AN: You're right! Someone's gotta shake things up between them. But my girl's just a little more proactive than you think. ;) As for just how like her I am, a lady never tells. ;P Enjoy the chapter, all my wonderful readers. Must go, catching up on all the Grey's Anatomy I missed before I knew I liked this show. I have a lot of hating Addison to do and a lot of staring at Dr. McDreamy to do. Ta ta.
The Funeral of a Good Girl
By – TempestRaces
Chapter Eleven – Of Tall Blondes and Rubbing it in
Vince walked into the house at a more sedate pace.
"You get her car done?" Letty questioned.
"Could'a but didn't. I worked out another little surprise for her with the boys. We're takin' my car together tonight. Hers'll be ready for Saturday's races."
"What else are you doin' to hers?"
"You'll see when everyone else sees Lett. Just chill."
"Go get ready Vince. We're gonna be late," Dom said from his position under Letty in their favourite chair.
"Ok, I won't be long. Don't get your panties in a twist."
Dom growled as Letty and Mia laughed at the joke.
Vince headed upstairs and used the upstairs bathroom to shower in. When he arrived down in his room to get changed, it was to find Tempest already showered, dressed, and with her hair done. Of course, all she'd done with it was brush it out after she'd washed it and left it down to curl as it dried. She was fastening the back on one earring when he walked in. He was mildly ticked to see she hadn't been blowing smoke up his ass when she told him she was capable of getting ready as fast as he was. She'd actually managed to get ready faster. He consoled himself with the knowledge that he'd had to walk up the stairs and then down two more flights. "Mia's gonna be pissed to know you had clothes like that but let her think wifebeaters were as dressy as you got," he said. She was wearing tube top with separate sleeves in electric blue and a pair of black pants just like the pair she'd worn to party with Jesse, but with electric blue piping, not pink. Her top was cropped about three inches above her navel and her pants about four inches below it. She had on a pair of flip flops, but fancier than her normal pair. They had a four inch thick sole and little diamante butterflies on the strap. There was now electric blue polish on her toes and fingernails.
"I really don't hold with getting this dressed up to go to a dirty alleyway and watch cars race. But as they say, when in Rome."
"You look," he moved right up behind her, "and smell, good enough to eat."
"Maybe later," she said, absentmindedly. "You know I'm ready and you're not. That means I win again. Put some clothes on. We gotta go."
"I didn't know you were in such a rush."
"You're in a rush, remember?"
"Dom's the one who's really in a rush," he answered, walking over to his dresser and pulling out a clean pair of jeans and sliding into them before retrieving his belt off his previous pair and sliding it into the loops of his current pair. He then pulled a black tee shirt out of another drawer and tugged it on.
Seeing him dressed in the black shirt, which fit him like a second skin, and dark jeans caused a hitch in her breathing she did her best to hide from him. "Come here a sec," she said, nodding her head to motion him her way. He walked up to her and paused right in front of her, close enough that she could feel his body heat.
"Wha?"
"You didn't even bother stoppin' to do your damn hair. Here, lemme just," she trailed off with her lower lip caught between her teeth as she reached up and started to arrange the wet, spiky hair on his head.
He watched her play with his hair to her satisfaction for a minute. "T?"
"Um?" she answered, still distracted by the beautiful disarray she was creating on his head.
"I'll do," he chuckled, before leaning down and using his teeth to gently tug her lower lip free of her own. Once he had it released from her bite he sucked on it before kissing her, sliding his hands across her bare stomach to settle in the equally bare small of her back. He kissed her for a minute or two before standing up away from her. "Let's go before the rest of the team panics, ok?"
"Ok," she murmured, before licking her lips and looking up at him from under her eyelashes.
"If you keep looking at me like that we won't be going anywhere. Remember what I said about more than twelve hours and you being around me in those little outfits you wear?"
"Ok, ok, let's go already." She led the way out the door and up the stairs. Jesse and Leon were no where to be seen. "Where's J and Leon?" Tempest asked the group in general.
"Still getting ready," Mia answered. Her eyes narrowed. "Where'd you find that outfit?"
"Um," she hedged, not wanting to answer. "It was in my bag," she admitted with a chagrined smile.
"Where was it on Saturday night then?"
"Right in my bag where I left it. Listen, I don't really believe in getting this dolled up to go watch cars race. It wasn't how I learned to race. When I race I just drive all over my city and wait to be challenged. There is no standing around beside my car for hours at a time. I don't need to be dressed up like racer chaser Barbie to go racing at home."
"So you really do race, not just watch?" Mia asked.
"There's not a lot of fun to be had tuning a car to watch other people race."
Before Mia could answer Jesse and Leon came up the stairs. "We're ready. Let's roll!" Jesse called.
"You put my car someplace safe for the night?"
"Yeah, Ray is fine."
"Ray?" Dom asked.
"Her car's name is Raiden, or Ray for short," Jesse filled in.
"Jesse." She drew his name out to illustrate her frustration that he had told everyone she had named her car, and considered it a male.
"Dom's has a name," Letty said. "But it's a girl's name."
"Well, Dom's a guy so he has a girl car. I'm a girl so I have a guy car. It's all relative."
"Let's go already," Dom said as he stood up. "We're gonna get there half an hour late as it is." He didn't like to find out anything he had in common with 'Trouble', a name he was inclined to agree sure did suit her very well.
They left the house and got into their cars. Dom, Letty, Leon and Jesse took their own. Mia rode with Letty and Tempest slid into the Maxima. They darted in and out of traffic and around each other playfully as they raced toward the downtown area their warehouse meeting place was stationed in. Leon and Vince zipping around each other and cutting each other off in a way that let Tempest know it was something they did a lot of. When she considered how often they wrestled and playfully fought with each other too, it wasn't hard to see they really were best friends. When they reached the open area leading up to the mouth of the alley they fell into position, entering the alley in their 'flying V' pattern.
They parked the car just behind Letty's Silvia, Jesse off to their right and Leon just in front of Jesse. The skanks descended immediately on the guys. Jesse and Leon lapped it up. Letty got pissed off and decked one of the barely clothed girls hanging on Dominic. Dom snapped at her for it, and it didn't go over well with her, which led to Letty stalking off to talk to some girls she knew. Mia followed her and joined the conversation. Soon, both dark girls were laughing at something one of Edwin's girls had said.
Tempest slid out of the Maxima and surveyed the scene through slightly jaded eyes. She was surprised how little time it had taken for her to become cynical of the scene. She found herself judging the girls who were busy flaunting the physical assets they had. She found herself thinking they should show some self respect and start looking for a guy who wanted them for their brain, not their giant boobs. Then she took a step back and looked at her own situation. She was letting a guy use her for exactly what he could be getting from them. Only difference was, as long as she was around he didn't have to pick up a different one every race night. So in short, she figured she had no call to judge any of the girls hanging out of their clothes around her. Well, except that she would never have stooped so low as to try and pick up someone like Dominic, someone who was taken, and the fact he was attached well known at that.
As she watched, three girls, one red head, one dark blonde with fire engine red highlights, and one platinum blonde walked up to Vince and started talking to him. He smiled down at them as he allowed himself to be sucked into the conversation. She sighed with a roll of her eyes. So much for hanging on his arm. If he thought she was going to pull a Letty and snarl at them for doing what they'd only been taught and encouraged to do by guys like him, he could think again. She wasn't going to be down for any cat fights over some oversexed alley tom. If he wanted to have his cake and eat it too, he could take one of those girls home with him for the night, because she would not watch him touch them right in front of her and let him take her to bed afterwards.
Her cynical green gaze scanned the area. It found the best looking sight her sore eyes could have landed on. A very tricked out, metallic purple second generation RX-7 with platinum flames licking up the hood and down the doors from the front fenders. It wasn't the most original design in the world, but it was very well executed. "Slick," she drawled under her breath. Her Skyline might be one ace of a car, but her RX-7 was her first love and she fully intended to rebuild the engine and put it back on the road too. But for now, the one she was looking at across the way was one fine piece of machinery. She started toward it, eyes only for the shimmering paint and blacked out windows. She walked up to the guy leaning negligently on the driver's door.
"Hey Slick, what you runnin' under there?" she asked, a hand on her hip, one corner of her mouth lifted in half a smile and her opposite eyebrow raised in question. The look on her face threw a bit of double entendre onto the question, and while she knew it wasn't the best idea to flirt with new men when the one who still considered her his for another week was only a few hundred feet away, she was going to anyway. Vince only had it coming.
The owner of the car, who happened to be a very cute, blonde man of about twenty-five stood up off his car. "Who wants to know?"
"A fellow seven devotee. Mine's a ninety, blaze red mica on black, fog lights that actually work and power mirrors, LSD and J-Spec 13-bt."
"I'd tell you what I'm runnin' but you'd never believe me," his slightly sly grin put a spin of his own on his words. "I better show you." He leaned in his car and popped the hood, opening it onto the prop rod.
"Cosmo 20B-REW," she hissed. "Three rotor, twin turbo. No shit." She looked up at the man. "Not a bad way to spend ten thousand dollars. You ever run this bad boy against Dominic?"
"Toretto?"
"Yeah."
"No. I haven't been around here long enough. Just moved to California from Jersey two months ago. You're not from around here either, are you?"
"Nope. Prince Edward Island, Canada. I'm visitin' my cousin Jesse."
"As in Jesse Adams, Dominic Toretto's infamous 'Mad Scientist'?"
"That's my boy. You've really done your homework. Yeah, Jesse just finished building the engine of my Skyline with me tonight, but we didn't get all the support mods for the new turbos done so I couldn't take it down tonight." She improvised slightly so she wouldn't have to admit she decided to be someone's date instead of driving her own tricked out Skyline—of all the things to chose some man over, really!—and ended up being passed over for a trio of air-headed sluts by the very man she'd left her Skyline at home over. Boy, are you one stupid bitch!
"Skyline? You have a Skyline and Jesse Adams just built your engine?"
His shock went a long way toward soothing her hurts. Someone thought she was cool. Even if he was a stranger she'd just met over a car in an alleyway. He was cute. Surely that counted for something! "Yeah. I mean, he's my cousin. Of course he's gonna build my car. I'm a tech by trade myself but, I mean, he's Jesse," she finished with a grin, like her cousin's name explained everything.
The owner of the RX-7 laughed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. He's something of a legend around here. Shit, I'm sorry. I mean, my mama raised me to have manners. I'm Craig Everett." He stuck out his hand.
She took it. "Tempest James."
"Tempest?"
"Yeah, it's my real name, and I don't hate it as much as I should, given the teasing I took as a kid. You'll get it when you see the Skyline. Well, if you're gonna be around Saturday night."
"I'm gonna be around until I get to run Dominic. And that isn't going to happen any time soon." He looked around. "So, if your car isn't ready, what are you drivin' tonight?"
"I'm not." She didn't offer any more detail, and chose instead to be grateful he hadn't seen her immerge from Vince's car. Instead of elaborating on how she had arrived, she leaned into the still open engine compartment. "That's one hell of a beautiful thing," she said, looking at the perfectly installed and totally detailed engine.
"Yes it is," Craig answered, looking not at his engine but at the top of a head of curly, black cherry hair.
She missed out on the subtleties of his answer. "Those Garrett turbos?"
"Yeah. For a big turbo, the Garrett GT-40R spools quick, cuts down on the lag."
"I just have a HKS on the seven."
"Why do you have a Skyline and a seven? You collect beautiful rides or something? Still trying to find a car to own that can even come close to as pretty as you?"
"No," she answered, fighting a nervous giggle at his smooth words. She knew she wasn't ugly. She had had boyfriends and male interest in her before. But since coming to California she'd had more smooth operators come on to her than in the whole rest of her life. She detected that his flip compliment had an overtone of a serious interest in her real answer, however, so she continued. "The Skyline was a life's dream I rewarded myself with when I graduated from my auto tech program at college. The seven was a labour of blood, sweat and tears for a lotta years. I'm too attached to just let it go now that I got the Skyline. I'll likely keep on racing the seven while I show the Skyline. Can't take too many risks with a sponsored show car."
"Where's the seven now?"
She grinned up at him. "Where else? Home with a blown apex seal in the rear rotor."
He winced. "Ouch. What else, huh? How'd it happen?"
"Racing a punk in a Civic down the main drag." She looked chagrined. "Figures huh? Shoulda been able to school his ass eight ways to Sunday, but I blew up my engine and he won. I knew when the boost crept up over twenty five P that somethin' was wrong and I shoulda gave up. I mean, I don't have the fuel support for that kinda boost and I know it. Not to mention the water temperature was creeping up there too, but I kinda live my life by the motto 'go big or go the fuck home'," she grinned. "You know, push it 'til I roll it and somebody gotta tow it."
"Girl, I like how you think."
"Thanks. I'd have to go out on a limb and say the same about you." She turned back to his car. "That paint is tight. I love the big flake in the candy purple. It's simple, but flashy. Still catches the eye without being in your face."
"What's the Skyline got for paint?"
"I'ma let you find out in person on Saturday. I can't do it justice with words. You gotta see it. It's flashy, but it ain't simple." She grinned.
"You rollin' with Toretto?"
"Against his will, yeah. He don't really like me. I got a bit of a problem with authority and he's gotten used to being the boss."
"Yeah, he really has." Craig smiled down at her.
He has to be six five, she mused as she looked up to meet his gaze. He broke eye contact first and looked around the area.
"Your cousin shouldn't have let you wander off around here on your own. There's a lot of guys around this scene that don't know no means no."
"I can take care'a me. Don't worry. So, what possessed you to up and move from Jersey to California?"
Vince remembered Tempest with a guilty start. Candi and Monique were so much a part of his racing experience he'd just fallen into the insipid conversation they started with him to introduce their new friend Danielle. It was a different version of the exact same conversation he had with them every night and in the monotony of pretending to care what they were saying and actually looking down their shirts instead of listening, he forgot all about the fact that Tempest had arrived with him. He wondered why she hadn't kicked some 'bimbo'—as she called them—ass, as he looked over at the passenger side of his car. She wasn't there. A look of puzzlement came over his face as he thought about that. Figuring she was with Jesse, he scanned the area until his eyes came to rest on his young friend. Jesse was talking to two girls just like the three still hanging off him. Leon was also alone with two skanks. Dom was in the middle of a group of his male groupies and Mia and Letty were talking to Edwin's girls. So where the fuck was Tempest?
He started to scan the crowd further way than their immediate circle. He finally found her on the other side of the alley way, talking to a very tall, very blonde man in a black throwback with red barbed wire embroidered around the chest, black Hilfiger slacks, and Wolverine deck shoes. They were standing in front of the open engine bay of a purple RX-7. The blonde man was smiling down at something Tempest was saying, talking with her hands like she always did, and with this totally animated look on her face. The tall man she was speaking to waited for her to finish talking before he nodded his understanding or agreement to whatever she'd said. He then pointed to something under his hood. She bent over to look and he bent over with her, a hand on the small of her back as he pointed out something deeper under the hood.
Vince stood up from the hood of his car with a growl and shook off the two girls leaning on him. He started to stalk in the direction of the man with his hands on his date. Not that you treated her like she was so far, a voice nagged. Shut up! he told himself.
"So, did you make the motor mounts yourself, or did you buy 'em someplace already fabricated?"
"Bought them already made up. I don't have a great flair for metal work."
"Me either. I weld just weld enough to get myself into trouble."
"Now welding I'm good at. Thankfully, because I broke the frame."
"How'd you break the frame putting an engine in? It's not that much bigger than the 13-bt."
Craig flushed. "I didn't break it during the swap. I broke it going over a hundred miles an hour over a hill, flying off the other side and landing harder than I anticipated. I didn't really calculate how much the suspension drop would affect the stiffness."
Tempest laughed. Vince watched as she laughed so hard that tears started to slip down her cheeks and she put a hand on the forearm of the blonde she was talking to. It was clear she was engaged in the conversation. The tall man she was with was talking with her, not at her and it was obvious she liked it. "That's awful."
"It was fun while I was flying, in any event." He grinned down at her. "After all, go big or go home, right?"
"Yeah, but my seven also has a graphic in the back window that says 'bad ass toys ain't just for boys' across the top, one that says 'if you're reading this, you just got your ass beat—by a girl' across the bottom, one on the right side window that says 'I'm not speeding, I'm qualifying' and one on the left side window that says 'I'm not driving fast, I'm flying low.'"
"You really like to rub it in, huh?"
"I'm that damn good."
"I can believe it. I mean, I've heard of chicks working in garages before, but never met one who really talks the talk before. You really know your shi, um, stuff."
She nodded to agree before she dried her cheeks off. "Well, I should go find my cousin before Dom decides to race and I lose Jess in the shuffle. You watch for my baby next week."
"If you won't tell me what it looks like how will I know it?"
"Um, it'll be one of only two Skylines to pick from, unless there's more than Leon's around right now. Besides, you just remember my name, and you'll know it," she said, before winking saucily up at him. He was cute, he seemed nice, had excellent taste in cars and was one of the first people other than her cousin and Leon who'd talked to her, not at her or tried to talk over her head.
"I'm not likely to forget, Miss Tempest James of Prince Edward Island, Canada."
He seemed really serious about remembering her. That small detail made her disproportionably happy. "You're good." She wagged a finger at him playfully. "I'll see you around." She started to turn to walk back toward the last place she'd seen Jesse
"Yeah, see ya around."
"Where the fuck have you been?" Vince cut in with a growl, grabbing her arm and dragging her a few steps away from where she had been standing. He was ready to see her stop flirting with the tall blonde.
"Talkin'. Now get your hands off me," she growled back. She twisted out of his grip and shoved him back a step with two firmly placed hands to his pecs.
"You shoulda known better than to just wander off, after what happened back on Saturday."
"What happened on Saturday was I was takin' care of myself when you decided to play the big man and interfere. I can take care of myself."
"By walking off on your own and talking to strangers?" he asked, his tone incredulous.
"Yeah, it's crazy how strangers can carry a conversation with me that challenges me on an intellectual level. Funny how strangers aren't here with a girl but letting a bunch of other chicks hang off them like a fuckin' alley cat."
"You came with me! Then I catch you hangin' all over some other punk."
"I rode here in your car. If I came here with you I wouldn't have had to watch you with three sluts hangin off you and you lapping it up with a smile. And you couldn't catch me doin' shit all because I wasn't hidin' anything from you, just like you didn't even bother to attempt to hide what you did from me. So fuck you!"
"Is everything ok?" Craig asked, moving to stand behind Tempest with a concerned frown on his face. He didn't know whether it could possibly be a good thing that the girl he'd been flirting with was clearly connected in some way to Dominic Toretto's hot headed best friend. He wanted his shot at Dom. The last thing he wanted to do was anything that could mess that up. But he really didn't approve of the rough way Vince was treating the slim, pale girl with the long, cherry tinged head of curly black hair. She was distinctly female, and watching her come up in a physical battle against someone like Vince seemed distinctly unfair.
"Butt out," Vince growled.
"Everything's fine," Tempest said, turning to her new friend. "Nothing a little walk won't fix. You care to offer me an escort, since apparently I'm not smart enough to be trusted to walk around on my own without a big strong man to watch out for me?"
At her sarcastic comments and obviously upset demeanour, Craig's frown deepened. "You sure everything's ok?"
"Nothing's wrong that getting out of this area for a few minutes won't fix."
"If you're sure? Perhaps I could walk you over to your cousin? I see him right over there." There was a fission of fear in her eyes. It was only a glimmer, but the fact it was there sealed his course. He wouldn't butt out for the sake of his chance at Dominic. Not if it meant leaving the girl to deal with over six feet and two hundred pounds of irate muscle in the form of Vince. Craig was taller, but he'd have to bet that Vince outweighed him, and knew what to do with his weight to make the most of it.
"I'll walk her where ever the fuck she needs to go," Vince growled. "You can go back to your ride."
"You don't own me Vince. You don't have the right to tell people I've asked to stick around me to fuck off. You seemed ok with your choices of red head, blonde, or all of the above, so why don't you just pick up where you left off. I mean, they're still hangin' around the Nissan."
He watched as her chin came up and her eyes took on that hard, stubborn cast that reminded him so much of Dominic. "We are gonna talk about this Trouble. Either now or later. Your choice." He leaned in close to her. "But if you insist on dragging your new friend into the situation you're only going to make life hard for him when I put him out of the picture."
She gasped at his implication. Then she got angry. She'd only been ticked off at the lack of attention she'd been receiving before. Now she was irate and fed up with his archaic attitude. She leaned even closer to Vince, ensuring Craig wouldn't hear. "You ever say anything like that to me to try and control my actions or thoughts again, I'll find a gun and take care'a you," she accented her 'you' with a poke of her finger into Vince's chest, "before you become any bigger of a pain in my ass. You know how good I am. You'd never even see it comin'. Don't worry about me because I'm smart enough to rent the backhoe first, I wouldn't even have to worry about shovelling the six foot hole."
At her threat Vince saw red. He went to grab her by the upper arm again. Craig stepped between the dark haired woman and the large man she was fighting with. "I know whatever's goin' on here is none of my business, so don't get me wrong. But if you go to touch her against her will again it's going to get really ugly, really quick." The gentlemanly veneer fell away from Craig a small amount, and the steel needed to survive in a new place as mean as the City of Angles showed.