Quater-Mile// Dominic Toretto

5

It's finally Race Wars. Since we're out in the desert with no chance of cops showing up Dom always lets me race as much, I want. I get a kick out of beating dudes that underestimate me.

I wait in line for my turn to race. I can hear the guy calling to me from the car next to me.

"Baby. Hey, baby." I turn to face the guy. "You should watch from the side. I wouldn't want to get any exhaust on that pretty face."

"How about you put your money where your mouth is? I offer.

"Well, how 'bout I race you for that sweet little ass?" the guy counters.

"You want ass, why don't you hit Hollywood Boulevard? You want an adrenaline rush, it'll be two large." I hold up the cash. "Right here. Right now. What's it gonna be?"

The guy pulls a wad of cash from his shirt pocket. "You got it."

As we pull up to the starting line the guy makes kissy faces at me. I can't wait to see how pissed he's going to be in a few seconds.

The guy starting the race throws his hands down. I step on the gas not letting the guy get ahead of me. He gets ahead of me for a second before I hit the NOS. I laugh as I blow him out of the water.

I head to the camper to give the money to Mia. Dom smiles when he sees me.

"You got something?" Dom asks.

I nod my head as I pull the cash from my pocket. "One down."

Dom pulls me towards him by the waist. "That's my girl."

I laugh as he kisses me.

Took him a while but Brian finally pulls up to the camper.

"What's up, B?" I ask.

He smiles. "You race yet?"

I nod my head. "Already won."

Jesse comes out of the camper. "Yo, Bri, what's up?"

Brian and he shake hands. "Hey, what's up, Jesse?"

I notice a paper in Jesse's hand as he starts to walk away. "Jesse, what's in your hand?"

"Throwing down the pink slip, just like Bri," Jesse tells us.

"The pink slip to what? The Jetta?" Brian asks.

"Yeah," Jesse tells him.

"You can't bet your dad's car," I argue.

"It's all right. I ain't losing," Jesse assures. "This fool is running a Honda 2000. I'll win. That way, me and my dad can roll when he gets out of prison. It's all good."

"They're gonna throw him right back in prison after he kills you," Brian argues.

"Oh, shit. I'm up," Jesse tells us.

Leon gets out of Jesse's car after pulling it to the starting line. "You visualize the win. Visualize the win, Jesse. I'm serious. You got to listen to me, man."

"Who are you racing?" Brian asks.

In the Honda is none other than Johnny Tran.

"Jesse, don't do it. I bet you he's got more than $100,000 under the hood of that car," Brian warns.

Jesse doesn't listen to him and races anyways. Jesse hits the NOS too soon and loses to Johnny. He doesn't stop thinking. Jesse just keeps driving away from the race.

Leon and I rush to Dom and the others. "Yo! Heads up, bro. We got problems."

"What?" Dom asks.

I point to the car driving away. "Jesse."

"Where's Jesse going?" Dom asks.

"He just raced Tran for slips," Leon informs him.

"Oh, shit," Dom remarks.

Johnny pulls up in his car. "Where's he going?"

"He went to the car wash," Dom tells him.

"Whatever. Go fetch my car," Johnny demands.

"Go fetch your car?" Dom shakes his finger. "We're not on your block. You better watch who you talk to like that." Dom starts to walk away.

"Toretto!" Johnny shouts. Dom stops to face him. "SWAT came into my house and disrespected my whole family, because somebody narced me out. And you know what? It was you!"

Dom punches Johnny in the face. This starts a whole brawl as security tries to step in as well as Tran's guys and our own. Security tries to pull Dom off Johnny. When Lance tries to step in, I hit him in the face knocking him out cold.

Vince is finally the one that's able to get Dom off Johnny. "Dom, chill out, man. Come on!"

"I never narced on nobody! I never narced on nobody!" Dom shouts.

It's dark and time for the crew to leave. Jesse still isn't back but we need to do this job.

Mia is trying to talk Dom out of it. "I have respected you and I haven't said shit. And now I am asking you not to go."

"Mia, I'm doing this for both of us," Dom tells her.

"No, don't give me that crap. You're doing this for you," Mia insists.

"Why are you doing this?" Dom asks.

"Why are you insisting on doing this? Dom, please, just don't," Mia begs.

We really don't have a choice. I get in the car with Dom.

We drive to where we've stashed the cars, we're going to use to do the job. They're all identical black 1993 Honda Civic EJ1.

"All right, we're one man short," Dom tells us. "Letty, I need you on the left side."

"Your sister's right about this one. This don't feel good," Leon tells Dom.

Dom shakes his head. "Don't do that.

"Something's wrong," I insist.

"Stop," Dom tells us.

"We shouldn't be doing this without Jesse," Letty says.

"Look, this is the mother load. We've been on this for three months. After this, it's a long vacation for everyone. Let's go," Dom tells us.

"I hope so," Leon says.

Dom puts his hands on my shoulders. "Listen, the other night I had a dream that you and I were on the beach in Mexico."

I laugh lightly. "Really?"

"Really." Dom leans down and kisses me. "Come on. Let's make this happen." I nod my head. "Leon, keep on those scanners."

"Copy that," Leon assures.

Dom opens the door to the car. "All right, let's go."