Caught in the Storm (7 page)

They had all gathered in their normal meeting area with plenty of food set out by Martha. While they discussed what they had learned, she watched Jackson stuff his face with food. When he caught her looking, he just smiled and shrugged. She shook her head and decided to put some extra food on her plate as soon there might not be any left.

“We know he’s got some money now. But is it enough? How much does he have? Could he be out there now trying to get more from another woman?” Noah asked.

“His history would say that he would want more. We know he didn’t have much growing up and once he got the taste for what money could do for him, he always craved more. We’ve got to assume she isn’t the first, and that there could be more. All we’ve got to go on is the fact that he’s got enough money to do whatever he wants and go wherever he wants,” Anthony replied.

“Yep, he’d do what he could to make sure he’d have all the toys to watch us, to track us.” Evie leaned over and stole some fruit from Anthony’s plate.

“At least we know he’s not watching now.” Lexi looked over to where the plaque containing the camera and bug had been. “Did you notice anything in Boston?”

“No, damn it. I’d love to get my hands on him. Bastard. I’d give him more than just a knock upside the head this time.” Evie punched the couch cushion.

“Easy there, slugger. I think you’d have to stand in line.” Noah patted the top of her head and laughed, easily side-stepping her as she tried to punch him too.

“We didn’t notice anything here either. All four of us went out at some time or another. There is no sign of him. I don’t know if that is scarier than if we knew he was around.” Lexi shivered and Noah went over and wrapped her in his arms.

“We’ll get him, love. He can’t hide forever.” He kissed the top of her head.

“Anyone have any ideas on what we should do next? Does anyone have any events they need to attend in the next month?” Jackson asked.

Lexi walked over to the counter and picked up an invitation. “This just came in the mail today. It’s a Halloween fundraiser. It came for Noah and me, and since you all have been out there maybe it is time for us to make an appearance.”

“Oh, hell no. No way in hell I’m letting my pregnant wife out there so some mad man can get to her. Next idea.”

“Come on, Noah. You know I’ll be—”

“Don’t you say fine. No. Not. Going. To. Happen.”

“Fine.” Lexi just smiled when Noah growled at her. “Come on. We’ve got security all over the place, even if we can’t see them. If it would make you feel better, I could wear a tracking device.”

“No.” Noah folded his arms across his chest.

“Come on. It’s for a good cause.” She waved the invitation under his nose so he’d see the children.

“Hey, you guys could always just show up for a little bit and then skip out,” Evie added.

“See, even Evie thinks it’s a good idea. Come on. You’ve already made a large donation and they want to give you an award, so you need to go to make a speech.” Lexi leaned into him and batted her eyelashes at him. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun wondering where psycho Jeremy is and worrying about you the whole time. No.”

Kat cleared her throat and waited for everyone to look at her. “I think it’s a good idea.” She simply held up a hand to stop all the protests and waited until they were done before she continued. “Have you seen the old Hitchcock movie starring Cary Grant?
To Catch a Thief
? In order to catch the person who was impersonating him, he went to a masquerade ball and once everyone knew he was there, he went up to the room and someone changed places with him. I could take Lexi’s place. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about her.”

“And put yourself in danger. This would be a perfect opportunity for Jeremy to come out. We wouldn’t know which mask he was behind.” Jackson stood up and started to pace the room.

“Exactly, and as I said, then we wouldn’t have to worry about Lexi.” Kat folded her arms across her chest.

Noah stood up and squinted his eyes at Jackson. “So are you saying you’d rather have Lexi in danger than Kat?”

Jackson shook his head. “Damn it. No, that is not what I meant. I don’t want
any
of them in danger.”

“We all agreed we would do this in order to catch Jeremy. We can’t go back now,” Anthony stated.

“I know we did.” Jackson shrugged, “This just seems like too big an opportunity for Jeremy to do something.”

“We’re at the point when we need to do something big. He’s been hiding for too long. We’ve got to put an end to this once and for all,” Anthony said.

“You’re right.” Jackson sat down heavily next to Lexi and put his arm around her. “Sorry Lex, you know I love you.”

“I know jerk face. I love you, too.”

Evie rolled her eyes, “Can we get back to business?”

Jackson jumped up off the couch and grabbed her in a bear hug, “Oh, are we feeling a bit jealous?” He started giving her loud smacking kisses on the side of her face. “I love you, too.”

“Blah! Stop, you ass wipe!” She tried to stomp on his foot.

“Kids, could we please get back to business,” Anthony said dryly.

“Yes, let’s.” With one last elbow into her brother’s stomach, she walked over and sat down next to Anthony. “So it’s decided. Kat will take Lexi’s place. You going to be okay with that, Noah?”

“Yes, that will be fine.”

“I’ll take Noah’s place,” Jackson said while looking at Kat.

“What do you mean you’ll take Noah’s place? He’s fine. I can work with him.”

“Yes, I know you can; however, if they both disappear into a room, and we walk back out together, they will think we are them. And that way they can both go home and get some rest. You know Lexi will be on pins and needles waiting for Noah to get back. This way, the one who’s got a bun in the oven can sleep.”

Kat didn’t want to admit it, but he had a point. “Fine.”

“Well now, since that is all settled, time for the fun stuff. What kind of costume should we dress up in? Maybe we should get Grams and the ladies up here. I’m sure they’d have plenty of ideas!” Jackson said.

Kat shivered at what they might come up with, the only saving grace was that it would have to look exactly the same with two different couples wearing it.

Jeremy pulled at his ears. Every day this week, something had been off in his room. This wasn’t right. He knew he left things a certain way, and now it was wrong. Everything was wrong. Kill the bitches. He had to find them and kill them. That would make everything right. They shouldn’t be allowed to live. If he could just kill them, he’d be able to make Anthony suffer and he would be free. Free to move on and kill others. He had to kill. There were so many more to kill.

She had the photos of his journal developed and went over them again and again, putting them all in order, almost like a book. This was exactly what she needed. She could say she knew his soul now, knew it almost as well as her own. It was so close to time. Her hands shook with anticipation, wondering what it would be like to slide the knife into him and watch his blood flow from his body. Wondering what his body would be like once it was an empty shell devoid of its twisted soul.

Shaking her head, so she didn’t get lost on that train of thought, she began to plan what to do next in order to play with Jeremy. She needed to make him pay, make him hurt, just as he’d hurt all of those women.

It was strangely quiet in the house. Lexi and Noah were at a doctor’s appointment while Evie and Anthony were over at the cottage getting some work done on their businesses. Lucky for them, the Troublesome Trio was over at the senior center. That left Kat alone with Jackson to go over the information they had. Again. She was so bored by the whole thing and just wanted it to be over. How many times could you look at the same piece of paper expecting to find something different?

Throwing the papers on the table, she stood up and started pacing the room. “This is ridiculous. It says the same damn thing it did yesterday, and the day before that. There is nothing new. Why are we even doing this?”

“Because we might see something differently. It’s happened before.”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything different.”

“Well, what do you suggest we do?”

She knew what she wanted to do. She didn’t give in to it years ago; she’d been strong enough to leave him even though she’d wanted more. She sure as hell wasn’t going to give in now. Sitting down next to him, staring at the map laid out, she said, “I don’t know.”

He reached over and started massaging her shoulders. “Come on, just relax, something will come to you.”

His fingers on her tight muscles felt like heaven. She could feel the tension leaving her body at his magical touch. Her vision started to blur as she looked at the map marked with the places Jeremy had been sighted. Shaking her head and sitting up straight, she turned to Jackson. “I know what we can do.”

“Now you’re talking. I’m up for anything.”

Seeing the look in his eyes, she knew he wasn’t talking about searching for Jeremy. Locking that image away, she continued, “What if we start looking at places where he could be staying? You know he’s not going to be that far away. He’ll want to be close by.”

Jackson jumped up and bent over to look closer at the map. Kat tried not to think about sinking her teeth into his ass, which was only inches from her face.

“That’s a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that? Look here. There are tons of places he could be staying. Come on; let’s start getting names and numbers.” He looked back at her and smirked. “Unless you’d really like to take a bite out of my rock hard ass. I seem to remember you being a biter.”

When she didn’t immediately answer, he turned around and lifted her up so she was sitting on the table with him between her legs. Grabbing her by the ass and pulling her close so that she was nestled against his hardness, he said, “Come on, baby, let me chase the darkness away.”

His hands ran up her back until he framed her face, bringing it closer to his. “Let me in.”

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to get lost in his touch. Tentatively, she brought her hands up and rested them lightly on his shoulders. Their kiss was filled with tenderness and longing, remembrance of what they’d had. She felt him shiver under her touch as she explored his body. It seemed to ignite something in her she thought was long buried. Wanting more, she hooked her legs around his waist and was rewarded by a deep growl in his throat.