Hard as Stone(177)

“I wasn’t doing nothin’, motherfucker, and it’s not like the puta hasn’t been passed around before,” Juan shouted, coming unsteadily back to his feet as he held one bloody hand clapped against his shoulder.

Harmony held her sister closer as her sister whimpered into her neck. “What kind of animals are you?” she snapped, looking between the men. “My sister was gang raped! By your buddy, you son of a bitch! She wasn’t at some party and decided to entertain a bunch of men for the hell of it. Tanner and his sick fucking friends kidnapped and raped her! She was a fucking child, you bastard.”

Juan sneered at Harmony, offering her a thin, cruel smile before he asked, “Can you really rape the willing? I can smell her pussy from here. She’s like a bitch in heat just waiting for a nice, big cock to service her.”

Harmony jerked as a second bullet tore through the air, this one finding its mark in the center of Juan’s forehead. Stunned, she watched him drop, face first, into the dirt. Holding Honor close as her sister sobbed, Harmony’s head twisted in the direction the bullet had come. Seeing a well-dressed man in a suit standing on the porch with a lit cigarette in one hand and a smoking gun in the other, she gasped. A few years older than Jake, she put his age around 45, give or take a year. Still good looking despite his age and the long scar that rode jaggedly down one side of his jaw, Harmony recognized that while muscular, he didn’t carry himself at all like a thug. His posture was excellent and his bearing held an almost palpable power. He didn’t look like any typical hired muscle she’d ever seen. He was a different kind of dangerous altogether.

Honor followed her gaze with her own and shuddered as she, too, stared at the man as he disappeared inside the cabin. “OhGodohGodohGodohGod,” she whispered over and over again.

The man said nothing, instead exchanging a long look with Diego and jerking his chin toward the house before going inside himself.

“Let’s move this inside,” Dante said, taking Harmony’s arm but carefully avoiding touching Honor as two men appeared out of nowhere to drag Juan’s now dead body toward what looked to be a shed toward the back of the property.

“Was that…” Harmony began to ask if that man had been Diego Fuentes, but Dante cut her off.

“Inside. Now,” he repeated, hustling them all toward the rickety steps that led into the cabin.

Tightening her arm around Honor’s waist, Harmony reluctantly followed Dante up the steps, inside the door and through a dimly lit front room where a couple of men loitered on stools, playing a game of cards on the table between them. Following their kidnapper/guard through another door, Harmony realized they were in a room that could be considered a kitchen. Looking around the dirty room, she saw several used coffee cups in the old, stained sink, and discarded food wrappers littered the floor. The table in the center of the room held what appeared to be the remnants of Diego’s men’s last meal, dirty knives and food everywhere.

“Sit,” Dante ordered them as the kitchen door swung shut behind him.

Helping her still shaken sister into one of the old ladder back chairs around the table, Harmony glanced at Dante before taking the seat nearest Honor. “What do you want from us?” she asked as the man stood against the Formica counter watching her with dark eyes.

Licking his lips, he inhaled deeply. “Do you know who I am?”

Harmony blinked, wondering if this was some kind of trick question. “Dante de la Cruz? That’s who you said you were. I know you’re the man I chased around the side of the Piggly Wiggly some weeks back, but that’s it. That’s all I know.”

“Jake didn’t tell you anything else?” he asked softly, tilting his head to the side.

Harmony’s eyes widened slightly, but unsure whether she was being tricked, she shook her head.

“He didn’t mention his inside man?” Dante asked, taking a step toward her.

Honor stiffened as he approached them and Harmony reached for her hand. “What do you want from us?” Harmony asked again.

“I’m the inside man, Harmony,” Dante said softly, barely loud enough to be heard. “My real name is Luis Vega and I was Jacob’s partner once upon a time. Feels like a different life now if you want to know the truth. Does that put your mind at ease a little bit?”

“You’re Jake’s friend?” Harmony whispered as hope began to invade her limbs again.

“I was. I hope I still will be after this is over, but I’ve got every confidence that he’s probably gonna put a bullet in my head for this, but you’ve got to know that we didn’t have a choice. Diego needed to talk to you, but when Tanner got wind of it, he thought he’d save his own ass with the Boss Man by being the one to bring you here. We had no idea about what he staged this afternoon. Neither I nor Diego did until after it was over. That’s when he had me intercede. Originally, Tanner was going to snatch you and Honor himself. Neither one of us wanted that to happen,” he stated with a meaningful look at Honor.