Chapter 6 - THE PARKING LOT
I brought Leo because the gym still had his backpack and school tablet locked inside a staff office.
That was a mistake.
I believed a public parking lot in daylight would keep Trent under control.
Instead, the audience made him worse.
Two assistant coaches stood near the entrance. Several older students watched through the glass. Trent wanted them to see him dominate the father questioning his authority.
He threw Leo’s backpack onto the pavement.
Then he held up the tablet.
“You want this back? Pay what you owe.”
“I’m not discussing money until you provide the contract.”
“You’re discussing whatever I tell you to discuss.”
I moved between him and Leo.
“We’re leaving.”
Trent looked at my stomach, my work clothes and the brace beneath my right pant leg.
“Your kid quits because his soft dad taught him how.”
“Move away from the truck.”
He stepped closer.
“What are you going to do, fix my toilet?”
I kept my voice low.
“Let us walk away.”
I asked three times.
The third time, Trent shoved me into the truck and Leo fell.
When I saw my son’s scraped palms, I stopped negotiating.
The lift began as instinct, but what happened next was choice.
I could have driven Trent onto the asphalt.
I did not.
I turned, lowered him and pinned him against the side of his own truck with his feet barely touching the ground.
The metal panel flexed beneath his back.
His face changed from anger to panic.
“Put me down.”
“Tell your coaches to step back.”
They did.
“Give Leo his tablet.”
One assistant retrieved it from the ground.
“Now listen carefully,” I said. “You do not contact my son again. You do not post his image. You preserve every video from the Wolf Program.”
Trent tried to laugh.
“You think you scare me?”
“No.”
I eased him down without releasing control.
“I think your father will recognize the number.”
“Two-eighty-five?”
“That was my weight class.”
I leaned closer.
May you like
“It was also the number on the incident file your father spent fifteen years pretending did not exist.”
Trent went completely still.
