Voodoo and Vodka: A Swamp Bottom Novella by K.A. Ware & Cora Kenborn

Author:K.A. Ware & Cora Kenborn [Ware, K.A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Twisted Publishing
Published: 2017-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

He was sitting on the couch staring at a darkened TV screen when I emerged from the bedroom. Still shirtless, every defined ab muscle rolled into the next, slurring the speech I’d practiced in the ten paces from the bedroom to the living room. Pausing next to the couch, I shuffled from side to side, antsy and timid at the same time. Before I could open my mouth, he dropped the remote and leaned forward, his elbows balanced on his jean covered knees.

“Addie, look, don’t interrupt Savannah. It’s not fair to ruin her date because I was a dick.”

“Huh?”

I was prepared for a speech. I was prepared to fight. I was even prepared to storm out alone again. I so was not prepared for a declaration of defeat.

He turned to look at me, his expression somehow blank and remorseful at the same time. “You asked before what happened last night. Nothing happened. You puked for hours and passed out.” Running a hand across his beard, he shook his head apologetically. “You didn’t do anything inappropriate. I just tried,” he threw his head against the back of the couch and sighed. “shit, Addie, I was just trying to get some kind of emotion out of you for once that wasn’t faked.”

My knees felt weak. “Why…” I swallowed hard. “Why would you do that?”

He nodded to the vacant space beside him on the couch, and against my better judgment, I sank onto the black leather cushion with my hands folded properly in my lap. After a moment of silence, Zep ran his palms against his jeans and turned to face me.

“Have you ever thought you wanted something really bad, but when you finally got it, you realized it wasn’t right?”

I’d never heard a room so quiet in my life.

“Roland,” I confessed. “It took a while, but yeah, you pretty much described my whole marriage.”

Zep simply nodded, as if he knew making a big deal out of it would send me back into defensive mode. “I guess I wanted to knock you off that pedestal you’d climbed on before you left Terrebonne.” He stopped to move closer inch by dangerous inch. “It’s like one minute you were one of us…the next we were beneath you—all of us. That wasn’t the Addie I knew.”

I bit my lip and glanced down. His stare became too powerful. Everything about him became too intense. “You don’t know me, Zep. You never did.”

Before I could stop him, he reached for my hand. “Why do you hate me so much? Why do you hate your roots? They’re who you are.”

The minute his hand touched mine again, a series of flashbacks ran through my head like a movie on replay. Memories I’d long buried came rushing back in a flood of anger that poked a jagged stick at the hole left by betrayal.

Jerking my hand away, I batted the tear that threatened to fall again. “My roots were just fine until you dug them up, hacked them to pieces, and forced me to replant them.

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