Branded(21)

“She won’t date you,” Finnley states flatly.

“Jesus Christ, what is it with you two?” I grumble. “I never said anything about dating her. I just wanted to know more about her. I haven’t seen her in fifteen years, I just wondered what her deal is.”

Finnley narrows her eyes at me and for a minute I seriously consider covering my balls. She’s one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met and I’m glad my best friend found her again. She also went through some tough shit with her estranged husband and, with the help of Collin, she was able to find her backbone and turn into quite the little firecracker.

“Maybe if you didn’t have selective memory loss you might remember what her deal is,” Finnley says sarcastically.

“What the hell does that even mean?”

She huffs and leans forward, mirroring my pose with her elbows on her knees. “If you can’t remember, then I’m not going to tell you. Besides, it’s not my story to tell.”

“What the hell is she talking about?” I ask Collin.

He shrugs. “I have no idea. Finn, what are you talking about?”

She rolls her eyes, but doesn’t take them off of me when she speaks. “I swear, the two of you must have shared a brain back in high school.”

I rack my mind, trying to think of what I could have possibly done to her all those years ago to justify her animosity, but I’m drawing a blank. Anyway, who the fuck holds onto something that happened when they were teenagers? Jesus, get over it already. I remember having a stupid ass crush on Phina and her barely acknowledging me, and then we graduated and I never saw her again.

“Ask me a different question. One I might be able to answer,” she adds.

I think about the email I got and the note Phina received and how she seemed to know who it might have come from but shut down when I tried to get more information out of her.

“Okay, here’s a question. Has she pissed anyone off in the last fifteen years? Someone who might want to fuck with her?”

I watch as Finnley’s expression goes from irritation to worry as she bites her bottom lip. “What are you talking about? Did something happen?”

I didn’t come here with the intention of freaking Finnley out or telling her about what happened with Phina, but obviously Phina isn’t even confiding in her best friend about it and I don’t like that one bit.

“Someone left a note on her door the other night. It wasn’t signed and let’s just say it didn’t have the nicest words written on it. She went to a mutual detective friend of ours to have him look into it and he let me know about it,” I explain, trying not to growl the word friend. “I got a similar email from an anonymous person and when I confronted her about it at the hospital the other night, I could tell that she knew who it might be, but she wouldn’t admit it.”

Finnley looks back at Collin. “It can’t be him, can it? I mean, she’d know if they let him out, right?”

Collin rubs her shoulder comfortingly and nods his head. “Yeah, they would be obligated to send her a letter informing her of his parole since she testified. She hasn’t said anything to you about it?”

Finnley shakes her head.

“What is going on? Who are you talking about?” I ask, my worry growing tenfold at the mention of parole.

Finnley turns back to me and I watch her throat constrict as she swallows nervously a few times. “Why would both of you get similar notes? You guys have only seen each other that one night at the bar a few months ago and then at the gallery.”

Deciding now isn’t really the best time to inform Phina’s best friend about her proclivity to threesomes and how I practically fucked her in the middle of the hospital, I change the subject.

“Not important. The fact is, someone isn’t happy with her and now I’ve been pulled into it. Tell me what you know.”

Finnley runs her hand through her hair and takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “She didn’t have the best childhood. Her mother left when she was little and her father blamed Phina for it. I don’t know everything, she’s not exactly forthcoming with that information, but I know it was bad. There were times in high school when she would just shut down for days at a time. She wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t speak, she just…existed. And then, she’d snap out of it and pretend like nothing was wrong. Her dad owned his own garage in town, but towards the middle of our senior year, it was starting to go under. He was drinking a lot, not showing up for work, arguing with customers, that sort of thing. All of a sudden, right before graduation, he came into a bunch of money. He flaunted it in front of Phina and told her she’d never see a dime of it.”