Josh slipped an arm around Alyssa's waist as they walked toward the parking lot. "Do you want to come over?"

"Maybe later, my mom was bugging me about how much time I've been spending at your place, especially since your parents are still out of town. She said and I quote, "I would prefer if you ate dinner at home a couple of times a week", so I figured I should probably eat at home today."

He chuckled. "Probably a good idea. At least call me later?"

She went up onto the tips of her toes and kissed him. "Definitely. Love you."

He tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Love you too."

With a hum, she turned and walked to where her car was parked and climbed behind the wheel. She sent him a wave, they had a team meeting today. It probably wouldn't take long, but she figured she'd spend time at home today so her mother had nothing to complain about. At least most of the parking lot had cleared out already, she wasn't going to have to wait forever to get out of the lot. That was the one advantage to the days Josh had practice, it was late and the lot was usually empty when they left. She pulled out onto the street and headed in the direction of her house. Her foot went from the accelerator to the brake when she neared the stop sign at the corner. The car didn't slow. With a panicked movement, she stomped on the brake as she blew through the stop sign to the accompaniment of honking horns.

"Oh god." The brakes weren't working. What the hell? Her eyes went to her phone where it sat in the holder attached to her windshield. Okay, she needed help, who did she call? She made a decision, reached out, and dialed quickly.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"Um, hello, I'm going west on Hillbend, my brakes aren't working."

"All right, can you give me a cross street and what kind of car you're driving?"

"Silver Ford Escort. The license plate is Roman 3." She glanced at a sign as she passed a side street. "I just passed the intersection of Hillbend and Woodgray Court."

"Okay, good. Is the car accelerating?"

She glanced at the speedometer. "Yes, I think I'm going downhill."

"Okay, try and remain calm, the police are on their way. Can you make the turn onto Karen?"

"I don't know, I might be going too fast," she told the operator.

"It's all right if you can't but there are two units that would be closer to your location if you turn there."

She spun the wheel and the car squealed around the corner onto Karen. "Okay, I made the turn."

"Good, the police are closing in on your location. There should be guardrails along that stretch of Karen so you don't have to worry. What's your name?"

"Alyssa." Her eyes flicked to the side of the road and she was relieved to see the guardrails, her eyes went back to the road and she let out a squeal.

"Alyssa, are you all right?" the operator asked.

"A car pulled out in front of me, I can't stop. I'm going to hit him!" She laid on the horn and the guy held a hand out the window and gave her the middle finger. "He won't get out of the way, he's flicking me off."

"Don't panic, that isn't going to help. Is there room for you to go around him?" the operator asked.

Tears ran down her cheeks and she sniffled, she didn't want to hit the man but he wasn't moving out of the way. She was quite certain he slowed down just to be a dick. "No, there's oncoming traffic."

"What about the shoulder? It won't help your paint job much, but if you run the car along the guardrail the friction will help to slow you down. The police are only a couple of minutes from your location. Just hang in there."

She smiled despite the situation when the operator made the joke about her paint job. She jerked the wheel to the right and jumped to the shoulder, the car hit the guardrail and metal screeched against metal. The car bounced away and she forced it back against the rail. She heard sirens and breathed a sigh of relief as a police car came barreling up behind her and moved around in front of her as traffic came to a stop around them.

"The officer is going to pull in front of you and slow until your bumper is against his and he's going to bring you to a stop," the operator told her.

"All right." She held her breath as the police car slowed gradually until her front bumper hit his rear bumper and the car gradually came to a stop. When her car came to a stop, she threw the shift into park and jumped from the car where she collapsed to her knees and began sobbing uncontrollably.

The officer crouched beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

She sniffled and shook her head.

"Do you need an ambulance?"

She shook her head. "Scared," she managed through her sobs.

"All right, come on let's get you out of the road." He helped her up and took her over to sit in the back of his car. "Is there anyone I can call for you?"

"My mom, please." She gave him the number and he moved away from where she sat, the door of the police car open, her feet out the door as she stared at nothing. She didn't know how much time passed before her mother was there hugging her and asking over and over if she was all right.

"I'm fine, Mom, just seriously scared."

"You did the smart thing calling the police, sweetie."

She smiled. "Blame Dad for that, he's the one who always said if you're in trouble dial 911 first and everyone else after the fact."

"He does say that a lot, doesn't he?" her mother asked with a smile.

"Alyssa?"

She looked up to see Josh pushing through the crowd that had gathered, West right behind him, she frowned at them. "Josh?"

Her mother stood. "I called him, I figured you'd want him here."

Tears filled her eyes. "Thank you."

Her mother placed a hand against her cheek with a smile. "I'm glad you're all right, I'm going to speak with the police." Her hand fell away and she moved to where the police were gathered.

Josh made it to where she sat in the police car. "Lyssa, are you okay? What happened?"

She sighed. "The brakes went out."

He pulled her into a tight hug. "When your mom called I was so scared."

She spotted West, his eyes on her car. "Why are you guys here? Don't you have a team meeting?"

Josh pulled away from her, cupping her face in his hands. "You are more important than baseball."

She leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his lips. "Thank you." Her eyes went to her car. "I don't understand what went wrong, my dad had the car in the shop yesterday to have it checked over so we can go on our annual camping trip this weekend. It was fine."

West frowned. "You're certain?"

"Yes, it got a clean bill of health, there's nothing wrong with it."

"What shop?" he snapped.

She frowned at him. "West?"

"What shop did he take it to?" he asked again.

"Hail's on Western."

"Keys, Josh." He held out his hand.

"What are you thinking?" Josh asked as he held out the keys.

"That we need the paperwork from the shop because this is going to get complicated." He spun away and climbed into Josh's truck.

Josh looked at her. "I don't like the way that sounded."

"Neither do I."

Her mother returned. "The police said we can leave. They're going to tow the car and take a look at it to see what went wrong."

She nodded and rose, Josh put an arm around her shoulders and they moved toward her mother's car. Her eyes flicked to the side when she heard the roar of an engine and she followed a motorcycle as it passed the scene. It might have been Seth but she couldn't be certain.

Beside her, Josh cursed and dropped his arm from her shoulders. "Hold on, give me a minute." He stalked over to where the tow truck was backing up to her car and flagged down one of the officers. "Get a different tow company, I don't want this place anywhere near her car!" he shouted.

The cop frowned at him. "This is one of the companies we always use."

"Then call another one, because I don't trust this place. There's a guy who works there who might be responsible for this."

"I beg your pardon?" the cop asked. "No one said anything about foul play."

"Yeah, well now that I see who showed up to get her car I'm thinking it's a possibility. I don't want these guys anywhere near her car it allows them an opportunity to cover shit up."

The tow truck driver held his hands up. "Hey, I have no idea what he's talking about," he told the cop.

"The guy who might have had something to do with this is the owner's nephew," Josh told the cop. "Call someone else or I will. He is not touching the car."

The driver backed off. "Hey, if he wants someone else, I don't care."

The cop nodded. "All right, we'll call another company."

Josh nodded. "Thank you." He turned and went back to where he'd left Alyssa.

She frowned a thim. "How did you know that's the company Seth's uncle owns? I didn't pay attention when Seth towed Zay's car."

"Neither did I, West told me during one of our many conversations about the bastard. I find it very coincidental it happened to be his company that showed up to tow your car." He dipped his head toward the truck. "His trucks are randomly painted, but I recognize that one from a picture West showed me on the internet."

"Don't they work on rotation? Like they have a couple of companies and rotate through the list for each incident?" she asked. "Whoever shows up is random."

"I don't know how it works, but knowing Seth he could manipulate it so his uncle's company got the call." They remained at the scene until the new truck came and towed her car then they left and headed back to Alyssa's house. As they settled onto the couch he sighed. "I sent West a text and let him know we were here. I don't like this entire situation. Seth is an asshole but I never expected him to graduate to murder." He shook his head.

She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I don't think any of us did. I shouldn't have called him."

"You couldn't have known how he would react," he reassured her.

"No, but I know he's an underhanded shithead."

The bell rang and Josh went and let West in. He held out a piece of paper. "Report from the shop. Your brakes were in perfect condition yesterday. No leaks, brake pads, rotors, and fluid all good to go," he told Alyssa as Josh studied the paper. "You might want to make a copy of that so you can give the original to the cops."

Alyssa rose and took the paper. "I'll go make a copy."

"Oh, hello, Weston," her mother greeted him as she came into the room.

"Hello, Mrs. Roman. I went to the shop and got a copy of the detailed report on the maintenance check they did on your car yesterday. I figured Mr. Roman only got a receipt with the basics when he picked up the car."

She smiled. "Thank you, West that was good thinking. If someone fiddled with the car that will help, though I can't imagine who would want to harm Alyssa."

Josh snorted. "I can."

She lifted her brows. "Joshua?"

"There is this guy at school, he's currently dating Zayden and he's a slimeball."

"Ah, the infamous Seth Bradford."

"You know about Seth?"

She nodded. "Alyssa asked me to show her his file. There isn't much, his family life wasn't very good and he sued to be emancipated at the age of fifteen." She shrugged. "You think he had something to do with this?"

Josh rubbed a hand over his face. "I don't know, but if anyone might have done something to her car it would be him."

"He's not as clean as he seems on the surface, trust me I know the guy," West told her. "But he's smart and he never leaves evidence behind that might point to him. If he ordered this done there won't be a damn thing that points in his direction."

Her phone rang from the kitchen and she left with a sigh. She returned with her phone to her ear while she chewed on her thumbnail. "You're certain? That's impossible, we had the car serviced yesterday. Yes, all right we'll be right there." She hung up and looked at the boys. "The brake fluid was empty."

"That's impossible, according to the shop it was full yesterday," West said. "And there were no leaks in the system."

She nodded. "I know. They want us to come down and make a statement."

Alyssa returned. "I made a couple of copies, I left the rest on Dad's desk." She held the paper out to her mother. "West got a report from the shop."

Her mother nodded as she took the paper. "We need to go to the police station, they want a statement."

"But, I gave one at the scene."

"I know, sweetie, but they inspected the car and the brake fluid was empty."

"But ... how?" she asked.

"I don't know. Let's go and talk to them and see what they have to say." Her mother looked at the boys. "You boys are welcome to remain here."

"Call us if you need anything," Josh told her.

"We will."

They stood in the doorway and watched as Alyssa and her mother left. Josh glanced sidelong at West. "I don't like this. How likely is it that Seth has a couple of cops in his pocket?"

"I never thought about it but I guess it's possible, it might explain why he's been able to avoid being arrested despite the fact Darrel and his guys have been picked up numerous times," West answered.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I feel like this entire thing is about to go sideways," Josh told him.

"You ain't the only one."