That was technically true. The fact that his step-father was loaded and his own father did pretty well was beside the point. Conrad had been pulling his own weight since graduating high school. He spent a couple of years at USC, but racing was all he ever wanted to do and the place to learn about cars and speed was not in college, but on the street. Casey and Drew arrived just before the first race began. The girls had been with the crew for two and three years respectively. Casey works at the bar where the crew sometimes hangs out and Drew works part-time as a waitress. Like Conrad they would both rather be racing than doing anything else. Drew was racing tonight in her sky blue Nissan 300ZX. She’d bought it stripped for five hundred bucks and she’d put every penny she’d made in tips into it over the past three years. She’d only raced it once before and although she didn’t win, she’d come damn close. Beau had made some modifications for her since then and she was practically buzzing with excitement to try it out tonight. “Where’s Shawn?” Drew asked. “Picking up my bride to be,” Stew said. Conrad rolled his eyes. “He’s picking up a girl that might be racing with us soon.” “That’ll take some of the pressure off the two of you when we’re in the mood for a crew orgy,” Beau said with a grin. Drew flipped him off and Casey said, “I wasn’t going to say anything about that lump on your head, but I think it’s made you delusional.” Beau’s face was still bruised and his right eye was swollen. Dark stitches adorned the space underneath his left eyebrow making it look almost like he had two on one side. No one in the crew had to ask what happened to him. Most of them never even mentioned it. Casey was a different story; it pissed her off to no end that Beau wouldn’t fight back. He brushed her off now and stuck his head underneath the hood of the Camaro alongside Conrad. The first two cars, a Mitsubishi Starion and a yellow Integra pulled up to the starting line and began revving their engines. The crew fell silent and turned around to watch as they readied for take-off. A tall, heavily tattooed Vietnamese guy stood a few feet in front of them. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt and he raised both of his hands in the air and as soon as he let them drop, the cars took off with a squeal. All eyes were on them as they accelerated from zero to hauling ass in seconds; that was until Conrad caught sight of Shawn’s car out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over as it parked and then back at the race…and then he did a double take. The passenger door opened and the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen stepped out. She wasn’t very tall, maybe five four at the most, but her legs looked like they went on forever. She had shapely hips that filled out her jeans, a small waist and the curve of firm, shapely breasts showed just above the neckline of the gray A-frame tank she was wearing. Her dark hair was cut in uneven layers that framed her gorgeous face and hung down to the center of her back. Conrad felt his mouth go dry as she and Shawn walked toward them. Suddenly racing once again had competition in his brain for top spot and most of the blood in his body had moved down south. When they got closer Stew suddenly took notice of the curvy brunette with the ice blue eyes and leaned in close to Conrad. “Damn, my future wife is hot.” Conrad elbowed him back and he heard Stew snicker. “Samantha Glass this is Conrad Watts,” Shawn said. Conrad took the hand that Sam offered and he wondered if she could feel what he was feeling. He wasn’t sure he could even describe it if he had to, but he’d never felt anything like it before. She wasn’t just hot; she literally made it hard for him to breathe. “Welcome,” he said in a voice he almost didn’t recognize himself. “Thanks,” she said. “Thanks for inviting me.” She let go of his hand and Shawn introduced her to the rest