Untamed Force (Force of Nature Series) (16 page)

He looked down at the overflowing trash
can and decided that he’d better figure some things out while he was here.
Where the trash went was one thing, as well as running the washing machine that
was in a smallish closet off the kitchen. He wished he’d been smarter in taking
this house and looked for one that had a male in it about his size. The tiny
woman had had nothing he could wear and now he had to wash the only pair of
pants he had.

He’d brought the mail in this morning
and found that, while he knew her name, he didn’t have a clue what she’d done
for a living. Did he call her work? Was someone going to come to the house to
figure out where she was? He didn’t think she worked, there was no car in the
tiny garage, and the mail she got was mostly contests she’d entered and lost
and a few bills. Rich was going to send money in for her electric tomorrow. He
didn’t want to be caught without that again. The cave had been bad enough.

As the food cooked, which was now
starting to smell like he’d picked a dessert rather than a meal, he pulled out
the notebook he’d found when searching for money or anything to get him by. The
stupid thing had numbers in it, not the phone kind, but like she was playing a
game that required her to keep score. He didn’t have any idea what “Uno” was
and didn’t really care. But if one were to get the lowest score, she would win
hands down.

The paper was divided into three
sections. He’d marked one “alpha,” the next one “discretions,” and the final
one he’d marked “paid.” So far, all he’d been able to put into the first column
was “stole pack and money” and “burned me out.” He’d put “fat” on there as well,
but had marked through it. It wouldn’t be fair with all the other things he was
going to make Alpha Force pay for to add things he really had no part in. The
meal started to smell odd and he went to the oven.

As always, it was times like these that
he missed Harvey. He’d been doped up all the time, but he kept his brother fed.
He’d done the man a favor, he’d been thinking, by killing off his mate. Harvey
had become quite the cook and he’d been one hell of a house cleaner. He took
the now crisp…thing to the table and started to eat.

“Mother fuck,” he screamed when the roof
of his mouth burned. “Another thing for you, Alpha Force.” And he added this to
his list as he nursed his burning mouth. “I’m going over the deep end here, don’t
you think?” He nodded at his question. “I’m talking to myself, but not yet
answering me yet. So I guess that can rule out insanity.”

Rich laughed and went to the cabinets to
find them once again empty. He remembered going to the store, but not what he’d
bought. Going to his list again, he wrote “Stealing my food.” Then for good
measure he added, “pain in my ass” to his list. Sitting down, he looked at the “paid”
column.

The only things he had there were buried
bodies on land and burned out relative. He was pretty sure that the two men
were related, he just didn’t know at the moment.

“But you can bet your last dollar I’ll
figure it out.” He picked at the burned food again. “‘Course you got all my
dollars.”

Rich watched the television without
sound. He was hearing voices now and he wasn’t always sure it was him. He’d
caught himself twice now almost answering himself, but had nipped that in the
bud right away.

“Yes I did, nipped it right in the bud.”
Laughing again, he nearly pissed himself when the phone rang. He wasn’t sure if
the old woman in the shoe had an answering machine—he laughed at the nickname
he’d given her—so he listened carefully to hear for it. The voice spoke from
the phone itself and for some reason, he thought it the funniest thing in the
world.

“Mabel, you need to turn in that book
you borrowed from the liberry. They’re other people that wanna read it, you
know. Don’t you think a month is long enough to have it? Give it up, girl, that
man on the cover isn’t going to pick you no matter how many times you read it
from cover to cover.”

Rich went up to the bedroom where he’d
been sleeping and looked around for the book to take back. He didn’t want
anyone coming here unexpected-like and he thought maybe the woman on the phone
needed it a tad bit more than Mabel did at the moment.

“Yeah, she doesn’t have any light in the
freezer unless I open it up for her. ‘Course I think maybe I broke her reading
glasses when I snapped her neck, but what the fuck? She’ll take the stupid book
back to the
liberry
for you.” Stupid hick town.

Rich was suddenly glad he’d had nothing
to do with the humans here in this shit hole town and pulled open drawers to
find the book when he nearly fell back on the bed. There in the nightstand was
a gun.

And not just a little old lady one
either. It was a Glock nine millimeter. He pulled it out and looked it over. Loaded
with silver. The old bat might have known about his kind, it seemed.

“Gotta add that to another list. Killed
off a human who knew about us. Can’t have that, can we?”

“Nope. Can’t.”
He looked
around the room for the voice.
“You know it’s me, you idiot. You said you
were going over the edge. I’m here to help you.”

“So now I’m answering myself.” He felt
himself nod and felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. “Okay then prove
you’re not here talking to me.”

“
Prove what? That you’re a nut ball? Get
over it. Take that gun and put it in your pocket. Next time you come across
that fucking bastard Force, blow a hole in his head.”
His other self seemed
to have his shit together.

“You should come work for me. I need a
cook and a housekeeper. I’ll pay you really well. My brother took off and—”

“You know Force has him, right? He took
him and is now brainwashing him. In a few more days, he’ll think you killed all
those people and you stole all their money.”
Rich nodded again.
“And now
that you have your little equalizer, you can hunt the prick down and take his
fucking ass out.”

He liked that idea more and more. Hunt
the man down and kill him. He would be a hero. The man had killed a lot of
people to steal his money and he wasn’t going to let him take any more.

“You know where he is? All I’ve been
able to find is where somebody with the last name is. Of course I know where
his territory is, but I can’t enter it without permission.” He waited until his
other self stopped laughing. Suddenly, he didn’t like the other person.

“
You don’t need permission, you got
Mr. Equal. And if you have no need for permission then you can simply go there
and kill them all until you get the right one.”

Rich laughed. “Thanks. Next time you
need help, you let me know. You’re all right.”

Rich went to find his directory and
realized it had burned up in the house too. After conferring with his other, he
was trying to think up a good name for himself when one of them suggested the
phone book. He was looking it over when someone knocked at the front door.

Chapter 13

Dallas opened the door when he heard her
on the porch. She looked winded and wild, just the way he liked her. She smiled
shyly at him.

“You ran here.” He flushed when he
realized how stupid that sounded. “I’ve been busy since we talked.”

“Where did you send everyone? I didn’t
think the houses were done as yet.”

He shook his head.

“Then you’ve thrown them out?”

He laughed. “No. Some of them decided to
stay at Phil’s.” He didn’t tell her that they’d found out they were newly mated
and nearly knocked him over to get out of the house. “He had to promise them
that he’d not feed from them, nor would he eat their children. The things
people believe.”

He’d been little better when he’d found
out about the vampire. Phil was nice and all, but he’d been terrified of him at
first. Then when he’d found out that Holly was his mate, he’d been a little on
edge with him. But Phil had saved CJ’s life as well as a few other friends of
theirs.

She nodded and stood on the porch still.
He moved to the side and hoped she’d enter on her own. For as much as he wanted
to drag her to the floor and take her, he knew she needed him to give her
something more tonight. And he’d tried.

Stacy moved into the living room of
their home and stood back. He’d tried to clean up before everyone left, but
again, as soon as the women staying there found out, they’d moved through the
house like a tornado. He probably had the cleanest house in five counties. But
the added touches made him hope she wasn’t going to think he was a sap.

She walked toward the kitchen where the
first of their night together was to begin. He darted ahead of her to take the
steaks out of the oven when the timer went off. He pulled out her chair and
asked her to sit.

“I had help with dinner. I’m not a great
cook, but I can cook some things. Tonight’s dinner was courtesy of the ladies. They
gave me instructions on how to put our plates together.” He held up the list
and then turned to take the salad out of the fridge. “I have wine too if you’d
like.” He had to rub his hands on his jeans. Suddenly, he was completely out of
his element and over his head. He took a deep breath and looked at his notes.
Stay
calm and talk softly.

So far, so good.

He tossed the salad with the dressing
and glanced over at her. She was watching him intently. He wasn’t sure if it
was because she was waiting for him to mess up or if she was thinking he might
poison her. He hoped not. He wanted her to be with him for the rest of their
days.

He looked at the note again.
Small
talk.
What the hell was that? Talking in short sentences? He knew that wasn’t
it, but he did smile at her and tried to think of one thing to say.

“Phil thought maybe he could find the
alpha of the other pack now that he had his scent.” He cringed when he said
that.
Right, you big idiot. Remind her that she has no scent
.

“I had heard that he had looked for him.
What is it I can do to help you? I feel like I should be doing something.” He
shook his head. “At least let me pour us some wine?”

He handed her the bottle that Phil had
brought over. He said it was already breathing, but to leave it out and serve
it at room temperature. Breathing wine? Small talk? He was going to fuck this
up.

He managed to get the plates looking
reasonably nice. He had slopped a little bit of the butter onto the steak, but
it had melted so fast he didn’t think she’d noticed. And the parsley he’d been
told to put near the steak looked a little wilted, but he was fine with that
too when Stacy smiled at him.

“It is very lovely.” She took one of the
rolls he’d had to cut the bottom off of when he’d gone to open the door for her
and had forgotten about. “Hum, this is very nice, Dallas. I have not eaten all
day.”

“Thanks. I just hope you don’t get too
sick from this.” He looked at her when she cut the steak and sighed with relief
when she actually could. He’d been terrified it would have been as tough as his
boots.

“I have been thinking about what your
brother has said. I believe that he is correct in thinking that I could help
with capturing my father.” She was cutting her potato up so she missed his
flash of anger, for which he was glad. “I would also like for you to go with me
as far as we can so that you are close if something should go wrong.”

That made him stop with the fork halfway
to his mouth. “You want me to go? I thought you were mad at me because you didn’t
want me to be around because of…well, because.”

“I did not say that. I said I thought it
a good idea for you not to go. I think if you stayed back and away then I could
go in and do whatever it is they think I can do. If there is a problem then I
could easily call for you.”

He liked that idea and finished his bite
before answering her. For some reason he didn’t want to get his hopes up that
she may actually need him. He frowned when she laughed.

“What’s so funny?” He grinned when she
shook her head. “I’m making an effort here. Tell me.”

“Okay. First, I love you. I have never
said that to anyone before, but I do. Secondly…secondly, this is the worst meal
I have ever eaten.” She laughed again and showed him the bottom of her steak
and the undercooked places in her potato. “Also I do not know who helped you
make this, but they should be barred from the kitchen.”

He looked down at his own meal. She was
right. He picked up one of the rolls and tossed it at her. She ducked, but some
of the blackened part of it sprinkled on her face. She picked up her potato and
threw it at him, sour cream, butter, and all. After that, it was an all-out
war.

When he ducked from the steak, he
charged her. Taking her to the floor, she smashed one of his rolls in his face
and then smeared butter all over his hair. He had to work to grab her hands,
but when he got them together and above her head, he held her down with his
body.

“You’re going to pay for that, girl. I
worked really hard on this dinner to romance you.”

She licked his nose and grimaced at the
taste.