by M. Stratton
Book Three of the Storm Series
What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted?
Kat Snyder has spent years chasing after the man who attacked her and left her for dead. It was her one obsession and she wouldn’t let anyone stand in her way. Now they are getting closer to finding him, she begins to doubt herself and her need for revenge.
Jackson “Jack” Taylor lost the only woman he truly loved. Now that he’s found her again, he’s not letting go and will do everything in his power to make her see they can have a life together.
Together they search for the monster who has hurt so many women. The closer they get, the closer they become until they are both Caught in the Storm.
CAUGHT IN THE STORM
Copyright 2014 by M. Stratton
Cover by MG Book Covers (http://salon.io/mgbookcovers)
Edited by Hot Tree Editing
Formatting by Integrity Formatting
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
After the Storm is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
To my best creation, my son Johnathan.
I love you.
Dedication
After the Storm and Eye of the Storm – Note from the Author
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Coming Soon from M. Stratton
How to find M. Stratton
About the Author
and
Books One and Two of the Storm Series
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
If you have not already read ‘After the Storm’ and ‘Eye of the Storm’, please do so; otherwise, you will be completely lost in this book. The following contains spoilers from ‘After the Storm’ and ‘Eye of the Storm’.
Thank you,
M. Stratton
Alexia “Lexi” Hanson – Lexi moved from La Jolla, California, into her grandmother’s home in Ipswich, Massachusetts, after her grandmother’s death. She spent her time helping out at the local senior center, Golden Ages, taking photographs, and playing with her rescued dog, Pepper. After spending a considerable amount of time and energy rebuilding her new life, she thought it was complete, until her neighbor moved in for an extended vacation. Now married with a baby on the way, she is content with her new life.
Noah Matthews – After fifteen years on the road making music and playing to sell-out crowds with the band Last Stand, Noah needed a break. His bandmates, all married with children, were spending time with their families, so Noah went to his beach house to relax and spend time with the only family he had left, Sam and Martha Edwards, his godparents and the caretakers for his home. Things changed after he met his neighbor crawling through his garden one morning. He’d do anything to protect his wife and the mother of his unborn child.
Patsy Hanson – Grandmother to Lexi and ringleader for the Fearsome Foursome. The ladies had met when they were in college and formed an alliance that lasted through the years. For a while after Patsy died, the group didn’t cause as much trouble, but after a few years the Troublesome Trio was born.
Evelyne Sumner – The new ringleader of the group. Evelyne will say and do anything she pleases.
Leigh Winslow – Second in command. She enjoys seeing if she can shock people by what she does and says.
Marie Holmes – Has always been the voice of reason. The most conservative of the three, but don’t let that fool you, you don’t want to let your guard down around her.
Evie Taylor – Lexi’s best friend and Evelyne’s granddaughter. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Evie; she is very much like her grandmother. Evie and Lexi spent many summers growing up together in Ipswich and causing trouble. Evie owns a bookstore and café in Boston. She recently hired Jesse Fields as a manager to help her. After traveling the world with Anthony to uncover just how sick and twisted Jeremy actually is, she fell in love with him and looks forward to spending her life keeping him on his toes.
Jackson “Jack” Taylor – Evie’s older brother. He has spent his life roaming the world after a football injury ended his career with the Pittsburg Steelers. While he might seem carefree, his family loyalty runs deep. When his sister gets involved with Anthony and they search for Jeremy, he decides they need his help.
Kat Snyder – Is the bodyguard Noah hired to protect Lexi. Very quiet and reserved, she doesn’t share much with the others. It was discovered in Eye of the Storm that she is actually one of Jeremy’s victims. The only other one besides Lexi that survived; Chelle Michaels.
Anthony Maldono – Growing up he had the best things in life, loving parents and world travel. It wasn’t until he was in his early twenties that things started to go wrong. Taking over the family business after his parents died didn’t ease the heartache at their sudden death or the other deaths that seemed to follow him. Things took a turn for the worse when Anthony went out on a date with Lexi, and soon after was accused of raping and beating her. Being sent to prison for something he didn’t do was just another event in his string of bad luck. His luck changed when Evie opened the door to her heart for him. He wasn’t able to deny her and will do anything to protect her.
Jeremy Ellison – First, his mother was going to leave him with his abusive father. Watching his father kill his mother only started his decent into madness. When the one woman he truly loved was stolen from him in his early twenties by Anthony Maldono, he could no longer keep the monster he was hidden. Following Anthony over the years, he systemically took everything he could from him. He learned everything he could about him until he became him, both mentally and physically. As his madness grew, so did his crimes. Once he got a taste for murder, there was nothing that could stop him. Once they discovered more of his murders, his other aliases and his one safe place, he started to lose his grip on reality.
Jeremy Ellison sat on a dirty bed in an even dirtier motel room with his head in his hands, wondering how he ended up here. He’d had her; he was almost able to take the one thing Anthony currently wanted. After pulling himself from the water, he didn’t know what to do or where to go. This was a first for him. He’d lost everything. Everything. He had no laptop, no pictures, nowhere to go, and most importantly, no money.
Sighing, he reached over for the newspapers he had purchased; somewhere in there, he’d find what he was looking for. Some old lady from the society pages who had more money than brains. Some way to make a quick buck so he’d be able to move on
to bigger and better things. It was a scam he had perfected over the years. Money and items he could quickly sell would be his. It was what had afforded him the lifestyle he loved so much, and giving the old ladies a thrill, well, it was the least he could do.
He wanted to scream when he saw his picture and the story about him, staring back. A smaller photo of Anthony and Evie mocked him. They were coming for him; they were all coming for him. Pounding his fists on the bed, his head shook back and forth, and his mouth opened in a silent scream.
She sat in the grimy motel room clutching her wig in her trembling hands, staring at the room across the parking lot where she saw him enter a while ago. She never expected to come across him after all this time. It took everything she had not to knock on the door and send the bastard straight to hell. She knew he deserved more pain and putting a bullet in him would be too quick. Now she knew where he was, she could plan. She had to have a plan. Everything had to be in order. The ending would have to be perfect, exactly what he deserved.
Her hands shook as she thought of what she’d have to do to him, but she hadn’t come this far to back out now.
Glancing at her watch, she knew she had to hurry; she wanted to get back to her files on Jeremy. Now she knew exactly where he was; she needed to make sure everything was up to date and she had all the information on him. Slowly she put the wig back on and walked out of the room into the sunlight. She casually dropped her purse near his car where she attached a tracking device. Picking up her things, she put them back in her purse, then stood up and walked away, never looking back.
Kat Snyder sat on the window seat in the third floor bedroom of Noah’s home, looking out the window. She knew she could leave whenever she wanted, but they’d told her they wanted her here. They said it was to keep her safe. Since Jeremy’s body had never been found, they weren’t sure if he was still out there or not. But to her, it felt like a prison. Laughing humorlessly to herself, she thought how ironic it was considering she did nothing to stop Anthony going to prison. All of the law agencies had pretty much put Jeremy’s case on the back burner. They all thought he was dead. As of right now, they were of no help.
All she wanted to do was kill Jeremy for what he did to her. She would stop at nothing to accomplish that. Then she’d started working for Noah. Spending all that time over the past year getting to know Lexi, against her better judgment she had grown close to her. When she learned what Lexi went through and how strong she was, Kat had started to wonder if she could heal, move on with her life. Maybe get a part of herself back she thought had been killed off years ago. Now, someone new was protecting Lexi, and Kat wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Staring out the window, she watched Evie and Anthony run around the beach, with Pepper barking and chasing them. Their cheeks were red from the cold wind, which blew in off the ocean. The seasons were changing; it was fall, when everything died. Shaking her head, she tried not to slip back into the depression that was always lurking just around the corner, waiting to pull her down into the darkness.
They had moved into Lexi’s old beach cottage. With Jesse running her bookstore, Evie was free to spend her time with Anthony. Sighing, she thought about being in love, all those wonderful feelings when everything was so fresh and new. The excitement that built in your belly when you knew you’d be seeing them. The way you could feel the electricity spark when you were about to be kissed senseless.
There was also a new beach cottage nestled in-between Noah’s and Lexi’s; this one was just for the Troublesome Trio. It was amazing how fast it had gone up. She knew it had something to do with the amount of money both Noah and Anthony threw at the construction crew to get it done. It also helped that the crew wanted it finished and to get off the property before they were subjected to anymore of the Trio. Kat shook her head at the things those women had said to the men. She almost felt sorry for them.
Tilting her head, she could hear Noah start playing the piano downstairs for Lexi and her laughing at his silly words created on the fly. Every day her belly grew a little bit bigger and it seemed they fell more and more in love, if that was even possible. Being surrounded by all this love was slowly killing her. She couldn’t get away from it, babies, and Anthony, who looked so much like Jeremy. Rather, Jeremy looked so much like him since he’d had the plastic surgery to ensure that.
Luckily for her, she had been spending a considerable amount of time with Lexi’s therapist. She had to admit that she was good. It wasn’t until their fourth session together that the therapist had opened up to let her know that she had actually been raped too. Somehow that made Kat feel better than, as sick as that was, she wasn’t talking to someone who just made the appropriate comments, and this was someone who could identify with her. Someone who’d had something horrific happen to her. It was too easy to feel like you were the only one, but sadly there were too many out there, most who don’t ever come forward. It felt good to remember that she wasn’t alone in this. There were people she could depend on.
There were times when she felt like she was starting to feel whole again and then something would happen to make the woman she was now seem miles and miles away, years even. Feeling like she was on a roller coaster of emotions, she never knew when the ride was going to end, or which version of her was going to win, the old her or the new one.
Talking with her parents had been difficult, telling them what she had done. All of the lying and not sharing the information she knew. She was so ashamed. Her father was a man of few words, his marshmallow center hidden by the gruff exterior, perfect for the chief of police. Her mother was kind, quiet and a bit of a bookworm, going through book upon book every week. Glancing over at the television that was playing old movies of her without the sound on, she couldn’t believe how carefree she used to be. They had gone overboard sending her all the home movies and pictures, hoping it would help her remember how she used to be. She had them spread out all over the room. Looking at them, she wasn’t sure if it was helping or making her feel worse.
Placing her forehead against the cold windowpane, she wasn’t sure where she was going to go from here. She absently traced lines in the condensation from her breath, wishing she weren’t so lost.
Walking quietly up the stairs, Jackson Taylor walked silently over to Kat’s open door. All he wanted to do was help her, but she wasn’t letting him in. He never backed down from anything and he wasn’t about to let her close herself off from everyone. Pausing when he saw the movie playing on the television, he couldn’t believe it was the same woman. The one on the screen was so full of life and laughter. A close up of her smiling into the camera took his breath away. While he knew it was the same woman, she looked so different from how she looked now. He knew Jeremy had beaten her up pretty badly, bad enough she had to have reconstructive surgery.
No woman should have to suffer what she or Lexi had, and though his sister hadn’t been raped, she’d still been traumatized by all she and Anthony had seen. He hadn’t been there for them before, but he was there now. He wanted this bastard to pay and he vowed to do whatever it took to bring him down. Rubbing his hand over his aching chest, he wanted to take all of their pain away. All the worry and looking over their shoulders, always wondering when Jeremy would come back for them, wondering when he was going to strike again.
Not wanting to startle her, he cleared this throat hoping to get her attention. He watched as her shoulders tensed and she slowly turned her head to look at him.
“What do you want?”
“It’s almost time for another planning session.”
“I know you didn’t have to come get me.”
“It’s no trouble.”
“Really? Coming up all those stairs with your bad knee?”
The old football injury that ended his career did bother him, but he wasn’t going to let her know. “Really. Are you ready?”
“You go on; I’ll be down in a minute.”
Leaning up against the doorjamb, he crossed his
arms over his chest and waited for her. He watched her chest heave in a sigh before she got up and crossed to him, stopping inches away.
“Don’t you get it? I don’t want you around. Leave me alone.”
“Don’t you get it? I’m not letting you go this time.”
“You have no say in this.”
“Yes, I do, you might as well get used to it. Now let’s go.” After she left the room, he walked over to the remote to turn the television off, essentially shutting off the vibrant woman. He made a vow to himself that one day she’d be like that again, if it was the last thing he did.
Kat didn’t know why they continued to do this all the time. Suspecting it had something to do with the fact they had not been able to find a body or any sightings of Jeremy, she held her tongue. At least they had something to do, besides looking for cameras and bugs. They had begun to suspect Jeremy had planted something, even though they weren’t sure how he had done it. When they found the surveillance equipment hidden in the plaque for Pepper, they swept the whole house every day, along with everything that came into the house. And Lexi’s old house. And the new house for the Trio.
They had been doing the same thing every other day for the past two months. It was getting old. Taking her normal seat away from everyone else, she got ready to sit back and watch the show. At some point, tempers would overflow and the men would start metaphorically pounding their chests. The only thing that helped was she would gauge the mood when she sat down and then try to guess how long it would take. Since everyone was all lovey-dovey, she expected it was going to take longer than usual. She was wrong.
“I have an idea,” Evie said while putting her feet up on the coffee table.
“Now there’s a scary thought,” Noah said as he swiped at her feet. She just stuck her tongue out at him and put them back up on the table.
