Fast Lane ━━ Brian O'Conner ¹

𝟬𝟰. constraints of triviality

CHAPTER FOUR
falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

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    𝐁rian flipped on Josephine Toretto's police file that night she took him home. His lawful duties haunting him like the ghosts of his past. There was an uncomfortable lump in his throat as his wavering eyes glossed over the words on the paper. Words that didn't mean anything. At least not anymore. Not after tonight. Because Josephine was anything but the words on this paper that other people━strangers, the law━wrote. Nothing at all.

     Her police file wasn't like Dominic's, but she had a few on them that got her on the local police's watchlist. Like that one time when she was thirteen and boosted a man's brand new Ferrari only to crash it into a brick wall where she had said in her statement in exact words:  An arrogant rich prick who has a really shit taste in cars.

     Then there was also that time she rammed into her former teacher's sedan with a stolen 1973 Buick Centurion at fourteen. Teenage Josephine Toretto was a handful. Brian wondered how Dominic had handled her. Then again, it seemed like the girl knew how to handle herself just fine.

     Other than the illegal street racing, there were a few other petty crimes on her file that he didn't bother to read again. He already did. A few times. Yet not a single one of them seemed to change his mind about her.

     His eyes drifted to the underlined words at the bottom of her file. Josephine was a witness to Kenny Linder's assault. She had been there when her older brother attacked him and watched as Dominic bashed the man repeatedly with a wrench in a fit of uncontrolled rage. Josephine had been too young to stop them or protect Dominic from the man's taunting words before her brother brought it upon himself to avenge their dead father.

    Brian clenched his jaw, fighting between his morals and the thought of Dominic doing just what he thought was right. His hands quickly shut the file close before his thoughts escalated. He shouldn't let his feelings get the best of him. He knew it will bite him back in the ass later, but Brian was too stubborn to ignore Josephine Toretto's existence whenever she stands there looking like the devil in disguise with that mischievous look in her hazel eyes and that angelic smile.

     Josephine was having the time of her life under the hood of her car when she heard somebody pull up in front of the garage. Other than Mia's voice complaining about what she was going to do with the parts and service to Dominic━the sound of machines whirring and electrical saws went off in the decent four-cornered auto shop they liked to call home.

     She slid out from under the car, a wrench in her hand, and squinted her eyes at the doorway. There was a silver truck parked on the driveway with what looked like a trash of a car. She could barely call it a car from how burned and beat-up it looked. The only recognizable thing about was the chipping and darkening red paint on the body and it was barely even sticking to the vehicle.

     "What the hell is that?" Josephine scoffed as she stood up from the floor. She followed everybody closer to the truck just as Brian appeared next to it. Her brows raised. "Of course, it's you."

     Brian flashed her a boyish grin. "Hey, Jo."

     "All right, what the hell is this?" Dominic muttered, leaning against the wall as he judged the car. "What do you got there?"

     Brian gestured proudly at the junk on the back of the truck. "This is your car."

     "My car?" Dominic looked both amused and incredulous but that didn't seem to wipe the grin off the blond's face. "I said a ten-second car, not a ten-minute car."