Hard as Stone(110)

Honor stared at Jake for a long, deafening minute before she slowly swung her gaze toward a grim faced Ezekiel. “Give Harmony the gun you wear strapped around your ankle,” she ordered the sheriff on a whisper.

“What?” Zeke asked, blinking.

“If you want me to move a single step from this spot, you’ll give my sister the gun you wear strapped to your ankle. I’m not leaving her here, alone and unarmed, with him.” She jerked her head toward Jacob. “No offense. I might believe what you said earlier to Harmony and Heaven, but I don’t entirely trust you yet. Until I do…”

Jacob nodded because he understood. Looking at Zeke, he ordered, “Give it to her.”

Sighing, Zeke bent to unstrap the gun from the holster around his ankle and carefully passed it to Harmony. “If you feel the need to use that, make sure you kill him. It’s a hell of a lot less paperwork for me.”

Harmony’s lips twitched in spite of the tense circumstances and she nodded. Looking at Honor’s pinched, worried face, she whispered, “I’ll be just fine, honey. Are you okay to go with Zeke?”

Honor knew what Harmony was asking her. “Zeke won’t hurt me,” she said tightly, almost as though she was willing herself to believe it as much as she was trying to convince Harmony.

“No, Zeke would never hurt you,” Harmony repeated, reaching for her sister and hugging her for long moments while Zeke and Jake traded a worried, perplexed look between them.

“Are you alright here with Jake?” Honor asked Harmony against her ear. “I’ll stay if you want me to be here. Ezekiel can go hang,” she remarked with a little of her normal sass. “Won’t be the first time I told him to do it.”

“I promise, I’ll be fine. You made sure I was armed before you left,” Harmony joked, drawing back to smile sadly at her sister. “We’ll be right behind you, Peanut. Then you, me, Patience and Faith will sit down and talk when I get home.” Seeing Honor flinch, she tightened her arms around her sister. “We have to talk about it; you know we do,” she whispered before releasing her. “Take care of my sister, Zeke,” she ordered the other man as he took Honor’s arm, wincing when her sister stiffened at the contact. “And go easy,” she warned, exchanging a meaningful look with him. Seeing the flash of confusion overtake Zeke’s face as he steered Honor toward the door, she released a shaky sigh. God, regular old bad had gotten so very worse in just a few short hours that she could hardly wrap her mind around it.

And now, she had to deal with Jacob fucking Stone and the nightmare he’d delivered to her life. Tightening her fingers around the gun in her hand, she turned to face him.





Chapter Thirty-five



“I’m not doing this here,” Jacob denied as soon as Harmony turned to face him, her normally beautiful face set in harsh lines, her eyes shadowed by the ghosts of her past. It was obvious she was in a less than forgiving mood, and he’d be damned if he’d try and convince her he was at least a decent guy while he was standing in the kitchen where she’d so recently been abused a-fucking-gain by her dick of an ex-husband. Nope, not doing it.

Plainly, however, she had other ideas. The flash he saw in her eyes let him know he was walking on thin ice where she was concerned. Lifting a hand when she would have opened her mouth and let him have the edge of her tongue, he continued, “I owe you answers. I know that and I’m not trying to avoid the conversation. I’m just asking that we have it someplace else.”

“I don’t know who you are,” she repeated for what felt like the five millionth time today. “I don’t want to know who you are! I no longer care who you are. Sorry, but I’ve had my fill of asshole whack jobs today. You think I’m just going to follow you meekly out the door?” she asked with a hollow laugh. “Not fucking likely, Jacob Stone or whatever the hell your real name is. You got something you want to say to me? Say it here.”

“Harmony, baby, I know it’s raining,” he said softly, reminding her of their conversation the previous night. “But, I’ve got the umbrella. All you’ve got to do is step under it and I’ll keep you warm and dry.”

“You’re shitting me,” Harmony growled, shaking her head incredulously. “Please, God, tell me that you’re shitting me,” she begged as she began to laugh again. It wasn’t a pretty laugh. It was that kind of laughter you heard right before you witnessed somebody have a nervous breakdown. Definitely, not a funny kind of chuckle. “You think it’s raining? No, Jake, it’s not raining! It’s storming like a motherfucker! Hurricane Suarez just made landfall in all his destructive glory, asshat!” she yelled, jabbing her index finger into his hard chest as she got in his face. “And I suspect you had a whole fucking lot to do with that. So, I suggest you take your fucking umbrella, bend over, and jam it straight up your own ass because I will never depend on you for anything again!”