Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (9 page)

Twice he tried to pull her away
, and the second time he did it she tightened her fingers on his balls. His low growl had her reaching between her legs and touching her clit, because she knew he was ready to come. When the first splash of his semen slid down her throat, she pinched her clit and came with him. Before she could bask much in what had just happened, he pulled her up and nearly threw her over the edge of the tub. Pulling her ass to him, he growled low when she turned to see what he was doing.

“My turn.”
Reid sounded strained. His voice made her want more from him, much more. When he slammed his cock deep into her, she cried out and screamed out her release. Then he bit into her shoulder.

“Come,” he commanded her.
“Again. Come again.” She did as he’d said three more times before she felt him tear into her flesh with his teeth. Pulling his wrist to her mouth, she bit into him, drinking deeply from him even as he roared out his climax.

Breathing wasn’t difficult
, but it was labored. Her heart felt as if she’d run several miles and all of it up hill. Licking the wound closed at his wrist, she heard him chuckle as he did the same to her shoulder.

“And this was funny how?” Reid kissed her shoulder and pulled her down onto his lap in the cooling water.
She let him hold her not because he held her tightly but because it felt good. Jodie snuggled into his neck and closed her eyes. “I have to go back to my hotel soon. I have my clothes there and some other things I’ll need for a few more days.”

“You’re going to stay here then?”
She nodded and asked him again what he’d found so funny. “Look what we’ve done to this room. It was amazing, don’t get me wrong, but we certainly know how to break a room in.”

There was water everywhere
, even on the counter and the mirror over it. There was a puddle near the door, and both towels were soaking wet. Shampoo bottles and bubble bath were spilling over onto the floor, and the curtain had somehow gotten torn down and now lay in a heap near the trash can. She picked up the sponge as it floated by them and tossed it toward the sink across the room.

“There, I cleaned up.”
Reid laughed harder, and she had to smile. There was something infectious about his laughter that had her wanting to have him do it more. When his phone rang, she started to move off his lap, then he pulled her back.

“If it’s important then they know how to contact me.”
She let him hold her until she felt him stiffen. “Jodie, Mrs. Campbell just informed me that a being is in town that is using black magic. She said to ask you if you know an Ethan Randolph.”

“No.
But if he’s the guy that tried to kill me, I’d know his face better than his name. We didn’t exactly exchange that when he came after me.” Jodie stood up when he did, and when he handed her a towel from the linen closet, she hurriedly dried. She had a feeling he was about to get some company.

“They’re coming here now.
Mrs. Campbell wants to know if you can look at a few pictures for her. And Phil is coming here to talk to us. Also, she said to tell you that your father has been invited.” She didn’t have any clothes there and tried to think about what he was saying and what the hell she was supposed to wear. Looking at him, he must have seen something there, and he took her into his arms. “We’ll get through this. She said to tell you not to worry overly much. If this is the man, you have something on him that he doesn’t have about you. You will know his name.”

Fat lot of good that was going to do her if he killed her. Or even Reid or one of his family members. When the doorbell rang a few minutes later
, she was still dressing in the pair of lounge pants he’d given her and an old sweatshirt. Both were miles too big, and she’d had to roll up the legs of the pants twice, as well as the sleeves on the shirt several times, but she was dressed and ready to face whatever information she was given. Jodie also figured she had a great deal to tell them.

Chapter
9

“I don’t think I understand. You’re saying that you’re a thief?” Reid asked, and looked around the room, then back at Jodie. “And you make money at this.”

“As I said four times now, I don’t steal things that belong to other people. I steal them back for the governments.
I only get paid a check, not profit.” Jodie sat down and glared at him as she continued. “I’m an international procurer for several countries, including this one.”

CJ cleared her throat before she spoke.
Reid fully expected her to jump on this with him. She was his ally in this mess. His mate was a thief.

“Do they know you’re a shifter?”
Jodie shook her head, then nodded. “Ah, I see. Some do and some don’t. Probably a good thing. I would imagine that you can get in and out of places others can’t. I would imagine that it pays well.”

“Yes it does.
And since I have next to nothing in ways of personal things, I don’t have a house or even an apartment that I have to maintain. I’m sort of a ‘ready when they need me’ sort of agent.” She smiled at CJ. “I’ve managed to save a little.”

“Wait.
Wait a minute here. You think this is great?” Reid nearly fell over when CJ nodded to his question. He looked to Austin, who was smiling too. “Do you have any idea how dangerous this is for her? A thief isn’t exactly someone who hasn’t pissed a few people off.”

“And they don’t know who I am.”
He stared at her. Jodie had to see that this was wrong on so many levels. First of all, she was a thief for the government, and secondly, she was stealing things that other people had stolen. He tried to think of a reasonable way to tell her she was quitting that life and finding something safer to do when she continued. “You say what I think you’re going to and I’ll tear you a new ass.”

Reid growled at Austin and Phil when they laughed. This was not the way he’d
thought this would go. Hell, if he told Austin and CJ he was a thief, they’d beat him within an inch of his life and then some. But with her, they seemed to accept the idea.

“Look. I don’t want to piss you off
, but—”

“Eighteen months ago another country kidnapped the president’s daughter.
She was sleeping at a friend’s house and the Secret Service was all over the place. But this man came in, killed every one of them, the entire family she was staying with, and took her out of the house in less than thirty minutes.” Jodie paced as she continued her story. “Along with fifty million dollars, he wanted the president to pardon his brother, who’d killed fifty-three women over the period of nineteen years, and Air Force One.”

“I
didn’t read about that in the paper.” She snorted at him and continued on as if he’d not spoken.

“No one was notified
because they didn’t want anyone to know just how easily he’d done it. And it was easy. He came to the house with pizza’s that were drugged. By the time the family was out, he’d managed to kill nine SS men and get back into the house to kill the other four. He shot the family where they were. Once to the head and then the heart. This would include the infant daughter that had only been a month old at the time.” CJ asked her when she was called in, but Jodie only had eyes for him. “Four days after the killings, I was notified that my services were needed again. They had the man’s name as well as several aliases. I found them twenty-eight hours later.”

She didn’t continue
, and as much as he was sure he didn’t want to know how it ended, he needed to know. Without standing, he reached for her hand, and she pulled away. He knew he deserved it but was still hurt by it.

“Were you hurt?” She nodded.
“How badly? And where?”

“He’d buried her alive
, and I had to dig her out first or she’d be dead. There was a tunnel under his home that he’d dug out and had made a shelter there for her. It was a room about four foot by four foot, and no taller than about six feet. He’d given her a bucket to use, as well as five gallons of water and bags of chips to eat. Nothing else but that. There was no ventilation for her, and when he shut the door to the outside, he’d cut off her air supply. I’m not sure he knew that, but there was no way for me to ask him when I found her.” She lifted her shirt and showed him a long pinkish wound that was about eight inches long. “You’ve seen this yet never asked. But I’ll tell you. He cut into me from behind. Brought the knife to my front when I was moving into the house. I was a cat at the time, a large panther. But he knew somehow. Or he was simply nuts.”

Reid stood up and lifted the shirt higher. There was another scar there. Almost the same pink
, and he knew she’d gotten it at the same time. He started to ask her about it when she started talking again.

“Delilah was nearly dead when I found her.
Had I tried to heal myself, there wouldn’t have been enough of me left to heal her. It was her or me, and since I’ve very little use for myself, she was my top concern.” She pulled the shirt back down and took a step back from him. “You think I do this because I’m stealing things. The only time they call me in is when it’s a person. I’m fucking good at my job, and I’m not going to stop doing it because you’ve got some burr up your ass about protecting me. You can’t. The sooner you figure that out the better it’s going to be for all of you.”

“Does she know?”
Reid and Jodie both looked at Mrs. Campbell when she asked. “The little girl, does she know who saved her?”

“No. Why would she care?”
Reid looked at Jodie when she said that. Before he could tell her that she’d saved her life, that of course she’d want to know, Jodie explained, “I erase their memories anyway. Not of the incident, but of me. It’s what’s kept me safe all this time. Other than a few people in a few offices across the world, you people are the only ones that know what I do. And if you fuck me over, I’ll take you back to the hole I found her in and put you there.”

There wasn’t any implied threat there but a promise.
Reid felt his skin dance as the hair stood up. Even his wolf curled back. She was as scary as she was beautiful, and he had no doubt whatsoever that she’d do just what she said she would.

“His name is Ethan Randolph
, and he’s a mage, as you know.” Mrs. Campbell stood up before anyone could make any more comments on what Jodie had just told them. She handed each of them a thick file. “He’s been around for about four hundred years, but it wasn’t until the last hundred or so that he’s dabbled in the black. Before he was a professor of white magic at the council as well as a consultant at a few murders that involved magic. He was our go to guy.”

Reid opened his file but closed it again to move to the other sofa that Jodie had sat on. She wasn’t happy that he’d come to her
, but right now he needed to be near her. He’d fucked up royally and he wanted more than anything to make it up to her. And he thought the first thing he had to do was trust that she was correct. She was fucking good at her job.

“Those are known murders that we have associated with him. As you can see by the dossier with each person they had quite a bit of magic when they were killed. Two of them were professors with Ethan when he disappeared.”
Jodie handed him a picture, and he stared at it when Mrs. Campbell came to stand in front of them. “Is that you?”

“It is.”
Reid couldn’t take his eyes off the picture. Jodie continued speaking to Mrs. Campbell, and he looked at what Randolph had done to her. He had no idea how she’d survived, much less was able to get around. He’d torn her apart.

The picture was thankfully in black and white. But Reid had seen enough damage
done to bodies while doing his residency that he knew that the dark spill around her was blood. A great deal of it too. And her skin looked as if she’d been peeled open, muscle exposed and even in some places bone. When he flipped the photo over to see what hospital had taken this, he didn’t see anything and looked up when someone touched his mind.

“I found her like that. The picture was sent to Hope by me so that they could see what someone had done to her. I had no idea at the
time who had harmed her, but I think she did. She may have even known his name too.”
Tristan nodded to him. When he continued, Reid had a feeling the man was hurting terribly because he’d known she was his daughter.
“She hurt him too. He’ll still be hurting from what she’d done to him, I would imagine. Her magic even then was powerful. Now? Well now there is no one as strong as she is.”

“Why?”
Tristan asked him what he meant.
“Why is she so strong? Why did he want to kill her for it? Wouldn’t he have wanted to learn from her?”

“In order to absorb her magic
, he’d have to kill her with his. It’s the way of black magic. And if she dies, all that she is, all her power will go to him. Or when she kills him, which is what I’m hoping, she’ll get his. And because of her being so pure, his magic will turn white, and she will be by and far the most powerful being ever created.”
Tristan paused for several seconds. “
As for why she is so strong? Who knows? It’s just the way of the universe
.”

Not a great answer
, but one he could think on. He’d read enough books to know some about black versus white magic. There was a fine line between the two at the beginning, and many users used both from time to time. That was until they started killing for more. Reid was startled out of his musing when Jodie punched him in the side.

“Are you even here?” He nodded
, then smiled. “You’re a dork. Pay attention. They’re talking about tomorrow. And what they want me to do.”

~~~

Tristan wasn’t thrilled with the plan. He knew that there were too many variables, and even if Roberson showed up, there was always the off chance that he might simply kill them all. He looked at his daughter as she spoke about some of her abilities. She wouldn’t tell them everything, he’d taught her that, but she would give them enough that they’d be able to work with her. Tristan looked at Reid.

He wondered if the young man knew that he was as powerful as his mate.
He didn’t think either of them had a clue, and was excited to see them together in action. Roberson wouldn’t know what hit him when the young wolf tore into him. And Tristan had no doubt that he would eventually have to. For all her power, she was still just as veritable as anyone was. And if Roberson had gotten any stronger, he might be able to hurt her. But Tristan doubted the man could kill her. He’d seen to that.

“Do you think they’ll be able to bring him down?”
Tristan looked at the lovely alpha bitch sitting next to him. Christ, she was strong too, but he doubted that she’d want to know that either. All of them had something more than they ever used, and he would bet that the lawyer vampire knew it as well.

“I do believe they will.
Jolene is very strong, as you know, but she has more now that she and young Reid have mated and bonded. I’ve taken the liberty of making sure that they both have what I can give them. So, I’m thinking they’ll do it.” She nodded, then cocked her head. Smiling, he told her the rest. “Yes, in answer to your unspoken question, I’ve taken both their blood. I would think it better if Phil took it as well, but it is not necessary.”

“She’s going to leave him if he doesn’t get over himself by thinking she needs his protection.
She’ll work twice as hard to keep him safe than she will herself.” Tristan thought the same thing, but CJ continued before he could comment. “Of course, with our family supporting them as well as you, I’m thinking they’ll work this out or we’ll tie them up until they do.”

“She has a home.”
CJ looked at him when he spoke to her softly. “Several, as a matter of fact. I’ve made sure that she has everything including her mother’s things. I had them put away for her.”

“She doesn’t know that you plan to meet the sun after she’s safe
, does she?” He looked at her sharply. “I’m not nearly as stupid as you think I am. And even if you didn’t think I was, treating her this way is going to come back and bite you in the ass. She’ll not let you go so easily.”

“No, I’ve no doubt that she wouldn’t.”
He looked at Reid and Jolene. “She’s so much like her mother. Not just in looks, though she is the exact image of her, but her temperament as well.” He laughed when she glared at Reid. “Yes, just like her in her temperament. I think she’ll keep the young doctor on his toes.”

“He loves her.” Tristan nodded at CJ.
“I think she loves him as well, but it’s harder to tell with her. She keeps her emotions very close to her chest, doesn’t she?”

“It’s what’s kept her alive all these years.”
He glanced at CJ, wanting to tell her the lengths he’d gone to in order to keep Jolene safe and told her. “I’ve never left her side. Whenever she’s gone on a mission, I’ve been there. It’s been difficult at times to let her do her job, but she’s never needed me since she learned how to control herself. And so you know, the story about the little girl was much nicer than what really transpired. The little girl wasn’t just dying but had died. She’d been dead for several hours before Jolene found her.”

“She brought her back?”
Tristan nodded. “It’s why she’s so scared, isn’t it? The reason her wounds are still healing. It took a great deal out of her.”