Chapter 7

"You know, I forgot to ask you something last night," Liz commented the next morning while she and Dom were still lying in bed. After the incident with Letty, he wasn't about to leave Liz alone, so he spent the night.

"What?" Dom asked, enjoying the feel of Liz's body pressed against his side.

"What are you doing here?"

He smiled. "Well, right now I'm in bed talking to you."

She slapped his chest and then immediately apologized. "I'm sorry. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, getting better every day," he said, trailing his fingers up and down her back.

"No, what I meant was why did you come by last night?"

"Oh, that. I was out driving and decided to stop by. I wouldn't have stopped if the lights would have been off but when I saw Letty standing at the door, I got worried."

Liz's eyebrows shot up. "You did?"

"Yeah. After what she's pulled, I don't trust her any more than I would a snake."

She laughed at that. "That's classic," she said. "But where's your car? You didn't park on the street."

"No, I drove by on the side street and saw you two so I pulled around and parked in back, then made my way up the sidewalk beside the building. I was hoping you wouldn't see me because I wanted to see what she was going to do."

"I'm glad you showed up when you did. I wanted to beat the shit out of her but knew that this was not the time or place for it. She'll get hers for what she did to you, I promise you that."

"I don't doubt that for a minute," Dom said knowing full well that Liz could take care of herself.

They had been lying there for a little while when Liz finally screwed up her courage enough to ask Dom a question.

"Dom?" she quietly asked.

"Hmmm," came his lazy reply.

"I have a question and I'll totally understand if the answer is no."

He turned his head so that he could look at her. "What is it?"

"Well," she said, now feeling nervous about bring it up. "The firm I work for is having this huge banquet Saturday night and I was wondering if you'd like to go with me? It's not a black-tie affair, but you'd have to wear a suit and you'd be hanging out with the people I work with. If you don't want to go, I'd totally understand."

Dom felt honored that she would even think about asking him. He knew that she had "male friends" that would love to be seen with her, but yet she had asked him. He also knew that if he said yes to her, this would be their first appearance in public together. And on the heels of that thought came another . what would her friends think about him? He came from nothing and still had nothing. Until the time that he had met her, he didn't really care about any of that. Would they think any less of her because he was a grease monkey and street racer and didn't bring in a 6-digit annually salary? Well, with the money he made racing he came close to it, but he didn't flaunt it like some people did.

Dom took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Shit," he said, hating what he was about to do. "God, Liz, I'd love to take you, but I'm racing Saturday night. This is the first time since that weekend and I need to get back into it if I'm going to be worth anything at Race Wars. God, if it were Friday night I'd say yes, but I can't. Not on Saturday night."

She was hurt . his racing came first. She thought that since Letty was out of the picture and had been for a while that things might change between them. Apparently not.

"That's ok Dom, I understand," she said throwing the covers back and getting out of bed. "Your racing comes first," she said walking into the bathroom.

Dom noticed the change in her and called her on it.

"Awww, Liz. Come on," he said, following her into the bathroom. "It's not like that and you know it."

She stood in front of the sink and looked at him in the mirror. "Well that's what it sounded like to me."

"Look, I'm sorry. If this thing was on Friday I told you that I'd take you. But it's not. Why don't you call Kyle and have him take you? At least I won't worry about any guys hitting on you or trying to get you to leave with them after," Dom joked.

Liz turned on him. She was furious and she couldn't stop the words that tumbled out of her mouth. "Why would that matter, Dom? We don't have any claims on each other. We're just fuck buddies, remember? Two people who just happen to have a good time together. Or have I missed something? Has something changed between us that would give you a reason to worry about me leaving a party with someone else?"

Dom just stood there and looked at her. He wanted so badly to tell her how he felt, how he's felt about her for a while now, but after hearing what she just said, he decided that maybe he was wrong. He thought that she had feelings for him but now he wasn't so sure.

"I guess not. Sorry, my mistake," he said as he walked back into the bedroom and started to dress.

Liz stood in the bathroom not believing what had just happened. She had told him that it was ok if he didn't want to go and she turned into a crazy person when he did that exact thing. God what was happening to her?

She walked to the bathroom door. "Dom?" she quietly said.

He looked up at her while tying the laces to his boots.

"Look, I'm sorry about all of that. I know that your racing is important to you, but I thought that, well, that things had changed between us."

He finished and stood up. "I'll talk to you later," he said and then walked out of the bedroom.

Liz sat on the bed and listened to him go down the stairs and then out the back door. The sound of his engine drew her to the window and she walked over and looked out. Dom was sitting in his car, just sitting there. He looked up at the window for a few seconds, backed out of the driveway and drove off.

Liz realized that she may have just fucked up any chance that they might have had.

Dom drove back to the house trying to figure out what had happened. She said that she'd understand if he said no, and then when he said he couldn't go, she lost it. Maybe it was getting to be "that time of the month" with her. He knew from experience with Mia that she was moody and emotional right before hers and he did his best to stay away from her for a few days. He hated getting his ass chewed out for nothing.

He pulled into the driveway of the shop and turned off the motor. Fuck! Why couldn't he have just told her how he felt? Why did he leave things this way? He saw her standing in the window so why didn't he get out of the car and go back inside and tell her? Because he didn't want to make an ass out of himself if she didn't feel the same way, that's why.

Vince and Leon were at the shop working on their cars.

"Yo Dom! What's up brotha?" Vince asked as he walked up to them.

"You guys seen Letty?"

"No, why?" Leon asked.

"She showed up at Liz's house last night," Dom said with disgust. He still couldn't believe it.

"You gotta be shittin' me dawg!" Vince yelled. "What the fuck was she doing over there?"

Dom shook his head. "She went to tell Liz to stay away from me because if she didn't, they'd come back and finish the job."

"Aw fuck NO she didn't!" Leon exploded.

"Yeah, she did. And then she said something about Race Wars . something about me being taken down a notch or two."

"What the fuck did she mean by that?" Leon asked.

Dom shrugged. "I don't know. That's when I came up and told her to get the fuck outta there."

"So is Liz ok?" Vince asked.

"Yeah, she's fine. Letty slapped her though."

Leon laughed. "Man, that was the wrong fucking thing to do to Liz. Did she jump her ass?"

"No. She said that she'll get hers when the time's right," Dom stated.

Vince laughed. "Obviously Letty doesn't know everything about Liz. Kyle told me one night that she knows martial arts, kung fu or tai-kwan-do or some shit like that. She'd fuck Letty up in a heartbeat!"

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that," Dom said knowing that if Liz and Letty got into it, Liz would have the upper hand but Letty would end up fighting dirty.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Dom asked. "What's gotta get out of here and what can wait?"

The guys filled him in and they busted their asses to get everything done that had to be. The rest could wait. Dom threw himself into his work and tried to forget about the conversation with Liz earlier. It still bugged him that she acted that way. Something wasn't right.

Three days later found Dom in an extremely foul mood and he was taking it out on the guys. They knew that something was wrong but when they asked, Dom closed up and told them that it was nothing. He wanted to call Liz and check on her but was afraid that she'd hang up on his ass for leaving her like that. So he did the next best thing. He called Kyle. When he hung the phone up that night, he felt better than he had in a few days. He knew exactly what he was going to do and he hoped that his plan worked.

Saturday found the guys scrambling around the shop, checking their cars and getting them ready for the races that night. Dom knew that Liz was going to the banquet that night and hoped that she had a good time. He wasn't worried because she had asked Kyle to go with her.

That night the guys drove to the strip and waited for their turn to race. Dom didn't care who he was racing. He was just happy to be back in it. He noticed Tran in the opposite lane, a few cars behind him. Too bad he wouldn't be racing him tonight. That would be sweet. Dom noticed that a couple of the cars in the opposite lane pulled out of the line, which brought Tran closer to him. He had three cars in front of him and then it was Dom's turn to race.

The price was still two grand, but instead of several cars racing, it would be Dom against one other person. He didn't care, he just wanted to race. He waited patiently in line until it was his turn. Pulling up to the line he looked over at his opponent. Not recognizing him, he got ready to race. All of a sudden the guy pulled up and let Tran have his place. Dom smiled.

"Nice to see you back, Dom," Johnny said.

Dom just looked at him. "Wanna make this interesting?" Dom asked.

"I'm listening."

"How about five grand instead of two?"

Johnny pulled out a wad of cash and handed it to Hector who was standing between the two cars ready to start the race and hoping that they wouldn't kill each other. Dom did the same and handed his cash to Hector.

Hector walked over to Dom's car.

"Boy it sure is good to see you back down here," he said.

Dom smiled. "Thanks. I just hope I still have it."

"You do. Just whip this fucker's ass and come back to get your money."

"Will do."

Hector stepped back and raised his arms in the air, then quickly dropped them signaling the race to begin.

Dom and Johnny took off from the line and stayed neck and neck through the entire quarter-mile. Dom was worried that he might not have it anymore and slammed the car into fourth gear, hoping he didn't blow his engine up. Dom crossed the line ahead of Johnny by a fraction of a second. It was close but it was over. He'd done it.

He slowed down and circled the block, pulling up close to where they started the race. Hector met him with a big smile.

"I am so glad you did that. He's been talking shit while you've been gone."

"Too bad he can't back it up, right?" Dom joked.

Hector handed him the wad of cash he was holding. "Here ya go. Ten fucking grand right there."

Dom took the cash and shook Hector's hand. "Thanks man," he said, walking back to his car.

"Where the fuck are you going? Aren't you gonna stick around?"

"Can't. There's some place I need to be," Dom said, getting into his car and driving off.