Lost With You (Cloverton #1)

by Jodi Vaughn

  “I forgot. It’s Baptist.” Tabitha sighed. “They should have had it at the Catholic church. Those people know how to drink.”

  The police chief stood and rapped his gavel across the pulpit. “People, settle down. Quiet now.”

  The deafening silence washed over Grace, making her tremble. She clenched her hand in her lap and prayed for the strength to follow through.

  “As you all know there have been some things that have been brought to light.” The Chief’s gaze drifted to Grace and then fluttered away. “This meeting has been called so that we can get some answers to our questions.”

  He cleared his throat and spoke. “Before everyone jumps up and tries to talk at once, I’m setting down some ground rules. Whoever is speaking will be allowed to speak without interruption. Once they are done, you can ask whatever questions you want, one at a time.” He narrowed his eyes at the crowd. “Is that clear?”

  No one spoke so apparently everyone was in agreement.

  “Our first speaker will be Grace.”

  A collective gasp rose up and the chief pounded his gavel against the podium until everyone quieted down.

  Grace squeezed Tabitha’s and Allison’s hands before she stood.

  “Want a drink?” Tabitha held out her purse.

  “Tabitha,” Allison warned.

  They both gave her encouraging smiles as she made the long walk to the podium.

  The heavy stares made her chest tighten. She stepped up to the podium, and the chief of police gave her a nod.

  “I suppose if you’re going to judge me, then you should have all the facts.” She looked out onto the crowd trying to see if Sloan had made it. Her heart dropped when she didn’t see his face.

  “My name is Jennifer Montclair and I used to dance for the New York Ballet Company. It was a dream of mine as a little girl and when it came true I could hardly believe it.” She tried to swallow, but her mouth was like sand paper.

  “During that time, I met a man whom I thought was everything he seemed to be. He was smart, handsome, charming and wealthy. We were quickly engaged.” She cleared her throat, thankful that Sloan was not in the crowd. She needed to tell him this alone. Maybe then he’d understand.

  “I thought he was perfect, until the first time he hit me.”

  A gasp echoed in the silence and Grace looked at Allison. Her eyes were wide with shock.

  “He broke my leg because I refused to stop dancing in the ballet.” She looked out at the crowed. They all sat in silence, their attention focused on her.

  “I wasn’t raised in an abusive home. My mother died when I was young and my father was very loving.” She looked down at her shaking hands and placed them on the podium. “I was so ashamed about what had happened that I didn’t tell anyone. I was also afraid. He’d told me if I ever tried to leave he would find me and kill me. My abuser wanted me to stop dancing so I could stay home and he could control everything I did. Abusers are like that.” Her gaze drifted through the crowd. She sucked in a breath when she saw Melanie sitting near the back with Chris at her side.

  “I finally got up my courage and called my father. He told me to leave, and while I was packing, my abuser came home.”

  She glanced over at her friends. A tear slid down Allison’s face while Tabitha pressed her lips together to contain her emotions.

  “I stood up to him that day and told him I was leaving. He told me the only way I was leaving him was in a casket. That was the worst beating I’d ever gotten. After I fell to the floor from him punching me in the face, he started kicking me.” She narrowed her eyes on Chris. He looked away and slid his arm around Melanie.

  “He beat me until I couldn’t breathe and I thought I was dying.” She took a deep breath. “I woke up in the hospital on a ventilator. He punctured my lung and cracked half my ribs and broke my nose. I had also learned that my father had died in a car accident. The police said he was hit by a drunk driver and killed instantly.

  “I was in the hospital for weeks. My doctor began asking questions about how I ended up in that condition.”

  She licked her dry lips. “He didn’t believe the story Michael had given him about me falling while horseback riding. So he continued to press me until one day I finally told him everything. I told him that Michael would kill me if I tried to leave again. I also told my doctor he couldn’t go to the police because it would make everything worse. Every day I was in ICU, I waited for the cops to walk through that glass door. They never did.

  “A week later, my doctor came in and closed the door and shut the curtain. He said he wanted to help me. He also said a year earlier another girl had come into ICU with similar injuries and he’d discovered Michael had been her boyfriend. That girl had headed to the police as soon as she was well enough to leave the hospital. She never made it and her body was discovered in an alley with her throat cut.”

  Everyone gasped.

  “I knew that I had to fake my death in order to save my life. I wanted to find a safe place to start over again, a place I could call home. I thought I had found it here in Cloverton.”

  Everyone went quiet. She glanced over the crowd. Some were silently crying while dabbing at their eyes with a tissue, while others looked away, clearly uncomfortable with what she was telling them.

  The police chief stepped up to the podium and smiled. “Thank you, Grace, for explaining.”

  She blew out a breath and looked around. The chief patted her hand and smiled.

  “Does anyone have questions for Grace?”

  “Her name is not Grace,” Felicia called out.

  “Shut up. No one is talking to you.” Tabitha stood up and eyed Felicia.

  “Now, ladies, calm down.” The police chief held his palms up.

  Tabitha shot Felicia a glare and plopped back down in the pew.

  From the back, Melanie raised her hand.

  “Yes, Melanie?” The police chief nodded. “Do you have something to ask?”

  “I have something I want to say.” Melanie stood.

  “No, you don’t. Sit down.” Chris jerked her arm. Melanie wiggled out of his grasp.

  “Let her speak.” Chief pointed the gavel at Chris.

  Chris’s face went red as he struggled not to speak. His eyes narrowed at Melanie in an unspoken warning.

  Melanie made her way out of the pew and down the aisle. She wrapped her arms around her chest and cast her eyes to the ground as if seemingly trying to appear smaller. Her right cheek was still bruised and swollen from where Chris had struck her.

  She stopped at the front of the aisle and faced the crowd. “Grace was right. Chris did hit me. In fact, he hits me a lot.”

  The crowd erupted.

  “Silence. Silence.” The chief pounded his gavel.

  “That’s not true. She’s a lying bitch.” Chris jumped up and made his way toward the end of the pew.

  Melanie backed up, but didn’t’ stop talking. “It’s true. Grace suspected it and asked me about it and I lied. I was scared he would do worse to me than just hit me. He’s told me he’d kill me if I didn’t keep my mouth shut.”

  “You don’t have any proof that I hit you, you lying whore.”

  “Actually I do.” Melanie held up her phone. “Every time you left a bruise on me I took a picture.” She clicked on her photo gallery and handed it to the police chief.

  Grace watched as Heather, Melanie’s mother made her way down the aisle, over to her daughter. She pulled her daughter into her arms with tears streaming down her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I was afraid,” Melanie whispered. “He said he’d kill you, too.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything. Do you know who my father is in this town?” Chris smirked. Two men stood up and blocked his way to Melanie.

  “You better be more worried about me, you slimy little bastard,” Heather hissed.

  The police chief’s face went red as he scrolled through the pictures. He turned to Melanie. “Melanie, do you want to
press charges? It’s the only way I can help you.”

  She looked at Grace and nodded. “I do.”

  Chris leaped and tried to reach her, but the two burly policemen restrained him. Mitch and another cop handcuffed him. They read him his rights as they escorted him out of the meeting.

  “If someone has anything else to say, please raise your hand.”

  Allison raised her hand. “I don’t think the law should punish Grace. It seems like she was just trying to survive and to prosecute her wouldn’t be right.” She stood up and faced the crowd. “We’re not that kind of town. Grace is one of us and we protect our own.”

  Principal Heffner raised his hand and then stood. He cleared his throat. “I’d like to apologize to Grace for not allowing her on school property to coach the dance team. It was wrong and I’m sorry.”

  “Apology accepted,” Grace murmured.

  “I’d also like to say, in light of these recent events, that I’d be proud to have Grace back as the dance team instructor.” The principal puffed out his chest as he played to the audience.

  “I second that.” Heather gave Grace a squeeze on the arm. She mouthed I’m sorry. Grace nodded. She didn’t need any more words.

  Felicia stormed out of the building as Tabitha and Allison rushed up to hug Grace.

  “I’m sorry I lied to you guys.”

  “Don’t be. You weren’t ready to tell us.” Tabitha hugged her again.

  “So, you guys are still my friends?”

  “Of course!” Allison kissed her cheek. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

  “Let’s have a drink.” Tabitha held up her purse.

  “I can’t, I need to go find someone.”

  ***

  He wasn’t home. Grace had driven to Sloan’s house only to find it empty.

  Crushed, Grace made the drive back to her house, alone. She remembered Allison telling her that when Sloan broke up with Felicia he’d taken a vacation.

  Maybe that’s what he was doing so he could forget Grace.

  She turned into her driveway.

  Her breath caught in her throat when she saw his truck there. Sloan was sitting on her front steps.

  He looked up when her headlights hit him. He stood, shoved his hands in his pocket and waited for her to get out.

  Sucking in a breath, she slid out.

  “I went over to your house.”

  “I came over here after the meeting.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.

  “I didn’t see you.” She shoved her hands in her pockets.

  “I was in the back.”

  “Oh.”

  “Mitch told me if I didn’t get my ass over there he was going to start dating you.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “I know everything now.”

  “No Sloan, you don’t. You don’t know how I faked my death.”

  She swallowed and took a deep breath. “My doctor came up with the plan of faking my death. He got a body from the cadaver lab in the science part of the hospital and I put my engagement ring on her. My doctor called Michael and said I was going to be released on Friday morning. Instead, I was released Wednesday night. He said that would give me a head start. We got the body in my car and drove it in the direction of where my father had lived out in the country. We set it on fire and rolled it down a steep embankment in order to make it look like an accident.”

  “I stayed out of sight until the car was discovered and Michael was notified. He didn’t want to see the body.” She snorted. “He demanded to see the ring. That convinced him I was dead.” She blinked back the tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I was afraid.”

  “God, Grace. I had no idea you went through that kind of trauma.” He reached for her hand. “You don’t ever have to be afraid of me, you know that, right?”

  She shook her head. “I was afraid of how you’d feel after I told you. I was afraid you wouldn’t love me anymore.”

  Hurt crossed his face and then he was pulling her into his arms. With her hands in her pocket she was trapped against him. “I don’t just stop loving people.”

  Her throat tightened painfully. “You stopped loving Felicia.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think I ever loved Felicia. I sure as hell didn’t love her like I love you.”

  “Really?’

  “I’m sorry, too,” he whispered against her hair.

  “For what?”

  “For not staying by your side in the police station when Felicia made her accusations. I should have stood by you.” He reached his hand up to her cheek. “I won’t ever leave you again. This I promise you.”

  She looked away. “He’s still out there. He has enough money to never be prosecuted.” She laughed mirthlessly.

  “I already made a phone call to the police in New York to track down Michael.”

  Her heart stuttered and her stomach clenched.

  “Grace, you don’t have to be afraid of him anymore. Michael was killed three months ago in a drug deal gone wrong. He apparently had a problem with cocaine.”

  She sucked in a deep breath. She had no idea. It still didn’t excuse his behavior. “He’s dead. Thank God.”

  “What about the charges for stealing the cadaver and faking my death?” She looked up at him.

  “Since the only people who know how you faked your death are me, the Chief and Mitch, we all agreed it would be best if that part of your confession got lost.”

  “So, I’m not a criminal?”

  “No, Grace, err, Jennifer.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what to call you.”

  “Grace. I haven’t been that other person in a very long time.”

  He covered her lips in a kiss that melted her heart. When he pulled away he gazed down at her with eyes so full of love and promise that it made her ache.

  “I promise I will never hurt you.” He kissed her knuckles.

  “I know that.” She smiled and pulled him closer.

  “Does this mean you’re planning on staying?”

  She smiled. “Sloan, when I found you, I found my heart and my home. Why would I ever leave?”

  He claimed her lips in a kiss and swept her up in his arms. As he carried her inside her, Grace knew she was no longer lost and her journey was complete. She’d found love, she’d found her courage, and she’d found herself.

  The End.

  Acknowledgements

  To my friend, Amanda Sumner, who read this book and loved this book as much as I did. Your encouragement to step out of my paranormal genre and into the contemporary genre has meant the world to me. You are the Allison to my Tabitha.

  I also want to dedicate this book to the women out there who are strong enough to start over and find happiness on their own terms. In the end, it’s more than enough.

  Other novels by Jodi Vaughn

  RISE OF THE ARKANSAS WEREWOLVES series

  **********

  BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON (BOOK 1)

  BENEATH A BLOOD LUST MOON (BOOK 2)

  DESIRES OF A FULL MOON ( BOOK 3)

  DARKSIDE OF THE MOON (BOOK 4)

  *********

  SOMEWHERE TEXAS series

  SADDLE UP

  TROUBLE IN TEXAS

  BAD MEDICINE (coming 2016)

  *********

  CLOVERTON SERIES

  LOST WITHOUT YOU

  LOST ALL CONTROL (Book 2 coming spring 2016)

  LOST AND FOUND LOVE (Book 3 coming fall 2016)

  *********

  VEILED SECRETS ( Book 1 coming 2016)

  Jodi was born and raised in Mississippi. Her deep Southern roots and love of the paranormal led her to write Southern Paranormal novels. She currently lives in Northeast Arkansas with her handsome husband, brilliant son, a temperamental swan, and yellow lab that is fond of retrieving turtles when duck season is over.

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  Copyright © 2015 Jodi Vaughn

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