“Absolutely.” Any of them would have done anything to spare Honor that pain; even if it meant taking her place. She would have done it without question.
“That’s how. That’s why I’ll never resent you. That’s why I could never, ever hate you! You’d sacrifice anything for me, Harmony. And it’s not just me; you’d do it for either of our sisters. My God, you thought Tanner’s only sin was that he didn’t pick me up before I was kidnapped. The night I was found, you left the hospital and went home to confront him, determined to exact retribution for putting me in that position. He nearly killed you. He nearly killed your unborn baby. All because you were determined to get justice for what you thought happened to your baby sister. You knew he was violent, and you went home to take him on anyway. Even after he’d been beating you for months. Even though you knew you were putting yourself in danger. You didn’t care. You did it anyway. For me! You’re without doubt the most unselfish woman I know. You actually think I could hate you? You were fighting my battles for me long before even I realized the truth, Harmony. Long before I remembered that Tanner was one of my rapists, YOU tried to make him pay for his crimes. You tried to exact justice, and you got hurt for it. Even while I was locked in my own pain, I saw what he did to you. I remember what you looked like. And you still sat by my bedside and took care of me. When I was locked in that dark, airless place in my mind after the attack, YOU came in and dragged me out of it. You and Zeke! Why you two are determined to blame yourselves when you’re the ones that saved me, I’ll never understand, but it’s getting really irritating.” Honor let out a loud puff of air as she rolled her eyes. “You’re both morons and your guilt complexes are driving me insane!”
Pressing a hand over her mouth, Harmony felt laughter bubbling up her throat. “You are the only woman in the world that would see it that way, Honor!”
“What happened to me was a tragedy,” Honor whispered, wincing as her forehead throbbed. “I’m still not over it. I don’t know if I ever will be. Five men took something from me that night that I’ll never get back. But none of it…none of it was ever your fault.”
“He scarred you,” Harmony whispered, lifting a hand to touch the bandage on Honor’s cheek. “Again.”
“I have lots of scars on my body, Harmony,” Honor replied evenly. “Those don’t bother me. I look at them and think one thing about myself: I survived. They’re permanent reminders that I lived. The physical scars are easy to live with; it’s the ones on my mind…well, those are more troubling.”
“I know you’ve always refused to talk to anybody about it, but maybe it’s time, Honor,” Harmony suggested carefully.
“I don’t want to think about that right now,” Honor dismissed her quickly, turning to reach for a few brown paper towels from the dispenser on the wall, wetting them quickly. “I think we all have enough on our plate at the moment.”
Opening her mouth to argue, Harmony frowned as her phone rang in her jacket pocket. “Who the hell can that be?” she asked, fishing out the cell from the inside pocket. “Everybody we know is in the waiting room or back of the hospital.” Peering down at the screen, a shiver ran down her spine as the display flashed: Unknown Caller.
Swiping her thumb across the screen, her stomach cramped as she lifted the phone to her ear.
“Hello?”
Chapter Forty-nine
Harmony felt her legs turn to jelly as she heard the deep, almost maniacal laughter that greeted her as she pressed the phone to her ear. God, she knew that evil sound as well as she knew her own name. She’d prayed for years to never hear it again, but evidently the Lord wasn’t taking requests from her anymore.
Tanner Suarez’s laughter suddenly ended, and his cold voice came through the line. “Mi amigos need to improve their aim, puta. My sources tell me that my men only managed to wing one of your bitch sisters this afternoon. I’d sooo been hoping to put one in the ground and teach you a lesson about what happens when you fuck with me, Harmony.” He paused, breathing hard. “You and your fucking family are making things extremely difficult for me.”
“Tanner, you have to stop this,” Harmony begged, her voice trembling with anger and frustration as Honor stiffened and paled beside her. “You hurt an innocent person today. My sister has nothing to do with you and me! Leave my family alone.”
“Oh, we both know that Patience is no innocent. That whore has probably serviced more customers than McDonald’s. And nobody is off limits until I get what I want, bitch. And if you remember, I always take what I want. You should remember that, but if you’ve forgotten, ask your baby sister about it. I had a lot of fun taking what I wanted from her,” he added with a dark laugh. “She was so much tastier than you.”