Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (15 page)

Reid shook his head and smiled.
“It sort of came with the house. I would imagine Tristan had a hand in it being here. But this deserves it I think.”

Austin looked at her again and she nodded before telling him more.
“About ten years ago he found that he could get couples, mates, to breed him a child, and he’d take it from the womb and dice it. After a few weeks, he’d try something more with another child, then another. But nothing was working the way he wanted. He hoped to use the child as a way to prolong his life. All it did was it managed to get him was a pack of wolves after him. He is wanted in three different packs across the country.”

“I’ll let them know he’s here if you have the names.”
She told him she did. “I know that you’re working up to something here. And while under normal circumstances I’d tell you to get to the point, I don’t want it yet. Is there something else you can tell me that will work me up to the horror I know you’re keeping from me?”

“Five years ago he was working in a lab with a vampire.
His name isn’t mentioned, but that’s not unusual. To keep yourself safe you’d never give anyone your name in his line of business.” Austin started to reach for the bottle again, but she moved it from him. “Pay attention. You have to know this so it can save your life.”

“He knew who we are.
The sick bastard wants some of my pack now, doesn’t he?” Jodie waited to see if he’d get it, and when he did, she felt sorry for him. “Christ, he’s got some of them now. Where? Do you know?”

She pushed the book toward him
, and he backed from it. Jodie knew how he felt. Touching the book somehow made what was in it seem so much more real. When he looked down at the address then up at her, she could see the pain in his eyes.

“I own this
building. It’s been sitting empty for about nine years now. Are you saying that he’s been using it all along?” She nodded. “Christ, what do I do to get him out?”

“It’s done.”
He nodded and got up to pace. “Tristan contacted me earlier while I was reading this. I told him what was happening, and he said he’d take care of it. But he asks that you stay away for now. There is a matter of you not knowing so that you can’t get into trouble.”

“But I do now.”
The phone rang and Reid went to answer it. “Is that them? Are the police telling me what they’ve found?”

“Yes.” She watched him age several years as he sat
at the table. She had a feeling he was talking to his mate, and when CJ knocked on the door while he was on the phone with the police, she knew it. Jodie sat down with Reid as CJ and Austin tried to calm each other. Jodie had one more thing to tell him, and she dreaded this most of all.

Chapter 15

Austin walked around the building with the police. The Feds had been called in as well
, and there were all kinds of news crews and television station vans around the yellow tape too. He didn’t want anyone here but knew that this was as necessary as breathing. He looked over at Phil, who had insisted on coming with him.

“They’re going to drag this out for months
. You know that, right?” Phil nodded but said nothing. “I told CJ that I didn’t want her here, but I wish she was.”

“I had her come down in another car. She’s at the hotel.
Holly is there as well. I knew this was going to be bad.” Phil handed him a cell phone. “It’s Jodie. She said she needs to tell you something.”

Austin
didn’t want to take the phone. He didn’t want to talk to her either. She had brought this to him, and he wasn’t all that sure he could handle much more. There were over two hundred files in the cabinets inside the office they’d found, and there were only sixteen bodies. They’d been dead for about a week, the coroner had told him. He put the phone to his ear.

“Stand in front of the building so that the stairs are dead center to you.”
He moved to where she’d told him before asking what for. “See the upper window on the left? There is a curtain in front of it.”

“I see it.”
It was a very small window in comparison to the other ones, and while he watched, the curtain moved. “Jodie, is there someone up there?”

“Yes. The doctors of this place. Or whatever they were calling themselves.
You need to find them and let me find you. They’ll tell me where the other people are.” He could feel her excitement. “I think there are at least fifty if not a few more others alive and they will know where they are.”

Austin moved toward the
building and was only stopped once. Phil ran interference with him a couple of more times until he and Phil were standing before the long hall that Jodie had led them to. He asked her what she wanted him to do now, but she didn’t answer. Suddenly she was standing in front of him.

“I
couldn’t find it on the maps. You had to lead me there.” She started down the hall only to stop when he touched her arm. She looked at him, and he knew that whoever was on the other side wasn’t going to live long if they didn’t give her the answers she wanted. He let her go on following right behind her.

The door opened about three feet before she got to it. There were nine men and women in the room
, and all of them were huddled in the corner away from the window. Austin could almost feel sorry for them if he didn’t know that they’d done the monstrous things that had been done to the beings downstairs.

The blast of light from her fingertips had one man
lying dead. His head had been taken from his body and no blood spilled onto the floor. Austin knew that whatever it was she’d hit him with had been hot, as it had cauterized the flesh almost as soon as she’d cut him.

“Where are they?”
No one moved, and she killed another one. This woman had her heart torn from her chest without anyone touching her. Austin watched as it continued to beat for several seconds after it lay beside her. “I won’t ask twice. Someone had better fucking tell me what I want to know or I’ll kill you all.”

“They’re at the farm.”
The man who spoke up cringed when she took a step toward him. “Please don’t kill me. Please. If I take you there, will you please not kill me?”

“I’m not making any promises.”
He paled even more as Jodie spoke. “Close your eyes and think of the place.”

The man begged her
again as she raised her hand up. Austin watched as the man’s eyes snapped closed and Jodie nodded. Before he could ask her where it was, they were standing in front of a large barn that smelled of antiseptic, and he could hear the hum of something powerful running.

“They’re in here?”
Jodie nodded but held him back. “I need to see if any of them are alive.”

“They aren’t.”
Austin looked at the barn, then at her. “They stored them here until they could get someone out here to use the backhoe to bury them. There are way more in here than at the lab. The living ones are in there.” She nodded to the house beyond them.

“I’ll have to call in…
.” He looked at her when she started to shake her head. “They might need my help. I have to do something.”

“D
o you own this farm?” He tried to think if he did or not and realized that he didn’t. “Then how will you explain that you knew they were here?”

“Then what the fuck would you have me do?
Leave them there on the off chance that someone might think to look here? Hope to Christ that there’s a hint of it at the lab?” He pushed her away from him and started for the house. She was standing in front of him before he could step onto the porch. “I can’t leave them there.”

“This is where he tried to kill me.”
He looked at the house, then at her again. “Ethan brought me here to kill me so that he could have what I am. I know who owns this. I can get them help today, but you have to trust me.”

Austin knew he had no
choice. It was trust her or have the police wonder how he knew as much as he did. Nodding once, he knew that she’d brought them back to his building again as soon as he opened his eyes. They were back again in front of the lab, and he looked at her.

“They’re dead.
I wasn’t going to let them poison the system with their information. Ethan had told them that they’d be rescued if they were ever caught. Maybe he would have and maybe not, but I couldn’t take the chance.” Austin didn’t speak to her the rest of the time they were at the site. He knew in some way she was right, but right now all he could think about was how cold she was. She’d killed those people without a moment’s hesitation. The next time he thought about her she was gone and Reid was talking to Phil. He approached the man with a heavy heart.

“She’s with CJ and the others.”
Austin didn’t ask him, but Reid told him all the same. “When this is over, she wants to talk to you. She said it’s important.”

“
All right.” Austin waited for the officer to walk away before he asked Reid about the barn. “Did she find someone to go there? She said she would.”

“The police showed up about ten minutes ago.
The owners had gone out to mow the lawn and to check the house out with the thoughts of selling the land. They walked into the house and found fifty six men, women, and children huddled in rags nearly starved to death. They’re being treated now.” Austin felt as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. When Reid started to walk away, he stopped him and asked him to thank Jodie.

Reid
stared hard at him. Austin had a feeling that he was thinking hard on whether or not to hit him when he finally nodded. This time when he walked away, Austin let him and looked at Phil for answers.

“She’s leaving him.
First thing after Ethan is caught.” Austin looked at Reid before looking back at Phil as he continued. “I’ve been asked to sell the house and pay off his student loans. I don’t know what he’s planning to do, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to follow her.”

“Why not?”
Phil shrugged, and Austin tried again. “Where does she think she’s going without him?”

“With her father.”
Austin didn’t know what that meant, but before he could ask for clarification, an officer asked him if he could come with him. He was shown the room where the doctors had been, and the room was now empty of everything, including the bodies.

“D
o you know what this room was for, sir?” Austin told him he didn’t. “Then do you know someone who might? I know you haven’t been here in years, you told us that, but someone has been using this place and we wondered if you knew who.”

“I’m sorry
, I don’t.” Austin looked around the room again and saw the book just behind some papers. He didn’t move toward it but in the general area. When the officer turned to talk to someone else, he slipped the book in his coat and waited for the police to take him down. He handed the book to Phil when he was alone with him.

“She left the
book there.” Phil opened it, and a sheet of paper fell out. He picked it up and handed it to him. It was from Jodie.

“No one will question you about this book. If you’d be so kind as to give it to Mrs. Campbell, I’m sure she’ll know what to do with it. Ethan won’t have any use for it from now on.”

Christ, she was going after him. Austin handed the note to Phil as he moved to find Reid. He reached for CJ at the same time.

“Is Jodie still with you?”
She told him she’d never been there.
“Christ, she’s going after Ethan on her own. Mother fuck, that girl is driving me nuts.”

Austin found Reid ten
minutes later. He was working with the medics in taking out the bodies and making notes on how they were murdered. Austin had forgotten that Reid was a doctor and was proud of him for helping out. But he asked to speak to him privately.

“Do you know where Jodie is?”
Reid started to walk away, but Austin stopped him. “I think she’s gone after Ethan on her own.”

Without turning
around to look at him, Reid answered. “She has. And I’m to stay away because she said you’d never forgive her if anything happened to me. I argued with her, but after seeing the way you treated her here, I think she’s right.”

“I never meant to…I was overwhelmed. She killed those people without a thought to—
”

Reid
turned to look at him then. “You think so? You think she killed those doctors without a thought to what they’d done to the hundreds of people we’re pulling out? You think that she just murdered them, cut their life short without thinking about the fact that they might have families, children of their own?” Reid turned back and faced the hundreds of body bags that were already lined up in the yard. “Yeah, she thought about it as much as these people did when they did this.”

Reid walked away
, and Austin dropped to his knees. He was still sitting that way when Tristan came to him. There was nothing this man could say to him that wouldn’t hurt him more. He looked up at him.

“Jolene has been captured by Ethan. He said he’d return her in pieces if we didn’t give him the book.
She told me if we did, then you might as well kill your family now because he’s going to when he gets it.” Austin stood up with his help.

“We have to get her.”
Tristan nodded but he said nothing to him. “I’m going to find her, save her stupid ass, then I’m going to kick her butt all over the place for making me this nuts.”

Austin
found Reid again and told him what had happened with the help of Tristan. They were moving toward their cars when Hope was suddenly there. She looked like she’d been through hell. Austin reached for her as she stumbled.

“
Ethan just contacted me. He knows I have the Book of Life. He said that he also has the girl. I’m assuming he means Jodie?” They nodded, and Hope put her hands on Reid’s cheeks as she looked him in the eyes. “She’s with child. I was going to tell you when this was over, but she must have gone into heat right after I repaired the damage. I’m so sorry, Reid, but when he sent me her blood, I could smell it on her.”

“Christ.”
Austin had to help Reid to his car. He was worried about him all the way to the hotel, and when they entered the room where the women were, he nearly snarled at him to sit down when he stood up.

“I’m going after her.”
Reid moved to the door and stopped when his mom hit him in the forehead with her spoon. “I’m not in the mood for you to think—”

“I got news for you young man. I’m not in the mood either. But if you think I’m going to let you go off
halfcocked after her, I might just use this spoon in another part of your body that might feel a good deal more painful.” When Reid growled, so did his mom. Reid backed up but didn’t look happy about it. “Now then, what do we know, and how do we get her back?”

“Ethan contacted me about an hour ago. He said that he has her and will return her when he gets his book back.
According to him, there are ways for him to tell if we’ve made copies of it.” Tristan shrugged. “I doubt that it’s true. I’ve looked the book over, and as far as I can tell the only spell on it is the one that I put on it years ago.”

“And what sort of spell is that?”
Tristan flushed, and Austin quirked a brow at him. This was going to be good. “Tristan, what is it?”

“He
won’t be able to make any spell or incantation work so long as its black magic used to reproduce. He can do anything he wants using white, but the black won’t let him get anyone pregnant or even himself have a child so long as he uses it.” Tristan shook his head. “I should have simply made it so the book wouldn’t open for him. That would have worked better.”

“You can put me in the book.”
Everyone turned to look at Reid when he spoke. “Jodie told me that there was a spell in the book that could put a person in it. Like on a page. As soon as the book is opened, the person slips out and becomes solid again. She said that he made it up so that he could hide in other people’s luggage to travel so he’d not have to pay for it. It also got him around without anyone finding him.”