"You ready?" Dom asked, poking his head into the bathroom.
"Yeah," I nodded, flipping him the bird when he started laughing. "What?"
"Nothing," he said, shrugging, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. "I just…. dunno, I like seeing you like this, all pumped up and shit."
I was finally going to get to race again, and my guts had been tumbling inside of me all damned day. It wasn't like I was nervous about the competition – yeah, I knew people still talked shit about me being just another one of Dom's racer chasers, but shit, I knew I was more than that, we were more than that, and everybody on the team knew it too. I was ready to go already, ready for the adrenaline bouncing around inside me to be put to use.
It didn't let up at all as I headed down the stairs, followed Dom out the front door and slid into my car. My fingers drummed against the steering wheel as I waited for everybody to pull out into the street, keeping time to the music blasting through my speakers. And then we were at the meet-up spot, somehow – I'd been so focused I barely even noticed the drive going by.
We pulled up in our usual formation, and I swear, I had to roll my eyes when Dom got out of his car in front of me. Every goddamned time, the skanks had to swarm him like he was a slab of fresh meat. Of course, they all backed off pretty quick when I walked up behind him, and the feel of his arm settling over my shoulders calmed me down pretty quick. But shit, we'd just barely gotten through the last round of bullshit, it seemed like, and here they all were, trying to stir up more. Fucking exhausting, if you let it get to you. Luckily, I was getting better and better at just ignoring the bitches.
And for a change, tonight it wasn't just Dom people were staring at. I could feel all the eyes on me, too, everybody wondering if I could really hold it down on the streets or if I was finally going to fall on my face. Shit, no matter how many times I crossed the line first it seemed like it was always like that, everybody thinking I was just arm candy for Dom. I couldn't wait to see the looks on all those motherfuckers' faces when I smoked them.
Shit, if I had a buck for every time some jackass thought I couldn't measure up just because I'm a girl…. Well, Mia wouldn't have to worry about money for college, that's for damned sure. It was bad enough when it was just Dom and Vince giving me shit every time I turned around, telling me I was too little to work on cars and that chicks weren't supposed to be into that shit anyway. Lucky for me, Tony was always right there willing to teach me what I wanted to know.
My brain was going so fast, working through all the possible scenarios, everything that could happen during that quarter mile, I could barely focus on the negotiations, kept losing track of the numbers Hector was throwing around. And then we were headed back to ours cars, ready to get down to business. I jumped a little, feeling somebody grab onto my belt, pull me back towards them, and the adrenaline in me jumped even higher. Swear, Dom was lucky I didn't deck him for that.
He didn't even leave me time to bitch at him for sneaking up on me, just wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in closer before kissing me quick and hard. It was exactly what I needed, got me to that place where everything goes quiet inside and there's just me and the car and the feeling that I could do anything, absolutely anything I wanted.