Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) (6 page)

He stepped into the little grocery store
and asked if anyone had seen a pretty little red-headed girl. Dean didn’t
expect that anyone ever would and no one did this time either, but he always
put out his feelers, as he liked to call ‘em. Someone sometime would see the
fucking bitch and tell someone right on down the line until someone remembered
him and called him out. Dean smiled and made his way to the dumpster in the
back after being told that no one noticed anyone. Sure they didn’t.

This was more like the places where she
hung out. Trash is what she was and trash is what she used. Fucking idiot could
have all she wanted, but she didn’t do nothing to get it. Hell, if he had her
know-how, he’d have everything and twice of it. Smiling, he lifted the lid to
the dumpster and stepped back when the smell nearly made him sick.

She’d be stupid to eat anything from
this one, but he wouldn’t put nothing past her. She would only have to give him
what he wanted and he’d take care of her fitting her station. Laughing, he
thought about her station. Ginger was trash just like the stuff she dug around
in.

Dean walked back to the cheap hotel
where he was staying. He figured he had about enough to get him through until
the end of the week. He was hoping he’d have had her by now, but she was being
cagey again. He smiled again when he thought of the last beating he’d given
her.

It had been three days ago, just the day
before he’d found her again and she’d fallen in the water to get away. Next
time, he’d have something to fish her out with, but he’d been so surprised by
her move that he’d watched her float down the stream until she was too far away
for him to catch.

She’d been coming out of one of them
hardware stores and her hands were full. Probably good, he supposed, ‘cause she
couldn’t fight him back as well that way. But he’d seen her go in and was
waiting for her when the doors swooshed open. The pop to her jaw knocked all
the things out of her hands and nearly had her fall. But she was fast and had
gotten back up quickly. The next time he’d hit her, it had been in her ribs.
That blow had done some good ‘cause he’d seen the look of pain on her face. After
that, she couldn’t move so good so he’d been able to get in a few more before
some jackass had come up and tore him off her. Frowning, he wondered if he went
back there if he could find the cocksucker and show him to mind his own
business. Nah, he needed to find Ginger and didn’t have time to fuck with some
idiot right now.

“I’ll get his ass later. Maybe when I
buy out that company, he’ll be the first person I fire.” Dean laughed out loud
at his own funny. “People will know when I come around.”

The hotel room hadn’t been cleaned. He
supposed it had something to do with him trying to get the broad that had been
in yesterday to blow him. He’d told her several times he’d been kidding. People,
women especially, couldn’t take a fucking joke anymore. The knock at the door
made him think that Ginger had come looking for him, but when he looked in the
peephole, he saw the manager there again.

“I would ask that you move on. We’ve
talked it over, the missus and I, and we’ve decided that we don’t want your
kind here.”

Dean snorted at him and the man flushed.

“We might have the lower end of the
economy staying here, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep people like you
here.”

“People like me. What is people like
me?” The man looked back toward the office and Dean saw the woman, the missus,
he presumed. “Oh, I see. You’re pussy-whipped. Should have known someone… No
problem, buddy. Wouldn’t want you to get in dutch with the bitch now, would we?”

“Now see here. You can’t talk to me that—”

Dean cut him off with a raise of his
hand. “You know as well as I do that you’re only down here giving me shit 'cause
she’s making you. Okay. I’ll be gone by the morning.” Dean closed to door in
the guy’s face and sat on the bed. He was simply going to go. He eyed the
television and grinned. ‘Course he was gonna make sure they remembered him when
he left too.

About two hours after the owner left,
Dean had everything packed up that he was taking. His stuff was already in the
car, but it was the rest he was waiting on. He looked at his pile. Yeah, this
was going to put him down as the worst case kind of stayer.

The blankets he’d folded nice and neat. The
spread was ugly, but he was taking it too. The pillows were tied together with
the towels he’d not used, as well as the coffee pot and all the toilet paper. He’d
put all those things into the laid out shower curtain. The television was going
to be a bitch to sneak out—it must have weighed a ton—as well as the two lamps
and the alarm clock. He couldn’t take the table or chairs, but he had plans for
them too. They weren’t going to be fit for the trash heap when he walked out
the door. Yeah, Dean thought, he was going to make a splash.

It took him three trips to his car. And
another one to take care of the furniture. He’d had to leave the television
after all. He’d accidentally dropped it when he’d tried to lift it off the
stand. How the hell was he supposed to know that the fucker was screwed down? Busting
up the furniture had the guy next to him bitching so Dean was glad as hell that
he’d waited to do it until the other crap was packed away. He was pulling out
of the shit hole when the cops pulled in. Dean was still laughing when he got
to the second stop sign. That’s when he saw it. Release to Work Program. Hot
damn, she’d be there. Damned girl was nothing but a pain in the ass and just
this side of the law. He was grinning when he wrote down the information and
who to contact. George Taylor, County Judge. And there it was. A fine list of
who was helping him out. Dean pulled the sign out of the dirt and tossed it in
the back with the rest of his shit. He whistled as he drove down the street in
search of another shit hole to live in.

~~~

Nancy had to sit down. That poor girl. That
poor, poor girl. She wiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks and blew her
nose for the second time since she’d left the bedroom. Nancy looked up when
Connor walked into the room.

“What is it?” He dropped to his knees in
front of her. “What happened, Mom? Tell me.”

“Oh Connor, that girl. She’s—”

“Damn it. She can be pissed at me all
she wants, but if she makes you cry then I won’t have it.”

Nancy looked at him, stunned.

“I’ll take care of her. Just stay away
from her until I get—what the hell?”

She hit him again with her wooden spoon.
She hoped this time she’d knock some sense into him. She stood up, glared at
him, and thought about hitting him again for good measure.

“Sit.”

He moved to the opposite chair and sat
rubbing his head.

“Have I… Did I say to you that she was
mean to me? Indicate it in any way?”

“No. But she—” She simply pulled out her
spoon again. “What did she do? She still has a lot to learn about trusting
people.”

“So she does.” Nancy sat down. “I went
up to take her some breakfast. She was…she was crying. When I asked her what
was the matter, she told me nothing, just tired. I left her the tray and went
back to fixing breakfast for the rest of the household. I might have gotten a
little side tracked with little ones.” Nancy got up and went to the stove to
stir the soup she had simmering there. It was the lightest soup she could think
of to give to Lou.

“Mom?” She wiped again at the tears. “Mom,
tell me what happened. Whatever it is, I swear to you that I’ll talk to her
about it.”

She turned to look at him. “She hadn’t
eaten. None of it but a few nibbles on the toast. By the time I’d made it back
up there, she was asleep. I took it away and didn’t…I brought her some lunch
about an hour ago. I decided to visit with her.” Nancy didn’t mention that the
visit hadn’t gone well. She’d left the room in tears, but it had nothing to do
with the girl. It was entirely to do with what she’d discovered. She sat back
down. “How much do you know about her?”

He shook his head.

“I thought so. She’s not been eating
well. Well, that’s an understatement. She told me that she’s been consisting on
mostly ramen noodles for ten years.” She watched as dawning came over his face.
Connor looked at the stairs then back at her before he spoke.

“She can’t eat. She doesn’t…she doesn’t
have the stomach for it.” He leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his hand
over his face. “How do I fix that?”

She didn’t know what to tell him. “She’ll
never be able to live through the change if you want her to be a wolf, as weak
as she is. And not being able to eat will make her…” Nancy got up to stir the
soup again. “I don’t want her to die.” She continued to stir the pot and think
about how to help Connor when the she heard the door close. She turned to see
that Connor had left the kitchen and had gone into the yard. By the time she’d
gotten to the door to call him back, he was in his truck and peeling out of the
driveway.

She was immediately concerned, then
pissed. How dare he? As soon as he came back she was going to take the spoon to
his bottom. Then his hard head again. By the time she was finishing up the soup
and ladling it into a bowl she was in a rare form even for her. The girl in the
bed was not going to be put through whatever her son was up to.

Lou was sitting on the side of the bed
when she came through the door. Her face was pale and Nancy immediately put
down the tray and went to her. She could see right away that the girl was in a
great deal of pain.

“Why can’t you all just leave me the
fuck alone?”

Nancy didn’t say anything, knowing that
pain could make a person say things they normally wouldn’t.

“I want to just be left alone. Can’t you
make that other guy let me go to the jail? I won’t cause this household any more
problems.”

Jail. Nancy had forgotten that Lou was
here because of circumstances that had nothing to do with Connor and being his
mate. Nancy looked down at the covered wound and saw the blood stains there. She’d
been up again. And hadn’t asked for help.

Nancy looked up at her and realized that
she had no one to ask for help. Connor had left her here yesterday morning and
had only returned for lunch then left again. She tried to think if he had been
sleeping here. And she realized that he hadn’t. He’d left her here without
anything in the way of support.

“What do you think will happen if you go
back to jail? Do you think you’ll have a bed to sleep in like this one? Do you
think you’ll have any pain medication if you need it?”

“I’ve slept on the cold ground for more
than ten years, most of the time without a blanket or pillow. Most winters I have
little more than a jacket and no boots. Last summer I spent the entire time
sleeping in an open field until the farmer scared the shit out of me when he
started harvesting the corn out there. Pain medication? I wouldn’t know. The
one and only time I took it was when Mr. Force gave it to me. And I haven’t
taken it since.” She reached over and handed her the prescription. “You want
it? Take it. I didn’t ask for it in the first place. Let me go to jail,
please?”

Nancy nodded once. She stood up and
reached for the phone. If Connor thought he could simply leave her here without
a care as to what happened to her then she’d be better off at jail. When George
answered the phone, she asked for his help. “She would like to finish her
sentence behind bars. I would very much like it if you could send someone to
get her, please.” George sputtered twice before she continued. “If you’re
concerned about Austin, let me handle him. I want this girl picked up today.
Now if you could manage it.”

“I thought she was Connor’s mate. The
doc said—”

“Connor has made his decision about
her.” She waited for him to speak and when he didn’t, she continued. “You come
and get her or I bring her to you. If I have to do that, there are any number
of pack going to be pissed at you for making me wait dinner for them.”

George laughed. “You have something
brewing in that mind of yours, don’t you? I just bet that…” He laughed. “I’ll
come and get her. Something isn’t right, but I’m sure that when the shit hits
the fan, and we both know that it will, you’ll tell me all about it.”

Nancy didn’t even bother telling him she
had no idea what he was talking about. Instead, she hung up a few minutes later
and helped Lou get dressed. The girl was sweating by the time Nancy helped her
into a pair of old sweat pants and an older sweat shirt. It had taken some
doing to find something of Connor’s that had his scent on it, but she just
managed to get it on her before the police cruiser showed up. Things were about
to get fun. Smiling, she went to find CJ to tell her what she’d done.

Chapter 6

Connor watched the flatbed driver take
the last of the wood off the truck. It was the second delivery this week and he
was beginning to see that all his hard work was paying off. The outter walls
were beginning to take shape and some of the plumbing had been put into
position. It was starting to look like it was under construction rather than
just a dream of one.

“You want I should start on the out
walls or you want that I get things ready for the electrician for tomorrow?”