Be All, End All

Darynn had a hard time believing that this day had started out so badly. Had she really punched this guy in the face for calling her a name? And in Spanish. If she hadn’t understood she wouldn’t have taken offense anyway.

For nearly two hours they raced her car back and forth. Vince showed her a stretch of blacktop among some fields where there was virtually no danger of anyone pulling into their path. She let him drive too, and they challenged each other to a faster quarter. In the end he beat her time by a hundredth of a second. And gloat he did.

As they drove back to the garage she smiled to herself thinking of the change they’d made.

In a lull in the conversation she spoke, “I really am sorry about this morning.”

“Forget about it. I’ve had worse than that little tap.” As he teased her he lifted his arm. She thought it was just an unconscious movement, but then she saw the interior lights reflecting off scars on his arm.

“Shit, V, what did you do?” She turned on the map light and gripped his bicep, turning his arm to see the scars better. A quarter inch wide and criss-crossing over one another going all the way round, and all the way down his arm. Now that she was inspecting it she could see that the muscles themselves were misshapen slightly by the damage. The tattoos there were damaged as well, the scars blotting out large portions of the detail.

“Had an accident,” he said noncommittally and knowing men as well as she did she could tell he was trying to play it down. She noticed too that he had no problem at all with her touching him.

“An accident? It looks like you almost lost your arm.” She realized she might be crossing the line into flirting, but she couldn’t help tracing her fingers over the raised skin where it doubled up on the soft skin just below his elbow. “How long did this take to heal?”

“Coupla months.”

“I bet.” She sat back in her seat and shoved the map light away. “You’re not going to tell me how it happened, are you?”

“Not important.”

He pulled the car to a stop where it had been before, facing the wrong way against the curb opposite the house. They climbed out to see Dom standing in the driveway staring across at them. He didn’t look overly pleased.

“What the fuck you two been doin?” he nearly yelled, whether to be heard or because he was angry she couldn’t tell.

Vince circled the car and pressed the keys into her hand. “Take off, I’ll deal with this,” he told her in a low voice.

Darynn frowned. Like hell! She didn’t understand why Dom might be angry. Wasn’t she ‘one of the team’ now?

“There was no more blood shed, what’s it matter what we were doin’?” she asked.

“Suddenly you two are best friends?” Dom asked as he came across the street.

Darynn shrugged, “Would that be a problem?”

“Darynn, settle down. I’ll handle this,” Vince told her again.

She humfed, “Handle what? There’s nothing to handle. And if there was ya ain’t shoving me aside. Now what’s the problem here?”

“You two were at each other’s throats this morning. I thought you’d fuckin’ left, and then I find you comin’ back here together?”

Darynn couldn’t help smiling. Hadn’t she just been thinking how strange it was? “Yeah, so?”

“Dom, we just went for a drive.”

Darynn felt like she was stepping in and out of the twilight zone. For brief moments through her day things seemed completely normal and then WHAM something was just *off*. Vince placating Dom with explanations of where they had gone was right at the top of weird at the moment. On his own V seemed like a big boy, but in front of Dom she got the impression of a whining puppy. Was he gonna pee himself if Dom yelled again?

“Team, huh?”

She hadn’t realized she’d spoken out loud until they both turned to look at her, various degrees of surprise and accusation on their faces.

“What the fuck did you just say?”

If Dom didn’t outweigh her by a hundred pounds or so she probably would have laughed. The situation was getting out of hand for something so ridiculous. Having his large body leaning over her kept the impulse in check.

“This a team. Right, *Dom*?” she asked too sweetly. “One for all, all for one, and all that bullshit. What’s it matter what I was doing or we were doing or anything for that matter. We both came back alive, which a coupla hours ago didn’t seem possible. Now, if this is a lover’s quarrel and I’m getting in the way, then I’ll fuckin’ leave and not say another word, but otherwise I think you should shut the fuck up.”

Laughter nearly bubbled again at the look of rage on his face. She thought he’d hit her, no warning, no quarter, just lay her out, but then he turned and left them. The front door slammed seconds later and she was left to smile without risk of bodily damage.

“Darynn, you gotta learn to shut your fuckin’ mouth,” Vince told her, though he was still looking after Dom.

“Why?”

“Ever heard the expression ‘tiger by the tail’?”

She laughed then, releasing the stressed hilarity she’d been holding in. “This place is fucked. I’m not holdin’ my tongue for nobody. Flesh heals, tantrums end. I only live once. I ain’t takin’ your shit or his shit, or anybody else’s. Fuck that. I’d rather get whooped for saying what I want than dancin’ around it.”

Vince just shook his head, smiling at her, “Welcome to the team, but I think this could get rough. And what made you say lovers?”

She shrugged. There was a subject she’d dance around! “Just struck me as odd, him caring at all. Think he’s inside pouting? Should I take him out for a coupla hours?”

“Shit, no. You go in now and I’ll be diggin’ a grave in the back yard. Call it a day. See ya tomorrow.”

She nodded, “Alright. Whatever. Was tryin’ to get outta here on my *first* day without making any enemies. So much for that.” Looking at the house gave her no answers so she just jingled her keys and turned away. “Night, V.”

“Night.”