Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) (18 page)

He nipped at her shoulder then. His
teeth grazed at her flesh in a way that asked for permission rather than taking.
When he tilted her head back and gave him her throat he moaned and when he bit
her she cried out, not in pain, but because she loved him. Connor Force could
not have claimed her in any other way than he did. His own climax was beautiful
to her, gave her such hope and love that she cried again when he held her
tightly.

“I love you, Lou. I will love you for
the rest of our days.” He pulled her body over his and held her. “There will be
so much we will be able to do once this is over, and I want to start a life
with you at my side.”

Snuggling deep into his body, she
nodded. “And I love you as well. Once this is over, I plan to show you daily. Hourly.”

His even breathing told her he slept and
she was lulled into it with him by the tick of his heart beating. Thinking
about the next day didn’t bother her so much now. She had the love of a great
man and one that would be by her no matter what.

Chapter 15

Nancy knew that she was hurt, but not
how badly. When the man had taken her, she could only think about the little
girl Luna and not what he might have planned for her. The stupid man was going
to pay for taking her. She just hoped that none of her family was hurt in the
process. She tried to sit up again.

The pain was dizzying. She knew that she
had at least some ribs broken and from the way it hurt to breathe, she was
thinking all of them. She smiled. She knew also that her arm was broken and thought
about shifting, but didn’t want to be caught in a place that would render her
unable to protect herself if need be.

When she heard the scraping of the
little man coming back she lay down and closed her eyes. The last time he was
here he had fussed about her so much that she’d wanted to scream. But he had
left her with some water and a washcloth. She watched him enter the cell and
close the door behind him. This time he had a tray and what smelled to her like
a first aid kit.

“I can’t believe he’d do this to a woman
of your station. To think that I would…well, he will just need to get over the
fact that I’m not going to let her die.” Nancy was still trying to figure out
what station he was referring to when he came close enough for her to touch.
“Miss, are you awake?”

“I hurt.” The words slipped out before
she could stop them. He touched her ribs and sent a searing pain through her
body. “Please, just go away.”

“I cannot, my lady. Not knowing that you
hurt as you do.” He moved away then came back with the tray. “I have brought
you some broth. As well as something for the pain. I wouldn’t suggest that you
shift, though I know it will make you feel better because of the magic held
here. He will surely find out, and when he does I don’t believe I will be able
to help you.”

He moved the tray closer to where she
lay and sat on the cold ground. She stared at him when he held up a spoon with
steaming liquid toward her. She didn’t know how stupid he thought she was, but
she wasn’t going to—

 Just then he took the spoon to his
mouth and ate from it. He swallowed then stuck out his tongue to show her that
he’d actually eaten it. She laughed despite the situation. “You think that
proves anything? I used to do the same for my children when they didn’t like
dinner. Of course I would spit it out of my cheeks when they weren’t looking. But
that’s beside the point.” He smiled at her and gave her another bite of soup. She
took it this time without hesitation. “Where are we?”

“In the cave above your home. I see you
there. Well, not you, but the pack. You have a very lovely one.” He fed her
several more bites before he wiped off her mouth. “If your family comes for you,
he will kill them.”

“He’ll try.” She leaned back and closed
her eyes. “What does he want with them? Why is he pursuing my family?”

“The girl. I don’t know her name, but he
is and has been obsessed with her for years. When she first disappeared he was
livid for nearly a decade. He’d find trails of her, but never her. He wants her
for unspeakable things.” He looked away before continuing. “The man, Dublin, he
means to keep her for himself after he tries to kill my master.”

Nancy thought about that. She knew what
her family had found out, but that was so very little considering what he must
know about them. She looked at the man when he stood up. He smiled again and it
looked so sad on him. She asked him what his name was.

“I started out as simply ‘boy.’ Then as
the years passed, I became ‘servant,’ then ‘you.’ After a while, someone asked
my name. I told him it was Timothy. That is what I go by now.” He smiled again,
sadder this time. “It doesn’t matter what anyone calls me. I shall be dead long
before this is over.”

“Why is that?” He put the first aid kit
near her, as well as an unopened bottle of pain reliever. He moved toward the
door, this time leaving the key in the lock on her side. “Timothy?”

“He is busy in the lower chambers now. Well
below where you are. If one were to go to the right, they would see the opening
out. To the left, they would be able to see the door that locks the lower
levels from this side.” He nodded toward the box. “Inside there is all you will
need. Everything. But do be careful and fruitful when you use it.”

“I would like for you to come with me. When
I leave, I would very much like for you to come as well.” He shook his head.
“Why not? Do you owe him so much?”

“I owe him nothing, but we are attached.
When he goes, so shall I.” He nodded again toward the kit on the floor. “It
will be the only thing that saves you.”

Then he was gone.

Nancy crawled to the smallish box, her
body not nearly as pain filled as it had been. By the time she got to it, she
was hurting, but breathing and moving much easier. When she pulled it into her
lap, she opened it and looked inside. She lay back against the wall just behind
her and thought of what Timothy had done for her. She picked up one of the
items in the box, the cell phone, and dialed out. The first person who answered
was her son Connor.

“Mom?” He might have said more, but she
cut him off. She had no idea how much time she had before he figured it out,
nor did she know if the signal would hold. She told him where she was and that
she was going to be alright.

“The man is going to kill us all if
given the chance. I want you to work together to bring him down.” She closed
her eyes again, hoping she wasn’t sending her children into certain death. “I
will be waiting outside the entrance for you then we’ll go in and take his ass
down. Understand?”

“Yes. Mom, please tell me that you’re
alright. I don’t want…Luna said he snatched you from the chair without touching
you.”

She nodded, then remembered he couldn’t
see her. “He did. But I believe I have something that’ll help us. Something
that I think must belong to Lou.” She picked up the key, not knowing why she thought
it belonged to the child. “Ask her about a key. Ask her if she remembers what
it might go to.” She heard Connor ask someone and assumed it was Lou. When she
got on the phone, Nancy had to smile. The girl was ten kinds of pissed.

“You have like ten minutes to talk to
your children and you ask me about a key. What the hell, woman, don’t you want
to ask how they are? What they’re going to do to get your ass home?”

Nancy laughed then caught her breath on
the pain.

Lou heard her. “Of all the…yes, I remember
a key. I had it with me the night that my parents threw me under the bus. I
don’t know what it was for or where it went.”

“I have it.” Nancy waited for her to say
something, anything, but she didn’t. In that moment she knew that Lou knew
where the key went. “Can you use it to take this sucker out of our lives so
that I can hold my grandchildren again?”

“He won’t go easy. Not even with…where
did you get it?”

Nancy looked to the opened door and then
at the kit on her lap.

“Was it a short man with graying hair
and a very polite way about him?”

“Timothy, yes. Do you know him?” Lou
said she did. “He is helping me get away so that you can come and rescue me.”

“He was the other cop. He took the key
from me that night. He pulled me aside and told me that he would keep it safe, thus
keeping me safe. I had forgotten about it and him until just now.”

Nancy was going to find the man and make
him come with them. “Come and get me and this key. I want this man stopped
today.”

“So do I, Mrs. Force. So do I.”

The line went dead and she closed the
phone. It was just as well. For whatever reason, she knew it was time for her
to get going. Putting the long chain around her neck, she put it and the key
under her shirt. She was moving toward the door when she grabbed the last item
in the box.

She had no idea where the map was
supposed to lead them, but she wasn’t leaving what might be her only weapon. Holding
it like it was her lifeline, Nancy made a left hand turn and locked the door to
the sublevels. When she was finished she turned and made her way to the surface
to wait for her children to come and save the day.

~~~

It only took them twenty minutes to get
to where the cave was. But it seemed like several lifetimes. Lou moved up the
mountain just behind the men and in front of CJ. Holly had been left at home
under a great deal of protest to watch after the children. Phil had told her if
she moved off the couch he was going to drain her.

Lou smiled, thinking that the man looked
positively in love with his mate. He’d kissed their unborn child twice before
he simply turned into a steel man and walked out of the room. His entire body
had become incased in silver in less than a heartbeat. Lou had looked at Holly
before she could speak.

“It’s a part of his birthright. Don’t
touch him. He’ll kill anyone who touches him that is not his mate.” Holly
grinned. “He does get all medieval when he wants to, doesn’t he?”

She stopped when the wolves in front of
her did. She still couldn’t believe that she was a wolf and that these people
were as well. When Connor slid up next to her and nuzzled her neck she growled
low and stepped closer to him.

“You’re killing me right now. I know
that my mom needs me, but all I can think of is how simply beautiful you are.”

She whimpered and sent him her love.

“Don’t get hurt. I will beat your ass if
you do.”

“You either. And for the record, I need
your mom too.”
She looked up when one of the others started to growl softly.
“I think they
found her.”
Everyone shifted and pulled on clothes, only just enough to
cover what was necessary. They knew that when they went in, they would have to
shift again.

Nancy looked good. Very good as a matter
of fact, and when she showed her the key that she had on Lou didn’t know what
to think. She looked up at Austin when he stalked toward her.

“Will it work to do whatever we need to
get rid of this man?”

She nodded.

“Good. Then you lead the way. And you’d
better not get yourself hurt, or so help me, I’ll sic CJ on you.”

The snort behind her made her think it
was CJ and she was laughing. Lou turned to Connor to see what he thought of his
brother’s declaration. He nodded at her then stood beside her as they shifted
once again.

They moved almost as one into the mouth
of the cave. Nancy was with them as a wolf this time and it surprised Lou that
she could see gray around her muzzle and along her fur. She moved slowly, like
she was in some pain, but not as much as Lou thought she really was. It took
them less than ten minutes to get to the opening and only a minute or two
before they found the body of who Nancy said was Tim.

“He killed himself.”
Nancy stood
over him for several minutes and seemed so sad. The man had taken a gun to his
head. Lou had a feeling that he had done it to avoid being killed by his
master. She hoped that none of them would wish the same thing before this was
over.

There were nearly two hundred of them
strong. Phil was with them, but he was shadowed so that he could remain in his
armor. He had several men with him, all vampires that he said he trusted. One of
them was Myles, the man from the hospital.

The other wolves were peeling off from
the larger body and going down off-shoots of the long hall. Several went up the
stairs and even more moved through the other rooms as silently as a breeze. By
the time they got to the locked lab door, every part of the upper levels had
been thoroughly searched and anyone in the house was taken away quickly. When
they stood before the door Nancy showed them where she’d hidden the key that
Timothy had given her. The key to the rooms that the lab was behind.

As Phil stepped forward to turn the
lock, Nancy reached for her.
“You’ll be safe or I’ll do far worse than my
son will to you. I know that you carry his child.”
Lou turned to look at
her.
“I’m not as stupid as some of them think I am.”