Counting Stars

Chapter 6

The following days spent covering Jesse's work had proven to be busier than Brian had thought, though he presumed that was mainly due to the new car needing to be built. Despite the occasional encounters with a grumpy Vince here and there, the workload had been quite manageable with just him and Dom working on it.

Due to him being around more often for at least a week, the Alpha had left Brian little room for argument about the pack clearing out the spare room beside his room for the blonde to stay in. Though stuck with a couch as his bed, Brian's only silent complaint was no longer being able to call Tanner with any updates, opting not to have packed the spare phone in his overnight bag.

Though Vince had at first, not surprisingly, objected about his lack of trust in Brian being just a racer, any further arguments were shut down with Dom's warning of kicking him into the garage during Brian's stay. With the near constant chance of bumping into Vince now, the blonde found himself spending most of his time in the garage on Jesse's work and the new car.

Dom also seemed to prefer the garage, though whether that was where he usually was on most days or he was simply focused on getting as much done with the new car as possible while they were stuck waiting for the new parts to arrive, Brian wasn't sure and didn't really mind. The offer of the pack had been on his mind for the first couple of days, keeping him up at night in indecision but he soon pushed it to the back of his mind to worry about later, when the decision needed to be made, focusing instead on his jobs. Or trying to.

He hadn't expected the companionable silence and occasional chats to be so relaxing and take his guard down, to allow the two to get closer. The friendship between the Alpha and him had been quick to grow in the time they had been working together. But Brian was continually starting to find himself more easily distracted from his intel searching, at times letting himself get too close before trying to snap back into the job.

But he couldn't find any proof of the claims of Toretto's involvement, and he isn't sure now if that was something Dom would do. He definitely had proven on many occasions so far to be more focused on his pack, that he surely wouldn't put them in constant risk with the law outside of the street racing.

The ever growing reminder of his heat isn't much help with his focus, especially with the constant presence of the Alpha, and the often incidents of contact with Dom that kept catching Brian off guard, even if the Alpha had only been reaching past him for some more paperwork or to grab a wrench from him as they worked on the car. The longer he spent there, the more he felt the case was for nothing, that this isn't the person the police department were after. Though he couldn't tell most times whether this belief was due to the lack of proof or his feelings for the pack and, perhaps, especially their Alpha. For the first time in so long, he felt like he belonged.

❖ ❖ ❖

Despite knowing he was helping Toretto out, Harry had politely requested if he could still work at the shop. Especially with Dom's presence at the race once again drawing more people.

The blonde was putting another order on file ready to be sent when he glanced up as the door opened, soon getting to his feet with a smile at the familiar face. Greeting Hector, he moved to pick up the offered list as the man ran through what he needed, turning to the computer to make the order.

As they chatted, he soon frowned at the request for three of each of the serious racing parts, though Hector drew his attention from the screen and anymore questions as he moved to pay for the order.