Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (3 page)

“You’ve asked for nothing but made demands.
Now I’m going to make a few of my own. Come here again uninvited and I will kill you. Not injure you little, not hurt you until you bleed all over the ground beneath you, but simply kill you. Do you understand?” When Curt didn’t answer, Austin shook him hard. “I asked you a question.”

“Yes
, you mother fucker, I understand. You’re going to fucking pay for this Jodie. I swear to Christ you’re going to pay for making me look bad.”

The first man
laughed. “She had nothing to do with making you look bad, moron, you did that all on your own.”

As soon as Curt was dropped
, he lunged for her again, and the man kicked him in the face. She watched as Curt crumbled to the ground and lay there. When the man moved to stand in front of her, she tried to back away.

“I won’t hurt you.”
His voice was low, and she felt drawn to him, but took another step back. “Come on. Let me see if I can see how badly he hurt you.”

Jodie
shifted and took another step back. It had cost her a great deal, and she knew that if he tried to hurt her she wasn’t going to be able to defend herself. He stood up, and she realized that she wasn’t far off in thinking he wasn’t weak. In fact, he looked pretty fit to her. He reached out for her, and she put up her hands.

“You’re hurt.”
Nodding, she looked at Austin as he moved to pick up Curt with Myles. Myles put her brother over his shoulder and took off in the direction that her brother had come from.

“You’re
able to shift and keep your clothes on. That’s amazing, and you’re simply beautiful.” Jodie looked at him. “My name is Reid Atkins. You must be Jodie Turner. I’ve heard about you.”

“I am.
And I assure you, it’s all true.” She took another step back when he stepped toward her again. “I think you’re close enough. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

She wasn’t sure she could
, and he seemed to know it too. She watched him carefully as he moved behind her. Jodie looked at Austin.

“He won’t give up.
He’ll keep coming here until he either gets me or hurts one of your family. I’m going to see to my father. Then I’m going back home.” Austin shook his head and turned when he looked over her shoulder. Reid was coming toward her with a medical bag.

“I just want to make sure your ribs aren’t
puncturing your lungs. He kicked you fairly hard.” She took a step back when he reached for her. “It’ll go easier on you if you simply let me do this the easy way.”

“Excuse me?”
He nodded, and she looked at Austin. “Is he serious? Does he really think I should simply give in to him because he thinks I should make it easier on him?”

“I believe I’m standing right here.”
Reid took a step toward her and she bumped into Austin when she backed up. “I just want to check your breathing. You seem to be laboring.”

“No. I’m okay.” He touched her arm
, and she tried to pull away from him, but she wasn’t able to. Firstly, because she was hurting and dizzy from breathing as shallow as she could, and secondly, because Austin had put his arms around her waist and she felt the pressure building. When Reid put the stethoscope on her chest, she felt something move along her skin and realized it was her wolf responding to him. He must have felt her too because he looked at her.

As he leaned toward her
throat, she knew that he was going to taste her. Her entire body was on fire for him to bite her, and she tried to move back from him. But Austin held her tightly, and before she knew it, Reid was pulling her into his arms.

“Let me go.”
He touched his mouth to her pounding pulse just as Austin let her go. She stumbled slightly, but Reid held her. “Please let me go. I don’t want you to touch me. Let me go.”

“I don’t think so.” His teeth scraped along her throat
, and when he lifted his head, she could see his wolf. “You know.”

She shook her head
, but he was already lowering his mouth to hers. As his mouth brushed over hers, she heard Austin saying something but not what it was. As soon as Reid kissed her, she knew as surely as she was standing there that getting away now was going to be twice as hard. Then his tongue slid between her lips, and she figured she’d be lucky if she ever got away.

Chapter 3

Curt woke to find himself
lying on his front lawn. He tried to sit up but found that he hurt in more places than he had names for. When he was upright, he looked at the house and at Mike as he sat there watching him from a seat on the front porch.

“You okay
?” he shouted from the steps. “They dropped you there about two hours ago and said you’d been banned from the property. That one guy, the vampire that tossed you there, said to tell you if you come back he’ll drain you.”

Fucking bastards hadn’t paid him the respect that he deserved. He stood up and felt his head spin a little before he was able to move to the porch.
He dropped in one of the chairs there and heard it groan under his weight. Fucking fast food was going to kill him, but there was no one to cook for them anymore now that there wasn’t any money for a cook. He glared at Mike as he drank a cup of coffee from a local dive.

“You think to get me a cup?”
Mike shook his head and grinned. “Then I suggest you either get me a cup or give me yours. Either way, I’m going to have some coffee.”

Mike tipped the cup over. “Empty. Too bad. And I’ve no money to go and buy one either.
Like you, I’ve taken some time off to be with Dad while he moves from this world to the next.”

Curt snorted.
“Like you fucking care which world he’s in. And just so you know, I’m still drawing my check…well, half of it anyway. I’m on medical leave for the time being.”

Actually
, he wasn’t employed at all. He’d lost his job so long ago that he couldn’t even remember who it was he’d been working for. He knew that he’d been in management the last he remembered, but not where. It had been probably more than fifteen years since he’d held down any sort of job. Living off his dad’s social security had been a bitch, but after the old shit died, he was going to sell this piece of shit property and live like he wanted. Fuck the other two. His brother and sister were on their own.

He didn’t think
, however, that Jodie needed him or his money. She drove that nice bike, and she had some money on her all the time it seemed. And she was staying at the nice hotel downtown, the one that wouldn’t let him in to see her when he’d gone there after she’d just arrived. He looked in the yard for her bike, wondering if he could sell it before she returned.

“They took it with them when they left.”
He looked at Mike. “Her bike, those men that brought you here, took it with them when they left. Don’t know how they started it, but it fired right up and they drove off with it. The vamp said he was taking it, and if I had a problem with it, I could try and stop him. Man that fucker is big.”

He was strong
, too, as a matter of fact. Curt looked around the yard and wondered when was the last time the fucking thing was cut. Things were gonna have to be cleaned up before he could hope to sell this place. And it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a coat of paint slapped on the house either. He tried to think where he could steal some of that as well as a few other things when he realized his brother was talking.

“…sometime tomorrow.
I didn’t think she’d come back after the beating you gave her, but he said she would.” Curt asked him what the fuck he was talking about. “The doctor. He’s coming here tomorrow to see Dad. He’s going to be here sometime in the morning, and he wants to talk to all of us. I said I didn’t think Jodie would be here, and he said she would.”

“When did you talk
to him? And since when do doctors make house calls to a place like this one?” He knew that his father lived in not the worst part of town, but fairly close. “Who’s paying him, too?”

“The alpha called here about ten minutes ago and told me. He said that he’s footing the bill and he’d expect us to be on our best behavior or else.”
Mike handed him the scrap of paper with a phone number on it. “I don’t know where the fuck he gets off telling us to behave in our own home, but he said we’d better.”

“You know as well as I do that he’s the alpha and can pretty much do as he fucking pleases.
And if he wants to send a doctor out here, we can’t do shit about it. Not yet at any rate. Once Dad is dead, we can tell him to fuck off.” Mike nodded and Curt knew that he had no idea what the hell was going on. “What is he like tonight?”

Curt
couldn’t believe how long his dad was taking to fucking die. He’d been on his last legs for over three months now, and it was starting to get on his last nerve.
Die already will you
, he thought. He couldn’t hurry it along any more than he’d been doing already without causing people to start asking questions. And having Jodie and a new doctor there, he was having a hard time figuring out how to slip him any more poison…at least not as much as he’d been giving him. Maybe he’d give him enough tonight to finish him off during the night and there’d be no need of a visit from the doctor.

“I don’t know. Sometime tomorrow is all I know.
That guy said that if you had any questions to call him. I don’t care when he comes so long as he tells us when Dad’s going to die. I’m sick to death of waiting on him hand and foot.” Curt looked at his brother, thinking he’d never lifted a hand to give their dad even a tissue. But then neither had he.

“I’ve got work to do.”
Yeah
, he thought to himself,
killing off old Dad
. “Let me know when they get here in the morning. I’m thinking of sleeping late.”

“I’ll do that.”
As Curt walked away, he had a feeling that Mike wasn’t going to wake him at all and decided to set his alarm for very early. He moved toward the car his dad had had for the past fifteen years.

As he made his way into the tiniest town he’d ever seen
, he thought about growing up there. There was a gas station, a library, and one grocery store. And the store had very little going for it…a few things that he’d never eat and a nice selection of weed killer. That’s where he headed now.

“You have a slug problem?” He glanced at the woman standing next to him.
“We had them for a little bit on our strawberries, but I put out some lime and no problems again.”

“Yeah, slugs
, but I don’t like using lime.” He picked up the first bottle of killer and tried to ignore the woman standing next to him. She was a wolf, he knew that, but he didn’t really give a shit right now. When she moved away, Curt went to the cashier and paid for his purchase. As he moved out of the store, he saw the alpha standing next to his car.

“You should know that I’ve still not heard from you that you’re on my territory.
And since you seem to know all the rules of our kind, you should be well aware that I am well within my rights to kill you right now.” He moved with extraordinary speed and was within inches of his face. “You might want to make sure you do it as soon as possible before I get all pissy with you.”

He wanted to tell him to bring it on but was terrified the man would do just that.
He didn’t step back, as he had an overwhelming urge to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness. Instead, he tried not to notice the sweat rolling down his back and across his forehead. He would bet anything that Austin knew just what he was feeling. When he stepped back, Curt wanted to let out his breath, but the smile on Austin’s face made him hold onto it just a little longer.

“Austin?” Both men turned to the woman in the store who’d bothered him.
“Can you help me? And Billy is bringing out the rest of the things today.”

“Curt Turner, I’d like for you to meet my mother, Nancy Force.
Mom, this is the prick I was telling you about. He’s Jodie’s brother, one of them anyway.” Nancy nodded at him but said nothing as Austin continued. “He’s been trying to get Jodie to come home with him.”

“She’ll not be coming home with you now
, I think. She’s got things going on right now that you won’t understand.” She laughed a little and handed Austin a large bag. “She’s a lovely girl. What happened to you and your brothers? Different parents?”

He opened his mouth to tell her to fuck off
, but Austin cleared his throat, and he decided that he’d get her later. Picking up one of the bags from her cart, he handed it to Austin with a little more force than necessary. When he walked away, he heard them both laughing, and he felt his wolf stir along his skin. He got in the car and started it. He was nearly home again when he realized that he no longer had his poison, and just knew that it was now in the back of the huge truck that the alpha had been leaning against.

~~~

“I don’t think you understand what’s going on here.” Jodie looked at Reid and waited for him to explain whatever he thought she didn’t understand again. “You’re my mate, and as such, I need for you to be safe. Understand?”

“You know I’m not nearly as ignorant as you seem to think I am.
I understand a great deal, and one of them is this whole mate business. But without my permission, and I’ve never given it to you, you can’t claim me.” She stood up, and so did he. “I’m going back to my hotel now. It’s been really…nice here, but I’ve got a great many things to do before my father passes.”

“You and I are supposed to go there this morning. You heard Austin. He wants me to see what
, if anything, I can do to help him. Or if failing that, make sure his passing is relatively painless.” She snorted at him. “You don’t want him to have a painless death?”

“I could care less how he goes from this life and on to hell.
I’m only here because when he does pass on, I’m going to have to sell off the property and make sure my brothers are put out of the house before the thing is bulldozed.” He looked over her shoulder, and she reached out to the woman behind her. CJ again. That woman could come and go like she was walking on air.

“You two fighting again?
Christ, why don’t you just go up to the bedroom, get this marking and claiming shit over with, and get on with your lives?” She pulled three glasses out of the cabinet and then reached in the fridge for the tea. She poured the first glass and handed it out to her.

“I don’t drink tea, hot or cold.”
CJ raised her brow at her. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Better
, but not great. Sit down, the two of you.” Neither of them moved, and when CJ repeated herself, Reid sat, but she moved to the door. “I want a word with you before you go to the house. Austin thinks that your brother is killing your dad. Were you aware of that?”

She’d thought so
, but hadn’t been able to find anything in the house. There were some gardening supplies in the garage, but it had been so covered with dust that she figured no one had touched it for at least five years. Her father had only been dying for the past five months. She turned to look at CJ but didn’t move toward the table.

“You know this how?”
CJ pointed to the chair. “I can hear you just fine from here. You have something to say, then say it. I’ve got to get to the lawyers’ office before ten and see if he can do what needs to be done for me.”

“About that, did you know that Phil is a great
attorney? He is, and he’s been looking into what’s been going on over there for you. Were you aware that your brothers both think that they’re going to inherit the house and all the property?” Jodie nodded. “Ah, so you’ve not told them that your father signed it all over to you when you paid off the taxes. He might live longer if they knew. Or do you care?”

“Not
particularly. He’s as much a prick as his sons. At least he had been until he got sick.” Jodie turned to the table where they both still sat. “What business is this of yours anyway? It’s not like we’re friends. And I’m reasonably sure we’ve never met before the other day. So again I ask, what do you care?”

“About him?
I don’t care about him. And I’m well aware of what sort of person your father is. He and my own father were best buddies. It’s really too bad my father didn’t realize that old man Turner was something he despised more than he did me.”

“Webber?
You’re Webber’s daughter?” She nodded, and Jodie knew her whole life history in that second. “Your dad was a real peach. He hit me once when I was just a kid. He took exception to me walking on the sidewalk in front of his house.”

“Yeah, he was a real shit.
Your father isn’t much better from what I remember.” Jodie looked into the yard where her bike was sitting while CJ continued. “I’d very much like it if you sat down and let us discuss what might be going on over there. Phil is going with you by the way. He’s got permission from your own attorney. They’re good friends.”

As if he was summoned
, Phil walked in the house. Jodie looked at Reid when he stood up and gave the large vampire a hug. She took a step back when Phil came toward her. He sniffed the air around her and turned to Reid.

“So, she’s your mate.”
Jodie rolled her eyes and looked out the door again. “You should know that I’m impressed by you.”

She wondered who Phil was talking to and turned to see that he was speaking
to her. “Me? What did I do to impress you? I’m just trying to get back to my hotel to take a shower.”

The
images of being naked in the shower made her look at Reid. An image of him naked with her in the shower made her take another step back. When he stood up, she knew that he had somehow realized what she’d been thinking.