Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (68 page)

“What are you going to do with Austin?”

“We’re going to go on a run. A hard one. Will you be alright here?” She nodded. “I’m sorry, but I need—”

“Do not be. You need this. It is obvious that you need this. Go. I have things here. The children will be safe.” He stood up and kissed her on the mouth. “Go now before I cannot let you.”

Austin met him in the field between their houses. As they stripped down, Dallas told him what he’d found out. His brother was as shocked as he’d been. To give little girls, small children, to men for breeding…well, neither man would let that happen here.

“I’ve heard from the council. They want me to see what I can do about bringing him in alive.”

Dallas snorted at his brother.

“I told them that I’d give it my best. Of course I didn’t tell them that if he stepped on my land, he was as good as dead.”

“So now what do we do? Oh by the way, I heard about your little fun at the man’s house the other day. Next time you go out, I would appreciate it if you’d let your enforcer know. Can’t save your ass if I don’t know where it’s at.” Austin nodded. “Also, what did you do with the money? I’m assuming the council doesn’t know about that.”

“Nope. But if I have to feed and shelter a bunch of new wolves, there has to be some extra capital involved. I’ve already talked to two of the contractors you set up appointments with. Thank you for that. They’ll be starting on the houses and other outbuildings we need next week. I told both companies that the one that finishes first gets a bonus. I think I like having this much cash to use.” Dallas asked how much. “Nearly twenty million. I had to count it twice before I believed it. What the hell was he doing with that much money and not caring for his people?”

Dallas didn’t know, but he would bet that wasn’t all of the money. If the man had that much, there was no reason to believe that there hadn’t been twice that much. “He wouldn’t have left that bag of money in the driveway without a good reason. I’m betting he had carried all he could to the car by the time you guys pulled up.”

He agreed. Then they shifted and took off. Dallas wanted to run hard and if they could bring down a deer for meat, so much the better. Neither of them saw anything big enough to make it worth their while, but they needed this badly. When they finished and headed to the pack house, Austin asked about Stacy.

“She’s fine. I think she’d like to talk to you about her uncle. Not sure what you can do about his addiction, but she wants to try.”

Austin nodded before answering. “Phil has an idea. He said that he can make the man think he doesn’t want drugs any longer and then he thinks he can give him a fighting chance. He said, with your permission of course, that he’d like to try and boil the drugs out of his body.”

“My permission? Why does he need mine?”

Austin shrugged.

“You tell him that. I’m not…wait. Could it have something to do with it being Stacy’s uncle?”

“Don’t know, but I can ask. But I wouldn’t wait too long. Phil seems to think he’ll die without the drugs or kill himself if we try to give him something to help him get off them.” Austin stood on the porch. “You should also know that the uncle said he’d like talk to Stacy when she wanted to come by, but for her to make it soon. Said he’s not feeling well.”

Austin went inside and Dallas started back to his home. He reached for Stacy and told her what he’d learned about Harvey. She sounded upset, but he didn’t know her well enough yet to know why. But his wolf did stir and wanted to return to the house immediately to comfort her.

“I will see him tomorrow. I think I would like for it to be me alone. He might talk to me better without you or one of the others there.”

Dallas thought she was right, but he didn’t have to like it.

“I will be careful and not let him touch me. I know what the drug can do to a person.”

Chapter 8

The news had nothing else to show but the burnt out shell of his house. Rich watched as each station showed the destruction and how it had been so far off the beaten path that until someone called it in tonight, it would have gone undiscovered for who knew how long.

He looked around the house he’d stolen into and could smell the food cooking in the microwave. He didn’t want the owners of the house to come home and catch him inside, especially since when he’d been looking for some clean clothes, he’d found all those guns.

He’d broken into the nice little house about an hour ago, right after he’d seen the owner and his little wife leave. He knew they were probably headed to their jobs by the brief cases and the large mugs of coffee in their hands.

Rich had come in the house by the locked back door and headed straight to the phone hanging on the wall. He’d been surprised by that too. A land line in a house this new? But calling the news station had been perfect. He’d reported the fire, wanted to know what was going to be done about it, and then had the audacity to ask them if there was a reward. He might have gotten it too if he could have had an address and been able to give them the phone number he’d been calling from. But he knew neither and hung up.

The microwave dinged in the kitchen and he left the big screen in the living room in favor of the littler one in the kitchen. He pulled his still hot food from the machine then sat at the table with a bottle of wine he’d found in the refrigerator, as well as the leftovers he was now enjoying. There was a whole apple pie in there he was planning to have as well. The news anchor was still talking about the shame of it all.

“There seems to be no one living here, Michelle. We’ve had crews looking around for someone, anyone who can say who the family was that lived here, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around.” The camera panned to the once beautiful building. “The only thing we can think is they have been on vacation. A Mr. Richard O’Brien and his family have lived in the home for more than twenty years, but according to records, they all died some years back.”

“That’ll be a horrific thing to come home to no matter who it is. To have lost everything without knowing until you got back. My heart goes out to them.” The woman in the newsroom then turned from the television where Adie Pinkersmith was at his house to the camera in front of her. “If anyone knows the whereabouts of this family, please contact your local police department.”

He was just cutting into the pie when he heard the door in the front open. He nearly swallowed the spoon he’d been using to scoop the ice cream into his bowl. The woman who came into the kitchen wasn’t the one he saw leaving and when she screamed, he tossed both the pie and the ice cream container at her. He knew he’d hit her, but not how badly because he’d taken off out the back door as fast as he could go. He was nearly down the street when he realized he’d left his things in the house. He actually thought about going back and getting his dirty clothes and the cell phone he’d found in the house, but decided that the way she’d screamed, there would be a good possibility that the cops were already there.

“Damn, damn, damn,” he cursed as soon as he stopped running. He’d been so winded by the time he’d gotten to the outskirts of town that he thought maybe the dinner or the ice cream had been tainted. He couldn’t believe how short of a distance he could go before he’d feel like the needed a nap. Rich sat near the tree he’d been leaning against.

He looked down at his body. When he’d broken into the house today, he’d been surprised how tightly the man’s clothes fit him. It had been so bad that he’d had to go and find something a lot looser to wear. He’d finally ended up in a pair of sleep pants and a really baggy sweatshirt.

Rich realized that he’d put on some weight. He’d believed that it hadn’t been all that much and told himself that when it got to be a problem, he’d do something about it. Well, he’d waited too long. He was a fat blob.

And he knew it wasn’t just vanity talking either. When he’d gotten out of the shower and stepped on the scale, it had said he was close to three hundred-fifty pounds. Nearly three times what he’d weighted when he’d become pack leader at only one-twenty. For reason’s he couldn’t imagine were right, he blamed this on this nemesis too. He was fat because of Austin Force.

In the back of his mind, knew that wasn’t possible. He’d not even known the man for all that long, had never actually met him, but he had to blame someone and he was simply the best possible source. Rich lay down next to the tree and closed his eyes. He couldn’t even look at himself. It was time to make it an issue and lose the weight. But first, he was going to kill that bastard.

Moving slowly, he made his way back to the cave. It was the best possible place for him to be right now. He was exhausted, hungry again, and had to plan. He knew where the other pack was and all he needed to do was find a way onto the property, kill the bastard, then wait for them to fall apart before he stepped in as new pack leader. He was laughing to himself as he entered the cave. In a week’s time, he’d not only have Georgia and her brats back, who he only just realized he was going to kill as soon as he got them, but he’d have a new pack, a better home, and maybe a new bitch to call his own. Life was going to get a great deal better.

He was only about five miles from the pack where he was currently. That meant that once he got the wolf and killed him, he’d be able to get back here to hide until they did what he expected them to.

But what if he was injured? It was a good possibility with him being so out of shape, so he had to think that through as well. He should have a backup plan. What if he simply lured the wolf here and then killed him? That would work.

But drugging the wolf would be better. Then he could bring him back here, tie him up, and make him pay for all the things he’d made Rich suffer through. He had a long list too.

Okay
, he thought, and started to make a list in the dirt. Drugs. He’d have to find something that would knock him out completely without killing him. Rich liked the idea of bringing him to heel and the more he thought about it, the better he liked it. He thought about some of the drugs he’d taken recently and decided that he’d be better off getting something that didn’t enhance his abilities and only put him down. At least for a little while.

He started making a longer list and pulled open the bag of chips he’d snatched the day before. He wasn’t fond of chips really, but they took away the hunger pangs. Tomorrow, he was going to use some of his money he’d stashed in the hidey hole he’d had and buy him something to eat, to wear, and also maybe a map or at least some paper to use.

Smiling, as he closed his eyes, he thought about the transgressions list he’d made. The wolf was going to be lucky if he made it after the first hour. Rich fell asleep after finishing off the chips and starting on the second bag. He wanted to get going as soon as light crested over the mountain.

~~~

Phil looked down at the man he’d turned vampire. Well, he and Holly had changed. Phil genuinely liked Myles and hadn’t wanted him to die a senseless death. Changing him had been the only thing he’d been able to do to make it so his friend would be around a bit longer.

“You can do this. All you have to do is make him believe what it is that you want him to and it will work.”

Myles looked at him before looking at the cell door again.

“Just go in and do it. I’ll be right there with you so if you don’t do something right, I can drain you both.” He’d meant it as a joke, but Myles was either too tense to recognize it, or he’d really been reading up on what he could do. Phil laughed when Myles had brought him the smut book he’d given him the week after he’d been changed.

“This is really…well, I didn’t think you get books like this in print. I thought…I don’t know, I guess it was more of a woman’s kind of read. You said she was a vampire? Is she dating anyone?” There had been laughter, but Phil thought the new vamp had been serious.

“No, not that I know of. But she’s one of the ancient ones. I guess she’d be nearly my mom’s age, maybe a little older.” The author he’d told him to read was also a friend of his. Phil thought maybe in a few years he’d introduce the former cop to her. She was something of an enigma to even him.

His voice brought him to the present. “I just use that weird voice and he’ll do what I need for him to do. Seems simple enough. What are the side effects?”

“It’s called compulsion, and side effects? Let me see… None if you do it right. Insanity if you don’t. But I’m right here so you’ll do fine.” Phil waited a few heart beats. “Have you tried biting anyone yet?”

“No,” Myles practically screamed at him. Then in a much calmer voice, “No. I’m not…you said I’d be fine until I was ready. And I’m not. Ready, I mean. I want to be sure that…I can’t do it yet. Especially to a man. I’ve been…I can’t. Not yet.”

Phil nodded. He understood. He remembered his first time and smiled. But he’d been prepared for it. This man had been dropped into it. He nodded to the door. “We need to do this, Myles. The man needs to be dried out.” He walked to the door. “Stacy wants him around and this will be the only way.”

They walked into the small cell and looked at the pitiful wolf sitting in the corner curled into a ball. He was muttering to himself and Phil knew that he’d reached the point that if he didn’t get dried out or get drugs soon, he’d take his own life. He was already shaking and had lost weight in the few days he’d been here. Phil said his name and Harvey looked up at him.

“Do you have something to ease the memories with you? Stacy said she’d take care of me. I don’t want to remember this anymore.” He put his head on his drawn up knees. “I don’t want to remember what he did. Please let me…give me something, I beg you.”

“We’re going to give you something. Something that will make you feel much better.” Phil nodded at Myles. “I have a friend here I’d like for you to meet. He’s going to give you what you need.”

“Harvey, my name is Kramer, Myles Kramer. I’m here to help you.”

Harvey looked at him through bloodshot eyes then back to the floor in front of him.

“You’ll need to look at me for me to help you.”

“I’d rather just die, thank you, though. I’ve been…I let him kill them both and I did nothing to help them because I was a fool.” He glanced up before looking back down. “Just do me a favor and kill me now. I know what you are and my blood, while tainted, is better than a drug.” He laughed bitterly, but didn’t look up.

Phil put his hand on Myles’ shoulder and pushed him to the floor.
“Pull his chin up and he’ll look at you. As soon as he makes eye contact, you’ll have to work fast to make him continue to look at you.”
He reached Myles through their link and continued to encourage him.
“As soon as you have his mind, tell him that he’ll not want drugs again. That as soon as he thinks about them, he’ll get ill and not want anything to do with them. Then once you do that, I’ll fix his body.”

Phil watched as Myles did what he’d told him to do. It was practice for him really. It was a way to get used to some of the powers that he had and to use them under circumstances that Phil, as his maker, could control. What Phil had planned was much more dangerous and a whole lot more work. He was glad that he’d fed well before coming here to do this.

As soon as Harvey nodded that he’d understood Myles and that as far as he was concerned there would be no more drugs passing through his body, Phil knelt down in from of the man as Myles stood up.

He took the man’s arm and pulled up his torn sleeve. Track marks nearly the length of his arm were red and bruised. He could see his legs were as bad. Phil could make those go away too, the reminders that he’d been a drug addict for a long time, but didn’t want the man to be too terrified about all this.

Phil ran his sharpened nail down the needle marks and watched the small drops of blood gather there. It wasn’t to bleed him out, but to have an outlet for the poison that was there. Phil closed his eyes and used his magic to make the nasty shit the man had been putting in his veins for so long leave.

He heard the man sobbing. He had expected that. Men or women doing drugs this long would feel the withdrawal much more than a new junkie. Even the begging, begging to be left alone was expected. What he’d not expected was the connection he’d gotten from the man, the almost maker to child kind of connection. And he’d learned a great deal more about Harvey’s brother.

When Phil fell back against the floor, exhausted, he reached for his mate.
“Come to me now. I need for you to relay a message to your brother.”

Holly was there almost instantly. One of the things she’d gotten from him was his ability to travel quickly on her own. He took her hand into his and gave her what he could, nearly everything that he’d gotten from the man, excluding the drugs.

“Tell your brother to go there now. There is more money there than he could spend in several lifetimes.” He pulled his hand free, but nearly wept with relief when he smelled her blood at his nose. “I love you.”

“I love you too, you moron. Now feed. And if you think this gets you out of getting yelled at later then you’re nuttier than the man in the corner.”

He drank from her greedily and felt his cock swell.

“Behave. We have company and I don’t have time for your shenanigans right now.”