Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4)
Read Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) Online
Authors: Sarah O'Rourke
Man of Honor
by Sarah O’Rourke
Man of
Honor by Sarah O’Rourke
Copyright
©
2016
by Sarah O’Rourke
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
or cover design artwork may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or
mechanical methods in current use or to be developed in the future,
without the prior express written
permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright
law (US. Copyright Act of 1976).
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters,
and settings are fictitious, and are the sole property of Sarah O’Rourke. Any
resemblance to actual events, names, locales, organizations, or persons, living
or dead, is entirely coincidental. Any real setting, person, or situation is
used in a fictitious manner with literary license. This work of fiction is
intended for mature audiences.
If you steal our work, we’ll sic our Mommas on
you. Crazy One’s Momma will hunt you down and make you pay in
blood. Crazy Two’s Momma will pray “for” your eternal soul (which is
obviously in great peril if you resorted to stealing some poor little indie
author’s romance story...really??? Really???) And trust us...you won’t
win when she goes to the Almighty. And if that doesn’t scare you, please
be advised that we have an attorney on retainer who will sue you to Kingdom
Come. Don’t risk it. This is us, being there for you.
Want to read more by Sarah O’Rourke? Check us out at
www.SarahORourke.info
www.amazon.com/author/SarahORourke
Dedication
This
book is for every single girl who had to find the courage to overcome a
personal demon. Your strength of spirit amazes us. May God bless you all.
Crazy
One and Crazy Two
Trigger
Warning
Please
note that this novel contains limited flashback references to rape. While such
references are NOT graphic, they may trigger emotional responses. If that
subject is a trigger for you, please consider your options prior to reading.
For anyone who has experienced a sexual assault, please know that our prayers
are with you, and we encourage to call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with
a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in
your area.
April, 2016
Zeke
Fear is a mysterious
entity, complicated and dynamic in its components.
Science tells us that
when the body experiences a flood of pure panic fueled by a powerful rush of
adrenaline, a man can become capable of all manner of things he would have
sworn were impossible prior to experiencing that life-changing deluge of
emotion. Emotionally, a man can essentially become a crazed powerhouse, both
desperate and volatile in actions and deeds. For instance, a father can lift a
car off his young child after a car accident. A guy can rush into a burning
building to save his dog and never feel his burns blanketing his skin until
both man and beast are safely outside again.
And, for Sheriff
Ezekiel Monroe, he learned that while suffering under extreme conditions of
both stress and terror, he could actually hurl two fully-grown adult men
through a plate-glass window when they both decided to get courageously stupid
and try to keep him from the woman Zeke loved. Thankfully, one of those men
was his brother, Ice, and the other man was a guy by the name of Jake Stone - a
man that he hoped would one day be his brother-in-law if Zeke had anything to
say about it.
Luckily, neither man
would hold his actions against him. Both guys knew him and were his friends.
They understood that Zeke hadn’t been thinking, only reacting to a situation so
far beyond his control that it had pushed him right over the metaphorical
edge. More importantly, Ice and Jake got where Ezekiel’s thoughts were because
they each knew how much the sheriff loved the woman now fighting for her life.
Again.
More than even that…
they understood what
any
thought of Honor McKinnon being hurt did to
him.
Zeke wasn’t sure why
this visit to the local ER was affecting him so badly. It wasn’t as though he
was any stranger to fear. No, he had an intimate relationship with the feeling
– especially where Honor was concerned. She’d given him enough scares over her
short life to last
him
an entire lifetime and then some.
This time, however,
things definitely felt different. There was a sense of urgency… a sick
sensation of foreboding flooding his soul, something unspoken warning him that
this situation wasn’t like the others they’d faced together. This time he felt
desperate to see her – to put his eyes on her beautiful face and keep them
there forever, watching vigilantly so nothing else could harm her. His own
emotions reeled as he eyed the nurses standing just behind the glassed-in
window of the admissions desk and wondered what was happening behind those
heavy steel doors separating him and most of Honor’s family from the rest of
the emergency room. The burning need he had to get to her side ate away at his
gut like acid.
It was only the feel
of a tiny feminine hand pressed against his chest to restrain him that stopped
him from stampeding through those metal double doors. “Enough, Zeke! Get a
handle on it because it’s not gonna help my sister in the slightest if you lose
your frickin’ mind up in here,” Patience McKinnon Turner ordered on a harsh
whisper, her worried face, pale and pinched with anxiety as her husband Abel
moved behind her, gently squeezing her slim shoulders as he stood at her back
in silent support. “Everybody here is already scared out of their ever-lovin’
minds. Don’t make it worse for yourself or for us by acting like a lunatic
now. Crazy is just
not
your color, Sheriff. Hold it together!”
Swallowing hard as he
stared into the familiar blue eyes that were so much like Honor’s that it made
his chest ache, Zeke forced himself to nod stiffly as he reached up to squeeze
her icy hand.
Hold it together, she’d said.
Hell, he could barely keep
his head attached to his shoulders… how the hell was he gonna calm down and
keep it together for Patience and the rest of the family when it felt like his
heart was on the verge of exploding? Focus was gonna be key here, he reminded
himself as he fought to keep his head clear.
“How is she,
Patience?” he asked raggedly, staring at the woman with frantic dark eyes. “I
was listening in on the emergency frequency as I drove here… dispatch said she
coded once in transit.”
For as long as he
lived, he’d never forget the sickening, sinking dread he’d felt in the pit of
his stomach or the heart-stopping fear that had gripped his heart when he’d
heard the relay exchange between the paramedics and the hospital while the
ambulance had rushed toward the ER. He’d been out on a call to the Haverly
homestead about sixteen miles east of town. The old dairy farmer had found
evidence of someone joyriding through his woods and knocking down a couple of
fences the previous night. He’d been understandably upset and more than a
little intent on filing a report for trespassing with the sheriff’s Department
when Zeke had heard the radio he wore on his duty belt crackle to life.
Dispatch sent through the emergency 9-1-1 call that Orla McKinnon had made
after the old woman found Honor unconscious and unresponsive on the small
loveseat in her office at family business, the I Don’t Care Café. His gut had
clenched as he’d listened to Honor’s elderly aunt shakily describe what had
happened, her normally lively voice rife with anxiety and concern.
After hearing the
initial distress call transmitted over the open air, Zeke vaguely remembered
running toward his Durango while telling Mr. Haverly over his shoulder that
he’d have a deputy get in contact with him to finish completing his police
report. Honestly, at that point, he could have given two shits about a couple
of four-wheeling assholes joyriding through the woods. His only thoughts
revolved around one special woman that had stolen his heart years ago with her
sweetness and bravery.
He barely recalled
the drive back into town, only knowing that he made the normal twenty minute
trek in just over ten minutes, intent on making his way to Honor’s side whether
the stubborn woman wanted him there or not.
Now, as he stood
there and tried to read the third McKinnon sister’s face for any sign of just
how bad this situation was, he wondered why he’d left Honor on her own this
morning. He’d known she’d had a bad night, her nightmares awakening both of
them at least three times throughout the late evening and early pre-dawn
hours. The last time her screams had jarred him awake, he’d taken a stand and
refused to leave her alone in her room, ignoring her protests and climbing into
her bed to sleep on top of her covers until she’d calmed again, holding her
trembling body firmly against his until she’d drifted back to a still restless
sleep.
Damn it! He’d known
something was wrong… or more to the point, he’d known something was
more
wrong
than the
usual
wrong with his girl for far longer than he wanted to
think about right now. Hell, Honor had seemed off for days – weeks, even.
Tired, wan and unusually quiet, she’d been going through the motions of life
like it was some kind of punishment. He’d questioned her about it, begged her
to let him help her through whatever was twisting her up inside, but she’d
claimed it was just a cold bringing her low. Nothing for him to worry about,
she’d said. As he thought on it now, not once had he heard her cough, sneeze,
or sniffle. He’d been trying to let it go, to give her the space she’d asked for;
now, he realized he’d made a mistake. A big one – one that could cost her
dearly.
Seeing as she’d been
found unconscious, he could recognize that he hadn’t been overreacting in the
slightest. In fact, he could kick himself in the teeth for not being more
vigilant with Honor and to hell with her contrary nature.
“We’re still waiting
for Cain or Mack to come out and tell us something. They were both on shift
when the ambulance brought her into the hospital. Cain promised Aunt Orla that
they’d be out to tell us something as soon as they know what they’re dealing
with. Neither one of them will leave her until she’s stable, Zeke,” Harmony
McKinnon Stone, the eldest McKinnon daughter, said softly. Her husband, Jake,
sat beside her in one of the empty waiting room chairs and slipped an arm
around her shoulders, drawing her against his side.
“Cain won’t let
anything happen to her,” Faith McKinnon Turner said, her small voice scared but
resolute in her belief that her physician husband, Cain, would move heaven and
earth to protect their baby sister.
Zeke closed his eyes
and inhaled deeply, reminding himself that yelling wasn’t going to accomplish
anything other than getting him thrown out of the hospital. Cain Turner and
Mackenzie Daniels were two of the best physicians he’d ever met. While both
worked out of small practices located in their small town of Paradise, Zeke
knew that was by their own choice, not necessity. Either man could have a
successful, thriving practice wherever they chose to go. Zeke was just
grateful that both men had chosen to stay local. Further, each man had played
a role in saving Honor’s life in both the recent and the not-so-recent past.
Each doctor was aware of Honor’s medical history and her extreme fear of
hospitals. They would be careful with their patient and both handle Honor
gently when the young woman regained consciousness. In his heart, he knew that
if he couldn’t be with her, Honor would be in good hands with Mack and Cain.
He knew it, but he didn’t have to like it.
Composing his face
into a calm mask, he opened his eyes and focused on the person nearest him.
“Patience,” he said softly, staring into the new mother’s eyes, “Tell me
exactly what happened.”
Exhaling a shaky
breath, Patience nodded toward the mostly filled chairs. “Aunt Orla was the
one that found her. She was with Honor in the ambulance, too. She could tell
you what was going on the best, Zeke, but remember,” Patience whispered,
leaning closer to him. “She’s an old woman that’s had a hell of a fright,
okay? Go easy.”
“I heard that
Patience Orla,” the McKinnon sisters’ auntie said sharply, middle naming her
namesake and pursing her lips at her niece before turning her weary hazel eyes
to look at Zeke. “I’m old, but I ain’t deaf.”
“What?” Uncle Jethro
yelled, cupping a hand over his ear as he squinted at his wife, his head cocked
to the side. “What’d you say, Orla?”
Aunt Orla rolled her
eyes and shook her head at her elderly husband. “Now Jethro, here, he’s deaf
as a fencepost,” she grumbled, shaking her head in disgust as she settled back
against her plastic chair, her knuckles white where they tightly gripped her
plain black leather pocketbook in her lap. “Sit down, Lawman, and try to stop
bein’ so intimidatin’. I’ll happily tell you what I know about our girl.”
Zeke offered the
ancient woman a rueful half smile as he quickly gave her hand a grateful
squeeze before taking the seat across from her. Of every member that made up
their convoluted ragtag family unit, Miss Orla was the one person that had
never tried to convince him to give up on his devoted pursuit of Honor. If
anything, she’d been an often eager and willing ally, regularly giving him a
heads up on where her youngest niece would be and what trouble she’d be finding
while she was there so that he could do his level best to stay one step ahead
of his tiny terror and keep his woman safe.
Hell, for as long as
he could remember, Honor’s auntie had referred to Honor Grace McKinnon as
‘their’ girl, willingly sharing the responsibility for her young charge with
him. Not that it surprised Zeke in the slightest. Orla McKinnon was a wise
woman who knew exactly how deeply his feelings ran for her sweet niece. She
had for a long time – probably longer than Zeke himself had known. Thankfully,
the old woman had accepted long ago that his feelings for her niece were never
going to change. So, instead of becoming his enemy, she’d become his champion,
and Zeke couldn’t have loved her more if the woman had been his own mother.
Meeting her timeworn gaze, Zeke reached out to grasp the woman’s wrinkled hand
in his. “How bad is it, Miss Orla?” he asked softly.
Eyes filling with
tears she stubbornly refused to shed, Orla sniffed. “Pretty bad, son.
Probably as bad as I’ve ever seen her save for when they brought her in after…
well, you know when,” she trailed off, her voice becoming fainter as she looked
away from the sheriff.
Closing his eyes,
Zeke hung his head. He knew exactly what Honor’s aunt was referring to and the
knowledge sat in his gut like a lead balloon, weighing him down as much today
as it had eight years ago. He still felt the impotent rage… still felt like he
was choking on the utter helplessness and despair of knowing he’d failed Honor
McKinnon on that long ago night. She’d just been a young girl then – a sweet,
sixteen year old kid with her whole life ahead of her, and like an idiot, he’d
played a part in robbing her of having a normal adolescence. Every day Zeke
lived with the devastation of knowing that he’d left that innocent angel – a
baby really - on the side of the road to be kidnapped and abused, fodder for
the ravening beasts that had taken and ravaged her. It was a bleak truth that
he’d been forced to exist with every day since it happened, knowing with every
heartbeat that nothing he could ever do would erase those horrible hours and
days that Honor had endured at the hands of her rapists and would
be-murderers.