Impassable Force: Force of Nature Series (4 page)

“Is Carter a real person?
The reason I ask is because I thought he should be a snake or something. At least something that would slither along his belly as he caused harm.” He shook his head and sat back down. “I’m freaking out. I mean…could you guys just go away? I mean, I think I can handle this better if I’m alone.”

“I think not.
” Molly looked at Jodie as Reid left the room. She looked so serious even with the smile that only went to her mouth. Her eyes looked hard like she’d seen more than most people. “You’re in danger, you know that, right?”

“I don’t know why.
Carter is getting what he wanted. My sister can no longer fight him on it.” Molly looked away. “She was divorcing him. It’s more than likely why he killed her. He was always a selfish prick. She was the fatted calf, so to speak.”

Closing her eyes, Molly let the tears flow. She’d not done that since she’d heard about her sister.
Mary, her kind and loving sister, was gone and now she was all alone. The door opened and closed after a few minutes, and Molly didn’t bother looking. She just wanted to be left alone. Soon sleep took her.

Blood was everywhere
. Her sister…someone had shot her and her eye was missing. Pain tore through Molly as she tried to reach her, but Mary kept moving further and further away from her until she was simply gone. When she looked up, a man was standing over her and he was pointing a gun to her head. Then suddenly he was a large, black wolf. A scream tore from her mouth as she sat up and pulled her gun. A man sitting there very still never moved as she tried to remember where she was. She realized she was pointing a gun at him when he looked down at it before speaking.

“
I’m Phil Campbell.” She nodded but didn’t drop her gun. “I’m sure as the pain lessens you’ll have less and less nightmares like the one you just had. I know that my pain, while there, is still hurtful, but it doesn’t take my breath away. I understand you tried to save your sister by calling in the police.”

“They were too late.” He shook his head
, and she frowned. “They told me that she died. I assumed it was at the scene or very close after.”

“No. I spoke to her
here at the hospital. She was alive when they brought her in but very close to death and asked for me. She and I had a long conversation just before she died.” Molly lowered the gun, but she didn’t let it go as Mr. Campbell continued. “She wanted me to give you a message. I do believe that is why she waited for me to come to her.”

“She said you were her lawyer and that she trusted you.
I don’t.” He nodded and smiled at her. “What are you? Mary said you were…not normal or something. I don’t…that other couple, the Atkins, they said they were wolves. Are you?”

“They are
, but I am not. I’m a vampire.” She nodded. Okay, this was still a dream and she’d wake up soon. “You’re not dreaming, Molly. May I call you that? I have a great deal of respect for what you do for a living. And now that you’re awake, we can get down to business.”

“What sort of…is the department
suing me? I was an officer down. They knew that. I didn’t use my job to get them there faster for my sister.” He only smiled again and she saw his fangs. Molly didn’t know why but thought he had done that on purpose. “Why are you here, Mr. Campbell?”

“Your sister left you everything.”
Molly was shaking her head as he moved his chair closer to the bed and started laying out papers on the little table. “She also had a message for you. She wanted you to live for her. I’m not sure what she thought you were doing prior to her death, but I’m reasonably sure she had her reasons.”

“I was a hermit. She’d been telling me that for weeks.
I love what I do and sort of worked a good deal more than I should have. She wanted me to date and to find….” Molly took a deep breath. “What do you mean she left me everything? I thought because Fuckwad and her were still married, he got it all.”

“They weren’t.”
Molly waited for him to continue, but he handed her a paper instead. It was a divorce decree. It was dated several months before her sister’s death. Molly looked at the man.

“This
isn’t possible. She told me that day that she’d only just contacted you about this.” He handed her another paper—this one was notes. A conversation between her sister and this man and the man she’d met at the hospital. Another werewolf, she assumed.

“She and I had an agreement. And when she died…was killed by someone, I decided to use my considerable power to make it happen so
her husband got nothing.” He took the papers and turned to somewhere in the middle before handing it back. “As you can see, she had made you her benefactor. She wanted you to have it all. If you’d like, I can continue to serve you until you—”

“Hang on.”
She looked at the divorce papers, then picked up the last sheath of papers. It was a will. Molly looked at the little tabs where Mary had signed, then at the pages that Mr. Campbell said she should see. “She didn’t know what she was doing. I don’t want all this. How much is it anyway? Never mind. I don’t care.”

“
You should. Miss Ravenhall said that if you wanted to sell the house, she would be all right with that but thought you should live there for a time. She wanted you to get a feel for it before you let it go. I can have it sold for you in a few months, a year maybe. But if you wait on it, I’m sure I can get a better price. But like your sister, I think you should stay there. The locks have been changed, and a security team is in—”

“You’re going too fast.” Mr. Campbell sat down and looked at her. He wasn’t mad
, though she couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t. She’d hardly let him finish a statement since she’d woke up.

“Molly, your sister wanted you to live for her.
She told me that. Her words were, ‘tell Molly that she has to live for me.’ She said it sounded like a line from one of her movies, but she was insistent about it. She wanted you to find a good man and have children. When I told her you might not make it either, she laughed and told me, ‘She’ll live. She’s much too strong and stubborn not to, but how she lives will be what matters. Tell her to live. Not just breathe.’”

That sounded like something Mary would say
, and Molly felt her tears start to flow again. Mr. Campbell handed her a tissue and waited while she tried to get herself under control. She had to think of something else and started talking simply to get her heart and mind under control.

“When we were small, Mary and I had this place we’d go to play. When I think back on it now,
it’s a small wonder we didn’t get ourselves killed by running off on our own.” The pain of what she’d said hurt, but she continued, “She would pretend to be all sorts of characters and I’d be her audience. She was amazing even back then.”

“She was an amazing actress.
I have seen all her movies.” Molly nodded. “Molly, we can do this some other time. I know you must be hurting right now.”

“I am.
I don’t know what to do. She was all I had.” Not looking at him, she ran her finger over the borrowed gun and closed her eyes. “If you’ll just give me the papers to sign, I’d like to get this over with. Then I want you to find a way to get rid of everything. There is nothing in that house that I’d want after Carter touched it.”

The room was very quiet
, and she turned to look at Mr. Campbell after a few minutes. He was gone and in his place was Randy Atkins. He frowned at her and sat down in the chair that Mr. Campbell was in.

“He asked me to come and finish this for him. The sun is beating down on him
, he said.” She nodded as he handed her the papers again. “I’m not sure where he left off, but if you can tell me, I’ll get things going.”

“Are you
really a wolf?” He looked at her and nodded. “Show me.” She had no idea why she’d asked him to do that, but he didn’t move for several seconds. When he stood up, she almost told him to forget it. But he took off his jacket and laid it at the foot of her bed.

“I’ll only morph my arm if that’s okay with you
.” She nodded as he took off his cuff links and handed them to her. When his fingers brushed over her palm, her breath caught and she looked up at him. He grimaced. “I’d rather we didn’t touch. It’s very difficult to be with you now.”

“Why?”
He didn’t answer her as he rolled up his sleeve. When his lovely grey shirt sleeve was up to his elbow, she looked at his arm and watched as hair, dark and thick, sprouted there. Then his hand changed. Where his fingers had been, now there was long, sharp claws and his hand was a thick paw. She wanted to be terrified of what he was showing her, but more than anything she wanted to touch him.

“I’m your mate. Did anyone tell you that?” She shook her head and watched as he changed back to a regular person.
“My wolf knows who you are to us and he wants me to mark you. I’m not going to. We have to stay apart or the power of your scent will make me do things to you that neither of us will want.”

“Like?”
Randy pulled his sleeve down and then pulled on his jacket. She still had his cuff links and put them on the table when he pointed to it. He picked them up and put them into his pocket. When he started gathering up his briefcase she’d only just noticed he’d had, she asked him again.

“Like he wants me to fuck you.
Hard and fast. Take you from behind and mark you as he comes deep inside of you.” Her body seemed to catch fire as he continued, his voice hard and unforgiving. “Then as a man, I’d want to do the same. Eat your pussy until I’ve had my fill of you, then slam my cock into you until I fill you up. Then again when you come, I’ll want to sink my teeth into your creamy flesh and taste your spiked blood, filling you with my essence so no other male will come near you.” He leaned down to her, and she felt his hot breath on her lips and licked them. “Tell me to leave you now, Molly. Tell me or I’m going to kiss you.”

Her breath seemed to sear her lungs, her heart rate had tripled
, and she could feel her body getting ready for him. A stranger, she kept telling herself, and it did little good. She wanted him as much as she needed her next breath. Even as breathless as she was, she told him to leave.

“Too late.” His mouth took hers almost as soon as his words left his mouth.
Not in a simple kiss as she had expected but a taking. He devoured her mouth; his tongue touched her in places that made her body pulse with need. When his fingers curled in the back of her head and he tilted her head, she moaned. Randy seemed to touch her deep inside of her body, and she wanted…no, she
needed
more. But before she could pull him on top of her, have him do all the things he’d thought to threaten her with, he jerked away from her.

“Stay away from me and I’ll do the same.
We cannot let this take us.” Molly wanted to point out she’d wanted him to leave but knew he’d know it for the lie it was. Before she could say anything, not even sure what it might have been, he was gone and she was all alone.

“Mother fuck.”
She laid back on the bed and tried to reason what had happened just now. But her fingers on her swollen lips had her wondering if a kiss from him could make her feel this way, then what the hell sex would be like.

Chapter 4

Randy
stomped around his apartment for an hour before he realized he needed to take a long run. He reached for his brother and asked if he could run on his property and was told to go ahead.

“You okay? You’re sounding a little on edge.”
Randy told him that he was fine. And he was pretty sure that his brother knew that he wasn’t. “
I’m just getting excited about leaving. It’s only in a few days.”

He had been working on the laws and bylaws from the book
when he’d been asked by Phil to come back and make sure that Molly Barker had all she needed. He’d made sure of that all right. He’d nearly fucked her on the hospital bed.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to get together before you go. I have some things I want you to do for me.”
His brother was his only family and if he wanted something done for him, Randy knew he’d do it. At all costs.
“Did you know that woman left the hospital today?”

“She did?”
Randy paused in getting into his car to think of how delicious she’d tasted and tried to squash that thought
. “I had to have her sign some papers today. She didn’t say anything about leaving.”

He’d not done that either. All he’d been asked to do was have her sign the bank card and to have her sign a contract making Phil’s firm her lawyer until she found one of her own. All he’d managed to do was taste her
, and now he couldn’t get out of his mind how soft and yet firm she’d been when he touched her.

“She left without being released. The nurse we had watching her said she went in to take her
vitals again and she was packed up. Said she’d called a friend of hers to come and get her. It was that new guy that is retiring from her station. I think his name is Martin something. I guess he’s pledging to Austin in the morning.”

She was with another man was all his mind could accept at the moment. Instead of going to his brother
’s, he found himself going to her apartment. It was a long drive but maybe he’d be calmer for it when he got there. For some reason Randy doubted it, but he was hoping so. He told Reid that he had to do something and would meet him later. An hour later he was pulling up in front of her shabby apartment building.

There was no security
, and as soon as he walked up to her front door he knew that she was not going to be staying there again. He could smell the urine coming from the second floor as he made his way to the fourth. The elevator, he’d been told, had never worked.

Randy moved down the hall to her apartment.
He’d had to find her address when she’d been named in the will even though they all knew where she was. Randy had no idea why he’d remembered it but was glad now that he had. Looking around, he pressed hard against the doorframe, and it gave too easily as far as he was concerned.

The room he walked into was in direct contrast to the rest of the building.
Where it was run down and dirty, this room, her living room, he supposed, was spotless and full of dark earth tones. After closing the door as best he could, he walked around the room.

The couch was a deep red, almost blood red
, with pillows of every hue of brown he’d ever seen. He thought of fall when he looked at them together, and the throw on the back looked like one that CJ used to have sent to him at college. Like the one she’d brought them the first time he’d seen her and Austin.

There was a smallish television that sat on an old table and an old VCR. He had no idea they even made them anymore. But her collection of tapes made him smile. She watched the same sort of movies he liked.
Classics as well as murder mysteries. There were plants in the window as well as on most of the tables around the room. Picking up the watering can, he walked to the kitchen to fill it.

The kitchen was as lovely as the living room.
Here she’d used dark blues and darker golds. He loved the mixture, and while the can filled he opened her cabinets to see what she ate. He nearly burst out laughing when he saw the nine boxes of sugary sweet cereal all lined up. There was also a box of ramen noodles and nothing else. So she wasn’t a cook. He was. Before he could let that train of thought go on, he turned off the water and started filling the pots in this room first. He was nearly finished with the living room when he felt someone coming down the hall toward him.

The man wasn’t thinking of harming anyone
, but he was armed. The ball bat could hurt Randy, sure, but he was more concerned about the fact that the man was pissed off about the rent being late. Randy was standing there with his hands free when the man pushed the door open. He’d have to thank Jodie for the little extra she’d given him at the hospital.

“Whatcha doing here?
The girl that lives here lives alone, and you don’t look like her type anyway.” Randy nodded and moved into the man’s mind a little deeper to see what sort of type he thought Molly had. Thankfully he’d never seen her with another man but was still pissy.

“I’m her friend. I’ve come by to collect a few things for her and to water her plants.” The man looked at the door. “It was like that when I got here.”

He looked at the door and started cussing. “There was this fancy pants man here about two hours ago looking to see her, but I told him she hadn’t been in. Then I got this call I was waiting on and he might have slipped by me.” Randy nodded and looked for what the man might have looked like as the landlord continued. “Her rent is past due. She is good about paying on time and I…I was worried about her being a cop and all.”

“She was hurt not long ago.
That’s why I’m here.” He reached for his wallet slowly. “If you tell me how much she owes and how much you think it will cost to fix the door, I’ll take care of that now. I’m also going to have someone come in and pack her things up. She will be staying with me for a while.”

He nodded and told him a price.
Randy knew that it was much higher than her rent was and way more than it would cost to fix the door, but he paid the man and was handed a key when he told the man he’d need one. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with it once the door was fixed, but he felt better about having something that would show he was coming back. Randy knew that Molly was going to be pissed when she found out how high handed he’d been.

Randy pulled out his cell phone and called a few of his pack members in to help him move her.
She couldn’t stay here even if she wanted to. Carter would return and if she was here, Randy didn’t think anyone would help her out if she needed it. Within an hour he had the plants put on the counter and most of her kitchen packed up when three trucks pulled up out front. And two hours later, the apartment was emptied of everything, including the left over beers he’d paid his buddies with. They were on their way back to his place when his phone rang.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
He wasn’t sure who he was talking to and waited. They’d either give him more information so he could answer or he’d have to ask who it was. “This is Molly Barker. My landlord just called me and said someone is moving my things out. And when he described you to me, I had to…what are you doing moving me out of my own place?”

“Carter sent a man here to kill you.” That shut her up. For all of about ten seconds. And when she started telling him she
could handle him herself, he cut her off. “And how would you do that? Shoot him? I doubt very much you’d get away with that. And the goon he sent for you, the man was a wolf too. Do you have any idea what he would have done to you had he smelled me on you?”

“Smelled you on me?
What the hell are you talking about? You know what, I don’t care. You stop what you’re doing right now and put my things right back where you got them. And if one thing is broken, I’m going to sue you.” He could almost see her with her hands on her hips giving him orders. Randy had no idea why he thought that was funny, but he laughed.

“I’m finished and we’re about ten minutes from the pack house right now.
By the way, I’d thought you’d be at the apartment when you left the hospital. Where did you go?”

Her voice cracked
, and he knew that she’d gone to her sister’s home, now her home. “I wanted to see if there was anything here I wanted. It smells like her. And there are her clothes in her closets that she wore the night before she…. I was at her premier with her and we’d had such a good time.”

Randy pulled off at the next exit to go to the house. It was a little closer to the pack house than he was right now and told the others to go on. He knew that they’d put her things in the barn or somewhere to store them. He had to go to her.

“I saw her last movie. Your sister could light up a screen like nobody else could.” He pulled up the long drive and waved to the security officer that came out just as he pulled up. “I’m almost to you, Molly.”

“Don’t bother. I’m leaving now anyway.”
He stopped the car in the front of the garage and got out. Christ, this house was bigger than the one that he and his brother had bought a few years ago. She was just coming out when he got to the steps.

“This is a lovely home.”
She nodded and held what looked like frames closer to her chest. “Would you like to show me around?”

“No.” She didn’t move
, and neither did he. He wanted to pull her into his arms but knew that the moment he touched her it would be lost. Hell, he thought, it was already. “My brother and his wife have a large home, too. It’s their kitchen that I love. Do you cook?”

“You know I don’t if you were at my apartment.
Are my things being put back where they were before you barged into my life and moved them?” He shook his head. “Are you always this pushy? And do you generally get your way? I’m not a pushover, so you know.”

“Yes to both questions.
And I’m well aware that you are not a pushover. You’re very…scrappy, as my friend would say.” He took a step toward her, then another. “Do you have any idea how much I’d like to kiss you again? Take your mouth with mine and see if what I tasted there was real?”

“You said for me to leave you alone.
Maybe you should listen to your own advice.” He was pretty sure she was right but took another step up and was on the same level as she was. “You’re not going to touch me. I don’t want you to at any rate.”

“
Don’t you, love?” He ran his fingers down her cheek and watched her eyes close. She was his, and his body wanted her. Randy felt his wolf run along his skin and knew that he wanted his mate, too. “Molly, can I kiss you again?”

“No.”
He moved closer when she took a step back. He could smell her. She was slightly aroused, and he wanted to make her scent a part of the air around them. “You should really leave now. I’ve got things to do. And you’re just…too much for me to have to deal with. On any level.”

“I don’t think I can
…leave you, I mean. For as much as I want to, I don’t think I’m going to be able to.” He heard the car pull up behind them and he turned and shoved her behind him. His wolf snarled along his skin this time, and Randy let him go. Whoever was there had interrupted them and they were going to pay. Austin got out of his car slowly and stood still with his hands out. His brother stood on the passenger side and didn’t move either.

“I heard that you were here and wanted to talk to you.” Randy snarled and felt his hackles rise.
“Randy, you’re scaring your mate. Perhaps you can turn to her now and assure her that you’re not going to kill her. I won’t move.”

Randy turned and saw that Molly was holding a gun on him and had backed as far from him as she could get without going into the house.
Her pictures lay scattered and broken on the landing in front of her. He heard Austin tell her not to run. Randy found he wanted her to. Just so he could run her down and take her.

“I
can’t talk to her. We’ve not…Christ, I never meant to scare her, but you startled me.”
Austin told him that he’d tell her whatever he wanted.
“Tell her it’s me.”

“Molly, honey, put the gun down. You saw Randy shift
, so you know that it’s him. Just put the gun away and he’ll shift back when I find him something to wear.”

“He is a wolf. He really is a fucking wolf.”
Randy watched her face as she spoke. He wanted to shift for her again but would be naked and wasn’t sure what she’d do to him if he was suddenly a man again. “Tell him to make himself a man again. I don’t want to have to shoot him if he attacks me.”

“
He won’t attack you. I swear he won’t. If you’d just lower the gun, we can all go into your house and talk.” Randy glanced over his shoulder to his brother and noticed that while his arms were spread out, he was moving toward them. He spoke to her slowly and in low, soothing tones “Molly, you have to trust me on this, he’s not going to be able to ever hurt you.”

“Why not?” Randy wanted to
tell her why he couldn’t hurt her but watched her face again. He wanted to see what her reaction was when she was told again she was his mate. Austin explained to her that it was in their DNA to never harm their females. That they were as precious to him as their own bodies.

She stood staring at him without saying anything. When she lowered the gun
, he thought about moving toward her, but didn’t when Austin told him to wait. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done.