Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series)

Excessive Force

Force of Nature Series Book 7

By

Kathi S. Barton

World Castle Publishing, LLC

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright ©
Kathi S. Barton 2014

ISBN:
9781629890586

First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC
January 5, 2014

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover: Karen Fuller

Editor:
Eric R. Johnston

Chapter 1

Jodie
moved to the decking around the house and took a deep breath. It was hard to be relaxed as she knew she had to be when all she could smell was wolf. She put out her fist to rap her fingers against the wooden door when it opened suddenly and three teenage children came tumbling out. She stepped back just as one of them tried to take her out. The boy looked up at her and winked as he scampered off the deck and into the yard with the others. Before she could turn back to the door, the sound of laughter was cut off and a scream rent the air.

Taking off before she could think
, she scooped the kid up and held her hand over the large wound in his forehead. She said a few quick words and laid him gently to the ground. His eyes were closed, but she knew that he was going to be fine. Moving her hand from the bloodied area, she watched as the wound closed itself. A hand on her shoulder had her grabbing it and throwing him off her before she could think. The man didn’t move as she stood up.

“He should know better
than to grab someone, but sometimes he just doesn’t think.” She turned slowly, knowing that the man behind her was the alpha and she had just pissed him off. “Did he hurt you?”

“The kid?
Hardly. He hit his head.” She moved to go to her bike, thinking this was a waste of time now, when the man on the ground stood up. Christ, he was flipping huge. She took a step back and bumped into the man behind her. She hurriedly took a side step to have both of them where she could see them.

“We’re not going
to hurt you.” She nodded at the alpha. “But you don’t believe me.” Jodie didn’t answer him as he continued with a nod. “My name is Austin Force. This is my home. The idiot over there is my brother, Connor. The boy there is his son, Dalton.”

“I didn’t hurt him either.”
This time he nodded at her with a smile. “I have to report to you that I’m in the area. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No. But you don’t smell like wolf.
What are you?” She didn’t answer him but looked at the two women on the deck that had come out of the house. “My mate and my sister-in-law, Lou. Would you like to come in?”

“
I’m supposed to report to you, not socialize.” She flushed when he laughed at her. “I’m doing as instructed. The vampire is said to be here by his housekeeper. Can I talk to him as well?”

“I’m
Phil Campbell.” Another man was suddenly there, but she didn’t move. “You’re not a vampire either. And the alpha asked you a question.”

“Shape shifter.
I’m only going to be here for about a month before I leave. The rest of them should have already come to find the ones in charge, but I don’t really care if they did or didn’t. I’m finished.” She started for her bike only to have the vampire step in front of her. She took a step back before she could think that she didn’t want to show him she was intimidated by him.

“You’re not just a shape shifter
, are you?” Jodie didn’t move, but he leaned forward and smelled her throat. She closed her eyes and tightened her lips when she felt her fangs drop. He took a step back and stared at her.

“You finished?” He nodded once. “Then I’d very much like to leave.
I’ve done what I’m required to do and when I’m ready to move on, I’ll let you all know.”

“You are required to introduce yourself to us
, not just come by to let us know you’re here.” She had forgotten that when the boy had been hurt. She looked at the alpha and the vamp.

“I’m
Jodie Turner. I’m staying with my brother’s house for now, a house on Main Street just behind the Wal-Mart. They are on their own to find and report to their masters if they haven’t already.” This time no one stopped her as she threw her leg over her bike. When she started it, she felt the woman on the porch touch her mind.

“You should know that this isn’t finished
, Miss Turner. You’ve intrigued them to the point where they’ll want to find out more.”
Jodie turned the big bike around and headed for the gate, not bothering to answer.
“You can run, but you can’t hide.”

“Neither can you.”
Jodie moved through the streets back to town. She’d not wanted to come here, but rules were rules, and she’d learned the hard way that if you didn’t notify the other paranormal in the area, they could and usually did hurt you for it. She just wanted this to be finished so she could get the hell away from her family and back to her own life. Just a few more days, the doctor had told her.

Her father
, Curtis Turner, was dying. Not that she really cared one way or the other, but she was required to come to see him off. When her oldest brother spoke, she had no choice but to listen. And he’d ordered her home four days ago.

“H
e’s dying, no thanks to you.” She knew as well as her brother did that she’d had nothing to do with his health. He’d done that all on his own.

“
He’s a drunken bastard and a fucking prick. If he dies, more power to the place he goes to next.” Curt had hit her then and knocked her across the room. When she shifted and came up off the floor after him, the only thing that had stopped her from killing him was the fucking bylaws that said she couldn’t…not unless he was trying to kill her. She had shifted from wolf to hawk and moved out of the house through an open window, and hadn’t been back since. That was two days ago.

“So you decided to come back
, did you? What if I told you that you’re no longer welcome here?” She turned to leave. “Get on that bike, and it’s well within my rights to kill you.”

She thought about it
for a full minute before she turned back to him. Curt, her older brother by fourteen months, had a way about him that made her want to murder him one second and kill him the next. And to her there was a difference. Murder would be quick, and killing him wouldn’t. She stood on the lower step and waited for him to either move or hit her again. He took a step back.

“He’s only got a few days left in him
, and when he’s gone, I’m going to make you pay for this shit.” She didn’t answer and moved into the nasty house. She was glad now that she’d made arrangements to stay at the hotel on Maple rather than come back here. She would bet the place hadn’t been cleaned in five or six years.

Her father was a shell of the man she had grown up to despise.
He had always been a lot bigger to her as a child, and now…well, now he was still tall, but he had lost a great deal of weight. She stood next to the bed and looked down at him. It was in her power to heal him, but she wouldn’t do it. Not now, not ever.

“You should know that I’m getting everything.”
She glanced at Mike, her other brother, younger by two years. “Curt thinks he’s going to get it because he’s been staying here, but I know for a fact that it’s all mine. You’ll not get a red cent of it.”

Jodie
didn’t tell him that he wasn’t going to get it either. She didn’t think it was the right time to tell them both that she’d owned the property and the house for the past five years, since she’d paid the taxes and had a lawyer change it all to her name. Her father, of course, knew, as he’d had to sign it over to her. He’d tried to contact her about a month later, and she’d ignored the summons to come home. She had been keeping them off the streets since.

Her father opened his eyes and looked at her. She wasn’t sure if he could see her or not
, but she didn’t move closer to make sure. She didn’t want to get within touching distance of him. He smiled at her, and she sneered at him.

“You look like your mother.” She nodded. “You’ve turned out to be very beautiful
, mores the pity.”

“Dad,
it’s Mike. How are you? Getting any better?” Her dad didn’t look at Mike, but continued to stare at her. “I had her come here, Dad. I told her you were dying, and she came running. She wanted to make sure I wasn’t lying to her.”

“
Have you come to collect? I assure you that I’m still hanging on.” She glanced at Curt when he entered the room before answering her father.

“
I could care less and you know it. You want to tell me why I’m here?” He coughed twice, and she moved back when blood trickled from his lips. Curt started cursing at her, and she moved out of his way.

When
she stepped out of the room, she went to the kitchen to answer the phone. Why they had only one phone in the house was beyond her. She answered with a bark of her last name.

“Turner.” Then she
remembered this wasn’t her house. “This is the Turner residence. What can I help you with?”

“My
, you can be nice when the mood strikes you, can’t you? I was calling about your family. I just found out who they were and that they haven’t made an effort to call to me yet. And they’ve been here for some time.” She started to say to the alpha that it wasn’t her concern when Curt and Mike came in the room. Before she could do more than move her wrist to defend herself, she was being tossed against the other wall and fists were pounding at her.

Using the phone handle
, she hit one of them but didn’t have a chance to see who before her head hit the counter as she was going down. Her last thought was that she was fucking getting out of there as soon as she could.

~~~

Austin was filling out paperwork when CJ came into the clinic. She was spitting mad, and he loved to watch her when she was like this. The two men that were sitting in the chairs were going to learn not to tangle with an alpha person ever again.

“What the fuck did you do to her?” Neither man said a word as she tapped her foot. “I’m waiting for an answer
, and if I don’t get one, I’m going to start making up my own answers and they’ll get you fucking killed.”

“You can’t do shit to us.
You’re nothing but a…a fucking female.” Austin started forward only to stop when she lifted her hand. He would stay back for now, but one more comment out of the idiot sitting there and they’d need a body bag instead of stitches.

“I’m the mate to that alpha over there
, you fucking shit head, and what I say he says, and vice versa. Now, I’m going to ask you again and you’re going to tell me, what did you do to that woman?”

“She’s our sister
, and by laws, she is our property.” Austin looked at the two men, then at his mate. He could feel her anger boiling up and over. “You should know that as our property, we can do whatever the fuck we want to her and there ain’t shit you can—”

His chair was the only thing that saved him from being a part of the wall behind him.
CJ had hit him so hard that when the chair tipped back he fell rather than sailed through the air and became another piece of art. Austin stepped forward when the other man stood up.

“You touch her and I’ll tear you apart.”
The man looked as if he might be stupid enough to try, but he moved back from CJ. “Now, we’re going to do this my way. Why haven’t you reported to me that you are on my land?”

“
Your land?” The man snorted as he helped his brother up. “We don’t live on your land. Our father owns that piece of property that we’ve been staying on, and in a few days I’ll own it. So I don’t need to report shit to you.” Austin watched the two men and felt his brother Dallas step up behind them.

“Problem?”
Austin started to say no when Dallas spoke again. “The young woman is making noises to leave here. She said that she’d pay up if someone would give her an amount. I told her that I’d find out how much she owed.”

CJ turned toward the little rooms
, and Austin told the two men to sit. They tried hard to fight the compulsion, but he was a good deal stronger than either of them ever would be.

“I’m alpha to this
territory, and no matter where you live, your ass reports to me. And if you know the antiquated rule about being able to treat your unmated sisters any way you see fit, you would have run across that one as well. What are you doing here, and how long have you been here without my permission?” The smaller of the two men, the one that had been hit by CJ, started to stand up, but he sat when the other one pulled him back down to the seat. “Well? I’m waiting.”

“Our father is dying.
We came here about…a while ago to be with him and try to make his last days better. Our sister has been out of touch with us, and we finally had to find us someone to hunt her down. She’s been here a few days to see him too.” Austin felt there was more to his than that but didn’t speak as the one continued. “She’s a pain in the ass, and she upset our father. We might have…we lost our minds a little and may have hurt her.”

“May have? The doctor said she’s been beat to shit and that you two didn’t stop when she was out cold.
You beat her with what he said appears to be a pan as well as a chair leg. What the fuck is wrong with you? Our females should be cherished, not killed.”

“She’s not a real wolf anyway. Not even a good shifter.
Last time she was home, she couldn’t even produce a good copy of a bird when Dad had asked her to.” Austin turned when his bother touched his arm. “There she is. We’ll just take her home now.”

“No
, you won’t either.” CJ looked at him as she continued. “She’s going home with us. She’s supposed to have complete rest and not be banged around like a punching bag.”