Sweet Water(96)

It isn’t promising news at all, and no, Finn is not in the clear. If Cash bought the drugs and laced them, it’s possible that neither Finn nor Yazmin knew about it.

It could just mean that Cash wanted to hurt Finn, which makes sense from the journal entry.

Cash could still want to hurt Finn.

My stomach flops, and my mind goes to dark places. Cash Veltri drugged Finn with the hope of doing something very bad to him while Martin rested in his selfish comfort of not knowing the whole story. I have a startling realization that just because Cash’s sister is no longer alive, that does not mean his hatred for Finn died with her.

Cash wanted to hurt Finn. He could still want to hurt Finn.

He could be hurting Finn right now.

I call Finn’s cell, and it goes straight to voice mail. I call Spencer’s cell, and it rings and rings and goes to voice mail too. I leave them both urgent messages to call me, and texts as well. I know they’re together, out with friends.

I call my dad, and he picks up on the first ring. “Hey, baby girl, how’s your date going?” he asks.

“Awful. Listen, I need you to go to my house and key in and wait for the boys. I’m afraid Finn is in danger.”

“Okay, but what’s going on, Sarah?”

“I’ll explain later.”

He doesn’t ask any more questions, as expected, and tells me he’s leaving right now. I hang up. There’s an urgency building, a retribution coming that needs to be paid. I’ve felt it all along, but I’ve done nothing about it, caught up in their world. But I’m so afraid that now Martin and I will pay for Tush’s death, and we will pay for Yazmin’s as well.

Or Finn will.





CHAPTER 25

I dial Josh. “Hi, Josh. Listen, it’s urgent that I speak with Yazmin’s mother. Do you have their address in your office files?” I ask.

“I don’t require an address to give lessons, but I’ve been to their house. I know the one.”

“I hate to ask you, but can I pick you up and can you show me where they live? I don’t have time for . . .” I trail off, because I don’t know what I don’t have time for, only that time is short.

“Umm . . . give me five minutes to close up shop, and meet me outside of the store.”

“Okay, see ya.” I hang up the phone.

I send Martin a quick text—Have you heard from the boys?

Martin: No. Call me. Or come to Mother’s. We can work this out.

No time to call. No time for arguments. My foot taps on the accelerator as I drive through the business district of Sewickley to pick up Josh. The only reason I’m involving him is because I need to know where Yazmin’s mother lives, and I don’t have time to figure it out myself.

They’re safe in the presence of friends, I keep telling myself when I think of the boys.

Then I think about all the acts of violence that have occurred in public places—churches and movie theaters and nightclubs—and my chest heaves and swells with panic. Would Cash want to make a large display of Finn’s demise, set an example of sorts? Did Cash blame Finn for Yazmin’s death and wish him harm?

We’ve kept Finn indoors every day and night since Yazmin’s death, and now he is roaming free somewhere, an open target.

I dial Finn’s phone again, and it goes straight to voice mail. “Shit.” Has he shut it off?

Maybe all my fears are unwarranted, but if Cash drugged my son, I need to know why. And if Josh helped Cash get the drugs, I need to know that too. These are not stones that I can leave unturned. These are stones that will roll into boulders and crush us, I’m sure.

When I round the corner of Beaver Street, Josh is standing at the end by the stop sign, smoking a cigarette with a backpack slung over his shoulder. He puts his hands up, motioning for me to slow down. I brake in front of the stop sign, and the car lurches forward.

Josh opens the passenger side door and gets in, placing his backpack on the floor. “Holy shit, speed limit is twenty-five. Slow down!”

Then he takes a good look at me, and his whole demeanor changes. He shuts the door and cracks the window, probably so he can still smoke. “Did they serve bad punch at the ball again?” He pushes the passenger seat back to fit his long legs.

I must look a fright in my black evening gown, soiled from the champagne I spilled down the front. My eyes are most certainly rimmed in red, my updo undone from my tirade through the country club, my race to claim Martin’s keys to the Lexus. “We have to talk,” I tell him. “Tell me where I’m going first.”

He nods and stares out the window, smoking his cig. “Oh . . . kay. But are you sure you want to go there?”

“I have to, Josh. I think Finn’s in danger. Spencer too.”

He stares at me and then exhales deeply. “Let’s go, then. McKees Rocks. I know where it is once we get across the bridge.”

I plug McKees Rocks into my GPS even though I know how to get there. I don’t know if Alisha will tell me where Cash is, but she can at least call him and find out.

Time feels short for no explainable reason at all. If I stop for even a brief second, I feel like I’ll run out of minutes. My mother’s intuition is pinging hard, and I hope I’m wrong about Cash, but if I’m right, I need to move quickly.

It’s unfortunate that I don’t know much about where Yazmin lived, only that it was somewhere in McKees Rocks, and I only learned that after Monroe asked Finn about it. I didn’t care to ask Finn myself because he said she wasn’t from Sewickley, a city kid on scholarship, so therefore I wasn’t interested enough to ask more.