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Chapter 37-Getting Help

Dom's POV

It was about 4:30 in the evening when we made our next stop. We were somewhere outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. We were making slow progress, which meade me slightly unhappy. I wanted to get home soon. I called the house earlier to find out Letty's condition. Mia gave me an excited 'she's great'. It made me smile, but I was still worried. I wanted to be there to make sure she was okay.

For the first time since I met him, I had to force Vince to eat something. I knew he was in no mood for food. Or for socializing at that. But once we were back on the road, he'd be hungry again. We weren't going to stop again for a while, so I wanted him to get full while we were out. We were at small family restaurant called Palmer's Diner. I ordered Vince a steak, but he re-ordered a salad. This rose suspicion in everyone's eyes. They knew Vince would never turn down a piece of meat for a salad. They all turned their glances to me, but I only shrugged. I didn't want everyone to make a big deal over Vince's infidelity. Though it was a big deal. From the hard looks they were exchanging, something told me Brian knew what happened. I knew Vince wouldn't tell him, so I had no clue.

"O'Conner, come with me to get the drinks," I said, standing from the table.

"But the waitress is-" he started to object, slightly breaking his concentration from Vince.

"Come with me to get the drinks," I ordered again, smacking the back of his head slightly. He huffed and stood from the table, following me to the front counter. "What do you know?" I asked him, getting straight to the point.

He looked over to the table. "I saw Vince going into his room last night with a blonde. He looked pretty trashed. Hell, they both did," Brian said, trying to keep his voice low.

"Look, Vince fucked up last night. He knows it. He doesn't need you rubbing it in," I growled as low as I possibly could.

"That's bullshit Dom. The one time I fuck up, everyone knows about and eats me for it. Vince fucks up and it's fine and dandy?" Brian snapped.

"Don't lose that cool of yours Brian. You know it's your mealticket," I reminded him, smiling at bit. He kept his stern look,"Look I know Vince fucked up. This was his first time. You fucked up twice already. Leave Vince alone alright. When he's ready to talk about it, he will. I mean it Brian, leave it be," I said, standing from the stool. We walked back over to the table as the waitress was bringing us our meals.

"C'mon Coyote. Let's get you some meat man," Leon said, placing one of his hot wings onto Vince's plate. Vince smile meekily and picked at the meat.

xxx Sasha's POV xxx

I finally finished with the car roughly around five p.m. I was stalling to think of what do with Jayden. I mean she told the police I was her mother. It probably meant she was afraid of her real mother for some reason. But why was she stealing? She told me she wasn't trouble. She told me she didn't steal. She lied to me. Which I couldn't understand. She didn't seem like a child who would lie to someone she just met and who treated her well. After cleaning my hands in the back of the garage, I walked to the office. Jayden was sitting, staring at her hands. She didn't look upset, but ashamed. I sat on the desk in front of her.

"So what's going on?" I wanted to take it slow.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Sasha," was all she said. She never took her eyes off her hands.

"You didn't steal those things did you?" she nodded. "Who did?"

"My friends. They stole all those things. They made me take the heat. We were being stopped by the mall security and they all blamed it on me. They said if I didn't take the heat, they'd tell the principle I did it. I would've been kicked out Mrs. Sasha," Jayden said, tears fallign from her face. I pulled her close to me.

"Hey, it's okay. Look, I don't want you hanging out with those girls anymore. They're getting you in a lot of trouble," she nodded in understanding. "Why did you tell the police I was your mother?" she pulled back from me.

"If my mom knew about it, she wouldn't believe me. Last time something like this happening, she did this," Jayden lifted her arm sleeve to reveal a circle on her inner arm. It looked to be from a cigarette burn.

"I'm sorry honey. Jayden, are you sure you don't have any family? I mean there's got to be someone-"

"I understand if you don't want me around. I just thought someone wanted to help me. Guess not," Jayden interrupted, standing from her seat. I grabbed her arm before she got too far.

"Hey, sit down," I ordered to her. She obeyed. "Now I never said that. If I didn't want you around, I would've sent you away with those coppers. I'm going to help you. I just need to know if you have any other family before I take you in," I said, my lips curling into a smile slightly.

"What?" her eyes lit up.

"I want you to come live with me. At least for a while. It won't be a problem at all. You'll have a ride to and from school. You're have your own room and you'll be able to come to the garage whenever you want," I replied. I really just wanted her out of that grungy house with that junkie. It was never a safe place for kids.

"Wow. Thank you so much," she said, tossing her arms around my neck, squeezing tightly. "But um I think I have an uncle somewhere. I never met him," she finished.

"Do you know how name? Or where he lives?"

"No. I just knew my mother had a stepbrother. She used to talk about him when we lived in Vegas. Now I barely hear his name. Or anything out of her," Jayden said, her expression growing sad again.

"Okay. Well we're going to finish up here and drive over to your house. Do you have anything there to get?" she nodded. "Okay, well we'll get that and I'll try to talk to your mother. I need to find this uncle of yours," I said, standing from the table.

xxx No POV xxx

"So what was that whole deal back at the diner? What's going on with V?" Roman asked Brian. The Team was back on the road. Dom had asked them to pick up some speed, for he was in a rush to get home. They exhaustedly agreed. They were now just exiting Arkansas and entering Oklahoma. Brian had made a guess that they would probably make it to western-Texas before they made their next stop. He didn't mind. He was used to travelling long hours.

"Nothing. Let it go," he replied, not taking his eyes off the road.

"What you mean let it go? I thought you were about to jump across the table and attack him. Don't keep this shit from me Brian, what's going on man?" Rome questioned again.

"I said let it go Cuz. Vince is just going through something. He's good," Brian said, hoping Rome would let it go. Thankfully, he did.

Over in the Jetta...

Diana was driving while Jesse was looking up something on his laptop.

"You find anything?" Di asked him.

"Found one, but it costs about two grand each week. Way too expensive," Jesse replied, not looking up from the laptop. He keyed something in again. "Okay I think I found another one. Says the class is only $225 a week. Says the teacher was an ex-addict but has been clean for about twelve years. His name is Dr. Carlos Draco. It's close by Sasha and Vince's place too." Jesse said as he read over the information on the screen.

Jesse was searcing for both an alcoholics annonymous class and a rehad center for his addiction to cocaine. He felt as if he overcame his coke addiction, but he knew he'd soon be craving it. He didn't want that. He wanted help before the attacks kicked in. He knew the family would be able to help him with his drinking. He wouldn't drink anything other than Corona, and even then, he'd only drink two or three. He was happy everyone was helping out. Jesse couldn't have asked for a better family.

"What are you smiling for?' Diana looked at him and couldn't help but smile back.

"I'm just happy that everyone's still here for me. Especially you. I treated you and Jess so bad and I hate myself for it. I mean, I missed my daughter's first steps. Every father wants to see that. But instead I was out doing things I weren't supposed to. I paid for it, that's for damn sure," Jesse said, shutting the laptop.

"Well you're okay now and you're going to make up for it. We all love you Jesse Michael. You're the heart and soul of this family and you know it," Diana said, grabbing his hand. "You're also the love of my life. I wouldn't rather be anywhere but with you."

"Yeah, but I got scared for a second. I thought you were gonna leave me for Tej. I mean, he had been a better father to Jessica then I had. He was there for you all the times I wasn't. He was a better man for a while," Jesse dropped his head in shame. As he spoke, he couldn't believe how true the words came to be. He did abandon his family. Someone else did step into the picture.

"Jesse, Tej is a friend. He is a good friend. He where there to help me and Jessi. Which he did. Yes, he did develop feelings for me. Hell, for a second, I thought I felt the same. But I realized what beautiful thing I have with you and I couldn't be happier." Di lifted Jesse's chin, taking her eyes off the road for a second to kiss him.

Over in the Skyline...

Leon turned up his CD player, which was bumping the latest Jay-Z album through the speakers. He hoped that Elijah would catch on that he was done talking, but he didn't. Leon mentally cursed Dom for leaving him with the human questionaire. Leon didn't know Elijah could even say as much as he did.

"Uncle Leon, how come you saw 'dawg' a lot?" Elijah asked, smashing his action figures together.

"Um, I dunno kid. A lot of New Yorkers said it back in the day. I thought it was cool and said it one day. It kinda stuck," he answered, tossing his ruined toothpick out the window. He grabbed a fresh one from his pocket.

"So how come Uncle Jesse doesn't say it? Isn't he from New York?" Elijah asked once more.

"Yeah, kid, he is. Uncle Jesse's different. We had different friends when we were little. He hung out with his computer geek and rocker friends. I hung out with the hustlers," Leon said, looking out the window.

He remembered how different he and Jesse were as children. While Jesse was leaning to type over eighty words per minute, Leon was leaning to gamble on the streets. In school, Leon protected Jesse from eveything and everyone. From first glance, you would never know they were related because of their differences. Leon was tall, with a slight large build to him. He had dark brown hair, his skin was tan and his voice was very accented. Jesse on the other hand, was different. He had dirty blonde hair, pale skin and was short. He talked with a stuttering problem and was extremely hyper. Leon was more of a cool, mellow person. He had more intentions on becoming a hustler then anything else. He wanted to have the street smarts of the family. Now, Leon hated that part of himself. It reminded him so much of his father. That was the one thing he hated; being reminded of his old man.

"How you holding up Leon?" Dom came over the walkie-talkie.

"You owe me big time dawg. Huge time," Leon replied, looking over at Elijah, who was still playing with his action figures. Dom let out a wholehearted laugh.

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There's 37. Not much in it, I know. But more will be revealed next chapter. Look for it. Read&review please.

-Kita