Page 105 of Crew Girl

Baloo took a couple steps back, but he wasn’t any less angry. “You know what you did, Josh. And soon, everyone else will know it was you who sabotaged our race.”

He stalked off.

Not good. Not good at all. Somehow he managed to get the car door open, his butt on the seat.

Teagan climbed into the passenger seat. “What is he talking about?”

“Teagan…” He lolled his head to the left so he was facing her. “Get out.”

“No. Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

If Teagan wouldn’t get out, she’d need to come with him. He knew he shouldn’t be driving. But he also knew he needed to put as much space between him and Baloo and the disastrous race as possible. Josh turned on the ignition and sped out of the parking lot.

“What was Baloo talking about?” Teagan asked. “Did you cut the oar?”

“Why is everyone always on my case?” he snapped. Couldn’t she see it was taking all the brain matter he had to keep the car in the right lane?

“Did you or didn’t you?” she pressed. “Answer me.”

“Everyone wants a piece of me,” he heard himself saying. No matter how fast he drove, he couldn’t get away from his real self. The one he buried on a daily basis and who had finally cracked under the strain. “Why does everyone need me to do something I can’t do?”

“Josh.” Teagan sounded worried. Scared even, but he had to drive out the Josh who could never make his dad happy, never please his grandfather, be friends with his cousin. Have fun with a girlfriend. “Nothing is ever enough!”

“Josh.” Teagan was pleading with him. Her voice sounded far away. Like they had a bad phone connection even though she was sitting right next to him. “I don’t think you’re okay.”

No. He was not okay. But Regis men never admitted to weakness.

“I’m fine,” he said, like a good little Regis. “I have to be fine. I have to be fine. I have—” He heard Teagan scream and then… nothing.

CAM

The weight Cam thought would’ve lifted by now only felt heavier now he was home.

He dropped his bag on the shop floor, sank into one of the office chairs, and tried to make sense of the day’s events. He needed to get his head straight before he saw his parents.

A knock sounded on the office door.

Dad.

If hearts could sink and lift at the same time, his was trying to do it.

“You’re home.” His dad gave him an expectant look. “How’d it go?”

He shook his head, didn’t bother to sugarcoat it. “Not great.” He surprised himself when Teagan’s version of events came out of his mouth. The public version anyway. “There was a problem with my erg and my time was scratched.”

“Mmm…” His dad pulled up another chair. “Listen. I wanted to talk to you. I got a notice from the bank an hour ago.”

Cam braced himself. This was it.

“It said a deposit of forty-eight thousand dollars went into the account. Do you know where it came from?”

“It was from a repair I did.” When he’d thought this explanation up earlier, it had sounded believable enough. Out loud? Not so much.

“Son, if we had a forty-eight-thousand-dollar repair, I’d know about it. Cam… what have you done?”

A whole lot of things he wasn’t proud about.

“Are you going to get in trouble for this?” his dad pressed.