Chapter 4

Brian woke up the next day to the sound of someone pounding on his door. He groaned, not wanting to wake up cause he had been dreaming about Mia again. He rolled over to look at the clock by his bed. It was noon already. Maybe if I just lay here whoever it is will go away. No such luck, the pounding on the door continued.

"Shit!" Brian said, getting up and grabbing his shorts from the night before. I'm going to kill Rome. He's the only person annoying enough to just keep beating on the door. "I'M COMING!"

He opened the door to find Rome eating a huge burger with a Heineken in his other hand. He was wearing a denim shirt with the sleeves cut out and a pair of old baggy jeans.

"What the fuck do you want Rome?"

"Wake yo' ass up, bro! You been sleeping all damn morning." Rome takes a bite of his burger.

"So?" Brian runs a hand through his hair, making it stand on end worse than it already was.

"So get yo' sorry ass up! We got work to do." Rome steps off the house boat and walks back to the garage.

Brian sighs and goes in search of a T-shirt. He found the black one from the night before, put on a pair of sneakers and headed to the garage. After he and Rome had finished the Carter Verron case they had decided against opening their own garage cause they thought it would call into question where they got the money from. So instead they had sat on the money and went to work for Tej at his garage.

He entered the garage to find Rome sitting at a table still eating. "Hey bro, I thought you said we had work to do." Brian says.

"I'm on my lunch break." Rome takes a drink of his beer.

"Sup Brian?" Jimmy says looking up from under the hood of Suki's pink S2000. He was dressed in a pair of blue coveralls.

"Sup Jimmy?" Brian walks over to look lean against the car. "What's wrong with it?"

"Some fitting came loose. Nothing too serious." Jimmy was about to go back under the hood when he asked, "What happened last night Brian?"

"Dude, I don't know. Guess it just wasn't my night."

"Yeah. But you almost had him."

Brian chuckles, remembering when he told Dom almost the same thing that night when they'd raced against each other. "Winning is winning," he told him Jimmy.

"Maybe there was something wrong with your car," Jimmy said thoughtfully. He was just about as crazy about cars as Jesse. "Bring it over later today and I'll look at it." He went back to working under the hood of Suki's car.

Brian went to stand by Rome, who had finally finished his lunch. "You ready to get to work?"

"Hey cuz, don't come at me like you been in here waiting on me or something. Yo' ass just got out the bed."

"Shut up Rome." Brian just shook his head. Rome was always trying to be a hard ass. They went over to a blue Civic that had been brought in. "What are we doing to this?"

"New exhaust system," Rome said, throwing the keys to Brian. Brian got behind the wheel of the car and drove onto the lift. When he got out Rome pressed a button to raise the lift so they could work under the car.

"Where's Tej and Suki?" Brian asked, grabbing some tools to get started removing the old exhaust system.

"They went out for lunch." Jimmy said.

"More like back to Suki's place so Tej could tap that ass," Rome said smirking. Brian and Jimmy just laughed.

They had been working for about an hour when Tej and Suki pulled up in Tej's Dodge truck. They came into the garage and said what's up to everyone.

Rome looked up from the Civic he and Brian were working on. With a smirk on his face he said, "How was 'lunch'?"

"None of yo' damn business, that's how it was." Tej said sitting down at the table, pulling Suki into his lap.

"That good, huh." Rome said going back to work.

"Yo Brian!" Tej called.

"Brian looked up and went over to Tej and Suki. He and Tej bumped fists and he ruffled Suki's hair.

"Quit Brian!" Suki said, finger combing her hair back into place. She got up to see what kind of progress Jimmy was making on her car.

"Some race last night." Tej said, eyeing Brian.

"Yeah man. Win some you lose some." Brian goes into the cooler and gets one of the Corona's that were kept around especially for him.

"Why the hell you always drinking them nasty ass Coronas?" Tej asked.

"I just like 'em." Brian didn't tell him that Corona was the official beer of Team Torreto and drinking them would always remind him of the family he had lost. Shaking his head to put the team in the back of his mind, he realized that Tej had been talking to him and he hadn't been paying attention. "What'd you say?"

"I said that cat in the RX-7 was good."

"Yeah, man, he was pretty good."

"So do you know him?" Tej asked.

"Naw bro, I didn't see him. I didn't recognize that car. How you figured I'd know him."

"Cause he seems to know you."

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout Tej?" Brian took a long drink from his beer.

"He told me to give you a message."

"Oh yeah? What was it?" He turned the beer up again.

"Tell the Snowman we're coming for him."

Brian nearly choked on the beer. Tej jumped up to thump him on the back. "You aight man?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," he said coughing. He took a deep breath and began pacing back and forth.

"What's wrong with you?" Rome said, coming to stand near Brian and Tej. Suki and Jimmy had come over also, hearing the commotion of Brian choking and seeing him pace nervously back and forth.

"Nothing. I'm fine." He stopped pacing and faced Tej. "Are you sure that's what he said?"

"Yeah that's what he said."

"Who said what?" Jimmy asked.

"Cat in the black RX-7 from last night." Tej said.

"The guy that beat Brian?" Suki asked. Tej nodded his head.

"Did he say anything else?" Brian asked.

"Looked like he was about to, but 5-O was rolling up on us, so he jetted like everybody else."

"What'd he look like?" Brian asked. He had a feeling he knew who it was.

"I didn't see him too clearly. He had his inside lights off so it was blacker than a motherfucker in that car. But I could tell he was a big guy."

Brian started back pacing again, running his hand through his already tussled blonde curls. He was fairly sure he knew who was behind the wheel of the RX-7. Only one group of people had ever referred to him as Snowman other than Hector. He was suddenly hit with apprehension at the thought that they were coming for him. Dom was a force to be reckoned with when he was mad and he knew the fact that he had lied about being a cop was just enough for Dom to be pissed off. Add to that the fact that Vince didn't like him period, he was sure he was in for a world of pain if they did in fact come for him. If, there is no if, he thought. When Dom said he was going to do something he was going to do it. So he could bank on the fact they would be coming. But none of that mattered as much as seeing Mia. The thought of her brought an immediate smile to his face. A smile that vanished when he remembered that last time he'd seen her looking at him with anger and betrayal in her eyes. He just hoped that before he was beat to within an inch of his life by Dom and Vince, he'd get the chance to tell her that he hadn't lied about his feelings or her.

"BRIAN!" Rome yelled to get his attention.

Again Brian had zoned out and missed the conversation that had been directed at him.

"What?"

"What the fucks going on?" Rome wanted to know.

"A family reunion." Brian said, grabbing another Corona.