AN: This chapter is likely more R rated then pg-13. I don't want to change
the rating on the whole story over it though so just concider this your
warning people. I hope you all like and take a few seconds to hit the
little review button and let me know what you think when you're done
reading. It's exam time for me and the reviews give me a reason to live,
LOL. Peace 'n speed, Tempest.
Chapter 20 – Crazier then the white boy
After I finished reading all there was to read my eyes were swimming and I had a bit of a headache. It had been a lot of information to process. I went back out into the garage and looked at Tej's car.
What had I gotten myself into?
Doubts about my ability to finish the project were resurfacing. It was going to be so much work. Did I have it in me? Would I be strong enough? Good enough? Fast enough?
I couldn't afford not to be.
Too much was riding on this car for me not to succeed.
With that in mind as well as all the technical stuff I'd learned about the job I popped the rear hatch and started to look over the parts I could identify and what they had to do for the engine to come out of its tight quarters.
I started removing this thing and unhooking that thing following the instructions I'd read on autopilot. Once something gets into my head I find it hard to stop. When I figure something out this excitement takes over because I know what I'm doing and I have to get started at whatever I just figured out right away. It might have something to do with not forgetting what I learned before I can use it. The engine in the Acura was no different.
Never mind it was hours since I'd eaten and it was already dark outside.
I was unhooking a cooling line and the pliers I was using to open the clamp slipped and cut my knuckles.
"Cocksucker!" I yelped as I sucked on the knuckle that was bleeding most. I was under the assumption I was still alone.
A male snicker answered my exclamation from the dark doorway of the garage.
"Is that any way to talk to a lady?"
Rome was still laughing as he walked into the circle of light in my bay from the otherwise dark garage.
"Come again? A lady?" I turned to face him, still sucking on my bleeding finger between speaking to him.
"Yeah, that fine lady you were bent over when you said that terrible thing to her."
"I actually swore at the pliers, not the car."
"That makes it all better then. What did you do to yourself?"
"I cut up my knuckles. I'm fine."
"Ok. Just let me see."
He took my hand from me and looked. I sighed. He was as bad as Dom. Every little cut I get some man has to fuss over it. And when they cut themselves they curse and swear and rant and roar like the world is ending. A woman cuts herself and unless she's going to lose a digit or bleed out she just sucks it up and gets over it. Rome finished his inspection.
"That's not so bad, but it'll hurt like hell tomorrow."
"I know, it's not the first time I ever busted up my knuckles and it won't be the last."
"It is always the fault of renegade tools?"
"Naw, sometimes it's punching some puto or skank in their smirking mouth." I laughed, remembering some of the better fights of my life.
Like the time I decked Lance Tran. Dropped him like a stone. Busted open my knuckles on his ugly mug too but it had been worth it. He'd been going to mess with my man. No one messed with my familia and got away with it. I wanted to see Dominic beat some sense into Johnny and I didn't need Lance coming to his idiot cousin's rescue.
Or the time I walked into my room to find Dom on top of some blonde bitch from races fucking her brains out. First I threw a right hook into Dom's shocked, gasping face as hard as I could and split open his lip. Then I switched to the left hand and decked the blonde Barbie in our bed as hard as I could too. It wasn't as hard as my right but it had been hard enough to break her nose.
Then I gathered up all her clothes and threw them out into the hall all the while yelling for her to 'get the fuck out of my bed and out of my room and if I ever see you around my man again you'll know real pain'. She ran into the bathroom to get dressed, crying like the whore she was the whole time. Vince had to drive her to the hospital and she got blood on the seat of Dom's car. Vince was smart enough not to take a bleeding idiot into his car. He said since Dom was the one who fucked up in the first place if anyone's car was going to get bloody it should be Dom's.
Then Dom had the audacity to tell me to calm down. After catching him fucking another girl in our bed he had the nerve to tell me to calm down. He told me I was over reacting and that my shouting wasn't helping. So I figured if my shouting wasn't helping perhaps he wanted another knuckle sandwich. I forgot about my sore right hand and nailed him in the nose. His head's so hard that his nose didn't break. Thankfully I know how to make a solid fist so I didn't break any bones in my hand either. It musta hurt though 'cause he sat down so hard one of the legs on the bed broke.
Or he had just been banging blondie so hard it was already weak. I thought that then too and it coloured my reply to Dom's request that I calm down.
'I will not calm down when I catch you screwing another girl in our room' I'd yelled at him.
'She didn't mean anything to me!' Dom had pleaded back.
'Then why'd you have to fuck her then?' I'd asked, cradling my injured hand against my chest defensively.
'I don't know.' He sighed, rubbing his bald head then daubing at the blood running down his chin from his busted lip. He never had an answer for that question.
'I don't know isn't good enough!' I yelled back. 'How am I supposed to feel when you'll fuck any skank who'll spread her legs? I hate you!' I'd yelled back. I watched Dom turn red and open his mouth to say something back and I took off out of the room before he could say anything I didn't want to hear.
I'd run to Mia, cried on her shoulder for hours as she held ice on my very bruised and swollen right hand, and hadn't spoken to Dom for a week. But then because we always did we made up. Rome spoke again and shook me out of my reminiscing.
"Remind me to get on your good side."
"You're already there; just make sure you don't do something to cross over."
Rome laughed at me.
"Brian sent me to find out if you were still working. He was worried about you still being at this. He's madder'n hell at Tej for doing this to you. I'm not sure if I like it either. You sure you wanna be doing this?"
"Yeah, it's not so bad. I got a good start at it tonight. At least I have a plan of attack on it all now. I'll start ordering some of the front end stuff tomorrow so it'll all be here when the car comes back from the body shop."
"Brian sent me up to ask you when you ate last and to tell you it's 9 and time you stopped for the night."
"Wow its 9?" I'd had no idea that it had gotten so late. I arched my back into a deep stretch to try and work some of the kinks that having been bent over for the last 2 hours had put in. As I stood back upright my stomach growled loudly.
"I guess the answer to when you ate last is a long time ago huh?" Rome asked, chuckling. "How do you stand it?"
"Stand what?" I asked, sort of embarrassed about my stomach noises.
"Going hungry. I can't go more'n an hour or two without eating."
"If I ate like that I'd be as big as a house."
"Not the way you work girl. No one that goes as hard as you could ever be as big as a house."
"Well, I know it's supper time now, that's for sure. I guess I'll head down to Brian's and make some grub."
"Or you could drive us to that little restaurant I showed you yesterday and we could eat there."
"I get to drive?"
"Yeah...Is that another first or somethin?"
"Naw. It just doesn't happen very often unless I'm going places alone."
"I've been waiting for a chance to get a ride in that pimped out car'a yours. This is as good a reason as any." Rome shrugged.
"Aiight, let's go." Something occurred to me then. "Aw hell, I'll have to go home to change my clothes first." I was covered in grease and oil. I'd also be willing to bet that I had brake dust on my face somewhere. I was always rubbing my nose or itching my forehead with dirty hands.
"You have a point." Rome answered. "Let's go, I'll walk with you."
"Ok."
We headed to the boat and walked in. I headed right to my room and Rome sat down at the table with Brian. I could still hear them talking while I changed.
"She was still working wasn't she?" Brian asked, chuckling.
"Yep. In her own world up to her elbows in the engine of the NSX. We're gonna go grab some grub and she's gonna show me what that car a hers can do."
"Have fun. You might want her to show you what the car can do before you eat."
"Why?"
"Because if you think I'm a crazy driver you should see Reina go."
I laughed out loud at that. I'd seen Brian go in the eclipse and the supra. I think it would be a close run who was really a more crazy driver. Who am I kidden? It'd be me. But maybe not by as much as Brian thinks. The guys heard me laughing and laughed back at me. I pulled on my tank top then ran into the bathroom. I cleaned all the black gunk off my face and headed back into the galley.
"I'm ready."
"Let's go then." Rome stood up.
"I don't know...You sure you're ready for this?" I asked him with a smirk.
"I'll be fine, let's go." Rome ushered me off the boat with a hand at the small of my back.
We headed up to my car and I disarmed the security system and unlocked the doors. I slid into the car and took a deep breath. It felt like forever since I'd slid into the subtle caress of the driver's seat of my car. Like always it was like coming home. It conformed to my shape like a glove. The wheel fit my hands like it had been made for my fingers alone. The shift knob filled my palm perfectly. The reverse Indiglo gages lit up my face with a soft bath of blue light. The peddles were perfectly spaced for my feet.
Feelings of familiarity washed over me. It was like being reacquainted with your best friend you hadn't seen in years. Rome had faded from my thoughts as I got reacquainted with my neglected lover. Raidon had been forgotten in the recent excitement but if I took him out to let him loose and showed Rome what we could really do together it would be along time before I would forget him again.
"You ok?" Rome asked me softly.
"Fine. Better then fine. Super." I rolled my shoulders. "You ready?"
"Let's go."
I pushed the clutch, flicked the key and the car turned over into an immediate roar that quickly steadied out into a soft, slightly louder then stock purr. I slid it into neutral, let off on the clutch and stepped on the brake then gave it a shot of gas quickly and listened as it revved up and dropped back to idle. The exhaust was loud and throaty at high RPM's, like the voice of a sexy man. My car called and I felt the answering response in my body, same as I always did and fought back a moan. The road called, like a siren, impossible to resist. The adrenaline was starting. Everything sounded perfect.
Because it was perfect.
I pushed the clutch down and slid the shift into first. The syncros engaged with a slight metallic chink. I double checked to be sure the road in front of the car was clear and, popping the clutch out as I gave the car a shot of gas I took off with a squeal from the Toyo's, a roar from the engine and a faint smell of burnt rubber and burning carbon from the exhaust.
Rome grabbed the door handle and looked as me as my car mildly fishtailed down Tej's street. I smiled softly. This was what I lived for after all. I caressed the steering wheel with my thumbs. The well conditioned vinyl on the wheel practically stroked back. I fought my need to talk to my car out loud and managed to internalize my feelings of 'missed you baby boy'.
Yep, I talk to my car. I talk to it like it was a lover. Because it was.
Anyone who's ever had a real adrenaline rush behind the wheel knows what I'm talking about.
First your stomach gets butterflies. That happens to me the second I know I'm going to get to drive fast or race someone.
Then your palms get a bit sweaty and your face flushes. This often happens as I'm waiting for a red light to go green so I can race the punk who's been revving his little Honda at me for the duration of the red light's appearance.
The light goes green and you take off. Then your breathing goes up, gets faster, deeper.
The butterflies become hot rushes of sensation from your solar plexus outward to other, more interesting areas. Things get tingly. Desire results.
Sometimes your nipples get hard, you get wet. But it's not really sex you want.
You're feeling desire for the win, desire for the speed, for the rush, for the danger.
For the adrenaline.
And while you're still high on adrenaline and turned on from the rush, that's when you can have some of the best sex of your life. I should know.
I put my mind back on track and saw my off ramp coming up. I wonder if Rome, in his front wheel drive waste of sheet metal has ever done true drifting. I bet not. I'll never tell him how I feel about his car to his face but having been raised by a stock car racer and schooled on the streets by his son I'll never be passionate about a car unless it's a 6 or better, plants the power with the rear wheels, and was never made to be the family grocery getter in any sense.
I decided to drift the ramp. It'll give him a thrill I bet. Hell, it'll give me one too.
I speed up subtly and start to cut the wheel to take the ramp. It's rated for 30 miles an hour. I'm going 70. It's not quite enough so I give my car a bit more throttle and the wheels start to break loose in the rear.
Rome looked over at me at that point like he was trying to figure out what I was up to. It was clear he'd never been in the car when someone pulled a stunt like I was about to.
With a bit more throttle and a bit more cut to the wheels the rear breaks loose and goes sideways down the off ramp just the way I want it to. I'm in total control of the slide but it feels out of control and it makes a horrible noise as the tires go sideways against their will and smoke as we fly down the ramp sideways.
When we hit the new street I straightened out the wheels and eased off the gas. The car when straight and I laughed with the sheer joy of it all. The freedom and the adrenaline, the excitement and exhilaration.
I did a few power slides and raced a few punks in traffic and then before I knew it we were back at the little restaurant Rome had taken me to only the day before.
"That was some crazy ass shit you did on the way here girl. Where'd you learn to drive like that?"
"Here an there. You have fun?"
"Once my testicles redescended it was ok."
I looked up at Rome. He looked serious. I chuckled.
"Does that mean I can't be wilder on the way home?"
"Save it for races." Rome looked sort of green when I really looked.
"You ok?"
"I'm fine."
"You don't look 'fine'."
"You drive crazier then the white boy."
I laughed.
"Well, he did warn you about that."
"Thought he was exaggerating." Rome mumbled.
"Come on, let's go eat." I stood up out of the car and slammed the door, walking around to meet Rome on his side, by the restaurant door.
"I'm not sure if I'm hungry anymore."
"Oh dear, this is serious." I tried to look genuinely concerned for Rome's poor stomach.
He finally laughed.
"Turns out I'm hungry, let's go in and eat."
"That's better." I pushed the door open and we walked in.
The same elderly lady was manning the front counter. When she saw Rome her eyes lit up. She welcomed him warmly and turned to me.
"Ah, the pretty Senorita from before." She said in her heavily accented voice and took my hand. "Él debe tener gusto de usted grandemente de traerle aquí otra vez." (He must like you greatly to bring you here again.)
"Somos amigos justos." (We're just friends) I assured her with a smile. She didn't look like she believed me but she lead us to a table.
We sat down and picked up the menus the older woman had left. I started to read. I was hungry enough to eat a horse and everything sounded good.
"What's that say?" Rome asked me, pointing out a line on the menu he didn't understand.
I explained it to him and he closed the menu. I guess his mind was made up on what he was having. I couldn't decide between two things that sounded really good. I decided to order both. It wasn't like Rome wouldn't help me eat it all if I got full.
The lady came back and I ordered all the food I wanted. Rome looked at me funny.
"You gonna eat all that?"
"You're not the only one with a big appetite." I leaned back in my chair, tossing one arm over the back of it.
"You think you're gonna finish all that?" Rome looked hopeful that the answer would be no.
"Maybe, maybe not. If I can't you'll be the first one to know."
"Deal."
"So, Rome. You grew up with Brian huh?"
"Well, we didn't do much growing up. But we've known each other since we were five. I grew up down the street from Brian's family."
I smiled about the fact that he 'hadn't done too much growing up'. Sounded like two guys I know. Namely V and Dom.
"You have any brothers or sisters?" I asked Rome, wanting to know more about him, about his history with Brian.
"One of each, both older. You?"
"I'm an only child. My parents didn't stop fighting long enough to have any more. What about Brian?"
"Brian has one younger sister. She's still in Barstow."
"So how old are you and Bri?"
"25, how old are you?"
"22. Does Brian ever talk to his sister?"
"Yeah. She comes down to visit him every once in a while. Well, she does now that she's 18. Brian's parents didn't take too well to what he did with you guys. His dad's a cop and what Brian did for Dom made his dad pretty mad. Something about cops being a brotherhood and how now Brian wasn't trustworthy, how he betrayed every other cop in the world by doing what he did. They don't talk anymore and his father forbid his sister from having anything to do with Brian. But she didn't listen very well as soon as she was old enough to go without permission."
"Wow." I didn't know what to say. Brian had always avoided talking to me about his family back when he was with us in L.A. Now I guess I know why. His dad was strict and a cop on top of it. So Brian had lost even more then I'd thought when he'd let us go. He lost us and he lost his job and he lost his family. It's even more clear to me that Brian needs to go back to L.A. He might not have much of a relationship with his father but he can have his relationship with the team back again. Then we can be his family. The team is my family after all.
"Yeah. Brian idolized his dad. It hit him pretty hard when his dad told him he didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore."
"Didn't it get better when Brian redeemed himself and you and he became cops again?"
"I don't know that Brian bothered to tell him about that. They hadn't been talking for a while before that."
"Poor Brian. Well, I guess at least his sister didn't let her dad poison her against him."
"Yeah Fiona makes up her own mind. She's a female version of Brian. Brilliant blue eyes, golden hair, golden skin, and fit. She's one cool girl."
"She sounds awesome."
"She is. If you stick around long enough you'll meet her. She visits Bri every 6 months or less and she's almost due to come again."
"She doesn't know why Brian's not a cop anymore does she?" I couldn't see Brian's sister being very impressed with one of the people who caused her brother to not be a cop anymore. Of course I didn't really know how much of the story Rome knew either but I guess he knows a lot more of it now if he didn't know before.
"No, but I only have half an idea about that too." Rome gave me a very deep look.
"Well, it all started about 9 months ago." I was going to tell Rome everything. I don't know why. I thought he could keep the secret and I needed to really talk about it. Plus, he knows it's all over and closed because of he and Brian doing that other job so I doubt he'll bring it up with anyone.
"We were short on money. We were always short on money. You've seen my car. It's pretty tricked out."
"You got that right."
"Well, my car is an example of how every car on our team is. They're all that tricked out. Dom's more then anyone's. Plus, Dom thinks that the stuff has to be upgraded all the time. And Mia's going through college to be a doctor and that isn't cheap."
"So your team had a lot of bills?"
"Yeah. But Dom owns his garage plus a café and he does good racing. I don't know where the people willing to try and race him come from because you'd think by now most people would have had their fill of the humiliation him beating them week after week deals but there's still someone who wants a shot every race night. But with all the stuff he wanted for all the cars plus the taxes on the two stores and the house, and Mia's school and food and bills we were hardly getting by."
"Fast cars are an expensive hobby." Rome added.
"No kidding. But Dom," I lowered my voice, "decided rather then trying to live within our means we'd do this job that someone offered him. The payoff was huge and Dom said it wouldn't even be hard. He bought three Honda Civics and we tricked them out. Painted them black and put green neon kits on them. We used the cars to hijack transfer trucks full of high priced electronics. Then Dom's contact would sell the goods on the black market. We did like 6 and nothing ever went wrong. Me'n Jesse were just there to keep the truck driver guessing and going the way we wanted him to. Leon listens to the scanners. He has all this equipment in his skyline for it and he outfitted his Civic with all the same stuff. He always has the police frequencies. Dom drove the lead car and Vince jumped onto the truck to get in and tranqu the driver. Then V would drive the truck to the drop point where we'd get our money and turn over the rig."
"Wow. Like a modern day western." Rome was listening raptly to the tale. Our dinner was dropped off and I started to eat, telling the story between mouthfuls of food.
"But the it didn't take that long before the truckers got together and decided the LAPD better do something about it. The brought Brian in, I guess from what I know now he was a hotshot cop and was pushing for detective. He was young and his superiors didn't know about promoting him. But he also knew a bit about cars and he was young enough to look the part. So they sent him undercover working for Harry at 'The Racer's Edge', the store where everyone in the street racing world shops. The cops thought it had to be street racers doing it because the Civics had Mashamoto ZX tires. Like no one but a street racer ever bought those." I rolled my eyes and shook my head at the stupidity of the cops.
"But anyway, turns out they were right. Brian knew that if anyone knew who was doing it in the street racing world it was Dominic, so he set out to get close to Dom and us. He started hanging out around Mia, then raced Dom. I think Brian knew it was us longer then he let on because he didn't want to believe it. He was in love with Mia and just liked everyone else too much to want to think we could be doing what we were. So he gave Dom his car keys after the last race they had were Dom wrecked his dad's charger and let Dom take off. Then Brian went on the run and somehow worked it out that the heat was off the rest of us."
"But then he pulled the Verone job with me and now it's all good." Rome was clearly trying to cheer me up.
"But it's not 'all good'. Before I left I had to hear Mia cry herself to sleep most nights both for bringing Brian around in the first place and for loosing him even though she knew she should hate him. I had to see how much Brian's betrayal had hurt Dom after Dom had believed Brian when Brian said he wasn't a cop. I had to see how upset Vince was while he tried to recover from all his wounds from the gunshot he suffered on the last job and where the cable he used to jump onto the truck nearly cut his arm off. I had to watch Jesse almost die then recover from 3 gunshot wounds from Johnny Tran. I had to see Leon almost have a mental breakdown over what happened to Jess. I had to try and be the strong one to hold it all together but the whole time there was no one to hold it together for me."
"I didn't mean to imply that things weren't hard." Rome broke in.
"I know. But now I'm here and I find Brian, quite by accident and find out things aren't fine here either. Brian's upset about everything, he misses Dom and Mia, he wonders about Vince and Jesse, he's not the kind of cop he always wanted to be because of helping us. And then you tell me that his father disowned him over what he did for us. Then I find out that I might meet his sister, who knows her brother isn't a cop because of something he did but not exactly what so the whole time I'm around her I'll have to walk on eggshells but she'll likely find out anyway and then she'll hate me and I won't be able to blame her."
"She won't hate you Letty." Rome finished his own meal and moved on to helping me eat mine.
"If someone was the reason your older brother lost a job he loved and was disowned from your family would you be in love with them?"
Rome made a face.
"If she finds out, and that's a big if, she might be mad at you at first. But it's not even like it was your idea. You said it was Dom's."
"Yeah, but no one made the rest of us follow him into it. We call coulda said no."
"But he likely would have done it anyway."
"Yeah, he's pretty stubborn."
"Just like someone else I know."
"Like who?" I asked, thinking he was hinting at me being stubborn."
"Brian. Even if you had told him to let you all go to jail if he thought he wanted to let you go he would have."
"I guess. And well..." Did I want to go there?"
"Well what girl?" I think he could tell it wouldn't be good from the look on my face.
"Well, Dom always says, and I'm sure he told Brian, that he'd die before he went back to jail. He did two years for assaulting the guy who caused his dads fatal crash. I know what Dom means when he says that and I figure Brian did too. If the cops came for Dom he'd either get away or make them kill him to take him down. Dom never would have gone calmly back to jail."
"Well, knowing that would make sure Brian didn't send him back to jail then. Brian likes Dom, he still does. Like I told you he wanted to get Dom to do the Verone thing with him but he was too scared."
"I guess. Well, I just hope it all works out in the end. I want to see Brian happy. Mia too."
"Well, don't sweat Fiona. She's really nice. She'd likely be so upset about you feeling the need to run halfway across the country that she'd forgive you for everything else right off the bat."
"I hope so."
We finished up and I paid the bill this time. I insisted. Rome let me but he wasn't happy about it. Then we got back in the car and headed home. I took it easy on Rome on the way home since he'd eaten so much and my driving can be a little hard to take. I only raced the one guy and that was only because I wasn't going to let him get away with revving his engine at me.
When we got back I used the transmitter for the garage door that Brian had given me to park my car inside where it was safe and then I headed out for the boat.
"You wanna come up to the house for awhile?" Rome asked. "They'll be watching some sort of movie if you wanna hang out for awhile."
"Naw, I gotta get an early nights sleep. I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow and it starts early."
"Ok girl, see you tomorrow."
"Yeah, good night."
I walked home and Brian wasn't around. He must have gone up to Tej's. I hope he wasn't saying anything about the project. I want to do it and I don't want Brian saying anything about it. I can handle it and if it turns out I can't then at least I'll have done my best.
I was asleep the second my head touched the pillow.
Chapter 20 – Crazier then the white boy
After I finished reading all there was to read my eyes were swimming and I had a bit of a headache. It had been a lot of information to process. I went back out into the garage and looked at Tej's car.
What had I gotten myself into?
Doubts about my ability to finish the project were resurfacing. It was going to be so much work. Did I have it in me? Would I be strong enough? Good enough? Fast enough?
I couldn't afford not to be.
Too much was riding on this car for me not to succeed.
With that in mind as well as all the technical stuff I'd learned about the job I popped the rear hatch and started to look over the parts I could identify and what they had to do for the engine to come out of its tight quarters.
I started removing this thing and unhooking that thing following the instructions I'd read on autopilot. Once something gets into my head I find it hard to stop. When I figure something out this excitement takes over because I know what I'm doing and I have to get started at whatever I just figured out right away. It might have something to do with not forgetting what I learned before I can use it. The engine in the Acura was no different.
Never mind it was hours since I'd eaten and it was already dark outside.
I was unhooking a cooling line and the pliers I was using to open the clamp slipped and cut my knuckles.
"Cocksucker!" I yelped as I sucked on the knuckle that was bleeding most. I was under the assumption I was still alone.
A male snicker answered my exclamation from the dark doorway of the garage.
"Is that any way to talk to a lady?"
Rome was still laughing as he walked into the circle of light in my bay from the otherwise dark garage.
"Come again? A lady?" I turned to face him, still sucking on my bleeding finger between speaking to him.
"Yeah, that fine lady you were bent over when you said that terrible thing to her."
"I actually swore at the pliers, not the car."
"That makes it all better then. What did you do to yourself?"
"I cut up my knuckles. I'm fine."
"Ok. Just let me see."
He took my hand from me and looked. I sighed. He was as bad as Dom. Every little cut I get some man has to fuss over it. And when they cut themselves they curse and swear and rant and roar like the world is ending. A woman cuts herself and unless she's going to lose a digit or bleed out she just sucks it up and gets over it. Rome finished his inspection.
"That's not so bad, but it'll hurt like hell tomorrow."
"I know, it's not the first time I ever busted up my knuckles and it won't be the last."
"It is always the fault of renegade tools?"
"Naw, sometimes it's punching some puto or skank in their smirking mouth." I laughed, remembering some of the better fights of my life.
Like the time I decked Lance Tran. Dropped him like a stone. Busted open my knuckles on his ugly mug too but it had been worth it. He'd been going to mess with my man. No one messed with my familia and got away with it. I wanted to see Dominic beat some sense into Johnny and I didn't need Lance coming to his idiot cousin's rescue.
Or the time I walked into my room to find Dom on top of some blonde bitch from races fucking her brains out. First I threw a right hook into Dom's shocked, gasping face as hard as I could and split open his lip. Then I switched to the left hand and decked the blonde Barbie in our bed as hard as I could too. It wasn't as hard as my right but it had been hard enough to break her nose.
Then I gathered up all her clothes and threw them out into the hall all the while yelling for her to 'get the fuck out of my bed and out of my room and if I ever see you around my man again you'll know real pain'. She ran into the bathroom to get dressed, crying like the whore she was the whole time. Vince had to drive her to the hospital and she got blood on the seat of Dom's car. Vince was smart enough not to take a bleeding idiot into his car. He said since Dom was the one who fucked up in the first place if anyone's car was going to get bloody it should be Dom's.
Then Dom had the audacity to tell me to calm down. After catching him fucking another girl in our bed he had the nerve to tell me to calm down. He told me I was over reacting and that my shouting wasn't helping. So I figured if my shouting wasn't helping perhaps he wanted another knuckle sandwich. I forgot about my sore right hand and nailed him in the nose. His head's so hard that his nose didn't break. Thankfully I know how to make a solid fist so I didn't break any bones in my hand either. It musta hurt though 'cause he sat down so hard one of the legs on the bed broke.
Or he had just been banging blondie so hard it was already weak. I thought that then too and it coloured my reply to Dom's request that I calm down.
'I will not calm down when I catch you screwing another girl in our room' I'd yelled at him.
'She didn't mean anything to me!' Dom had pleaded back.
'Then why'd you have to fuck her then?' I'd asked, cradling my injured hand against my chest defensively.
'I don't know.' He sighed, rubbing his bald head then daubing at the blood running down his chin from his busted lip. He never had an answer for that question.
'I don't know isn't good enough!' I yelled back. 'How am I supposed to feel when you'll fuck any skank who'll spread her legs? I hate you!' I'd yelled back. I watched Dom turn red and open his mouth to say something back and I took off out of the room before he could say anything I didn't want to hear.
I'd run to Mia, cried on her shoulder for hours as she held ice on my very bruised and swollen right hand, and hadn't spoken to Dom for a week. But then because we always did we made up. Rome spoke again and shook me out of my reminiscing.
"Remind me to get on your good side."
"You're already there; just make sure you don't do something to cross over."
Rome laughed at me.
"Brian sent me to find out if you were still working. He was worried about you still being at this. He's madder'n hell at Tej for doing this to you. I'm not sure if I like it either. You sure you wanna be doing this?"
"Yeah, it's not so bad. I got a good start at it tonight. At least I have a plan of attack on it all now. I'll start ordering some of the front end stuff tomorrow so it'll all be here when the car comes back from the body shop."
"Brian sent me up to ask you when you ate last and to tell you it's 9 and time you stopped for the night."
"Wow its 9?" I'd had no idea that it had gotten so late. I arched my back into a deep stretch to try and work some of the kinks that having been bent over for the last 2 hours had put in. As I stood back upright my stomach growled loudly.
"I guess the answer to when you ate last is a long time ago huh?" Rome asked, chuckling. "How do you stand it?"
"Stand what?" I asked, sort of embarrassed about my stomach noises.
"Going hungry. I can't go more'n an hour or two without eating."
"If I ate like that I'd be as big as a house."
"Not the way you work girl. No one that goes as hard as you could ever be as big as a house."
"Well, I know it's supper time now, that's for sure. I guess I'll head down to Brian's and make some grub."
"Or you could drive us to that little restaurant I showed you yesterday and we could eat there."
"I get to drive?"
"Yeah...Is that another first or somethin?"
"Naw. It just doesn't happen very often unless I'm going places alone."
"I've been waiting for a chance to get a ride in that pimped out car'a yours. This is as good a reason as any." Rome shrugged.
"Aiight, let's go." Something occurred to me then. "Aw hell, I'll have to go home to change my clothes first." I was covered in grease and oil. I'd also be willing to bet that I had brake dust on my face somewhere. I was always rubbing my nose or itching my forehead with dirty hands.
"You have a point." Rome answered. "Let's go, I'll walk with you."
"Ok."
We headed to the boat and walked in. I headed right to my room and Rome sat down at the table with Brian. I could still hear them talking while I changed.
"She was still working wasn't she?" Brian asked, chuckling.
"Yep. In her own world up to her elbows in the engine of the NSX. We're gonna go grab some grub and she's gonna show me what that car a hers can do."
"Have fun. You might want her to show you what the car can do before you eat."
"Why?"
"Because if you think I'm a crazy driver you should see Reina go."
I laughed out loud at that. I'd seen Brian go in the eclipse and the supra. I think it would be a close run who was really a more crazy driver. Who am I kidden? It'd be me. But maybe not by as much as Brian thinks. The guys heard me laughing and laughed back at me. I pulled on my tank top then ran into the bathroom. I cleaned all the black gunk off my face and headed back into the galley.
"I'm ready."
"Let's go then." Rome stood up.
"I don't know...You sure you're ready for this?" I asked him with a smirk.
"I'll be fine, let's go." Rome ushered me off the boat with a hand at the small of my back.
We headed up to my car and I disarmed the security system and unlocked the doors. I slid into the car and took a deep breath. It felt like forever since I'd slid into the subtle caress of the driver's seat of my car. Like always it was like coming home. It conformed to my shape like a glove. The wheel fit my hands like it had been made for my fingers alone. The shift knob filled my palm perfectly. The reverse Indiglo gages lit up my face with a soft bath of blue light. The peddles were perfectly spaced for my feet.
Feelings of familiarity washed over me. It was like being reacquainted with your best friend you hadn't seen in years. Rome had faded from my thoughts as I got reacquainted with my neglected lover. Raidon had been forgotten in the recent excitement but if I took him out to let him loose and showed Rome what we could really do together it would be along time before I would forget him again.
"You ok?" Rome asked me softly.
"Fine. Better then fine. Super." I rolled my shoulders. "You ready?"
"Let's go."
I pushed the clutch, flicked the key and the car turned over into an immediate roar that quickly steadied out into a soft, slightly louder then stock purr. I slid it into neutral, let off on the clutch and stepped on the brake then gave it a shot of gas quickly and listened as it revved up and dropped back to idle. The exhaust was loud and throaty at high RPM's, like the voice of a sexy man. My car called and I felt the answering response in my body, same as I always did and fought back a moan. The road called, like a siren, impossible to resist. The adrenaline was starting. Everything sounded perfect.
Because it was perfect.
I pushed the clutch down and slid the shift into first. The syncros engaged with a slight metallic chink. I double checked to be sure the road in front of the car was clear and, popping the clutch out as I gave the car a shot of gas I took off with a squeal from the Toyo's, a roar from the engine and a faint smell of burnt rubber and burning carbon from the exhaust.
Rome grabbed the door handle and looked as me as my car mildly fishtailed down Tej's street. I smiled softly. This was what I lived for after all. I caressed the steering wheel with my thumbs. The well conditioned vinyl on the wheel practically stroked back. I fought my need to talk to my car out loud and managed to internalize my feelings of 'missed you baby boy'.
Yep, I talk to my car. I talk to it like it was a lover. Because it was.
Anyone who's ever had a real adrenaline rush behind the wheel knows what I'm talking about.
First your stomach gets butterflies. That happens to me the second I know I'm going to get to drive fast or race someone.
Then your palms get a bit sweaty and your face flushes. This often happens as I'm waiting for a red light to go green so I can race the punk who's been revving his little Honda at me for the duration of the red light's appearance.
The light goes green and you take off. Then your breathing goes up, gets faster, deeper.
The butterflies become hot rushes of sensation from your solar plexus outward to other, more interesting areas. Things get tingly. Desire results.
Sometimes your nipples get hard, you get wet. But it's not really sex you want.
You're feeling desire for the win, desire for the speed, for the rush, for the danger.
For the adrenaline.
And while you're still high on adrenaline and turned on from the rush, that's when you can have some of the best sex of your life. I should know.
I put my mind back on track and saw my off ramp coming up. I wonder if Rome, in his front wheel drive waste of sheet metal has ever done true drifting. I bet not. I'll never tell him how I feel about his car to his face but having been raised by a stock car racer and schooled on the streets by his son I'll never be passionate about a car unless it's a 6 or better, plants the power with the rear wheels, and was never made to be the family grocery getter in any sense.
I decided to drift the ramp. It'll give him a thrill I bet. Hell, it'll give me one too.
I speed up subtly and start to cut the wheel to take the ramp. It's rated for 30 miles an hour. I'm going 70. It's not quite enough so I give my car a bit more throttle and the wheels start to break loose in the rear.
Rome looked over at me at that point like he was trying to figure out what I was up to. It was clear he'd never been in the car when someone pulled a stunt like I was about to.
With a bit more throttle and a bit more cut to the wheels the rear breaks loose and goes sideways down the off ramp just the way I want it to. I'm in total control of the slide but it feels out of control and it makes a horrible noise as the tires go sideways against their will and smoke as we fly down the ramp sideways.
When we hit the new street I straightened out the wheels and eased off the gas. The car when straight and I laughed with the sheer joy of it all. The freedom and the adrenaline, the excitement and exhilaration.
I did a few power slides and raced a few punks in traffic and then before I knew it we were back at the little restaurant Rome had taken me to only the day before.
"That was some crazy ass shit you did on the way here girl. Where'd you learn to drive like that?"
"Here an there. You have fun?"
"Once my testicles redescended it was ok."
I looked up at Rome. He looked serious. I chuckled.
"Does that mean I can't be wilder on the way home?"
"Save it for races." Rome looked sort of green when I really looked.
"You ok?"
"I'm fine."
"You don't look 'fine'."
"You drive crazier then the white boy."
I laughed.
"Well, he did warn you about that."
"Thought he was exaggerating." Rome mumbled.
"Come on, let's go eat." I stood up out of the car and slammed the door, walking around to meet Rome on his side, by the restaurant door.
"I'm not sure if I'm hungry anymore."
"Oh dear, this is serious." I tried to look genuinely concerned for Rome's poor stomach.
He finally laughed.
"Turns out I'm hungry, let's go in and eat."
"That's better." I pushed the door open and we walked in.
The same elderly lady was manning the front counter. When she saw Rome her eyes lit up. She welcomed him warmly and turned to me.
"Ah, the pretty Senorita from before." She said in her heavily accented voice and took my hand. "Él debe tener gusto de usted grandemente de traerle aquí otra vez." (He must like you greatly to bring you here again.)
"Somos amigos justos." (We're just friends) I assured her with a smile. She didn't look like she believed me but she lead us to a table.
We sat down and picked up the menus the older woman had left. I started to read. I was hungry enough to eat a horse and everything sounded good.
"What's that say?" Rome asked me, pointing out a line on the menu he didn't understand.
I explained it to him and he closed the menu. I guess his mind was made up on what he was having. I couldn't decide between two things that sounded really good. I decided to order both. It wasn't like Rome wouldn't help me eat it all if I got full.
The lady came back and I ordered all the food I wanted. Rome looked at me funny.
"You gonna eat all that?"
"You're not the only one with a big appetite." I leaned back in my chair, tossing one arm over the back of it.
"You think you're gonna finish all that?" Rome looked hopeful that the answer would be no.
"Maybe, maybe not. If I can't you'll be the first one to know."
"Deal."
"So, Rome. You grew up with Brian huh?"
"Well, we didn't do much growing up. But we've known each other since we were five. I grew up down the street from Brian's family."
I smiled about the fact that he 'hadn't done too much growing up'. Sounded like two guys I know. Namely V and Dom.
"You have any brothers or sisters?" I asked Rome, wanting to know more about him, about his history with Brian.
"One of each, both older. You?"
"I'm an only child. My parents didn't stop fighting long enough to have any more. What about Brian?"
"Brian has one younger sister. She's still in Barstow."
"So how old are you and Bri?"
"25, how old are you?"
"22. Does Brian ever talk to his sister?"
"Yeah. She comes down to visit him every once in a while. Well, she does now that she's 18. Brian's parents didn't take too well to what he did with you guys. His dad's a cop and what Brian did for Dom made his dad pretty mad. Something about cops being a brotherhood and how now Brian wasn't trustworthy, how he betrayed every other cop in the world by doing what he did. They don't talk anymore and his father forbid his sister from having anything to do with Brian. But she didn't listen very well as soon as she was old enough to go without permission."
"Wow." I didn't know what to say. Brian had always avoided talking to me about his family back when he was with us in L.A. Now I guess I know why. His dad was strict and a cop on top of it. So Brian had lost even more then I'd thought when he'd let us go. He lost us and he lost his job and he lost his family. It's even more clear to me that Brian needs to go back to L.A. He might not have much of a relationship with his father but he can have his relationship with the team back again. Then we can be his family. The team is my family after all.
"Yeah. Brian idolized his dad. It hit him pretty hard when his dad told him he didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore."
"Didn't it get better when Brian redeemed himself and you and he became cops again?"
"I don't know that Brian bothered to tell him about that. They hadn't been talking for a while before that."
"Poor Brian. Well, I guess at least his sister didn't let her dad poison her against him."
"Yeah Fiona makes up her own mind. She's a female version of Brian. Brilliant blue eyes, golden hair, golden skin, and fit. She's one cool girl."
"She sounds awesome."
"She is. If you stick around long enough you'll meet her. She visits Bri every 6 months or less and she's almost due to come again."
"She doesn't know why Brian's not a cop anymore does she?" I couldn't see Brian's sister being very impressed with one of the people who caused her brother to not be a cop anymore. Of course I didn't really know how much of the story Rome knew either but I guess he knows a lot more of it now if he didn't know before.
"No, but I only have half an idea about that too." Rome gave me a very deep look.
"Well, it all started about 9 months ago." I was going to tell Rome everything. I don't know why. I thought he could keep the secret and I needed to really talk about it. Plus, he knows it's all over and closed because of he and Brian doing that other job so I doubt he'll bring it up with anyone.
"We were short on money. We were always short on money. You've seen my car. It's pretty tricked out."
"You got that right."
"Well, my car is an example of how every car on our team is. They're all that tricked out. Dom's more then anyone's. Plus, Dom thinks that the stuff has to be upgraded all the time. And Mia's going through college to be a doctor and that isn't cheap."
"So your team had a lot of bills?"
"Yeah. But Dom owns his garage plus a café and he does good racing. I don't know where the people willing to try and race him come from because you'd think by now most people would have had their fill of the humiliation him beating them week after week deals but there's still someone who wants a shot every race night. But with all the stuff he wanted for all the cars plus the taxes on the two stores and the house, and Mia's school and food and bills we were hardly getting by."
"Fast cars are an expensive hobby." Rome added.
"No kidding. But Dom," I lowered my voice, "decided rather then trying to live within our means we'd do this job that someone offered him. The payoff was huge and Dom said it wouldn't even be hard. He bought three Honda Civics and we tricked them out. Painted them black and put green neon kits on them. We used the cars to hijack transfer trucks full of high priced electronics. Then Dom's contact would sell the goods on the black market. We did like 6 and nothing ever went wrong. Me'n Jesse were just there to keep the truck driver guessing and going the way we wanted him to. Leon listens to the scanners. He has all this equipment in his skyline for it and he outfitted his Civic with all the same stuff. He always has the police frequencies. Dom drove the lead car and Vince jumped onto the truck to get in and tranqu the driver. Then V would drive the truck to the drop point where we'd get our money and turn over the rig."
"Wow. Like a modern day western." Rome was listening raptly to the tale. Our dinner was dropped off and I started to eat, telling the story between mouthfuls of food.
"But the it didn't take that long before the truckers got together and decided the LAPD better do something about it. The brought Brian in, I guess from what I know now he was a hotshot cop and was pushing for detective. He was young and his superiors didn't know about promoting him. But he also knew a bit about cars and he was young enough to look the part. So they sent him undercover working for Harry at 'The Racer's Edge', the store where everyone in the street racing world shops. The cops thought it had to be street racers doing it because the Civics had Mashamoto ZX tires. Like no one but a street racer ever bought those." I rolled my eyes and shook my head at the stupidity of the cops.
"But anyway, turns out they were right. Brian knew that if anyone knew who was doing it in the street racing world it was Dominic, so he set out to get close to Dom and us. He started hanging out around Mia, then raced Dom. I think Brian knew it was us longer then he let on because he didn't want to believe it. He was in love with Mia and just liked everyone else too much to want to think we could be doing what we were. So he gave Dom his car keys after the last race they had were Dom wrecked his dad's charger and let Dom take off. Then Brian went on the run and somehow worked it out that the heat was off the rest of us."
"But then he pulled the Verone job with me and now it's all good." Rome was clearly trying to cheer me up.
"But it's not 'all good'. Before I left I had to hear Mia cry herself to sleep most nights both for bringing Brian around in the first place and for loosing him even though she knew she should hate him. I had to see how much Brian's betrayal had hurt Dom after Dom had believed Brian when Brian said he wasn't a cop. I had to see how upset Vince was while he tried to recover from all his wounds from the gunshot he suffered on the last job and where the cable he used to jump onto the truck nearly cut his arm off. I had to watch Jesse almost die then recover from 3 gunshot wounds from Johnny Tran. I had to see Leon almost have a mental breakdown over what happened to Jess. I had to try and be the strong one to hold it all together but the whole time there was no one to hold it together for me."
"I didn't mean to imply that things weren't hard." Rome broke in.
"I know. But now I'm here and I find Brian, quite by accident and find out things aren't fine here either. Brian's upset about everything, he misses Dom and Mia, he wonders about Vince and Jesse, he's not the kind of cop he always wanted to be because of helping us. And then you tell me that his father disowned him over what he did for us. Then I find out that I might meet his sister, who knows her brother isn't a cop because of something he did but not exactly what so the whole time I'm around her I'll have to walk on eggshells but she'll likely find out anyway and then she'll hate me and I won't be able to blame her."
"She won't hate you Letty." Rome finished his own meal and moved on to helping me eat mine.
"If someone was the reason your older brother lost a job he loved and was disowned from your family would you be in love with them?"
Rome made a face.
"If she finds out, and that's a big if, she might be mad at you at first. But it's not even like it was your idea. You said it was Dom's."
"Yeah, but no one made the rest of us follow him into it. We call coulda said no."
"But he likely would have done it anyway."
"Yeah, he's pretty stubborn."
"Just like someone else I know."
"Like who?" I asked, thinking he was hinting at me being stubborn."
"Brian. Even if you had told him to let you all go to jail if he thought he wanted to let you go he would have."
"I guess. And well..." Did I want to go there?"
"Well what girl?" I think he could tell it wouldn't be good from the look on my face.
"Well, Dom always says, and I'm sure he told Brian, that he'd die before he went back to jail. He did two years for assaulting the guy who caused his dads fatal crash. I know what Dom means when he says that and I figure Brian did too. If the cops came for Dom he'd either get away or make them kill him to take him down. Dom never would have gone calmly back to jail."
"Well, knowing that would make sure Brian didn't send him back to jail then. Brian likes Dom, he still does. Like I told you he wanted to get Dom to do the Verone thing with him but he was too scared."
"I guess. Well, I just hope it all works out in the end. I want to see Brian happy. Mia too."
"Well, don't sweat Fiona. She's really nice. She'd likely be so upset about you feeling the need to run halfway across the country that she'd forgive you for everything else right off the bat."
"I hope so."
We finished up and I paid the bill this time. I insisted. Rome let me but he wasn't happy about it. Then we got back in the car and headed home. I took it easy on Rome on the way home since he'd eaten so much and my driving can be a little hard to take. I only raced the one guy and that was only because I wasn't going to let him get away with revving his engine at me.
When we got back I used the transmitter for the garage door that Brian had given me to park my car inside where it was safe and then I headed out for the boat.
"You wanna come up to the house for awhile?" Rome asked. "They'll be watching some sort of movie if you wanna hang out for awhile."
"Naw, I gotta get an early nights sleep. I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow and it starts early."
"Ok girl, see you tomorrow."
"Yeah, good night."
I walked home and Brian wasn't around. He must have gone up to Tej's. I hope he wasn't saying anything about the project. I want to do it and I don't want Brian saying anything about it. I can handle it and if it turns out I can't then at least I'll have done my best.
I was asleep the second my head touched the pillow.