by Gen Griffin
He saw another, small dirt road up ahead. He had to slow down to make the turn, but he knew where he was. He'd spent quite a bit of his childhood summers running dirt bikes and four wheelers through these trails with Tate, Jo Beth and the rest of his assortment of cousins. He knew he could get back to his fish camp from here.
Kerry screamed as Sully took a hard left, driving almost straight into a patch of trees. The trail was grown up and branches kept smacking the sides of the Jeep. One struck him across the face, stinging him hard. He could feel a warm trickle of blood running down his cheek.
The car behind them was keeping pace surprisingly well. Sully had a brief moment to realize that it must be an all-wheel drive model of some sort as it none-too-gently rammed his bumper. The Jeep jerked hard to the left and Sully nearly lost his grip on the wheel. He cursed to himself as he turned down another, even tighter trail.
“You're going to kill us!” Kerry yelled out to him.
“I'm trying to lose them,” Sully snapped as the car behind them rammed the Jeep's bumper again. He was really regretting not changing out his manual hubs to automatic. He knew the bayou wasn't too far from where he was now, but he didn't stand a chance of crossing the creek in two wheel drive.
He came around another corner and saw water dead ahead. He tried to cut the wheel, but it was too late. The Jeep spun sideways and the car that was chasing them rammed squarely into the side. The Jeep flipped, rolling hard across the swampy ground. Sully's head smacked hard against the steering wheel and then he felt himself get launched out of the Jeep as it crashed down into the swampy water.
For the briefest moment, Sully knew he was drowning. He could taste the sourness of the swamp in his mouth. His skin was burning where the water was coming into contact with raw skin and cuts. His chest was throbbing. He couldn't draw air. He couldn't move. He was dying, and then suddenly he could move again. He could swim. His legs began to kick. His arms began to stroke through the water. Growing up in the swamp had made swimming just as natural as walking. He didn't need to think to swim. He surfaced, disoriented and groggy. Someone was yelling. The jeep was a heap of half-sunken metal in the center of the creek. The headlights were still burning, even though the vehicle was completely upside down in the water.
He was behind the Jeep, which was a good thing because the car that had rammed them was parked on the edge of the bank that they'd been on when they rolled. He paddled silently backwards towards the opposite bank. He didn't dare try to get out of the water for fear of drawing attention to himself. He couldn't afford to be afraid of the alligators he knew prowled these waters. He had to struggle to wedge himself between the swollen trunks of a pair of cypress trees. His own breathing sounded loud as hell against the relative silence of the night.
He couldn't see the person who had run them off the road. He couldn't see Kerry.
Sully's heart dropped in his chest. He'd forgotten about Kerry. He allowed himself the briefest second of hope that Kerry had somehow managed to swim to the bank before he remembered that he'd handcuffed the other man to the roll bars of the Jeep. The very same roll bars that were currently underwater.
Sully had to bite his tongue to keep from cursing. Every bone and muscle in his body ached as he forced himself back into the water. Staying hidden until the bad guys went away would be the smart thing to do, but Kerry was his responsibility. He couldn't just sit by and let the other man drown.
Sully dove deep under the surface, swimming for the Jeep. The water was too murky and dark to see through, but he could feel the Jeep when he hit it. He surfaced into a pocket of air that was directly underneath the backseat floorboards. Forcing himself to think, he ran his hands down the roll bars until he felt something soft, squishy and decidedly human underneath the water. He yanked on Kerry as hard as he could, pulling the other man to the surface.
Chapter 47
“I'm sorry for pulling my shotgun on you earlier,” Tommy said as Addison turned his truck onto the interstate on-ramp and headed back towards Possum Creek. “If I had discovered my mom was cheating on my dad with a guy who was younger than me, I would have beaten his ass too.”
“I shouldn't have broken your nose,” Addison said after a minute. He pushed the truck up to eighty miles an hour and set the cruise control. The clock on the dashboard said it was five thirty in the morning. Katie was passed out asleep in the backseat. Jane May was safely tucked into her bed in the psychiatric ward of Silver City Metro General Hospital. Addison was completely exhausted.
“You had a right.” Tommy picked up his soda out of the cup-holder and took a small sip. He'd bought a bag of chips, two energy drinks and a coke at the last truck stop. Addison had bought gas, four energy drinks and two more packs of cigarettes. The cab of his truck currently smelled like an ashtray, even though he'd sworn he wouldn't smoke in the new truck.
“No, I didn't.” Addison adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “I freaked out when I saw the barrel of that gun pointed at me and Katie. I reacted without thinking.”
“Your reaction to being on the wrong end of a gun is to grab the gun?” Tommy sounded dubious.
“I got shot a couple of months ago,” Addison explained. “I can't outrun a bullet, but your grip on the gun was flimsy and your shooting stance sucked. I knew I could take it from you.”
“You got shot?” Tommy flinched as if the words alone hurt.
“Yeah. Asshole put a bullet through my shoulder. It still hurts like a motherfucker. Especially when I've been awake for almost twenty four hours and I make the mistake of beating someone up with the same shoulder that had to be stitched back together two months ago.”
“You get shot on duty?” Tommy asked curiously. “Did a poacher get you?”
“Not hardly,” Addison admitted. “I was going off duty and I passed what I thought was a stranded motorist on the side of the road. I pulled over to help the guy and he turned out to be my buddy David's girlfriend's ex-husband. He'd been stalking her for months. The nutcase thought Trish and I were more than friends.”
“He shot you.”
“He shot me, stole my truck and left me for dead on the side of the road.”
“Ouch. That bites the big one.”
“It does.”
“He in jail now?” Tommy asked.
“No.”
“He got away?” Tommy's eyes were wide.
“No.”
“What happened to him?”
Addison glanced sideways at Tommy and gave him a smile that he knew was more than slightly cold. “My baby sister's fiance blew his brains out with a .357 revolver.”
Tommy paled. “The same sister and fiance whose wedding Jane May has been messing with?”
“Same sister. Same fiance. Honestly, you might know them. You and Cal are about the same age.”
“Cal?” Tommy asked.
“Cal Walker. His Dad's the Mayor of Possum Creek.”
“I know who Cal Walker is.” Tommy stared out the window. “He played football for Callahan County at the same time as I was playing for Canterville Senior High. Kind of a big S.O.B., if I'm remembering him right. You said your sister's name is Gracie?”
Addison nodded.
“Is she the tall blonde chick who Cal Walker has been with since, like, Pre-K?”
Addison nodded again.
“Jeez.” Tommy laid his head back against the head rest on the seat. “I feel like an idiot.”
Addison didn't say anything. He wasn't about to argue with the man.
“Jane May and I met through a dating app. We had our first date in downtown Beauton. We went to Callastairs Restaurant and then out dancing. She was a few years older than me, but I didn't care. I like older women and she's a hottie.”
“Dude, you're talking about my mom.”
“I can't be the first guy to tell you that your mom is hot,” Tommy pointed out.
“Normally her icy cold heart and acid tongue keep everyone from noticing what the packaging looks like,”
Addy said.
“She wasn't cold when she was with me,” he said. “We had a blast when we first started dating. We went to Adventure Land theme park and the water park out on Lake Smitty. We went tubing. We kayaked. We saw movies every weekend. It was great.”
“When did it stop being great?” Addison wasn't really curious but at least talking with Tommy was keeping him from falling asleep behind the wheel.
“When you showed up in my yard tonight and told me everything I thought I knew about the love of my life was a lie.” Tommy stared down at his hands in his lap. “How am I supposed to explain this to my parents?”
“Don't tell them and pretend it never happened?” Addy suggested.
“They've met her. They know she's carrying their grandchild. My mother threw her a baby shower last week. They've gone shopping together to buy things for the baby. We decorated a nursery together.”
“No one suspected anything?” Addison could see the sky beginning to lighten along the horizon. The sun would be coming up soon.
“If anyone suspected that Jane May wasn't what she claimed to be, they never said a word to me. Maybe they were all so glad to have proof positive that I wasn't gay that they all decided to look the other way. I don't know. How do you tell your friends and family that the woman you thought you would spend the rest of your life with is actually eleven years older than she told you she was, married, has two adult kids and is possibly suffering from some kind of mental condition?”
Addison pulled another cigarette out of his most recently opened pack. He lit it as he cracked the window. “You sound like you really love her.”
“I do,” Tommy said without hesitation.
“Dad doesn't.”
“He doesn't?”
“They've hated one another for as long as I can remember.” Addison puffed on his cigarette thoughtfully.
“Do you think she loves me?” Tommy asked.
“I don't know. As far as I've ever been able to tell, Jane May doesn't love anyone except herself.” Addison opened up his second energy drink and watched the hope fade out of Tommy's expression.
“You really mean that, don't you?” He asked.
Addison nodded.
“When you and Katie were talking earlier, you said your sister didn't know who was sabotaging her wedding. Are you going to tell her?”
“Not today,” Addy admitted. “I want her to be happy today. She doesn't need to be reminded of how much our mother hates her on what is supposed to be the best day of her life. I'm going to wait until she comes back from her honeymoon before I tell her the truth. Maybe by then we'll know if Jane May is really sick or if she's just the same bitch she's always been and taking it to the next level.”
They rode in almost complete silence for the next three miles, both lost in their own thoughts.
It was Tommy who finally broke the silence. “Can I get a cigarette from you?” he asked. “It's been a bad night.”
Addison passed him the pack.
Chapter 48
“I'm going to die,” Kerry whispered into the darkness that surrounded the sunken Jeep.
“No, you're not.” Sully sounded more certain than he felt. They had been hiding underneath the ruined 4x4 for what felt like eternity. Sully's muscles were aching from the effort it was taking him to keep Kerry's head above the water. The smaller man's arm was still handcuffed to the roll bars of the Jeep. The keys were long gone, lost somewhere in the swamp.
“I need to check if the people who ran us off the road are still out there,” Sully said. “I can't do that if I'm trying to hold you above the water. I need you stand up.”
“I can't,” Kerry breathed the words out with a groaning gasp.
“Kerry-.”
“I can't stand up. I'm trying to. I've been trying to. I can't feel my legs. Oh god, I can't feel my legs.” The other man was crying now, tears running down his cheeks and blending into the swamp water.
Sully felt his blood run cold in his veins. He'd been a first responder for all of his adult life. He'd seen his fair share of spinal injuries. If Kerry's back was broken and his spine was damaged, Sully would never be able to get him out of the Jeep and back onto land on his own.
Sully knew he needed to act soon, before he was too tired and weak to save himself or Kerry. He looked down at the other man. “If you can't keep your head above water, then I need you to hold your breath for me.”
“No. Please. Don't let me go. Don't let me drown here. Please.” Kerry was sobbing in earnest now.
“Kerry, I'm trying to save us. You're going to have to trust me. Do you trust me?”
“Don't let me die,” Kerry whispered as Sully let him go. His head sunk underneath the water. Sully took his own deep breath and swam back out from underneath the Jeep.
He surfaced to see the first few rays of daylight stretching across the horizon. The car that had run them off the road was gone. He figured that whoever was driving it assumed they had died in the wreck or drowned in the creek.
The Jeep wasn't quite sitting level in the water. The passenger's side was sitting roughly a foot and a half higher out of the water than the driver's side was. Sully knew he'd never be able to free Kerry from the roll bars before he drowned.
He had to flip the Jeep back over.
Sully grabbed hold of his ruined truck by the very same roll bars that were trapping Kerry under the water. With a silent prayer, Sully put every bit of his strength into lifting the passenger's side of the Jeep out of the water. His injured muscles strained with the effort as the Jeep started to move. The countless hours Sully had spent in the gym were finally paying off. The Jeep groaned loudly once and then it began to roll back over with Kerry's limp body flopping like a rag doll from the crumpled frame.
Sully fell to his knees as the Jeep landed back on four wheels. Kerry was dangling from the side with his arm bent at an impossible angle, but he was breathing and Sully considered that a victory as he half-crawled and half-swam to the Jeep.
Kerry was unconscious as Sully heaved him into the back seat of the soggy Jeep. There wasn't much he could do for him here. With a silent apology, Sully left Kerry laying broken in the creek and headed for land. It was going to take him hours to walk back to town to get help. He wasn't sure Kerry had hours.
Chapter 49
“Where the fuck have you been all night?”
Addison walked into his apartment to find Makinsley standing in the doorway that separated his bedroom from the living. Her blonde hair was twisted up into some kind of fancy ponytail. The scowl on her face was anything but welcoming.
“What are you doing here?” He asked as he walked into the room. He had absolutely zero desire to talk to anyone right now.
“Um, I'm your girlfriend. Remember?” Mak put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You invited me to be your date to your sister's wedding rehearsal and then you ditched me there. I tried to call you seventeen times. Have you looked at your phone lately?”
Addison didn't know if he was dumbfounded or just pissed off. “Mak, now isn't a good time.”
“When is a good time, Addy?” Makinsley pursed her thick lips at him. “Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was when you took off and left me behind?”
“I'm sorry. I was a little bit preoccupied.”
“Uh huh.” She shook her head at him as if she didn't believe him. “Anna Eliza works at the Gas N' Go. Guess what she called me and told me last night?”
“I have no fucking idea, nor do I care. All I really want is a shower and a couple of hours of sleep.” Addison stripped off his t-shirt and tossed it onto the couch.
“You don't care that I now know you're sleeping with your buddy's wife?”
Addison stopped dead in his tracks halfway to the bathroom and turned around to face Makinsley. “What did you just say?”
“You picked up Katie at the Gas N' Go last night and y'all didn't come back until after the sun came up. Her truck sat there all night, Addison. Did you rea
lly think no one would notice?” Makinsley's brown eyes were burning with fury.
“I am not screwing around with Katie,” he snarled.
“Where were y'all last night?” Makinsley crossed her arms over her breasts and sneered at him. “What did you do all night long with Ian's boring little wife?”
Addison opened his mouth to tell her the truth and then realized that he really didn't want Makinsley to know the truth. He might not like Jane May but she was his mother. If he told Makinsley what had really happened and where he'd really been all night, she would tell everyone in the county. Jane May's surprise pregnancy and the reason he had spent all night driving to Silver City would be the butt of all of Makinsley's jokes for the rest of the year. Or at least until something even more pathetic came along to make fun of.
“Come on, Addison. Give me your excuse.”
“I don't have to explain myself to you,” Addison said. With a sudden burst of clarity, Addison abruptly realized that he could pinpoint the reason he didn't want to marry Makinsley.
He didn't want to spend the rest of his life with Makinsley because she was shallow and fucking selfish as hell. Makinsley only cared about Makinsley. She had no empathy and she didn't really care about anything that didn't directly affect her.
In seven years, he'd never once been able to have a real conversation with her. He didn't trust her enough to confide in her.
“Monogamy can't possibly bore you enough to make screwing around with Katie a better option than coming home to me,” Makinsley said. “She has to stuff an A-cup bra just to make it fit.”
“Leave Katie alone,” Addison snapped.
“Does it make you mad when I say she's ugly?”
“Shut up.”
“She's ugly. Her nose is too big to for her face and her chin is too weak to balance anything out. No amount of makeup is going to make Katie half as pretty as I am. You'd be talking serious plastic surgery to get her anywhere near this hot.” Mak gestured to her own curves with a sneer.