chapter two

Dom found Letty and Mia in the garage the next morning. There was the conspicuous absence of a certain black Ferrari Enzo that was just slightly unnerving, but he chose not to comment on it. Connor may have been welcome in the gang, but she wasn't contained by the same rules the others were. Connor didn't race, or at least not very often. Unfair advantage, as she put it. Brian had his head underneath the hood of his new baby. Dom slapped his hand on the top of the car, watching with some amusement as the blond jumped.

"I hate it when you do that." Brian muttered sourly. "It hurts to hit your head on the valve intake."

"You need to focus." Dom shot back. "Mia said hey to me."

"Yeah – you were on the other side of the freakin' garage." Brian slid out from underneath the car and stood up, rubbing at his forehead. Mia slid up next to him and kissed his forehead.

"All better?" she teased.

"Sad when your girlfriend babys you." Letty piped up. She leaned against Dom's shoulder and wound her arm around his. Mia smirked at her.

"Oh, and you don't baby Dom?"

Before Letty could shoot back, the growl of engines got their attention. All four of them looked up to see a black Pontiac Trans-Am pull into the garage. The engine cut off, and a tall lanky man stepped out. He took off his shades and flashed Dom a grin. "Hey. I hear this is the place to go for racing parts." he said.

Letty gave the Trans-Am a once-over. "You ain't planning on racing that, are you?"

The man smirked. "Don't judge it till you've raced against it."

Dom gently detangled himself from Letty and looked the man over. "So you want to race." he murmured. The man seemed very confident in his '80s model Trans-Am, and Dom recognized that confidence. It was the same he felt from Connor every time someone challenged her in her Ferrari. "I hope you got something good under that hood, otherwise no parts in the world are going to help you."

The stranger laughed. "Oh, trust me – I've got plenty." He looked around as if trying to find something in particular. Behind the garage, Brian could hear the soft whine of Connor's Ferrari. Part of him hoped she didn't walk in. Dom may like the girl, but Brian had spent enough time with the cops to know she was more than just bad news. This strange guy with his domestic was also raising alarms.

"Hey – you wouldn't happen to know when the next street race is, would you?"

Dom and Brian exchanged looks. Brian shrugged. "Gotta be in the right place at the right time, I guess." he said calmly. "You'll know it when you see it."

The stranger nodded. "Thanks." He slid back into the driver's seat of the Trans-Am. Dom spoke up.

"Didn't you find what you wanted?"

"Nope." He smiled. "Special parts. Hard to find – you understand."

"Yeah." They watched as the man backed out and drove away. A half-minute later, Connor walked in. Brian turned to Dom.

"He's a cop, man." he warned. "He was in here scoping the place out."

"He's more than that." Connor said, her head tilted to the side. Amber eyes narrowed as she spoke. "That's Michael Knight – he works for the Foundation of Law and Government. We're talking feds here, not locals."

Brian glared at her. "Yeah? And how would you know?" he snapped.

Connor smiled. "I had to work with him once." she pointed out. "I think I'd recognize someone like him." She bit her lip, considering. "Is he racing the Trans-Am?"

"Sounds like it." Mia commented. She abandoned Brian's side and walked over to Connor, putting her arm around the girl's shoulders. Brian didn't miss the pleased smile that crossed Connor's face. "Not like he's going to win anything in that. Did you see the model?"

Connor smiled as she leaned against her friend. "Oh, trust me – he'll win a lot in that. Unless it's me he's racing."

"Let me guess – you share an affinity for tricked-out cars?" Letty asked with some amusement.

Connor grinned. "We share an affinity for more than that."

Mia decided to change the topic of conversation. "Me and Letty are going out to the movies tonight. You wanna come with us?" she asked Connor.

"Sure." Connor said with a shrug. "Just let me know when you're getting ready to leave so I can get changed. Got some repair work to do to my car." She flashed Dom a grin and headed out the back way again. Dom was the only one who knew the full truth of what that car was.

In the back, as Dom and the others got ready for the next day's race, Connor was up underneath Karr's hood. The asphalt was hard and covered with glass shards from various accidents, but she didn't mind. She finally had the tools she needed to get the job done, and Karr's sensors were in dire need of maintenance. Karr browsed through the radio stations before settling on something they both enjoyed and putting it through his speakers. Metallica blared over his speaker system, and Connor couldn't help the grin on her face.

"There are so many comments I could make about that." she teased.

"Perhaps." Karr allowed, and only Connor could hear the affection in his voice. "But I would have many more comments. Most of them involving chocolate."

"Hey!" She rapped lightly on the fender with a wrench. "I resemble that remark. Besides, I don't get chocolate very often. Less often than you get repaired, which is saying something." She grunted as she adjusted one of the screws. "How's that?"

Karr ran a self-diagnostic. "Much better. You are very good at this."

"Thank you." Connor shifted further under the car, adjusting something close to Karr's CPU. Normally, Karr shut off all sensors when mechanics got too close to his central processing unit, but he trusted Connor. Besides, it was his dirty little secret – he liked having Connor touch him. It was a sign of how great his trust in her was, that he wanted her to touch him. Her arm brushed against a sensor, and he couldn't help but shiver. "Knight is trying to get into the races."

"The double homicide probably brought him running." Karr said dryly. "It'll take a lot more than fancy computer work to get FLAG off of that case."

"I know." Connor admitted. "I was wondering if I could talk him into dropping the case."

"Not without admitting Dom is involved, and that wouldn't go over very well." Karr pointed out. "As helpful as the man has been, he does have a record."

Connor snorted. "And I don't?" She grunted as she attempted to fit a new computer chip into a USB port next to Karr's CPU.

"Connor, wait – "

The woman yelped as the port zapped her. She ran through her list of curses as Karr quickly shut off the safety mechanism. "I'm sorry!"

Connor stuck her fingers in her mouth as she slid out from under the car. The tips were numb, but that would go away in a few minutes. She shook her head. "Don't – I forgot." Usually she got the biggest kick out of watching the mechanics get zapped like that. This was the first time she had gotten popped.

Karr's voice was subdued. "I'm sorry."

She ran her fingers across the prow, just underneath the scanner. "Didn't I say don't?" she murmured. "I'm fine. See? No harm done. Now, let's see if the chip worked for all the trouble it was."

They fell silent as Karr activated the new circuitry. He opened the driver's door, and she slid inside. After a moment, Karr spoke again.

"It's functional."