AN: Nothin much to say. Ya'll know how this works…

The Funeral of a Good Girl

By- TempestRaces

Chapter 52 – Of Hide and Go Seek

Vince was still half of the quarter mile stretch behind them when he saw her tail lights come on, and Dom's a hair after hers. He had watched Dom clip her, but he couldn't find it in him to fault Dom for it. He had every right to be pissed. He was more than slightly impressed, in spite of himself, when he watched her slide around and go nose to nose with Dom down the road, going about fifty miles an hour in reverse. He was willing to bet that her car was well over the red line to hit that speed in a direct drive gear, but she clearly thought it was better to be keeping an eye on the very pissed off Dominic.

With another quick motion she swung the ass end of her car right and then hit third gear, if he didn't miss his guess. She took back off down the road the way she had come without stopping. After she streaked by him, he spun his car around in a power slide and took off after her. As pissed as he was with her, he didn't want to leave her to face Dominic alone. Dom passed him going race worthy speeds a second later, clearly in a rush to get back to the start and confront Tempest. Vince pushed the gas harder in an effort to keep up. "Fuckin' stupid," he growled to himself. She was trying to get herself killed? Again?

By the time he made it back to the crush of people and cars which made up the start line, Tempest was out of her car surrounded by people who couldn't believe that someone had had the balls to crash a race featuring Dominic Toretto. Let alone a female someone who had not only had the balls to crash the race, but win it too. Leon got over to her first, Vince noted. Leon then proceeded to try and convince her to get back in her car and leave before Dom fought his way through the throng of people. The crowd around her wasn't having that. Not even though Vince could see the realization light her eyes from his distant position that Leon was right, and she should flee the scene before her stunt came back to bite her on the ass.

Vince started to fight his way through the crowd harder than before. He was hoping he'd make it to her side before Dom did. He had luck on his side and he did make it to where she and Leon were still standing before Dom joined them.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" he snarled the second he was close enough to take hold of her upper arm and shake her.

She put her free hand on his chest. Half to keep him at arm's length because he was quite mad, and half because she knew her touch would turn his mind off his anger and onto his libido if she kept her hand there long enough. "I didn't think about too much, in all honesty. I just reacted. Mr. bossy, arrogant, prick thinks he's got a right to be that way because no one's better than him in a stupid car race. Well there, I'm better than him in a stupid car race. Maybe he can stop talking down to me like I'm some stupid bitch now."

Her touch started to drive him crazy, like it always did. "Why should he when you act like one? What you did wasn't ok, Temp. It was bitchy and if you were a man, I'd let him kick your ass. The only reason why I won't is because you are a female. Even if you do refuse to act like it most of the time."

"I'm sorry, what did you just call me?" she asked. Her voice was low and cold and her eyes had gone flat and hard in that instant. When he didn't answer her right away she repeated herself. "What did you call me? Because I know I couldn't have heard you right. So you better repeat yourself."

Vince was very conscious of the fact that Dominic was now standing just behind him, content for the moment to listen to him 'putting her in her place.' Dom was likely getting off on it too, he noted with distaste. It wasn't why he was doing it, and the fact that Dominic was likely finding it even better that it was him saying these things to Tempest because it would hurt her even more just because it was him made it even more distasteful. But there was nothing he could do about it. If it wasn't him, it would be Dom and Dom would be ten times harsher. And when Dom was harsh with her, she tended to react with violence, and the two of them would end up brawling at races. "I think you heard me just fine. Get in your car and get out of here. There's no place here for people who act like spoiled brats."

"Man, lay off her!" a random man said from the crowd. "She's got more guts than anyone else 'round here. She saw what she wanted she went after it, yo. Took it too, even with them having a head start. Stop doggin' on her for being good enough to win."

"Butt out," Vince growled without so much as looking in the man's direction. "I'll handle shit with my bitch my own way." The second the stupid words left his mouth he wanted to take them back. He was just so mad about the random stranger's words, and scared about what Dom would do to Tempest, that he didn't have even the small amount of control he normally did over his mouth. And before he could process the shocked gasp rolling through the crowd, his head had been snapped all the way to the right, and he was spitting blood out onto the pavement. She'd slapped him across the face as hard as she could, and it bloody well stung like a bastard. Not to mention had been hard enough to split his lip. As hard as she could was hard enough that had she punched him, he might just be out a tooth or two. Not that he didn't have it coming.

"You can't handle what you never had," she informed him in a low voice, an evil sneer twisting her expressive face even as angry tears glittered unshed in her eyes. She finally fought her way back into her car, and like the crowd sensed the immediate drama was played out, they dispersed. He watched as Leon looked at him in total disgust before getting into his car and heading back to the warehouse alley, the same way in which Tempest had gone.

"Well, she did win," Dom imparted to Vince as they watched the crowd disperse. "But then again, I guess she didn't."

"I really hope you aren't trying to convince me that her losing me over what I said makes up for her beating you in some stupid street race," Vince growled, not turning to look at Dom. He knew if he saw a smirk on Dom's face, it wouldn't be Tempest and Dom that would need to be torn apart off the ground. "I really hope you don't think that I did that for you. That I took away her dignity in return for her doing the same to you. I really hope that isn't where you're going with this. Because that's not why it happened and it's not a good thing any of it happened."

"Not for you it wasn't. You sure won't be hooking up with her tonight. You found the one sure way to make sure she makes up with Letty. And if you so much as look at another girl with Letty in the vicinity, you're a dead man. But, for the record, she really did have it coming for doing such an underhanded thing."

"You spend the last few days treating her like dirt on the ground, or like a dog trained to heel, and she's the only one who did an underhanded thing? I don't agree with what she did. And I really did think she deserved a set down for it. In another way, I really think you had it comin' 'cause god knows you spent enough time messin' around in her head. But most of the stuff I said to her was to make sure you left her alone. Then that other guy talked to her, even in an offhanded way and I got so mad that I lost control of what I said."

"Because some other guy talked to her?" Dom's tone was incredulous. He sighed a millisecond later. "Why don't you just tell her the truth and make it all go away V? You can fix this in a heartbeat if you're honest and you know it. Just tell her man." It would likely be the beginning of her sticking around permanently, but to be honest, he was sick of watching them dance around it and hurt each other in the name of looking tough anyway. Vince was his best friend. He deserved to be happy. Finally. So if this was where happiness was for Vince, so be it. But that didn't mean he had to like it, Dom decided as he rubbed his head. Not when the girl in question hated him solid, and had just put him down in front of over half the greater Los Angeles street racing population.

"Tell her what Dom?" Vince asked angrily.

"That you're in love with her."

Back at the alley, the second she'd parked her car, Tempest had been mobbed by people. Most of them wanted to tell her how great she was. How much she rocked. She didn't feel like she was so great. Not after what Vince had said. She knew she shouldn't have done what she'd done. But she had some honest motivations for it too. And rather than feeling vindicated, now she felt childish—small and petty. Not to mention sick over what Vince had called her. But she didn't let it show. Not the 'great' Tempest who'd just beaten Dominic Toretto with a trailing start. She kept a cheerful smile pinned to her face. Being a ruler was more about an image than about reality and she knew it. Since she'd sacrificed so much for the position, she was going to enjoy it for one evening. Even if it killed her.

Then Jesse found her. "What was that?"

"Jesse! Thank god. I want you to take a look at the car before I drive it home. Please?"

"You know how stupid it was for you to do that T? Jesus." He allowed himself to be pulled closer to the Skyline and wrapped an arm around her slim shoulders in spite of himself. He looked into her eyes, and saw the answer she was about to have for him mirrored there. "And I don't mean whatever you think you did to the car either. You can't roll like that against Dom!"

"I gotta figure no one filled you in on what you missed in the garage did they?"

"No, what did I miss?" And what does it have to do with the stupid stunt you just pulled?

"Dom told Vince right in front of me that I was nothing better than a drunken booty call, and that he better learn where to prioritize me in his life. That was what brought about the whole kick to the balls thing, and I guess it wasn't enough to get me over anything because when I saw his smug face sitting there waiting to win, again, and using that fact as an excuse to act like he owned the world, I just snapped. I didn't intend to do it, I swear, but I just snapped. Now, please tell me I didn't mess my car up over it. Between you and that car, you've got the complete and total list of things in my life that haven't let me down lately."

He kissed her forehead tiredly. He felt half responsible for her predicaments. He'd brought her into his world and into the life. He knew she wasn't prepared for the culture shock of Los Angeles, and he hadn't spent enough time since she'd arrived being there for her and showing her the ropes. He'd allowed her to spend far too much time with Vince, despite knowing it wasn't a good idea. He'd allowed her to continue to be around Dominic, despite knowing it wasn't a good idea. And now she was broken and terrified. He was the older one, and the one who knew the score. He should have taken better care of her and he felt every ounce of the weight of responsibility on him now. His only excuse was that generally, she was the mature, tough, smart and savvy one while he was the excitable one who lacked common sense, and as such he wasn't use to her needing his guidance. He leaned his cheek onto the top of her head from his considerable height advantage and looped his arms around her loosely. "Let's take a look at poor Ray then, ok?"

She sighed tiredly as she leaned into her cousin. Finally, a truly safe place to rest a moment. Why hadn't she turned to Jesse long and ever ago? She got so caught up in being the tougher one, the one with more street smarts, that she never took a moment to see that Jesse knew how to fit into the dynamic of his house in ways she didn't, and never would. If she'd spend more time watching Jesse for cues how to go about, she wouldn't find herself in half the mess she now did. But she couldn't dwell on it. What she had done was done. She couldn't take it back now. So instead she popped the bonnet and watched as Jesse lifted it onto the prop and started smelling and probing.

"Seems ok. What did you do to it, exactly?"

"Turned off the nitrous controller and dumped the spray straight in on my own time."

"Well, that is why we put the activation buttons in it, in spite of you having a controller on it, T. So you could activate it manually if you wanted to."

"Yeah, but you never intended for me to activate both bottles at the same time when you set the system up for a four hundred shot, did you?"

"Um, no. You might have gotten five hundred horse out of it, but it was pretty much overkill. The system can't pump enough fuel into the mix to use that much nitrous at one time."

"Well, it gave it a bit more kick than the single bottle did."

"I'll just bet. But a mix that lean was definitely causing knock. How long did you do that for?"

"A couple seconds, tops."

"Not long enough to damage anything, I'd say. It all looks like its fine. It wasn't burning any oil when you backed it into the spot, so I don't think you burned your rings." Jesse slammed the hood closed. When he turned around it was to find Mia and Letty standing behind him. "Hey ladies," he said, smiling slightly.

"Hey," Letty answered. She turned her attention to Tempest directly after she answered Jesse, showing without a doubt who she had come over to see. "That was some stunt you pulled."

"Yeah, what can I say? Live fast, die young, leave a good lookin' corpse." Tempest smiled. It was clearly strained.

Letty moved in closer. "Just between you'n me? It was about time someone reminded him that he has lost before and will lose again. He was getting a little hard to live with." She grinned.

A small, yet finally genuine smile lifted the corners of Tempest's mouth. "Well, I'm glad someone's not totally pissed at me for doing such a stupid, bitchy thing."

Instinctively, Letty knew those words were not Tempest's own to describe the situation. She didn't know very many females who would ever say they did a stupid, bitchy thing. Her eyes narrowed without her knowledge. "Who told you that was what you did."

A sanguine, one shouldered shrug was Tempest's first answer, never big on being a whiner or a tattle tale. Just suck it up and move on was her normal method of dealing with situations. When she felt Letty's eyes boring into her and not letting up she surrendered what the other girl wanted. "Vince."

One of Letty's eyebrows rose skyward. "Vince? He said that to you?"

"Yeah. And that if I was a man he would have let Dom kick my ass."

Letty seemed to let the subject drop at that. She spent a few more minutes hanging out with Jesse, Mia and Tempest before she spotted Vince and Dominic across the expanse of bodies in the alley. She excused herself and crossed to them. "I otta knock the two of your thick, ugly heads together and see if it pounds any sense into them. One of them at least would be nice."

"Letty," Dom sighed. "What'd I do now?"

"I don't think you really need to ask that question. What haven't you and your Neanderthal best friend done today? Call her a drunken booty call, a worthless slut, a bitch. No wonder she's in a bad mood all the time. Between the two of you all she gets is fucked. Figuratively by one and literally and figuratively by the other. Jesus Christ, cut her some slack and leave her alone for the next few days. Both of you." On that snarled note she turned on her heel and started to walk away.

Before she got too far, someone cried out that the police were en route to their location and there was a mad scramble for everyone to get to their cars and depart. In the scuffle to rush to her Nissan, Letty forgot about the fact she had brought Mia with her, that the other girl had no ride of her own. She was so upset with Dom and Vince it never entered her head that she'd left Mia behind until she was half way home. She couldn't double back now, she knew she'd risk running into a patrol car that way. She could only hope that Mia had been quick enough to jump into one of the other rides closer to her at the time of the scramble.