Word Count: 1,288/27,373


Chapter 08
The next morning, Brian was in a much better mood as he walked into the office. Ali had hacked the county database and Dom hadn't been picked up the night before. His good mood lasted until he left the elevator and saw Stasiak in the processing room with Mia.

"Son of a bitch," he said.

"What's wrong?" Letty asked.

"Stasiak brought Mia in."

"Asshole went after Dom last night. Has she been there since then?"

"Probably." He went over to Sophie's desk and picked up the phone. "Hi, this is Forsythe in Evidence. I need Stasiak down here right away to sign some greenies. Thanks."

"You little minx," Letty said, amused.

He ignored her as he hung up and looked at Sophie, who was trying not to grin.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey. So I narrowed it down to about fifty or so David Parks. What I'd like you to do is run the make and model on each of them, all right?"

"Okay, sure."

"Thank you."

Stasiak left the room and stormed away. Brian made his way over there, buzzing himself in. "Hey, Tyler, we got a transfer." He stood in front of Mia and offered his hand. "You wanna come with me?"

She looked up at him in disbelief and ignored his hand as she stood. He took it as curiosity that she allowed him to lead her out of the building and around the corner to a little café he liked, though he was mentally cringing at the awkward silence.

He sat across from her as she drank her coffee, waiting for the questions that he knew she had.

"Tell her the truth, Arizona. Not about this; about before."

"I'm almost done," Mia told the waitress when asked if she wanted more coffee. She fiddled with the cup for a few seconds before looking up at Brian. "Why don't you tell me why you dragged me here, Brian."

"The truth, Bri."

He knew he should follow Letty's advice. She had been dealing with Torettos far longer than he had. He just couldn't.

"You know they're going to capture Dom. Maybe worse. I don't want you getting tangled up in this. Stay away from him."

"Bad move, Buster. She's not gonna like that."

"That's what you have to say to me after five years? All of a sudden you care what happens to me?"

He mentally winced. He had always cared about what happened to her. That's why he did the shit that he did.

"I'm serious, Arizona. Try the truth now."

"What I did to you was wrong." He never should have led her on like he had. "It was- It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

"I'm sorry, too, Brian. I'm sorry that you had to come into my home and pretend to love me."

"Ah, boy. She's pissed."

Gee, thanks, Letty. I couldn't have figured that one out myself, he thought, mentally bracing for whatever else Mia had to say.

"I'm so sorry that you ripped my family apart. I'm very sorry that that was hard for you."

Brian gave a mental wince, but thankfully, Letty didn't say anything to that. Maybe he could give her a little bit of the truth. "I lied to you," he said. "I lied to Dom. I lied to everybody. That's what I do best. It's why the Feds recruited me."

"Maybe you're lying to yourself. Maybe you're not the good guy pretending to be the bad guy. Maybe you're the bad guy, pretending to be the good guy. Did you ever think of that?"

You will never know just how true that is. "Every day," he said out loud.

He could see the fight drain right out of her, not expecting him to have agreed. She stood up and took a few steps towards the door before turning back to him, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I always wondered. Why did you let my brother go that day?"

Brian looked at her and he could see in her eyes that she wanted it to be because of her. He could give her that. But he had promised himself that he would stop lying, even if it was just to himself. "I don't know," he said instead.

She looked disappointed, but hid it well. If it weren't for what he was now, he probably wouldn't have noticed. He watched her leave and ran a hand over his face.

"Shit," he muttered.

"It went better than it could have," Letty offered.

"At least she didn't try to hit me," he agreed. "Though I would have deserved it for what I did to her." He paid for the coffee and headed back to the office.

"Brian," Sophie called. "I got the cross-checks on the David Parks back and I have a list of possibles."

"What do you got?" he asked.

He listened with one ear as Sophie went through the list, throwing out appropriate comments when necessary until he heard the one he was looking for.

"Wait, that's it," he said.

"What?"

"The two-forty with the illegal mod."

"How do you know?" she asked, looking at the list again, probably wondering what she had missed.

She wouldn't have got it, so he threw her a bone. "'cause that's somethin' I'd drive," he said with a grin, grabbing the file and heading back out.

"You're having way too much fun with this, Bri."

"Little pleasures, Tish," he retorted. "Little pleasures."

She laughed and kept him company as he drove to the address. He took a moment to appreciate the car. "Not as nice as Mia's, but still looks good," he said.

"Nobody's is as nice as Mia's. The amount of love, time and money Dom put into that thing for her? Not even V's was that nice."

"What happened to him anyway?"

"He free-fell through-"

Brian was distracted by a crash a few floors above him and looked up to see someone hanging out a window. "Shit," he said, racing into the building.

"Two g's Dom got here first," Letty said with a laugh.

"No bet," Brian replied as he ran up the steps. "And this isn't funny. He hurts Park and that immunity agreement is out the window."

He reached the apartment with his gun up and was unsurprised to see Dom standing at the window, dangling Park outside by the leg.

"Bring him up, Dom." He saw the miniscule tightening in Dom's stance. "Bring him up."

"You here to arrest me, O'Conner?" Park was yelling something and Dom gave him a shake. "Shut up!" he growled.

Don't make me have to, Brian thought. "Letty was my friend, too."

"You weren't anybody's friend," Dom said.

Brian couldn't hold back a wince and was glad that Dom was facing away from him.

"Don't listen to him, Brian. You are my friend. Probably my best friend. He's just hurting right now."

He wasn't sure why he decided to give Dom information about the case. He shouldn't have, not if he wanted to keep the other man from getting involved. But he tended to lose his mind when he was around Dom. "She was running for this guy, Braga, and things went bad. I'm going to get these guys, Dom. Now let me do my job and bring him up."

"I'm going to kill this Braga. And anyone else who gets in my way."

Brian was moving before Dom had finished his threat. He didn't need Letty yelling in his ear to know that Dom was serious. By the time he had a hold on David Park, Dom had disappeared, which was good. He didn't want to have to have to fight Dom right now. Or ever, actually.