Feeding Gators: Book 1 in the Shiner's Bayou Series

by Gen Anne Griffin

  She caught sight of a particularly long, jagged scar on his rib cage and almost smiled. Rumor had it he’d gotten that scar in a knife fight with the Hells Angel who had stabbed his Dad. Rumor also had it he’d gotten it while robbing a bank in some county no one had ever heard of. A third rumor said, well, it didn’t matter what the third rumor said. He’d been gutting a deer with Cal and the knife had slipped. Gracie knew because she had been sitting on these very steps when it had happened. He’d bled like a stuck pig and his olive toned skin had turned white enough to spook Cal into breaking every speed limit for 60 miles on the way to the hospital.

  “Where are your clothes?” David’s question brought her back to the present.

  “My clothes?” Gracie was confused until she looked down at herself and realized how she must look to him. Even on a nearly moonless night, the outlines of her dark nipples showed clearly through the sheer black lace of her bra. Her toes were bare except for a chipped coat of cherry colored polish. The tiny confederate rose tattoo Addison had drawn on her hip when she turned 15 was exposed to the elements. Her hair was a tangled mess from the wind.

  “I wasn’t wearing much to start with. Just a tank top and this skirt. I threw up on the tank top.” She was almost embarrassed as she waved one trembling hand across her exposed flesh. “You know how I get when I see blood.”

  “You still have it?” he asked. His voice was emotionless but that was completely normal for David. David was tough. He’d never complained when he’d sliced his side open. Not one complaint even as his blood had turned the blue towel Gracie had been instructed to use to keep pressure on his open wound to a deep dark brown color. He’d barely flinched when the doctors had stitched him back together and dumped several bags of fresh blood into his veins. He’d opened the shop same as usual at 7 a.m. the next morning.

  “My shirt?” She nodded and forced herself to try and stay calm. “It’s in the back seat.”

  “I’ll have to make sure to burn it.” He chewed on the inside of his cheek. It was nervous habit he’d had for as long as she could remember. “You have any trouble getting down here? You didn’t get pulled over or anything, did you?”

  “I almost ran out of gas,” she admitted with a shudder. She was fighting the urge to break down and bawl like a baby. “I thought three quarters of a tank would be enough, but the car gets really crappy gas mileage.”

  David snorted back a harsh laugh and shook his head at her. “That engine is meant for speed, Gracie Jayne. Most folks who can afford one of these babies aren’t worried about a few bucks at the pump.”

  “Figures.” She shrugged her shoulders and bit her lip to stop fresh tears from spilling down her cheeks. David had never had never had any patience for whiny, crying girls. The last thing she needed to do right now was annoy him. He had a wickedly short temper. Unlike most of the residents of Coastal County, Gracie wasn’t remotely afraid of David. But she had no desire to annoy him either, especially not when her entire future was in his hands.

  “I came straight here. I never stopped. I was afraid the car would be too memorable.”

  “Especially being driven by a half-naked blonde,” David commented without any hint of sarcasm. “I was starting to worry something had happened to you. You took more than three hours to get here.”

  “I spent almost 45 minutes trying to get his body into the back seat,” she explained with a shudder. “I didn’t want to risk opening the doors of the car and having anything drop out. I didn’t think I could pick him back up if he fell out either.”

  “That was smart,” David brushed his shaggy brown hair out of his dark green eyes and scowled at the car. “Your boyfriend still in there?”

  Gracie gagged slightly and nodded. She gestured toward the back doors of the sedan. “Don’t call him my boyfriend.”

  David cocked his eyebrow at her but said nothing as he walked over to the car and opened the back door. He barely recoiled when he caught sight of Austin sprawled across the backseat. If Gracie hadn’t known him intimately since the tender age of three she probably wouldn’t have noticed the way he flinched when he reached down to double check the corpse’s pulse.

  She tried and failed to suppress a shudder. “David, I’m so sorry.”

  He held up a hand to stop her from saying anything else. “It’s okay,” he sounded terrifyingly calm as he gently closed the BMW’s door. “We’ll get through this.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening. I didn’t mean to kill him. I swear to God. I was just trying to stop him from groping me, and the next thing I knew he was choking and blood was coming out of his mouth.” She was taking her breaths in short gasps. The barely contained panic she felt was clearly evident in her voice. Suddenly tonight was all too real. She didn’t even realize her knees had given out until David grabbed hold of her and pulled her upright against his warm chest.

  “Shhh. Easy. It’s okay. You’re safe now.” David pressed his cheek against the top of her head. Gracie dug her fingers into his skin. She held onto him for dear life.

  “Oh, God. David,” she whispered his name as she buried her face in his chest. She knew even now that she’d never be able to erase the memories of blood dripping down Austin’s face and wild panic in his eyes as he’d convulsed against the steering wheel moments after she’d kicked him in the chest. She’d never forget wrestling Austin’s still warm body into the back seat of his own car. Throwing up all over the front of her shirt. Trying to wipe the blood off her hands with rough brown napkins she’d found in the glove box.

  “Gracie, you’ve got to hold it together right now.” David grasped her by her shoulders.

  She blinked up at him through her tears. “It’s not just tonight. My whole life has gone to Hell,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his narrow waist. +“Just hold me for a minute, okay?” Gracie whispered as she hid her face in his bony shoulder. His bare skin was burning hot to the touch. She would have thought he was feverish if she hadn’t known the furnace effect was normal for him.

  She pressed her cheek into his skin and took a deep breath. He smelled like a mixture of sweat, Addison’s cigarettes, cheap soap and too much whiskey. She could feel his pulse against her skin as she closed her eyes and just listened to the steady bump-bump of blood pumping through his heart.

  Gracie couldn’t stop the sobs and she didn’t try. Instead she let David hold her until the urge to start screaming and never stop began to fade away.

  She had no idea how long she stood in his embrace and cried.

  Eventually she became aware of her own nakedness and the chill of the cold fall breeze against her bare skin. Her joints felt stiff, her legs were jelly, her nose was stopped up, and she was clutching David so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

  She opened her eyes back up and stared into his hooded green eyes. His expression was calm, flat, and completely unreadable. “Let’s go inside.” David released her and stretched his shoulders out with a loud crack as he scowled at the car. Gracie was mildly surprised to discover she didn’t just plummet to the ground. If she had hit the dirt, she wasn’t sure she ever would have gotten up again.

  “I need you tell me everything that happened tonight. In detail. From the beginning.”

  Gracie nodded again. “How can you be so calm?” she asked, unable to keep herself from whimpering slightly. She knew she sounded pitiful and broken but she couldn’t seem to pull herself together.

  “I have to be calm, Gracie. Panicking is what gets you caught.”

  *

  The bright light from the Chevy’s high beams started to dim as Cal crossed the highway between Leon’s bar and the county line. At first he thought the fading light was a side effect of the bottle of liquor he’d just consumed in hopes of clearing his head. The alcohol hadn’t done much help.

  He knew he should be mad at Addison for taking the diamond ring and mocking his judgment but he really couldn’t seem to work up the venom. Addy had always been tactless. Ca
l expected his friend to behave like a spoiled ass, and he hadn’t been let down yet.

  It wasn’t really rational to stay angry at Jo Beth either. He didn’t know why he was having such a hard time forgiving her comments about having been born with the right last name. It wasn’t like he didn’t already know that everything he valued in life had been handed to him by virtue of being Joshua Walker’s grandson. Well, everything except Gracie.

  Damn, that still stung.

  Even in his current state of intoxication, he realized the truth when it slapped him in the face.

  Gracie was one of the few people in Shiner’s Bayou who wasn’t impressed with Cal because he was a Walker. She’d always mocked him about his status in the community. Teased him by calling him the Future Mayor of Shiner’s Bayou. It wasn’t much of a joke. His father and his grandfather had both served terms in public office. He would likely do the same. Whether he wanted to or not.

  Cal was good at being Shiner’s Bayou’s Golden Boy. Not quite as golden as Addison maybe but damn good at playing his little role in the daily soap opera that was life in Coastal County. All Cal had to do was keep doing exactly what he had been doing his entire life, and he’d be set.

  Except Gracie didn’t want to be married to the Future Mayor of Shiner’s Bayou.

  Jo Beth probably did. Hell, Jo Beth probably wanted to be the next Mayor of Shiner’s Bayou.

  Addison was right. Cal didn’t want to be married to Jo Beth. Matching sweater sets and minivans for the rest of his life. Filling out purchasing orders and restocking shelves until he was driven completely insane by the monotony.

  Assuming Walker Hardware didn’t get gobbled up by some giant corporate mega-store. Cal shook his head and sighed. April Lynne and his father assumed the business was safe from failure. Cal was a bit more pessimistic. He had seen the sales data. At the moment, Walker Hardware was holding its own. It was still in the black because it had kept the prices low enough to be competitive and opened up an online store selling hard to come by specialty items to customers across the nation. Besides, most Shiner’s Bayou residents just flat out didn’t want to drive 45 minutes to pick up a P-trap or a couple of 2 x 4’s to fix a broken fence. They didn’t want to wait three to five business days for a $3 part they ordered online to be shipped to their door.

  Times were definitely changing though. Hell, Cal had noticed his own shopping habits changing. It made more sense to drive to Canterville once a week and do all his shopping in one quick trip to Walmart than it did to drive to four different mom and pop stores in Shiner’s Bayou, hoping they had whatever it was he happened to be after.

  Like a new battery for his truck.

  Cal cursed as the headlights went out completely and the dashboard warning lights all came on at once. It was rapidly becoming apparent that the malfunction with his truck was something a little more tangible than intoxication. There was a significant possibility his alternator was completely fried. Again.

  Cal cursed under his breath as the engine cut out completely. He muscled the jacked up pick-up onto the shoulder of the road without the benefit of power steering.

  Of all the damn nights for his truck to decide to act up, it had to pick the night his parents thought he was staying with Jo Beth and Jo Beth thought he was home asleep in his bed like a good church-going boyfriend ought to be.

  He turned the key several times without getting anything more than a weak twitch from the engine. Dead Battery. Dead alternator. Dead meat if a cop drove up who wasn’t Addison Malone or Alex Alyssa. Or Wally Hall. Or, hell, Jo was probably right when she’d said he didn’t have to worry about the cops. No one was going to arrest him for being intoxicated while broke down on the side of the damn road.

  He considered his options as he slid out of the driver’s seat of the truck, stumbling slightly. He had no idea what his blood alcohol level was but he was willing to bet one broke-ass Chevrolet he was well over the .08 legal limit.

  He reached under the dashboard and popped the hood. Not that it did any good. He wasn’t carrying a jump pack with him and jumper cables weren’t much good if you didn’t have a running vehicle to hook them to.

  He kicked the front tire in irritation. Maybe it was time to trade this bastard in on a new Z71. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and scanned through the contact list, debating whether there was anyone worth calling to come get him.

  His folks and Jo Beth were out of the question. He wasn’t in the mood for any more bitching tonight.

  Addison never answered his damned phone.

  David was probably passed out drunk.

  On the bright side, David’s place was only a couple of miles up the road from where he was standing. Cal wasn’t in the best physical shape, but he figured he could manage a two-mile hike. David was going to have to come get the damn truck in the morning in order to fix it anyhow. He might as well just head to David’s and deal with the truck when the sun came up.

  Cal sighed, slammed the hood shut, and began walking down the dark shoulder of the deserted highway.

  *

  “Well, that was fun,” Jo Beth said to Addison as he tossed the dead raccoon into the bed of his truck.

  “Yeah. I love it when work makes me bleed.” Addison glared down at the various cuts and scratches he had accumulated between the tussle with the raccoon and the holes in the trailer floor.

  “I think your jeans have had it,” she said. She was eyeballing the rip that had created a 12-inch slit down the left leg.

  “It’s cool. They’re David’s anyway,” Addison shrugged. “I’m kind of glad I wasn’t wearing my uniform now. Uniform pants aren’t cheap.”

  “Your shirt is David’s too,” Jo gestured at it.

  “Everything I’m wearing is David’s. My clothes are in his washer. I fell in the mud when I lost my phone.”

  “You’re wearing David’s underwear?” Jo blinked at him in disgust.

  “Um, no. I’m actually not wearing any-.”

  “Stop now,” she cut him off mid-sentence. “I don’t want to know you’re free-balling.”

  “Too late.” Addison grinned and thumbed the slit in the pant leg at her pretending to show off his pale, hairy thigh. Jo rolled her eyes at him and started to head back towards her car.

  “You are so gross.”

  Addison turned towards his own truck and frowned as he looked back down at the dead raccoon again. She might be a bitch, but Jo Beth had saved his ass tonight. “Hey wait,” he called after her. She turned around looking irritated.

  “What?”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “For what?” She asked.

  He jerked his head towards the trailer. “Everything you just did.”

  “Oh, yeah. That,” Jo Beth shrugged her shoulders and gave him a small smile. “No big deal. It had to be dealt with at some point.”

  Addison snorted and ran one hand through his hair. “Yeah, well, I owe you on this one.”

  “You kind of do, don’t you?” Jo looked at him thoughtfully and he had a sudden feeling of impending doom.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Let me see the ring,” she said, surprising the hell out of him. Addison’s jaw nearly hit the ground.

  “What ring?” He did a poor job of covering his shock.

  “The one you took out of Cal’s glove box earlier,” she said patiently while holding out her hand. “I don’t want to keep it. I’m just curious to actually see what it looks like.”

  “You knew about it?”

  “You knew about it,” Jo pointed out. “Everyone in town knows about it. Not to mention Cal doesn’t keep condoms in his glove box.” She smirked at him. “I’m on really good birth control.”

  Addison stood there and blinked at her in disbelief for a few moments. “I don’t have it,” he said finally.

  “Don’t lie to me.” She glared at him.

  “I’m not. I left it at David’s for safekeeping. Figured he could put it in the gun safe or someth
ing,” he shrugged. “Cal would be pissed as fuck if I lost it. Let’s face it; I lose shit all the time. Like my phone, lost that earlier tonight. It’s either at David’s or in Lou Kramer’s pasture. Couldn’t tell you which. Diamonds are a lot safer with David.”

  “Okay, I’ll buy that,” Jo frowned at him but nodded a little bit. They stood in silence for a moment and studied one another.

  “How pissed off are you that I took the ring?” Addison finally asked. He was remembering her accuracy with the little pink pistol.

  Jo Beth shook her head. “Honestly, I’m kind of relieved. If you have it then it means he won’t be proposing any time soon.”

  Addison stared at her. He was completely stunned for the second time in less than an hour. “You don’t want to marry Cal?” he asked.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to marry him. I love Cal, it’s just...” Jo Beth shook her head and shrugged, leaning back against her car. “It’s just too soon.”

  “Too soon?” Addy was baffled. He would have sworn Jo Beth wanted nothing more than to get Cal down the aisle.

  “I think he wants to propose to me to prove to himself that he’s over Gracie,” she admitted. “I appreciate the gesture, but I’m not getting married until I’m sure Cal loves me for who I am. I don’t think he does. He just wants to believe that he does.”

  Addison opened his mouth and then closed it. “I don’t have anything to say to that,” he admitted.

  “I want to get married, but only if I’m 100 percent positive Cal is marrying me because he loves me. The last thing I want is to walk down the aisle at Shiner’s Bayou Baptist wondering if Cal’s wishing I were Gracie. I deserve more than that.” Jo brushed an imaginary strand of hair away from her eyes.

  “I understand. Actually I agree completely,” Addison told her. “I told him he could have it back when he convinced me that getting married was something he truly wanted to do.”