Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (62 page)

“I’m okay with
that,” Harmony retorted as she pushed open the door and the late afternoon
sunshine blinded them.  “Tanner said someone would meet us in the back corner
of the parking lot.” They began walking in the direction of the cars.  “I think
that’s them,” Harmony whispered, eyeing a dark sedan parked under a towering
oak tree.  Two men stood outside the vehicle, staring at them intently.  “No
Tanner,” Harmony murmured worriedly.

Drawing closer,
Harmony studied the men waiting for them.  One was short and stocky, obviously
hired muscle, but the other man was oddly familiar.  He had Tanner’s lanky
build, but his eyes were warmer… kinder.  “I know him from somewhere,” she
whispered, her footsteps slowing as she tried to place the man staring back at
her.  “Where do I know him from?” she murmured.

“Does it matter?”
Honor asked under her breath.

She supposed it
didn’t, but something in the man’s gaze made her shoulders relax a fraction. 
As they reached the trunk of the car, the pieces clicked into place.  “The
supermarket,” she whispered as the man took a step toward her.  “You’re the man
I saw at the supermarket.”

“I am.  I’ve been
assigned to watch you for the past several weeks,” the Hispanic man replied,
his tone emotionless.  “My name is Dante de la Cruz and my employer would like
a meeting with you.  If you cooperate, this will go much more easily for you
both.  If you don’t, things will become unpleasant very quickly.  Which way
would you prefer to do this?” he asked, his threat vague, but there all the
same.

“We’re not going to
fight you,” Harmony said softly, shaking her head. “Tanner made it clear that
we don’t have any choice here.”

“That’s right, he
did, putas,” the shorter man bit out roughly, licking his lips obscenely as he
eyed Harmony and Honor with a depraved gleam in his black eyes.  “Get your
hands behind your back,” he ordered, fingering a couple of zip ties he held in
his hand as he reached out to grip Harmony’s arm painfully in his other.

“Shut the fuck up, Juan. 
Keep a civil tongue in your head and take your hands the fuck off the woman,”
Dante barked at the startled man.  Dante waited until Juan dropped his hand
away from Harmony like he’d been scalded, then he turned and backed the other
man against the vehicle.  “It’s not Tanner’s call what happens from here.  I
work for Diego Fuentes and so do you.  We answer to him alone, and he wants
these women delivered, unharmed and unafraid, in the next half hour.  You are
not going to restrain them and you aren’t going to intimidate them to the point
where they’re shaking in their shoes and too scared to talk to the boss man and
listen to what he has to say to them.  Rein it in or I can rein
you
in. 
Got it?”

The short man’s
chest puffed out as he lifted his chin in a show of defiance.  “Fuck you,
Dante.  Last I checked, you weren’t my mama.”

“No, you’re Diego’s
hired muscle, just like me.  But, last I checked, I had El Jefe’s ear.  If I
tell him I needed to handle you because you became a problem, I don’t think
he’ll blink. Do you?  Especially after your unsanctioned drive-by in the middle
of the fucking day.”  Stepping closer, Dante raked his eyes over the other man,
his burning eyes filled with visible contempt and disgust.  “I told Fuentes you
were a worthless piece of shit when he hired you, and you just proved me right
with that clusterfuck you and Tanner created this afternoon.  So, yeah, I think
Diego will be fine with anyfuckingthing I decide to do here, pendejo.  Now, do
I need to see you as another problem in my fucking day, Juan?  We both know how
I usually prefer to handle them,” Dante warned with a deceptively mild tone,
dropping one hand to the gun shoved into his low riding jeans. 

Harmony’s eyes
widened.  Had Diego’s goon just said the drive-by on the restaurant was
un
sanctioned? 
Diego hadn’t known Tanner was going to try and hurt them?  Did that even
matter?  Diego Fuentes was still a very, very dangerous man intent on forcing
her and her family to his will.  He was responsible for Jake’s sister’s death. 
He wasn’t an ally.  Essentially, she and Honor were still being kidnapped by a
group of very bad men that might very well be even worse than Tanner had been,
but it did make her feel better to know that her ex-husband hadn’t had his drug
czar buddy’s support in his latest play to make her life hell.

Lifting his hands
in front of him, Juan backed down quickly.  “No, hombre!  Listen, Tanner told
me that Diego wouldn’t care what he did to make things right as long as he got
the job done.  I thought that meant that the gloves were off.  I had no fucking
clue that Diego had put these bitches off limits. I was just trying to help a
brother out of a hot spot.” 

“Get behind the
wheel, Juan,” Dante ordered softly though his voice remained hard.  “Your only
responsibility from this point forward is transport.  We’ll talk about your
future with Fuentes’ crew later.”  Waiting until the other man slunk away to
climb inside the vehicle before turning his attention back to the women, Dante
sighed.  “We have no intention of harming either one of you, but the key to
remaining safe is to keep quiet,” he advised them, nailing each of the girls
with a severe glare.  “You try to run, you’ll be stopped and I can’t guarantee
it will be gently.”

“M-my daughter, my
other sisters?” Harmony questioned urgently.  “Will Mr. Fuentes keep Tanner
from hurting them?”

“That depends on
you,” Dante informed her grimly, then looked at each of the sisters.  “Are
either you going to give me trouble, Miss McKinnon?”

“N-no.” Harmony
shook her head rapidly, aware Honor was doing the same at her side.

“Then your family
should remain unharmed.  Now, get in the car and keep quiet.  We’ll arrive at
our location shortly,” he said, jerking open the back passenger door and
waiting until they entered before slamming it behind them.

Jerking when the
door clicked shut, Harmony exchanged a wary look with her pale sister, reaching
for the other woman’s trembling hand and squeezing.  “We’ll be okay,” she
whispered as the man Dante had called Juan started the engine and Dante took
his position in the front passenger seat.  “We just need to hang on to each
other.”  Honor barely nodded and Harmony wondered if this would finally be the
event that broke her strong sister.  Cursing herself for allowing her to come
with her, Harmony stared out the window as they began moving and the hospital
faded from sight.

One thing was
certain.  Come hell or high water, they had to find a way through this.

The alternative was
too terrifying to even contemplate.

After fifteen
minutes of waiting impatiently for Harmony and Honor to return to the waiting
room, both Jake and Zeke had demanded that somebody go check on their errant
women, and Faith and Margaret had volunteered for the job.  Clearly, women
traveled in packs where bathrooms were concerned, and nobody argued when they
rose from their chairs and trudged off to search out two of the four McKinnon
sisters.

Unfortunately, what
they’d found was the worst possible news they could report when they returned.

“What the fuck do
you mean they’re not here?” Jacob hissed, his arms tightening reflexively
around the sleeping child in his arms.  Staring at the frightened faces of
Harmony’s sister and friend, Jake’s gaze went from one woman to the other and
back again.  “Where the hell are they?” 

“Harmony and Honor
aren’t in the bathroom,” Faith explained shakily, her breaths coming in shallow
gasps as she felt her husband’s strong arm wrap around her waist and pull her
against him.   “Th-there’s a note on the mirror.  I think Tanner…”

At the mere mention
of Harmony’s ex-husband’s name, Zeke was bolting from his chair and running
toward the hallway while he spoke into his radio. Ice raced behind him, both
men’s faces twisted with worry.   Jake shifted Heaven quickly into his arms and
carried her to Orla, depositing her gently into the elderly woman’s arms before
rushing after them.

Entering the
bathroom at a dead run, he heard the door bounce against the wall as he stepped
across the threshold.  Then, he froze, his heart stuttering his chest as his
eyes read the bright pink lipstick message scrawled across the mirror. 
“Motherfucker!” he growled, anger overwhelming every cell in his body as the
muscles in his shoulders tightened.  “Tell me that they weren’t stupid enough
to actually take this douchebag’s bait!”

“My unconscious
deputy currently in the ER would indicate they were indeed that stupid,” Zeke
snapped furiously, his hands forming fists at his side.  “Before he lost
consciousness, he told the nurses he was moving to intercept Harmony when
someone got him from behind.  He was found in the East Parking lot ten minutes
ago.  Thankfully, they didn’t kill him.  Somebody just stun gunned the guy.  He
didn’t get a visual,” he growled, pacing back and forth in the small bathroom. 
Glancing at the mirror again, he seethed.  “Don’t be angry!  Honor wrote that
part,” he shouted, gesturing toward the mirror.  “That’s her fucking
handwriting.  She wrote me a message that says not to get angry!  I swear to
God, once I get her back, she’s not gonna sit for a fucking week.  I’m gonna
kill this son of a bitch, Jake.  He’s mine,” he bit out, glaring at Tanner’s
name on the mirror. 

“Not if I get to
him first,” Jake growled coldly.  “But I’m not gonna split hairs over who pulls
the trigger as long as the motherfucker goes down.  For good, this time.”

“Zeke already
ordered the hospital to turn over the security footage they have of the parking
lot,” Ice shared with Jake calmly.  “We should have it any minute now. 
Hopefully, we’ll get a make and model of the vehicle the girls were taken in
and then we can move from there.”

Unable to tear his
eyes away from the hastily written message, Jake shook his head, barely hearing
Ice’s words much less comprehending them.  “He threatened her with Heaven, Zeke. 
He had to have; it’s the only thing that would have convinced her to take this
kind of risk.  There’s no way Harmony would put Honor in harm’s way if he
hadn’t held something big over her.”  He was going to kill Tanner for this.  If
it took the rest of his life, he’d send that bastard to hell where he
belonged.  He tried not to imagine the fear that Harmony and Honor would be
experiencing right now.  When he did, he couldn’t think, and if he was gonna
get them back alive, his mind needed to remain unclouded by emotion.  Tamping
down on the fear, he forced himself to focus on the Sheriff.

“Harmony couldn’t
have stopped her, Stone,” Zeke declared with a negative shake of his dark head,
taking deep breaths to keep from putting his fist through the mirror.  “I know
Honor almost as well as I know myself.  There’s no way she would have let her
sister face that bastard on her own no matter how scared she was.”

Jake hear Ice
assure them that they would get the ladies back, then turned as he heard a deep
voice call his name from the doorway.  He found himself facing the concerned
gaze of Abel and Cain’s father, Seth.  “Yeah?” he asked gruffly.

“Margaret wants you
boys back in the waiting room double time,” Seth informed them quickly,
sweeping his eyes over the men.  “She’s been clickin’ on that newfangled computer
of hers and says to tell you that she’s got a lead.  She thinks she knows the
direction the girls have been taken.”

“Thank fuck.”  Jacob
whispered and felt a flash of hope warm his heart.  Harmony had told him a lot
about Margaret Winstead in the last few days and he could heartily admit she’d
be a good woman to have on their side right now.  Beyond being extremely
wealthy and having connections he could never dream about having, Maggie was a
whiz with computers.  Hopefully, she’d found something to at least give them a
starting point. 

“Dad, did you find
Jake?” Jake heard Abel shout from the hallway, his footsteps growing closer.

“Yeah, Jake and the
boys are still in here,” Seth returned over his shoulder, holding the door open
for his son.

Abel hit the restroom
door at the same time Zeke swung around to face them.  “She got something
good?” he asked, pinning Abel with a look that promised he’d be unamused if he
wasted his time.

Nodding, Abel
jerked his head toward the waiting room.  “She’s waiting for you.  Patience is
with her, and even stoned off her ass, she realizes what’s happening and is
about two seconds from finding somebody to launch a nuclear bomb over the town. 
The only thing stopping her is Mags promising she can find them.”

“I wanna see what
she’s got.  Let’s go, Zeke,” Jake said with a measured look toward the tense
sheriff.

Filing out of the
bathroom, the men trudged into the waiting room, forming a loose circle around
Maggie as she tapped furiously on her iPad, her fingers flying against the keys
faster than Jake had ever seen anybody move as Patience and Faith sat on either
side of her, staring over her shoulder at the screen.  “Seth and Abel said
you’ve got something, Maggie,” he interrupted the redhead gruffly.

“Yeah.” She nodded
at them eagerly, her red hair bouncing against her shoulders as she tapped her
screen.  “I’ve got a lock on their signal, but they’re still moving.  They
haven’t stopped yet.”