Force of Nature Read Online Free PDF Page A

left her drive. Strange people, the Forces were.
    She started to close her door again when she saw something on the carpet.

    “Well, shit.” She’d forgotten to give them back his wallet. She was just going give it to Phil and have him return it to the jerk. Picking it up and putting it on the table, she went to get her shower. She had a lot to do today and she suddenly wanted to get going.
    After the shower, she felt reasonably better. The boxes that held some of her things were sitting on the floor to the bedroom that her parents had shared and she went to get one of them to find something to pull on her feet over her socks. She noticed there were other boxes there as well and decided to ask Phil about them.
    She was in the kitchen when her phone rang. She answered it while she pulled out eggs and things she needed to make breakfast.
    “I hear you had a run in with Austin Force.” CJ put the eggs on the counter before she dropped them, the mark on her neck suddenly burning. “He’s quite a guy, isn’t he?”
    “How did you…you know, I forget sometimes how small this town really is. Yeah, he came by thinking to have a conversation with CJ and he was a little put off that I hadn’t called him.
    Wanna explain that to me? Oh, and he seemed to be under the impression I’m a male.”
    “Is he still? I doubt there’s a man alive who would mistake you for a male for much longer than it would take to look at you. I hear that you took care of getting him out of your house fairly easy.” His laughter made her grin.
    “Yeah, well, he was very fresh. I don’t care for being made a meal of. His mom came with his brothers to get him. She was weird.”
    “What do you mean fresh?” She laughed at his tone. “I’ll kill the bastard. No one lays a hand on my friends.”
    “Calm down, killer, I’m fine.” She broke three eggs in a bowl and began whipping them up.
    “He wants this house big time. Why, do you know?”
    “He wants to put his mom in it. You said she was weird? In what way? Did she make a pass at you too?”
    CJ tried to think of a way to put that Austin had bitten her without having Phil go berserk about it. Deciding not to mention it, she poured the eggs into the pan before she spoke.
    “No. But she seemed really odd about her sons. It was like she wanted me to know them or something. I don’t know, maybe I’m tired. What are the boxes in the bedroom?”
    Her sudden change of subject wouldn’t bother Phil, she knew. He was used to her way of conversation and she didn’t bother trying to segue into another topic when talking to him. He’d just follow along until she came back around to the topic again.
    “They’re things the cleaning crew found and didn’t know what to do with. Some of them are pictures. There are a few pieces of jewelry that probably belonged to your mom. They found most of that in her sewing room they said. I haven’t seen it yet. Is there a lot?”
    She thought of the three good-sized boxes and decided that it really wasn’t. She told him that she’d take care of it. Then went on to the house and Austin Force.
    “I don’t want that ass to have this place. He’ll have to deal with whoever buys it. I won’t be bullied into anything.”
    “I did a little research on him. Apparently, he and your dad had a bit of an issue. Your dad put up the fence to keep them off his property. I can’t find anything that shows the Forces were ever on the place. Your father claimed that they were pissing on his trees and marking them. The police didn’t even do much more than nod at him and go on.”
    CJ sat at the little table and looked at her plate of food. “He, Mr. Force, did he ever get hurt by him? Did my father ever…you know, hit him?”

    CJ thought it was unlikely because of the sheer size of Austin, but asked anyway. She still felt the impact of his fist when he’d hit her all those years ago. He had hit her mom; she had little doubt that he’d hit other people as