Miami, Florida
July 13, 2003

Tia was half asleep, still slumped uncomfortably in the folding chair she'd woken up in, when she heard voices from the top of the stairs. "How's it going?" an unfamiliar man's voice questioned, tone not quite low enough to prevent his voice from carrying.

"Not bad," came the response.

"Have you talked to her yet?"

"Yeah. I gave her the cleaned up version of what's going to happen, told her she's going to walk away from this, so I think she'll cooperate," Mike said and Tia forced herself to remain calm, keeping her breathing deep and even as a prickle of unease raced up her spine. Something fishy was going on here, and Tia was getting the impression that Mike had been lying when he'd told her that she'd walk away from this.

"Good. Just don't get attached to the girl this time, okay?"

"I've got it all under control. I promise," was Mike's reply. "You've got nothing to worry about."

"That's what I like to hear." There was the sound of a hand clapping against someone's shoulder and then footsteps walking away. Tia thought she heard a door close but she kept herself still, unsure whether both of the men had left. It was lucky that she did because a full minute later she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She continued to keep her breathing as deep and even as possible, body relaxed and eyes closed. She'd grown up in a family with two younger brothers and a hyperactive beagle, so Tia had the art of pretending to be asleep down to a science.

The footsteps paused next to her and she heard Mike sigh. "It's really too bad," he said. "You're awfully pretty." Part of Tia wished that he would have specified what was really too bad. The rest of her was screaming that she didn't want to know.

A hand shook her gently and Tia snapped her eyes open with a startled sounding gasp. "Hey," Mike said, holding his hands up as if to signal that he was harmless. "It's okay. It's just me."

"What's going on?" Tia asked, trying to slur her voice and sound disoriented.

"We're going to move you to the safe house," Mike explained patiently. "I told you that we were going to do that this morning, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Tia said, giving him a weak smile. "Sorry."

"No problem," Mike replied, stepping behind her so that he could untie her hands. "I know it can be a little disorienting if you wake up somewhere you aren't expecting to be." The rope slithered off her hands and Tia let out a sigh of relief, letting her arms fall on her lap and rubbing her wrists as Mike got to work on the ropes around her ankles. "Are you okay?" he questioned when he glanced up and noticed what she was doing. "I didn't tie them too tight, did I?"

"I'm fine," Tia replied, feeling a bit like she was reassuring an anxious little brother. "My arms are just a little stiff from being in one place most the day." She had been able to move a couple times, Mike taking her to and from the small, windowless bathroom that was located somewhere behind her, but the human body wasn't meant to be still for that long. He nodded, still looking a little worried and untied her other ankle before standing and offering her a hand. Tia took it and he pulled her to her feet, steadying when she wobbled a bit. Her legs had fallen asleep from sitting still for so long. "Thanks," she told him, smile a little more genuine this time. Maybe she was making too much of the situation. Mike seemed like the kind of guy whose emotions were written on his face, and Tia hadn't seen any sign that he was lying to her.

Several sets of heavy sounding footsteps approached and Tia turned, taking in the sight of two men with automatic weapons, ski masks hiding their facial features. She tensed and Mike said, "It's okay. These guys are just a precaution. There's nothing to worry about."

"O-Okay," Tia said, voice wavering. Then she flinched back as one of them produced a red handkerchief.

"Just standard procedure," Mike said, stepping forward to take it from the figure. "We have to blindfold you so you won't be a risk to us later, okay?" Tia swallowed hard and nodded. He smiled gently at her and stepped forward, tying the handkerchief over her eyes. "Can you see anything?"

"N-No," Tia replied, breathing picking up nervously. Her breath hitched and she flinched as a large hand grabbed her arm.

"It's okay," Mike soothed, tone relaxed. "He's just guiding you so that you don't trip."

Tia was led forward slowly. After a few steps, a rough voice near her ear said, "We've reached the stairs."

"There's twelve of them," Mike added from somewhere behind her. "Just take them nice and slowly. We don't want you to fall." Tia nodded and then cautiously moved forward, heart pounding as she was guided carefully up the stairs. She stumbled on the last one, wobbling a bit on the last step before the hand on her arm steadied her. "Nicely done," Mike said, voice bright. "Now just a few more steps and then you can sit for a bit while we drive to our new location, okay?"

"Yeah," Tia agreed breathlessly.

"Just one step up to get inside, Ma'am," a new voice said respectfully, a gloved hand at her arm guiding her into the car. Tia settled carefully on a seat and allowed the man to buckle her in, keeping her hands folded on her lap as the door slammed. There was the sound of several other doors opening and closing and the vehicle shifted around a bit as people got inside. Then the engine started and the vehicle gaze a lurch before moving smoothly away from whatever building she'd spent the day in. Tia tried to relax back into the seat, knowing there was nothing she could do to escape without getting herself killed. For the time being, she might as well sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

"There had better be something wrong here Bilkins, because we're taking information from a traitor about this."

Tej's Garage, Miami, Florida
July 16, 2003

His Skyline was back in racing condition. That brought a grin to Brian's face as he stroked a gentle hand over the paint job. After getting busted by the police, Brian had thought he would never see his precious car again. He owed Bilkins big time for bringing the Skyline back to him, and he was likely to owe the man more for looking into what was going on at Dark Magic. He only hoped that his suspicion hadn't been drink fueled paranoia instead of something that actually deserved, at the very least, the attention of the local police department.

"I heard that you're back in racing shape," Suki's voice called as she stepped out of Tej's office. She'd gone in close to an hour ago, during her boyfriend's lunch break, and Brian didn't want to think about what they had been doing in there.

"Ready to leave you in the dust," Brian replied with a smirk that had the woman rolling her eyes and flipping her dyed, dark blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Just you wait, Brian O'Conner. I'll be so far ahead of you that your head'll spin."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Brian teased, dancing away from Suki's playful smack with a laugh. Part of him was still worried about the tip he'd given Bilkins but the playful banter with Suki had relaxed muscles he hadn't even realized were tensed.

"I'll make a believer out of you, Bullitt," Suki challenged.

"I'm sure you will," Brian said, grin never leaving his face as he leaned over fearlessly to kiss her cheek.

"Hey, do I have to do all the work around here?" Rome called indignantly as he rolled out from underneath some kind of battered looking, muddy Toyota.

"Just think of it as making up for all the work you didn't do this morning," Brian retorted with a grin. Rome had come into work two hours later, wearing the same clothing he'd been wearing the night before. He'd claimed that he hadn't paid attention on the way to his one night stand's apartment and hadn't gotten lost on the way to the garage, but Brian wasn't sure he believed that. He thought that Rome had passed out at her place before he'd bothered to set an alarm to wake him up in time for work. Brian could use that the next time he did something stupid, because if he teased his friend about it today, Rome had a whole arsenal he could fall back on in response.

"Not cool, man. Not cool," Rome called back and Brian turned his grin towards Suki.

"Sorry Suki," he apologized with exaggerated sorrow in his tone. "I'd love to chat but I gotta get back to work before poor, abused Rome over there falls over from heat exhaustion." Suki laughed and Rome called his friend something uncomplimentary under his breath, shaking his head.

"See you later then," Suki said, rising up on her toes to kiss Brian's cheek before she sauntered off.

Brian returned to place the finishing touches on his baby while Rome finished up with the Toyota. Tej came out to join them after Suki pulled away, shirt unbuttoned further than it had been when he'd come into work that morning. Rome and Brian exchanged knowing grins but didn't say anything to their boss about it. Tej could take some good natured heckling, and give back as good as he got, but the garage was too busy today for any goofing off. They had half a dozen cars scheduled for oil changes and basic maintenance this afternoon because of a miscommunication between Jimmy and Brian, something that happened every once in a while. Jimmy had thought Brian had meant a different day when he'd done the scheduling and Brian had thought the same thing about Jimmy's scheduling. Tej had laughed off the mistake but it had left them with a lot of extra work to do on Jimmy's day off.

They finished up an hour after the sun had set. The last customer drove off with his car and they started cleaning up the mess they'd made of Tej's garage, the music turned up to a level that would have annoyed the neighbors, had they not grown used to the sheer volume of Tej's clean up music years ago. The cleaning was finished in half and hour and Tej killed the music, along with all but the security lights, as Suki pulled up. "You're gonna set Bri and me up with a race tonight, right baby?" Suki called, stepping out of her newest creation.

"I'll see what I can do," Tej replied. "But I ain't makin' any promises. You're just about the only one crazy enough to race Bullitt anymore."

"Then find some out of towners," Suki suggested, motioning Brian and Rome over to admire her latest design. She'd been working on it since they'd started on the Verone deal and had put the finishing touches on it a week ago, but had refused to let anyone see it until now. The Nissan Fairlady Z was a wicked looking machine and Suki had every right to be proud of it.

"Damn, that looks nice," Rome said, circling the vehicle.

"It should after all the work I put into it," Suki replied with a toss of her hair and a pleased grin.

"It looks great," Brian told her honestly and she turned her smile towards him.

"It'll look even better when you're left in the dust." They all laughed and Tej hung up the phone, turning back towards them.

"No luck yet you two. Jimmy says we don't have any non-natives hanging around. Maybe we'll have a couple show up by the end of the night," he called to them. Suki nodded and Brian lifted a hand in acknowledgement.

"We'll wait if we have to," he said and Tej nodded, snapping his phone open and lifting it to his ear again as it started ringing.

"Yeah?" they heard him say as he started walking towards the front of the garage to shut the overhead doors. They grumbled down slowly, cutting off outside light. Suki yanked her phone out from somewhere, illuminating their path to the back door while Tej headed towards the office without the use of any light at all. They all made it outside without any mishaps, aside from Rome banging his shins on a chair and almost knocking it over, and Brian made sure the door was locked behind them. If someone wanted to rob Tej, there was no sense in making their job easier.

"See you in a couple hours?" Suki questioned and Brian nodded.

"I'll pull my baby out and be ready to race when I get there," he told her.

"Good." Suki waved to both of them and then sauntered off to grab Tej. She'd drop him off with Jimmy and the two of them would set up the course and gather the racers for tonight's event.

"Man, we need to get the GPS shit pulled out of the Spyder so I can race," Rome said as the two of them headed for the houseboat. "It ain't fair that you're havin' all the fun."

"We'll start on it tomorrow," Brian promised and Rome grinned, clapping a quick hand on Brian's shoulder before leading the way into their home. Brian let Rome head into the shower first, practically vibrating from the anticipation that always overwhelmed him before a race. He paced the length of the houseboat, trying to work off some of the extra energy. He made the loop twice before forcing himself to stop, grabbing an almost overripe banana off the counter and heading out to the deck of the boat to eat it. The low hum of crickets chirping could barely be heard over the hum of evening traffic, the sound allowing Brian to relax some. The bathroom door swung open in the houseboat behind him and Brian headed back inside to take his turn in the shower.

The water was ice cold, making him flinch when he stepped under the spray, and he scrambled to get clean as fast as possible. He was shivering when he stepped out, searching around the small space for a dry towel. He or Rome needed to do laundry sometime soon. Not only were they running out of clean towels, but they were also running out of clean clothes. Neither one of them were particularly fond of doing laundry, so most the time it just piled up until they were out of clothing and had been wearing the same pair of pants for four days. It drove Suki nuts, but what annoyed her more was that Tej didn't see the problem with their bad habit.

"Hey bro, we're gonna have to do laundry soon," Brian called, dressing and stepping outside the bathroom.

"Not it!" Rome called back from where he was standing outside. Brian rolled his eyes but didn't argue. There was plenty of time to convince his friend to do the laundry later.

Bilkins called while Brian and Rome were getting ready to leave for the race. Rome answered Brian's cell phone because he happened to be standing next to it and had no respect for privacy when it came to his best friend. "Yo, who is this?" Brian heard his friend say. There was a prolonged period of silence and Brian turned around from where he was doing the dishes that had piled up over the last couple of busy days. Rome had a look on his face that was a strange mixture of confusion and disgust as he listened to whatever the person on the other end of the line said. After another minute he said, "Gimme a minute. I'll put 'im on." Then he silently held the phone out to Brian.

He took it and lifted it to his ear, saying, "Yeah?"

"I did some digging like you asked," Bilkins' voice replied.

"And?" Brian prompted after a moment of silence.

"There's nothing there for us to investigate," came the reply. "There's nothing fishy in the books, no reports of suspicious activity, and, most important of all, no missing dancers. They all either came in for their shifts or called in sick. It was a dead end, O'Conner."

"The bartender wasn't lying," Brian protested. "There's a dancer missing, and someone's trying to cover it up."

"You don't have any proof, Brian," came the exasperated sounding response. "All you have is the word of a bartender who overheard part of a conversation, and you know that's never going to fly in a court of law." Brian let out a frustrated yell, slamming his fist down hard on the cheap countertop hard enough to make the dishes in the sink rattle. "Let it go, O'Conner," Bilkins advised from the other end of the line. "You're not a cop anymore and there's no proof of anything unusual happened at Dark Magic."

"I'm not crazy Bilkins," Brian retorted. "There's something shady going on at that club." He hesitated a moment and then added, "You know I'm right."

"No," came the level reply. "I don't."

"Damnit, Bilkins," Brian snapped. "I'm not crazy and I'm not jumping at shadows. Trust me on this."

The pause that followed that plea felt heavy, Brian's heart hammering to get through his rib cage. Realistically he knew that he hadn't given the FBI agent much of a reason to trust his word. He'd turned his back on the law during the truck jacking case in LA, ran from the police, and then deliberately left information out of his reports during the Verone mission. Anyone in their right mind would hesitate when asked to trust Brian's judgement. "I do," Bilkins said, his voice breaking through Brian's worried thoughts. "But the agency doesn't. They're not going to act on any tip you give them unless the evidence can be paraded in front of their faces."

"Okay," Brian said, determined.

"Don't do anything that will get you in trouble, O'Conner."

"I won't. I'm just going to talk to a dancer." He hung up before Bilkins had time to protest his plan. "Hey Rome, how do you feel about swinging by the club after the races?"

"Sure thing man!" came the cheerful response and Brian grinned. Then he flipped his phone back open and dialed a new number. Monica had said that she was off work for the week. Maybe she'd be willing to help him do a little subtle investigating.

"Hello?" Monica's voice was curious but guarded when she answered after the third ring. She didn't sound as if Brian had woken her up, but that didn't mean anything. He knew from experience how easy it was to pretend to be something you weren't when other people couldn't see you.

"Hey Monica," he replied easily. "It's Brian. I was wondering if you would help me do some subtle investigating tonight."

"You know, most people ask a girl to a restaurant for the first date," came her humor filled reply.

"I'm not hearing a no," Brian replied brightly.

"Yes, I'll help you," Monica told him with a laugh. "Where should I meet you at?"

"This club called Dark Magic. It took the place of the Pearl once Verone got picked up," Brian told her. "One of the bartenders overheard a dancer protesting in the owner's office because he wouldn't let her report another girl missing."

"Isn't that something the real police should be investigating?" Monica asked, sounding worried.

"Ordinarily, yeah," Brian admitted. "But the police and the FBI won't take my word for it. I have to get some proof so they'll investigate."

"Let's make a deal," Monica told him. "I'll help you investigate, but once we turn in whatever evidence we find, then you'll let the officials do their job while you take me on a proper date."

"Deal," Brian agreed.

"Good. What time should I meet you at Dark Magic?"

"Better make it at two."

"I'll see you then," Monica promised.

"Yo, Brian!" Rome yelled from outside. "Get off the phone and get out here or you'll be late for your race."

"I've gotta go," Brian said, already heading for the door. He hung up to the bright sound of Monica's laughter.