Twisted Minds (23 page)

Cassidy Turner—this was her doing. This was an intricate ploy she’d orchestrated in order to discredit me in front of Finn and exact her revenge on me for rejecting her all those months ago and telling Finn what she’d done.

The plan had been so simple, yet so perfect. She had challenged me about not being able to get Kira in bed, fueling my desire to prove her wrong. And once I’d slept with Kira, she knew I’d write about it in my journal.

All she had to do was steal my journal, which was easy enough now that she had access to the Walshs’ home again, and then leak it online. Meanwhile, she crept back into Finn’s life, making him fall for her again so he would be blindsided by her actions.

Once the journal was posted online, she had probably made that Finn saw the entry I’d written about sleeping with Kira, and her plan was complete.

The simplicity of it was what made it brilliant, a plan concocted within a twisted mind.

“I am going to fucking kill you,” I growled, lurching in her direction.

Finn let out a roar and pushed me hard in the chest, acting as a buffer between us. “You don’t get to blame her! She’s nothing like you!”

I wasn’t really sure what I had planned on doing to Cass anyway; maybe just shake her a little until the truth came out.

“Finn, please, listen.” There was desperation in my words that I was hoping would appeal to him. “I know I shouldn’t have slept with your sister, but I can’t help the way I feel about her. You have to see that Cass was behind all this.”

Finn’s eyes swirled with numerous colors as I searched them. “You’re a fucking liar, Nate. I wish I’d never asked you to come here.” He shoved me hard in the chest again, as his words stung me like needles.

“Griffin!” Theresa’s voice came from the stairs. “What the heck is going on down here? Why are you all shouting?”

We all turned to find Theresa descending the stairs at a quick pace, her expression frazzled as she reached us.

I wasn’t even sure how to even begin to explain this to her.

“Nothing.” Finn’s jaw was tense as he spoke. “Nate’s leaving to go back to the city today. In fact, he’s leaving this exact second.”

“What?” Theresa seemed surprised by this news and turned probing blue eyes on me. “This is a little sudden. I thought you’d be here for a couple more days at least.”

Before I could even open my mouth and try to convince Theresa of the truth, Finn spoke for me. “An emergency came up. He has to leave. Now.” There was warning in his tone.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I realized there was no point in making my case. In order to do so, I’d have to explain to Theresa that I was a creep who kept a journal which listed the women I’d been with, and that Kira was one of those women.

It didn’t exactly cast me in a favorable light.

“Yes, something with my mother,” I lied, gritting my teeth. I probably looked like I was in pain, which wasn’t too far from the truth. “I have to go pack now.”

“Oh, no,” Theresa said with a frown, staring around at all of us with scrutinizing eyes. “That’s unfortunate. Well, let us know if we can do anything for you.”

Giving her a curt nod, my eyes wandered to Kira who was refusing to make eye contact with me. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but I knew she didn’t want to hear it. This would probably be the last time I ever saw her.

Finn was seething with rage, his hands were still clenched, and he was staring at me as though I had committed a terrible crime. There was no point in trying to convince him of the role Cass had played in all this—it would just make him madder.

Cass—she was the last person my eyes landed on before I turned around. Her grey eyes were shining as she looked me straight in the eyes. She was the only person who appeared happy in this fucked up situation.

She opened her mouth and formed silent words. “I win.”

Twenty-Six

The Call

When I had to call my mother for help, I knew it was the end of the world. Or at least the end of mine.

After leaving the Walshs’ home, I’d driven to a neighboring town and checked into a crappy motel. It was one of those seedy ones that had somehow managed to become a chain.

From the outside, with its ugly ochre paint job and dilapidated signage, I hadn’t been expecting the Hyatt, but my tiny room was worse than I had anticipated. There were dark stains on the bedsheets and what looked like pubic hair in the bathroom sink.

Though I had no way to prove it, I was almost certain someone had died in here. A prison cell would’ve been a nicer alternative.

This was definitely the lowest point I’d ever hit in my life. I was staying at a $57 motel for the night; my friendship with Finn had been sabotaged; and now I was seconds away from calling my mother.

But somehow I had to fix this. I couldn’t let Cass win. I couldn’t let her ruin Finn’s life all over again, pushing him to the limits of his sanity.

All my life, I’d run away from my problems. I’d used women and alcohol as an escape. I’d run away from my parents. I’d run away from the truth. But in Ripley, I’d learned the meaning of family. Finn was my best friend—my brother—and that was something I couldn’t run away from.

Somehow, I had to make him see the truth.

There weren’t many options for me, but I knew the first thing I had to do was have the pages of my journal removed from the internet. The only person I knew who could help me was my mother—well, her husband anyway.

George Henriksen—or husband number four as I often referred to him as—was well into his seventies and had retired from his highly successful law firm a few years ago. His sons had now taken over the firm, and even though George wasn’t in great physical condition, his mind was still very sharp and his sons often went to him for advice regarding cases. That is, if they could reach him.

Which was why I had to go through my mother to get to him. It all came down to whether or not I could convince her to hand him the phone. Sometimes when George’s sons called, she would tell them he was busy and that he’d get back to them. Poor George would never get back to them because my mother never relayed their messages.

In order to get to her husband, I had to go through her. George didn’t have a phone of his own, making it incredibly difficult to contact him directly. My mother had cleverly taken over all aspects of his life, which his sons completely resented her for.

She was a real piece of work.

With shaky fingers, I hit the call button next to my mother’s name and let the phone ring, waiting for her to answer.

“Well if it isn’t the son I thought I didn’t have anymore,” were her grating words when she picked up.

Resisting the urge not to hang up on her, I took a deep breath through clenched teeth as I sank down onto the edge of the bed. “There’s a very good reason why I haven’t been in contact with you.”

There was an audible intake of breath on the other end of the line. She knew exactly what I was referring to.

“Well, what is it?” she snapped, sounding as though I was somehow inconveniencing her. “Louis and Sasha will be here soon for my hair consultation. I’m thinking about going lighter. What do you think?”

It took a lot of self-control for me not to hang up on her. I exercised my patience liberally. “I think I don’t really give a fuck.”

Okay, I tried. But the woman hadn’t spoken to me in a couple of weeks and the first thing on her mind was her hair. If that wasn’t enough to award her with the ‘Worst Mother of the Year’ title, I wasn’t sure what was.

“There’s no reason for you to be so rude,” she said in the snooty drawl she had perfected over the years. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“I need to speak to George. Immediately.” I made sure to put an edge of urgency in my tone that implied ‘lady, I am not fucking around’.

“George?” She sounded surprised by my request to speak to husband number four. “What shit have you gotten yourself into, Nathaniel?” The drawl devolved into the uncouth tone that was natural to her.

“That’s none of your business, mother,” I said rather sharply. “Let me speak to George now. Tell him it’s urgent.”

“Why should I do anything for you?” she asked, her tone cutting. “You’ve failed to contact me and see how I’ve been doing these past few weeks.”

The way she spoke made her sound like a child who needed to be checked on routinely. If you thought having an unfaithful, promiscuous mother was bad enough, try adding her teenage behavior to the mix. Gossiping, tantrums, selfishness, and vanity were huge flaws of her personality.

“Considering I saw the pool boy performing oral sex on you, I’m pretty sure that’s reason enough.” I didn’t want it to sound like blackmail, but if she was demanding a reason as to why she should do something as simple as hand the phone over to her husband, then I was going to give her one. “And I have the photographic evidence to prove it.”

My mother let out an overdramatic gasp. “How dare you take pornographic images of me! I could have you arrested and sent to prison.”

“Yeah, okay.” I rolled my eyes. “Who’s going to help you with that lawsuit?
George
?”

There was a pause, and I tapped my foot impatiently on the ugly-ass olive carpet. With a pang of disgust, I noticed there was a dark brown stain right next to the bedside table that I hadn’t seen yet.

“If I let you talk to him, you have to promise me something,” she finally said, adopting that farce tone of refinery again.

Of course there was a catch. There was always a catch with this woman.

“What?”

“He can never hear about what happened with the pool boy.”

This was where I paused. Even though there was nothing I would’ve loved more than to expose her cheating and lying to George so he would realize the viper he’d married, I also knew I needed her to work with me here.

“Fine,” I said, grudgingly. “He won’t hear about it from me.”

“And you won’t tell anyone else about it?” she asked, covering all the bases.

“No, I won’t tell anyone that you like to get frisky with the pool boy,” I confirmed reluctantly. “Now give him the phone.”

“If I have to,” my mother said in a way as though I was greatly inconveniencing her. “Where are you, anyway? I sent Paul by your apartment a few times and you never answered your door.”

Considering, we’d been on the phone for several minutes now, it was incredible it had taken her this long to actually ask anything about me or how I was. In her head, sending Paul—their personal assistant—to check on me was her being a great parent.

“I’m in Ripley, mother,” I responded.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“It’s where Finn’s from.” He’d only told her this twenty times in the last four years. “Upstate New York.”

“Ugh, that sounds awful.” Her voice sounded awful.

“It’s not so bad,” I said, and I meant it.

Ripley had ended up being the best thing that had ever happened to me. Aside from bringing about the situation I was currently in and being the birthplace of Cassidy Turner, it was actually a nice place to be.

“
Right.
Well, Sasha and Louis are here now.” She sniffed. “Here’s George; don’t stress him out. And make sure you come by for dinner whenever you’re back from wherever the hell you are.”

“I look forward to it,” I said coolly.

We both knew I didn’t mean it. Thankfully, she seemed to be too concerned about her hair appointment to care about my sincerity.

There was some movement, muffled voices, and finally I heard George’s weary voice on the line. “Nathaniel?”

Relief filled me. Finally. “Hey, George, how are you doing?”

“I’ve seen better days,” was his response.

For an instant, I wondered if that had something to do with his deteriorating health or if my mother was getting to him. Honestly, I couldn’t blame him if my mother was getting on his nerves; I was her son and I couldn’t stand her.

“Well, I don’t want to put added stress on you, but I really need your help,” I said, getting right to the point.

From the few times I’d been around George the last few years, I had discovered he was a man who liked people to get to the point. Maybe it was because he knew he didn’t have much time left in this world and didn’t want to waste it listening to people ramble.

“What is it?” he asked, immediately wanting to know the details. He didn’t even react in a negative way or tell me no. That’s what I liked about him. “Are you in some legal trouble?”

“Um.” It was kind of hard to explain. “Long story short, my private journal was stolen and published online without my permission. I need it taken down from the site.”

“Which site?” George asked immediately.

”It’s called Flash Feed. They post things that often go viral.”

“Are they commercially benefiting from the posted material?” George’s tone turned serious as he switched to lawyer mode.

“Well, I assume so.”

“This material was posted without your consent?”

“Yes, someone I know stole it.”

Cass’ fucked up scheme flashed through my mind. Rage burned through me at what a psycho she was. And now she had Finn convinced beyond a doubt that I was the bad guy.

“Can you prove who stole it?”

“No.”

“Okay, moving on.” George paused as he burst into a coughing fit. “Are you suffering from severe emotional distress?”

“Uh.” Obviously, I was. I’d just lost my best friend and the first woman I’d ever cared about. I’d say I was pretty emotionally fucking distressed right about now.

“The answer to that question should always be a yes,” George filled in for me. “Don’t hesitate, don’t think about it. You say yes, and cry for added effect.”

Wow. Lawyers really knew how to manipulate people. That’s exactly the kind of skills I needed to beat a serial manipulator like Cass.

“So do you think you’d be able to help me?” I asked anxiously.

If George told me no, I didn’t know what else to do. At that point, I’d have to call my father and tell him everything that had happened. Whatever consequences that came about after that would be mine to deal with.

“Nathaniel, I’ve had alleged murderers acquitted on less evidence than this. I think I can handle a stolen journal,” he said smoothly. “I’m going to pass this along to Michael and ensure he handles it by the end of the day.”

Feeling relieved, I thanked him and hung up. Next came the waiting game. I knew George’s son, Michael, was also great at what he did, but I wasn’t a lawyer and I had no idea how long something like this could take.

With nothing left to do, I stared at my phone for a long moment, willing Kira or Finn to message me. When that didn’t pan out, I managed to find a local pizza joint that delivered, and ordered a large, pepperoni pizza that only cost me five bucks.

Then, with the pizza box on my lap and my laptop on top of the bed, I spent the rest of the day binge-watching
Law & Order: SVU
on Netflix since the room didn’t even have a TV in it.

Finally, several episodes and a whole pizza later, I received the message I had been waiting for.

Hey, Nathaniel, it’s Michael Henriksen. Earlier today, I issued a cease and desist notice to Flash Feed regarding the unlawful distribution of your sexually explicit journal and warned them to remove it from their site within twenty-four hours. They complied and removed it within two hours. I also emailed several other sites that had published similar material. Please take more care in the future.

“Holy fuck,” I breathed, collapsing back onto the disgusting bed in relief.

That had been too close. Way too close. My life had been on the edge of a cliff, about to fall apart around me, but everything was going to be okay now. Cass had managed to ruin my reputation briefly, but the damage was short term. A bigger scandal would come along and everyone would forget all about me.

Now, I just had to fix the other huge problems in my life—Finn and Kira.