Southern Storm (44 South Book 2) Read online

  Southern Storm

  Book Two of 44 South

  Nicola Claire

  Contents

  About the Author

  Free Download

  Also by Nicola Claire

  Description

  1. Isn’t That What They All Say?

  2. This Had To Fucking Stop

  3. I Can Do This

  4. How Long’s A Piece Of String?

  5. Narcissist

  6. Watched And Judged

  7. Not That I Was Thinking Of Staying Here

  8. Life Just Got Interesting

  9. I Was A Guppy

  10. Life Was Full Of Lies

  11. Sometimes You Just Need To Laugh

  12. I Don’t Kiss And Tell

  13. So Brave

  14. By Tomorrow Morning, I’d Remember Why Not

  15. The Lines Were Blurring

  16. Letting The Storm Swell Inside Me

  17. And Way Too Far Under My Skin

  18. Life Is A Tragedy

  19. It Was Only Natural I Screamed

  20. A Storm Twisting Higher And Higher

  21. I Shook My Head

  22. I Could Hurt You

  23. More Fool You

  24. Only If I Can Rip The Fucking Roosters Off The Wall

  25. Just What Matt Needed

  26. And The Ground Fell Out From Beneath Me

  27. And I Didn’t Care

  28. At Least This I Could Handle

  29. The Promise Is Broken

  30. I Had My Work Cut Out For Me

  31. Maybe Some Antacids First

  32. Everyone Was So Damn Sensitive About My Drinking Habits

  33. How Much Control Would He Need To Survive This?

  34. Just Say It

  35. David?

  36. Blue Lights

  37. Are We Yours, Too?

  38. And I Loved It

  39. I Shouldn’t Have Felt So Happy About That

  40. Fuck, It Didn’t Get More Eclectic Than That

  41. This Is What My Life Had Come To

  42. Punching Him Wasn’t Good Enough

  43. Then Lights Out

  44. Ooh Rah

  45. And Then Silence

  46. Feeling Panicked

  47. This Is Twizel

  48. He’d Been My Friend

  49. We’d Got It So Wrong

  50. I Hadn’t Seen That One Coming

  51. That’s Who She Was To Me

  52. But Not Fast Enough

  53. And Definitely Not After

  Epilogue

  Review Request

  Free Download

  Copyright © 2016, Nicola Claire

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  ISBN: 978-0-473-38241-4

  Created with Vellum

  About the Author

  Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband and two young boys.

  She's tried her hand at being a paramedic, bank teller and medical sales representative, (not all necessarily in that order), but her love of writing keeps calling her back.

  She has a passion for all things suspenseful, spiced up with a good dollop of romance, as long as they include strong characters - alpha males and capable females - and worlds which although make-believe are really quite believable in the end.

  There's nothing better than getting caught up in a compelling, intriguing and romantic book.

  When she's not writing or reading, she's out on her family boat at Lake Taupo, teaching her young boys to fish, showing them the beauty that surrounds them in nature and catching some delicious trout for dinner.

  Creating rich worlds with dynamic characters and unexpected twists that shock and awe has been pure bliss for this author. And just as well, because there's a lot more story yet to tell...

  For more information:

  @NicolaClaireNZ

  168567699926093

  www.nicolaclairebooks.com

  [email protected]

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  Starter Library

  Also by Nicola Claire

  Kindred Series

  Kindred

  Blood Life Seeker

  Forbidden Drink

  Giver of Light

  Dancing Dragon

  Shadow's Light

  Entwined With The Dark

  Kiss Of The Dragon

  Dreaming Of A Blood Red Christmas (Novella)

  Mixed Blessing Mystery Series

  Mixed Blessing

  Dark Shadow (Coming Soon)

  Sweet Seduction Series

  Sweet Seduction Sacrifice

  Sweet Seduction Serenade

  Sweet Seduction Shadow

  Sweet Seduction Surrender

  Sweet Seduction Shield

  Sweet Seduction Sabotage

  Sweet Seduction Stripped

  Sweet Seduction Secrets

  Sweet Seduction Sayonara

  Elemental Awakening Series

  The Tempting Touch Of Fire

  The Soothing Scent Of Earth

  The Chilling Change Of Air

  The Tantalising Taste Of Water (Coming Soon)

  H.E.A.T. Series

  A Flare Of Heat

  A Touch Of Heat

  A Twist Of Heat (Novella)

  A Lick Of Heat (Coming Soon)

  Citizen Saga

  Elite

  Cardinal

  Citizen

  Masked (Novella)

  Wiped

  Scarlet Suffragette Series

  Fearless

  Breathless (Coming Soon)

  Blood Enchanted Series

  Blood Enchanted

  Blood Entwined (Coming Soon)

  44 South Series

  Southern Sunset

  Southern Storm

  Southern Strike (Coming Soon)

  Lost Time Series

  Losing Time (Coming Soon)

  Description

  Sometimes life makes decisions for you. They’re just not the decisions you would have made for yourself.

  Stalker.

  Killer.

  Mohawk-wearing boy racers?

  Trouble seems to be following Olivia Logan. When she’s forced to leave Auckland and move to Twizel, Olivia thinks her stalker problems have been left behind. But the small southern town of Twizel possesses its own threats. The people are strange. The community tight knit. The farmers…

  Well, let’s just say they leave other men for dead.

  Handsome.

  Damaged.

  Got a thing for damsels in distress?

  Matt Drake is one seriously messed up cop. And one very determined father. When he hires a new homeschool teacher for his traumatised twin daughters, he doesn’t realise the woman who walks through his door is there for more than just his kids. Or that she’s more than she appears. And he sure as hell doesn’t realise she’s bringing trouble with her. But trouble is something Matt is good at. Making it. Fixing it.

  The type of trouble Olivia Logan brings, though, is dark and dangerous, and utterly addictive. No one’s sure Matt is up to dealing with that. Not even him.

  This sleepy hollow has just woken up and Twizel doesn’t care if you were born here or born to live here. Sooner or later your secrets will come out.

  ***This is the second book in the 44 South Series: 44° South of the Equator where things can get a little strange.***

  For:

  My friends, old and new, some of whose names I have borrowed on occasion in my stories.

  Chapter 1

  Isn’t That What They All Say?

  Liv

  Sometimes life makes decisions for you. They’re just not the decisions you would have made for yourself.

  “This has to stop, Olivia,” David murmured to my side.

  I couldn’t formulate an answer. My eyes were stuck fast on the four-foot tall picture pinned to my office wall.

  “It’s escalating,” he added.

  It was. There was no denying that now. The picture was of me. I had no recollection of it having been taken.

  “He’s getting bolder,” David said. “As if he doesn’t care if he’s caught breaking and entering our building. You know as well as I what that means.”

  Yes, it meant his ASPD was advancing; the situations he placed himself in carried increasingly greater risk.

  “Next he’ll act on his aggressive impulses. He’s already sacrificing animals for you. Soon it will progress to harming people.”

  The picture was painted in blood. The crime scene analysts had determined it was cat blood. Not human. But the implication was clear.

  “This is a direct threat to your safety, Dr Logan,” the police detective standing behind us said.

  I didn’t turn to look at him. I couldn’t stop looking at my picture on the wall.

  “Without knowing which one of your patients is doing this,” the detective added, “we can’t protect you adequately enough.”
>
  I blinked. Took in the carefully written words. Knew whoever had done this had taken his time. Spent more than a few hasty minutes in my office. Had possibly even been here all night.

  “He bypassed the alarm system,” the second detective said. He seemed very earnest and forthright. I liked him. He didn’t sugar coat his words like the other officer did. “He’s intelligent. Fearless. And fixated on you. I don’t need a psychology degree to figure out he’s crazy.”

  “Crazy’s not a term we use lightly, Detective,” I said.

  “Olivia,” David pleaded. “This can’t go on. It’s not safe. For you. For any of us.”

  What he didn’t say, was it wasn’t safe for our patients. For our business. For our bottom line.

  I let out a sigh and glanced around my office. It had been my home away from home for eight years. I’d done some good in here. Reached a few people. Helped others.

  My eyes were drawn back to the enlarged photo. Some people I apparently hadn’t helped at all.

  “We’ll go through your client list again,” the first detective said. Detective Stone, if I remembered correctly. “Try to single out a prime suspect. Someone saw something around here last night.”

  “But if they didn’t,” the other one added, Detective Sergeant Pierce, I reminded myself, “he’ll return. Without a response from you, he’ll be compelled to investigate. What did you say Antisocial Personality Disorder patients do? ‘Do things - even though they may hurt people - to get what they want.’ He wants you, doctor. He wants you to react. Don’t give him that.”

  “Take a break,” David said. “Just a month or two.” He glanced at the detectives. Stone smiled; Pierce shrugged. David frowned and then turned his doctor face on me; the one that said he cared. “It won’t take that long to find him.”

  “A month or two?” I said. “What am I supposed to do for a month or two?”

  “Go to the beach. Get a suntan,” David quipped.

  I was lily white and proud of it.

  My eyebrows drew together.

  “I don’t know, Olivia,” he added, frustration marring his voice now. “But this can’t go on.”

  I nodded my head. He was right, of course. I was just being stubborn. I didn’t like the idea of one of my patients making me run. Running implied fear. I wasn’t scared, per se. I was angry.

  How dare someone chase me away? Even my education didn’t help to dissuade the anger. I understood, on a purely academic level, that this person couldn’t help his fixation.

  On an entirely emotional one, an entirely human one, I wanted to rage.

  This was so unfair.

  “Two months,” I said.

  “Maybe three,” Detective Stone said.

  “Six at the most,” Detective Sergeant Pierce corrected.

  I looked at David. “We’ll share your case load amongst us.”

  “And if one of those is the person in question?” I demanded.

  “We’ll be watching the office very closely, Dr Logan,” Pierce offered.

  “But not so closely we break your patient/doctor confidentiality agreements,” Stone groused.

  This was why they wanted me gone from here. We didn’t know who was doing this. Every time I opened my door to a familiar face, a patient I had been treating for weeks, months, maybe years, we didn’t know if this time would be the last time I opened my office door.

  I stared up at the picture of me outside my home. My home. And allowed myself to read the words.

  The knife was cold. You never said it would be so cold. The blood was warm. You were right.

  Right about what? I’d been over my notes. Again and again and again. I hadn’t talked about knives or blood or the obvious connection between them with any of my current patients. Nothing to indicate a ticking time bomb was hidden in Auckland City.

  Was watching me get into my car outside of my home.

  “We’ve got this, doc,” Detective Pierce said. “We’re watching your patients with criminal records. We’re watching those without. We’re watching the office and your home. But we need some space. We need to take out one of the variables to make it easier to watch them all at once.”

  He scratched his goatee beard.

  “You’re the obvious variable that needs to go.”

  “Go where?” I asked, shaking my head. I had no family to speak of. My friends all lived in and around the CBD. “Where?” I asked again, a smidgeon of panic entering my tone.

  “Somewhere far enough away that he won’t follow,” Stone said. Pierce scowled at him and then settled hard eyes on me.

  “Somewhere no one knows you,” he added. “Somewhere you know no one, as well.”

  That could just about be anywhere outside of Auckland.

  “Been to the South Island?” he asked. I shook my head. “Mackenzie Country?” I gave him a dumbfounded look. “Twizel,” he finished, throwing a newspaper down on my desk.

  “Twizel?” I asked, stepping forward and looking down at the Otago Times. “Where the hell is Twizel?”

  “Good enough for me, doc,” the detective said.

  “We’ll give you a false identity,” Stone added.

  “You can still do some good,” Pierce said.

  “Not exactly the sort of thing you were doing here.”

  “But close enough.”

  David reached forward and picked the paper up. “Homeschool teacher?”

  Detective Sergeant Pierce shrugged. “Kids need someone who can handle their special needs.”

  “What sort of special needs?” I demanded.

  David scanned the help wanted ad. His eyes came up to mine. “They’re mute.”

  “Perfect if you ask me,” Stone said, straightening his well-worn jacket. “If you slip up and tell them who you really are, they won’t be able to give you away.” He mimed zipping closed his lips.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered.

  “Kids,” David said. “You’ve always been so good with the littlies.”

  I glared at him. He smirked.

  If there was one thing I was scared of, it was kids.

  Fuck my life. Isn’t that what they all say?

  Chapter 2

  This Had To Fucking Stop

  Matt

  The souped-up Subaru spun its tyres and sprayed an arc of gravel up into the air. It fishtailed slightly, and then righted itself, the kid driving it waving his hand out the window in apology as he shot off down the highway. I closed my eyes and slowly shook my head.

  This was Twizel. We didn’t get boy racers.

  His entourage pulled out from behind my police ute, hooting their horns in a chorus of ear-splitting tones, and then followed their counterpart in a vibrant line of pulsating neon blue LED underbody lights.

  It was the middle of the day. What the fuck they thought those lights would do was anyone’s guess.

  I walked back to my truck scowling. It was a familiar sensation lately.

  Pushing hooligans and the ever increasing vandalism in the township that seemed to come with them aside, I turned the ute towards Red Tussock. Coffee was in order. I had a feeling it was going to be a very long day.

  A newly minted Red Tussock Ranger - RED 13 - was sitting in the homestead’s return, but Luke’s car was missing. I stared at Zach’s overly shiny ute and scowled further. Just what I didn’t need. But I was here now, and he’d probably spotted me the moment I hit the tree line, so leaving would show my hand. Give him the upper one.

  Zach had a tendency to pounce on weakness.

  I pushed through the door to the kitchen and walked over to the coffee pot. It still looked fresh, so I poured myself a generous portion and leant back against the bench to take a sip.