by Gen Griffin
“He says he loves me,” Katie acknowledged. “As far as me believing him...”
“He loves you more than Ian ever thought about loving you,” David informed her. “Makinsley will do anything she can to ruin what the two of y'all have. She's jealous as fuck.”
“She's another April Lynne,” Katie breathed her worst fear out loud.
“She's not. Addison won't let her be. He wouldn't hurt you.” David grimaced as he crossed his arms. “I can't believe we're even having this conversation.”
“I can't believe Makinsley was darn near naked in Addison's apartment when I walked in.” Katie sniffled as she tried to hold herself together. She could still very clearly hear Addison and Mak screaming at one another upstairs. The front door slammed as Makinsley came storming out on the porch still wearing nothing but her little blue negligee.
“I hate you!” Mak screamed back into the house.
“Get the hell out of my life!” Addison yelled back at her. “And leave behind my damned house key! You weren't supposed to have that to begin with.”
Makinsley let out a huffy sigh and then launched something small and metal back at the house. It thudded against the siding. “You didn't mind me having it before!”
“We're over, Mak! I mind!”
Makinsley spun on her heel, slipped and fell down the stairs on her butt with a yelp.
David snorted back a laugh.
Makinsley glared at him as she hefted herself gracelessly back onto her feet. “Screw you, Breedlove. You're just jealous because you can't have me.” Makinsley gestured to her mostly naked body.
“Nah. I like my girls with a little more padding and a whole let less bitchiness.” David waved her away with surprising cheeriness as Mak stormed down the driveway and off into the night.
“Where's her car?” Katie wondered out loud.
“Who cares?” David countered. “I'm not going after her to ask if she needs a ride. Are you?”
“Well,” Katie bit her lip uncertainly. She hated Mak, but it seemed cruel to send anyone out into the night in their underwear on a thirty-degree night. She shivered slightly. “It's awfully cold.”
“You are way too fucking nice.” David grabbed her by her shoulders and physically turned her back towards Addison's house. “Forget about Mak. She deserves to freeze to death in her underwear on the side of highway 5.”
“No one deserves that,” Katie informed him. She watched as Addison came down the stairs. He was muttering obscenities under his breath.
“Stay focused on what's important.” David shoved Katie none too gently towards Addison. “Work it out between yourselves, kids. I'm going to bed.”
She stumbled slightly. Addison grabbed her around the waist and stopped her mid-step. “You are the only girl I want,” he said firmly as he pinned her against his chest and then pressed his lips against hers. The kiss was so intense that it was almost smothering. His mouth was soft against hers and she suddenly felt impossibly warm, and even more impossibly horny. Addison kissed her until everything else around them faded away and he was the only thing left in her universe. They broke apart when neither of them could breathe.
“Wow,” Katie whispered.
“Only girl I want,” he repeated as he stroked one hand through her hair, pushing it back behind her ears. “You have to believe me when I say that to you. You just have to trust me, Katie. You are the only girl I want. Tell me you believe me.”
Katie wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tippy toes so that she could kiss him again against her better judgment. He tasted so incredibly good and she wanted him so very, very much. She had always wanted him and, if she did choose to believe what he had told her, he had wanted her too. He claimed to have wanted her since the first night they had met. Did she believe him?
Katie pulled back slightly and stared up into his stunningly beautiful eyes. She could see the warmth in his gaze. She could see the affection he had for her. She could see the love and she knew that he probably saw the same feelings reflected back at him when he looked into her eyes. “I do believe you.”
Addison grinned and she felt the tension ease in his shoulders. “Thank god.” He kissed her again and this time he didn't stop even once they were both completely breathless. “Let's go to bed.”
“Sounds good to me.” Katie let him take her hand and lead her up the stairs, only to be struck by a rather horrible thought when they reached the front door.
“Hey, Addy?” Katie hesitated in the living room.
“Hmm?” He leaned down to give her another kiss.
Katie dodged the kiss. “You've had sex with Makinsley in your bed, haven't you?”
Addison wrinkled his nose at her. “Yes.”
“I'm not sleeping in the same bed where you...made love... to Mak.” Katie made a face at him. “It's too disgusting for words.”
Addy blinked at her. “You're not willing to sleep in my bed?”
“Has Mak's naked butt been in your bed?”
“Yeah.”
“Then no.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I can't do it. I'm not putting my naked butt anywhere near where her naked butt has been.”
“Okay.” Addison stretched and then popped his shoulders. “It's the middle of the night. Where do you suggest we get new furniture?”
“New furniture?” Katie tilted her head at him curiously. “I was only going to get rid of the bed.”
“Mak's naked butt has been on more than just the bed,” Addison informed her. “Damn near everything would have to go. The bed. The couch. The coffee table.” He was ticking items of furniture off on his fingers. “Does it all have to go?”
Katie knew she was probably being completely unreasonable even as she nodded. “Yes. It all has to go. I am not touching anything that Makinsley has touched while naked.”
“Going to need new flooring. A new bathtub. New kitchen counters.” Addison continued ticking off items. “Might be easier just to get rid of the entire apartment.”
“Then get rid of it.” Katie wasn't kidding. “If Mak's ass has been on it then I want it burned.”
Addison sighed. He had an unmistakably resigned look on his face. “Can we keep the furniture for tonight and get rid of it in the morning?”
Katie was now 100 percent certain that she was being completely unreasonable, but the thought of snuggling into a bed where Makinsley had sex with Addison just turned her stomach. “I'll sleep at David's before I sleep in a bed Mak's been in. I know damn well that Mak's naked ass hasn't been on any of the furniture in their house.”
“Awesome.” Addison walked into his bedroom and reappeared two seconds and one very loud thump later. He was lugging the mattress off his bed. “Open the door for me,” he told her.
Katie opened the front door. Addison shoved the mattress out onto the porch and then gave it a shove. It tumbled down into the driveway with a thump.
Addy turned to face her. “Go bang on David's door and tell him to break out the good whiskey and the marshmallows. If you want to watch my furniture burn then we're going to have us a bonfire.”
“Tonight?” Katie was starting to wonder if her own moment of unreasonable bitchiness had been too much.
“Tonight,” Addison confirmed. “I'm exhausted, but why not? If throwing out my furniture at 1 o'clock in the morning is what it takes to make you trust me, then the furniture is gone. Now go tell David. He'll think we've lost our fucking minds but I'm going to need his help getting the couch and the dresser down these stairs.”
Katie couldn't help grinning at him as she gave him a quick kiss on the lips and then headed for David's house.
Chapter 50
Ian had forgotten his shovel.
Forgetting the shovel had been such a stupid move. It was too late to go back to the house. He'd had to dig April Lynne's grave with his bare hands. Fortunately, the sand was soft and wet. Still, his hands were bleeding and he'd ripped off two fingernails by the time he'd finished pushing the las
t of the wet sand over her painfully shallow grave.
“I'm sorry,” Ian whispered as he stared down at the swampy bit of ground where he'd buried the love of his life. He could still see the toe of one of her boots poking through the sandy soil. The grave wasn't deep enough. It just wasn't. She barely had three inches of sand covering her when he leveled out the ground. He could have put more dirt on top of her, but then it would have left a mound. He didn't want anyone spotting the grave.
Now he knelt beside the grave and cried as he said his last goodbyes to the only woman who had ever actually seemed to get him. He wanted to promise her that he'd come back and visit her. He wanted to put flowers on her grave. Maybe he could build her a cross.
A cross would make it obvious that there was a grave here. April Lynne deserved a cross.
Joe hadn't wanted to bury April Lynne. He'd just wanted to throw her into the bayou and let the gators feast on her dead flesh. Ian hadn't wanted her torn apart by all those sharp teeth. She'd deserved better than alligators. Joe could feed the gators. April Lynne had a grave. It only took Ian a couple of minutes to fashion a cross out of a couple of stray pieces of wood that had been worn smooth by the swamp. He propped his makeshift cross at the top of her grave.
“I'll never be able to find this place again,” Ian whispered as he stood up and, with one last glance at the grave, began making his way back in the general direction of where he'd left the boat. The sun would be coming up in a few hours. Ian intended to be back in his own bed well before the sun came up.
Thirty minutes later Ian was standing on the shore of the narrow sandbar and staring at the empty beach in horror. The tide had come up while he'd been burying April Lynne's body. His boat had floated away. He was stranded in the middle of the swamp.
Chapter 51
“He doesn't need to come back. He's nearly been killed three different times. Clearly, he's not competent.” Addison was sitting in one of the heavy wooden Adirondack chairs that surrounded the fire pit David had built in the backyard of the house Trish had inherited from her Grandpa Grover. Katie was sitting in his lap with her head resting on his shoulder. He had a beer in his other hand.
“Y'all need to stop saving him.” David was leaning casually on the handle of an ax. The head of the ax was buried in half of what had once been Addison's couch. The couch hadn't fit into the fire pit in one piece, so David had chopped it into quarters.
“He would have been gone by now if he hadn't gotten hurt.” Trish was curled up in the chair directly across from Addison and Katie. “Frank could have fired him after we won that harassment settlement.”
“I don't know why Frank keeps dragging his feet on firing him.”
“He's afraid of being sued,” Katie said.
“He's a chickenshit. He's let Kerry ruin this town. Half of the things that have gone wrong in the last couple of years wouldn't have been nearly as bad if Kerry hadn't been involved.” Addy was rubbing his palm against Katie's spine. The warmth from the bonfire of roasting furniture was keeping her fairly cozy despite the steadily dropping temperatures.
“Frank needs to retire,” David said. “All he does is sit in his office and collect a paycheck. When was the last time Frank did any actual police work?”
“Good question,” Addison agreed as the light from a set of headlights washed over them. He twisted around as much as he could without making Katie move. “Who is that?”
David glanced towards the driveway. “Looks like a Jeep.”
“Only person I know with a Jeep is Sully,” Addison said.
A moment later Sullivan Briggs walked into the backyard wearing a hoodie and blue jeans. He had a look of wonderment on his face as he stared at the burning chunks of couch. “What the heck are y'all doing?”
“Long story.” David tossed another section of the couch into the fire and then pointed at the small cooler that he had drug out into the yard. “Beer is in the cooler if you want one.”
“Is that a sofa?” Sully pointed at the fire.
David nodded.
“It's two o'clock in the morning and y'all are out here roasting furniture?”
“Blame Katie. She decided she wasn't touching any piece of furniture that Makinsley's naked body had previously been in contact with. Turns out, that's every piece of furniture Addison owns.” David shrugged. “Now we're having a bonfire and Malone's apartment is basically empty. I think there was one nightstand that dodged the purge. Maybe a couple of lamps.”
“Y'all are insane.” Sully opened the cooler and took out a beer. “Everyone in this town kept warning me about Breedlove being a psycho. I came into this job expecting crazy from him. What I didn't realize is that the rest of y'all are just as screwy as he is.” He opened his beer and took a swig of it. He looked pointedly at Addison. “You, Katie, Cal Walker, your kid sister. All of y'all are nuts.”
“You have to have a couple of screws loose to live in Possum Creek.” Addison laid his cheek against Katie's head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into him.
“No shit,” Sully said as he took a chair on Addison's left. “I'd love to find out exactly how many bodies have really been disposed of in that swamp. I swear to God everyone in this town has some deep dark secret. The rumors alone could keep a homicide detective busy for years.”
David laughed as he sat down beside Trish. She held her hand out to him and he took it. “The swamp is good at keeping secrets.”
“Y'all figure out whose body Ian dumped?” Sully asked.
“Not yet.” David rubbed his palms together. “Give it a few days. Someone will turn up missing. If we're lucky, they'll even have an obvious connection to Ian or the crime spree he and his buddies have been on for months.”
“If we're lucky. Do y'all ever get lucky?” Sully studied the burning couch contemplatively.
“Well, we're not dead.”
“Is that your definition of lucky?”
“Some days.” Addison plucked a cigarette loose from its cellophane pack. He passed it to David, who lit it off the fire and handed it back to him.
Katie closed her eyes and focused on the warmth that was radiating off of his skin. In the very back of her mind, she noted that she had done an exceptionally poor job of hiding her new relationship. She wasn't sure she cared. Tonight was the first time she'd felt safe or wanted in a very long time. If she squeezed her eyes shut real tight and didn't think about Addison's abysmal track record with relationships or her own disastrously failed marriage, she could almost let herself believe that everything was going to be alright.
“Y'all know that Kerry's been trying to investigate the burglaries, don't you?” Sully asked.
“Do what?” Addison sat up slightly, forcing Katie to adjust her own position.
“He's the one that tipped me onto Joe Carmucci,” Sully said. “He stopped by the Sheriffs Department the other day and gave me two names. Told me he'd been keeping an eye on two scuzzy ol' boys and that he was just about certain they were the ones who kept breaking into all the houses and businesses around here.”
“You're kidding me.” David rubbed his palms together.
“He give you Ian's name too?” Addison asked.
“No. He didn't.” Sully scratched his chin thoughtfully.
“How has Kerry been keeping an eye on anyone?” Trish asked as she leaned forward in her seat. Her long black hair kept falling into her eyes. “He's still in a wheelchair last I heard.”
“He can drive,” Addison said. “I've seen him prowling around town in that baby blue thing he drives.”
David nodded. “He's spent a lot of time circling my shop.”
Trish looked at David sideways. “You didn't think to mention that to me?”
“It's a public road in the center of town, babe.” David shrugged at her. “Besides, I ain't afraid of Kerry. Never have been. Never will be. Don't have anything to hide.”
Trish rolled her eyes at him. “Sometimes I think you like getting into trouble.”
“Getting arrested every few months does keep life interesting.” He winked at Trish. She mock threw her wine glass at him.
“I'll show you interesting,” she threatened.
David laughed.
“He likes causing trouble,” Addison clarified.
“Well, apparently you've been pretty damn boring lately because Kerry moved on from stalking you and started investigating actual criminals. It's probably the first real crime he's ever actually come anywhere close to solving.” Sully kicked his feet up onto the cinder blocks at the edge of the fire pit. “Wonder why he didn't tell me that Ian was running with them?”
“Good question. Ask him next time you talk to him.” Addison puffed on his cigarette. “Maybe they were dumping Kerry's body in the bayou?”
“Maybe.” David bit his lower lip thoughtfully. “They might have caught him following them. He's not exactly subtle.”
“I don't think it was Kerry,” Trish said. “I had to run out to the grocery store for a few things while y'all were out playing real-life cops and robbers. I drove David's truck since Gracie brought it back earlier and she blocked my car in when she parked. I passed Kerry when I drove by the Gas N' Go. He followed me all the way to the grocery store and was still sitting in the parking lot when I got done with my shopping. He followed me home. He does that from time to time.”
“Kerry's been following you?” David turned to Trish and the annoyance was plain in his expression. “Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't want you getting arrested for killing him. He's still technically a cop.” Trish patted David's shoulder as she stood up and retrieved her wine bottle from inside the cooler. “At any rate, what I was trying to say is that he was still alive at around eight or nine o'clock tonight.”
“If he was alive at eight or nine then he wasn't the corpse Ian and Joe were dumping.” Addison put out his cigarette and ran his fingers through Katie's hair.