Impassable Force: Force of Nature Series (10 page)

The chains were biting into his flesh
, both around his ankles and his wrist. Whoever had him knew that silver was poisonous to his kind, and he could only think of one person who would do this to him. Shawn had a great deal to pay for when he found him again. And this time, Randy was not going through the proper channels to make sure he did.

Randy knew that Molly had run from
them when he’d been shot. He was proud of her for thinking like that. If they both had been caught, he was sure they’d both be dead. There was no way he was going to die here. Randy smiled when he felt her touch his mind.

“Do you know where you are?”
He could hear her humor. He smiled again when he thought of her. He sent her mental images of them together and what he wanted to do to her when they were together again. She laughed harder.
“Behave or I’ll let you rot there. Now get busy helping me find you before I have to murder Austin. You never know a person until you have to spend too much time with them. He’s like an old woman when it comes to his pack.”

“He’s a good guy when he wants to be.
Is he trying to get you to do things his way? I’m pretty sure that he is going to lose on that one. You can be pretty stubborn when you wish to be.”
He leaned his head back on the wall and thought of where he was and what he could do to aid her in finding him
. “I don’t know. Concrete is all I can see right now, and there are no windows to the outside. I can, however, smell the panther and the wolf outside the door, but I don’t know either of them.”

Randy reached out to their mind and found nothing more than a game
they were discussing. There were bits and pieces of information about Shawn, which he passed on to Molly, but little else. Most of it had to do with how much of a pain in the ass he was.

“They think he’s a dick. I’m sure they’re right.
The panther is afraid he’s going to try to kill the leader of their leap. Austin told me what a group of panthers was called when I met my first panther shifter.”
He put his foot out when he saw something on the floor in front of him.
“I want to kick Shawn’s ass when we find him again. He will pay for this shit. I was having a good time, and he fucked it all up for us.”

“You’ll have to stand in line
to kick him around. After I’m finished with him, I think Nancy wants to have a go at him. And she said the wooden spoon will be the least of his problems. She’s sort of scary, isn’t she?”
He smiled as he was able to get the shiny piece of metal toward him. It took him three tries, but he finally had it where he could make it out. A small paperclip. He’d used less as a teenager to get into things he shouldn’t have. Moving it more, he finally got it up onto his leg and had to nearly bend himself in half to get it into his hand.

“She can be.
Just before I left for college she sat me down with that spoon between us. She told me that I was going to know the brunt of it if I failed a single class. I believed her. She is this sweet most wonderful person one second, but you know that in a heartbeat she’ll cut you to ribbons.”
He put the paperclip in his mouth and bent it. It had been years, almost a decade, since he’d had to rob anyone for a place to stay or food. He hoped that he’d remember enough to get out of this for Molly.

“I think I have you
located, or at least close to where you might be. I can almost see you there. Do you smell anything besides the others? Like sewage?”
He raised his head up and opened his mouth to let more of the air come into his body. He told her no.
“Okay, try this. Do you hear anything?”

He listened
, not just with his ears but with his body. It was a trick he’d learned in college. There were times when he’d get turned around on campus and would have to think his way back to his dorm. When he heard the sound of a door slamming, he wondered if someone had joined the party outside but realized it wasn’t. There were several men talking in low tones, and all it centered on loads…like a trucker would carry on a truck, not like they were carrying them personally. He could hear engines running too. Diesel, if he didn’t miss his bet.

“I think I’m near a truck stop.
Or something like it. There’s one out on seventy-nine. I think it’s called Mother Truckers.”
He laughed when she did.
“Might not be it, but that’s all I can think of. One of the men is talking about the weather he’s going to run into. Another is talking about scrambled eggs and steak. Christ, I just realized how hungry I am.”

He moved the paperclip to the lock above his head and felt the sweat roll down his face. He was hot, unseasonably so. He started to tell Molly that when he thought of something else.
Randy smiled when he thought of the things that mean something when you’re desperate.

“I found a paperclip.
I think I’m in some sort of storeroom. Or what might have been one at one time.”
He looked around again, this time searching the floor and corners instead of looking for a window.
“There is an ink pen that’s covered in dust, and I can see several more paperclips scattered around the room. Yeah, I’m thinking that at one time, the area I’m in was a storage room for office supplies. And the size of this room makes me think it was a big building. This room is about the size of our pantry but taller.”

He could see the scrap
e marks on the floor, like a shelving unit had been moved instead of picked up. The harder he looked the more he saw that made him think he was correct. In addition to the pen and clips he also saw a file that was plastered to the wall, as well as an index card. He wondered what else he might find if he were to find a broom and start using it.

“There’s a building near a truck stop about fifteen miles from where you were picked up.
It’s a large building and has been for sale for a long time. Austin said that he wanted to buy it, but the owner didn’t seem to be inclined to sell. We’re looking it up now to see who owns it.”
He heard her laughter.
“Have you gotten that lock opened yet?”

He turned the clip twice more before he heard the click. He knew that the others outside the room were too busy arguing about a game that was on to hear him
, but he waited all the same. He grinned when he wondered how she knew what he was doing.

“That nice little extra your sister-in-law gave us. I thought if I distracted you enough you’d not think about how hard it was going. I need you to be free to help me find you.”
She laughed again.
“You can’t expect me to do all the work, can you?”

Randy stood but was careful where he walked. He wasn’t going to give himself away until he had to.
He glanced out the little window over the door and couldn’t see shit. The foggy glass was so dirty that he thought it a miracle that he could get any light in the room he was in at all. The wire through the glass also didn’t help but distorted the view to the other side a great deal.

“There are four blurs on the other side of the room where I am.
I can see that the television is on, but I don’t hear any sound. I’m assuming that’s so they can hear me if I try to escape. I can’t make out what they are, but I think in addition to the panther and wolf, there is at least one human. The four of them are sitting around a table and I can smell pizza.”
Randy tried not to think about how long it had been since he’d eaten.
“When you get here, I don’t suppose you can bring me a sandwich, could you? I’m starving.”

“Nancy is working on a party of some sorts. I’m not sure what it’s about
, but it looks like there is enough food here for about a thousand people. When I ask about it, all I get is a pat on the head and a smile.”
Molly was quiet for a little while and he used the time to clean a little of the window at the bottom. He was right, there were four people in the room beyond.

“
What’s wrong?”
He asked the question and meant for her to answer him, but when she didn’t, he paused. There was something going on that had her terribly upset
. “Molly?”

“She’s really gone.
Mary. She’s gone and…what will I do now?”
He was wondering what had happened when she continued.
“We’ll have her killer, and her ex-husband will go to jail. But then what? She’s still gone. And I still don’t understand the reasons behind her having to die. He didn’t even love her.”

Randy wasn’t sure what to say to her
, so he told her how he felt.
“I love you so much. I know this is stupid timing, but I do. And I want to be with you, hold you and keep you safe. I know, I know, you can protect me, but I still want to keep you in my heart forever. I think that once this shit is over we should go away for a while. I’m sure we can go anywhere we want. Where would you like to go?”

“
Somewhere we need passports for. What if…how about we visit the world? You know, Ireland, Scotland? Then we can go to Paris and London. Have you ever been there? And just so you know, I love you too.”

Randy knew that he had to get out of
there. He had to get to her and show her how much he really did love her and needed her. Kneeling down in front of the door with his paperclip, he started trying to pick the lock.
“Just will it open, Reid said. He said that they’ve given us a little more than we had and that you should be able to will it open. When this is over, maybe we should hunt them down and beat the shit out of them. Some of this stuff we’re supposed to be able to do is some fucked up shit. Hey! I think we found you. We’re on our way.”

Will it open?
And what does he mean they’ve “given us a little more?”
“More? More what, did anyone tell you? You’re right, we’re so going to have a talk with them when I get there.”
He put his hand on the lock and heard it click. Knowing that the others on the other side of the door more than likely heard it too, he stood up and slammed the door open so that it hit the wall hard. The room looked like a dorm room, with crushed empty beer cans and several empty pizza boxes. Slobs was all he could think of.

As they
turned to him, they had the most shocked looks on their faces that he’d ever seen. Randy thought this might be really funny if they hadn’t been so armed. When he stepped into the room with them, he smiled. This might be fun. Bracing his arms over his chest, he grinned bigger. These guys were going to pay. But first….

“Hello
there. Do you think one of you could direct me to the way out of here? My mate is on her way and I’d really like to finish what you fuckwads interrupted.”

The guy in the middle looked confused.
There were two others sitting at the table with him and one standing at the cooler with a beer in his hands. It was still poised halfway to his mouth. Randy took a step toward them when they suddenly seemed to come alive.

He hit the guy with the beer in the face just as he dropped the can on the floor.
A surge of power came over him, and it was over almost too soon for him. Looking around at the four dead men, he wondered just what it was that his family had given them. Not that he was complaining right now, but damn, he’d never felt like this before.

Turning when the door opened behind him
, he lifted his fists. Molly was engulfing him into her arms almost as soon as he realized it was her. Holding her as tightly as he could, he rained kisses all over her and told her in between them how much he loved her. His life was suddenly very complete.

Chapter 10

“I want my lawyer.”
The judge kept looking over the file, ignoring him. Carter wasn’t used to people simply not doing what he told them. But it was happening more and more lately, and he wasn’t happy about it. Standing up, he glared at the man. “I demand that you put that file down and listen to what I am requesting of you.”

The judge, a man by the name of Jackson Sable
, put down the file. Carter started to smile at him. He was glad now that he’d perfected the tone he’d used on him by having servants running around doing his bidding. But it was short lived when Jackson picked up his gavel and pointed it at him.

“Sit your butt down right now and keep your trap shut. If you so much as whisper another single word, I will find you in contempt and have you hauled over to county lock
-up. In the event it might have escaped your notice, you’re not in charge here. I am, and I take my job very seriously.” Carter started to protest and had opened his mouth to say something, but the look in the judge’s eye gave him second thoughts. He sat down and shut up, for now. Something just had to go his way. He was sick of being on the losing end of everything.

Like the fact that he’d been in jail for the past week. And not one of those kinds where you wear your own clothes and have the run of the yards. He’d seen that on television once and wanted that for him.
It was bad enough that he was in lock-up, but to be put with such low-lifes was more than he could stand. He was going to talk to his congressman when he was let out of there. There was no reason the state couldn’t afford to put men like him, former football players and men who’d been married to big-time celebrities, in something more…accommodating. Like a nice hotel with room service. He missed his nightly glass of chardonnay too. When the door opened behind him, he turned.

“Mother fuck.”
He looked at the judge to see if he had heard him. He had, and if the glare was any indication, he was going to follow through on his threat. Carter now knew enough about county lock-up to know that he’d never survive another hour there, much less another night. He’d made himself a few enemies before leaving in the car. A couple of them told him he’d be lucky if he made it through the day. Carter knew he wasn’t as young and fit as he’d once been and was terrified of going back. It was why he had to win today. But the people who just came in were going to put him there sure as shit.

“Your honor.”
Jackson nodded at Molly as she sat down. An immaculately dressed man sat at the table opposite where Carter had been seated. He set an expensive briefcase down on the table as the judge greeted him as well. Who the fuck was Randal Atkins? The two other people who sat with him looked like they were one of those couples you’d see on the top of a wedding cake, all soft and in love. It was sickening. To him the word love was something you said to a woman to get her to suck your cock, not make a lifetime of hell over.

The door opened again
, and this time a man came rushing in, still stuffing papers into his bag. It wasn’t even a brief case but a worn backpack that had seen better days. The man nearly slipped on his shoelace and had to stop twice on his way to the front of the courtroom to pick up his glasses and an ink pen. He made the others look even better, if that was possible. Whoever he was there for, Carter almost felt sorry for them.

“I’m sorry I’m late, your honor. I just got word that I was supposed to be here. I’m the public defender you asked for.”
The judge told him not to worry, things were already delayed. “My client, sir, do you think I can have a moment to go over a few things with him? I promise you, I won’t take more than a few minutes.”

At the judge’s nod, Carter found himself being jerked from his chair and pulled along between two officers to a room just off the dais.
As he was shoved into a chair, the public defender came in as well. He was just pulling out a stack of messy papers when it occurred to Carter what was going on.

“You’re not defending me.”
The kid, because he would swear the man was only in his early teens, looked at him with a frown. “You get your ass out of here right now and find my lawyer. I want him, not some jack wipe that is still not shaving. This is ridiculous. I was married to one of the most famous actresses in the world. You’re not defending me, and I certainly do not need a freebie lawyer. You get out of here.”

“
I’m really sorry you feel that way, Mr. Ravenhall. And I thought your ex-wife was an amazing actress, despite being saddled with you. But as it is, you have me.” The voice was in direct contrast to the one he’d used in the courtroom. This time he sounded hard and without any compromise. Carter lifted his brow at him. He didn’t have to take this shit from a snot-nosed kid like this one.

“
You tone that shit down right now or find yourself out of a job. I don’t care what you think you’re going to do here, but I have a lawyer. A fucking amazing lawyer, and I will use him. I do not now, nor will I ever leave my fate in the hands of someone who gets paid minimum scale. I know my funds are a little on the lean side right now, but I will not tolerate this bullshit from a public defender. His name is Donald James, and he’s with—”

“
I’m well aware of who your lawyer was when you had a wife whom you abused. But you are no longer being represented by his firm. As of the day before yesterday, his firm has disassociated themselves with you and this case. That is why I’m here. Furthermore, they have told the courts that you still owe them for services that have been billed for over six months.” Carter opened his mouth to deny that but was cut off again. “My name is Peterson, David Peterson, and I work for the courts system. As your lawyer, I suggest you plead guilty of all the charges brought against you. I’ve seen what they have and there is enough against you as of this moment to have you put on death row without any chance of parole. And if they have their way, which I’m sure it’s going to go that way, you’ll be put to death sooner rather than later. You’re fucking with the wrong attorney out there if you think you can win. But if you plead out, there is a chance that I can—”

“Now you listen here. I’m not going to admit to anything I didn’t do. I didn’t kill my wife. She wasn’t anywhere near me when it happened.
I was in bed with the housemaid, fucking her stupid. And I was tested with one of those test things and there was no gun residue on my hands.” Carter started to stand and was shoved back into the seat. “I will not put up with this kind of treatment. I don’t know where you get off thinking you can treat me as a commoner, but I don’t have to put up with this. Get me my lawyer right fucking now.”

Carter waited for the man to say something
, but he sat there for so long that Carter felt himself squirm. It wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t speaking to him, but he was looking at him as if he were a slug. No one looked at him like that again. Then he spoke.

“The charges brought against you are as follows
…and I’d pay attention if I were you. The judge will expect you to have a plea for each one. Murder in the first degree for one Sandra Middleton, age seventeen; murder in the first degree of Mary Barker Ravenhall, age twenty-nine; attempted murder of—”

“Who?” The man looked at his papers when Carter asked him again.
“That Middleton person? Who the hell is that? I didn’t kill her. You got it all wrong. See, this goes to prove how wrong you are for this job. You don’t even have the right people I’m supposed to be on trial for. And the way you’re dressed, it screams unfit for the position. I will not ask you again to get me my lawyer.”

Papers shuffled
, and when David found whatever it was he’d been looking for, he smiled at him. “Her name was Sandra Middleton, and you killed her when you were in a drunken rage during an altercation at the time with Mary Barker and her sister, Molly. You claimed that the car was defective and that it slipped from park and that was how it came to run over her. But after further investigation it was found to have been a lie. You are now being held responsible for her death as well as that of Ms. Ravenhall.” David cleared his throat and looked him over again. “As for how I’m dressed? Have you had an opportunity to look in a mirror lately, Mr. Ravenhall? You look as if you were laying with tramps.”

Which was true.
He had been. And now he could smell it on his body like one of his favorite scents. Not to mention he’d not had his hair groomed this week. However, a man was supposed to look…Carter took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was not going to let this man rattle him again. He thought about who he was supposed to have murdered instead of acting out and murdering this man as well.

“That kid? You’re brin
ging that into this now?” David nodded, and Carter laughed. “You do know that was over ten years ago, right? That girl is probably dust by now, and you think you can press those charges against me after all this time? Get real. Her own parents have probably forgotten about her by now. She was nothing, and no one cared about her death then and certainly don’t now.”

“Mr. Ravenhall, there is no statu
te of limitations on aggravated murder. Actually, on any sort of murder. And when you factor in that your blood-alcohol rate was point two-one, and you were a minor, you’re looking at hard time on that alone.” Carter started to lunge for the man but was shoved back again. This was ridiculous. They couldn’t do this to him. But David continued before he could speak. “Her parents have expressed a desire to have your head hung from a pike in their yard. They plan to burn your picture in effigy daily while the trial is going on. As a matter of fact, they seem to think you should be roasted on a spit in their yard. Alive.”

David sat down after straighten
ing his ill-fitting suit. He took several deep, slow breaths that he let out just as slowly, seemingly counting to ten as he did this. Carter nearly slapped him to get him back on track, but David looked at him in a way that Carter knew if he touched the man, he’d be picking his ass up off the floor in a heartbeat. David picked up his paperwork and began reading again.

“As I was saying, attempted murder of one Molly Barker, detective first class, the kidnapping and attempted murder of one Randal Atkins, attorney.”
Carter started to stand again, stating that he didn’t know who this man was either, when David explained. “He is the man you had kidnapped to bring Molly to heel, as we were told. You really did screw the pooch on this one, didn’t you? One of the most powerful families in the world, not to mention a man worth billions, and you tried to kidnap him. You must be the stupidest man alive.”

Carter lunged again
, and this time he got his hands around David’s throat. As he was being dragged away from him, David laughed. This was not what he had expected. Nor did he expect the man to tell the cops to let him go. He then asked all but one of them to leave him. Carter thought that they were going to use him as a punching bag or something. But David sat down again.

“I’m not human.”

Carter started to ask him what the fuck he was talking about when suddenly there was a large panther in the room with him. When he shifted back, Carter moved back, glad that the cop was still in the room with them.

“You think you can scare me with you
r bully tactics? I got news for you, dumb shit. I’m scarier than you’ll ever be on your best days. Now sit your fat ass down and shut the fuck up. If you don’t, I’m going to have Charlie here, who is a lion by the way, tear you a new ass while he drinks your fucking blood from your still beating heart. And when he’s finished with you, he and I will dispose of your body and tell them you got away. No one will care because they’ll know that you’ve been taken care of. Now this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to go out into the courtroom, you’ll hear the charges brought up against you again, and this time you’ll either nod your head at the judge or shake that incredibly empty space between your shoulders. Either way, you’re going to go to prison for a very long time, if not the chair for all this. And I, for one, will be seated in the first row so I can smell you when you shit yourself.”

Carter nodded when he was asked something
, but all the time he was trying to figure out how to get out of this. He had money at the mansion and as soon as they let him go and get it he was going to use it to pay off whoever he had to. This was just stupid. He’d been married to one of the most beautiful women in the world according to one tabloid, and now he was being represented by a…well, he wasn’t really sure what he was, but Carter wasn’t going to jail. Jail was for criminals, and he most certainly was not. He was an opportunist.

Once it was declared that he was set to go, he was picked up and dragged back into the courtroom. He stumbled twice when he saw who was seated in the front row with Molly.
Then something else occurred to him. His Mary was there. Mary had come to the courtroom to see him, and he waved at her with a grin. If she wasn’t dead, there was no way for them to charge him with her murder. As soon as he was seated, he stood up and looked at the judge.

“Your honor.
My wife is not dead. As you can see, the fool that I hired to kill her fucked up and she’s sitting right there.” They all looked to where he was pointing, then back at him. “And I bet if you look really hard you’ll see that the other one…somebody Middletown…is alive too.”

No one said a word
, and he put out his cuffed hands. They’d have to let him go now. There wasn’t a dead body for him to have killed, so they were going to have to let him go. And if Mary was alive, then the house was his again. He looked over at Molly. He was certainly going to make her wish she was dead after all she’d put him through. But for now, he’d play nicely. He did look at Molly, who looked confused.