Chapter 31 - Maybe I am a Racer Chaser.
The next day was the day before racewars. They got everything ready to go. They were heading out a day early to set up. Dom had Mia use her car to tow the trailer they would live in while they were there behind her car. It was going to be cramped with all of them trying to live in one trailer. She mentioned this to Dom.
"I can see that but we've always managed before. It is only for three days after all. We use to just have two little tin can campers and we always managed."
"Where does everyone sleep?"
"Well it has a bedroom in the back and then the table is a bed and the couch is another bed."
"Dom that is three double beds and there are 8 of us going. Where are we all going to put each other?"
"Well you and I can take the bedroom and then Mia and Brian can take the living room sofa. Vince and Letty can sleep on the table bed and Leon and Jesse can find spots on air mattresses on the floor in the living room. No one is in the trailer all day anyway. We race and hang out under our tent and show off our cars. This is where I drum up most of my business for the garage. People see our cars and want to have cars just like 'em."
"Ok, if you say it will be fine then I'll trust you. Not much in the way of privacy for three days though."
"Nope, but we're all family after all."
"I guess so. Well I guess I will follow you there since I have no idea were we are going."
"Sounds good."
Dom got everyone together and told them it was time to head out. Mia had to drive slow because of the heavy trailer so they all made a ring around her and talked on two ways. Vince kept telling Torrie jokes to make her laugh cause he sensed she was down. Even if Dom was too focused on racewars and making a good show to notice. Vince hoped Dom was not thinking of going back to Letty.He would hate to see what that would do to Torrie and knew without asking she would not stay around to see him and Letty together, she'd leave. Well it was all conjecture at this point anyway.
She stopped answering him back and he checked the rearview. She was still there. Fucking with her radio. She no doubt had music up so loud at this point it would rattle the brain in her head. She could move her car faster if she was not carrying around about eighty pounds of extra speakers in the car. He would suggest she take them out before she raced at wars. Sure enough if he listened he could hear her music. She played it so loud.
Dom was up on the other side of Mia and could not see Torrie's car but she had stopped talking to Vince. Strange. She could normally talk the ear off anyone. He could not get her on the radio either.
"Hey Vince, why is Torrie not responding to us? Can you see her?"
"Yep, she is not responding because she has some Eminem song up so loud I can here it up here. I'm two freaking car lengths ahead of her. She's not in a good mood if the music is up that loud. Wonder what her problem is?"
"Don't know. She might be nervous about her first race wars or something."
"Ya that's likely it."
Letty wondered if Torrie would be afraid of racewars. It was safer then street racing for sure and Torrie was a good racer. Letty had calmed down a lot in her feelings about Torrie. After all it was not like Torrie had known she was ever coming back. That did not mean that she was not going to make one last play for Dom it just meant that she was doubting if she wanted to try and make Dom think that Torrie was seeing Vince behind his back. Plus Mia had told her all about when Dom had already thought that and Letty thought it was doubtful he would believe it now. She was less and less sure she even wanted Dom back anyway. She had left him cause he had hurt her too many times. Always cheating on her. Sometimes even in their own house. She could tell when he had done that. He had not wanted to meet her eyes for days after. She had just gotten so lonely without the team and at least Dom was comfortable in that he was, well he was Dom. Same shit, different day. He would cheat she would yell and belittle him and he would do it again. Repeat next week ad nausem. She should move on. She should look for a guy she brought out the best in. Some one who did the same thing for her.
Vince had told her what Torrie had been through lately. At first she was like so what her parents are dead. So is one of mine. The other is in jail for what he tried to do to me and what he did do to me. But then she had thought on it. Letty had never had it easy. Her mom was an alchie and her dad beat her senseless over anything. Her mom died from a drug overdose and her father started beating her worse and worse. Then he got caught over it and went to jail, thanks to Dominic. That was when she moved in with Dom. Dom had always protected her when he could. So Letty's whole life had basically sucked till she went with Dom and then it had sucked again when Dom started cheating on her. Torrie had been part of a happy family that loved her till in one six month period she lost everything. That had to have been hard too.
Well she would do her best to beat the other girl at racewars. Just because she wanted to beat her. Then she would tell her she didn't want Dom. She didn't really. She thought she did because she had always had him and she hated to share. But she had been happy in the first three months or so after she left. It was so nice to be free and not always worrying if he was out cheating on her. Nice to not always have it in the back of her mind. Not always have to watch every move he made. Not wonder what girls at races he had had sex with. What girls were laughing at her for not being able to keep him faithful. And even worse which ones pitied her for what she had to go through. She really didn't think she could go through it again. It was humiliating to have everyone know your man was sleeping around on you and to live your life every day like nothing was wrong. She could live without him, had lived without him and was happier without him. Till she got lonely. And that was no reason to stay with someone. Well that settled it. Her and Torrie would have a talk after they raced and come to some sort of truce.
Torrie was not as everyone thought nervous or upset. She just wanted to get herself into her racer chick mindset. She cranked the music. Smokin and riddin by Ja Rule. She was quite happy really. She thought she heard Dom calling her on the two way. She turned the music down.
"Yo Dom, boy, you been callin me?"
"Only for about ten minutes. You ok?"
"Ya I'm fine. I like to drive with the tunes cranked. What's up?"
"Nothing, just making sure everything is cool."
"Oh it's super. I can't wait to get there and lay the smack down on your ass at racewars."
"Don't count on it."
"But I already have. I'm going to go now. I wanna turn the music back up."
"Ok, see you there, watch V, we have to turn soon."
"Kay." She cranked the tunes back up and watched V. They turned into the desert home of racewars. They all had to give their invitations to the security guards and have there numbers put on their cars. Dom went first in line, then Mia, Brian, Leon, Jesse, Vince, Torrie, and Letty last. They were assigned a place to park the trailer and set up displays for the cars. They went to their area and set up the trailer. Dom came over to Torrie while she was dusting off her paintjob.
"I got something for you."
"Oh ya, what? Whatya get me? Come on boy I want my surprise." Torrie loved surprises.
"Close your eyes and hold out your hands."
She did so wondering all the while what she was going to get. She felt a piece of paper about 4X6 inches being placed in her hands. "Can I look yet?"
"Yes open your eyes."
She had no idea what it was. It was a decal of some sort she figured out. "What is it?"
"A decal. Flip it over."
She did. It was the DT logo that all the other cars had on them. Even Letty's. And her number. She was number 5.
"You are officially a racer for the DT garage. You are part of the team now. Let's go put it on."
"Oh Dom, how'd you know I wanted this. I was wondering why you never put the team logo on my car."
"Cause I had to be sure. I am now. You're in for life."
She hugged him and they put the decal on either side of her car on the back sides of the bumper. He had even got them in chrome for her so they would match her other decals. She got Vince and dragged him over to her car.
"Look at Nero and see if you can figure out what's different."
"Um, well, it's shinier?"
"Try again. Think what's there now that wasn't before."
"Well, still got your horse, and Veilside logo's. Toyo logos. Wait. Dom gave you the DT decals. Way to go Torrie. You've arrived. I don't even have a camera."
"Oh stop your going to make me blush."
"Why are we looking at Torrie's car? Did something happen to it on the way here?" Leon looked concerned and Jesse looked ready to go into fix it mode.
"Nope, nothing wrong with it. Look at the rear bumper on the skirt. See what Dom finally gave her."
"Woowhoo your DT logo's. Sweet." Jesse and Leon hugged her. It was a big deal. She had not really been a permanent fixture without her logos. It was a funny thing Dom did. You didn't get the DT decal till he was good and sure he wanted you. Once it was on your car it didn't come off.
"Now I know I am going to win every race. I am so pumped." Torrie was happy. Too happy over such a simple thing she thought but hey it meant a lot to her.
Vince laughed at her. She was so happy over that one little decal. But he remembered how happy Leon and Jesse had been to get theirs as well. To Vince it was no big deal since he had been around since there was no DT team to have a logo. "Well I wanted to talk to you about your car anyway."
"No you can't borrow him to race in."
"Dream on. I brought something for you all. I wanted to tell ya that you should have Dominic help you haul the subs out of it for your races. Should save you about 80 pounds."
"Nope, they don't come out for one thing and another it would only save me about 50 cause of how dad and I built them in. Look!"
She popped the trunk and Vince peered in. "Where are they? You don't have any? But I could hear the bass on the way here."
"Oh I have them."
"Where?"
She reached in the trunk and pushed a little button on the wall of the trunk and something clicked. She lifted a small panel and lifted up the floor of the trunk. It was a false floor and her subs were mounted underneath in ported boxes custom made to fit the space. When the floor was closed you could not tell the subs were even there and she only lost about 6 inches of depth. It was a sweet setup but it was not going anywhere.
"Yo Dom, Leon, come see this guys." Vince yelled at the guys. Dom could see Vince and Torrie looking in the back of her car. He hoped nothing had happened to it on the way.
"What's up Vince?" Dom asked.
"Look." Vince said pointing at the trunk.
"Sweet!" Leon exclaimed.
"That's great." Dom said. "Where'd you get the idea for that?"
"Don't know. I wanted the system and Dad wanted to build a race car. We compromised on this."
"Well that's pretty damn cool." Leon thought it was a great setup, but his car didn't have a system anyway, just a cd player. Letty came over to see what they were all staring at.
"What's the big deal?"
"Torrie's stereo setup is pretty unique." Dom told her.
"Ya, let me see." She looked in. "That is cool. Maybe you could show me how you did it?" Letty asked Torrie.
"Sure, sometime I could show you." Torrie was in shock. Letty spoke to her with out sarcasm. That was strange. Letty nodded. Dom walked away to go stand by the Mazda cause people were looking at it. He started to talk cars with the people. Torrie watched him talking and then turned around and closed her trunk. She went to sit with Vince under the tent and fished a Pepsi out of the cooler.
"That the strongest thing you drinking?" Vince asked her.
"Geeze Vince it's only 4pm and if I start drinking I can't drive my car."
"No one races on the first day. That's why we all came a day early."
"I see. We are here to see and be seen."
"Exactly."
"Ok, well then I may as well work on my tan."
She dragged her chair out into the sun and hauled off her tee shirt. She had a bikini top on under it. She reclined the chair, put on her shades and lay back to catch some rays. Vince watched her go.
"Hey Torrie, you got sun block on?"
"Shit no, thanks V. I wouldn't be racing tomorrow, I'd be too sore to move." She went and got the sun block and put it on. She marched back out to her chair and got comfy again. After about 20 minutes something blocked out the sun. She opened her eyes and looked up at Dom who was standing between her and the rays.
"What are you doing?" Dom asked her in *that* tone of voice.
"Um, enjoying the sun?" She asked. She was not sure what she had done now.
"This is not the beach Torrie, it's a race meet. The biggest race meet all year I might add."
"And your point would be? I assume you have one? Not counting the one on your bald head." She mumbled.
"You are supposed to be representing me and our garage here and you are wearing a bathing suit in front of the trailer."
"So, I am still wearing more then over half the girls here."
"I don't care. Put a shirt on. You need to look like more'n a racer chaser if you are going to be around the display."
"Know what Dom, I'm going to stay dressed just the way I am and go be a racer chaser. Have a nice afternoon boy." With that she started to walk away. Dom was so stunned he just watched her go. Vince was trying not to pee his pants laughing at the look on Dom's face. It was priceless. Torrie walked away using what she hoped was a racer chaser walk. Vince wanted to know if she wanted fries with her shake. She saw Edwin and his team.
The next day was the day before racewars. They got everything ready to go. They were heading out a day early to set up. Dom had Mia use her car to tow the trailer they would live in while they were there behind her car. It was going to be cramped with all of them trying to live in one trailer. She mentioned this to Dom.
"I can see that but we've always managed before. It is only for three days after all. We use to just have two little tin can campers and we always managed."
"Where does everyone sleep?"
"Well it has a bedroom in the back and then the table is a bed and the couch is another bed."
"Dom that is three double beds and there are 8 of us going. Where are we all going to put each other?"
"Well you and I can take the bedroom and then Mia and Brian can take the living room sofa. Vince and Letty can sleep on the table bed and Leon and Jesse can find spots on air mattresses on the floor in the living room. No one is in the trailer all day anyway. We race and hang out under our tent and show off our cars. This is where I drum up most of my business for the garage. People see our cars and want to have cars just like 'em."
"Ok, if you say it will be fine then I'll trust you. Not much in the way of privacy for three days though."
"Nope, but we're all family after all."
"I guess so. Well I guess I will follow you there since I have no idea were we are going."
"Sounds good."
Dom got everyone together and told them it was time to head out. Mia had to drive slow because of the heavy trailer so they all made a ring around her and talked on two ways. Vince kept telling Torrie jokes to make her laugh cause he sensed she was down. Even if Dom was too focused on racewars and making a good show to notice. Vince hoped Dom was not thinking of going back to Letty.He would hate to see what that would do to Torrie and knew without asking she would not stay around to see him and Letty together, she'd leave. Well it was all conjecture at this point anyway.
She stopped answering him back and he checked the rearview. She was still there. Fucking with her radio. She no doubt had music up so loud at this point it would rattle the brain in her head. She could move her car faster if she was not carrying around about eighty pounds of extra speakers in the car. He would suggest she take them out before she raced at wars. Sure enough if he listened he could hear her music. She played it so loud.
Dom was up on the other side of Mia and could not see Torrie's car but she had stopped talking to Vince. Strange. She could normally talk the ear off anyone. He could not get her on the radio either.
"Hey Vince, why is Torrie not responding to us? Can you see her?"
"Yep, she is not responding because she has some Eminem song up so loud I can here it up here. I'm two freaking car lengths ahead of her. She's not in a good mood if the music is up that loud. Wonder what her problem is?"
"Don't know. She might be nervous about her first race wars or something."
"Ya that's likely it."
Letty wondered if Torrie would be afraid of racewars. It was safer then street racing for sure and Torrie was a good racer. Letty had calmed down a lot in her feelings about Torrie. After all it was not like Torrie had known she was ever coming back. That did not mean that she was not going to make one last play for Dom it just meant that she was doubting if she wanted to try and make Dom think that Torrie was seeing Vince behind his back. Plus Mia had told her all about when Dom had already thought that and Letty thought it was doubtful he would believe it now. She was less and less sure she even wanted Dom back anyway. She had left him cause he had hurt her too many times. Always cheating on her. Sometimes even in their own house. She could tell when he had done that. He had not wanted to meet her eyes for days after. She had just gotten so lonely without the team and at least Dom was comfortable in that he was, well he was Dom. Same shit, different day. He would cheat she would yell and belittle him and he would do it again. Repeat next week ad nausem. She should move on. She should look for a guy she brought out the best in. Some one who did the same thing for her.
Vince had told her what Torrie had been through lately. At first she was like so what her parents are dead. So is one of mine. The other is in jail for what he tried to do to me and what he did do to me. But then she had thought on it. Letty had never had it easy. Her mom was an alchie and her dad beat her senseless over anything. Her mom died from a drug overdose and her father started beating her worse and worse. Then he got caught over it and went to jail, thanks to Dominic. That was when she moved in with Dom. Dom had always protected her when he could. So Letty's whole life had basically sucked till she went with Dom and then it had sucked again when Dom started cheating on her. Torrie had been part of a happy family that loved her till in one six month period she lost everything. That had to have been hard too.
Well she would do her best to beat the other girl at racewars. Just because she wanted to beat her. Then she would tell her she didn't want Dom. She didn't really. She thought she did because she had always had him and she hated to share. But she had been happy in the first three months or so after she left. It was so nice to be free and not always worrying if he was out cheating on her. Nice to not always have it in the back of her mind. Not always have to watch every move he made. Not wonder what girls at races he had had sex with. What girls were laughing at her for not being able to keep him faithful. And even worse which ones pitied her for what she had to go through. She really didn't think she could go through it again. It was humiliating to have everyone know your man was sleeping around on you and to live your life every day like nothing was wrong. She could live without him, had lived without him and was happier without him. Till she got lonely. And that was no reason to stay with someone. Well that settled it. Her and Torrie would have a talk after they raced and come to some sort of truce.
Torrie was not as everyone thought nervous or upset. She just wanted to get herself into her racer chick mindset. She cranked the music. Smokin and riddin by Ja Rule. She was quite happy really. She thought she heard Dom calling her on the two way. She turned the music down.
"Yo Dom, boy, you been callin me?"
"Only for about ten minutes. You ok?"
"Ya I'm fine. I like to drive with the tunes cranked. What's up?"
"Nothing, just making sure everything is cool."
"Oh it's super. I can't wait to get there and lay the smack down on your ass at racewars."
"Don't count on it."
"But I already have. I'm going to go now. I wanna turn the music back up."
"Ok, see you there, watch V, we have to turn soon."
"Kay." She cranked the tunes back up and watched V. They turned into the desert home of racewars. They all had to give their invitations to the security guards and have there numbers put on their cars. Dom went first in line, then Mia, Brian, Leon, Jesse, Vince, Torrie, and Letty last. They were assigned a place to park the trailer and set up displays for the cars. They went to their area and set up the trailer. Dom came over to Torrie while she was dusting off her paintjob.
"I got something for you."
"Oh ya, what? Whatya get me? Come on boy I want my surprise." Torrie loved surprises.
"Close your eyes and hold out your hands."
She did so wondering all the while what she was going to get. She felt a piece of paper about 4X6 inches being placed in her hands. "Can I look yet?"
"Yes open your eyes."
She had no idea what it was. It was a decal of some sort she figured out. "What is it?"
"A decal. Flip it over."
She did. It was the DT logo that all the other cars had on them. Even Letty's. And her number. She was number 5.
"You are officially a racer for the DT garage. You are part of the team now. Let's go put it on."
"Oh Dom, how'd you know I wanted this. I was wondering why you never put the team logo on my car."
"Cause I had to be sure. I am now. You're in for life."
She hugged him and they put the decal on either side of her car on the back sides of the bumper. He had even got them in chrome for her so they would match her other decals. She got Vince and dragged him over to her car.
"Look at Nero and see if you can figure out what's different."
"Um, well, it's shinier?"
"Try again. Think what's there now that wasn't before."
"Well, still got your horse, and Veilside logo's. Toyo logos. Wait. Dom gave you the DT decals. Way to go Torrie. You've arrived. I don't even have a camera."
"Oh stop your going to make me blush."
"Why are we looking at Torrie's car? Did something happen to it on the way here?" Leon looked concerned and Jesse looked ready to go into fix it mode.
"Nope, nothing wrong with it. Look at the rear bumper on the skirt. See what Dom finally gave her."
"Woowhoo your DT logo's. Sweet." Jesse and Leon hugged her. It was a big deal. She had not really been a permanent fixture without her logos. It was a funny thing Dom did. You didn't get the DT decal till he was good and sure he wanted you. Once it was on your car it didn't come off.
"Now I know I am going to win every race. I am so pumped." Torrie was happy. Too happy over such a simple thing she thought but hey it meant a lot to her.
Vince laughed at her. She was so happy over that one little decal. But he remembered how happy Leon and Jesse had been to get theirs as well. To Vince it was no big deal since he had been around since there was no DT team to have a logo. "Well I wanted to talk to you about your car anyway."
"No you can't borrow him to race in."
"Dream on. I brought something for you all. I wanted to tell ya that you should have Dominic help you haul the subs out of it for your races. Should save you about 80 pounds."
"Nope, they don't come out for one thing and another it would only save me about 50 cause of how dad and I built them in. Look!"
She popped the trunk and Vince peered in. "Where are they? You don't have any? But I could hear the bass on the way here."
"Oh I have them."
"Where?"
She reached in the trunk and pushed a little button on the wall of the trunk and something clicked. She lifted a small panel and lifted up the floor of the trunk. It was a false floor and her subs were mounted underneath in ported boxes custom made to fit the space. When the floor was closed you could not tell the subs were even there and she only lost about 6 inches of depth. It was a sweet setup but it was not going anywhere.
"Yo Dom, Leon, come see this guys." Vince yelled at the guys. Dom could see Vince and Torrie looking in the back of her car. He hoped nothing had happened to it on the way.
"What's up Vince?" Dom asked.
"Look." Vince said pointing at the trunk.
"Sweet!" Leon exclaimed.
"That's great." Dom said. "Where'd you get the idea for that?"
"Don't know. I wanted the system and Dad wanted to build a race car. We compromised on this."
"Well that's pretty damn cool." Leon thought it was a great setup, but his car didn't have a system anyway, just a cd player. Letty came over to see what they were all staring at.
"What's the big deal?"
"Torrie's stereo setup is pretty unique." Dom told her.
"Ya, let me see." She looked in. "That is cool. Maybe you could show me how you did it?" Letty asked Torrie.
"Sure, sometime I could show you." Torrie was in shock. Letty spoke to her with out sarcasm. That was strange. Letty nodded. Dom walked away to go stand by the Mazda cause people were looking at it. He started to talk cars with the people. Torrie watched him talking and then turned around and closed her trunk. She went to sit with Vince under the tent and fished a Pepsi out of the cooler.
"That the strongest thing you drinking?" Vince asked her.
"Geeze Vince it's only 4pm and if I start drinking I can't drive my car."
"No one races on the first day. That's why we all came a day early."
"I see. We are here to see and be seen."
"Exactly."
"Ok, well then I may as well work on my tan."
She dragged her chair out into the sun and hauled off her tee shirt. She had a bikini top on under it. She reclined the chair, put on her shades and lay back to catch some rays. Vince watched her go.
"Hey Torrie, you got sun block on?"
"Shit no, thanks V. I wouldn't be racing tomorrow, I'd be too sore to move." She went and got the sun block and put it on. She marched back out to her chair and got comfy again. After about 20 minutes something blocked out the sun. She opened her eyes and looked up at Dom who was standing between her and the rays.
"What are you doing?" Dom asked her in *that* tone of voice.
"Um, enjoying the sun?" She asked. She was not sure what she had done now.
"This is not the beach Torrie, it's a race meet. The biggest race meet all year I might add."
"And your point would be? I assume you have one? Not counting the one on your bald head." She mumbled.
"You are supposed to be representing me and our garage here and you are wearing a bathing suit in front of the trailer."
"So, I am still wearing more then over half the girls here."
"I don't care. Put a shirt on. You need to look like more'n a racer chaser if you are going to be around the display."
"Know what Dom, I'm going to stay dressed just the way I am and go be a racer chaser. Have a nice afternoon boy." With that she started to walk away. Dom was so stunned he just watched her go. Vince was trying not to pee his pants laughing at the look on Dom's face. It was priceless. Torrie walked away using what she hoped was a racer chaser walk. Vince wanted to know if she wanted fries with her shake. She saw Edwin and his team.