Cursed be the Wicked (12 page)

“Jack, wait.” I try to stop him again. “Where do you live?”

He turns to me and shakes his head. There’s a distant look in his eyes. Sadness maybe. “I don’t.”

“What?”

He’s gone before I can ask him what in the hell he meant. I turn to leave the scene because that group of men is still headed my way. I’m stopped by Finn, who’s now done with her shopping.

“Hey, do you wanna go to a beach party?”

I’m too distracted to comprehend what she’s said. “A what?”

“A beach party.” She holds a flyer up for me to see. “I mean, technically I guess it’s considered a séance, but really it’s just a bunch of the younger crowd in the area not wanting to hang out with the older folks. Nothing ever really happens but it could be interesting. You know, for your article.”

Right.

The article.

My mind shifts to work and she’s right. It would make a great addition. Something to interest a younger crowd of readers.

“You know what? It sounds like a pretty good idea. Maybe I can interview some of the attendees,” I tell her, starting to usher her away but she pulls out of my grasp, curious now.

“What’s gotten into you?” she asks, laughing. I look back and the group is almost where we are. One of them definitely sees me and he definitely knows who I am. Suddenly the need to run and hide isn’t there anymore. I’m done. I’m not hiding from these guys.

I’m not hiding from
Finn
. “Listen,” I say to her. I make eye contact with one man in particular from the group. I refuse to look away from him as he glares at me from not fifty feet away.

“Yeah?” she asks.

I nod toward our soon to be visitor. “There’s something you should know before those people make their way over here.”

She looks over at the group and sighs, thinking this confrontation is going to be about her, not me.

“What’s that?”

I look down at her, relieved I can say this finally. I take a deep breath and let it out, resigned to the fact that my anonymous days in Salem are over.

“My name’s not really Cole Stone,” I say with finality. Her response isn’t exactly what I was expecting.

“No shit.”

Chapter 8

Infinity

“Cooper Shaw,” The man in the forefront of the group says to me.

I’m standing face to face with Danny Moss, long lost fellow hellion from my younger days and the brother of the jackass who decked me, not twenty-four hours earlier.

He doesn’t look happy.

Neither does Finn.

I wonder how long she’s known who I am.
Since the store, maybe? Or the church?

I’ll worry about that later. Right now, I’ve got Moss to deal with.

“Hey Danny,” I say to him because honestly, what in the hell else am I going to say?

I eye his little brother, who’s now standing at Danny’s side.

“Dan, now, actually,” my old friend tells me with the greatest of seriousness. Even though what I really want to say is,
whatever dude,
I simply nod.

“Dan, then.”

His cold hard stare begs me to start something, but I’m not going to make the first move. Ever.

“I heard you started some shit with Ray yesterday,” he says coldly. “Of course he didn’t mention it was you, specifically.”

Finn starts to say something but I beat her to the punch. I want his attention on me rather than her. “If we’re being honest here, it was the kid that started it.”

“I’m no kid, asshole,” his little brother says.

Danny eyes me. He sees where my lip is still swollen slightly. Instinctively, my peripheral vision kicks into gear. I want to make sure there aren’t any additional casting calls going on for this powwow when Danny, I mean
Dan,
breaks into a roar of laughter.

Finn and I look at each other. She shrugs, realizing I’m looking to her for guidance on this reaction but even Dan’s little brother looks confused. No, scratch that. Annoyed.

“What the hell, Dan,” he says.

Dan’s still laughing his ass off. In fact, he’s bent over, holding on to his younger brother’s shoulder for support.

“Sss.” Dan tries but fails, then tries again to regain his composure. “Sorry, Ray.” He stands up, still grinning but the laughter has stopped.

Nutcase.

“Jesus, Coop. You always were too fair a fighter.” He’s completely amused by the situation.

I’m not looking at Finn but I know she’s looking at me. I don’t want to know what her expression is saying, so I keep eye contact with Danny boy.

“It’s not like I knew who he was,” Ray tells his brother, defensively. “Anyway he was putting the moves on Finn.
What was I
supposed
to think?”

Ray points to Finn and now I
have
to look because I don’t like what he’s insinuating. I want to see what she has to say to this guy.

Finn’s expression is unwavering, though. Her eyes cut straight through him. She doesn’t speak a word.

I’m surprised she’s not telling this jerk off but when Ray reacts, it makes sense.

“Stop putting your voodoo on me, Finn.”

She’s screwing with him.

“Ray. Just go,” Danny waves at Ray and his buddy. “Get outta here, before I deck your ass, myself.”

Ray does as he says and Finn’s eyes soften. I don’t know what just happened but Dan puts an arm around me like all of a sudden, everything’s kosher.

“I’m real sorry about him, Finn,” he says. He sounds earnest in his words. “Dumbass doesn’t know how the hell to grow up.”

“It’s all good, Dan. It’s not like
you
started anything,” Finn assures him. And right now, for me, she’s a little too polite.

When she strains to look over her shoulder, toward the car, I can tell she wants to leave. I do too, so I start to tell Dan goodbye but he’s not quite done yet.

“So, did you think about what we talked about the other day?” he asks Finn before we can leave. Her eyes meet mine then flicker away just before she answers him.

“The other day?” She asks with a smile.

Dan watches me closely as he addresses Finn. “I’m not keeping you from something, am I Finn?”

“Actually,” she hesitates, “We were just on our way to drop something off at Grans.”

“Right, Geneva,” Dan says thoughtfully, then gives Finn a sympathetic look. “Tell her I’m real sorry about not being able to work something out with the loan payments.”

He tries to sneak it in there like I won’t notice the smugness, but I notice. I also notice a slight shift in Finn’s stance. I get the impression she wants to scratch this guy’s eyes out over the remark when I see her jaw flex, but looking at her, you wouldn’t know it.

“I sure will,” she tells Danny as she forces a smile. Although Danny can’t tell it’s fake, I can.

“I can take you, you know. No need to bother Coop, here.” He shifts his attention to me. “Right Coop? You’ve probably got your hands full with your mother’s funeral and all.” The conversation takes a sharp right turn that I’m not ready for. I try to keep my response short.

“Actually, I wasn’t planning on going,” I tell him. Finn’s brow pulls together but she doesn’t say anything.

Danny laughs. “Can’t blame ya, the way she tried to throw you under the bus like that.”

“Dan,” Finn starts. I grab for whatever excuse I can to end this discussion. I’m not ready to go down memory lane with Danny Moss.

“We really need to get going,” I say to Finn. She nods with one last frown toward Dan and he winks at her.

“Hey Coop,” he says as she continues on to the car. I hang back with a heavy sigh, to see what it is he wants now.

Dan puts a hand around my shoulder, like we’re old friends.

“Look, Coop. We’ve known each other a long time.”

“Uh huh,” I respond even though we really haven’t. We knew each other when we were kids and even then our relationship was sketchy. He hasn’t known me for ten years now.

“I’m guessing you haven’t been back in town long.”

“A few days,” I tell him with a shrug.

“Well, that explains it, then,” he says, happily. Then he tells me, “Look, me and Finn, we’ve got a little something going, okay? You know, just so you know.”

I try not to laugh at him.

Try.

“What?” he asks, and I can hear the resentment in his tone.

I push the chuckle down and make an attempt at serious with the guy. “Nothing. Thanks for the heads up, Danny.”

“Dan,” he informs me and I nod, secretly mocking him.

“Dan.”

He eyes me for a few seconds, thinking, and then pats me on the shoulder. He then proceeds to gawk at Finn, who’s already passed the rental car. I don’t waste any more time on Danny. As I cross the street, I find myself running to catch up with her.

“Finn, wait, where are you going?”

“I think I’m just gonna go on home.”

“Finn.” I take a hold of her hand to stop her. She spins around to face me, and I forget about Danny Moss along with everything else he just dredged up. I need to explain the fake name I’ve been using.

“I didn’t, I mean I . . .” I’m getting tongue tied. “I was gonna tell you who I really am, I just, I mean it’s complicated but basically, I’m sorry.”

She laughs me off but it’s full of sarcasm. “I couldn’t care less what your name is Mr. Shaw. I’ve known who you are since you walked into the Camilla Rose.”

As soon as she says it, she bites her lip, like she regrets saying it.

I won’t say the confession shocks me exactly. It was pretty obvious she knew my name when I told her, but since day one?

“Wanna explain why you wouldn’t just tell me that?” I ask, and it comes out a little harsher than I expect. She stares up at me blankly, with nothing to say.

That’s gotta be a first. I try again, softer this time.

“Finn?”

She purses her lips together like she’s trying to keep them from telling me something she can’t share, or won’t share and I weigh my options. I can stand here and try to get her to tell me something she’s clearly not ready to tell me yet, or I can leave it be for now.

I leave it be.

“Okay, well, you don’t need to walk, let me take you home.”

She begrudgingly gets into the car and the ride to Geneva’s is quiet. So quiet that I can’t shake the million thoughts that are running through my head. Everything from that damn blog post this morning, to the elation I felt when she showed up, to the story she told me about the church in the woods, to Danny Moss and his arrogant, immature brother.

There’s still a lot to say when we pull up to Geneva’s. Now that Finn knows who I am, things feel like they’re all laid out on the table so to speak. I want to ask her what she thinks about it all. Maybe get her ideas on how I should handle this whole situation with the house and my aunt. She sees it in my expression when she goes to leave.

“Meet me at the beach party,” she tells me, leaving the flyer in the front seat for me. “We’ll talk there.”

I watch her go, half expecting her to come back.

She doesn’t.

I have every intention of driving back to the B&B but end up taking a different road. It leads to my old home. When I pull up to the driveway I can’t bring myself to open the car door. I hate being here. Always have. I used to
really
hate coming home from school. Except for this one time.

“Mom!”

She runs out to greet me in the front yard with a broad smile plastered on her face, as I run off the school bus.

“Well?” she says.

“I made two friends today. Two!”

She laughs and picks me up. Then twirls me around and tells me, “I knew you would, I told you there was nothing to be afraid of, Cooper. It’s just another grade”

“One boy called me Coop. He said it’s way easier than Cooper. I think it’s cool, Mom, don’t you?”

“I think it’s fantastic,” she tells me, then her expression changes. Her smile disappears. She’s no longer even looking at me. She’s looking off at something in the distance.

Just as she sits me down on the ground, I hear the sound of an engine chugging behind me. My dad’s old, white, beat up Chevy truck pulls into the driveway. His eyes are hard as he stares at Mom. When he sees me they soften some. He stays in the truck a good thirty or forty seconds before getting out.

Mom puts her hand against my chest and pushes me behind her.

“Go to your room, Cooper, dinner’s in a couple hours.”

“But Mom.”

“Go to your room!” she snaps, as she turns toward me. Her mouth turns down and her eyebrows make a deep “V” between her eyes. I no longer see the woman who was excited for me just a few moments before. Instead, I see someone who just wants me gone. So I go. I run. Then I close my bedroom door behind me, and wait for dinner time.

The car radio kicks on of its own accord as though it just found reception. It snaps me back into the present. I turn the music off and look at my watch. I’ve been sitting in front of my old home for longer than I thought. It’s now late afternoon and the sky is threatening to dim, soon.

I look up at my mother’s old home again and I can’t get out of the car, all I can think is,
I should leave.

Finn crosses my mind when I think of places I’d rather be. I spot the flyer she left in my car earlier then I smile. I put the car in reverse and head back over to the Collins Cover area, where this “séance” is supposed to happen.

I’m halfway to the beach when it hits me just how much I need to see Finn. My fingers drum on the steering wheel as I wait for a light to turn green. My left foot bounces against the floorboard and my mind races. What is it she’s going to say when I meet her? What would make her so hesitant to tell me she knew who I was from the beginning? Why was she so quiet in the car when I drove her home?

Frustration sets in when I arrive at the beach. Parking is sketchy but I luck out. Someone has just left. I snag the spot and lock the car up. I’m quick to cross the street, anxious to find Finn so we can talk, but as I look at the crowd that’s already formed, I realize that might take a while.

It’s dusk, the sun is just about gone as the moon replaces it high in the sky. Bonfires light up the small strip of sand. People are laughing and dancing to the music that plays somewhere.

My feet are almost on the sand. I’m scanning the crowd when a hand claps me on the shoulder.

“Coop!” Danny yells out over the crowd.

He offers me a drink and I take it but I’m sidetracked, keeping an eye out for Finn. I wonder if she’s even here when I don’t see her right away.

“Dan.” I take the cup from him and remain socially polite. “Thanks.” I take a gulp of the brew he’s provided me then finish it off. I could use some intoxicant right about now.

“Didn’t know you’d be here tonight,” he says. “Big turn out this year.”

I ignore him. There’s awkward silence at first but he fills it soon enough.

“Seen Finn?”

My reply is quick. “No.”

I’m lying, but it’s better than Danny tagging along with me until I find her.

“So, where’ve you been all these years anyway, man? People said you were dead.” He takes a swig of his drink, as I stand there, surprised by his choice of topic.

“Dead?”

“Yeah, all kinds of rumors went around after you disappeared.”