Author's Note* I only own Clara and her gang, the rest belongs to some really rich studio! My Beta, A Cullen Wannbe, is not only a great Beta, but a pretty awesome writer as well. Check her out! I command thee! Okay not really :) But it was worth a shot :) Remember Clara is not prefect and she is going to mess up sometimes. Thank you everyone for all your totally rad reviews!

Chapter 7: In to the Night

Clara couldn't take the thick silence anymore. The fire that had lit up her eyes and body left just as quickly as it had come. Her eyes went flat and her body slumped as she fought to hold back her tears. She would not break in front of anyone, let alone the one doing the breaking.

"What do you want Dom?" Clara asked softly, her voice aching to break as the unshed tears burned the back of her throat. "Don't you think you have done enough for one day? I am tired and I just want to go home," Clara's voice almost going out at the end. Her inner strength that she had come to count on to make it in her short life was gone. Nothing was left except for the unbelievable need to reach out to the man in front of her. To wrap her arms around him and let him block out the unforgiving world she had grown up in.

Dom stood in silence. To see the strong woman that had taken the racing world by its ear and turned it upside down crumble in his living room was too much. And to top it off, he was the one making her break. Dom was tired of having to lock his body so he wouldn't reach out for her, to see her look like a broken toy was too much, even for him.

Clara almost let her tears fall when she felt warm, strong arms come around her. Dom's scent wrapped around her like a blanket and she rested her head on his hard chest. Her oasis didn't last long, the wall that Clara had formed over time to keep herself safe sprung up with red flashing lights and sirens. Clara raised her hands and pushed against the rock hard chest. Dom's arms immediately retracted from around Clara as she pushed herself away.

"What the hell Dominic?" Clara voice rose, losing all of its earlier softness. The roller coaster that her emotions had her on was back in full force. Any weakness she was feeling was gone with her inner wall back in its place.

"Either you want to talk about this, this, this, thing that is between us or you don't and we forever leave it alone," Clara said waving her hands back and forth between them to illustrate the tension between them. Taking Dom's loss for words as a negative silence, Clara whirled around and stormed out letting the screen door slam shut behind her.

Dom, never moving from his stance on the living room floor, looked on with a pained expression. It was making him sick. His emotions were swirling so fast that he couldn't get a hold on them. A movement out of the corner of his eyes caught his attention and he turned his head towards the stairs.

Letty was walking down the stairs when voices made her stop. Gossip traveled fast in her family and it didn't take long for her to hear how Dom acted with Clara after everyone went to bed. Mix that with what went down at the garage and the sparks that flow anytime the two even got near each other and there was bound to be drama. When Clara ran out the door, Letty made her presence known and raced after her. She sent Dom a searing look as she ran out the front door.

Letty didn't have far to go to catch up with Clara. She was sitting in her car in the driveway, blocked in by the cars behind her. Letty smirked; she had learned her lesson a long time ago and had now always parked at the curb. Letty walked over to Clara's driver side door and leaned up against the car. Clara had her head on the steering wheel, her hair falling down to cover her face. Clara's hand reached over and pressed the button to roll her window down.

"So much for the great get away huh?" Letty asked in a laughing voice. "Nice try with the exit though," she added on as an after thought.

Clara nodded her head against the steering wheel, making her hair swing back and forth.

"I take it Dom once again put his foot in his mouth," Letty said staring across the street at the house she shared with Roman. Clara finally looked up at Letty, weariness showing all over her pixie face.

"I heard the whole thing from the stairs, plus Dom told me what happened this afternoon." Clara sighed and laid her head back down on the steering wheel.

"Come on chica, I'll take you where you need to go."

Clara rolled her car window back up and stepped out when she realized that Letty was her only choice at the moment. They climbed into Letty's car and took off down the road with the loud squeal of Letty's tires echoing off the houses and leaving tire marks behind them on the street.

Both girls kept quiet as they made their way down the road. When Letty made it out of the neighbor and onto the main streets of town, she glanced over at Clara. Clara had her elbow propped up on the windowsill and had her head in her hand gazing out the passenger window with a dejected look gracing her pretty features.

"So chick, am I going anywhere in particular or just following wherever the road takes me?" Letty asked to break the silence.

Clara brought herself out of her thoughts and looked around. She hadn't even noticed that they were on the busier streets. "Um, do you know where the Omni Hotel is?" Clara asked, finally looking at Letty.

Letty whistled low under her breath. She didn't know what kind of game Clara was running, but those were some high priced digs. "Sure do, hold on!"

Clara was confused for all of 1.2 seconds until Letty whipped the car around, making the world's biggest illegal U-Turn in the middle of the busy street. Car horns sounded off instantaneously along with many colorful choices of words being thrown at them. Letty laughed as she flipped them off while Clara clung to the handle above the door, her face going white as all the blood drained out of it.

The rest of the trip was made in silence while each girl was lost in their own thoughts. Letty's raced as she debated whether to go with her heart or her head. Her heart was telling her that Clara was just an unfortunate girl that got sucked in the fuckfest that was the DT crew's life. Clara hadn't asked to be sucked into it; she was just a big of pawn being played by fate as the rest of them were. Her brain was screaming a different tale. Letty guarded her family fiercely for a reason. Too many people tried to weasel their way into the team's life. They didn't care about the people in the family, just the glory and fame that went with it. Clara had come out of nowhere; she didn't just buy into any race. She bought into a race to race Letty. Clara had come to the races for one reason and Letty was going to find out why.

Clara was lost in totally different thoughts as Letty raced to the hotel, weaving in and out of traffic. Screams and the taste of sulfur were whipping through Clara's mind as memories flooded down on her. Clara gripped the seat so hard her hands were turning as white as her face. She schooled herself to calm her breathing down. She wasn't in Georgia anymore and this straight road wasn't the curvy mountain side.

By the time they pulled up to the hotel, Letty was beyond ready to find out what the hell was going on. Little things that she hadn't noticed about the night before were springing up in her mind. Clara had gained enough self control to put a blank mask on to avoid questions. They both got out of the car with missions on their mind.

Before they could walk into the hotel, Clara turned towards Letty. "You can go back home now Letty. I can make it from here," Clara told her, not looking at her face.

Letty's eyes narrowed. "You think I have a death wish chica? I come back without you and Dom and Brian will have my ass on a silver platter."

Clara winced; she knew Letty wouldn't leave until she knew what was up. Clara lifted her head up to look at Letty. "Fine, but whatever you hear here, stays here. You cannot tell a soul Letty and I mean it," Clara said desperately.

Letty shifted her weight to her back foot. Whatever was going on, it wasn't good, and Clara was stuck in the middle of it. Letty made her decision in the time it took her heart to beat. "You're family chica and family sticks together."

Clara stood in shock. Family. It would be nice to have one of those again. Letty grabbed Clara by the arm and led her into the upper-class hotel.

"I am here to see Tony Perry, please," Clara told the front clerk desk as Letty looked around the front lobby.

"One moment please miss," The clerk told her as he rang the penthouse. "You can go up now miss," the man said when he got off the phone.

Clara smiled and nodded her thanks as she grabbed Letty before she could touch what had to be an expensive vase.

"Fancy digs," Letty proclaimed as the stood in the elevator.

"It pays to have friends with money, especially when they like to foot the bill," Clara said dryly.

Letty snorted as the elevator dinged open. Before she could retort, a group of rather large men engulfed Clara.

Letty almost jumped back into the elevator in surprise. The group of men where acting like mother hens who had lost their only chick and just found it again. "What the hell?" Letty asked before she could think.

The group of men looked over at Letty for the first time. "Who the hell are you?" The youngest one asked.

Letty sneered. "Who the hell are you?"

Clara untangled herself from the group and stood in between them. "They are my crew Let," Clara said softly, her face serious.

"Well I figured that much," Letty replied as she started to recognize some of the guys that had been at the race.

"Come inside Letty and I will explain the best I can," Clara told Letty, making the guys move so Letty could walk with Clara to the penthouse door.