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“Dom,” Vince’s gruff voice spoke up behind him. Dom turned to look at him, finding the scowl plastered on his face. Neither of them had really talked since leaving Miami. Then again, they had rushed off and hadn’t made many pit stops. Now across the border, safe in Mexico, they could take things slower as they made their way to Baja.
Letty and Leon were coming with them, though they had already mentioned they probably wouldn’t stay too long. Dom figured once Verone’s guy had shipped their tuners, the pair would be off in the wind again. Not that he blamed them. They weren’t the type to just relax. They needed to be on the move.
Dom on the other hand, he’d been enjoying the quiet of it all. There wasn’t much to worry about in Baja, not with the team absent. Granted, he’d been missing Vince, more than he would admit out loud. He’d also, oddly enough, been missing Brian.
That day was still so clear in his mind… Vince on that truck, and it hadn’t been Dom to save him, but their Buster. He was so thankful to see them both in one piece, but all of that had shattered in one sentence. “Brian O’Connor, off-duty LAPD.”
He’d wanted to throw up, to punch the blonde, to cry, to do so many things. Then Vince had started going into shock, and all he could do was stare helplessly and attempt to hold him. If Dom had been thinking rationally at the time, he wouldn’t have left Brian on the side of the highway, would have known what it took him weeks in Baja to realize.
As it was, the team drove away, abandoning him. Loyal to a fault, Brian had shown up at the house. Then Jesse died, and it was the blonde that had stepped up and killed Tran, not Dom. When he wrecked the Charger, that should have been it. However, Brian had given him the keys to the Supra, just like that.
Once again, he left Brian behind. Left him to fend on his own and deal with the mess Dom himself had created. When the truth finally hit him, he threw up. Then he’d called Vince.
Now here they were, at a gas station in a small, out-of-the way town in Mexico. So much had happened, and Dom was still trying to wrap his head around it. Apparently, so was Vince. His frown deepened as he leaned against the Chevelle. “I still can’t believe he’s gone,” he whispered.
Dom nodded, understanding the feeling. “You were thinking you could set things right with him when you went down there, didn’t you?”
“Was hopin’, yeah,” he admitted quietly, not meeting Dom’s gaze.
Sighing, Dom reached out and grabbed his forearm. Vince didn’t resist as he was pulled in, hugging him back easily. “You were right, V. He’s moved on…”
He remembered Vince’s phone call. They had just arrived in Miami, and the usually stoic man was rambling a mile a minute. It had been hard to keep up, but he’d gotten the jist. Not only was Brian seeing the Verone character they were working for, but he was engaged.
Dom’s stomach had turned. Brian was theirs. How could the blonde leave them behind like that? No, he’d thought sourly, We were the ones that left him behind. He reminded Vince of that, only to be the brunt of his frustration, along with a promise that he’d see Brian came home with them when all was said and done.
Not that that had happened. Dom left immediately for Miami, worried about Brian and about Vince doing something extremely stupid. Getting to town a couple days before the run, he’d kept low. When Vince called to inform him of the plan, he’d also hit him with a bombshell- he wouldn’t fight Verone anymore for Brian.
“Brian loves the guy.”
Seeing Brian with the drug lord… Dom saw it too. The look in Brian’s eyes, the way Verone held him. As much as it pained him to admit it, Brian really had moved on. He found love again, even after all Dom and Vince had put him through.
All he could do was hold onto Brian one more time, remember everything they once had together… and never would again.
“We still have each other,” Dom assured, rubbing Vince’s back.
The brunette grasped the back of his tank top. “It’s not the same,” he muttered back. It took him a moment, but then Vince cursed, pulling away. “Fuck. Sorry, Dom. I didn’t mean…”
Dom waved it off. “I know.” He looked off to the restaurant next door where Letty and Leon were waiting on them. He and Vince drove over, parking next to them. When he got out, he offered his hand to Vince. “Come on. We’ll take it one step at a time, V.”
It would take time. They both knew it. It had been months since they’d seen each other, let alone had been together intimately. And they had never been together without Brian. Things just felt… empty. Somehow Brian had been the center of their world for that short time he’d been a part of it.
Sitting with what remained of his team, Leon decided to broach the elephant in the room. “So, what you think of Verone?”
Dom shrugged, laying his hand on Vince’s knee and giving it a squeeze when he felt him stiffen up. Once Vince relaxed again, Dom looked over at Leon. “Hard to get a good read on someone in a whole five minutes.”
Leon shrugged. “Just figured V must have told you ‘bout shit since he’d been talkin’ to you and all.”
He nodded. “Yeah. He did.” And that’s all he said on the subject.
“He’s a pretty good guy actually,” Letty put in. Dom knew she was trying to be reassuring. “Treats Brian like he’s royalty. Vince tell you ‘bout the Evo he bought him?” Dom nodded. He had to admit, it sounded like a beautiful car, and a hell of a gift. “Shit, Brian told me he found a set of blueprints. Verone was finalizing plans for some big garage for him- only he clearly didn’t want Brian finding out about it yet.”
Dom and Vince looked at each other, then back to Letty. “A garage?” That was nice, he had to admit it.
“Yeah, and Suki mentioned that he wasn’t just shipping the Evo to Buenos Aires. There’s a shell of a Skyline going too.”
Vince’s eyes widened. “Verone found him another Skyline?” When Letty nodded, Vince couldn’t help but smile softly, shaking his head. “Gawd, the Buster’s gonna flip.”
“Yeah,” Dom admitted. He’d been given that story as well, how Brian had lost his precious ride to the cops. “Sounds like he’d do anything for Bri.” It came out a bit hollow, Dom knew, but his emotions were running every which way. He was trying to grasp at something, anything, without much luck.
There was a time that that would have been Dom, when he would have done anything to make Brian- and Vince- happy. Hell, he’d been willing to stop the hijackings to keep them safe. It had just been “one more run” and then they would be sitting on the beach together, free and happy.
Dom had fucked it all up. Now Vince was scared for life, Brian was gone, his family was ripped apart. It was all on him. No one had to say it. He just knew it was.
As always, Leon and Letty knew when not to push, and quickly shut up about the subject. Instead, they focused on the future, weaving a positive picture of what all that money would buy them. Dom just tuned them out.
He leaned over, forehead placed on the side of Vince’s head. “I love you, V,” he whispered in his ear, hand squeezing his thigh. It was a promise, Dom knew. He would take care of Vince, keep him close. He would make things work between them.
They’d heal. Together.
/End