Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (54 page)

“I think that’s a
sentiment shared by all of us,” Ice stated quietly.  “How’s Honor doing with
the increased threat?” he asked his younger brother solemnly.

Zeke pressed his lips
together.  The truth was that the answer was not well, but he knew Honor
wouldn’t appreciate him sharing that.  Lately, though, she had nightmares
almost every night, sometimes waking her two or three times if she didn’t take
a sleeping pill.  Zeke hated it.  Sure, he was glad he was there to hold her
when her screams woke him, but he’d give anything to give her a good night’s
rest. His girl was brave though, and she was tackling the problem head-on,
increasing her therapy appointments with Bree and religiously taking the
medications her doctors prescribed.  She was doing her part.

Now, Zeke just needed
to do his and catch these sick fucks.

Then, he could get on
with the business of giving his woman the happily-ever-after she deserved to
have.

August 18, 2016 –
The I Don’t Care Cafe

5:00 pm

Honor

Waving at Faith and
Harmony as they ushered Aunt Orla out the back door of their restaurant, Honor
released a sigh of relief.  She loved her family.  She truly did.  But
sometimes, when they all met to chat, it felt more like a free-for-all than a
family discussion.  Meetings tended to be loud, long, and boisterous… and that
was if everybody was having a good day.

Thankfully, today had
been a good day.  No blood had been spilled.  No threats had been made.  And
everybody was still on speaking terms with everybody else.

She was gonna count
that as a win.

“Sis, you okay back
here?” Honor heard Patience call through the order window. 

Turning her head to
look over her shoulder, Honor smiled and nodded.  “Yeah, I’m just going to
finish writing up the produce and alcohol orders for tomorrow.  Are all your
bottle tallies in the office?” she asked.

Patience nodded. 
“Abel helped me do them last night while Maggie babysat.”

Honor snorted.  “You
mean Maggie sat while the babies slept, don’t you?  Sorry, but I can’t imagine
our redhaired friend actually changing a diaper.”

“I heard that!  I
will have you know I did so change Bronson’s diaper last night.  There was no
choice.  He exploded.  Everywhere!”

Both choked on their
laughs as the heard Maggie’s outraged cry.

“Needless to say, I’m
picking up Mags’ bar tab tonight,” Patience informed Honor, straight-faced. 

Honor snorted. 

“You gonna need a
ride home?” Patience asked as she picked up the order of loaded potato skins
that the cook, Sammy, passed through the heated window to her.

“No,” Honor denied. 
“Diego spoke with Zeke and told him he’d bring me home after I got these orders
handled.    He’s sitting out at the counter reading the paper,” she continued,
gesturing over Patience’s shoulder toward the quiet Hispanic man.

Looking behind her,
Patience nodded.  “I swear, you’d never know Diego was in this place.  For
somebody so big, hot and hunky, he sure does blend in, doesn’t he?” she asked
in a loud whisper.

“It is a talent,
yes?” Diego noted without looking up from his newspaper.

Honor chuckled as
Patience rolled her eyes.  “Anyway, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone
and watch some of these videos of wedding bands while I worked,” she continued,
holding up the discs her eldest sister had left for her. 

“Harmony’s obsessive
planning getting to you, little sister?”

“I know she wants to
make it the best wedding it can be, but I would have been happy with a small
ceremony at the family church.  As long as I’m surrounded by the people I love,
that’s all I need.”

“You’re the last
McKinnon sister to be married, Honor.  Faith wanted a quick ceremony, Harmony
was so busy planning everybody else’s wedding that she didn’t get to
concentrate much on her own, and well… we all know that I wasn’t the type that
was gonna prance down the aisle in a poofy dress.  You are Harmony’s chance to
do it the way she’s always wanted.  And let’s face it, all of us along with
half the town has been waiting for this day for
years
.  Just go with it,
babe.  Ride the wedding wave, and just remember, it could be worse.”

“How’s that?” Honor
asked dryly.

“She could have
insisted you have a destination wedding,” Patience pointed out. 

Honor grinned. 
“You’re right.  It could have been worse,” she agreed, heading toward the
office and Patience carried her customer’s order toward the bar area of the
restaurant.  “Big Sam, sing out if you get backed up,” Honor called before
disappearing into the sisters’ small office.

Moving behind her
desk, she frowned as she eyed the long list of bar supplies to be ordered.  She
hated this part of the job, but since Patience had given birth to the triplets,
she’d taken it over to give her sister more time with her kids.  Grumbling
under her breath about Patience’s serial killer handwriting, she spotted
another DVD in the center of the desk.

Picking it up, she
peered down at the post-it note attached to it.  Written in all capital
letters, she noted the sender’s neat, precise handwriting as she read the
message. “A loving reminder for you before your wedding,” she recited out loud
before groaning.  “Good Lord, Harm.  What new wedding nonsense is this?” she grumbled
as she trudged to the TV/DVR combo she’d had Jake mount to the office wall last
year so that Heaven could watch videos while Harmony and her aunts worked. 
Quickly sliding the DVD into the slot and powering on the television, she
walked back to her desk and sat down, pulling the list of produce that needed
to be ordered toward her as the disc loaded.

“Please, stop! 
Let me go!  Please, please just let me go!” a shrill, panicked girl’s voice
beseeched.

Freezing in her
office chair, the pencil she held dropped from Honor’s numb fingers as she
stared sightlessly at the hand written list.

Her eyes stared at
the paper, uncomprehending.

Apples.  Cherry
Tomatoes.  Lettuce. 

“Oh, stop!” the
voice cried hysterically.  “Stop, it hurts!” the girl’s voice screamed.

“That’ll teach the
dumb bitch for sneaking around and seeing things she shouldn’t,” a familiar
woman’s voice sneered.  “Tanner, you know you can’t let her live after this. 
You boys have all the fun you want, but you make sure that girl ends up where
she’ll never be found.”

Jerking her head up
as the sound of Angela Hastings’ voice penetrated the fog her mind had slipped
into, Honor stared in horror at the television screen mounted to the wall as
her eldest sister’s first husband’s swarthy face filled the screen, his black
ski mask peeled back to show an angry red scratch dripping red beads of blood
as his eyes glittered malevolently. 

“What the fuck are
you recording this for, puta?” Tanner snarled as Honor screamed in the
background.

“Insurance,”
Angela snapped.  “You threatened to tell Abel about us, remember?  Now, I’ve
got something to hold over you, too.  It’ll be hard to comfort Harmony over
Honor’s death if she knows your one of the bastards that killed her.”

Honor swallowed hard
as bile rose in her throat.  The camera had panned back to where she lay on the
ground as a man pushed her face in the dirt, grinding himself against her,
pushing his way inside…  “Oh, God,” she gasped, clutching her throat as she
watched two others holding down her arms as the monster behind her continued to
violate her body.

Gripping the chair as
the angle of the camera changed to show Tanner’s feet as he lapsed into
Spanish, the video jumpy and grainy at best, Honor blinked as she noticed a
pair of shiny black heels with white bows over the toes.  She’d seen those
heels before…she’d seen them that night when Zeke and his date had walked past
her on their way to their seats in the stands while she’d been cheering at the
football game.  She remembered thinking how strange it was to wear such fancy
shoes to a high school football game. 

“Wait,” a second,
slightly more nasal female voice interrupted.  “Angie, you never said anything
about killing her!  She’s just a kid.”

“Sherry!” Honor
gasped, her eyes watching the screen as the camera straightened again.  “No,
no, no, no,” she whimpered, squeezing her eyes closed as she listened to her
agonizing screams and pleas blend with their conversation.

“No, she’s a loose
end.  C’mon, girl.  She ruined your night with Zeke, Sherry.  You said so
yourself.  He busted his nut in you and then left your ass high and dry to go
make sure sweet little Honor was okay.  Trust me, honey…. that little bitch
will cause you nothing but problems if she’s allowed to live.  We’re getting
rid of her once and for all.  I suggest you use the sink hole just over their
property line.  Deep as fuck and in the middle of nowhere.  It’s perfect.”

“Oh, my god,
Angie,” Sherry squeaked, obviously rattled.

“You gonna cause
me more problems, puta?” Tanner asked Sherry.  “Because I’m sure me and my
friends wouldn’t mind if you joined my sweet little Peach on the ground over
there,” he laughed, pointing behind him to where she lay, naked, as another
masked man moved on top of her.

“Leave her alone,
Tanner.  She’s cool,” Angie defended her friend.

“God, who’s that
over there on top of her?” Sherry asked.  “Is that…”

“That is none of
your business,” Angie said flatly.

Opening horrified
eyes, Honor realized that Sherry must have taken a few steps toward where she’d
been laying on the ground because suddenly Honor could clearly see her own
face.  She was much younger, and she was beaten and bloody, but it was her. 
She was almost unrecognizable, even to herself.  “Oh, no, no, no,” she sobbed
as one of the men pulled her hair, wrenching her head back to lick her cheek. 
Lifting a shaking hand, she felt her stomach drop as he laughed. 

“C’mon, Pretty
Kitty.  Fight me.  I love it when you fight,” he bellowed before slamming his
fist into her jaw, the sickening crack of bone audible.

Dizzy with remembered
pain, Honor rose from her chair and reached for the stapler without any real
awareness of what she was doing and hurled it across the office at the
television screen, desperate to stop what was happening to her on that screen.
“Stop!” she screamed as hot tears rolled down her cheeks.  “Please! Stop, stop,
STOP!” she shrieked, sobbing, throwing anything she could reach on the desk
toward the blaring television. 

“Miss Honor!” she
heard someone call distantly.  “Sweet Jesus, Miss Honor!”

Panicked, her eyes
swung toward the door.  “No!  Don’t touch me!” she shouted, seeing a man, but
not registering who it was.  “No more, please! Don’t come near me,” she begged
hysterically, as she took a stumbling step backward, bumping into the corner
where two walls of her office met and sinking to the floor.  Curling up into a
ball, she sobbed.  She cried for the little girl still screaming on the
television screen, and she cried for the woman who was crumpled on the floor,
her screams mixing with the cries of the girl on the television.  “Oh, please
make it stop,” she begged as the endless pain overwhelmed her.  Closing her
eyes, she was dimly aware of more voices arriving, of people crowding into her
office.

“Be calm, Preciosa,”
Honor heard, latching onto the deep, steady voice.  “You are safe,
Niña
.  I swear on my life, no one will
touch you here.”

Slowly focusing on
the man crouched in front of her, Honor suddenly realized who she was staring
at.  “Diego?” she whimpered.

“Si, Honor.  It’s
me,” he assured her softly.

“The DVD,” she
whispered.  “I don’t want everyone to see,” she squeaked.

“I’ve turned it off. 
No one but myself and your cook saw what was on the screen.  We were the first
here,” he informed her softly, his dark eyes compassionate as they met hers.

“Thank you,” she
breathed gratefully, leaning her head back against the cement brick wall as her
racing heartbeat began to slow.

“What do you need me
to do for you, little one?  I know we need to call your Sheriff.  Yes?” Diego
began.

“Yes.  I want Zeke,”
she replied, nodding emphatically.  Looking over Diego’s shoulder at where her
cook, Sammy and a few of the waitresses stood just inside the door, Honor bit
her lip.  “But, Diego, just tell him I need him.  Don’t tell him about… he needs
to hear about that from me,” she gestured toward the cracked screen of the
television set. Apparently some of her missiles had found their mark.  “Girls,
I’m fine,” she told the anxious waitresses.  “Go check on our customers,
please,” she directed, hoping she’d injected enough firmness into her voice. 
The truth was that she was a quivering mass on the inside, the contents of that
video shaking her to the core. 

“Everybody get the
hell out of my way, before I start clearing the path with my freakin’ baseball
bat,” Honor heard Patience angrily demand from somewhere outside the office. 
“Big Sam?  What the hell’s going on back here?  We heard screaming out front?”

Seeing the question
on the massive man’s face as his concerned gaze met her eyes, Honor nodded. 
“Tell her what’s going on, Sam, but
only
Patience.”  Honor watched as
Sam nodded and moved quickly into the kitchen to intercept Patience.

Diego’s low voice as
he spoke to Zeke on the phone and the low hum of activity outside the office
door lulled Honor into a state of blessed numbness.  Oddly detached, it was
Patience’s sharp, “Son of a bitch!  Where is she?  Where’s Peanut?” that sent
Honor crashing back into the present.

Wiping her wet cheeks
as her older sister appeared in the doorway, her blue eyes wild, Honor tried to
smile.  “I’m okay.”

“Bullshit,” Patience
challenged succinctly as she moved swiftly toward her sister, bending to grab
Honor’s cold hand.  “I know you ain’t okay, because
I’m
not okay!”