Chapter 3

Her voice had turned so cold it was like a stranger's.

When my father fell gravely ill, she was the one who brought in the best medical team money could buy.

"Focus on your racing. I've got Uncle Perry covered. Nothing will happen to him."

And now she was using my father's illness to threaten me into losing.

"Six years. Dozens of races. You've won every single one, and Kenneth's always come in behind you."

"He's dying. Would it kill you to let him win, just once?"

I was a driver the Shepherds had made. Olivia Shepherd wasn't only my navigator and my fiancée. She was my boss.

Everything I had, I owed to her.

I was grateful. But this race was different.

Any other race, if she'd told me to lose, I'd have lost to anyone without so much as a frown.

Not this one.

I stayed silent, and my foot pressed down harder, and the engine roared louder for it.

Cross Olivia, and this would be the last race of my life.

Cross Olivia, and my father would never again get the care of that top medical team.

But I knew what had to be done here.

When the nation is at stake, no man stands aside.

The moment my car crossed the line, Olivia's face went cold beyond anything I'd seen.

She stepped out with a face like ice and went to say something to the people at the command center.

I sat in the car, soaked through with sweat, so drained that even lifting a finger felt like too much.

I had nothing left.

Before long, a staff member came walking toward me.

I was called into an office before the medal ceremony. The air inside was grim.

"According to Miss Shepherd, you deliberately steered off the track to let Kenneth Odom pass you, just so you could show everyone that even after handing your opponent the lead, you could still reel him back in."

"What did you think this race was?"

"A game of make-believe?"

"Before the race, weren't you told there was a wager agreement, that national honor was on the line?"

"You think winning makes you some kind of hero?"

"Sabotaging your in-car telemetry, grandstanding for personal glory. Do you have any idea what that is?"

"If the Shepherds hadn't cleaned this up for you, you'd be going to prison, win or no win."

I said nothing. I didn't defend myself, not with a single word.

The car I'd driven was supplied by the Shepherds. And since the official had just mentioned the monitoring being destroyed, there'd be no evidence left inside the car.

Olivia's word against mine, and which of us they'd believe, that didn't take any guessing.

My word meant nothing.

When I left the office, Olivia was waiting outside.

Her face was still cold. "You're stubborn and full of yourself. It seems the two of us need to reconsider where we stand."

I looked at that face, once so familiar, now a stranger's, and I couldn't help thinking of what she'd said to me before.

"Walter, you know what I admire most about you?"

"Your courage. The way you're decisive when a choice has to be made."

And now I was the stubborn, self-righteous one.

The Shepherds had been good to me. I'd carry the blame for today.

I looked at Olivia calmly, and gave her my answer to reconsidering where we stood. "Fine."

Back home, my father had already been thrown out the door, and my belongings had been dumped on the ground.

I'd won the race and lost my marriage, and worse, lost the guarantee that kept my father alive.

"Dad, I'm sorry."

My father handed me his phone. A news story was on the screen.

Driver Walter Perry too stubborn and self-righteous. Shepherd Group terminates partnership with Walter Perry.

The comments beneath it were nothing but abuse. No one cheered my win. They all said I'd nearly thrown away the victory with my arrogance and grandstanding.

"Your dad knows you're not that kind of person." He gripped my hand. "Son, I know you're a good son to me. But real devotion isn't keeping me alive in pain. There's no quality to my life anymore."

I was about to speak when another news alert popped up on the phone, and my heart clenched with a sudden, sharp pain.