Caught in the Storm (11 page)

“Noah, it will snow again. It will snow so much you’ll be sick of it in no time.” Lexi settled herself on the couch and covered her legs up with a blanket. “Hey!” she protested as Noah whipped the blanket off her and picked her up.

Rubbing his cold nose against hers, he said, “Come on, let’s go play in the snow. I promise to get you all warm afterwards.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Ewww … I think I’m going to throw up,” Evie said as she tried to walk out of the room, only to be stopped by Anthony, who had a huge grin of his own.

“Come on
la mia belezza
. Let’s play.” When Evie just folded her arms across her chest and shook her head, he shrugged, walked over and threw her over his shoulder.

“Anthony! Put me down! Right now!” Evie beat her fist on his back.

“Never.” Anthony slapped her ass and laughed when she started to curse him out.

Kat watched miserably as the two couples ran from the room, leaving her behind with the Troublesome Trio. Feeling herself starting to drift into depression, she decided to torture herself a little more by walking over to the windows, looking out at the four of them playing in the snow, which was now coming down in large flakes. A small amount had started to accumulate on the ground and she watched as Lexi grabbed some and stuffed it down Noah’s shirt. Anthony had the same idea and was chasing Evie around.

Kat jumped when someone came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. When she realized it was Jackson, she relaxed. “You really shouldn’t do that to me. You might end up knocked on your ass again. And stop. Someone might see.”

“The Trio has gone downstairs; something about getting their credit cards. I was told to come get you.”

“Come and get me for what?” Kat had no idea what he was talking about.

“Come and get you to play in the snow,” Jackson said as he led her out of the room.

“You’ve got to be kidding. No one wants to play with me.” As soon as she said that, she knew she was in trouble.

Jackson stopped and pulled her in close to him, “I always want to play with you.”

Kat wiggled against him, trying to escape. “Is your head always in the gutter?”

“You know it is, and rubbing your body against me is only going to make me more excited.”

“I’m not rubbing it against you, you perv. I’m trying to wiggle free.”

“Wiggle, rubbing, either way I want you naked under me and my cock buried deep inside you.”

Kat cleared her throat, trying not to remember what he felt like filling her up. “Well, I’m sure we don’t want them to think we’ve gotten lost.” When he didn’t let go, she glanced up at him through her eyelashes. “What,” she whispered.

“You’re so beautiful. I wish you could see yourself as I see you.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“I might have believed you. Years ago.” She tried to push away from him, but he held on tighter.

He gripped her chin and made her look at him. “Chelle, you are beautiful. If I have to spend the rest of my life proving that to you, I will.”

She shivered when he used her real name. Her heart longed for what he said, wishing it could be true. She was saved from any more serious conversations as the door downstairs banged open, and Noah yelled out for them to get their asses in gear.

Later, Kat lay in bed thinking about the fun they’d all had that afternoon, she’d felt like a kid again playing in the snow. When she had learned it was actually Evie’s idea that Jackson come get her, she was happy, which surprised her even more.

After everyone had changed into dry clothes, they sat around eating and making fun of a horror movie on the TV. It was a nice relaxing evening with people she had grown to care about. People who knew everything about her, some of whom had experienced the same things she had.

Rolling over onto her side, she looked at Jackson sleeping across the room. His features relaxed in the moonlight. She didn’t know what she was going to do about him, but he was right, she did feel better having him in the same room as her. As her eyes started to close, she wished he was close enough to touch.

The next few days were spent making phone calls to motels in the area and trying to find any trace of Jeremy. With dead end after dead end, they were all on edge, just waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Kat scanned the missing person’s section online every day, sometimes twice a day. She breathed a sigh of relief every time she found no new missing women reported. She knew it was getting to her, but she had to feel like she was doing something, anything, to catch him. So many years had been spent chasing him, trying to find any little piece of information possible and now that they were so close, it seemed the leads were few and far between.

Without seeming to even think about it, Jackson passed the creamer to her after she refilled her coffee. It was the simple things like that which meant so much to her, made her feel cared for. She looked up with a small smile on her face and saw Evie frowning at the two of them. The last thing she wanted was to get on the bad side of Evie again, especially since she had finally thawed out a little bit toward her. She also didn’t want anything to jeopardize their working relationship.

“Jackson, can I talk to you for a moment?” Evie said, frowning as she stood up.

Kat knew what was coming. Part of her wanted to run and hide, and the other part wanted to know what Jackson was going to say.

“What? I’m busy.” He continued to scan the computer screen, not looking up at his sister.

Kat knew someone had to clue him in as to what was going on and she tried to kick him gently under the table, but might have put a little too much power behind it, because when he yelped, everyone in the room turned to look at him.

“Oops,” Kat said. “My foot slipped.” With everyone looking at her now, she couldn’t let Jackson know Evie suspected something was going on between the two of them.

Jackson rubbed his ankle. “Slipped, my ass. What the hell was that for?”

“I think she was trying to tell you that if you don’t want to cause a scene in front of everyone, you’d better get your ass up and come talk to me privately. Now.”

He snorted and stood. “Since when do you ever do anything without an audience?” He laughed when she snorted and said, “After you, my delicate flower of a sister.” Turning to the rest of the room, he said, “If I’m not back in five minutes, call the cops.”

“Ha-ha. Move it, jerkface.”

After they left the room, Kat couldn’t stand it any longer and started pacing. When she heard raised voices from the other room, she stopped and rested her head on the cool window, hoping she could just disappear. She jumped when Lexi rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Kat, don’t worry about Evie too much. She’s stubborn and loyal, but she’ll come around.”

“I’m not too sure about that. I’m either going to have to sleep with one eye open or move out. She’s not happy.” Kat tilted her head toward the other room when she heard something break.

Lexi raised an eyebrow at the sound. “And she has a temper, but that’s Anthony’s problem now. Kat, I know something is going on between you and Jackson. If Evie didn’t have her head in the clouds, she would have seen it long ago.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because you didn’t want me to. I knew you needed some time, so much happened to you, so much you are still dealing with. The attraction between the two of you is so strong even Noah could tell something was up, and we all know how much gets past him.”

“I heard that, love,” Noah groused from the other side of the room.

“You were meant to. Kat, only you know what is right for you. You need to follow that. And if it’s Jackson, you need to grab him with both hands and never let go.”

“That’s just it; my heart says one thing, but my head says something else.”

“How long have you known Jackson?”

“A while.”

Lexi raised her eyebrow at her. “Are you really going to play this game with me?”

Kat sighed, “No. I’ve known him since you moved here. I needed to know more about you and I thought that finding your best friend’s single brother would be the best way.”

“What happened?”

“No judgments? No telling me how wrong I was?” Kat looked at Lexi skeptically.

“No, because while we both had something terrible happen to us, it was different for each of us. I don’t know what I would have done if our situations were reversed.”

“Thank you.”

“No need to thank me, just tell me.”

“He was surprisingly easy to get close to considering he was a famous football player. I didn’t have to work at the instant connection. It was just there.” She shrugged. “We spent more and more time together. Well, one thing led to another and I started to spend the night. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help myself. He’s such a great guy. So kind and generous.” Kat let out a deep sigh. “Anyway, after one of the most romantic nights of my life, I had one of the worst nightmares of my life. As he held me and dried my tears, I knew I was never going to be whole. I was never going to be what he needed. I wasn’t good enough for him. After he fell asleep, I snuck out and never returned.” She looked at Lexi, trying to make her understand. “I couldn’t do this to him. I couldn’t bring the darkness that is in me into his world.”

Lexi patted Kat on the shoulder and turned when Jackson and Evie came back into the room. “Sometimes, we have no choice and the heart decides to take the darkness and change it to light.” She took a step before adding, “You might want to remind Ms. Thing over there that she was going to do whatever she wanted to do when it came to Anthony. You two really aren’t that different; only she just comes right out and says it while you take the more subtle route.”

Kat shook her head as Lexi went back to join Noah on the couch. She still couldn’t look at Evie, but seeing the look on Jackson’s face, she was scared everything was about to come crashing down.

Jackson needed to cool down after his conversation with his sister. He knew it wasn’t going to go well, but he figured she might have mellowed since she was in love and all. He walked out the backdoor and onto the beach. When Pepper came up next to him, he bent down and picked up a stick to throw for her.

“Damn stubborn woman. Can’t reason with her. Should’ve known better.” He patted Pepper’s head when she came back and dropped the stick for him. “Why can’t she be more like you?” He rubbed her face. “You’re the sweetest thing, aren’t you? Yes, you are.”

When he heard someone clear their throat behind him, he knew who it was. He wasn’t sure if he was happy or not, being in such a foul mood, and he didn’t want to take it out on her. He slowly turned around and saw her there, with huge eyes, clutching his jacket to her chest. His shoulders slumped as the fight went out of him.

Grabbing the jacket from her hands, he tossed it aside and pulled her in for a hug. “Now
this
is what I needed.”

“Jackson, you’ll catch a cold.”

“Nah, you’ll keep me warm.” He rubbed his cheek on the top of her head, loving the feel of her hair against his face.

“I’m sure Evie will tell you I’ve got a cold heart.” Kat played with the buttons on his shirt.