Chapter 32

Dom, Letty, Vince, and Leon came back into the house an hour later. Each hoping that it had been enough time for Brian to explain to Mia about Tyler and Dom, and about the race. They found the pair sitting on the couch in the living room. Mia was sitting with her arms on her knees, her face buried in her hands. Brian had his hand on her shoulder and pulled her into him. They heard the guys come into the room and turned round to the see them. Mia's eyes and cheeks were red. She'd been crying. "How could you Dom?" she questioned her brother. "How could you?" she asked again as she turned back around. Dom slowly put his hands into the pockets of his jeans and took a deep breath. When he didn't say anything, Mia stood up and strode over to him. Confronted by her, Dom replied. "I had to Mia!" he tried to explain. "I've had enough of his shit. He tried to kill you! It pushed me over the edge." Seeing he wasn't getting through to her, he looked down at the floor. "You wouldn't understand!" he almost whispered. "NO DOM, NO!" she shouted in his face. "I do understand. Your pride almost got you killed. Now you've pulled Brian into it as well!" she began crying, as she pointed back at Brian. The others just stood silent, not wanting to get involved. "You've gave him the responsibility of it all now. It had nothing to do with him" she shouted. The tears came faster and in her frustration she started to punch furiously at Dom's chest. He was thrown back slightly. Her punches were sore, but nowhere near strong enough to hurt him. Letty and Vince tried to step in to stop her, but couldn't get past Dom who was blocking their path. Brian grabbed her by the waist, but still he fought. Dom grabbed her fists to stop her and she fought against him with all her strength. Finally, her anger subsided, and she fell to the floor sobbing uncontrollably. Dom stood over her catching his breath, while Brian lifted her up and carried her upstairs. Letty, Leon, and Vince stood silently, all looking at Dom. He turned around and caught Letty's eyes. They could tell he was seriously upset. "Give me your keys Let!" he ordered. Letty slowly pulled the keys from her leather trousers and placed them gently in the palm of his outstretched hand. "You want me to come with you?" she asked as he closed his hand around the keys. "Nah, I'll be OK. I just wanna drive for a while." He walked past them and headed out the front door. The three of them stood looking at the door as it closed shut, and once they heard the car pull away with a squeal of tires, they each went to different parts of the house.

When Mia woke up, she found Dom sitting on the chair next to her bed. He was giving her a soft yet guilty look. She rolled over to look at him directly. They looked into each others eyes for a moment, each as lovingly as the other. Dom broke the silence. "Mia, I'm sorry babe. I shouldn't have been so bloody stupid!" he cursed himself. Mia shook her head. "No. I'm the one that should be sorry. I lost my temper and took my rage out on you. I was wrong." He leaned over and ran his hand gently down her face. Knowing that they could spend all night blaming themselves, he spoke up. "Tell you what!" he said with a half-smile. "Why don't we just forget the whole thing? Concentrate on winning that race. Huh?" he offered. Mia laughed. "That's all you think about aint it? Racing?" He nodded his head. "With stakes as big as these, you don't have a choice." He told her, losing the smile.

"You think Brian will be OK?" she asked with fear in her voice. Dom sat back in his chair and Mia sat up, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I think so. But I was thinking we should head down to the Strip tonight and get some wins behind us. Sound good?" "Yeah" Mia nodded her head. Dom stood and walked over to the door. "Well I'll go tell the others. Tell em to get ready". "Yeah, I'll get ready too!" she replied heading into the bathroom. Dom left her bedroom and went down the stairs into the living room. Letty and Leon were sprawled out on the floor playing the Playstation, and Brian and Vince were goin through some car magazines. "OK guys" he shouted to get their attention. Brian and Vince looked over at him, and Letty gave a 'S'up' to let him know she was listening. Leon was losing, and she wasn't stopping the game. "Races start in half-an-hour. What d'ya say we get down there and make some money?" he asked them all. Letty dropped the controller and jumped up. "I'm gonna go get ready!" she told them, running past them all. Dom watched her go and turned back to the others. "Hell yeah!" Brian said throwing the magazine into Vince's lap and standing up. Leon switched the Playstation off and stood up with a "Let's go!" The three guys who were standing looked down at Vince who was still sitting on the couch. "You up for it Vince?" Dom asked. Vince closed the magazine and slowly stood. "Sure" he said with little enthusiasm. The guys went to get things ready. Leon and Vince went to check the cars, and Dom looked out money for bettin'. Brian went with him. "What's up with Vince?" he asked, knowing something was wrong. Dom paused before answering. He pulled up the floorboard where the teams last stash of money was hidden. "His arm." He explained. "I mean he can use it all right, and he can drive. But I don't know if he'll run the quarter mile again!" Brian nodded, understanding. Dom threw the money up and caught it again. "That's the last of it" he said showing Brian the money. "We gotta win tonight!" he said, making sure that Brian understood the situation.