Hard as Stone(181)

“Perhaps because it’s true, little flower,” Diego replied, his caramel colored eyes still glittering warmly.

“Mr. Fuentes, why…”

“Diego,” he interrupted her flatly, turning his attention back to Harmony. “Only my men call me Mr. Fuentes. You may call me by my Christian name.”

“Fine, Diego then,” Harmony continued impatiently. “Why have you brought us here? You have to know that our family is going to come after us. Has my ex-husband actually managed to convince you that this was a good idea?” she asked, gesturing between herself and Honor. “Jacob already wants you dead for what you’ve done to his family. He’ll kill you for this.”

“He’ll try,” Diego agreed with a heavy sigh, then said ominously, “But then, your Jacob doesn’t possess all the facts. He never did. But after all these years, it’s past time that he did. Then, if he wants to kill me; he can take his best shot.”

“You killed his sister. You’ve kidnapped the woman he loves and her sister. Quite probably to do them more harm than your muscled thug already tried to do outside. I don’t think there’s a lot left for Jake to understand about you. I think he had your number all along.”

Diego’s face darkened at that and his body seemed to harden to stone. “First, I handled the thug that manhandled your sister as soon as I saw his transgression. I resolved the problem in a way that he will never harm another woman, did I not? I regret that you both had to witness my anger, but I don’t tolerate violence toward women in any way.”

Laughing hollowly, Harmony shook her head as fury spread throughout her body, firing her blood and loosening her tongue. “Oh, really? Yet, one of your head lackeys is a child-molesting rapist! He’s a man that took a sick amount of pleasure in leading a gang rape and violating an innocent teenager and then nearly beating his wife to death! Or, has Tanner convinced you that my sister and I actually enjoyed the way he treated us? Either you are a lousy liar or very stupid, Mr. Fuentes. I’m curious; which is it?” she asked viciously without a thought for her own safety.

“Enough!” Diego’s deep resonating voice thundered throughout the room as he stood, his chair crashing to the floor as he took a threatening step toward the sisters.

“No!!!” Honor screamed, throwing up an arm as she threw her body toward Harmony.

Catching himself against the round kitchen table as he watched Harmony’s younger sister’s reaction, Diego grimaced and took several steps backward. “I’m sorry,” he apologized quietly as Honor sobbed against Harmony’s side. Keeping his hands well away from the gun gleaming at his side, he held his palms in the air again. “Miss McKinnon…Honor, please. I’m not a threat to you. I swear to you on my mother’s grave I don’t condone the violence that was done to you. It turns my stomach,” he confided softly, his face twisted with remorse as he stared at the woman quietly falling apart in her sister’s arms. “No woman should suffer as you have. As you both have,” he amended, shifting his eyes to an irate Harmony.

“He’s your man,” Harmony accused, her arms wrapping around her sobbing sister. “You know what Tanner did to us, and he’s still alive. Don’t you dare tell me you don’t condone his violence when you’re keeping him employed!”

“Up until now, he’s served a purpose. I needed him. He no longer does, I assure you.”

Seeing the obvious confusion on both women’s faces, he frowned, wrapping a hand around the nape of his neck and squeezing tightly. “Please,” he said, bending to pick up his toppled chair. “I want to explain this to you as best as I can if you’d allow it.”

“Do we have a choice?” Harmony snapped, tightening her arm around Honor and glaring at him.

“No. You don’t,” Diego replied simply, righting the chair and placing it a foot or so away from the table. Looking at Honor, he winced. “Honor, I’m going to sit here… well away from you. I’m not going to hurt you. Please, try to relax enough to listen to me. Would either of you like a drink to soothe your nerves?” he asked, gesturing toward the bottles of alcohol on the counter.

Honor’s eyes drifted to the liquor he indicated, her breath coming in a hiccup. “Is the drug kingpin offering us a cocktail?” she asked her sister with a disbelieving whisper.

“Think so,” Harmony muttered, keeping Honor in the curve of her arm even as she kept her eyes on Diego. “What we want is to go home.”

Sighing, Diego nodded. “I can understand that,” he murmured, subsiding back in his chair as he pulled a slim pack of cigarettes from his coat. “Do you mind?” he asked, holding them up for the women to see.