Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) by Kathi S. Barton Page A

expired plates on it
and it was hell on gas, but the back seat was big enough that he could sleep in
it. And he had the perfect place to keep the sucker. In the parking garage at
the closed down mall he’d found.
    Dean pulled out his wallet. He had
nothing in it as he’d gone to the race tracks three days ago and lost it all. He
knew that he was stupid for putting all his money on the horse, but damned if
it didn’t make him feel good to have a horse named after him in the finals. Dean’s
Boy had big odds and Dean was going to make it rich. He’d been had.
    The horse was as stupid as he’d seen. Didn’t
even come out of the stall until nearly ten seconds after the other horses on
the track. And when he’d been starting to catch up with the tail end, the
dumbass horse nearly threw his rider. Dean had torn up his ticket in disgust. He
was nearly out of the park when he heard someone say something about the horse
being drugged up. That everyone was being given a refund.
    Dean waited in line for nearly forty
minutes when he got to talk to the clerk. He’d asked for his ticket and Dean
told him that he no longer had it. The man simply said, “Next,” as if Dean
hadn’t been standing there. When he’d been shoved out of the way, he’d tried to
get back to the counter when a stupid mall-like cop pulled him aside.
    “You have your ticket?”
    Dean shook his head.
    “Then move on. That’s the way it’s done.
See?”
    Dean looked up at the sign above the
clerk’s head and read it. “No refunds without proof of purchase.” Dean looked
at the security guard. He didn’t look like he gave a shit about him or the
fucking ticket. Dean moved on. He was out to his car when he realized that the
racetrack people planned it that way. They made you so frustrated that you’d
tear up your ticket and they didn’t have to pay. Dean was convinced that they hung
that sign after the race.
    “Damn it, why can’t a working man catch
a fucking break? I just need to make a few dollars so I can get Ginger and take
her back home with me.” He tried to remember how long it had been since she’d
lived with him and his wife and realized it had been a number of years. Ten or
so, as a matter of fact. “Don’t matter. She owes me. She ate at our table and
took up space in our house. She owes me.”
    Dean found the main address for the
company. Force Construction was in the phone book and it was nearby. He decided
to wait until tonight to go and see if he could find something on her, and
smiled to himself as he walked by one of those open air markets. He would have
thought it too cold to have one this time of year, but it was fortuitous for
him.
    He snatched himself two apples and a bag
of carrots. He nearly had himself a bag of oranges when someone yelled at him
to stop. He was nearly around the corner when he spied what looked to him like
a display of tuna. He normally didn’t like canned tuna, but he was hungry and
didn’t even have ten cents to his name. Running full tilt into the tall tower,
he knocked it over and grabbed up as many cans as he could stuff in his
pockets.
    Eighteen cans, a slightly bruised bag of
carrots, and two smashed apples later, he was limping to his car. Not bad, not
bad at all. He was set to have dinner when he realized he didn’t have a can
opener. Dean threw all the cans at the building next to him and went to his
car.
    “Her fault too. A woman should be
preparing a dinner for her man, not hanging out with a bunch of construction
workers.” Dean got into his car and lay down. “Fucking bitch is gonna make me
rich, then maybe I’ll kill her ass.”
    ~~~
    Conner woke to Lou wrapped around him.
He was trying his best to move her away from him when she moaned and snuggled
into his neck. His entire body went on red alert. Need for this woman was going
to kill him. Trying again, he moaned when she put her leg up over his hip.
    He’d held her last night as she’d cried
herself to sleep. Connor wanted to