**Chapter Five**

"You're kidding me right?" Corrin asked in disbelief as Mia told her the whole sordid story.

Mia shook her head with a smile on her face. "I shit you not. God, how can this be? I mean, what a freak occurrence!"

Corrin sat back in her seat stunned. "Tell me about it." The pair sat in silence for a while, pondering the luck they had. Corrin looked at Mia then leaned forward. "Do you still think of him Mia? I know it's none of my business but he's like a brother to me and I know how serious he was or is about you."

"All the time. But I have to be strong for my brother. He's all I got besides the rest of those guys."

"That's it, I can't stand this anymore. Come on." Corrin said dragging Mia up from her seat.

"Wait, where are we going?" Mia slightly protested, but really she knew what was happening.

Corrin walked into the garage then stared blankly at her car. "Well considering my engine is now in pieces on the ground we're gonna have to take you're car."

"Hey where are you two pissin' off to?" Dom asked as he walked came in from outside carrying two NOS tanks.

"Wouldn't we all like to know" Mia said as Corrin continued to pull her along.

"BACK SOON" Corrin called out as the girls jumped into Mia's car and drove off.

Leon popped his head out from the hood, chewing on a toothpick, as he looked at Dom. "What was that?" he asked.

Dom looked as confused as him and shrugged his shoulders.

Vince came jumpin' up and down on the scene showing his nearly accurate portrayal of a female. "Oo oo there's a sale on at Gucci."

The boys had a good laugh before getting back to work.


"I can't see him like this Corrin. Pull over." Mia complained as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Corrin looked over at her then back at the road. "What are you complaining about? We're going to see him and that's that!" Corrin was having fun with this. Not only would Brian flip, he'd also be eternally grateful.


Grooooaaawwwwlll. Brian stared at his stomach apologetically. "Oh yeah and I know where the hell she went." He said looking at his belly.

Just then Corrin burst through the door of his apartment and looked around. "Where the hell have you been? I've been worried sick." Brian said as he jumped off the couch.

Corrin had that big cheeky grin of hers on her face. "I went and had lunch-" she began.

"Nice for some. Here I am starving my ass off and you're off - who's behind you?" he started then stopped.

"Hey Brian" Mia said as she stepped into view. His expression dropped as he stared at her. Mia. For a while there the whole house was silent. Brian looked from Mia to Corrin then back.

"How did you?" he trailed off as he walked up to Mia and enveloped her in a hug.

"I think I'll leave you two kids to catch up. This time I'm going to the store and I will be back." Corrin said as she grabbed a jacket and walked out the door. It was late afternoon and the air was slowly becoming cooler.

"Come in, sit down." Brian said as he led Mia into the living room. "Wow, I cant' believe this. What are you doing here? Does Dom know you're here? What if he-"

"Shhhh" Mia said as she placed a finger against his lips. "Don't worry about all that."

Brian smiled and placed his arm over her shoulders as they sat down on the couch. "So how have you been? Is everybody alright?"

"Yeah everybody's good. I'm fine. We've had some bad luck though since, well since what happened."

"Like what?" Brian asked, curious of how things had turned out for them.

"Well now that we aren't racing anymore there ain't that many cars going in for repairs and service. Business is slow and we have no way to make ends meet so Dom's looking at selling." Brian could here the regret in Mia's voice.

"And what do you want to do?"

Mia sunk deeper into the couch and sighed. "I don't know. I don't want to have to sell but there's no other way. Dom is in a bind; he doesn't know what to do. So how's things with you?"

"You had to ask," he said laughing slightly. "Well, I ain't a cop anymore. I chucked it in; it wasn't all it was cut out to be. My superior thinks I got too involved with going undercover."

"And what do you think?" Mia asked, raising her dark brown eyes up to his.

Brian moved his hand behind her neck and pulled her closer. "I think he's right." He pulled Mia's lips towards his as the pair entwined in the kiss that had been long left abandoned three months ago.


"Harry's sending 'round his new employee to drop off the gearbox; should be here anytime." Jesse said as he walked in from the office. The guys, as usual, were sitting out in the afternoon sun having a beer and waiting to finish the car.

"Thanks Jess" Dom said taking a swig of his Corona.

"Yo man, Mia's new friend's pretty fly." Leon said as he ripped his shirt off and placed it next to him.

"She sounds weird." Vince piped up.

Jesse also removed his shirt baring a small, well-toned chest. Throwing his shirt at Vince he said, "That's cos she ain't from her. Shit man you dense?"

Dom frowned as he turned to Jesse and Vince. "Knock it off you two. No need to get all bitchy-ass on each other."

"Sorry bro." Jess said quietly as he sat down on an empty tyre.

"Man it's a Friday night and there ain't shit to do." Leon said as he threw his toothpick away.

Vince looked up. "Yeah well, where would we usually be on a Friday night?"

"Guy's, we haven't been racing for the all the Friday's of the last three months now. Why do you think that's all gonna change today?" Jess said.

Dom sat there listening to the boys as the argued back and forth about racing tonight. Deep down he wanted to, he would die to race tonight. But he couldn't take the risk of getting caught by the cops again. Not after everything that had happened. The girls had been gone now for almost two hours. He worried when he didn't know where Mia was, but he kept that to himself.
He got up from his seat and walked towards Corrin's car. The boys watched him do so but continued in their conversation. "Should we race tonight?" he said as he turned and leaned against her boot.

All conversation ceased as all three men turned to Dom. Vince looked at the others then back at Dom. "Shit yeah!"

Dom nodded then turned to walk into the garage.

"And you're just gonna leave us hangin'?" Leon said as he got up and followed Dom into the garage.

Dom turned and grinned in the evil way he used to.

Hearing the Ford from Harry's pull up the drive, Jesse turned and yelled out "YO DOM. THE GEARBOX IS HERE."

"Hi. I'm Albert but you can call my Albie." The guy snorted as he walked toward them. "That's what my friends call me." He laughed. Now, no offence to anyone, but this guy reeked nerd! He lifted his pants, almost wedgying himself then turned to the ute. "Pretty hot day today fellas huh? I've been flat out mostly. That Harry man, what a slave driver." Again he snorted as he laughed.

"What the hell is that?" Leon whispered to Jesse as the all stared at this guy in disbelief.

Albie was having a little trouble undoing the clasps on the trailer of the ute. Actually he was having a lot of trouble. "Wow. Looks like I did them up pretty hard, haha." He said as he wrestled with the clasps.

Dom looked at Vince who walked cautiously up to Albie. "Here let me get that." He said, standing off a bit from Albie.

"Geez, thanks bro. You guys racing tonight? Oh wait, shhh I didn't ask that. Haha. You know how it is with these street racers, haha. Gotta keep it under wraps so the cops don't find out." Albie pushed his thick-rimmed glasses up so that they wouldn't fall off his eyes, then folded his arms across his chest.

Vince unhooked the clasps with two fingers then lifted the gearbox off the ute and carried it into the garage.

Albie looked on in awe as he watched Vince. "Wow, he's pretty strong. Gosh, I could've done that but my mom says that it's not healthy for me to lift heavy things. Bad back." He said arching his back.

"Well, thanks for that and tell Harry we'll fix him up later." Leon said as they all went to walk inside.

"I see you guys are having a few beers. Wow, geez a cold one would do quite nice." Albie said as he followed them into the workshop.

Jesse turned around as the others continued to walk. "But remember. Your mom doesn't like you to drink alcohol because you come out in hives." He said trying to get Albie to piss off. He didn't know this guy, nor did he want to, but he just took a stab in the dark with the mom thing.

Albie thought for a minute. "Wow, you're right. Thanks for that. Bye guys, see you all another day." He called out as he stood and waved for about a minute then strode back to the ute.

"Mate of yours Vince?" Leon joked as they began their work on fixing Corrin's engine.

"Fuck you're funny Leo. You're so fucking funny, I forgot to laugh" Vince said shoving a wrench into Leon's stomach as he walked past. All in fun of course.

"I'll tell you what. Bring back Brian any day bro." Jesse said as he configured the gearbox onto his computer to tune it with the engine.

Dom looked up upon hearing Brian's name. "Nothin' we can do about that now."

The sound of Mia's car pulling up caught his attention. They all continued work as Mia and Corrin walked in. None of them noticed the third shadow.

"Ah, guys. Someone wanted to see how you all were." Mia announced as she walked in.

"How's it goin'?" Brian said. All four guys looked up at the familiar voice. All eyes were on Dom straight after. Dom stared at Brian standing before them. Not breaking the eye contact he walked across the garage till his solid form towered over Brian. Nobody moved.