Impassable Force: Force of Nature Series (12 page)

“He’d never harm you. None of them would.”
Molly turned to look at her, and Nancy put her spoon into her hand, wrapping her fingers around it and her hand. “Don’t you know by now that you’re very important to them? That they think of you as much of a sister as they do Holly? You might not have been born to this family, but you are family to all of us.”

Molly looked down at the spoon
, then back up at Nancy. “No. I don’t understand you guys. None of you. Randy even, at times, makes me think I’m in a dream and will be awakened from it soon and I’ll find this is all just that, a dream.”

Holly came and sat beside her.
She smiled as she wrapped her arm around her shoulder. “I can hear you. All of us can. We want you to know that this is no dream. And more so, that any and all of us would die for you. You should also know that when this is over, the trial, your house set to rights, Lou, Alexis, CJ, Stacey and Chris, and I are taking you out on the town. We’re going to buy you things you’ll be too embarrassed to try on for us, but Randy will love.”

She looked at Jodie
, who hadn’t been included. Molly loved this woman as much as she had her own sister. Nancy laughed, and Molly turned to her. Her grin seemed to take up her entire face.

“Who do you think is going to be watching over us when we go?
Jodie has already claimed shotgun.” Molly looked at Jodie again. She had a feeling that her version of shotgun wasn’t what she’d grown up thinking it was. The person in the front seat with the driver was probably not what Jodie had in mind.

“Should I be more afraid now?”
Holly laughed, and the men, especially her mate, turned to look at her. Holly nodded and hugged her again. “Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.”

Chapter 11

There were more people in this building than Randy thought there had ever been just simply walking in and out of it in a years’ time.
He was glad now that someone had suggested using the empty building on Fourth Street rather than the smaller one they usually used for pack meetings. Randy looked around again just to be sure that someone was manning the exits. If there was a problem, he wanted to make sure that everyone was going to get out. He saw Molly enter just as the bailiff was closing the doors.

“She’ll be fine.”
Randy turned to look at Phil. The man had been sitting next to him so quietly that he’d forgotten about him until he spoke. “Molly will do us all proud. You should know that. This will go like clockwork and when it’s done, our world will be that much safer.”

“I do. But I still worry for her.”
He did too. And until this was settled, and maybe after, he’d worry about her. There were going to be things brought out today that would hurt her more than the death of her brother-in-law. Not that she’d mourned his death overly much, especially if this morning was any gauge.

He’d woke
n slowly, his body easing into wakefulness much like he did most things in his life. But when he looked up at the woman riding him, he’d nearly came just from that sight alone. As he reached for her, she told him to be still.

“Let me have my pleasure first.”
He wanted to tell her that she was giving him more than she had to be receiving, but he stilled. Feeling his nails thicken and elongate, he knew that his beast was wanting to come out as well. It took him several seconds to realize that his wolf was telling him to behave, to let her have what she wanted. And not to take her like he normally would. Randy had had a thought that his wolf liked the human as much as he did her wolf.

“I feel him.
Your beast. I feel him running along your skin.” He couldn’t answer her and was sure that she didn’t require him to anyway. Throwing back her head, she rode him in a slow, steady pace that had him moaning with each of her strokes. “I was going to suck on you to bring you to wake, but I needed to feel you inside of me more. You’re so hard right now. But I’m going to taste you later if we have time.”

“You’re killing me.” Her grin made him think that was her plan
, and he nearly reached for her again. “When you come, I’m going to join you. Come deep inside of you until you’re overflowing with my cum. Then I’m going to roll you over on this bed and fuck you until neither of us can walk.”

“I’d like that.”
Her fingers twisted at her nipples, and he felt his body tighten more. He looked at her then, in all her glory, and knew that he’d never forget this time with her. They may all blur together, he thought, over time, but this one time seeing her like this would keep him warm even in his grave.

Her gait was getting less rhythmic and more desperate feeling as she leaned forward over him. Her hands braced at his side as her nipples grazed his chest each time she moved back and forth
with each rise and lowering of her hips. He felt her sheath tighten around him, milking him as she fucked him. Randy tried his best not to touch her, to give her what she wanted, but he had to hold her or turn her and pound her hard. As soon as his fingers dug into her hips, he heard her moan softly as she nuzzled deep into his neck. He both wanted to slow her more to enjoy her and to make her hurry so that he could plummet over the edge, joining her in what was sure to be spectacular.

Molly grazed her teeth over his shoulder
, and his balls tightened to his body. As her tongue followed the same journey as her teeth, Randy knew that he was going to come the moment her teeth broke the skin. Holding her hips in a tighter grip, his cock thick with his release, he nearly lost it when he felt her juices roll down his balls to curl around him. Moaning again, he begged her to let him go.

“Take me.” Her wor
ds had the effect he knew they would. Rolling her to her back, he pulled her arm to his mouth as she licked his throat. Pounding hard into her, his body crying out for release, he bit down into her flesh even as she bit him. Screaming out his name, he held her head to him as she suckled at his throat. Randy came, spewing his seed deep within her as he drank from her as well. But it wasn’t enough, he’d needed more, and so did—

“You should come back to me now.”
Randy looked at Phil, not really seeing him as his head was so full of lust he wanted to go find Molly and make love to her all over again. “Randy, the judge has been announced. And as much as my mother loves you, if you don’t give her her due, then she will be pissy with you.”

As if he’d summoned her, Hope Campbell
, along with Austin and three men he knew in passing, walked into the room. Every one stood up as she seemed to float into the room and stood in front of the long table that had been provided for the council. When she sat down, the rest of the room, including the men with her, sat as well. Her look did not bode well for him because he was pretty sure she knew where his mind had been only moments before. Randy tried to tell his cock to behave, but he was still thinking of Molly, and he was having a hard time stressing how much he needed to pay attention.

“We’re here to have a trial and
, if need be, disposal of one Shawn Charles, panther mate to Shelly Charles and father of Shawn Charles, deceased. He is being tried for the death of a human by the name of Mary Katherine Barker Ravenhall and others.” Randy looked at Phil.
Others?

Randy looked at Shawn and saw that the man seemed
not to have a care in the world and that he was somewhat put out by what was going on around him. He didn’t seem to be nervous at all. In fact, he looked as if he were bored with the whole process. When Randy looked back at Molly, he could see that she, too, was confused about his seemingly cavalier attitude and wondered about it. But he looked back at Hope…Mrs. Campbell…when she asked for anyone to speak on behalf of the dead. Molly stood up and moved to the front of the room. He’d asked her to wear a dress and was glad now that CJ had had one that fit her. Christ, she looked good enough to eat. And that thought brought on all sorts of images he wanted to do to her again. He was so fucked right now.

After being sworn i
n, Molly sat down and looked around the room before settling her eyes on Phil. He was going to question her first and, if need be, Randy would later. Unlike human court proceedings, theirs was a bit more relaxed about such rules as mates talking to mates at trials and the way things were so formal. If anyone got out of hand in a human courtroom, they were taken out. Here, someone would shift and tear their throats out. Or Hope would kill them. There were less problems in their court system by far.

“Can you tell us what happened on the morning of the nineteenth?”
Molly nodded, then looked at him. He could see the panic in her eyes, and when Phil stepped in front of her, blocking him off, he wanted to get up and knock him on his ass. But Molly started talking and he realized what Phil had been doing. He was giving her room. Molly would break down with Randy, as she’d done at home. But Phil frightened her a little, and she’d do what he needed her to do.

“Mary and I were out walking the estate. She’d been telling me how happy she was that she’d found a lawyer she could trust.
She said she’d filed for divorce and that he was going to make sure that she was…she said she trusted him.”

“What did I tell her?
What sort of deal did I make with your sister? Did she tell you?” He could hear the soft tone that Phil was using and wanted to tell him she would need more from him, but she spoke again.

“You told her that she would get what she wanted, a divorce.
That Carter wouldn’t be able to bully you into anything. She told me that you’d explained to her that Carter would not know what you were doing until it was too late. Until they were well and truly divorced. And that you…she told me you told her that you weren’t greedy like the other men she’d hired. That there would be no way that Carter could buy you off, even if he had enough money to do so. Which I guess he didn’t. You’re very wealthy in your own right.”

“That’s right.
I don’t have any need for money, especially ill-gained money like he would have tried to offer me. And did she tell you why?” Molly must have answered him in the affirmative because Phil went on. “I told her that Carter was a money grubbing bastard, and that proved to be correct, did it not?”

“He only stayed with her because she’d made it big. She said she was going to start over
, that none of the money or the house had ever meant anything to her. She loved what she did and found it was more of something she enjoyed rather than a job.” Randy looked at her when Phil finally moved. Molly looked at him. “I’ve found that…my sister would never have loved him. Not ever. She thought she could, but I know now that she never would have. I know now that I should have done something sooner to get her to leave him. He’d only married her because he’d blackmailed her into it. He thought he held something over her head.”

“And what was that?”
Phil hadn’t moved in front of her again, but he did walk by her. Molly followed him with her eyes before looking back at Randy. He could feel her strength now. She would do this.

“He’d killed a woman while drunk
, a child really. Carter had told Mary that he’d go to the police with the information that he’d made up and that they’d believe him over her. That my sister and I were nothing more than trash and he was so much better. He seemed to think he had a great deal more power in the town than he did. It wasn’t until later that I found out what he’d done, and by then they were married. It was then that I tried to talk her into leaving him. She said she would when he put her into the hospital.”

“You kill
ed her, you know?” Everyone turned to Shawn, who spoke while laughing. “You’re the reason that he had to resort to other means to make sure he wasn’t left in the cold. The man was besotted with his wife, and everyone who worked at the house knew it. The only reason—” Hope cut Shawn off.

“When it’s your turn
, you can speak. But right now, no one is talking to you. Shut up or I’ll shut you up. And you know damn well that if I do, it won’t be with a gag. I’ll remove your tongue.” Shawn bowed before her, but his smile was sinister looking. Randy had a feeling that he was up to something. He just looked too confident that he wasn’t going to be held accountable for his part in Mary’s death.

The rest of Molly’s part in telling the courts what sort of life that Mary had endured as Carter
’s wife was just as heart pulling. Randy found himself tense, and his wolf wanted to find Carter and kill him again. The fact that he’d died from a massive heart attack did little to make him feel like the man had gotten what he deserved. But he was dead and gone, buried in a small grave without as much as a marker to tell people where the bastard was. Then it was Shawn’s turn to speak.

He took the seat near the long table and sneered at them all.
Randy watched him closely in the event that he’d somehow gotten a gun or something in, but should have known better. He’d been pulled into a cell several days ago and had been strip searched. Then when the silver chain had been put around his throat, he’d been left naked and alone since then. His own mate would not have been able to see him, had she tried to visit the bastard.

“You are being accused of killing nine people. Seven of them human.”
Shawn looked at Hope as she named off the people. Randy had no idea that Carter and Shawn had been robbing people since they’d met all those years ago, long before he met the Barker women. But their life of crime together had been long and profitable for them both apparently.

“He needed help in his career
, so he hired me to work for him. So…well, I did. And you can’t try me for those crimes. I worked for him and as such, can’t be held accountable for what a human might make me do for him. It was all his fault. As his slave, it was my duty to do as I was told.” The room started mumbling when Hope stood up. Shawn laughed. “Oh, do sit down. You’ve no proof that I hurt anyone. And even if you had, you know the laws as well as I do that I had to do what he told me. Why, even my own mate will testify that I was working with him and that I’d only done what he’d told me every time I pulled the trigger.”

Shawn looked around the room and frowned. Randy knew that he was looking for his mate
, but it would do him no good. She’d gone to the council and asked for their bond to be dissolved. She’d told them that he wasn’t her true mate but someone that could cook well and get him into the finest houses. She’d been granted it just after Jodie had been called in to read her mind.

“She’s not here.”
Randy stood up just as Shawn stood to look around. “Your mate, she’s not here. And she had written out a statement about how you worked for Carter Ravenhall. And so you know, once you got paid by Carter to do those things, you were no longer his slave but his accomplice. You are just as guilty as he was. More so since you pulled the trigger.”

“
Not true. She would know better than to not do as I’ve told her to do. She knows who the master is in our household. I suppose it was too much for her to come here. Things like this are too much for women. Real women, anyway.” He looked over at Molly, who waved. Randy didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that she was in on it. Randy was going to enjoy this, he just knew it.