Force of the Dark Wolf (Force of Nature Series) (4 page)

Gordon knew who it was that she was talking about
,
but it didn’t hurt to have a little confirmation just to be sure.
When CJ started digging through her purse he thought maybe it was someone else until she turned and looked at him with a smile. When she handed him a credit card with Alexis D. Dark on it, he simply sat down.

Dallas looked at the card and then sat down beside him.
“This the same girl
,
I take it? The one you had me looking for this morning?”

Gordon nodded.
“Yeah. She left her shop and ran into CJ
,
I guess.
I’m guessing that it was a chance meeting and nothing prearranged.”

CJ nodded at him.
“She was in a bad mood when I first saw her. She was talking to somebody on the phone. And since I have the hearing of a bat now I heard the man threaten her about some children and she told him that she’d make him pay if he touched them again.
I don’t think I’d want to piss her off if I could avoid it. She looks like she’
d
be vicious.”

Gordon took the file again and looked at the pictures inside.
He pulled out the ones of the kids.
They were smiling in the picture in his hand, much different than the look they’d had in the store.
There they
’d
looked haunted rather than happy like they seemed with the woman beside them.

“I met these kids today. Though they are not the same now as they were then, they’ve been hurt and hurt badly.
This one, Timothy
.
”
H
e pointed at the oldest boy. “He was ready to take me on to save his family.
He thought I was there to take him away. And he didn’t want anything to do with his father.”

“So something happened to them? And you’re thinking their father is involved?”
CJ sat down and picked up the file as she spoke. She was about halfway through it when she set it down again.
“I can’t look at those anymore.
They’re…you have to make sure they’re all safe
,
Gordon.
You can’t let that man, whoever he is
,
harm them.”

He knew that
,
but didn’t know what he was up against. The scent on the kids made him think that there was another wolf around.
He looked at the pictures and then thought about the scent.
Male was all he’d really gotten and that somehow he’d been around the children recently.
He’d bet his last dollar that the woman, Alexis
,
didn’t know it either.

He held the credit card in his hand and looked over at Austin.
“There was a wolf around the kids recently.
I’m not sure who
,
but it wasn’t anyone familiar to me, not pack anyway.
At first I thought that it was one of the adults
,
but I don’t think any of them are were.
Do you suppose that this man really did kill the other girl and he’s a wolf too?”

“He’d be in violation of pack law if he’s in the area without informing me. If this Dark woman is harboring him, which I highly doubt
,
then she could be in just as much trouble as him.”
Austin took the file from in front of CJ.
He studied
it
for several minutes before he
,
too
,
closed the file and s
e
t it back down. “These are wolf marks
,
but not all of them.
Some are from a knife, very sharp
,
and steel.
Anyone who knows a wolf would be able to tell that.”

Gordon only nodded. The woman had been murdered
,
there was no doubt about that
,
but by a wolf he wasn’t so sure.
The attack had been violent and brutal.
The marks on the woman’s throat and belly were extensive and were more than likely what had killed her. She’d been torn apart and eviscerated as well, her intestine
s
torn from her and spilled onto the ground.
Whoever had done this to her had been there to do just what they’d done.
Kill
,
and kill for the sport of it.

Gordon stood up and kissed CJ on the cheek just to hear his brother growl.
Smiling
,
he turned to his brother Dallas and held out the file.
He wanted some answers and he figured he’d get them best at the house rather than the shop.

“I’m going to go and see our Miss Dark.
I think it’s time we had a little chat about customer service and politeness to others.”
He grinned when he looked up at CJ.
“Want to come with me?”

“No
,
I do not.
But I will give you advice, a woman thing.”
She grinned at him when he frowned at her. He so didn’t need advice about women.
“Don’t do like you normally do with woman.”

He pretended to frown at her harder.
“You mean don’t be my usual charming self?
CJ, you wound me.
Women love me
.
I have them eating out of my hands all the time.”

“This one doesn’t strike me as the ‘Gordon notch in the bedpost’ sort of woman
,
and I’m pretty sure she can take you.”
Then she punched him slightly in the shoulder.
“And if you play your cards right I might get a discount at the shop and that’ll go a long way
in
making me love you more.”

Gordon was still laughing at her when he went out the door. Women loved him and he was sure he could get this one to love him too. Or at least like him a bit. She’d been having a bad day
,
that was all
,
and he’d simply woo her to his way of thinking while he got a little information.

~~~

The knock at her door made her groan. She didn’t move from the soapy bath
,
but closed her eyes against the noise.
She tried to concentrate on the sounds her headphones were pumping into her ears
,
but the pounding was getting on her last nerve.
Alexis stepped out of the tub, grabbed up a towel
,
and went to give the person on the other side a piece of her mind and the feel of her fist.
She jerked back when she saw who was standing there.

“Your aunt said I could come down. She thought maybe you were asleep and told me to… Do you have anything on under that towel?”

“Of course I do. Don’t you take a bath fully clothed?”
Alexis wanted to turn and find more to put on
,
but was sure it was too late for that. “What the hell do you want
,
Officer Force?
I’m on my own time here and you’re interrupting my down time.”

“I can see that.” She would bet he was seeing a great deal.
“I wanted to talk to you about something.
Something important.
Something…
Don’t you want to get something less…more on? I mean
,
I’m sure you have to have a robe or something back there.”
He looked over her shoulder like one was suddenly going to appear for her.

“I do and to put it on would waste more of my time since I’m going to strip down and get back into my bath as soon as you leave
.
” She glanced back to the clock at the side of her bed. “In about five seconds.”

She shouldn’t have looked away.
Looking away gave him enough time to move and
,
when he had
,
he’d taken full advantage of the open door.
Suddenly
,
he was standing right in front of her and he smelled so good.
She was nearly ready to lean into him and smell his neck when he touched her.

“Do you have any idea how lovely you are?”
He skimmed his finger along the swell of her breasts that the towel was pressing over.
“And your skin is very warm, almost hot. I’m betting you smell very good too.
Can I have a sniff of you, Miss Dark?
A taste maybe?”

She closed her eyes to the almost purr of his voice.
It was hypnotic and the most soothing thing she’d ever heard in her life.
When she found herself pressed against him
,
she looked up into his eyes
,
suddenly very afraid and very needy.

“Don’t,” she said as he lowered his head to hers.
“Please, don’t.”

“Too late.”
He brushed his mouth over hers once then pulled back to look at her again.
“Christ, it’s you.”
This time when he took her mouth it was to devour her.

His hand at her breast made her breath catch even as his tongue invaded her mouth.
And when she felt him moan her pussy tightened then moistened.
She shifted on her feet as she lifted her hand to his hair and laced her fingers in its softness.
Moaning again when his mouth moved down her neck to her shoulder
,
she could almost hear the pounding of her heart it was so loud.
When his mouth took her nipple
,
she nearly came apart then.
This time when she begged him it was for an entirely different reason.

“I want you.
Right now. I want to taste your sweetness and then come inside of you,” Gordon whispered in her ear as he made his way up her throat again.
“Tell me you want me as well, Alexis. Tell me that you need me too.”

Yes
,
her mind screamed at her.
Tell him yes.
But before she could form the words he was nipping at her neck.
And the sudden pain that flared through her was gone before she could protest.

“Please, you’re going to fast,” she t
ri
ed. “I need to—
”

“Mine,” he told her as he slid his finger deep inside of her pussy.
“Come for me.
Come while I make you mine.”

His tongue laved her throat again and she was melting against him when he pinched her clit.
As she cried out
,
her climax moved over her entire body and when she felt him sink his teeth hard into the flesh of the pulse of her throat she knew she was a goner.
The second climax took her breath away and she felt the world darken around her.