CHAPTER TEN
she's been dancing with the devil all night
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𝐉esse lost the race. Josephine wished she could say it was the opposite but the moment he faced Tran on that track━he had already lost. His Honda S2000 was far better than hers, with better engines and car parts. Tran wasn't the best driver but he could race, and Josephine really hated that he practically took advantage of Jesse. Her heart dropped when she watched the white Volkswagen Jetta suddenly speed out of the track and onto the desert without a certain direction.
"Where's he going?" Josephine stepped forward, squinting her eyes as the Jetta disappeared into the distance. She let go of Brian's hand and marched off to find her brother. "Shit."
It turned out Leon had already beaten her to it. He had told Dominic and Vince and they were more worried than mad about it because they knew Jesse. He never had a mean bone in his lanky body. As she neared them, Josephine realized Brian had been swept away by the crowd, but she was too busy looking for her family only to find Johnny Tran already there. One thing was for sure, the man did not look very happy, even the sound of his engines was pissed.
Tran marched towards the group who was already expecting trouble. "Where is he going?"
"He went to the car wash." Dominic was a terrible liar.
"Whatever," Tran snapped. "Go fetch my car."
"Go fetch your car?" Dominic tilted his head slowly. He waved a warning finger to the gang leader's face. "We're not on your block anymore. You better watch who you talk to like that." Then he turned his back on him, not wanting to put up with his shit.
"Toretto!" Tran suddenly yelled. A crowd was already gathering around the commotion and Josephine wished she could just punch him in the face and get over it already. "Toretto!"
Dominic begrudgingly turned back to him.
"SWAT came into my house... disrespected my whole family because somebody narked me out!" Tran continued shouting at Dom's face, the anger growing the longer he stood there. "And you know what? It was you!"
Josephine was about to launch forward at his accusation but Dominic had done the honor of punching him first. That earned a lot of surprised noises from the people. Vince grabbed the Toretto girl's arm, pulling her from harm's way as her older brother went to beat up the poor man on the ground.
Her breath caught when Dominic began punching him repeatedly. Josephine froze, the sound of everybody yelling and talking around her suddenly became an irritating buzz in her ears. Her eyes widened as they remained on her brother's back where he let his anger get the best of him. Suddenly Josephine was ten again and she was crying and begging and screaming at her big brother to stop.
"Dom," Josephine croaked out, her voice coming out as a pitiful cry. She tried to pry Vince's hand off her arm because his grip was getting too tight. He didn't seem to notice but it was beginning to hurt. She choked out: "Dominic!"
Even Letty had punched Tran's cousin before he could help him. Leon was pulling bystanders away and the security tried so hard to grab Dominic from Johnny Tran as he writhed on the scorching ground. Vince finally disappeared from beside her as he went to help the guards pull Dom away.
Then there was Brian. His eyes quickly searched for her when he noticed the ruckus around him. He rushed toward Josephine, scanning her from head to toe to look for any sign of injury. She barely acknowledged him, completely shaken up by seeing her brother almost beat up someone to death again. I mean, it was probably not his intention. But seeing that again━sent a jolt of panic through the twenty-one-year-old that made her feel like she was a kid again.
Josephine hated feeling like a kid. Small. Helpless. Unheard. She never wanted to be a kid again. But being an adult wasn't any better either.
Night arrived like a flash of light and Josephine found herself listening to Mia getting angry at their brother for what seemed like the tenth time this year. She leaned on a random car, biting the skin off her fingers, still a little anxious from before. Dominic tried talking to her but she barely looked at him. He knew it was his fault. But there was no time. He had something to do for tonight. Something that his younger sisters evidently don't agree with or like in the slightest.
"I have respected you and I haven't said shit," Mia said through gritted teeth, boring glares at their brother who was leaving with Letty, Vince, and Leon. "And now I am asking you not to go."
"I'm doing this for all of us," Dominic insisted, trying to make her calm down but there was no way.
"No. No. Don't give me that crap." Mia backed away, the frustration spilling out of her as she brushed off any of his attempts to console her. "You're doing this for you. Why are you insisting on doing this? Dom, please, just don't!"
"I've told him countless times, Mia," Josephine scoffed, shaking her head at her brother and their friends. Her eyes looked tired. Dom just noticed and he felt his heart sink. "It's useless... Just go."
Mia glared at her through teary eyes as Dom finally hopped in the car with the others. They didn't get to say anything else and the cars sped away from them. The two sisters eventually gravitating toward each other despite the circumstances. Because no matter how many disagreements and arguments they have━the only person they could run to at the end of the world was each other.
Mia decided to go home early and drove off in her cerulean '94 Integra which left Josephine to her own devices. After today's events, she was starting to think something was off. She didn't even know someone arrested Tran and now he blamed her brother for snitching on him. Dominic seemed surprised, too. Maybe it riled him up because he had never narked on somebody before. None of them had. It wasn't in their blood.
As she walked around the RV to get back to her car, Brian appeared out of nowhere, looking like he was in a hurry. Little did she know, Brian had witnessed all of it━she and Mia arguing with their brother to not go into that dangerous job. But what she didn't know was that Brian dreaded the next few words that he would have to say to her.
"Jo, what's going on?" Brian breathed, brows pulled in concentration.
"What?" Josephine asked, sounding a little exasperated.
"You know what I'm talking about," He insisted as he followed her.
"No, I don't, Brian," Josephine muttered, clearly confused as to what he was talking about. Besides, nobody else knew the illegal job her brother and their friends were doing. And she doubted Dominic had already told him about it.
"Oh, so what━you always get angry when Dom drives away?"
"What's the matter with you?"
"Come on! What's your brother racing off in the middle of the night for? I'm talking about the trucks. You know about the trucks?"
"No, Brian!" Josephine raised her voice, getting frustrated with his cryptic questions, and naturally playing the fool who didn't know anything as her pace began to fasten. Yet for the same reason, her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest at every word that escaped his mouth. "What trucks? Jesus Christ."
Brian stopped momentarily and blinked at this new side of her. Then again, the moment he reveals the truth━Josephine would either kill him or help him. His chest tightened and the way his eyes hardened was like he already made a decision. A decision that could ruin everything he was beginning to love. He suddenly pulled her by her arm and made her turn around to face him completely.
"What?" Josephine glared at him, her lips quivering with anxiety.
"Listen to me." Brian hesitated. He looked into her eyes a little longer, because he knew it would change the moment he revealed what he'd been hiding all this time. "Jo, I'm a cop."
Josephine narrowed her eyes, thinking that she was hearing things━that suddenly Brian thought it would be the most humorous thing to say to her to maybe make her laugh or smile. But nobody was laughing. Her hands trembled ever so slightly, suddenly feeling more than confused like she was a deer caught in headlights. Her mind was muddled. Suddenly, she didn't know how to think.
"What are you talking about, Brian?" She shook her head, running her fingers through her hair that blew away in the wind. Their eyes looked at each other, the latter desperate and a little afraid. "What is this? What are you saying?"
Brian tried to touch her hand but Josephine kept them in a closed fist. Her hazel eyes wavered as they looked at him. He tried to keep going, the truth spilling out of his tongue like it hurt to even form a word. But to the Toretto girl, it was almost as if she was hearing nothing and everything at the same time. His words were like knives slowly driving themselves into her skin the more she understood it.
"Ever since the first time I met you, I've been undercover," Brian confessed. He paused, watching her face carefully, trying to see something━anything that showed him she didn't hate him as much as he does himself right now. "I'm a cop."
There was a terrifying moment where pure anger flashed across the younger girl's face as her facade slowly fell apart at his confession. He was a cop. It took its time to slither in her mind and when it did━Josephine felt like something inside of her just broke. Lies. Everything he did for her, every time he made her smile, every gentle kiss and touch he left on her body had all been a lie.
He was a liar. He lied to her. And she played right into his act.
Then Josephine looked devastated, and Brian might as well put a gun to his head because it hurt him to see her hurting because of him. Tears suddenly gathered in her eyes as she looked at the man who she thought was incapable of bad things. They never quite fell. The guy who somehow pulled all the strings in her broken heart and tied them all together again. She had no idea he'd be the one to break it again.
"Oh, you bastard," Josephine trembled, betrayal plastered on her face as she forced her hand down to her chest. Just when she thought everything was finally going the right way. But that was the thing. She was a Toretto. Something will always end in tragedy. She could barely look at Brian. "You bastard."
Then she walked away. Because that seemed to be the only thing she could do at this moment. A broken sob left her lips when he wasn't looking but the tears stayed in her eyes and she gripped her shirt━stuck between her anger and resurfacing sadness. Brian felt like someone just stabbed him in the chest as he watched her, regret swimming in his troubled eyes. But he had to finish his job. (At least that's what he told himself).
"Jo." Brian rushed to her but Josephine angrily smacked him across the face when she turned. She regretted it instantly when he stayed frozen for a mere second. Brian knew he deserved that. He looked at her desperately, ignoring the stinging on his cheeks.
"Don't━don't touch me," Josephine spat shakily, raising a warning finger to his face. She wanted to get away. Seeing him was too much. She needed to think. She wanted to be alone. "Don't."
"Jo, please. Listen to me!" Brian begged, reaching over to grab her arm but the girl visibly flinched away from his touch like it would burn her. It made him feel even worse because how could he hurt her this much to make her look at him like he was the enemy? (In a way, he was, but her betrayed eyes will always haunt him). "Everything I ever said━I felt about you was real."
Josephine shook her head, teeth grinding in anger and frustration. She refused to look at him. It hurt to do anyway. The thought of all their secret moments behind closed doors and under the sheets━Josephine wanted to tear off every surface of her skin that touched him. Because if she didn't, she would always search for it in every little thing and it made her sick.
"I swear to God, Jo." Brian looked like he might get on his knees soon if she didn't look at him. Then she finally returned his gaze. A pair of azures that she'd grown to love. But now she could barely recognize the man in front of her. A stranger he was becoming. "You have to believe me, Jo. I would never intentionally hurt you."
The girl tried to believe him. She tried so hard to find all the reasons why he would do this to her but claimed he never wanted to harm her. But he was an undercover cop all this time. He wanted to catch her older brother, and maybe to do that he had to go for the most vulnerable one in the family. Josephine shook her head in disbelief. Brian couldn't-was he capable of doing that? Doubts shadowed her mind and desperately clinging to that one hope that maybe he didn't really mean to hurt her.
"But right now this isn't about you and me," He said carefully, grasping both her arms in his warm hands that still touched her gently. Despite the strong desire to protect her━his duties somehow come scratching their way back to the surface. "Your brother's out there. He's about to pull a job and we're running out of time."
"Those truckers━they're not laying down anymore. Maybe they'll make it through tonight but every single law enforcement agency in California is coming down on them."
That seemed to get through her head. Suddenly it didn't seem so important that Brian might've just used her to get closer to her older brother. Because that brother was in terrible danger along with her friends. And no matter how messy the situation becomes, Josephine would always be running, diving, driving, all things considered, to save and protect the only family she has.
"If you don't want anything to happen to your brother, to Letty, to Leon, to Vince... you have to just get in that car with me right now and you have to help me."
"I don't trust any word that comes out of your mouth right now," Josephine said half-heartedly. Her words seemed to take on a personal level with the man━the undercover cop who pretended to be her friend before a lover.
"Jo, you are the only person that can help me right now," Brian said carefully, peering into her eyes that suddenly grew cold. He wasn't sure how to persuade her, but he did need her help. He couldn't do this without Josephine Toretto. The one he wasn't supposed to fall in love with. "Please, Jo. Please help me."
Josephine took her time, thinking about all that he had said just now. She fought between her worries and the way Dom would be mad if he found out that Brian had been a cop all along out to get him. That this man had a job to put him back into prison where he vowed he wouldn't get back into ever again. But Josephine had a job, too. And she was not going to lose him over some stupid illegal stunt to gain more money.
"Let's go." Josephine decided but there was a certain hardness on her exterior that Brian had seen before. When he first met her at Harry's and bumped into her. The way she glared at him and made it clear that she didn't like strangers. Brian felt his drop. He made her this way. "We can still catch up."