Chapter 2

"Leon if you drop that wrench on me one more time boy I'm gonna take you outside and beat the shit out of you!" Dom growled, picking up the wrench that had clattered to the ground just moments before. "Sorry Dom." Leon mumbled, turning away to finish adjusting the rad hoses of the car they were working on. Dom sat watching him for a few moments before hauling himself up to stand beside Leon. His voice was low in the spacious garage, making sure no one else heard him as he spoke. "Dawg you okay? You've been acting kinda wacked for the past three days. What's on your mind brother?"

"Nothing." Was Leon's quick answer. He never even looked up from his work until Dom took the tool he was using out of his hand. The look on Dom's face told him that he wasn't buying his story. "C'mon bro, you look like you could use a drink." Dom threw the screwdriver down into one of the racks and slung one of his large arms around Leon's neck. "Let, we're going to get a drink." Dom called out behind him. "Aight." He heard Letty's muffled reply from beneath another car.

They walked next door and called out a greeting to Mia on their way through the diner. "Mia can you grab us a couple of Corona's?" Dom asked before pushing Leon into the back office. Seconds later Mia popped her head in the door, two bottles dripping in her hand. "Thanks Mia. Hey have you got that expense report done for last month?" Dom called out before she could disappear out the door. Mia turned back with an agitated sigh. "You keep asking me that Dom and I keep telling you it's underneath that pile of shit you call work on top of that disaster you call a desk." She spat out, pointing to the paper covered wood desk he was currently resting his feet on. Leon hid a grin as Dom scowled and waved his sister away.

"I get no respect around here." Dom grumbled. Leon laughed at the obvious joke. Dom was the most respected person in the entire racing community. His word was law, and his laws were obeyed. But that didn't stop the team from messing with him every now and then. Dom popped the top on both beers and handed one across the desk to Leon. "So what's the story man? And don't tell me 'nothing' dawg cause that's a woman's game. Just spit it out." Leon took a long gulp of his beer before standing up and walking to look out the window and then back towards the desk. Dominic waited patiently, watching the younger man pace while sipping his own beer. Finally Leon ran a hand though his hair and slouched back into the chair opposite the desk. "Dom I don't know what it is. I'm tripping, big time."

"Over what?"

"Draigen Kelly." Leon answered quickly, earning a look of shock from Dom. "That little fire-breathing Irish girl? She's a race rat dawg, what's the big deal?" Leon lifted a brow at him. "If she was just 'a race rat' then how did she manage to show you up?" He smiled as Dom glared at him. "So she has a little talent behind the wheel. It's nothing to get all worked up about."

"You get worked up over Letty." Leon pointed out stubbornly. "You leave Let out of this." Dom growled. Leon held his hands up, warding off a potential attack. "Look, I just meant that the way you feel about Let is the way I feel about this girl aight?"

"Leon in case you haven't noticed I'm in love with Letty. You gonna sit there and tell me you've fallen in love with some race rat, with just one meeting, three days ago?"

"Stop calling her a race rat." Leon bit out before slouching further in his chair. "Look, I don't know how I feel about this girl, I just know that she's different than the rest of them. She got to me aight?"

Dom smiled behind his bottle before chugging down the last of his brew. Placing his empty bottle on the table he sighed before regarding Leon with a pensive look. Leon was obviously lost in thought, his eyes trained on a small scratch on the desk, only slightly visible beneath the scattered pages trapped beneath his booted feet. In the five years that Dominic had known Leon he had never, ever seen the man lose his cool over a girl. Leon's record for a lasting relationship topped out at three weeks. The boy was a player who never seriously got involved with anyone. "So what do I gotta do to get you to stop tripping over this girl and get back to working on my cars?" Dom asked dryly. Leon pulled himself out of his reverie, smiling sheepishly at the now grinning Dom. "Damned if I know Dom. Damned if I know."

Across town a certain fiery redhead was having her own concentration problems. Draigen Kelly sat quietly in a swanky office downtown, listening to the man at the head of the board table drone on and on about their newest corporate strategy. Beside her Aiden was leaning back in his seat, looking to all the world as if he was absorbing every word the businessman was saying. Draigen knew better. Her brother was probably mentally redesigning the engine in the Challenger from the inside out. She smiled at the thought. Aiden knew more about cars than he did about corporate sales strategy, and that was saying a lot. The company whose boardroom they were currently occupying paid top dollar to have Aiden flown in from Ireland as a consultant on their newest project. Draigen was dragged along as Aiden's personal assistant. It was the perfect arrangement for the two siblings. By day Aiden played the brilliant stuffy businessperson, and by night Draigen set fire to the racetracks.

Draigen had stumbled into racing by accident. Weeks after their parents had died in a plane crash, sixteen-year-old Draigen had followed her brother into the gloomy, mean streets of Dublin's darkest corner. At nearly two in the morning the narrow streets were buzzing with activity. Her brother entered a race, using a large chunk of their inheritance and their father's old American Mustang. He lost. After drowning his sorrows in one too many pints, Aiden received the sharp edge of Draigen's tongue as she drove them both home. Drunk as he was he was still perfectly aware of how his little sister handled the American muscle car. When Draigen was calm she drove like any other respectable person, but when she was furious, Lord Almighty could she burn rubber. The next week Aiden snuck out again, knowing his little sister would follow him one way or another. When they reached the racing scene Draigen was all but ready to spit fire at him. Unfortunately for Draigen in her efforts to knock come sense into her brother she accidentally picked a fight with Dublin's current race warlord. Aiden suggested they race to settle the score and pushed Draigen into the car. The rest was history.

Draigen shifted position in her seat as the meeting was handed over to Aiden. Her brother confidently took his place before the corporations' top managers and proceeded to rip their current strategy to shreds. Draigen had to hide a smile behind her clipboard, Aiden was a shark in pinstripes and he had a reputation for cutting away the bull shit and getting to the heart of any matter. He'd always been the smarter of the two of them, especially with large sums of money. He was an investing wizard and had turned what was left of their inheritance into a small fortune. Enough to pay for his fancy education at Oxford as well as send Draigen to a respectable business school. What they both made now was more than enough to finance their addiction to racing. Years ago they had refinished their father's old Mustang, as well as an old Charger and a Monte Carlo for cruising. The Challenger was a new project, still in the testing phase. Draigen smiled at the memory of Dominic Toretto sucking back the fumes from the two oversized chrome tail pipes. As far as she was concerned the Challenger was perfect. It handled like a temperamental bitch and had more than enough balls to satisfy her tastes for power. She caught Aiden's eye over her clipboard as he stared pointedly at her idle hands. Taking the hint she picked up her pen and began taking notes on his presentation. Her thoughts on a certain brown-eyed racer would just have to wait until later.

"So what was wrong with Leon?" Letty asked Dominic later when they were alone together in his bedroom. Dominic sighed deeply as Letty sat behind him on the bed and began massaging the tense muscles of his neck. "Nothing."

"Uh huh, and he was dropping tools all day for fun was he?"

"You noticed that too huh?"

"Kinda hard not to baby. Either he's coming down with something or he's gone and fallen ass over heels in love."

"Love? Where the hell do you get that from?" Dom asked gruffly. Letty laughed and kissed the side of his neck, resting her lips next to his ear. "You guys are all the same when you can't get a girl off your mind. C'mon you don't remember how Brian was when Mia conveniently started coming around the shop more? We all thought he was a total klutz until they finally started dating and he got his head screwed on straight."

"Nah, Snowman was nervous around the whole crew in the early days, not just Mia." Letty moved until she was sitting in his lap before raising her brow in contention. "Okay, okay so he only acted really strange when Mia was around. Still, that's just Brian. We all know he's not normal. I mean, what kinda cop gives up his job for an ex-con."

"The kinda cop that respects Dominic Toretto and falls in love with his sister."

"Yeah whatever. You still can't compare Brian and Leon. Completely different people."

"They're not that different." Letty insisted stubbornly. Dom watched her lips pull into a frown and couldn't resist kissing her.

"You're looking awfully occupied Pixie." Aiden observed across the plush velvet interior of the limo to where his sister was sitting. His sister had been sitting quietly, well quietly for Draigen, for the past ten minutes during their drive back to the hotel. She had been twisting the rings on her fingers while her right foot tapped to some unheard music in her head, but she said not a word when he spoke to her. "Draigen!" He'd had to call her name three times before she responded. "I'm sorry Aiden were you saying something?" Aiden laughed and shook his head. "Yes I was saying something Pixie, I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes."

"I'm sorry love, what is it?"

"What's going on in that cunning mind of yours. You've been floating around without your wits all day. I'm amazed you made as many notes as you did on my presentation, you were barely there."

"Look I said I was sorry." She growled, her green eyes snapping. Aiden held up his hands. "I yield, I yield. I just wanted to know what you were fashing about all day."

"What makes you think there's anything wrong?"

"Auerelie, talk to me." Draigen knew that tone of voice and she sighed. Whenever Aiden used her first name he was either angry with her or worried about her.

"I've just been going over the race in me mind, that's all." Draigen replied, letting the old brogue back into her normally schooled speech. "You are lying. I can see it plain as day in yer face." Aiden countered, abandoning his own clipped speech in favour of the lilt. Draigen lifted her chin a fraction and scowled. "Well if you're so smart why don' you tell me what I'm thinking then."

"Yer thinking aboot him." Aiden shot back quickly. The scowl on his face may have put the fear of God in a good many of their enemies back home, but it didn't phase Draigen one bit. She sat up straighter in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "Him who?"

"Toretto." Draigen laughed then, and the sound so surprised Aiden that he sat back in his seat confused. He had been expecting a quick denial, or a telltale blush, but her laughter caught him off guard. "What's so funny?" Draigen laughed again, this time at the bewildered look on his face.

"Oh me brother, sometimes I do believe you think me completely witless." Draigen stifled the last of her giggles and swept her tears of mirth from her lashes. "Now you've done it you big oaf. If I have mascara round me eyes I'll be making you type up yer own bloody notes."

"What are you talking aboot?" Aiden demanded. Draigen finally gave him a serious look. "Did you not see the wee guardian at Dominic's side that night?"

"That was his sister."

"Nay, his sister was behind him with another blond man. That gel was the keeper o' that warlord's heart. I'd wager every last cent we owned on it. And she looked ta be a right fierce one. Since I like me head firmly attached ta me shoulders I don' think I'd be wishing fer me doom by thinking aboot him in any capacity other than me current rival."

"Then who were you thinking aboot?"

"That's fer me ta know and you ta sod off cause I'm no' bloody telling you."

"Auerelie." Aiden's warning fell on deaf ears. The limo had stopped outside the hotel and Draigen had already bounded from the car. Aiden sighed heavily and gathered his things. Draigen had always been horrible at keeping secrets from him. He prayed that this one would come out soon so he could deal with it openly. The faraway looks she had been having all day were not ones Aiden was prepared to deal with. He had bigger things to deal with. Like keeping her alive.