VIPER ♱ b. o'conner

02 : new cars and new deals

The others scattered across the garage to their own projects. Lala stood up and looked over at Dom.

"Thank you for trusting me...and I just...I wanted you to know that I would never do anything to jeopardize the safety of my sister, and I would never ever turn my back on her or you guys. Ever. Like you said, you're my family now." She spoke softly and Dom squeezed her hand in a brotherly way.

"You're not on your own anymore, Lolita." With those words he let go and walked away. It had been obvious on the young girl's face that she was in fact lonely and based on what Letty said, there wasn't anyone in her life to help her through the loss of her dad.

Lala walked up to the office and helped do the business invoices from the Market, while Mia did the ones for the garage. Not too far into the papers, she got fed up and went to Dom about a sale. Lala tuned out what they were saying as she calculated at the table until the sound of a rollback was heard outside the open door.

She rolled the sleeves up on Leon's shirt as she walked over to the others who were standing in front of, surprise surprise, Brian. Her arms folded over her chest as she stood next to her sister against her car.

"You couldn't even tow that across the finish line." Letty quipped causing Lala to laugh and Brian looked over at her. More like looked through her, as if she was just an obstruction in his eyesight like the sun glaring into your vision. The look lasted not even two seconds but for her it felt like everything stopped when those bright blues looked her way. His shit eating grin faltered slightly.

He looked over at Dom, "No faith!" He accused in a light tone while Lala was trying to recover from the eye contact.

Dom shook his head at the blonde and motioned to the car "I have faith in you but this isn't a junkyard, this is a garage." The oldest Toretto stated and Brian grinned again just like the night he lost.

"Pop the hood." He said smoothly.

"Pop the hood?" Dom rose a brow like he was being punkd.

"Pop the hood." He repeated and Lala walked over to the front of the clunker. She popped the hood open and her face lit up in surprise.

Jesse, who was right next to her now, almost climbed head first into the beaten up car in front of them. "2JZ engine...no shit!"

Brian gleefully yet cockily smiled at Dominic. "What did I tell you?"

He rolled his eyes at the younger man. "I retract my previous statement."

Lala agreed with him while looking at the engine with Jesse. "Ditto." She spoke before tuning back into Jesse's mumbling to himself about the parts. "I'm thinking about $15k into this one, kid." She looked at Jesse and he nodded eagerly before looking at everyone else.

"Lala has it right. You know what? This will decimate after you put about $15,000 into it...or more." He tells the two men and Lala pipes in.

"It'll only be more if you have to overnight parts from Japan." She grabbed the rag hanging from Jesse's pocket and wipes the oil and grime mixture off of her hands from touching under the hood of the car.

"We'll put it on my tab at Harry's." Dom turned to Brian as Jesse celebrated giddily about the new project. Lala watched the younger boy with a soft smile, he was so gentle, kind, and reminded her of a child. One of the sweetest guys she's ever met.

She went to walk away before Dom held an arm out using the universal sign to stop walking.

"I gotta get you racing again so I can make some money off your ass. There's a show down in the desert called Race Wars, that's where you'll do it." He told Brian and looked her for the last part. "You're in for the races too, you stirred up a lot of questions about Viper's return to the West Coast. Now you gotta answer the demands. Which brings me to my next point, I need you to help him." He motions to Brian.