Page 16 of Big Hefty Trucker

Something feels off about his tone. I straighten up to my full height, towering over every other person in the room. The man takes a step back when I say, “Yes, I am.”

“You’re the one who ruined it. You ruined the plan,” he splutters.

Suddenly, the harsh look on Kat’s mother’s face falters. “What plan?”

“I paid someone off to go into the store and threaten a kidnapping.” The tone with which he delivers this bombshell is dismissive, as if we’re not supposed to be offended by the fact that he paid some random guy to threaten his daughter at gunpoint.

“What?” Kat says, incredulous at the revelation. “You paid someone to come into the store and threaten me?”

“I couldn’t have Human Resources getting involved,” her father explains as if it’s obvious to everyone but his daughter. “If they knew my own daughter, the heiress to the company, was working as a clerk, I would never be taken seriously again! You could have made the whole family look like a laughingstock.”

“That wasn’t my intention at all—”

“Then what was it?”

“I just wanted to do something for me, okay?” Kat cries as angry tears start to stream down her cheeks. I fight the urge to pull her into my arms. She needs this moment. She deserves to tell them how she feels. “My whole life you’ve told me that I have a duty to the family, to the company. I’ve worked on a degree I hate, I’ve given up my dreams for this stupid company. All just to make you happy. I’m sorry I wanted to have a chance to do something independently, but I’m not sorry I wanted to learn more about the stores you want me to own someday.”

“Members of the Greene family don’t work as clerks, Katherine,” her father scoffs.

“I don’t think we should act like we’re above it,” she hisses at him. My heart swells with pride at her words. “You’ve never given a shit about the people who represent the company to the world, and you’ve never given a shit about me either. Everything’s always about appearances for you!”

“Katherine Greene, you speak to your father with the respect he is owed,” her mother scolds, but Kat’s not having any of it.

“No. No, I don’t think I will.” My girl pulls herself up tall as she continues. “I’m done. I’m done with this family. I’m done with this company. I’m done with this degree I never wanted. Make Camilla do it. God knows you’ve ignored her too. She’d be great for the company, and a far better CEO than you’ve ever been, not that you’ve ever cared about giving either of us a chance at being happy.”

Her father is vibrating with indignation at being spoken to as he deserves. Suddenly, he lunges at his daughter, but before he can lay a finger on her, I’ve got my hands the lapels of his suit hoisting him up to slam him into the wall beside the apartment’s front door. I watch with relish as he winces. The anger in his face falters, and for the first time since he walked in here, he looks scared. Good. He should be.

If he thinks his anger is the biggest emotion in the room, he’s got another thing coming to him.

“Listen, cupcake,” I say to him, letting my voice drop to its lowest, most menacing tone. “You lay a fucking finger on your daughter, and I take your fucking arm off. How’s that for an HR disaster?”

Kat’s father’s eyes widen. He says nothing as he sputters in my grip, trying to wiggle free. His struggle barely even registers next to the ease with which I grappled him in the first place. Lifting this piece of shit is nothing. I’ve got his feet dangling six inches above the ground without breaking a sweat.

His disinclination for answering me won’t stand, though. I lift him away from the wall just to slam him back on it again, and this time, the fucker audibly whimpers. I growl, “Am I understood?”

“Y-yes!” he mumbles haltingly. “I understand!”

“Excellent.” Without warning, I release him. The man crumples to the floor in a quivering heap. Not even his wife steps forward to help him up. She’s too busy standing like a deer in the headlights at the door. I step back to Kat’s side, and she takes my hand without taking her wide, shocked gaze off her father.

The room watches as he brings himself to standing, looking wrinkles and shaken. He makes a show of dusting himself off before leveling a cold gaze at his daughter. He doesn’t move closer, and he certainly doesn’t even try looking me in the eye.

“Fine. Just fucking fine,” he starts, his voice eerily calm compared to how it was mere moments before. “You’re done? So are we. You’re cut off. Say goodbye to this apartment, your car, your credit cards, and your college classes. You’re no longer a part of this family.”

He starts to make his way to the door, holding it open for his wife as she quietly follows him.

“Oh, and you’re fired from the store,” he says with a bitter laugh. “I made sure that that boss of yours kept you off the schedule, but now I can tell him he can start the separation process.”

The door slams closed before she can say anything else.

For several seconds, Kat stares at the door, rooted to the spot. Her pretty face is twisted with anger, but it takes nothing away from her beauty. Not when she has a determined glint in her eye like she does right now.

She turns to me. “I’m sorry, I have to cancel coffee.”

“Kat—”

She blows a raspberry and raises her eyes to the ceiling, as if fighting back more tears. It seems her confidence is beginning to slip already. “I have to start packing, I guess—”

I can’t let her think she’s in this alone. I can’t let her go through this alone. “Kat, baby—”

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