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Brian came home from work biting his lip and looking squirly. It didn’t happen often, but every now and again something came up that he needed to talk about and felt he couldn’t. Daft buster. You’d think by now he’d know he could talk to me about anything.
In the six months we’d been together, I’d learned the best time to confront him on this shit was when he was post-orgasm. It was the only thing that dropped those last barriers.
So I waited until late when we were both basking and between little nips on his neck asked, “So what’s digging at you, Bri?”
“Huh?”
I smirked. Good first reaction. Meant he was plenty relaxed. “You’ve been chewing on your lip all evening. Spit it out.”
“I…” Brian squirmed like he was going to slip out of bed, but I rolled us so I was on top. “Dom, it’s nothing.”
“You don’t get this squirly over nothing, Brian.”
He shoved at my shoulder, shifted his hips, and tried three times to throw me before finally went limp.
I shifted my weight to my left arm and pressed my right hand into the juncture of his neck and shoulder. “Just talk to me, Bri. We can work it out together.”
“Back in Barstow, I had a friend.” Brian leaned into my touch, eyes closed and a pained look on his face. “Fuck, Rome was family.”
~ ~
The tall, lanky black man strode out of Chino with the walk of a man who could look after himself. He was big, bad, and in control. I recognized it as my own walk after Lompoc, and I could see just how much of a lie it was. This Rome of Brian’s was running scared and tired.
Rome looked confused as fuck as he spotted us standing next to the Charger. He looked suspicious, but I could almost smell the fear and curiosity. He was glaring hard at Brian and giving me the stare down. I countered with my own “unimpressed ex-con” look, which just upped the confusion factor.
“I thought I made it clear I never wanted to see you again,” Rome growled out, stopping a respectable distance out, arms crossed and legs planted firm.
Brian nodded. “Oh, you did.”
“Then what the fuck you doing here?”
“Thought I’d offer you a chance.”
Rome snorted. “Now you offering chances?”
It was Brian’s turn to growl. He stalked forward and poked a finger in Rome’s chest. “If there’d been a damned thing I could have done then, I would have, and you fucking know it, Rome. Don’t shit on me because you got yourself in trouble.”
“Fuck you, O’Conner.” Rome shoved Brian away and looked ready to follow it with a punch.
“You know, you’re a stubborn son of a bitch,” I said. Action froze though I didn’t move. I didn’t need to. I was alpha and both of these two could feel it. Well, Brian knew through and through, but Rome was just starting to think it through.
“What right you got to talk to me?”
Brian stepped aside with a smirk. “Roman Pierce, meet Dominic Toretto.” Rome frowned and glanced at Brian. “You may have heard of him. In LA they call him King of the Streets.”
Rome turned to Brian and really looked at him. “What the fuck you doing hanging with a racer, five-oh?”
Grinning, Brian tugged down the loose collar of his shirt to show the mating mark I’d refreshed just that morning. Rome looked it over, then looked back at me. Skin dark as mine, the bruise on my neck wasn’t as visible as on Brian, but Rome spotted it fast enough once he was looking.
“Really, brah? Mated to a racer?”
“Love’s love,” Brian said.
“And you?” Rome turned to me. “You picked a pig?”
“I work community relations now.”
“Brian does a lot of good in our turf,” I said. “Buster’s got a thing for helping people. Even unappreciative assholes.”
Rome studied me a minute, frowning, then turned back to Brian. “A chance?”
“Parole wants you on an anklet and house arrest,” Brian said. “There’s shit all to do in Barstow.”
Rome snorted. “No shit.”
“I got a package approved. I can’t get rid of the anklet, but you come back to LA with us, I got you a job at Dom’s garage, a room at the house, and a much bigger radius. Bonus, as I am an officer in good standing, they’re willing to let me escort you to occasional events during parole. I can’t get you in on street races, but rallies, maybe a few track visits. It’ll at least break up the boredom.”
“LA huh?” Rome studied Brian a minute before he turned back to me. “You approved this?”
“It’s my house he’s offering,” I agreed.
“Why? Why offer a room and a job to a fucked up con?”
I snorted. “GTA? I barely missed attempted murder. But if two years in Lompoc taught me anything it’s that coming out to family is the only hope we poor cons got. If Brian says you’re family to him, then you’re family to me.” I started walking forward. “It’s crowded as hell and Vince is going to try and push every button, but the back yard is big and no one will mind if you prefer four legs to two for awhile.” I kept walking until i was right in front of him. Rome flinched, but he didn’t back away.
“They’re good people, Rome, even Vince once you get used to him,” Brian said.
“How did you get mixed up with these people, Bri?” But even as he asked, voice all sarcastic, Rome tilted his head and bared his neck to me, just a little.
Brian laughed. “Oh, man. you will not believe it. But I say we tell it on the way home.”
I put my hand on Rome’s shoulder, brushing the joint with his neck, and felt him lean into me, just a little. “Come on, Rome, got a long drive back.”
“A’ight.” We turned together back to the Charger. “I wanna hear this story, cuz But first, got anything to eat? I hungry.”