Part 38 (2/2)

”Ohhhh,” Willa said, staring at Finn. ”You walked.”

Finn nodded. He'd walked. And she'd let him go without a fight.

Not that he'd given her any choice with the I don't want to see you again thing . . . f.u.c.k. Willa was right. He'd been wielding around a six-foot d.i.c.k, which made him the six-foot d.i.c.k.

Willa looked greatly disappointed. ”I don't understand.”

Finn shook his head. ”I know. But I'm not going to tell you more.” He might have turned his back on Pru, but he wouldn't have these guys doing the same. She deserved their friends.h.i.+p. She deserved a lot more than that, but he was still so angry and . . . s.h.i.+t. Hurt. He pushed away from the table. ”I've gotta go.”

He hoped to be alone but Sean followed him back to his office. ”What aren't you telling me?” he asked. ”What is it she did that was so bad?”

Finn shook his head.

”Just tell me,” Sean pushed. ”So I can tell you that you're being an idiot and then you can go make it right.”

Finn stared at him. ”What makes you believe that this can be made right?”

Sean lifted a shoulder. ”Because you taught me that love and family is where you make it, with who you make it. And even in this short amount of time, Pru's become both your love and your family.”

That this was true felt like a knife slicing through him. ”Sean, her parents were the ones in the car that killed dad. Her dad was the drunk driver.”

Sean stared at him. ”Are you s.h.i.+tting me?”

”I couldn't have made that up if I'd tried.”

Sean sank to the couch. ”Holy s.h.i.+t.”

”Yeah. Listen, this stays right here in this room, yeah?”

Sean lifted his gaze and pierced Finn. ”You're protecting her.”

”I just don't want to hurt her,” he said. At least not more than he already had . . .

”No, you're protecting her.” Sean stood again. ”The way I bet she was trying to protect you when she didn't tell you who she was.”

Finn shook his head. ”What are you saying?”

”That you're the dumba.s.s, not her.” Sean shook his head. ”Look, I've got to get back out there. One of us has to have their head in the game, and trust me, no one's more surprised that it's me.” He stopped at the door and turned back. ”Listen, I get that you're too close to see this clearly, but take it from someone who lost as much as you did in that accident . . . we didn't lose s.h.i.+t compared to what Pru lost. She doesn't deserve this, not from you. Not from anyone.”

And then he let himself out and Finn was alone. He went to his desk and pushed some paper around for half an hour, but it was useless. He was useless. He'd just decided to bail when Archer walked right in. ”Ever hear of knocking?”

Archer paced the length of the office and then came to him, hands on hips.

”What?” Finn asked.

”I'm going to tell you something,” Archer said. ”And I don't want you to take a swing at me for it. I'm feeling p.i.s.sed off and wouldn't mind a fight, but I don't want it with you.”

s.h.i.+t. ”What did you do?” Finn asked wearily.

Archer grimaced. ”Something I once promised you I wouldn't.”

Finn stared at his oldest and most trusted friend in the world and then turned to his desk and poured them both some whiskey.

Archer lifted his gla.s.s, touched it to Finn's, and then they both tossed back.

Archer blew out a breath, set the gla.s.s down and met Finn's gaze. ”I looked into her.”

Archer had programs that rivaled entire government computer systems. When he said he'd looked into someone, he meant he looked into them. Inside and out. Upside down and right-side up. When Archer looked into someone, he could find out how old they were when they got their first cavity, what their high school P.E. teacher had said about them, what their parents had earned in a cash-under-the-table job four decades prior.

Archer didn't take this power lightly. He had a high moral code of conduct that didn't always line up with the rest of the world, but he'd never-at least not to Finn's knowledge-looked into his friends' pasts or breached their privacy.

He had, however, looked into Willa's last boyfriend, but that had been for a good reason.

”When?” Finn asked.

Archer gave him a surprised look. ”Shouldn't the question be what? As in what did I find out?”

”You know who she is.”

”Yes,” Archer said. ”Do you?”

”Why the f.u.c.k do you think I'm standing here by myself?” Finn asked.

Archer looked away for a beat and then brought his gaze back. ”There's stuff you might not know.”

”Like?”

”Like the fact that she's spent her life since the accident trying to right that wrong to everyone who was affected. That she, anonymously through an attorney, gave every penny she was awarded in life insurance to the victims of that accident, including you and Sean. She not only kept zero for herself, she sold the house she was raised in and used that money to help as well. She kept nothing, instead dedicated the following years to making sure everyone else was taken care of, whatever it took. She helped them find jobs, stay in college, find a place to live, everything and anything that was needed.”

Finn nodded.

”You know?” Archer asked in disbelief. ”So what happened between you two? She came clean and . . .”

”I got mad that she lied to me.”

”You mean omitted, right? Because not telling you something isn't lying.”

Finn swore roughly but whether that was because he was p.i.s.sed or because Archer was right, he wasn't sure. ”It was more than that. She had plenty of opportunities to tell me. If not when we first met, then certainly after we-”

Archer let that hang there a moment. ”I'm thinking she had her reasons,” he said quietly. ”And it wasn't all that long. What, three weeks? Maybe she was working her way up to it.”

Finn shook his head.

”Look, I'm not excusing what she did,” Archer said. ”She should've told you. We both know that. But we also both know that it's never that easy. She had a lot working against her, Finn. She's alone, for one. And she's got the biggest guilt complex going that I've ever seen.”

Finn swore again and shoved his fingers in his hair. ”She shouldn't feel guilty. The accident wasn't her fault.”

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