Page 68 of Brutal King

My dad came up to us. “Lesson learned, Katrina. There’s no shame in that. You’ll be better and stronger for having had the experience.”

“Oh, Dad.” I threw myself into his arms and cried. “I’m so sorry. I shamed the family.”

My father shook his head. “You did not. You’re nothing but joy and pride for me and your mother. If nothing, you’ve uncovered a louse in our restaurant family. I trusted him, taught him like a son, and had faith Trent could handle being the manager and head of the new concept restaurants. That’s why I had someone so young like him running Ginger. But you weeded him out. You and Kobe.”

Dad held me for a long, soothing moment then pulled back. Still holding me, he gazed at Kobe. “You seem to have a fine young man here who is prepared to do anything to protect you.”

Kobe smiled as he nodded, a slight blush on his cheeks.

“You’ve raised a fine son,” Dad told Mr. King.

Errol King was at a loss for words for a long moment. Surely, he regretted asking Kobe to shun me. After a moment, he extended his hand to my dad.

“I think it’s time we put this feud to bed.”

My dad smiled and shook Errol’s hand. “I wholeheartedly agree.”

Epilogue

Kat

Months Later

“FEEL LIKE CELEBRATING?” Kobe said as he rushed to sit beside me on the bench just outside my dorm house.

I smiled and leaned into him. “I can’t believe we got an ‘A’ on this project.”

“Well, you certainly worked hard enough to rebuild Ginger.”

I reached for his hand. “We worked hard enough,” I corrected.

“Yeah,” he said as he leaned back. “It’s been quite a ride. I didn’t think we’d get through it, but...” He looked at me. “I couldn’t have done it without you. You were amazing... getting everything done so efficiently.”

I blushed.

“Honestly, I think I learned more from you than I did from Mr. Singh.”

Laughing, I squeezed his hand again. “So... how do you propose we celebrate? Dinner at Ginger?”

“Actually, I was thinking of a few nights in Vegas.”

“Vegas? Wow. I... I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes.”

“Are you sure you want to leave... I mean, with Axel being ill and all?”

He’d been terribly sick these past weeks, enough to have Kobe and Axel’s mom Taryn so concerned that she’d been staying at the house Kobe shared with Axel.

“Axel’s doing much better,” Kobe said. “In fact, with my mother staying in the guest room, he’s well taken care up, but I... Well, I think I miss having my privacy.”

“Oh,” I said with a knowing smile.

He patted my knee. “So, come on. Go get packed and we’ll go.”

“Now?”

“You have anything better to do?” he said with a playful grin.