The kitchen filled with bright morning sunlight. Squinting, Cam stretched and reached for the box of coffee filters. Popping the thin paper into the basket, she deposited the coffee and turned intending to snuggle into bed for a couple of more hours, wrapping herself around Dom awhile longer. But the knock at the back door was a quick sign her plans had just been derailed. Padding across to the door, she saw that it was Mia.
"Have you seen him? Is he here?" the other woman asked, moving through the open door, turning anxious eyes to Cam.
"I assume you mean Dom." Cam closed the door and motioned for Mia to take a seat at the counter. Mia nodded with a heavy sigh. "There a problem?" Crossing the kitchen Cam pulled two cups from the cabinet and filled them with the hot steaming brew, strong black coffee.
"Could be. Letty's looking for him. I thought I would find him first and give him a heads up." Accepting the cup from Cam, Mia blew at the liquid trying to cool it.
"What's going on, Mia? Why she looking for him bright and early like this?" Cam's eyebrows drew together, a suspicious frown lining her lips.
"Well, from what I know, Dom came home early this morning and found her and Vince in his bed. Letty's got it in her head that she can fix things. That she wants him back and that V was just some big mistake." Mia threw up her hands. "I can't believe she thinks she can fix this. And poor V ..." she sighed.
Cam finally spoke up. "He's here. Upstairs. But he's still asleep."
A bright hopeful smile crossed Mia's face. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." Cam replied, turning to dump her coffee in the sink. "I'll go wake him."
"NO!" Mia smiled, coming around the small kitchen island and stepping to her. A quick hug and she moved away. "Probably could use the rest."
Cam stood there blinking in quick repetition. Mia was a friend, that was unquestioned, but she hadn't expected the warm show of affection from the other woman. She nodded returning the smile.
"Just make sure he's in a good mood when he leaves for the garage." The other woman giggled, a slight flush creeping into her cheeks.
"I'll see what I can do." Cam shook her head, laughter in her voice. She followed Mia towards the door.
"Oh, Dom left this in the garage yesterday. I thought it might be yours. Didn't look like his." Cam took the cell phone Mia handed over, looking at it like it were some sort of venomous snake.
"Thanks." She cringed as she turned back into the house. Walking through the kitchen, she stopped long enough to shove the compact phone into the freezer just as it began to ring.
**************************************
Dom woke slowly, enjoying the lingering lethargy from the first real night's sleep in weeks. He sensed Cam watching him before he opened his eyes and reached out for her but encountered only the cool cotton sheet. Prying his eyes open, he scanned the bed beside him and then further down. She was sitting there, near the edge, staring at him, a cup clutched in her hand. Shoving pillows behind his head he returned her stare finally, reaching out to touch her only to have her pull away before his fingers could make contact.
"Cam?" He pushed up in the bed as she stood, setting the cup on the night stand. He didn't know what to think. She didn't really looked pissed, not like he'd seen Letty or Mia. She wasn't hurting, no tears. He quickly thanked god for that, one of the few things he was very bad at dealing with.
"You should've told me." She went about the room picking up his clothes from the floor.
Now she had his full wakeful attention. "Told you what?"
"Letty and Vince." She turned, tossing the clothes on the bed. Determined steps took her to the bathroom and she twisted the shower knobs.
"I told you there's nothing between us anymore. Isn't that good enough for you? My word doesn't mean shit?" He stalked into the small room behind her. Turning, she was met with his fully nude form and quickly glanced away before she became distracted.
"So, there's nothing between you. Why didn't you tell me what happened last night? Why did I have to find out from Mia? I felt...felt like...UGH!" She through up her hands, pushing past him back to the bedroom. Grabbing the remote for the TV, she clicked it on, muted it and busied herself with anything besides dealing with Dom.
"Mia was here?" He came out of the bathroom hands on his hips.
"Yeah," she sighed, smoothing her hands over the pillows as she replaced them neatly against the headboard. "She was looking for you."
"There something wrong?" he asked, again moving on her from behind. His hands went to her hips and turned her to face him. "What's wrong, Cam? What's got this all twisted around this morning?"
She dropped her head, trying to remain detached, emotionless, but it was impossible. Her hands balled against his arms. Eyes filled with angry hurt turned on him. "Letty's looking for you, too. Mia says she wants to FIX things between the two of you. Wants you to know that V was a mistake."
"It's over," he growled, running his wide hand the length of her back. "I don't like repeating things."
"And I don't like having doubts," she countered, her eyes boring into his. "Get dressed, Dom."
"You're not serious. You're throwing me out?" he shouted, grabbing his jeans from the bed.
"No, just telling you to go. Telling you to make sure things don't look different today than they did last night. No doubts." She turned back to the bathroom before his reaching hand could draw her against him again.
"I got no..." he tried to argue. But she made sure he didn't finish the sentence.
"Just go, Dom. Get it over with." Slamming the bathroom door she slipped into the cleansing water of the shower.
"FUCK!" he hissed, shoving into his jeans and snatching up the rest of his clothes, hurrying to get out for her house. Hurrying to get away from the room he would have gladly given up the rest of the day to.
So engrossed in each other, they hadn't spared the crisp images on the TV screen the briefest attention, hadn't see the top story of the hour. The reporter standing in front of a club they had visited the night before was ignored as he regurgitated information about the brutal crime there ... about a stripper that had been murdered and disposed of in a nearby dumpster. They would have easily been able to put the description of the woman and her name together, Darlene.
****************************************
Dom entered the garage only to be met head on with the residual effects of the night before and his mood already teetering on the edge of bad took a sharp turn south. Vince stood near the office, waiting. It was obvious he was nervous, edgy. Dom watched him pace in short strides before he entered the cool shadows of the garage. Vince's head popped up at his foot steps on the concrete floor.
"Dom," Vince greeted, looking every bit like he was about to face a firing squad.
Dom's eyes narrowed as he stalked past Vince. "Where is she?"
"Looking for you." He followed after him.
"What the hell for?" Dom asked, over his shoulder, moving towards the small office.
"She wants to talk to you," Vince replied, steeling himself against the blast of Dom's temper he knew was sure to come, provoking it with the next words off his tongue, he was sure. "Need to talk, too. I know I should've said something..."
Dom turned on him then, eyes filled with the raw fire of anger. He shoved Vince hard sending him scrambling backwards for footing. Dom's hand flew up gesturing between them "Goddamn right Vince. Instead of disrespecting my house. Disrespecting my bed. Disrespecting me, man."
"I got no excuse. What we did was wrong. I'm sorry, brother." He dropped his head, cutting his eyes up to the other man, someone he'd practically known his whole life.
"I forgive, Vince. I don't forget and trust is a damn hard thing to earn back." Dom sighed, his anger draining away in slow degrees. He took a few tentative steps towards the office and then turned back to Vince.
"I love her, Dom. I know she don't give a shit about me, but I love her." He shrugged, finally confessing the feelings that had an iron clad hold on him.
"She's made her choice, V. Whether she knows it or not ... and so have I. We're done with this shit." Just when he was certain he had said all there was to say, Letty came stalking into the garage.
"Shit, Dom. I've been looking for you everywhere." She crossed the garage towards he and Vince, glaring at the latter.
"Looking in all the wrong places. Mia didn't have any problem finding me. I wasn't hiding, Letty," he ground out, jaw clenched tight, feeling the need to end this quickly, with as little discussion as possible. "I was with Cameron. Across the street."
"I knew it! I knew you were gonna fuck her to get back at me. That fuckin skank!" she shouted, advancing on Dom, eyes sparking with a deep seething rage. "We could've saved this."
"No. It was over long before this. I know what I want and with who." He shook his head, grabbing her arms and gently squeezing. "I'm only saying this once, so listen good, Letty. There is no more us. We're both over it." He leaned in whispering. "Give V a shot." She twisted away from him, jerking hard against his hands.
Vince stood, hands in his pockets, ready to retreat into a dozen or so coronas. He'd hoped to talk to Dom and be out of the garage by the time she showed up, putting some distance between them. But now he was trapped there, wanting to go but wanting to be there on the remote chance Letty actually needed him.
Cam couldn't have had worse time, stepping out of the jetta, smiling across the roof at the teasing comment Jesse had just delivered. The two continued in conversation as they strode through the doorway of the garage. Before she realized what or who was rushing towards her she felt the brutal blow delivered to her face, splitting her lip. Stumbling backwards she fell hard on her ass and a brief glance assured her that indeed it was the one person she suspected, Letty. The other woman was on top of her holding her down as another shot connected with her right eye. She wouldn't take another jab without giving tit for tat. Jerking her elbow upwards, it connected directly under Letty's chin, snapping her head back and giving Cam a moment to shove her off. There were precious few seconds before Letty was coming at her again. She managed to make it to a crouch before Letty was on her delivering a kick to her ribs.
"Fuck!" she hissed, as her breath rushed from her lungs a second before her foot shot out, heel swiping at Letty's ankle with enough force to send her pitching to the hard unforgiving cement. There was a sickening thud and to her surprise Letty didn't even pause, knocking her onto her back. They were rolling, each searching out the better gasp on the other, the better body blow. Then they were being roughly hauled apart.
"Enough!" Dom yelled. "Get her outta here, Vince."
Vince lifted a struggling Letty off the ground and strode toward his car, curse after curse following in their wake. Dom loosened his hold on Cam as she shoved against his restraining arm, knowing Letty wasn't coming back of another shot.
"So much for pulling hair and scratching." Jesse said, jaw hanging slack, surprised that Cam had held her own with Letty. He couldn't remember another girl ever coming close.
Dom glared at him and followed Cam as she headed for the tattered water hose beside the garage. Brightly oxygenated blood oozed down her chin, staining the white cotton of her shirt. Moving behind her, Dom rested his hand against her back as he washed the blood away. She held up her hand warning him off, trying to rein in the flood of adrenaline through her system.
"Come on, Cam. Let me have a look." He forcefully turned her, gently probing the rent in her lip he smiled. "Not bad."
"Oh, thanks." She pushed at his hands. "What the hell was that about? BESIDES the obvious."
"Letty getting it through her hard damn head that there's nothing to fix." He pulled her into the garage with him, into the office. "What are you doing here in the first place?" he asked, lifting her into his lap as he sat behind the desk.
She shoved two fingers in front of his face. "First, I wanted to tell you I missed you." She made the mistake of trying to deliver a gentle kiss to his neck but instead yelped in pain as her lips made contact.
"Easy, baby." He took her chin between his fingers and pulled her lips to his, carefully supplying an unequaled kiss of tenderness. "What's the second?" His grin was filled with a teasing confidence, knowing he obliterated anything else in her head.
"Huh?" The smile she returned seemed a little less than sober.
He pulled her hand back up in front of him and folded all but two of her fingers. "Two things you were gonna tell me?"
"OH! Yeah!" She mentally shook herself. "The second ... I figured out the numbers. Nico's numbers. It's a storage place. Not far from here."
********************************************
Half an hour later Dom was pulling up in front of the Hide Away storage complex, eyes scanning the storage units for just the right number.
"There!" Cam pointed out a set of numbers ahead. "That has to be it...the numbers are the same as Nico's birthday."
Doms eyebrows rose, grinning. "He couldn't be more original?"
"Hey, I never said the boy had a great imagination." She shrugged. Cam's stomach began to flutter with a barrage of butterflies as they left the car and moved to the door of the unit. Fishing in her pocket for the key, she tried it in the lock. As it popped open, Dom pulled the wide door upwards.
Cam stared into the contrasting darkness for a brief moment then cut her eyes over to Dom, questioning if they should actually be doing this. There, inside the roomy unit, was a car, dust cover in place. Dom wasted no time in stalking inside and whipping the cover off, looking the car underneath over with a disgusted glare. There was more than one perfectly formed hole in the body and one directly through the passenger side windshield. Inside, a dark stain fanned out across the headrest and streaked lower across the seat.
"That what I think it is?" She shuttered, paling, skirting around the car not wanting to get any closer.
"Looks like." He leaned in for a closer look, finding there were other stains, other particles. It all lead him to believe the car had been the last ride for someone.
"Those are bullet holes." She backed even further way, nervous. Turning, she took stock of the rest of the storage, finding two cases against the far wall.
"Dom." She pointed them out. Coming around the car, he took her hand and proceeded toward the only other objects in the room. Cam dropped to her knees and reached for the first case, fingers fumbling with the latch and the sinking feeling that was taking over mind and body. Suddenly the case popped open in her hand and she scrambled backward, gasping, staring wide-eyed.
Dom turning in a quick semicircle, hands clutching roughly at his smooth head, disgusted and afraid ... afraid where this was going. He turned taking another long look at the carefully wrapped bundles inside. White powder. He didn't even want to begin to guess at the value of what he was looking at or what had gone down to get it here, hidden.
"I'm so screwed, Dom. If this is what they want..." There was a hitch in her words as the tears began, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Nico. What the hell is going to happen to him?" She knew the answer but couldn't bring herself to let it sink in. She turned red rimmed eyes to Dom as he lowered himself down beside her handing over a white envelope.
"What?..."
He pointed at the open case. "Probably from Nico."
Opening it, she read the few simple words printed there, tears rolling along her cheeks.
Cammie,
I'm sorry. Do what you have to now.
Love always, Nico