Twisted Minds (11 page)

That’s when the sinking truth hit me.

Son of a bitch. This was his walk of shame.

Thirteen

Chances

“No, you fucking didn’t.”

The words were out of my mouth before Finn had even shut the door behind him

He turned red, similar to the way his sister often did. And then things got even worse. Cass walked in after him. Wearing his goddamn shirt.

There was a smug smile on her mouth, like the cat who’d eaten the canary. Or a whore who’d eaten dick. Considering it looked like she’d had time that morning to style her auburn hair into perfect waves and pile of a face full of makeup, it was ridiculous that she hadn’t managed to dress herself in her own clothes.

“Hi, guys,” she said, wriggling her slender fingers at us. Her eyes locked on me, and I realized that her being in Finn’s shirt was for my benefit. “Finn was in no condition to drive, so I thought I’d bring him by.”

“That was nice of you,” Kira said brightly, walking over to give Cass a hug.

No, it wasn’t fucking nice. It was a ploy to make everyone think she was a sweet, kind thing.

As both women stood side by side, beaming at each other, I could see the affection on Kira’s face was genuine. As for Cass, there was nothing that girl was genuine about. I didn’t know why she was the way she was, and I had never bothered to find out.

I had always figured that just like me, she’d come from a messed up family and really just didn’t give a fuck about other people, or tried very hard not to. She was very good at acting like a normal person, when deep down she was mentally imbalanced.

My hands clenched into fists as Finn gazed over at her, a small smile playing on his face. It was absolutely blowing my mind that Finn was getting himself into a situation where he was going to lose. Maybe a few blows to the head would knock some sense into him.

“Finn.” My gaze was trained on him as he tried to look anywhere but at me. “What the fuck happened last night?”

“Finn had a little too much to drink,” Cass answered for him, toying with the end of his shirt in an innocent manner. “He spent the night at my place.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.” I didn’t care how rude I sounded. Things had gone too far. I knew Cass was desperate to get back with Finn, but I was not going to let that happen, even if it killed me.

“Nate!” Kira sounded outraged, but I didn’t give a shit. She had no idea what we were dealing with here.

Finn dragged his weary eyes to meet me. “Nate, stop. Cass was just being nice by letting me stay the night at her place. It was my fault for drinking too much.”

What the fuck? He was defending her now?

My stomach sank as Cass’ words from last night came back to me.
The magic of doubt
. There was no way my best friend was so gullible that he would allow himself to be brainwashed by her. Finn couldn’t be that deluded that he had forgotten the crazy bullshit she’d wreaked on us just a few months ago.

“Alright, you and me, outside right now,” I barked at Finn.

“What?” He stared at me in surprise.

With determined steps, I walked right up to him and jerked a thumb at the front door. “Get your ass outside right now.”

“Nate, what-” Kira started to say, but I ignored her.

“Move.” My tone was low, firm, as I fixed Finn with a level stare.

He heaved a sigh, appearing exhausted. He looked like complete shit; faint bags were visible under his red eyes. He stank too, like vodka and sweat.

The last thing he probably wanted to do was get into it with me, but I wasn’t about to let this drop. It had to end now.

Looking pretty defeated, he turned and walked back out the door. Not bothering to glance back at Cass and Kira, I followed after him.

We headed out onto the porch and down the steps, pausing in the front yard. The sun was beating down on us today, immediately sending an uncomfortable prickle through my body. It was probably the hottest it had been since I’d gotten here.

“What’s up, Nate?” he asked, swinging around to face me as though he didn’t have a damn clue.

“Don’t ask me that,” I said, not at all bothering to be nice about it. “You know exactly what’s up. You and Cass. You had sex with her last night, didn’t you? What in the absolute fuck is wrong with you?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it, seeming to rethink what he was about to say. I continued to stare at him until he sighed heavily and glanced away.

“I still have feelings for her. I can’t help that.”

His lack of denial about screwing her kicked my anger up a notch.

“Weak. That’s what you are.” My words were harsh, but necessary. “You’re letting her fool you into thinking she’s changed when, really, she’s still the same fucking person.”

No one else was going to be real with him the way I was being right now. I was the only one who knew the truth. He had to hear it from me.

Finn’s eyes shot back to me. The yellow had grown dark, filled with hurt and surprise at my biting comment.

“Nate, you have no idea what it’s like to be in love with someone.” I had riled him up to the point where he was now getting mad and attacking me. Typical. “You run away before you can let anyone in and use your parents as an excuse for your behavior.”

That was all true, but hearing it from him was sending sharp spasms shooting through my chest. “At least I know what I’m doing,” I countered, as though it was somehow supposed to be a reasonable defense. “You’re in complete denial about evil incarnate. She fucked around behind your back.”

“Stop it, okay?” Finn pushed his hair off his forehead, looking ten kinds of frustrated. “I really think Cassidy has truly changed. We’ve had long conversations about it. She seems like the person I once used to know. Maybe time apart has turned her into a better person.”

Like hell it had. Time apart had turned her into a conniving snake.

When I’d first met Cass, four years ago, it was after Finn and I had already started living together and she’d decided she had to be close to him. I’d thought Cass was an awesome girl—she was cute, a fun drinking buddy, and she seemed to want to shed the small town girl image she’d always had. We immediately hit it off.

But it didn’t take me long to notice inconsistencies in her personality—things that Finn had never been able to see. She was jealous when it came to Finn having female friends, she was possessive, and she was easily able to manipulate him into thinking he was the bad one in the relationship.

One night, I’d been at a party at a friend’s house in the Upper West Side, getting drunk, hitting on women, doing my thing. My eyes had landed on a woman across the room—petite, auburn hair, squeezed into a form-fitting, red dress.

Feeling a little turned on by the way her ass stood out on such a tiny body, I meandered through the people around me and approached her. She’d been engaged in a conversation with one of the sons of a wealthy hotel tycoon when I tapped her on the shoulder.

As she revolved around to face me, it felt like my world spun with her. There she was, Cassidy Turner, at an exclusive NYC party acting as though she wasn’t some small town girl. On a night she was supposed to be working a late shift at the crappy diner she’d managed to get a job at, she was here, trying to make her way into the upper echelons of society.

The confidence in Cass had immediately fell away. She’d been caught out in a lie, and had begged me not to tell Finn, that she was just struggling to find herself in the city. My biggest mistake was believing her—I felt sorry for her and didn’t tell Finn about that night. 

Maybe if I had it would’ve put him on alert about how two-faced she was. Maybe it wouldn’t have resulted in what happened almost two years later. But after that night, I began to see that Cass lied freely, and often. The more I confronted her about them, the more she changed the way she acted around me. Funnily enough, I was the only person she was real with.

“I very much doubt that,” I said, unable to keep the virulence out of my tone.

The bitterness came from the realization that my friend was a fucking moron and that there was nothing I could do to protect him from Cass’ malevolent influence.

Finn sighed, and he suddenly seemed exhausted. I wasn’t sure if it was because of his hangover or if he was just done with the conversation. “Nate, please. Can I just try this out and see where it goes? She means something to me.”

“Whatever.” There was no point in arguing if he refused to see reason. It was draining.

My arms folded across my chest as I dug my foot into the grass, refusing to give him my approval. He was free to do whatever—and whoever—he wanted, but I didn’t have to like it.

“Remember that time you brought Robin Hood home?” he suddenly asked. “And I told you it was a bad idea.”

My eyes shot to him, knowing exactly where this was going. “Robin Hood” was a random girl I’d met at a party one night. Finn had had a weird vibe about her and warned me against bringing her home with me, but I hadn’t listened. She and I had sex, and I’d passed out immediately. The next morning, my phone, laptop, wallet, and, believe it or not, silverware were all gone.

We dubbed her “Robin Hood”.

“That was completely different,” I argued, even though I knew I should’ve listened to Finn that night.

“Depending on your perspective,” he countered. “The point is, I let you make your own mistakes. I didn’t agree with your decision, but I supported you anyway.”

I fell silent again, realizing he was right. I was in no position to lecture or parent him when I had a world of issues wrong with me. In our time together as friends, I was the one who was always doing stupid shit. “What would you do if you were in my position?”

“I’d trust your judgment,” he said without hesitation.

I knew he wasn’t just saying that so I’d back off about him getting back with Cass. It was because he meant it.

“Fine, I’ll trust your judgment.” I didn’t though. Not when it came to her.

Even he didn’t seem entirely convinced with how genuine my response was, but he didn’t seem adamant that I show more sincerity.

“You wanna head inside?” I asked, jerking my head in the direction of the house.

“There was one more thing I wanted to say,” he said, his expression even more serious now.

“Yeah?”

“About Kira…”

Shit. Has she told him about what had happened last night? No, that couldn’t be it—he would’ve knocked me out by now if he knew the truth.

“Thanks for standing up for her,” he continued, failing to notice how tense I’d become. “I didn’t expect that from you.”

Relief trickled into me. He knew me well; I liked to use my words. Fisticuffs just wasn’t my style. I tried to shrug it off. “He was a jerk. He deserved it.”

“I know. I just want you to know I really do appreciate it, man,” Finn said, unable to hide the gratitude in his voice. “It means a lot to me that you were looking out for her.”

All I could do was nod, feeling a little guilty that he had no idea I’d kissed her mere moments before that. A kiss that had made me feel alive in ways I had never thought possible.

“I guess you’re not such a dick, after all,” he added with a grin, his hazel eyes crinkling just a little.

“You’re still a pussy,” I responded, to which he punched me in the arm.

When we walked back into the house a few minutes later, everyone was gathered in the living room. Cass was squeezed in between Joe and Theresa, while Kira was situated in the armchair across from them.

Everyone glanced up when we walked in.

“Is everything okay?” Theresa asked, appearing concerned.

Before I could answer and tell her that Cass needed to be exorcised from the house, Finn spoke. “Yeah, everything’s fine. We were just going over some details about my position at
MDC
. What are you guys doing?”

The last thing we’d been doing was talking about my father’s company, and from the way Kira was frowning at me, she didn’t seem convinced by his fake story.

“We’re figuring out details for the fair,” Theresa told us, as Finn and I plopped down on the couch across from them. “Cass said she’s going to come over that morning and drive with us over there.”

“Fair?” I asked.

“Yeah, the county fair. I’ve asked you to go with me every year since we’ve known each other,” Finn reminded me.

“Oh,
that
fair.”

I vaguely recalled Finn mentioning it to me, and how it was a Walsh family tradition. He’d leave for Ripley every summer right around this time just to be a part of it, often missing out on the summer I spent in the Hamptons at my father’s second house.

Finn had always invited me along, but a summer spent in a beach house with booze and girls had seemed more enticing at the time.

“We have a stall with baked goods,” Theresa explained. “All made from recipes passed down from my great-grandmother.”

That was kind of sweet. There was nothing like that in my family, except recipes we liked passed from chef to chef.

“I’m so lucky I get to be a part of it,” Cass said, beaming. “It just doesn’t feel like the fair without the Walsh stall.”