I wrote this chapter within two days! I'm very proud of myself!

So, I checked the Hits for 'Wanted' and I thought it was strange that Chapter 7 has got 60 Hits whereas Chapter 8 has got 70...the chapters between the prologue and the last ones have an average of 35 Hits...strange.

Anyways, thanks to all the 70 people who have read the last chapter, BUT ONLY ONE WROTE A REVIEW.

THANK YOU, STARDINA!

I know, the last chapter was kinda lame...

So, I called this chapter 'Answers' because when I read it over for the second time, I noticed that there are many questions in it...I think, I've never had so many questions in a chapter. Well, there's a first time for everything.

Have fun reading it, 'kay?

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Wanted: Answers

Slowly, Lilly turned the key she held in her hand to the right. She heard a click as the lock opened and she entered the apartment.

Thoughts about the accidents of the past night clouded her mind. Lilly needed answers or at least somebody whom she trusted enough to discuss this topic seriously with her.

"Brian?" The blonde girl called out just a little louder than her normal volume was. She had already closed the door behind her and walked into her room to take off her shoes, socks and to lay her bag on her bed.

"Yeah?" Her older brother was leaning against her doorframe, when she looked around. He wore his beige trunks and a blue shirt. To any other person, he might have appeared calm, however, Lilly knew him better than anybody else. Beneath this quiet surface, she could tell how tense he was, because he assumed that she was finally willing to talk to him. In a way, Brian was even right, but Lilly intended to speak with him about the accidents and neither about the party on Friday night nor about the grounding.

"Can we, like, talk about something?" She bit her lower lip. It was possible that Brian did not want to bring up the matter of recent events in the racing scene due to him not wanting his younger sibling to worry about it. Thus, now, Lilly had not mentioned the topic she wished to analyze with somebody.

"Okay",the man said almost immediately, although he saw his sister hesitating for a moment. Seemingly, she was not quite secure whether or not he would give in at her request and Brian was not able to understand why exactly; it was obvious that they needed to sort things out after yesterday evening.

"You wanna...?" He did a motion with his hand over his shoulder, implying that maybe they should go into another room to make themselves more comfortable.

"Yeah, that's...yeah",Lilly put her hands into the bottom pockets of her jeans and kept her eyes focused on the floor as she made her way out of her room. Brian had also taken a step back from the door and walked into the living room, a frown on his face. Something was definitely wrong with his baby, that much he could tell, still, he had this certain feeling that it did not have anything to do with either the grounding or their fight from yesterday.

"Brian?" He stopped at once and turned around to regard the teenager. She looked fine, however, there just was something...he could not point his finger at it, but it was there.

"Kitchen?" The girl asked him while entering the little room to the man's right.

So this is going to be more serious, Brian thought while following her. Whenever they had to discuss a serious topic, the O'Conners chose to do this in the kitchen. Neither of them knew why they actually did it or when it had started, nonetheless, the habit had settled in perfectly.

After Lilly had left the apartment about three hours ago – she had said she would only need one or two hours at a maximum – Brian had first dressed, then strolled around the rooms without knowing what to do until he had decided to play some more Need for Speed Underground. About an hour later, the young man had undertaken another attempt to read the paper, this time, successfully. When he had read the special about the car fair, he had been reminded that within the next days, he would receive an enrolment form via post and as a consequence to his registration, he would also get another form where he would have to fill in all the technical details about his car. The second form had be returned a week before the show would begin, thus, Brian would have to decide quickly what he wanted to be done on his Evo.

And, eventually, Lilly had come home.

He watched her taking a bottle of flavoured carbonated water out of the fridge.

"Do you want something, too?"She asked rather the fridge than him.

"Yeah, one Doc, please,"he replied and took the Dr. Peppe from her as she handed it over. Then, Lilly closed to door of the fridge, opened the bottle she held in her hands, but instead of drinking from it, she sat down on her chair and closed the bottle again while putting it on top of the table.

"What's wrong?"Brian folded his forearms on the table, behind the bottle of Dr. Pepper. The man could see how something was nagging on his younger sister and he hoped that by talking about it, she would feel better or, at least, more reassured than she was now.

"It's the...it's...I mean...",Lilly stared at her hands for a brief moment. How was she going to apprach this topic?

"It's about Jack and that other guy",she finally said and felt a wave of relief rushing through her. Looking at Brian, she saw him realizing that she wanted to discuss the accidents and not the grounding.

"About their accidents?"He questioned her. At her nodding, the blonde sucked in his lips. "You wanna know what happened exactly?"

"No, not really, I mean, the guys already told me everything, I guess, it's just...", the girl shrugged, "I just don't understand how this could happen. I don't know what to think of this. Okay, yeah, sometimes, we got accidents, pretty bad accidents, but two in one night, that's so...I dunno."

"You're asking yourself whether or not they really had accidents", Brian concluded. So, his sister's thoughts were going the same way as his and somehow, he could not supress a certain warmth dwelling up in his chest. She had sought someone to talk to about this, she needed answers she was not able to give, and she had come to him.

"Mhm. I don't know, if it's just been a coincidence or if somebody wanted it to happen", suddenly, the words would just not stop blurting out of her mouth, "I mean, why Jack and this guy? Okay, if they had been in the same group and crashed into each other, then, I wouldn't be suspicious, but they were in totally different groups, even the cash they rode for was separated by dimensions. Apart from that, I've never seen the guys hanging out together, so they don't seem to be friends of some kind. The problem is that the cops got the cars, now and we cannot investigate on our own. Today, Tej announced that, tomorrow, the police is even gonna come over to us to interrogate us about our work 'n stuff cause Jack is our customer. That other guy was usually at John's, so his crew will be busy hiding their nitrous bottles, too. Of course, I can understand that they have to do this, like, asking questions to find out what happened, but they're so gonna disturb us at work and we got lotsa work right now. Tej already said that he'll use some of his connections to get some information about the cars. Seems like Jack's been quite lucky, though, he'll only be in hospital for about a week. That other guy is still in the intensive care unit."

Brian breathed out heavily as the fresh memory of Chico's car going up in flames appeared in front of his inner eye. He could only imagine what the driver had do endure now.

"Do you think it was one of us?"

"Hm?" The man looked up into his sister's face, showing a light sadness. He had missed her last question due to him having been with Chico in mind.

"Do you think it was one of us? That one of us sabotaged the cars because he or she has got a problem with the guys? I also thought it might have been because of the car show, you know? To prevent them from participating, maybe? I cannot really see that one of us would trait another like that because, well, if people find out, that person's never gonna get a tyre on the asphalt here in Miami ever again",she shook her head, making her bangs fall into her face which she tucked behind her ear at once, "I hate thinking like that cause everybody's gonna start that, now. They're all suspicious, now and soon, the charging's gonna begin...I don't wanna know what'll happen, then."

"I don't wanna know, either",slowly, Brian reached out with his hands and took hold of his sister's cold fingers. In order to soothe her, he rubbed his thumbs in little circles over the back of her hands.

"But what you said",he sighed, "it's a possibility. I don't like thinking about it, nevertheless, it may be true. It could be one of the racers. It definitely must be someone who knows the technical details and who is able to come close to the cars unnoticed. As for the interrogation, tomorrow, you don't have to worry, you're mainly responsible for the paint jobs and you know exactly that you don't have anything to hide. Except for the racing", Brian grimaced, "perhaps, you should keep that little detail for yourself. Cops don't like 16-year-olds driving races."

"Well, then, I'm lucky you're no longer in that business, hm?"Lilly forced a half-hearted smiled out of herself while regarding her older brother.

"There's something else, right?"He squeezed her right hand gently, hoping that she would not deny the obvious.

"I thought that maybe...maybe it was Verone",the girl said in an even voice, although not feeling like keeping her voice even. She had still not told her sibling about everything that had happened while she had been near Verone. She had not even told the police. She just wanted to forget this man and what he had tried to do to her.

"Nah, I don't think so",Brian shook his head no, "if he went against somebody, then it would be Rome and me, and he knows what our cars look like, so he would've gone straight for those. Leading a private campaign of revenge against every racer in Miami is not possible, not even for Carter Verone, especially not when he's locked up. So don't worry, nothing's gonna happen. We'll work out whatever went wrong with Jack and Chico and think of a solution."

"Okay",this time, Lilly's smile really showed her relief. Right now, it was a plus that Brian had once been a cop. Of course, the girl knew that her attitude towards this topic would change as soon as Brian would interrogate her about something not worth worrying about. Then, the mixture of big brother and cop would make her want to hurt him...bad.

Lilly stood up from her chair, took her bottle and was about to leave the kitchen, when Brian grabbed her hands and pulled her onto his lap.

Big ole cuddler, the blonde teeanger could not fight the smile that tugged at her lips as her older brother laid his arms around her waist, rubbing his hands up and down her back, while Lilly managed to lay her head against the area between his chest and shoulder.

"Everything good, now?"Brian mumbled softly into her hair.

"Yeah, 's okay", she snuggled deeper into his shirt, "thank you."

"You're welcome",he replied, kissing her hair and made her laugh lightly, "you're my baby, okay?"

"Okay", Lilly knew that, this moment, they had said sorry to each other for what had happened yesterday evening. It was okay, now, even though they had not talked about it, both of them felt a burden being taken from their shoulders.

Eventually, the girl sighed and wiggled slowly out of her older sibling's arms what gained her a moan as complaint.

"Lemme get up",she whined.

"No", he pouted, "comfy."

"M too heavy. Lemme get up, now."

"Who's the person that keeps on telling you that you're too heavy for my lap!"Brian eyed her sternly. "I think I should have a talk with this someone, soon."

"Bri-an",Lilly kept on struggling and finally, he let her go.

"You don't love me anymore",the man looked ar her chargingly.

"Well", she shrugged, "ever since you've gotten your hair cut..."

Lilly let it hang there, a mischivious gleam in her eyes, which Brian returned.

"You're evil",he told her.

"I know", she quipped back before leaving the kitchen to go into her own room, while Brian merely leant back in his chair and took a sip of his Dr. Pepper.

We're good, now, he thought with a smile, everything's going back to normal. I still gotta ask her about watching 2Fast 2Furious with me, but I can do that later today or tomorrow. Seems like she's no longer mad at me. That's the way it should always be between us. But then again, nah, that would be way too boring. I hope she won't worry when she finds out that tonight, I'm racing. Rome comes at eight, and now, it's, the man looked at his watch, 5:23, so I got lotsa time till I gotta get ready. Maybe I should sleep for another hour or two? Yeah, that seems like a good idea.

Brian rose from his seat and was about to walk into the direction of his room, when he remembered that, at times, he did not react to his alarm clock but kept on sleeping. Thus, he went to his sister's room. The door was shut, so he knocked lightly.

Inside her room, Lilly had just wanted to check whether or not her pointe shoes had already dried out properly on the spot near her window as she heard the knocking. Quickly, she put them underneath her armchair, on which she was sitting, careful that they were not visible.

"Yeah?"The girl finally answered. She tried to look casual while her older brother entered.

"Hey, I just wanted to tell you that Rome's coming around at eight and we'll head out, so, uhm, I'd like to sleep some before he's here and you know that alarm clocks don't always work with me, so could you wake me up at 7:30 ?"He scratched the back of his head due to him feeling uncomfortable after having told his younger sibling that he would be racing this night.

"Okay, I can do that for you",she nodded. The thought that he would drive did not please her at all, yet, Lilly knew just as well that Brian would not feel intimidated by the recent events and go on racing.

"Thanks",he grinned and left the room.

Immediately after the teenager heard him closing the door to his room, she bent down to reach for the pair of pointe shoes under her armchair.

"Seems like they're dry",she commented as she ran her hands in and over the soft satin. Then, Lilly rose to her feet, so that she could put the shoes into the drawer where she kept her underwear. She had figured out a long time ago that her brother would never dare searching through her underwear, thus, it was the perfect place to keep things hidden from him.

Afterwards, the blonde opened her work bag and took out a sketch pad to continue working on some new car designs.

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"I'ma beat'em all!"Roman yelled as he got out of his car. Today, his doctor had taken off the splint and apparently, the man was eager to use his newly gained freedom to win races. So far, he had already won three times, although he still intended to win more by betting.

Brian whooped loudly when he saw his best friend receiving his winnings from Tej. Even though Jack's and Chico's accidents had left a certain amount of tension lying in the air, it had almost completely vanished after the third group had started. People told themselves that accidents happened every now and then, only to be able to enjoy this night's races.

Putting his free hand into the pocket of his jeans, Brian felt a bundle of cash beneath his fingers. 42,000$ to be exact. He had participated in three races. The first group, the third group and the fourth. Although Roman had insisted on them driving against each other, the blonde had explained to him that they needed as much money as possible to open up their own garage. Of course, the money Verone had been so nice to let them have after having worked for him would be sufficient enough, however, both of them considered it necessary to have some money left, just in case they might need it.

The young man shook his head no with a light grin on his face while Roman teased the other men in his group for having lost to him. Afterwards, he went over to the improvised bar they always built up at the races and ordered a drink.

"You can't just leave'em alone, can ya, bro?"Brian asked his friend who walked up to him. "I tell ya, makes ya look like a baby."

"Ya up for a bashing, man? I'm all in for it, still gotta return the time in that damn pool to ya",Roman sounded seriously, yet, the laughing gleam in his eyes traited him. Together, they went over to where Brian and Tej's crew had parked their cars. It seemed as though the guys would be in some kind of discussion.

"No man, we gotta go for something more classy. Mustang, that's my vote",Jimmy took a sip of his drink while leaning back against Marco's car.

"Mustang!"Alex rolled his eyes. "Our girl may like horse power but not horses! And, c'mon, Mustang? That ain't it, James, no."

"I'm against Mustang, too",Diego said, "I canna imagine she'd like it. Y'all know her thing with bodies. She likes'em rather round. We should really go for somethin' hot, like, sports car. How about Porsche? Nice lil' whip."

"Yo, what's all of this about?"Brian's question interrupted the men at once. They all regarded him and Roman rather stunned due to them not having noticed them approach.

"We're thinking of a car for Chica",Jimmy answered him eventually, "after today, she's really got to get one, man."

"Why?"The blonde frowned. "What happened today?"

Strangely enough, it was Marco who spoke first. "Today, Shane and his girl came over because he wanted to work on his car. Well, that's what he said",the Italian shrugged, "apparently, he was only into showing off in front of that chick, ya know? Show her how good he was with cars and everything. So, he had just closed the hood when he slipped and scratched with the wrench once across the entire left side of the hood, ruining the paint job, of course. Believe me, the only thing he wanted to do right then was to kick himself. He knew that he had screwed up, but even worse, while he may be able to fix a problem with his engine, he ain't capable of spraying a car the way Lilly can, so he told her, he didn't ask, no, he told her when he saw her having finished Diego's ride that she could do his car, now. She stayed completely calm, eyed his air-head briefly and took a look at the scratch. Then, she asked him, if he could wait until tomorrow because she had told you that she would be home at four and that this might take a little longer, 'cause the job had been rather complicated. That was when I thought I wouldn't hear correct anymore. He began to tell her that it wouldn't matter if she went home now or in an hour, that she should be rather grateful because of the grounding so she could stay out longer and then, he even teased her about having been caught driving drunk. He also went on how important it was for him that his car would look perfect at the races this night and, now comes the best, that he was sure she would understand him as soon as she had her own car",Marco shook his head no, "I swear, that moment, I wanted to smash him against something. But Lilly was totally cool, she took another look at the hood and then, told him that this would cost him about 300 bucks because there was no official order and it was Sunday and she had to mix the paints again and that the time, she would have to spend waiting for the paint to dry, was just a waste for her. She even added that it shouldn't be a problem for him to pay, after he had been so successful last night. Of course, she knew that he had lost. The boy's head was all red with anger, still, he needed her to do it, so he bit his tongue. Definitely been better for him."

"That's why, this afternoon",Alex explained, "we started setting up a list with words describing her and try to find a matching car. It's really tricky, though. Till now, we have come to the conclusion that it should either be something real classy or a fresh sports car."

"He really said that to her?"Brian's voice implied his anger. Nobody talked to his sister like that. "Well, maybe that's the reason I haven't seen him all night."

"Could be",Jimmy shrugged, "he's been avoiding us, too."

"I say an Eclipse",Roman suddenly stated, gaining looks from everybody else, "we can still beat the shit outta him later! I say an Eclipse for Kitten."

"And you don't just say that cos it's you're riding one, too?"Diego raised one of his eyebrows skeptically. "It shouldna be a car everybody can get. And don't take it as an offense but it should be something more special than an Eclipse."

Brian was silent while the others continued arguing about the right car. He could not believe that Shane had really said those things to his younger sibling, when she had truely been there for him every time he needed help either at school, with cars or...in general. What bothered him even more was that Lilly had not mentioned it towards him, not even as though it had been nothing but unimportant. His baby needed a car, he knew that, still she refused even talking about it with him or anybody else.

Although, the blonde puckered his lips, now, that I got some help, she may give in to it. Rome and I were planning on driving to Roderigo's sometime soon, so I'll just ask her to come along. She could see a ride she likes, then and...

"Los maderos!"A high-pitched female voice tore Brian out of his thoughts. He reacted at once: he ran in a breakneck speed to where he had parked his Evo about fifteen yards away from Marco's car, who had already started the engine. As Brian got into his car, another man almost crashed into him, yet, he still managed to get the corner in time. Everywhere around were people getting into their cars, revving engines and the loud screetches of tyres on the asphalt. Actually, one would suppose the entire situation too be completely chaotic, nevertheless, most here at the races had already experienced such an incident more than once, so they knew that it would be of no use to go frantic. What counted now, was speed, a clear head and a little amount of luck to escape.

In the distance, Brian could hear how the sirens became louder, so he started his engine and followed the majority of the cars down the road. Driving together with everybody else had certain advantages: together, it was not very easy for the cops to concentrate on just one car, so they would be forced to choose one car out of ten or even more for firing their ESD. The choosing would take it's time. As a group, it was also easier to drive through barriers. The people in the front would take care of those. However, what was most important was the correct feeling for the time, when it would be best to leave the group to get away.

In his mirror, the blonde man could see that Roman was behind him and Suki was ahead of him, just like Diego, who used the next opportunity to turn right. Brian had already decided that he would take the next street to his left, try to get down town and then, once he would be sure that nobody followed him, he would drive home.

Somehow, he felt stupid for having come tonight, when he should have known that the police would show up. Naturally, after the accidents, they had enlarged the number of patrols.

When Brian had turned left, he noticed that Roman was still behind him. Apparently, his friend had not yet seen enough of Miami to know where to drive when trying to hide.

"Oh fuck!"He cursed as he focused back on the street. There were three patrol cars coming towards him! Obviously, they had intended to follow the group to cut off their way back.

"Just great",Brian said through gritted teeth the moment he saw one of the cops aiming his gun through the window at him. Immediately, he began driving in zig zags to make a proper aim more difficult, yet, he did not lower his speed. If he had to drive through them, he was ready to do it and the driver of the car that was coming closer right in front of him seemed to understand this. As the distance between them had closed down to about thirty yards, the woman literally fought the steering wheel around. Subsequently, the car turned several times onto the sidewalk, thus Brian's way was now free or him to escape. The only thing he would have to take care of now was the one car following him and Rome but together, they would not have any problems getting rid of it. The car in which the cop who had wanted to shoot Brian had sat – an attempt that had added several holes into the front bumper and the fenders of the Evo – had continued its way to follow the other drivers.

The blonde knew where he tried to get; near down town, there was an old parking garage that had once belonged to a private company, but as the company had moved into another building, they had no longer needed the garage, so it was now generally used by people who did not know where else to park their cars. Of course, it was not legal to do this, nevertheless, as long as the owners had not sold it, there had never been a complaint.

"What shall I do, so that you leave me alone?"He mumbled to himself while looking into his mirror. The police car was slower than his Evo and Roman's Eclipse, still, he would have to think of something. For now, he merely kept on driving straight ahead as long as the street would allow it, a distance between himself and the other car would at least be helpful later on, when he had to take corners to escape.

"Today's my lucky day, right?"He grinned. In front of him was a crossroads. It was not as busy as it would have been during daytime, but it might fit his needs perfectly. Without taking his foot from the gas, he navigated his Evo directly through the stream of cars. Behind him, he heard Roman's tyres screech when his friend had gotten hit by another car in the rear. Nonetheless, the other man's Eclipse still functioned and he followed Brian. The police was not as lucky as they had been, though. They crashed head-on into another car.

Brian whooped, yet, they had to arrive at the parking garage. He did not dare driving over ten miles home when the place, where they could hide so much better, was only two miles away. With Roman close behind him, he entered down town and remembered the way they would have to take. About ten minutes later, both had parked their cars, locked them up and left the parking garage. On their way, they had noticed several cars in there, which also belonged to racers.

"So, man, what we gonna do, now? Wanna party?"Roman laughed raspily at his friend, feeling as a winner.

"No, bro, I'ma go home, I'm done for tonight",he replied as they entered one of the rather busy streets during nighttime, "the best thing you can do after such shit, is to go home and catch some sleep."

"You serious?"A frown settled on Roman's forehead.

"Yeah, man",Brian shrugged, "I'll go home and come back tomorrow to get my ride. I'm sure as fucking hell not gonna use it for the rest of the night. And I don't want Lilly to be all alone at home."

"It was your idea to ground her, man, only yours",Roman looked at him accusingly, "so you really wanna go? Fine, then, I'm with ya, makes the taxi cheaper, ya know?"

"I thought you had more than me",the blonde said slily, however, he stopped as he saw a taxi coming their way and called it over.

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Careful to be silent, Brian opened the door and stepped into their apartment. He then closed the door and locked it. It was already 1:23 in the morning, so he supposed that his younger sister was asleep. Before walking into the bathroom, he laid his keys on the sideboard in the hall and took off his shoes right next to it. The light made him rub his eyes for a moment until they were used to it. The man began to brush his teeth while reflecting on what had happened earlier this night. The cops, the races, but most of all, he remembered the crew talking about Shane.

Perhaps, Brian thought as he spat out, I should have a little talk with him, if I see him today, only to clear things, to tell him that I'm going to break some of his bones, if he ever dares talking to Lilly like that again. I wouldn't really thread him, just...warn him, yeah, that's it. I'm going to warn him. Now, that he thinks that he's a man only because he's got a car and an airhead, he'll have to learn how to play ball like a man.

As Brian continued imagining the meeting with the boy in mind, he failed to hear the phone ringing.

Lilly groaned as the sound of electrical bells rang through to her. She tried to snuggle deeper into her pillow, but it would not work. Before she even knew what was happening, she was awake and glaring at her alarm clock, showing that it was 1: 27 a.m..

Cursing under her breath, the girl untangled herself from her comfortable bed, ready to yell at whoever had dared waking her up at this time. She had already opened her door, when she saw Brian picking up the receiver.

"Yeah?"He said calmly. "What?...This can only happen to you...yeah, I'm making fun of you, bro...yeah, 's alright, come up, then, but be quiet, okay?" He pressed a button, opening the door to the person standing downstairs.

"Was that Rome?"Her voice still thick with sleep, Lilly rubbed her eyes slowly. Her older brother seemed startled as he turned around, yet, the look at once changed into a mixture of warmth and amusement.

"Sorry that he woke you up", Brian held up his tooth brush, "I was just brushing my teeth and I didn't hear it. He forgot the keys for the boat in his car, so he can't get in, now."

"Why would Rome forget his keys in his car?"Somehow, Lilly had the feeling that her brain did not work the way it should.

"Well, the cops paid us a visit. We've parked in that old garage near down town and there, Rome left his keys",the blonde man explained while regarding his little sister. She was wearing an over-sized red shirt that went down to her upper thighs. Somehow, it made her seem like a little girl again, although this was only Brian's imagination.

"That's why I always tell you to have it all on one keyring",she told him tiredly, "that way, you canna",Lilly yawned, "forget anything. And tell him that he better be silent, I'ma go back to sleep."

"Good night, baby",Brian quickly wiped the remains of tooth paste from his lips, then, he gave his sibling a kiss on the cheek.

"Night, bro",the girl answered while going back into her room as she heard Roman knocking and coming inside.

Lilly went to bed, listened to parts of the conversation between the two men and when everything was silent again, she closed her eyes. She had used the time alone in the apartment for a proper work-out in the living-room for about two hours, thus, the blonde was rather tired and falling asleep again was no problem for her.

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Thanks for reading!

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Djaly