Fic: Wild Force (pt. 12)
[ disclaimers and header info] [prologue]
[ part 2] [ part 3] [ part 4] [ part 5] [ part 6]
[ part 7] [ part 8] [ part 9] [ part 10] [ part 11]
A couple of hours later, Dom and Cale walked hand-in-hand into the party at Toretto's. Dom bapped Vince and Leon on the head for not making more of an effort to find him before handing Cale a bottle of Snapple and, with a kiss, he sent her upstairs to Mia. He fell back onto the couch and scrubbed his hands over his eyes. He looked up as someone handed him a Corona and saw Vince watching him.
"This is twice, now, that someone other than you has saved my neck from the cops after a race," Dom said, leaning forward. The room went quiet at that. "So, is she a cop too, or do I get to kick your ass from here to eternity for not coming to find me?"
Vince regarded Dom for a long while before he turned to look up at the ceiling, as if trying to catch a glimpse of the girl in question. Slowly, he shook his head. "She ain't no cop, Dom." Vince looked back at his long-time friend. "But that don't mean I like her. Watch your back."
"Watch my back," he said, with a wry chuckle. He leaned back in his seat. "Seems I have no choice, since I can't trust you to do it." He took a swig from his bottle, and then took the offered game controller from Jesse.
After a few moments, the silence was broken and the party resumed as if nothing had happened.
Upstairs, Cale found herself dragged into Mia's room. Her friend was beaming.
"So?" Mia asked. "What happened?"
Cale sat down in her usual spot and gave Mia a bemused look. She shrugged. "Dom and I tied, the cops came and we scattered."
"Yeah...and?"
"And nothing," Cale said, shifting and pushing hair behind her ear. "Found your brother skulking in the shadows trying to get around the cops, and gave him a lift home."
Mia stared at Cale. "Jesus, Dom's gonna be pissed," she said, closing her eyes briefly.
"Why?"
Mia sighed. "Let's just say that this isn't the first time that Vince and Leon have left Dom out to dry when it comes to the cops. It's a sore point with my brother. Anyway, if that's all that happened, how come it took you so long to get back here?" Mia's eyes were shining with amusement now.
Cale shifted again. "Cops recognized my car and chased us down to the coast. I managed to lose them and pulled into a nice little hiding spot I found a while back, which I've been saving for a rainy day."
"And tonight it poured."
"Yep."
"So then what happened?"
"We...talked."
Mia gave her an incredulous look. "You talked."
"We cleared up some stuff." Cale paused. "Race-related stuff, mostly."
"I see."
"Of course, the cops decided to come down on foot to investigate my hidey-hole. I knew we couldn't just duck down or they'd come closer to investigate, recognize the car and find us inside. And we couldn't just sit there, cause they'd recognize Dom. We needed a cover, of sorts. So I...uh, well, I kissed him." Cale's words were met with a blanks stare. She raised a brow. "Mia? You okay?"
"You kissed my brother to save him from the cops," Mia stated quietly.
"Yes." Cale nodded slowly. "Yes, I did."
Something seemed to click in Mia's head. "So, what you're saying is that you spent the last few hours making out with my brother."
"Pretty much."
"And you still don't like him?"
"Nope."
They fell silent and caught each other's gaze, before erupting into laughter.
***
"All right, let's see what you have in this thing," Jesse said, rubbing his hands together gleefully. He had Cale's RX-8 in the garage, and was practically salivating with anticipation. Cale stood on the sidelines, watching in amusement. She had never seen anyone as excited as Jesse.
Dom was working on a client's car, watching them out of the corner of his eye. He was curious to see what his girl had under the hood of that car, too, but was too professional to say anything. He left that to Jesse and kept an ear on the conversation.
"You have some pretty standard stuff in here, Kincaid," Jesse's voice filtered out from under the hood. "Could use a bit of upgrades in some areas, but...you have the tried and true."
"I know, Jesse. But I pay my own way and those shiny new parts have to be prioritized and then earned. Right now? I'm good with what I got. Why mess with what works, eh?"
Dom snorted. "Jesse, put her in for a complete over-haul. Tried and true may work, but it doesn't get you ahead."
Cale sighed. "It's really not necessary, Dom."
Dom stood and pointed at Cale with a wrench. "I won't have my girl racing in anything less than the best." The wrench shifted its focus to Jesse. "You make a list of parts for that thing and then order them from Harry." And then he was back at his work.
Cale glared at the back of Dom's head, turning with a frown only when Jesse chuckled.
"It's useless to argue with him, Cale," he said, peeking at her from his hiding spot. "He always wins."
That got an indistinct grunt from Dom, causing Jesse to laugh harder. His mirth was cut off abruptly, and a low, impressed whistle took its place.
"Holy shit. Not only does she have direct-port injection, but she also has a really tiny dry-shot line running parallel..."
Dom was at Jesse's side in a heartbeat. After a second or two, both racers looked at Cale. Dom raised a brow. "Care to explain your double shot of NOS?"
Cale leaned back against the workbench, and crossed her arms over her chest. She languidly inspected a fingernail. She looked up as Dom's shadow fell upon her, and she was suddenly toe-to-toe with the man. His lips pressed against hers teasingly, pulling away abruptly as she began kissing him back.
"Tell me," he whispered.
"My back end gets swishy," she answered softly. "My car's geared for drift-racing. Back tires have enough traction to keep me on the road, but if I'm below speed or if I misjudge my recovery coming out of a corner my back end slips. I have a tiny trigger on the steering wheel near my index-finger."
Behind them, Jesse was nodding again, poking around the NOS set-up. "Gives you that extra boost without the insane speeds. Useful for your every-day stabilizing purposes. Absolutely ingenious..."
He was so focussed on the car that he didn't even notice the lack of a reply from Cale as Dom gave her a deep, searching kiss. It broke gently, each trying to steal one last taste of the other, before Dom dropped a peck on Cale's nose and headed back to his job.
Cale watched him for a moment before she felt someone staring at her. Vince stood in the doorway to the garage, giving her a hard, tense look. She raised a questioning brow and he turned and walked away.