Page 20 of A Moth to the Flame (Utopia #1)

Chapter

Fourteen

CORDELIA

A loud bang outside startles me out of sleep.

I rub Duke’s eyes and sigh. The last thing I remember is Scottish clan descriptions from the Middle Ages.

At least I don’t have to worry about getting sucked back into my old habits with fantasy or romance novels.

Granny’s library is as boring as the tax codes that I pore over for work.

Why did she thrust that first fairy tale collection into my young hands?

Seems like she would’ve been far more likely to choose a history book.

Another strange noise filters in from outside, which means I didn’t dream the first one. Still groggy, I stumble toward the front window.

I wake up completely when my own voice yells, “Get back in the car, Cash! You’ve gotta take me to jail! I can’t be here!”

Holy hell. I pull the curtains back, uncertain that I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing.

Cash Castellaw stands at the back passenger side of a squad car.

He hauls my body out of the backseat with a firm grip around my elbow.

“I’m not a heartless bastard, Delia. I’m not going to throw you in the drunk tank.

You’re acting out because you’re grieving.

I get it. If you’re not comfortable staying here alone, I’ll call Neveah to?— ”

“No!”

I nearly choke on Duke’s tongue when he spins to face Cash, clutching onto his brother’s shirt.

“Can you still see me? You called me Delia. Do you know who I am? Do you hear everything I’m saying to you?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave you here alone,” Cash answers, trying to pry my hands off his uniform. “You’ve asked me those questions a million times since I put you in the back of the car.”

I bolt out the front door before I even get a grip on what’s happening.

Cash’s gaze pivots to me. His expression expands into abject shock. “Duke?”

Oh. Crap.

I feign a Duke-like smile. “Hey…brother. What’s going on?”

He shakes his head like he’s trying to reorient his entire world view, then turns his attention back to his actual brother, who looks like me. “What’s he doing here?”

Duke opens and closes my mouth a few times, but no words come out.

Cash sighs, closes his eyes briefly, then turns his gaze toward me. “She’s drunk. She was being combative at The Flame. I?—”

“She was what ?” I seethe.

This absolute motherfucker. His recent torture techniques of being nice weren’t enough to make me kowtow to him, so he thought he’d haul my body into town and make a ruckus at The Flame?

And get me arrested?

Absolutely the hell not.

I stalk across the porch, down the front steps, and through the front yard until I reach the officer and the evil miscreant who’s been apprehended. “What’d she do? Smash windows? Punch someone?” I grin at Duke. “Spray paint some tiny dicks on an obnoxiously big truck?”

Cash blinks at me like he doesn’t understand my questions. Weird that he became a cop if he seems asleep at the wheel of his own mind, but okay.

“She’s drunk. She was aggressive toward Neveah Slacum and Wallace,” he finally answers .

“Ask him how he knows that,” Duke insists at a very slow cadence.

I aim a flattened brow at him. “Not sure how he could miss it. You’re talking like you drank a whole fifth of moonshine.”

“You really are, Delia,” Cash agrees.

“How the fuck would you know that?” Duke shouts at his brother. “How do you know that nickname? How do you know what I sound like when I’m drunk? Tell me one time in your thirty-two years when you’ve noticed that I exist!”

Cash glances sharply at my fury-red face.

I stare at Duke in my body like…

“I’ve known you since you were born, Cordelia McCoy.” Cash punctuates his statement with a scoff that stabs me in the chest.

He knows me. He ignored me anyway.

If Duke wanted to rub my nose in what my life is like just because he’s mad about suddenly having to live it, well.

This might actually be the cruelest thing he’s ever done to me.

“Come on, Cash,” I mumble before grabbing onto my other elbow.

“Let’s put her to bed. If we’re lucky, she’ll pass out and won’t be any trouble for the rest of the night. ”

Duke stiffens as he’s dragged along by male bodies twice his size.

“Okay, fine,” he bites out. “Then, tell me?—”

“What are you doing out here anyway?” Cash talks over his brother.

“Yeah, Duke,” the real Duke yells at me. “Tell Cash why you, the guy who screwed with me for so long, is at my house.”

I roll his eyes. “Trying to get her out of town faster. Been helping around here to get the place ready to sell.”

Cash nods like this is a perfectly acceptable explanation. “That’s mighty kind of you. I’d offer to help, but Ray is on leave after that fishing accident. We’re short-staffed at the station until further notice.”

I throw up a little in Duke’s mouth.

Mighty kind? Duke?

On second thought, it makes perfect sense that Cash would view his brother as a hero and roll right past his bullying ways. Why would he defend a victim that he chose to ignore for decades ?

Duke struggles as we pull my body up the steps and through the front door. “He’s not kind! He’s been a piece of shit to me!”

If he wasn’t wearing my face, I would physically shut him up.

“Delia,” Cash sighs, “I don’t know why Wallace didn’t cut you off before you got to this point, but I’m going to have words with him after we’re done here.”

“Go right the fuck ahead!” Duke bellows.

I would be impressed at the way he amplifies my voice so powerfully, but I’m too pissed.

Duke turns toward me. He’s drunk, all right. My expression is downright bizarre, panicked in an inexplicable way.

“Go with him,” he insists. “See what they actually talk about.”

“God, you’re pathetic,” I mumble under my breath.

Except…I don’t hate his idea.

I’ve been holed up in this haunted house for a week, and I haven’t found a single paragraph or cursed trinket to help us. I’m mostly alone with the history of Granny’s life that I never knew about and a wayward dick that isn’t appeased by jerking off twice a day.

I should go into town. If I have to be stuck in this body, the least I can do is put its reputation to work for me.

I’m going to enjoy having an actual conversation with people while I’m at it.

Maybe I’ll have a drink or two for myself, bask in the attention he’s been taking for granted his whole life.

Better yet, I can actually do what he was supposed to—start digging for information.

I’ve mostly tuned out Cash’s attempts to placate his hysterical brother.

What if the only reason Cash is being so nice to my body is because he somehow knows it’s Duke in there? Maybe he senses the personality shift, even though Duke hasn’t dropped our cover once. I’d give him credit for never slipping up our names or pronouns, but he’s only doing it to save face.

“Hey, Cash? Can you give me a lift back to town?” I ask as I pull down the covers on my bed.

A shudder rolls through me at the idea of Duke sleeping in my bed tonight. Then again, the alternative of him not staying put might be worse.

“Sure,” he pants as he all but manhandles my body onto the mattress.

Duke’s still ranting and raving about God only knows what.

I place his large hand on my own forehead and all but beg, “Please. Please, go to sleep.”

To my surprise, Duke obliges. He immediately closes his eyes and breathes deeply.

Cash’s eyebrows are flirting with his hairline when he turns to me. “How did you do that?”

“Oh, you know me,” I quip. “I’ve always had the magic touch when it comes to women.”

The lie tastes like acid on my tongue. Cash barely knows me, which only proves that I’ve never had any kind of magical touch with anyone.

The Sharpie marker praise I read in The Flame’s bathroom is at least true for Duke. His brother must know it. He shoots me an indulgent grin with a judgmental shake of his head. Then, we’re off.

I follow him outside, only barely managing to mask my anticipation. I can’t wait to eat, drink, and be merry for a change.

Cash slides into the driver’s seat of his patrol car, and I take the passenger seat.

After he turns over the engine and heads out to the main road, he breaks the silence.

“I can’t believe you finally did it, after all these years.” He grimaces. “Course, I’m not sure it’s a good idea at this point. I can’t remember Delia ever acting so unhinged.”

I can’t imagine why.

I snort, but then my brain trips over what he said first.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask what in the hell he thinks his brother’s finally done, but I have to step carefully. If Cash guesses what’s going on because I can’t play this game as well as Duke, then my night of well-deserved revelry will be over before it begins.

“Yeah,” I lead instead. “Finally did…the thing. Turns out, it was easy. ”

There. That sounds like a very Duke-ish thing to say in response to praise.

Cash furrows his brow, staring out the windshield at the dark woods on either side of the road. “I guess time changes a person. She was always so quiet and withdrawn, growing up. Nothing you ever said or did broke down her walls.”

I blink several times, then slowly turn to study Cash. He makes it sound like Duke was trying to reach me in a…romantic way.

As subtly as possible, I lean over the center console to sniff him, making it look like I’m simply shifting Duke’s weight. I don’t smell alcohol wafting off Cash. He couldn’t have been drinking on the job when Duke showed up to The Flame.

I don’t know how or when Cash became a police officer. I’m not sure of the nature of his relationship with any of his brothers, let alone the one I’m entangled with. Hell, I don’t even know how this man takes his coffee, or if he prefers tea.

It’s entirely possible that Cash doesn’t know how much Duke hates me. For all I know, Duke acted one way toward me and told his beloved family an entirely different story.

Still, our rural school is terribly small. The whole town probably heard the rumors Duke spread about me. How else would I have overheard random people talking about my supposed sheep fetish? They never even harassed me about it, just gossiped with each other, even if I was present.

“Yeah…” I finally respond, not knowing what else to say.

I could interrogate Cash about what he knows. Part of me is tempted to do exactly that. The other part of me doesn’t want him to figure out what’s going on.

I just know I’ll get pegged as the villain in this situation, and not only because it was my stupid wish that caused this.

The last thing I need is for the Castellaw clan to throw me in jail for my carnal knowledge of what their brother’s insistent erection feels like.

I’m wearing his body like a bad, trippy Halloween costume.

They’re probably overzealous Christmas people.

“Here you go,” Cash says, putting the car in park.

I glance around and realize that we’re already in town, parked in front of an average-looking little house with red shutters and white siding. It’s clean and well-maintained, with tended flowerbeds running the length of the front of the house.

Duke’s big blue truck is sitting in the driveway.

Cash snorts as he stares at it. “Man, I pity the punk who egged your truck if you ever find out who did it.”

Yeah, no. I’m not sticking around to ask Cash shit. I don’t know if he’s so busy with work that he’s just disconnected from his family, or if he’s as stupid as his younger brother.

“Thanks for the ride,” I say before opening the passenger door.

He taps the horn as he pulls away from the yard.

I stare at a different opportunity than the one I planned for the night.

I don’t hate this detour.

If there’s one phrase I’ve read a million times in books it’s this— know thine enemy.

A grin spreads across Duke’s lips.

It’s not a violation of privacy if he already gave me permission to jerk off his dick.