Not for you (FIN)

I didn't bother knocking this time. When I had parked the Pacer in the driveway of the house, I stormed right through the side entrance, the kitchen and into the living room.

As usual, he was sitting there with his back to me.

"What do you want?" I said.

"Well... see..." He was getting up and came towards me. "Don't like discussing that here. You're..." his eyes traveled up and down my body, leaving me staring angry at him, "greasy, to say the least. Up with you to the bathroom."

"I don't like showering with you, Carter." I snapped. Damn, I definitely had to come up with some real good argumentation here. "Besides, when will I see any of the promised money? See, I'm spending my time with those guys, get information..."

"Up." He said. I just grunted and complied. What else could I do?

He closed the door of the bathroom behind us and was leaning in the doorframe.

"Take the clothes off. Shower."

"And what possible use would that have? The clothes are still dirty." I snapped. I felt myself getting angry - and with a power I had never felt before. Why the hell should a man, just because he's carrying around a gun, be allowed to threaten me?

"Ah, never mind, got new ones for you."

"You just tell me first what the hell you want from me!" I hissed.

"Not with those clothes on, dear." He smiled.

"Fuck you." I said and stripped from my clothes.

"That's, of course, much better. So... what could I want from you... hmmm." He circled me, close enough that I could feel the air moving, but not close enough to touch me.

"See, I thought maybe you could be fun. Could be fun keeping you, a woman who's not keeping her mouth shut all the time. However.... I watched you yesterday." He started to play with his gun, which I noticed wide eyed.

"So?" I said. He stood right before me and looked into my eyes; I just tried to stare him down.

"Well, I've seen how you interact with those people. Not just with that Dom. You had fun around them."

"Yeah, well, you told me to."

"No, that was something else. I remember how you behaved or rather acted in my garage yesterday. Tell me, why do you give yourself willingly to such a greasy, dirty racer but not to me?"

"Carter, with all due to respect, that's called attraction. I just find him more attractive."

"It's not more like so that you're falling in love with him?"

"Me?" Now I just had to trigger all emotions, or rather, non-emotions I had before going to the US and before meeting Dom; in fact I just had to talk the way I had talked for years - and laughed out loud.

"Me falling in love? That's funny, Carter. Really funny. No, I just take what I want, then dump them again. Just the way I am."

I grinned at him, wondering how good it was that I could practically just jump back into my old self. However, this 'old self' came with a price: No way I would allow anyone to command me around, no matter if that person would hold a gun or not.

He stood before me, obviously surprised, and now it was me who was circling him.

"Now tell me Carter, what exactly is the reason that I have to be naked while you are waving around with a gun? Is that some sort of... demonstration how powerful you are? Can tell you that it's not working; it rather shows how weak you are.

You wanna shoot me? Fine, do it. You don't like what I'm doing or rather, how I'm doing it? Fine, shoot me. You want me to continue to collect information for you? Wonderful; then I'd like to have half the amount of the money now and the other half before I bring those people to this house. Your game, Carter, but my rules from now on. I know you need me for this, you can't shoot me. Well, you could; but it would be pointless."

I had walked around him twice by then, and finally, came to a halt before him again.

"You decide, Carter. You want to touch me? Do it. You want to fuck me? Do it. But by all means please shoot me afterwards, because if you don't, I'll do it. You want me to work for you? Fine, I'll do that and happily so if the payment is right; but without all that threatening and shit. I'll even wear your damn necklace most of the time when I want to; but you won't command me around like you did. I'm not yours to dispose of - I'll take orders, but it's up to me how I execute them."

We were back to the staring contest. I knew that any further word would be too much. I knew that the one of us who would look away, flinch, blink longer than absolutely necessary or laugh would lose that contest; and I was so not up for losing it.

Knock on the door. "Boss...?"

"Shut up!" Verone and I shouted simultaneously, still staring at each other.

And finally, finally, when I was already thinking that it was cold to stand around naked in that bathroom, he laughed. He laughed so much that he almost cried, having to lean to the wall because he was laughing so hard.

I wondered if he had gone mad; but by all means, I had to stay cool now. I gave him The Eyebrow, turned around and started to shower. That staring contest I had won, and if I had to, I wanted to die clean...

Eventually he recovered so far that he could speak again.

"You know," he chuckled, "if you ever wanted a criminal career, and not just as a little spy, I'd happily arrange that. Hell, I've been pushing around, threatening and killed people for several years, and just one of them besides you was bold enough to just remotely tell me something like this; but yours are the words I'll never forget. Bravo."

"And who was this heroic person?"

"Ah, you'll get to know him, he's one of the people you're spying on. Roman is his name."

Roman, I smiled to myself. Of course. No one except Roman would be able to pull something like this off successfully, except perhaps Vince, but he never had contact with Verone before, so...

"Roman, hm? I think I will have a good look at that guy."

""Don't look at him for too long, your target is someone else." He smiled. "I'll wait for you downstairs, new clothes are in my bedroom next door. Come down when you're finished, I'll have your money ready."

He turned and left the bathroom and I couldn't help but snicker, continued to shower and whistled a happy tune now.

When I was finished I really thought for a moment about getting dressed in whatever clothes Verone had picked for me. Then, however, I thought that this would just be complying to his rules again. My clothes were in the Pacer. Verone and his strange friend, who obviously was in the house, had both seen me naked before; and the Pacer was parked right outside the kitchen door in the driveway...

I just shrugged, dropped the towel and walked down the stairs - naked.

This time he wasn't sitting in his chair, he was leaning to it, a bag in his hand. When he saw me, he stared at me wide eyed for a moment, then got back to his usual, unreadable, half-smirking expression.

"My rules, I told you. Don't like D&G." I shrugged.

"If you were a man, I'd say you have balls." He laughed. "I really, really like that. Guess I can't keep you, right?"

"You can't. Perhaps I'll visit you in some years again to see if your manners got better." I said. "That my money?" I pointed at the bag.

"That's your money. I would, by the way, appreciate it if you could call me once or twice a day if you see any new members of that team coming in. Oh, and for the party in two days... do yourself a favor, as soon as you have them all in here... excuse yourself for an hour or so; pretend that you've forgotten the beer or something. In fact, as soon as you've left the house, forget about the party, too. Just see that you get as far away as possible from here, and don't return."

I smiled a fake smile at him while his words sank in. He would kill them all, I just knew it. Well, I had known that before, but then I didn't know the exact time and place - now I did.

"Sure, Carter." I said. "What about the rest of the money?"

"Will be ready for you in the garage on the party day at noon. I expect you to invite them for five PM, by the way."

"I'll do that. Don't forget to add some extra money for the party supplies, I don't want to pay that from my share." I grabbed the bag from his hand. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, I'm still sorry that I can't keep you."

"Just because you have no idea how sorry you would be if you would try to keep me, Carter."

...and how sorry you'll be anyway to ever mess with me, I thought.

I laughed, winked at him one last time and went to my Pacer. Bag thrown to the passenger seat, putting on the jumpsuit from the backseat and drove off.

It basically took all my willpower to not freak out in the car - either by laughing hysterically or by breaking down crying. I just couldn't do that now, with the necklace still in place - or he'd know that I was so short of a nervous breakdown.

I had just played a very difficult Poker game against Verone, or rather, a game of Russian Roulette - and against all odds, I had won. What the hell had I done, what the fuck had become of me.

Funny enough, I also thought of my clothes now. Jumpsuit, no underwear, no shoes and - obviously - just showered. Dom and the others would have a lot of questions tonight... I just hoped that they all had enough self composure not to start asking them the moment when I would come back to the garage.

I took a look at the bag next to me and opened the zipper a bit. Damn, I had never seen so much money in one place and didn't doubt for a second that this, indeed, were 250,000 Dollar. What to do with it? Handing it over to the police? I decided that I would have to talk to the others before making any decisions about it and squeezed the bag under the passenger seat.

Back at the garage I found them all sitting outside in chairs, drinking beer. Ah, the greeting committee.

I got out and smiled at them, and, for a short moment, saw several eyes narrowing at my state of dress. "Hi guys!" I said, grinning.

"You did any work for your ex?" Dom asked frowning.

"Not really, why?"

"Ah, just because you're wearing a jumpsuit now instead of those très chic but very dirty designer clothes you wore earlier. You also have wet hair." Michael commented.

"Yeah, I decided that I didn't like his clothes any more. And he didn't want me to 'stain' his interior, so I showered. Any problem with that?" I said with my back to them, looking over my shoulder so that the pendant wouldn't 'see' them at that moment.

"No problem!" They said simultaneously, but at the same time nodded all together, giving me questioning looks. "Tonight." I mouthed, they nodded again. Ah, the joys of soundless conversation...

We all sat before the garage for some time, seemingly mindless chattering about cars, ex-friends and anything we could possibly come up with; but I could see that they were all tensed. I tried to cheer them up, making jokes and all, but it didn't really help.

Finally, Dom looked at the clock. "It's past eight." He said.

"Oh, really? Didn't think it was that late." I replied.

"My place?"

"Your place. Pacer?"

"Pacer." He nodded.

We drove off.

I could tell he was tired, not so much physically but emotionally. Of course, he had no idea what happened at Verone's house and I would have bet that he burned to hear about it.

"Tired." He said when we arrived at the apartment. "Sleep?"

"Would love to."

"Yeah, you just go to bed. I'll have a shower first."

"Right." I said and closed the window blinds. This way I would be able to take off and mute the pendant earlier... which I did, carefully placing it into the box Bilkins had given me.

Then I walked over to the bathroom and was not really surprised to find Dom not showering, but pacing up and down.

"Hi Dom." I said, leaning to the bathroom door, smiling.

He looked at my face, then at my neck.

"Box." I said.

"What the hell has he done to you?" He shouted and almost crushed me with an embrace.

"Nothing, Dom. Really nothing this time. In fact, it was fun."

"Fun? What could possibly be fun with a guy like Verone?"

"Well, I could start making jokes now that he's attractive and such shit, but you'd only get it wrong. So - basically I told him that he can't shoo me around. That I will do the job he gave me, but the way I want to do it. Oh, and by the way, I asked him to shoot me if he wasn't happy with those conditions."

"And?" His eyes had grown wide.

"Well, I'm still alive, so there. I bluffed, and I won."

"Good lord!" He buried his face in his hands. "Have you any idea who you've messed with there?"

"Actually, Dom, yes, I have. And believe it or not, he was impressed. I think what impressed him most was the fact that I refused the new clothes he had bought for me and walked naked out of the house."

He laughed. "You didn't do that, right?"

"Ah, yes, believe me, I did." I chuckled. "Oh, and Dom...?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I asked for half of the payment he had promised me."

"Payment for what?"

"Oh, didn't I mention that last night? Well, he promised me half a million Dollars if I would lure you and your team into his house." I grinned.

"He promised what? Good grief, for that money I would kill the team myself..." He laughed, obviously joking. "And, what did he say?"

"Well, let me put it this way - there are 250,000 Dollars in a bag under the passenger seat of the Pacer..."

"You're shitting me, right?"

"Believe me, I'm far from shitting you."

"And you left that car outside?" He shouted and ran off before I could respond.

About two minutes later he came back with the bag, grinning like a madman.

"See, you're worth much to someone." I smiled. "I wondered what to do with the money? Should I tell the police about it?"

"I'd say keep it as some kind of insurance until this whole thing is over." He said. "If you still feel any need to hand that over to the police afterwards, fine, do it."

"You know that if anything happens to any of you, then this would be blood money and I would by no means keep it, right?" I said.

"Well if you put it this way then you'll have to share it with all of us if nothing happens."

"You're greedy!" I laughed.

"Greedy for some sleep, yes." He yawned. "And we'll have to get up again at half past one if the FBI arrive at two to examine your pendant. Damn, we really need sleep."

"Go, have your shower, I'll warm the bed." I smiled.

"You go do that." He smiled back and started to take off his clothes.

That night's meeting was, again, chaotic, but slowly but surely I got used to this. I gave them the information they needed, about time and place of the 'party', and Bilkins promised to come up with a plan for that day. Two days, I thought, just two more days...

I took into consideration that this might be the last two days for all the members of the team together if anything went wrong on that day. The faces of the others told me that they, obviously, were thinking the same.

"Say, folks - what about taking tomorrow's night off? I mean, another day for Bilkins to come up with a plan, and one night for us to have some kind of get together without the whole FBI on our necks."

"I'd love that." Dom said.

"Me too." Sway sighed. "I could need some distraction from that whole shit."

"And me! I hate not to be able to step into my own garage any more, having to pretend it's Dom's." Memphis laughed.

"Perfect with me." Bilkins said. "Better tomorrow night than the night after - I want you all well slept and sober on the day after..."

"So - what could we do?" I asked. "Say, Memphis - that racetrack on which I raced the Charger - any chance that this would be for rent at night? I saw they have some nice floodlights there. We could race our cars, get together, have fun..."

"Brilliant, but they're expensive." Memphis sighed. "You'd have to pay a shitload of money, Dom, and I really mean much."

"Oh, never mind, we'll take care of that." Dom said after looking at me for a moment and getting my barely noticeable, but approving nod. "Memphis, meet you on the track at ten in the morning, you know those people better. That night is something no money will take from us, and I'll make it real, no matter what it costs." On the questioning look from Bilkins, he casually added "I have two or three racecars I could sell; together they'll bring well over a hundred thousand. Guess that's enough?"

"Probably." Memphis smiled. I caught the strange look Vince was casting at Dom, but shook my head to him. Don't ask.

"Good, so it's working on the cars tomorrow by day and racing by night." Letty grinned. "Oh, how I've missed that!"

"Yeah, and we could make one or two funny videos of Vince driving the Charger." I laughed.

Yes, Verone's blood money would be put to a good use on that track. Definitely.