Page 49 of King of Pain

“Kate. There are hundreds of students who would kill for this internship.”

“I know. I’m thrilled to be working for you.”

“You are no longer working for me.”

I wince, my hand coming to cover my face. “Doctor Shrewsbury, please. If there was any way I could make this up, I can assure you?—”

“You should never have to make up opportunities like this,” he cuts me off. “You should just be here. You have proven yourself unworthy of the opportunity before it’s even begun.”

“Unworthy…” I repeat the word, choking on it. I’d resigned myself to losing this chance. I knew Dr. Shrewsbury was not a compromising man. But that word is like sticking a hot poker in my eye. “No one has worked harder than me?—”

“I beg to differ. Every other candidate I interviewed would have made their first day of work. You were always a risk, your undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts, your personal credentials non-existent. I should have known better.”

He keeps talking but I only catch clips of it as I sink down in the bench, my eyes welling with tears again.

It’s not the missed opportunity. He’s saying everything I worry is true about myself. I hold the phone away from my ear, still able to hear but at least his words are not ringing so loudly.

I don’t even see Luke come up to his open window of the truck, all I can hear are the words “tactless and lazy” coming through the phone as I pull it even further away from my left ear.

Suddenly the phone is gone from my hand, Luke, reaches past the steering wheel and snatches it from my hand through the open window.

“Luke,” I gasp, sitting up in my seat.

“Hello,” Luke barks into the line.

“Who is this?” Dr. Shrewsbury demands.

“Luke Kincaid. Who is this?”

The line goes very quiet. I blink in surprise trying to understand as Luke walks away, his voice is low and with the whir of other cars pulling into the parking lot I don’t hear what he says. I scoot across the bench seat and open his door, intent on following but he’s already hanging up and turning back around. He stops just in front of me, his face taut with anger in a way that I don’t even remember seeing on that first night.

“Luke?”

He grabs behind my knee, pulling me further out on the bench as he wraps his arms around me. My legs naturally settle on either side of his hips, my arms around his chest.

I hug him back, well aware we’re making quite the spectacle.

“I’m sorry that asshole talked to you like that.”

“It’s all right,” I answer, shaking my head. “I’m used to it.”

He leans back, his lip curling. “That’s complete bullshit.”

I blink in surprise. “I’m sorry you think that, but it’s kind of the way it goes when you’re the one who needs someone to take a chance on you.”

He softens then. “Not you, kitten. Him. He doesn’t want to hire you anymore, fine. But he was a dick about it.”

“Is that what you said to him?” I really like Luke and his take-charge attitude, but this is my career. It’s bad enough I didn’t show. The last thing I need is Luke making the good doctor madenough that he calls my advisor and tells him that I’m difficult. That would really mess up my chances.

“No. I told him that he needed to give my wife an extension or he’d answer to me.”

My mouth drops open. Which one of those phrases to unwrap first?

“Wife?”

“Men respond to that kind of claim.”

“And why would he worry about answering to you?”

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