Cursed be the Wicked (22 page)

I turn the volume off and slip the phone back into my pocket. I try to act as if it doesn’t bother me, these calls, but I’m not great at pretending.

“Coop?” Finn nudges me.

The final blessing of my mother’s body starts. I lean down, close to Finn’s ear.

“Another mysteriously anonymous, local call.”

“You tried calling it back?”

I nod. “No answer, no voice mail.”

“Did you try information?”

“It’s not listed.”

Finn thinks it over. Her brow dips and her mouth screws up. I know what she wants to say. I can practically hear her telling me it’s a call from
beyond.
Thankfully, she doesn’t say it out loud.

“Maybe it’s a wrong number,” she whispers but she doesn’t believe it.

“Maybe,” I tell her. “Maybe not.”

We listen to the funeral director finish up and as the service ends, I find myself thinking about Jack again. I know he can’t be the caller, there’s no possible way he could have gotten my number but it crosses my mind, regardless. Then I wonder what he was doing here, why he left, and whether I might ever see him again.

I think about our encounter with Liz the other day and notice abruptly that she’s not here. I don’t know if my aunt is MIA because she bolted right after the funeral services or if she didn’t come in the first place. Either way, it gets me thinking that maybe I owe her a visit.

“I should check in with Liz,” I tell Finn. “Maybe she knows something about the house settling or problems with the pipes that might be making those noises we heard.”

“Problems with the pipes,” she says.

She wants to push me on this issue. She wants me to say it’s “out of the ordinary” or “something beyond my understanding” but I can’t. Not out loud. So instead, I point something out that’s distracted me for the time being.

“You realize what you just did, right?”

She scrunches her brow at me. “What?”

“You just repeated what I said.”

“No I didn’t,” she snorts.

“Um, you most certainly did.” I tug at her hand and we start to leave.

“Why would I say it after you
just
said it, Coop? You know I hate that.”

“Which is exactly why I find it so damn funny.”

We pass by my mother’s casket and I pause. They’re lowering her into the ground now. The familiar pang inside my chest begins to ache and I remember the nazar I brought with me.

I let go of Finn’s hand to fetch it from my pocket.

“Hold on,” I tell her as I step closer to the grave.

I watch as my mother descends into the grave. I take a deep breath and hold it, then I drop the nazar. As the air leaves my lungs, I tell my mother, “For protection. Wherever you are.”

Finn takes my hand again and we head out to the parking lot. I don’t know if giving the nazar back to Mom can be construed as closure, but my shoulders are lighter. Until we cross paths with a reporter, that is.

He’s smiling like he’s just hit the jackpot and my stomach does a nose dive.

“You’re him, right?”

I swallow as he looks down at a picture of me that resembles my yearbook photo from high school. He laughs as he flicks the picture.

“Damn I’ve never been so happy to have followed a weak lead in all my life. Hey, can I have an exclusive?”

I blink. “What?”

“You’re Maggie Shaw’s son right? I’ll pay you twice what I paid the pack rat that gave me your location today.”

I’m shaking my head at the douche bag when another media goon hears him and heads our way, pulling a camera out as he closes in.

“I’ll give you double what he just offered.”

Click.

Finn pulls at my arm. “Come on, Coop.”

“Did you do it?” someone yells out as I follow her through the crowd.

They follow us.

“Did Maggie take the fall for you, Mr. Shaw?” another calls out from behind us. This gains the attention of onlookers, stalkers, fans, non-fans. Before I know it, Finn and I are at a full run and we’ve got a mob of people trying to figure out just exactly who everyone’s talking about.

As Finn and I find the rental car and get in, my head starts spinning. It feels like a headache is coming on but there are people heading our way and all I can think to do is get away.

Run.

It’s a familiar, unwelcome feeling. I’ve been here before, so I drive. It’s quiet in the car, the only difference between right now and roughly ten years ago is Finn.

I grip the steering wheel. “I don’t know where to go.”

The sky opens up and I swear some more.

“Maybe I should drive,” Finn offers.

“I’m fine,” I tell her as I take a turn a little too fast and fish tail a bit.

“But you look-”

“I’m
fine
, Finn.”

My jaw is clenched. I am most definitely decking Moss next time I see him. It’s not taking a whole lot of effort to figure out it was him that tipped that reporter off about me being in town.

“Maggie’s will be a sideshow tonight,” Finn says and she’s right.

“The Camilla Rose it is, then.”

I drive in silence for the fifteen minute drive to Geneva’s B&B. My heart is pounding with the need to find Danny Moss and choke the shit out of him. My mind races with the possibilities of how satisfying it would be to watch the smug life fade from his eyes.

I stop and think of Mom. Is this how she felt? Did Dad push her to murder? Did she watch the life go out of his eyes?

We get to the B&B and after I throw the car in park, I sit there, staring at the gravel in Geneva’s parking lot. Finn lets me and when I’m ready, we go inside, through a back door.

Just in case.

Once we’re in my room, I close the door and sit on the bed to think.

The upside to everything coming to a halt finally is, I don’t have to worry about crashing the rental car into anything anymore. The downside is that everything—from those damn journals of my mother’s, to the eerie crying at her place earlier today, to the funeral, to Jack Diggs and Aunt Liz and yes, Danny Moss—it all starts to close in on me and I feel claustrophobic.

I head back toward the door. “I’m going out to grab a drink.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea, Coop?” Finn asks from where she’s standing, next to the dresser.

I raise an eyebrow. “Oh, I think it’s an excellent idea, Finn.”

“Even with half of Salem’s reporters wanting an exclusive from you?”

I think about it. She’s got a point, but I’m stubborn, and I really need that drink.

“I’ll take my chances.” I go to place a hand on the knob and Finn steps in between me and the door. I find it highly amusing that she thinks she can stop me, regardless of the fact that I’m indeed stopped.

“Move out of the way, Finn.”

“No.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“
I’m
being ridiculous?”

I point at her. “You’re doing it again.”

She slaps my finger out of the way. It’s not funny anymore.

“Don’t you even want to talk about today?”

“What’s there to talk about, Finn? It’s not like I didn’t know my mother was dead, or that she was crazy, or that a hundred reporters want an exclusive from me.” I bark out a laugh. I might be hysterical.

“Well something’s up with you. If it’s truly not your mother’s funeral, then what?”

“Nothing.”

She eyes me. She knows. She met me a little over a week ago, and she knows. “Something happened at Maggie’s?”

I don’t know why I feel the need to lie to Finn now, after everything. I just can’t bring myself to talk about any of it. Not right now.

“No.”

“You’re lying.”

“Finn.”

“Cooper Shaw, if you don’t deal with whatever is going on it’s just going to get worse. Things have a way of getting your attention one way or another, like it or not and most of the time, if you keep trying to stuff it under a rug somewhere, that rug is going to trip you up ten times worse than if you’d just dealt with it in the first place.”

“Things? You mean like ghosts? Is that what you’re getting at Finn? Or more specifically, the ghost of a witch?”

It’s got to be what she’s getting at, she’s been hinting around at it for days. I may as well put it out there.

“That’s exactly what I’m getting at,” she says adamantly. “And why shouldn’t I be? The question is why aren’t you? You keep acting like it’s not right in front of your face when it’s a part of who you are. Your mother was a witch Coop. Like it or not, it’s in your blood.”

“I’m not,” I start to insist. And Jesus, my head hurts.

“Are you scared?”

“No,” I snap, letting any and all defensive mechanisms kick in.

“Well then, what is it?”

“I don’t,” I stop because I’m frustrated. With Finn, and this conversation, and with Maggie fucking Shaw. But Finn just keeps on pushing.

“Tell me.”

And that’s it. I’m done trying to save her feelings.

I throw my arms up into the air.

“Do you
not
understand that I
refuse
to buy into this bullshit? I don’t believe in ghosts, Finn. I don’t see spirits, or hear them for that matter. I don’t think magic spells are the answer to all our problems and I certainly don’t believe that we’re visited by the dead in our dreams or that they’re putting thoughts inside my mind to try and give me the answer to some fucking riddle she left behind.”

She studies me for a minute. I’m not sure what it is I’ve said that’s making her look at me like I just said something important but instead of calling me out on whatever it is, she asks me one simple question.

One I have no idea how to answer.

“Well then, what
do
you believe in, Coop?”

I stare at her. I’m angry and tired and just fucking done.

I don’t know what clicks inside of me that makes me react the way I do. Maybe it’s the fact that everything I just said feels like bullshit. Or that Finn represents all those things. That I need to touch her so bad right now I want to scream, or that she’s the only thing that makes the ache inside my chest go away.

Maybe all of it.

I grab her and hold her, hoping she’ll shut up. When she starts to say something else, I refuse to let her speak. I’m done talking.

My lips crash into hers hard and desperate. As soon as we connect, I feel the pain of what she wants me to admit wash away. I’m greedy with her body. My tongue is greedy too.

The kiss is full of every irritation I’ve had building up inside of me since arriving in Salem and Finn doesn’t fight it. She lets it live while I let it take away the anger, the frustration, and the guilt inside me.

She takes my face in her hands and starts to pull away. I don’t want it to end. I can’t look her in the eyes.

“Coop.”

I shake my head.

“Coop,” she tries again and slowly, I give her what she wants.

“Your mom wasn’t insane,” Finn says quietly.

I take an unstable breath and say what I should have said ten years ago.

“I know.”

She kisses me again and it’s softer this time, but with every touch of her lips against mine and every press of her body against me, desire for her builds.

No, desire for
us
.

She slides my jacket from my shoulders. Her fingers find the hem of my shirt and tug. My body rushes forward and I deepen the kiss. Before I know it, she’s against the wall. Finn lets out a whimper when it happens. Her knee nudges its way between my legs and I know where this is going to go this time. There’s no forest keeping me from my natural instincts.

Something Danny said earlier haunts me this time though.

Do you think you can just swoop in to her life, pay attention to her . . . Change her life?

I slow our kisses and think about Finn instead of my eager libido for a minute. She’s a good person, she’s been nothing but selfless with me, even knowing who I am.

“I can’t do this.”

I rest my forehead against hers. I’m not aware I’ve said anything out loud until Finn informs me, “You started it.”

“Let’s not get out of control here, Finn,” I tell her, pulling away. I’m breathless. She’s taking my fucking breath away, which scares the living shit out of me.

“Out of control?” she says, reaching for me again. “I don’t call this out of control, Coop. I call it-”

“Don’t,” I cut her off. “Don’t say it.”

I don’t need to hear word that I don’t know how to react to. And I certainly don’t need to hurt Finn’s feelings right now.

“What’s the problem?” she pushes.

“I need some air.”

Finn’s eyes narrow in on me. My head is spinning with words and warnings and spells and symbols. “I just need some air.”

I take a few steps away from her, I open the door then leave her there, in my room, alone. And I go to get that drink after all.

The streets are dark and quiet this time of night. The rain has stopped and there isn’t a media hound in sight, making it easy for me to run in and grab a six pack from the closest convenience store I can find without incident. I bring the beer back to the B&B but I don’t go in. I sit on the front steps and get lost in the orange and purple blinking lights that hang from Geneva’s awnings.