things he says.”
“I believe what my father says about me too, sometimes.”
He scowls. “I hate how he treats you.”
I feel his anger toward my father more than I hear it.
“If you ever want me to intervene I will,” he says.
Oh god, no.
“He’ll be the means to his own end,” I say softly. “He doesn’t need anyone else to intervene.”
Finn fixes me with those blue-black eyes.
“He doesn’t deserve you.” He looks back over the Mystic. “And neither do I. I know it’ll be disruptive for your brother, but after the election we should move him to a safer place. Out of town.” His breath catches. “And you too, Sasha. I don’t want to tip him off yet—he’ll lash out against the staff and I know you don’t want that. But after the election, if things go well, they’ll have protection and if they don’t go well, my brother and I can convince him it’s bad for business to hurt you, and his pride will be assuaged enough by your defeat to let it go.”
I have some other ideas, but I don’t need to share them. Not yet.
“It’d be a shame to waste a perfectly good Saturday,” I say. “Do you want to take a longer walk?”
He strokes my hair gently.
“I’d love that.”
18
Finn
I expected to feel like shit after revealing that terrible story to Sasha, but I should’ve known better. Even after everything she’s been through, after everything I’d put her through, she extended her gentle kindness even to me.
Even though I’m far from deserving.
And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her from my father.
She lets me hold her hand as we walk along the river. It’s honestly not a place I’ve explored very much, and I’m happy to follow her wherever she wants to go. She takes us to a little park behind a shopping center. It’s a marshland that acts as drainage for the river, and I bet it’s beautiful in the spring.
Or it will be when we clean up the river.
“Was your father always like that?” I ask. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer.”
“He’s been like this since I’ve known him,” she says. “My mother said he changed after his injury. He didn’t want to do anything other than play hockey. He couldn’t let go of that identity and just got more bitter as the years went on. I think he was devastated when my mother died but didn’t see his part in it at all.”
“That’d be a hard thing to face,” I say.
“Yeah. I don’t expect him to change for the better, but sometimes I wish he’d at least recognize what a good kid Benjamin is.”
“He is a good kid,” I say. “And you’re a wonderful woman. I’d say he should be proud except he doesn’t deserve any credit for the person you are.”
She smiles at me and I point to a rusty old swing set. The swings are still in place.
“It’ll probably scream like a banshee,” she says.
“Well if I sit on it, sure. But not you.”
The chains creak when she sits on the u-shaped plastic seat but don’t give more than the usual groan as I push her gently a few times.
“My father wanted to marry another woman,” I say. “My sister Siobhan told me. She found out over the summer.”
Sasha digs the heels of her boots into the crusty snow under the swing and turns to look at me.
“What?”
“He was in love with a woman named Kathleen, but she didn’t feel the same way. Married another man and my father hated him and his family ever since. He convinced my brothers and I to hate his family too. And I did. I still do in some ways. It’s hard to lose that programming.”
“Is that why he’s such a dick?” she asks.
Jesus. I let out a loud laugh. “No. He’s always been a dick. That’s probably why Kathleen married Murphy Doyle instead. Knew she’d have kinder children. Siobhan’s dating their son Kieran.”
“Are your parents okay with that?” she asks.
“They don’t love it, but as much as my father hates Murphy Doyle for beating him, the Doyles are a very powerful family in their own right. And he loves my sister. He knows she’ll be happy with Kieran.”
I hate to admit it. All of it.
“And his family?”
“Mother’s long gone. Father’s on his way out too.”
“I see.”
Does she understand why I’m telling her this? I care about this woman. But even if she gives me a chance and things work out between us, it’ll be