Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (11 page)

“Why not?”
Jodie looked at Nancy. “What do you think a doctor’s wife is like? A woman who could give tea parties? Sit for long periods of time listening to other women prattle on and on about nothing.” She huffed. “I think that a doctor’s wife should be just what you are. Someone who makes her mate happy as well as protects him when he’s too tired or just being too manly to do so himself. You can do all those things.”

“He can take care of himself better if I don’t bring my crap down on him. Like today for instance.
Reid would never have been in that predicament had I not been a part of his life.” Jodie squirmed on the chair when Nancy picked up the spoon. “Are you planning to hit me with that?”

“Are you going to make me?”
They stared at each other for several minutes. Jodie had a feeling she was being sized up, and for some reason she didn’t want the older woman to find her lacking. When she put the spoon back down, Jodie let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“I’m a thief.”
Nancy shook her head. “What would you call what I do? I’m not very nice when I go and get back what I need. I’ve killed plenty and will more than likely kill a great many more.”

“And you’ll come home at night because of it.
Do you really think of yourself as a thief or someone who helps others? That child you told us about? Do you suppose she would think of you as a thief if she could remember you? I doubt it very much. Nor do her parents.”

“I do steal things when I’m in the house.” Jodie wanted her to see what she was and not coat it in honey. “I found some artifacts once that I
knew belonged to another country, one I wasn’t working for. I didn’t tell that guy what I’d done. I just—”

“And what did you do with the artifacts?
Do you have them in a vault somewhere? Do you have them stashed in one of those rental units with all the other things you’ve taken?” She snorted at her again. “No, if I know you well enough I’d say you returned it to the country it belonged to and didn’t even take credit for it.”

Jodie got up to pace. This woman was too smart for her own good.
Every time she thought she had a reason for her to turn her out, she’d have an equally good reason for her to stay. Jodie turned to look at her.

“I
can’t have children. Ever.” Nancy nodded but said nothing. “Reid knows, but he said he doesn’t care. He even knew before I told him.”

“He’s a good doctor. I’m sure he would have figured it out.
And what did he say when you tried to tell him?” Jodie flushed. “Just as I thought. He didn’t care, did he?”

“No.
He said that there were lots of children out there that needed parents for one reason or another and that—” Jodie sat down. “I don’t want to love him. I don’t…what if he gets tired of me? Or if he thinks he can do better?”

The spoon was
whacking her in the head before she could blink. Man, it fucking hurt too. But she only glared at Nancy when she held it out to strike again.

“You say
another thing like that and I’ll beat you within an inch of your life.” Nancy got up and poured her more juice, her hands shaking as she continued. “He loves you. And you do him. Though I doubt either of you have enough sense to say it to the other. As for him doing better? How do you suppose he’s going to do that? When he loves you enough to nearly kill for you?”

“I didn’t ask him to do that.” Jodie eyed the spoon when Nancy did
, but neither of them made a move to grab it. Jodie took a deep breath as she told her what she’d only discovered today. “And I do love him. I don’t want to for the simple reason he’s going to figure this out and want to toss me over for some women that looks good on his arm. Much better than I do.”

“And why would I do that when you look so good there?”
Jodie closed her eyes when she heard Reid speak behind her. Nancy got up and moved by her, patting her on the shoulder as she left the room. When Reid sat down across from her, she wanted to crawl into a hole, but he took her hands into his. “I love you as well.”

Chapter 11

Curt
watched the fucking police officer put a large padlock on the door. The hasp alone had to weigh ten pounds, and he’d attached it to the front door with the biggest screwdriver he’d ever seen. The other cop was doing the same to the back door. Curt looked at Mike as he seemed to be fighting tears. Fucking moron.

He’d had a pounding headache after being thrown around by that bastard yesterday.
He looked down at the blood on his shirt and wanted to find the guy right now and kill him. But he was slightly afraid of him…well, honestly he was terrified of the big wolf. And the alpha made him want to wet his pants he’d been so afraid of him. Curt was going to make them all pay.

“You’ll move off this property now and never return.
The new owners will be making improvements as soon as tomorrow. I would—”

Curt cut him off.
“She can’t sell this land. It belongs to me.” Curt glanced at his brother. “Me and my brother. We been taking care of our dad for months now and he didn’t say a word about nobody else buying it.”

“Be that as it may
, but it’s been legally sold to Mr. Force. And he is telling us that if you set foot on this property again he’ll have you prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Do you understand?” Curt wanted to tell him that he understood all right. He understood that Jodie was going to fucking pay for this, and so was that Mr. Force.

“Where might I find Mr. Force?”
He knew where the man lived. It was something he’d known from the moment he’d stepped into his territory all those months ago. “I’d like to have a few words with him.”

“You do that. And you know as well as I do where he is.” The man let a little of his wolf go and had Curt taking a step back.
“You fuck with my alpha, and I’ll come hunting you down and tear you into so many pieces that they’ll never find you even with dogs.”

Curt and Mike were escorted to the edge of the property
, and the officer that had threatened him stood watching for several minutes as he and Mike started walking. Each of them had a large trash bag of their clothes and a blanket and pillow. That was all they were allowed to take. Anything else was deemed part of the property by their sister, and she was the one that had made a list of things that belonged to them. How the hell she’d known what they had was beyond him, but it was exact right, down to the five socks that he’d had when he arrived.

“She gave us a hundred dollars.”
Curt looked at Mike when he was holding the envelope in his hand that the officer had given him. “I guess she didn’t have to do that, the cop told me he wouldn’t have. But what are we supposed to do with only this much? Hotels like we should be staying in cost way more than this.”

“Twice that I would guess.
And then what are we supposed to do for food or even a way to get around? You know she got way more than this for our land. She should have at least given me seventy percent of what she got. Beings how I’m the oldest.” Mike stared at him as if he might disagree. “You think you should have gotten as much as me? Christ, Mike, I’ve been putting up with dad way longer than you have and her shit too. Not to mention me being a wolf. I got more needs than you being only a stupid human.”

“You’re only half wolf
, and I’m pretty sure that I have just as many needs as you. Food and a place to sleep are needed by us both, and other than something to get around in, that’s all you need too.” Mike put his money in his pocket and smiled. “And if you blow all of yours on stupid fucking shit, know that I’m not sharing.”

Curt saw red. His wolf, never a very stable part of his life
, seemed to surge forward in what felt like a heartbeat. He was tearing at his brother’s throat in seconds and killed him in less than that. His wolf was still drinking from his wound when he heard a car coming and took off to the woods so no one would see him. Curt heard the first shot fired just as he cleared the tree line.

He’d killed him.
And not only that, because of the fact that someone had seen him, he’d not been able to get his money either. Curt was shifting to his human when he realized that he’d lost his own as well.

“Mother fucking son of a fucking bastard bitch.”
He grabbed his head as he continued. “That fucking stupid crotch waffle goblin is going to pay for this. This is Jodie’s fault, and that dicknosed cock knob alpha’s too. I’m fucking his son, and I deserve to have what she does.”

Curt paced the woods naked until he cut his foot open on a rock.
Dropping to the ground, he pulled out the dirt and other things and sat there crying. He was glad he was alone because if anyone saw him right now he’d have to kill them too.

“Showed you to fuck with your older brother, didn’t I?
You elastic taint biscuit fuck-tard.” Curt was having fun now even with the tears. “Pie-eating douche crotch jockey. I should knock you on your pompous sphincter smelly shart boner.”

He sat here laughing hard enough to hurt as he strung together word after word
, not even caring if they made sense any longer. By the time he had put together slutty turd pirate hammer sphincter, he was lying down and laughing. It was the first good laugh he’d had in a while. Sitting up, he looked around the cold forest.

“Now what?” Curt had no money, no clothes
, and he wasn’t in any position to get either of them in the near future. His brother was dead, and his sister, who he hated, was living in the lap of luxury with a full-blooded wolf. Curt wondered where things had gone so wrong for him. He got up to find some shelter and gathered wood at the same time.

“I’ve been a good man. Well, not good I guess
, but I’ve done some nice things.” Curt tried to think what things he might have done and came up with nothing. For some reason that pissed him off too. As he was stomping through the woods, he started talking to himself again because he was suddenly depressed about what everyone had done to him.

“Jodie did this to us.
She had to have her way and move off.” He tried to remember why she’d moved and smiled. “Of course, I could have hit her a little less or maybe not have stolen from her so much either, but she was always having things that I wanted. Like them books. What the hell did she need all them books for? It’s not like she was going to go to college or nothing.”

But she had
, he thought. And had done well at it too, he’d bet. She had that nice bike too. Why would anyone give a loan to a girl who was as stupid as she was anyway? When Curt found a cave about an hour from where he’d been, he crawled into it and tried to start a fire.

He finally gave up an hour later when he was too cold and damp to fuck with it anymore.
When he curled into a tight ball and tried to sleep, he thought about his sister again and how she was probably wearing silk and sleeping in a big bed. He was going to make her pay if it was the last thing he did.

~~~

The human had died almost instantly, they’d said. Ethan looked at the mauled body of the man from the cemetery and knew that it was a wolf that had killed him, and he was pretty sure that a couple of the cops knew it too. He heard one of them call someone and tell them what he’d found.

“He’s been murdered by another wolf.
Yeah, I think so. His scent is all over the place.” He paused for a long time and Ethan wished he could have heard the other end of the conversation when the cop laughed. “Yeah, he left his money as well as his brothers behind when he shifted. I wonder how far he got when he realized what he’d done.”

After much debate on where the wolf was now, naked and broke
, the cop hung up. When he stilled, Ethan had a feeling he knew he was nearby, but Ethan knew that his magic was hiding him from everyone. The man was just being cautious. When the cop told the coroner to load the body up, Ethan tried to think of where he would go if he was a wolf, and decided to see if he could find Curt in the woods. It had been easier than he’d thought. Ethan found the man about two hours after the police left the scene.

He couldn’t track the wolf by his scent
, but he could follow foot prints. The man had walked in circles for a long time after he’d shifted, so that Ethan wondered if he’d been lost. When he’d found his tracks again, he was surprised that the dumb animal had survived this long after he’d seen where he was sleeping. The man was in a den with five bears not fifteen feet from where he rested.

“Get up.” The man moaned but didn’t wake. Ethan kicked him in the head. “I said to get up. I have something for you.”

He looked like he might shift and Ethan held him. There was no way he had time to fuck with a pissed off wolf, and would just as soon kill him if he tried anything. Ethan tossed a pair of pants and a shirt at him. When the man picked them up, he threw shoes at him as well.

“Who the fuck are you?”
Ethan shook his head. No way would he give this man his name even if there was a chance that he’d know what he’d given him. Instead, he asked him what his name was. “Curtis Andrew Turner the fifth. My dad was Curtis, so they called me Curt.”

Too much information
, but just what Ethan wanted. A full name and a sire’s name as well.
This was much too easy
, he thought. Turning his back to the fat man, he told him to get dressed.

“I want the name of the woman that hit you at the cemetery.”
The man denied her hitting him and that he’d fallen. “Whatever. I want her name and what she is to you.”

“My sister. And her name is Jodie Turner. She’s a fucking bitch.”
Ethan savored the name of the woman while the man continued to berate her. “You should have seen her when she was younger. Nothing but a pain in the ass then and now, but she knew who was boss.”

“I just bet she did.”
When the man stood up, Ethan turned to look at him. “Have you no pride in yourself? Do you realize that your shirt is done up incorrectly and your shoes are untied?” He nearly told him to fix it when he realized that changing the man’s appearance by touching him would alert the other shifters.

“You’re
going to be staying with me, and as such, you’ll learn to dress properly. Button your shirt and tuck it in.” Curt glared at him, and Ethan tossed him against the cave wall twice before he let him drop to the ground. “The bears will have a tasty treat of you if you’ll not listen to me.”

Curt looked back into the darkness of the cave and stepped out into the sunshine.
Like it would do him any good. If the bears were to wake from the sleep he’d put them in when he’d arrived, they’d be able to outrun the man before he had a chance to get his shoes tied properly. When he was finished making the best of himself, Ethan willed them both to his hotel room. He’d long since decided that the man was going to die, but first he wanted as much information from him as he could get, starting with what he knew about the family that Jodie was staying with. Ordering up some lunch for them both, then doubling it for the man as his last meal, Ethan sat downwind from the nasty smelling man and settled in to question him.

“Is her name short for
anything other than Jodie?” Curt looked confused. “Your sister, is Jodie short for anything, or was she christened Jodie?”

“She ain
’t never been to no church as far as I know. My dad hated religion, and she weren’t no better when she lived at home. But her name has always been Jodie so far as I know. Dad never called her anything but that when he had a mind to call her anything.” Ethan was going to have a major headache, he just knew it. “Course she wasn’t really my sister, but I don’t think she knows that.”

“What?”
Ethan must have startled the man, because he backed off. Taking several deep breaths, he tried to calm himself before he asked him again. “What do you mean she’s not your sister? How do you know this?”

“When we were little
, I asked my dad why she could shift and not me or Mike.” He looked out the window when he said his brother’s name. “She’s going to pay for him dying like he did. There was no reason for her to come between us. Her being a kid my momma took in when I was little.”

“You’re saying she’s
not anything to you? Not even a half or step-sister?” Curt shook his head. “Then why did you say she was your sister? Why didn’t you simply tell me when I asked you what she was to you?”

“Didn’t think about it until just now. She’s always just been Jodie
Turner, my pain in the ass sister. Anyways, Dad said she was raised up by Mom before he got out of jail, so he didn’t have the heart to tell her she couldn’t keep her. Then when Mom died, she was useful around the house until she got it in her head she was leaving us. There wasn’t nobody to clean up after us anymore either. That’s when I lighted out. But I comed back when Dad called me.”

Her name wasn’t Turner.
And for some reason he doubted that her first name was Jodie either. Ethan went to the door to let the man in with the food and let him set it up while he tried to think what to do. Ethan was finding less and less use for Curt all the time.

Curt was eating his third plate of food when Ethan was finishing his salad.
The man not only looked like a pig but he ate like one too. There was food on his shirt as well as hanging from his chin. And Ethan wasn’t sure, but he thought there was ham in his hair. Before he could tell him to wash up, he belched so loudly that Ethan was sure the neighbors heard him.