Free Cursed be the Wicked by J.R. Richardson Page B

sidewalk. Finn doesn’t seem happy to see him and his friends but she doesn’t look fearful either. It’s more like indignation.
    She grumbles from beside me. “Lord, I am not in the mood for this.”
    He starts to say something more to her, but then gives me a second look.
    “Don’t I know you?” he asks.
    I want to look away and avoid any possible eye contact with the guy, but I can’t. I simply eyeball him as Finn chimes in.
    “What do you want, Raymond?”
    Raymond. This is whoever she thought I was when I arrived the other night. I realize now, I know that name.
    Where do know that name from?
    He turns his attentions back to Finn when she calls him out. “I hear your old grandma is late on her payments again,” he says, like he’s trying to hold it over her head.
    Finn clearly isn’t playing his game. She places a hand on one of her hips and shoots him an annoyed look.
    “I’m pretty sure that’s none of your business.”
    He shrugs.
    “It’s my brother’s, though. Isn’t it?”
    Arrogant laughter from his friends doesn’t faze her a bit.
    “And?” she asks, impatiently. I almost get the feeling she knows this conversation all too well.
    “He’s not the most flexible guy in the world, Finnley. But I can be.”
    He smiles and it makes Finn scrunch her face up. Even I know she hates that name and yet he continues to use it. She refuses to give him the satisfaction of saying anything.
    I love that.
    “Gross, Raymond,” she says, then loses all that patience she didn’t have to begin with. “Why don’t you move along, I’ve got somewhere to be right now.”
    She starts to walk past him, but he steps in front of her, then remembers me and shoots me a look.
    “With him?”
    And I’ve kinda had it with this punk, whoever he is.
    “Yeah, actually,” I tell him. “Is that a problem, Raymond?”
    The jackass laughs. He’s clearly not taking me seriously.
    I hear Finn beside me. “You probably shouldn’t—”
    I put a hand up to her.
    “I don’t see the need for a scene here, guys. We’re all adults, right?” I tell him and his friends. He doesn’t look like he’s been of legal age for long though. I try to keep the situation light as I make my own attempt to usher Finn past them, but he steps in the way again.
    “Don’t think you’re going anywhere ‘til I’m done talking to Finnley here,” he tells me. His friends snicker and I start wondering if there’s any way to walk away from this situation unscathed.
    Highly doubtful, Coop.
    So much for keeping it light.
    “I think we’re going wherever the hell we wanna go,” I tell him. My tone is a little more serious and we’re toe to toe now.
    “Says who?” the cocky little shit says.
    “ Says who? What are you, twelve?”
    “Try twenty-one.”
    I laugh because, damn, I just can’t help it.
    Then he decks me, square in the jaw.
    I swear I hear something crack and a metallic taste fills my mouth as I fly backwards. The back of my head makes contact with something hard and everything goes black for an instant.
    I cough. “Shit.”
    “Oh my God, are you okay?” I hear Finn. Then I blink my eyes open to see her blurry figure, turning her furious attention toward the jerks that are harassing her.
    “If I were you, Raymond, I’d leave. Now.”
    “Cut it out, Finnley. I hate it when you do that shit.”
    I’m trying to focus on what he means, but I can’t. Things are too fuzzy for the time being.
    “You heard me,” Finn warns him again and then his buddies encourage him to leave. I think he’s gone, based on the quiet that eventually takes over.
    When I can fully open my eyes again, I see her. Finn. Leaning over me, with my head in her lap in the middle of the sidewalk. The setting sun is behind her so all I can really see is her silhouette and her voice is full of worry.
    She’s whispering something I can’t understand at first. When I groan, she stops. Her next words are clearer.
    “Can you talk?”
    Her voice is