’s his plan, isn’t it?”

“Exactly.” Jacob
nodded.  “Unless you help me and the DEA find a way to stop it.”

“Thought you were
merely vacationing, Stone,” the Sheriff noted quietly.

“Now who’s wasting
time fucking around?  If you don’t wanna know this shit, there’s a beer inside
just waiting for me to twist off the cap.” Jacob almost sneered, irked by
Zeke’s attitude as he jerked his head toward the door of the café.  Christ, he
was already breaking the rules by trying to bring the other man into the loop
as much as he could.  For his trouble, he was getting attitude?  Fuck that.  He
had better things to do. 

“How long do we
have?” Zeke asked, sounding tired.

“Could be a few
days.  I’d say no more than a few more weeks… a month at most and we’ll be seeing
Suarez’s ugly face around these parts,” Jacob informed him gravely as he
decided to cut Zeke a break.  After all, from what he’d seen and heard, the
sheriff did have a vested interest in this nightmare that was unfolding around
them.  “Look, I want to help, man.  I admit, I came to this town to make sure
that Harmony wasn’t somehow a willing participant in Tanner’s plans, but it’s
clear as glass that neither she nor her sisters would ever condone what Diego
Fuentes and Tanner Suarez plan to bring to this town.  Like you said, those
ladies define the concept of family values.  Church on Sundays, supporting
every charity under the sun…you know what I mean.  None of ‘em are drug
runners.  I get that.  I’m there, Zeke.  You don’t need to make a believer of
me.”

“Well thank God for
small favors,” Zeke muttered under his breath.

“Damn it, I said
that I wanna fucking help here.  If I didn’t, I’d already have left after I
insured that Harmony and the rest wouldn’t fuck this operation.  I’m still
sittin’ here, Zeke.  I’m invested… and not just in seeing justice served.  In
Harmony.  In Heaven.  In this fucking town that I wanna call home! But you also
gotta know that for me to be of any use at all to  the McKinnon family now,  I
need to know what the hell went down  between Harmony and Tanner five years ago
and if there’s any chance in hell that she’ll let him back into her or Heaven’s
life.  I’m sensing that whatever it was has shaped Harmony into the woman she
is today and not in the fucking good ways.”

“What exactly do
you mean by that?” Zeke asked carefully, not meeting Jacob’s eyes.

“Let’s just say
that none of the ladies, save Faith, seems real keen on developing
relationships with men.  I’ve seen those flashes of fear in Harmony’s eyes when
I step a little too close or look at her a little too long.” Jacob shifted on
the picnic bench as he sighed.  “She’s been scarred, Zeke.  They all have. 
I’ve barely known any of them a month, and I can see that plain as day.  I’m
just askin’ to know how they, but especially how Harmony, got burned.  Did all
of this… this distrust and skittishness stem from what happened to Honor six
years ago or is there something more to it?”

“What do you know
about Honor?” Ezekiel growled with eyes that glinted dangerously and promised a
brutal demise to Jacob if he didn’t answer quickly.  The Sheriff looked more
than capable of ripping the heart out of the other man’s chest and shoving it
down his throat.  “I swear to God, if you’ve upset the fragile balance that
she’s fought to find the past few years, you won’t have to worry about Tanner
and Diego and their would-be infiltration of Paradise.  You’ll be meeting them
in Hell when I kill you myself.”

Jacob had never
taken the Sheriff for a particularly violent man in the short time he’d been
studying him, but he knew better.  He’d done his research, too, and Jacob
realized there was a seething violence lurking just below the usually
unflappable man’s skin.  It was obvious that Zeke would kill without hesitation
to prevent one ounce of pain to come Honor’s way.  Based on what he’d
unearthed, the man had done it before and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again if
the situation called for it.  Jacob wasn’t judging… if he learned that Harmony
had been through something similar, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to maintain his
balance either.  And he’d only known her a few weeks.  But he needed to know
what the fuck he was up against. 

“I’m an asshole,
not an idiot,” Jacob snapped back with a look of disgust.  “I haven’t said a
word to Honor, nor would I.  All I know is what I read in the newspaper
clippings I looked at while I was researching all the McKinnon women and the
files my agency put together on the family.  Everything I read said she endured
some kind of assault when she was a teenager.  She went missing for a couple of
days, didn’t she?”  He almost regretted his question when he saw the torment
reflected in Zeke’s eyes.

“They had her
fifty-eight hours and thirty seven minutes,” Zeke replied tightly. 

The pain laced
through Zeke’s comment struck a chord in Jacob.  It sounded like the sheriff
was in agony, and it spoke to the pain Jacob carried inside himself over his
sister’s senseless death.  “They?” Jacob probed carefully.  He hated to make
the other man rehash something that was blatantly painful, but he had to know exactly
what he was up against in order to break through the walls Harmony had built
around her.  He’d never be able to protect her if she refused to let him into
her life.

Zeke flinched. 
“Yeah,
they
.  There were a total of five assailants.  And it wasn’t just
a simple assault.  The editor of our local paper is a good friend of mine.  She
did me a favor and reported a softer version of the truth in the story to
preserve as much of Honor’s dignity as she could.  The truth was that five of those
animals gang-raped her, beat her nearly to death, stabbed her and dumped her naked
and alone in a sink hole and left her there to die.  Two of them have been
dealt with. The other three, Honor couldn’t give us anything on, but their
semen wasn’t found in the rape kit, so we’re not sure if…”  Zeke took a deep
breath and got control of his rising temper. “At any rate, yeah, Stone, Honor’s
so-called
assault
had a lasting effect on both her and her sisters,” he
managed to bite out.