Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) (5 page)

“Is she going to be all right? I mean,
what do I need to help her heal?” He flushed. He’d never taken care of anyone
but himself before. “Clint, you said she could go home. Am I going to run into
problems when I get her there?”

“Yes. I’ve no doubt, but not from her
wounds. She’s going to give you a run for your money, I think. I’ve never seen
a woman…hell, Connor, I think she’s more stubborn than your alpha person. And
CJ is a real bitch when she wants to be.”

He nodded and then realized he couldn’t
see him. “I don’t…she isn’t going to ask me for anything. I doubt that I’ll
know when she needs a pill unless I simply give it to her.”

Clint was quiet for so long he figured
he was calling in the prescription and had simply forgotten to tell him to hold
on. Then he heard him talking to someone else. He could hear the quietness of
the room and knew that he’d closed the door to his office to talk.

“Look, I know you’re her mate and all,
but that doesn’t mean you should have to deal with the things I’m about to tell
you. She’s gonna be in pain for some time even with the little blood that Phil
gave her. The only reason I released her was because I figured if you two mated
sooner then she would be changed and then it would over. But the truth is,
somebody is knocking the shit out of her weekly, if not daily.”

Connor leaned against the counter and
closed his eyes as Clint continued.

“Her left ankle shows a hairline crack
that may only be as old as a few weeks. How she’s walking is beyond me. Five
ribs are broken and two cracked. She’ll need to take it easy on those or it
could become serious. Her leg? Fuck, Connor, how the hell did she even manage
to get around much less lay a whole floor of tile? That wound? It’s about two
inches deep as well as about nine inches long. The stitches she put in? You can
bet she did it without the aid of anything to numb it. Her wrist is sprained,
but healing. There are two, maybe as many as three recent concussions and one
that probably happened when she
fell
and hurt her leg.”

He heard his name called behind him and
reached for the small white bag. “You know as well as I do that she didn’t fall
anywhere. I read her file. Someone is chasing her.”

“No shit. And it looks like he’s found
her a few times too many. She needs to be taught to fight back or, at the very
least, to shoot him. That fucker is going to kill her if he keeps this up.”

“No, he won’t.” Connor picked up a few
things on his way to the front to pay for the medication. A bottle of water
went in first then a candy bar when he read on the bag to take with food. He
didn’t know anything about her tastes and also threw a few bags of chips, a
frozen pizza, and a cola. He paid for everything and hung up with Clint just as
he was handed his receipt. The man actually told him good luck.

As he rounded the truck he thought he
was going to need it. Her eyes were closed, but he could see tears on her
cheeks. Rattling the door handle to give her a few seconds to know he was
getting in he watched her scrub at the stains on her cheeks. Without a word, he
handed her the bottle of water, took out one of the pills, and handed it to
her.

He expected her to argue. Or at least
slap the pill out of his hand. She did neither. When she took it from him with
the water he watched her put the pain pill in her mouth and drink nearly half
the bottle before closing the cap on it. He didn’t speak because he was not
sure he could. He knew she was hurting and yelling at her wasn’t going to help
either of them.

Connor kept looking over at her. As soon
as her head fell against his shoulder he twisted in his seat and let her lay
across his lap. Careful not to wake her, he called his brother Austin.

“She’s asleep. Do you think you can fix
up one of the spare bedrooms for her? Something close to where I am?” Austin
didn’t laugh, for which he was grateful. “Austin, Clint said she’s lucky to be
able to move and she laid a floor for us.”

“Yeah, he called here just after he hung
up with you. He told me that she’d be better off with a room with a bathroom
close. He thought she’d try to go to work in the morning and wanted to warn
me.” He heard Austin say something to someone close. “Mom said to tell you that
she’d help you get her undressed. She said to tell you that she went to the
room we had her in to get her stuff and nothing is there.”

“I think all she has is what’s in this
pack she has. Do you think that’s possible? That she’d only have enough clothes
and other things to fit in a small backpack?” He looked at the woman lying
across his thigh. “She’s very beautiful, isn’t she?”

He didn’t expect an answer and wasn’t
given one. Connor pulled into the compound ten minutes after hanging up with
his brother. He glanced toward where his new house was being built and decided
that he’d have to have a construction crew help him now. He had a mate to care
for.

Looking down again, he realized he
didn’t have a clue how to do that.

~~~

Lou moved closer to the heat. She’d
never been this warm unless it was full summer and, the last time she’d looked
at a calendar, it was nearly Thanksgiving. And the bed was the softest thing
she’d ever in all her life ever been in. Moaning softly when she found the
warmth again, she nearly screamed when the source of her heat growled low. And
then he spoke.

“Just lay still for a little while longer.
I don’t have to be to work for another hour yet and this is too comfortable for
words.” Then he pulled her tighter to him. “You are very toasty.”

She tried to pull away but he was
stronger and bigger. “Let me go. Right fucking now.”

Connor did let her go a little, but not
enough for her to get away. He looked down at her from his pillow and smiled. “I
think you snuggled up to me, not the other way around. As for letting you go? Not
yet. I’m just beginning to like this feeling.”

His leg moved over hers and she stilled.
He didn’t do anything more but drape his leg over her thigh and not move any more.
Every part of her body was screaming at her to run.

“I’ve told you before I’m not going to
hurt you. I wasn’t even going to get into bed with you, but you had a bad dream
I guess and I didn’t want to leave you again.”

She didn’t remember her dream, but she’d
had bad ones her entire life and didn’t doubt his words.

“The baby is just down the hall and I
was afraid you’d wake him if you cried out again.”

“I’m awake now so you can just go back
to wherever you came from.” He still hadn’t moved and she was afraid to. Sort
of had the thought of not dancing in front of a beast.

“You need something for pain?”

She shook her head then nodded. If he
had to get up then she’d be free.

“I’ll get it. Close your eyes.”

When he stood up, she nearly swallowed
her tongue. He was bare-assed naked. And hard. Everywhere. She quickly closed
her eyes and then threw the blanket over her head for good measure. Christ, he
was gorgeous with clothes. Without them, he was simply…yummy.

“Ginger, I can’t give you your pill with
a blanket over your head.”

She didn’t want the stupid thing anyway.

“Can you hear me?”

When he tried to pull the blanket free,
she squealed. His laughter ran along her skin like a soft feather. She put out
her hand and waited for him to put the pill in her palm, but he only laughed
harder.

“I’m dressed now. Well, sort of. I have
my pants on. Here, come out of there and I’ll help you. And you must be
starved.”

She didn’t trust him. “Just put it in my
hand and I’ll be fine. I need to…do these knock me out?”

“They did yesterday. So I would assume
they would again today. Come on, come out from there. I want to see you.”

She didn’t understand him and pulled the
blanket down slowly, making sure he was dressed before she took it off her face
completely.

“Much better. Here, take this. Then I’ll
call my mom and she can get—”

“I don’t want it. I have things I have
to do today. And lying about in this bed isn’t going to get them completed.” She
looked around for her bag and panicked. “Where is my stuff?”

“In the closet. Mom washed up your
things and put them in there. I hope you don’t mind, but I had CJ order you
some things to wear until we can get you some—”

“I don’t want anything from anyone. I
don’t have the money to pay for the hospital stay and I certainly don’t have
money for stuff when I have enough right there. I have a job to do and the
sooner I can get it completed, the better. I’m also ready to move back to that
bunk house place. That was perfectly fine for me and I want to go back there.”

He didn’t say anything as he went over
to the chair and took a shirt off the back of it. He pulled it over his head
and sat in the same chair before he spoke. She knew he was pissed, every line
of his body said that. And if that didn’t clue her in, then his voice would
have.

“Do you have any idea what a mate is?”

She didn’t answer.

“It’s a sort of wife for me and my kind.
You’re mine.”

She snorted at him. “I don’t belong to
anyone. As for your wife? No, thanks. I have enough problems without taking on
a husband or whatever right now.”

Connor leaned back in the chair and she
looked at the closet. “It’s too far for you to get it without my help. I
planned it that way, just so you know. I want to talk to you without you going
all pissy on me. What kind of empath are you?”

His question startled her. She looked at
him with narrow eyes and decided that she’d answer his question, but nothing
more. “I can touch objects and give you whatever you need from it. Mostly it’s
nothing more than a few bits of information, but sometimes I can tell what
could happen in the future.” Not entirely true, but it was close enough. When
he only nodded, she waited for him to tell her what he had plans for her to do
for him. Like her foster father had. She’d go to the tracks with him and he’d
make her touch the horses. She would know the winner and would tell him so that
he’d win and she’d get to eat one meal. Sometimes, it would be weeks before she
got so much as a half a slice of bread.

“This person who is chasing you? Do you
know what he wants from you? Do you think he knows you’re here?”

She looked out the window and didn’t
speak at first.

“Ginger?”

“I’m not Ginger. Ginger died a long time
ago. Lou is all I am. And in answer to your question, he wants what everyone
wants. Money, and lots of it.” She looked at him then. “He probably knows where
I am, yes. He’ll pay you for me if that’s what you want. All I ask is you give
me a chance to get a head start before you sell me off.”

She felt his anger again. No amount of
extra brain power was needed to see that he was pissed at her. When he stood
she braced herself for the blow she knew would come. When he moved toward the
doorway she gripped the blanket tight in her fist.

Before he moved out of the door he
turned back to her. “I won’t sell you for any amount of money, not now, not
ever. And I told you before, I don’t need money. I have a very good business
going and I can support myself as well as you easily.” He stepped into the hall
as he continued. “If he comes here and tries to hurt you, he’s as good as dead.
You’re mine, Lou. Mine.”

The door closed quietly behind him. She
sat there stunned for several minutes before what he said sank in. He was going
to kill him. Kill Dean Herman to keep him from hurting her. She looked out the
window again. She knew just as surely that she was sitting here that there was
no way anyone would do that for her.

Shaking her head, she tried to move out
of the bed. She was still hurting bad enough that she knew if she tried to get
up she’d fall flat on her face, but she had to pee. The pill was still in her
hand and without thought as to why she should take it, she laid it on the
bedside table and made her way to the bathroom. She was dizzy with pain by the
time she made it back, but she’d done it and as far as she was concerned, she
was well on her way to recovery.

The sooner she got better and able to
walk, the sooner she could get out of here. People like the man who had just
told her that she was safe weren’t any different than any other person she’d
met in her lifetime. He might be wolf, but that didn’t make him less of a man. And
now that he knew what she was and what she could bring him, he’d soon change
his mind. Closing her eyes, she rubbed her face on the pillow beneath her head.
Everyone wanted the same thing. And never once did anyone think of her and what
her needs were.

Chapter 5

Dean walked around the block again. She
had to be here somewhere. She couldn’t have gotten far with that beating he’d
given her just a few days ago. The damned girl owed him. His wife left him
because of her.

‘Course it had a little to do with the
gambling, but that was Ginger’s fault too. Had she given him the names of the
horses like he told her, he’d have enough money right now to buy his wife back.
That didn’t mean he really wanted her; nope, he didn’t, but he could right
quick if he wanted to.