Give Me Some Sugar

by Gen Griffin

  “You don't want to do that,” Sully warned. The alligator he had spotted when he was walking up had moved. It's massive head was turned towards the brown-haired man and it's beady eyes watched him stumble and fall into the water.

  “Hey! Look out! Alligator!”

  The man ignored Sully and kept fleeing. He sloshed deeper and deeper into the water. Sully could see the blood from the bullet wound running down his arm.

  “Come back,” Sully called out. “I'll make sure you get to a hospital.”

  “Fuck you,” the man said. He was now thirty feet away and a little over waist deep in the dark water. He was clinging to the swollen trunk of an old cypress tree. “Come and get me, motherfucker.”

  Sully weighed his options for roughly half a second and then shook his head at the perp. The alligator had begun swimming towards the cypress tree. “You need to come back to shore. Now. That gator smells your blood.”

  “I don't see no stinking alligator,” the brown-haired man spat the words at him. “Try another lie, pig. I ain't making this easy for you. You think you want me, come get me.”

  Sully watched the alligator drop below the surface with the same uneasy dread he'd felt the day he'd watched a fleeing suspect run a red light in a effort to evade the cops. The man had driven straight into the path of an oncoming train.

  “Get out of the water,” Sully said as he walked to the very edge of the waterline. Swamp water lapped against the toes of his soggy, smelly boots. “Hurry. Come back this way.” Sully waved the criminal towards him.

  The brown-haired man shot Sully the bird as the alligator grabbed hold of him from underneath the surface of the water.

  Sully had just enough time to see the look of shock on the brown-haired man's face as the gator dragged him under. Sully raised his gun and fire off a single shot at the beast, knowing it was futile. The water churned as the gator went into a maneuver commonly known as a death roll. He saw the man's leg once, and part of his head and then the water went still, silent and turned from murky green to reddish brown.

  A single Converse sneaker floated up from the depths after a couple of minutes. Sully, feeling sick, turned and headed back for the main trail. There was nothing he could do for the clueless criminal who had just paid for his crimes with his life, but maybe Kerry could still be saved.

  Chapter 57

  Katie was so focused on getting away from the drama that was about to play out in the back garden, she wasn't watching where she was going and she crashed, face first, into Addison.

  “Hey, where are you going?” He caught her by her upper arms before she could fall.

  She didn't look up at him. Addison was literally the last person she wanted to see or talk to right now. He only talks to you because he feels sorry for you. Makinsley's words stung like hell. “I have to get some air,” she said and tried to pull away from him.

  He didn't let her go. “What's wrong?”

  She stared down at her feet. She didn't want to see his beautiful eyes looking down at her with concern. “I need some air. It's too crowded in here.”

  “We're about to have to dance,” he said. “Where's Ian?”

  “Doesn't matter,” Katie whispered.

  She felt Addison's grip tighten on her arm. “Katie, talk to me. What's wrong? Where's Ian?”

  “Just let me go, Addison. I don't want to talk to you right now.” She choked on the words.

  “Are you crying?” Addison let go of her right arm and used his newly free hand to take her by the chin and tilt her face upwards so that she had to look at him.

  “Leave me alone. Please?” Katie couldn't turn away from him now, but she didn't have to look at him either. She closed her eyes so she didn't have to wonder if the worry she saw on his face was real, or just part of the games he played with every girl in the county.

  Addison reluctantly loosened his grip on her arm. “Talk to me.”

  “No, I don't want to. You're the last person I feel like talking to right now. Well, almost the last person.” Katie swallowed her tears and forced herself to stand as tall and straight-backed as she could. “Why don't you go find your girlfriend, Addison?”

  He jerked back from her as if she had smacked him. “I don't have a girlfriend.”

  “Fine. You want to be technical? I'll be technical. Go find the soul-sucking bitch you've been sleeping with. Trust me when I say she wants your attention more than I do.” Katie didn't give him a chance to recover from her words, she shoved past him and headed for the front doors. Her mood must have shown on her face, because the crowd parted like the Red Sea to let her pass.

  Chapter 58

  “What the hell?” Addison stared after Katie as she stormed away from him. He didn't know what was going on, but the venom in words had made the problem clear enough. He'd been a complete idiot to let Makinsley come to the wedding with him when he'd known that she was angry with him for dumping her.

  “Katie, wait!” Addison took two steps after her, only to have his uncle, Sheriff Frank Chasson, catch his sleeve.

  “Addison, you got your truck?”

  “I can't talk right now, Uncle Frank. Katie-.”

  “You can't worry about Katie right this second. She'll get over whatever she's pissed off at you about. She always does. We've got bigger problems on our hands.”

  “I don't think so.” Addison had lost track of Katie in the crowd, but he was pretty sure she had been headed towards the doors that lead to the parking lot.

  “Addison!” Frank yanked hard on his nephew's arm.

  Addy finally looked at Frank. His heavy face was flushed red and his lips were pinched into a tight frown around the toothpick he was chewing on. “If you're wanting to talk about Mom being pregnant, this isn't the best time for me,” Addison said.

  Frank choked so hard that he nearly swallowed the toothpick. It took him three minutes to get his coughing under control. “Jane May is pregnant?”

  “Yeah. You're going to be an uncle again. Congratulations. Now move and let me go after Katie. She's upset and I think I might have screwed up really badly this time.” Addison was running all the horrible things Makinsley could have told Katie through his mind like a bad movie on replay.

  “Sully just called me. He says he thinks Kerry might be dead.”

  Addison stopped cold. “What?”

  “Sully just called me,” Frank repeated. “He said he was on his way back home after stopping at Kerry's house last night when someone started following him. He says he cut into the trails back behind the golf course thinking he could lose the guy, but it didn't work. He says his Jeep is in the creek.”

  “And Kerry's dead?” Addison couldn't wrap his mind around the news.

  “Maybe. He doesn't know for sure. He says he was hurt but alive when he left him, but it took him all day to hike out and find someone with a phone. He says he don't know if Kerry's alive or not.”

  “Jesus.”

  “We've got to go, Addison. You and me have to get to Sully and try to figure out where exactly he left that Jeep. He couldn't give me an exact location to send a rescue vehicle to, and most of them can't get back into the swamp no how.”

  “I can't leave,” Addison said. “I'm not on duty. This is one of my vacation days and I took for a reason. Gracie and Cal just got married. I'm their best man. Katie just bolted on me, she's pissed and I don't know why. I can't go.”

  “Addy, you don't have a choice. You're the only person who knows those trails well enough to figure out where Kerry's even at. I know this is your sister's wedding, and I'm sorry for asking you to leave it, but we've got to go. You're Kerry's only chance.”

  The Sheriff's last sentence had struck a nerve with Addison. “I'm Kerry's only chance?” He repeated.

  “Yes, son. No one else knows those trails like you do. Come on.” Frank began tugging Addison towards the doors of the reception hall.

  “What if I don't want to save him?” Addison asked as he was forcibly towed out into the gra
ss. The sun was shining high above them in a flawless blue sky that was completely at odds with how Addison was feeling right now.

  Frank stopped mid-step. “I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that.”

  “Kerry's done everything he can to ruin my life and the lives of my friends, why should I walk away from the biggest day of my sister's life to save someone who hates me?” Addison demanded.

  “Because that's what heroes do,” Frank said firmly. “Now come on. Tell me where you parked.”

  “Back at the church. I rode here in the limo with Gracie and Cal.”

  “Damn it, son. Come on. My truck is half a mile up the road. Maybe we can hitchhike to it.” Frank set off walking at a surprisingly brisk pace. After one last moment's hesitation, Addison's conscience kicked in and he followed his uncle, cursing under his breath as he jogged across the parking lot.

  Chapter 59

  “Can we talk?” Ian's voice broke into Katie's thoughts as she sat on the tailgate of David's truck and sipped on a red water bottle full of what tasted like vodka and orange juice.

  “Nope. Go away.” Katie had made it all the way to the parking lot before she realized that Ian had the keys to their truck. She'd left her own keys at home because she hadn't wanted to worry about keeping track of a key ring during the festivities. “But leave your keys behind. I don't have mine.”

  “Katie, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I've made a horrible mistake.” Ian ran his fingers through his coppery hair. He still had smears of April Lynne's horrible orange-red lipstick all over his lips, jaw and neck. He kept shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other.

  Katie glanced over her shoulder, searching for David. He was standing near the front of the truck and he had murder in his dark green eyes as he glared at Ian. “You're only here apologizing to me because whatever David has threatened to do to you is probably worse than anything I can come up with,” Katie mused as she took another sip. She really was getting a bit too buzzed, but she didn't care. “Go away.”

  “I love you,” Ian was crying now. “I love you and I love Hannah Mae. I need y'all in my life.”

  “You just sucked face with my high school arch enemy at my best friend's wedding. It's like there's a really bad chick flick going on here, but the surprise joke on me is that it's not a movie. It's my stupid life with my cheating husband in this little town where nothing ever changes and no one ever grows up.”

  Ian took several steps closer and then tried to give her a hug. She slid away from him and nearly fell off the tailgate of the truck. Not your smoothest move ever, she mocked herself.

  “Don't be mad.”

  “Mad?” She debated throwing the vodka at him. “I am so far past mad. I'm not even playing in the same ballpark as mad. I don't ever want to see you again.”

  “You have to see me again. We're married.” Ian looked stricken, but Katie wasn't sure how genuine his emotions were anymore. Ian only stayed with you because you knew he'd murdered that girl. Now that the secret is out, he doesn't need you.

  “Go away.”

  “Katie, he really has seen the error of his ways,” David said.

  Katie slipped down off the tailgate and turned around so that she could see David more clearly without having to crane her neck. “I'm sure you showed Ian the error of his ways in a fairly graphic fashion. Not that I don't appreciate you chewing his ass for me, but I don't necessarily feel like kissing and making up right now. Or ever. Back off, David. I love you like a brother, but this isn't your fight. Go enjoy the wedding. It's probably time to cut the cake by now. Addison gives horrible toasts, so you really do need to be in the reception when it's time for the groom's friends to give their speeches.”

  “Addison's not even here,” David said, almost without thinking.

  “He left?” Katie hadn't thought it was possible to feel any more betrayed than she already did, but she'd been wrong. She felt worse now than she had two seconds ago.

  “I guess. Makinsley's all pissed off because he's gone.”

  Katie was selfishly pleased by the news. “Good. I'm glad to hear her day sucks too. Now if only the miserable bitch would catch some incurable STD and die. Maybe that would make up for today. Maybe.”

  David waved one hand in a casual wave. “I'm gone. Y'all need to talk this out between yourselves.”

  “Bye,” Katie said.

  “Katie, I love you and I don't want to lose you. I made a horrible mistake that I'll never make again as long as I live.” Ian grabbed Katie's hand and pulled it to his chest. He pressed her palm against his heart. “Don't leave me. Give me another chance. Please.”

  “Why?” Katie asked. “You act like you hate me anymore. You say you hate all of our friends. Maybe I can make myself forgive you for cheating, but what's the point?”

  “We're a family,” Ian said. “You always talked about how much you hated having divorced parents. You've always sworn you'd never make your kid go back and forth between two different houses and two different lives. Think of Hannah Mae and how much she'll suffer if you leave me.”

  Katie felt some of the fight go out of her as she was reminded of the one promise she'd always made herself. The promise that she would get married once and only once. That her kids would all have the same mom, same dad and same last name. She did not want her daughter to grow up dealing with the reality of a broken home. Holidays spent separated from the people you loved the most because a 10 year old court order said you had to spend Christmas with Dad even though it was very likely that Grandma wouldn't make it through another holiday season. Thanksgiving spent in a car being driven from one house to the next to the next while Mom tried to appease everyone who was somehow related to one of her kids. Waking up on the morning of her birthday and knowing that Kristy wouldn't be at her party because it was her weekend to stay the night with her own biological Dad.

  A chilling thought struck Katie. April Lynne had always wanted Ian. The other girl had been horrible to Katie ever since her very first day in Possum Creek. She spent most of high school put eye drops in Katie's drinks, Vaseline on the bottom of her cheer shoes and once she'd actually gone as far as slashing the tires on Katie's mother's car. Ian wasn't just cheating on Katie with some stranger. He was cheating on Katie with April Lynne.

  How awful would Hannah Mae's life be if she wound up with April Lynne as a step-mother? Would April Lynne torture Hannah Mae the same way she had tried to torment Katie? It was the worst nightmare Katie could think of.

  “I love you,” Ian said. “Please tell me we can work through this. I'll be a better man. I'll be a better father.”

  Katie wasn't sure if she wanted to work out her relationship with Ian, but she nodded to him. “We can get through this,” she whispered, thinking only about her little girl and what life might be like for a child in a house where Ian was always out drinking with Lowery and Hannah Mae was left at April Lynne's mercy.

  She felt sick as Ian smiled at her, his blue eyes shining with obvious relief. “Thank you,” he said. “I love you. I'll change. We'll be happy together. You'll see.”

  As Ian reached to hug her, Katie broke down and began to bawl.

  Chapter 60

  “Sorry about your suit,” Sully said as he and Addison climbed back into the cab of Addison's new Dodge.

  “It's alright, I reckon.” Addison didn't want to think about the effect of swamp water on a linen suit. Or on the upholstery of his brand new truck, for that matter.

  “I'm glad you were about to figure out where I went off the road,” Sully said.

  “It wasn't that hard to figure out,” Addison admitted reluctantly. The truth was that he had intended not to find Kerry. His intention had been to play stupid and drive around the swamp in circles until the sun went down and Kerry's chances of surviving his latest brush with disaster dropped down into the negatives.

  The thing was, Sully's description of where he had been and the turns he had made was pretty good for someone who had
n't grown up in Possum Creek. He'd known the names of the bayous he'd passed and where most of the trails went. Addison didn't mind playing a little dumb, but by the time Sully had finished his crazy story about being run off the road, nearly drowning and then watching his suspect get eaten by a gator, Addison had known exactly where to find the Jeep.

  They'd arrived at the Jeep to find Kerry still handcuffed to the roll bars and barely breathing. One of the more adventurous EMT drivers had agreed bring the county's new 4x4 ambulance down the trail and had made it to the creek right about the same time as Addison finally succeed in cutting the handcuffs off of Kerry's wrist with a massive pair of wire cutters that he normally used for chopping through the fences of illegal hunting leases. He'd tried to use the key first, but the locking mechanism had apparently been damaged in the wreck.

  “Do you think he's going to make it?” Sully's eyes were tired as they followed the ambulance out of the woods.

  “I don't know.” Addison was smoking in the truck again, but Sully had surprised him by not griping about it.

  “He said he couldn't move his legs when we were in the water. He couldn't hold his own head above water when I was trying to get the Jeep turned over.”

  “Sounds like a spine injury.” Addison focused on weaving the Dodge through a particularly narrow bit of trail. Fish and Game truck or not, he really didn't want to scratch the hell out of the paint just yet.

  “That's what I'm thinking. God, I feel like shit.” Sully covered his face with his own hands. “This is all my fuck up.”

  “Don't beat yourself up,” Addy said. “Kerry has a lot of enemies. He's narrowly dodged the death-by-criminal bullet twice in the last year. His luck was bound to run out.”

  “He's not going to die because of his luck. He's going to die because I got pissed off with him and lost my temper,” Sully said unexpectedly.