Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (5 page)

“Zeke?  I want Zeke. 
Da bad men won’t come if Zeke’s here,” Honor mumbled almost incoherently though
her eyes remained closed as Millie Daniels ran a soothing hand up and down her
patient’s arm.

“Shhhh, Honor.  He’s
just got here, sweetie,” Millie murmured soothingly before looking up to meet
Zeke’s worried eyes.  “Sheriff,” she greeted the man in a soft voice with a
slight nod.  “As you can see, our patient is a little restless.  She’s not
quite awake, but she seems to want you.”

“Want Zeke,” Honor
continued to babble her pleas, her head tossing on the pillow as her tiny body
stiffened.  “Please!  I need Zeke,” her drugged voice begged weakly as her hand
lifted as though reaching for something.

“She’s been like this
for about the last half hour,” Millie explained quietly as Zeke quickly tossed
his Stetson into an empty chair and moved quickly to Honor’s side.  “Sometimes
she rambles about the bad men, but mostly she’s just been callin’ for you,
Sheriff.”

Zeke nodded
wordlessly, his worried gaze focused on his woman.  Already bending toward
Honor, he pressed his lips against her flushed temple.  “Hush, Kitten,” he
murmured against her ear as he cupped her face gently.  “I’m here now.  Just
rest easy, baby.  I’ve got you now.”

Honor seemed to relax
at the sound of his familiar voice, her petite body subsiding into the thin
mattress as her face turned toward the sound of his deep voice.  “Zeke,” she
whispered, her features visibly relaxing as she heard his voice.

“Yeah, Kitten.  It’s
Zeke,” he assured her huskily, his thumb moving back and forth over the apple
of her cheek as he lifted concerned eyes to Millie.  “Is she okay?” he asked
shakily.

“She’s coming off the
Seconal, Zeke.  It’s got a very disorienting effect to it.  She’s scared and uncertain
right now.  But she’s already settled down a whole lot from just the sound of
your voice.  That’s a good sign,” Millie assured him.

“I’m not leaving
her.  You tell whoever you need to tell, but until Honor’s herself again, I’m
staying right here,” Zeke informed her grimly, dragging one of the nearby
plastic chairs toward the bed and sitting beside Honor, her hand held firmly in
his.

Millie smiled
faintly.  “Somehow, I figured you’d say that.  I’ve got a couple of other
patients to check on, Zeke, so I’ll give you two some privacy for a few
minutes.  We’ll be moving her to a private room upstairs soon, but just sing
out if you need a nurse before then, okay?”

Zeke nodded mutely as
his eyes stayed transfixed to Honor’s now slack face. 

“Okay,” Millie
nodded, patting Zeke’s shoulder as she passed him.  “She had a close call,
Sheriff, but Honor’s a strong woman.  She’ll pull through this… especially if
she’s got you in her corner.”

“I’ll always be in
her corner,” Zeke returned hoarsely.  “It’s where I live, Millie.”  Waiting
until he heard the curtain swish shut behind Millicent, Zeke leaned forward in
his chair to press a kiss against Honor’s forehead.  “You scared the shit out
of me again, Kitten.  What the hell happened today, baby?  Why’d you try and
leave me again?” he choked, squeezing his eyes closed and wishing like hell 
for once that she’d open those eyes and give him hell for crowding her.   
“Talk to me, Kitten,” he begged, pressing his lips to her hand as he opened his
eyes to stare at her beautiful face.

Almost as if she
heard his order, Honor’s eyelids fluttered slowly.  “Z-zeke?”  Slowly meeting
his steady gaze with unfocused eyes, Honor smiled loopily.  “You’re really
here?  You came for me?”

“Baby, the one thing
you can count on is that as long as I’m breathing, I will
always
come
for you, Honor. 
Always
,” Zeke assured her gently with a loving smile as
he stroked her wispy blonde hair from her face.  “How do you feel, sweetheart?”

“Yucky,” Honor
announced with a yawn.  “So, so tired.  Why am I so sleepy, Zeke?” she managed
to ask as her eyes grew heavier.

Deciding that the
less information he offered right now, the better, he simply said, “You’ve had
a bad day, Honor, but I’m here now, and nothing else is gonna happen to you. 
Just rest for me, okay?  We’ll talk later, Sweet Girl.”

“Uh huh.  You mean
you’re gonna lecture.  You don’t know how t’talk to a girl,” she grunted as her
eyes drifted closed again.

Zeke couldn’t help
his smile.  If his Honor was feeling well enough to try and get the last word
in with him, she was on the road to recovery.  Leaning forward to press another
kiss to her pale cheek, he inhaled deeply, taking her scent into his lungs and
letting it calm him.

He wasn’t sure what
exactly had happened between the time he’d left her this morning to go to work
and now, but whatever it was, he’d handle it.  Because there was no way he was
going to lose her. 

No way.  He’d battle
the Devil himself if he needed to do it, but there was no way he was going to
give up on his girl.  Not after the past several months and everything they’d
been through together.   Noting Honor’s now serene face, Zeke released a
relieved breath and closed his own eyes as he quietly reviewed the last six
months of progress – or, at times, the lack of progress, he’d made with his
woman.

November 2015 

If the worst phone
call Sheriff Zeke Monroe had ever gotten was the night Honor McKinnon went
missing in 2008, then a close second would always be November 20, 2015... or
more commonly known to him as the second time he’d nearly lost the woman he
loved. 

It should have been
an evening filled with nothing more serious than poker, beer and the male
bonding of a handful of his closest friends as they gathered to celebrate the
fact that Patience’s sentence of bed rest had been commuted for good behavior. 
It was a widely known fact that the formerly anti-motherhood Patience and her
man, Abel Turner, had been waiting for the birth of their twins with bated
breath and no small amount of anxiousness.  Since she’d had a little trouble
with carrying the two tiny Turners, Dr. Mack Daniels had prescribed prolonged
bed rest to the most ornery McKinnon sister – not a hugely uncommon occurrence
in multiple pregnancies.  Of course, nobody had told Honor’s sister
that
fact. 
No, Patience McKinnon had not responded well to being bed bound, but then,
she’d never been a bird that was easily caged and she’d repeatedly let everyone
– especially that poor bastard, Abel, know it.  Thankfully for everyone that
loved both Patience and Abel, that imposed restriction had been lifted that
very day.  And while the expectant momma planned to celebrate with her sisters
at their family farmhouse, Zeke had been elected to host Abel and a few of
their other friends at his place.

It should have been a
time of laughter.   A time when Abel should have been able to safely decompress
before the birth of his twins while his woman spent time being spoiled by her
sisters.

It should have been a
lot of things that it hadn’t been.

Because, like most
good things…that night, too, came to an abrupt, screeching end in the space of
one phone call.

One second, Zeke had
been laughing with his brother, Ice, and their friends Jake Stone and Diego
Fuentes over Abel’s seeming inability to follow the simple instructions of one
tiny pregnant woman to the letter.  A heartbeat later, one phone call had sent
four men running out into the night, each praying that they weren’t too late to
save two women that everyone there cared about deeply…and two men loved more
than reason.

~***~

“Seriously, man,”
Zeke smirked, enjoying the annoyed look on his buddy’s face.  “How the hell
hard can it be?  She wrote you a list.  I saw it.”

Gazing sulkily at
the amused man, Abel shook his head.  “You’d be surprised, asshat.  There were
fourteen different flavors of chocolate to choose from.  How the hell was I
supposed to know there was such an all-fired distinct difference between
Hershey’s and Dove milk chocolate?  I thought chocolate was fuckin’ chocolate! 
I’m tellin’ you, pregnant women set you up for failure.  Mark my words.  Wait
until you finally get Honor in your bed and you knock her up.  You’ll see.”

“I’m not worried. 
If loving Honor Grace has taught me one thing, it’s to never underestimate a
woman that possesses duct tape, a butter knife, and a determined smile.  It
won’t end well for you.  Like Honor, Patience has access to all three.  Did you
really expect her not to use them?”  Zeke laughed as the usually unflappable
former drug lord at the table dropped his cards, face down, on the table and
clapped his hand over his ears. 

“Yeah, I’ll remind
you of this conversation when Honor has your balls on the chopping block,” Abel
grumbled.

“Ah!  I fold!” the
Mexican man huffed.  “I can’t concentrate when Señor Pendejo insists on saying
things like that about the Little One.    Thoughts of gentle Honor doing… those
things with anyone… Just no,” Diego denied with a shudder. 

Zeke grinned,
surprised to find himself liking the scarred Mexican man seated across from
him.  At first, he’d been concerned by the friendship the man had developed
with Honor when he’d moved into the apartment above the diner while waiting for
his father’s case to go to trial in Knoxville, but it had quickly become clear
that Diego looked upon Honor with a brotherly or fatherly fondness.  “Don’t
worry, Diego,” Zeke said, peering down at the full house he held in his left
hand.  “Honor and I are a long way from what Abel just described.”

“Yeah,” Ice
scoffed, studying his cards.  “Like light years apart.”  Offering his little
brother a sidelong glance, Zachariah ‘Ice’ Monroe shook his head, dismay
shining in his eyes.  “Man, maybe you need to think about givin’ up there.  I
know Honor’s sweet as candy, but there are a lot of other women in this town that’d
be a whole lot less work for a man.  For cryin’ out loud, when was the last
time you got your dick wet anyway?  Was Bush in office?”

It was an old
argument between them, Zeke reminded himself as he glared at his brother. 
“Don’t worry about my dick and mind your own business, Ice.  Swear to God,
sometimes I think one of us must have been adopted.  Especially when you start
up with this shit.  Let it go, brother.”

Dropping his ante
in the pot in the middle of the table, Ice shot his brother an annoyed look. 
“We’re family.  You ARE my business, baby brother,” he said condescendingly. 
“And all I’m saying is that there’s no harm in looking around and seeing who
else is available out there.”

“Maybe not, but
it’s a waste of time when you know that no other woman is gonna be able to ease
the ache.  Honor’s who I want, man.  She’s the only one I’ve wanted for a long
damned time.  What the hell is your problem with Honor anyway?  You know what
she’s been through and when you talk like you are, you gotta know you just
sound like a Grade A dick.”

“I’ve got no
problem with Honor, man,” Ice spat.  “My problem is with you acting like the
sun rises and sets on her.”

“Is it so hard for
you to understand that, for me, it does,” Zeke snapped roughly as his brother
laid his cards on the table.

“Two pair,” Ice
growled back, gesturing to his cards.

Seeing the two
sets of cards, Jacks and sevens, that his brother held, Zeke smiled coolly,
taking his time as he dropped his full house on the table.  “I’d say my Queen
can take your Jack’s asses any day,” he announced sharply, the double entendre
deliberate as his keen gaze fell on the other man.

Jake, Abel and
Diego all laughed as Ice glared.  “Smartass,” the former Green Beret muttered. 
“Listen, you’re my brother, Zeke.  I’m only trying to look out for what’s best
for you.”

“Then you’ll be
happy to know I found her several years back,” Zeke returned evenly.  “It’s
Honor.  Honest to God, Zachariah, I don’t know what the hell has crawled up
your ass lately, but I know one thing.  In this world, you can either offer the
hand that helps somebody up or be the hand that pushes somebody down. I know
which hand I use.  Now, let's talk about you.”

“I’m not trying to
push down anybody, Zeke.  Least of all Honor McKinnon.  Fuck!  I just don’t
like seein’ you walkin’ around like some fuckin’ pussy-whipped motherfucker,”
Ice grumbled under his breath.

“Says the man that
can’t commit to anything other than a single night of fun,” Zeke countered,
disgusted.  Shaking his head at his older brother by barely a year, he
scoffed.  “You might just wanna keep your eyes on your own life, bro.  From
where I sit, footloose and fancy free isn’t lookin’ real good on you.  Maybe
you need to find your own Honor.”

“True,” Jake added
from Zeke’s right.  “The way Leslie Shepherd told my wife, you can’t even be
bothered to offer a gal breakfast.  He’s all about gettin’ in a woman’s panties
and gettin’ ‘em both off, but he’s a TRUE expert at the whole gettin’ gone
thing.  Harmony said Leslie was a little pissed you left skid marks in her
driveway,” he goaded Zeke’s silently simmering brother.

“I never took
Harmony for a town gossip, but evidently your wife has a big mouth,” Ice
returned gruffly. 

“It’s not gossip
when you get the information from the source,” Abel pointed out.

“Breakfast implies
more commitment than I’m comfortable with offering,” Ice stated defensively.

“Yeah, I’ve heard
that toast and coffee are often precursors to a diamond ring,” Abel stated
dryly.

“Shut up!” Ice
growled, balling up a napkin and tossing it at Abel.

Zeke’s chuckle was
cut off as his phone rang and the buzzer on his police scanner suddenly went
off.

Turning in his
chair to turn down the volume on the scanner, he swept his thumb across the
screen of his phone and pressed it to his ear without paying attention to who
the caller was.  Pressing the phone to his ear, he ignored the old-fashioned
ribbing going on at the table to answer the call.  “Sheriff Monroe,” he greeted
the caller brusquely.

“Zeke?  It’s Trudy
over here at the Emergency Operations Center.  I’m sorry for calling, but Miss
Myrtle and I knew you’d wanna know right away.  By any stroke of luck, is Abel
Turner there with you?  Myrtle said he would be,” the woman questioned in a
rush.

Stiffening in his
straight-backed dining room chair, Zeke gripped the phone tighter as he
listened to his normally calm emergency dispatcher babble.  “Trudy, slow down. 
He’s here with me.  What’s going on over there?” he asked a feeling of dread
settled in his gut and the table around him went quiet.

“Zeke, what’s
goin’ on?” Jake asked from beside him.

“Sheriff, I hate
to do this to you, but there’s been an accident.  It’s Patience and Honor
McKinnon.”

Zeke hissed
through his teeth as he rose from the table, knocking his chair backwards. 
“How bad and where, Trudy?” he asked sharply as the men began to rise around
him, each one poised for battle.

“Route 17 at Rosewater
Creek.  We’ve got units in route, but if you’re at your house, you’re gonna get
to them quicker.  I’m listening in on Myrtle’s call.  It sounds bad, Zeke. 
Patience thinks she’s in labor and Honor….”

“What about
Honor?” Zeke asked harshly, his long legs eating the distance between his
dining room and the front door of his house.  Dimly aware of his friends
dogging his heels, he distantly heard Abel shouting questions at him.

“She was driving. 
They were run off the road and went over the embankment into the creek.  Honor
is unconscious and Patience says she’s impaled on a tree limb that came through
the windshield,” Trudy answered, her kind voice thick with tears.  “You all
need to hurry.  They’re in the water, Zeke, and with the rain we’ve had…”

“Shit!  Patch
through the call.  I want to hear them!”

“Are you sure,
Sheriff?”

“Patch the fuckin’
call through now and put every free man we’ve got in the area on the road to
the crash site!” he barked, pulling keys out of his pocket before climbing into
his SUV, barely aware of Abel climbing into the passenger seat behind him. 
Glancing in his rearview mirror, he saw his brother slide into the backseat of
his Durango as the echoing sound of doors slamming shut thundered in his head
while Jake and Diego started a nearby truck.

“Patching in now,
Zeke,” Trudy’s soft voice acquiesced while Zeke quickly explained to Abel and
Ice what was happening.

~***~

He made the trip to
the site of Honor’s wreck in record time while he, Abel, and Ice listened to
Patience’s scared, weak voice feed information to the dispatchers.  Beside him,
Abel gripped his hands in fists as his body vibrated with pent-up energy,
waiting for them to reach the wrecked car.  And Zeke completely understood
where the man’s head was.  Thankfully, Zeke’s intimate knowledge of all of
Paradise’s roads and shortcuts came in handy, getting them to the site of the
crash in record time, but nothing on Earth could have prepared any of them for
what they found there when he’d pulled his SUV over to the edge of the road and
stared down into the creek bed below them.

Honor’s car rested at
a forty-five degree angle against a large tree growing out of the water, the
nose of her vehicle crumpled as if it was made from construction paper rather
than steel.  Swallowing hard as he’d pushed his way out of his own vehicle, he
crawled over the busted median to slide down the steep, muddy embankment into
the water, hissing as the frigid temperature penetrated through his denim clad
legs.  He knew they needed to act fast.  Otherwise, both Patience and Honor
would freeze to death before their injuries could kill them.  Wading closer to
the smoking vehicle, he heard the sounds of Abel and Ice following him into the
creek and Abel’s deep, broken voice as he called Patience’s name.

Taking a deep breath
as he spotted the tree limb skewering the windshield of Honor’s car, his
stomach dropped when he realized that it had impaled Honor.  Fighting to move
through the churning water faster, he finally reached the submerged car.  Half
in and half out of the water, the car was in a precarious position as he
reached it, vaguely hearing Abel’s raspy voice calling to Patience as he
circled to the other side of the vehicle.  Getting a good look at Honor’s
still, unconscious body, he flinched.