Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from The Fast and The Furious. This is done all in fun. There is NO profit from it.
The house was painted a pale green, the lawn lush and the walkway was lined with soft colored flowers. Various toys were strewn across the lawn suggesting that children lived there now. It was obviously a home. It just wasn't his home anymore.
He'd taken his first steps there, learned how to ride a bike on the sidewalk in front. Not long after that he'd changed the oil in his father's truck for the first time. That was all that it had taken for him to be hooked. After that he'd spent as much time as he could out back with his dad. It had delighted him to be able to share his passion with his son.
Anthony Toretto had always been a passionate man. He was a dedicated father and husband, a loyal friend and a hard worker. Dom had always been proud of his father even at a young age because he'd realized that the traits were rare. He'd wanted nothing more than to be like his father. Things didn't always turn out the way that you wanted them to.
Anthony had worked hard to make the garage and diner a success, to provide for his family and once he was certain that he had he'd allowed himself to pursue his dream. He'd always wanted to race and he was good at it. He was a natural behind the wheel but his natural abilities and learned skills hadn't been able to save him. He'd died doing what he loved best. Maybe that counted for something.
Even the memory made his hands curl into tight fists. The rage that had existed in him that day still simmered beneath the surface but he'd never release it again. As pleasurable as the release had been it had cost him entirely too much. The loss of freedom, being locked in a cage like an animal and treated as such had almost been enough to break him. It undoubtedly would have broken him if not for Mia. Sweet Mia who had been on her way to college and then medical school, already on the fast track because of her brains and determination. Now she worked under an assumed name in a factory that shipped out merchandise to various dollar stores around the country.
It was a waste of her education and mind but she never complained. She never complained about anything including the way he'd lost everything, wasted the legacy left behind by their parents. He'd lost it all because he'd been greedy. What he'd had hadn't felt like enough. It wasn't enough to win races, have fans, be regarded as the king of the streets. He wanted more. He'd needed a bigger rush and he'd found it in a scheme to rob trucks.
He'd gotten involved with some shady people never once even considering that he might just be in over his head. He was Dominic Toretto after all. There wasn't anything that he couldn't handle. He'd enlisted his family, every single living soul he cared about, luring them in with the promise of big money and a better life.
It was never that simple.
The scheme that was supposed to make them all rich, make everything better hadn't done that. It had taken Jesse's life just as much as the bullets fired from the Tran's guns. The kid had died afraid, in Mia's arms and Dominic couldn't help but think that it was his fault.
Sometimes he thought that Jesse had gotten off easy, dying had been the end of everything for him. It seemed like dying had to be easier than living. The once close knit group has scattered like leaves in the wind not being able to risk being together. Vince had gone to jail, the only one of them to get caught he'd been sentenced stiffly and any leniency that he'd received had come in later years. The overcrowded prison system had given him the chance for parole. He'd been out for a few weeks.
Dominic had his new address tucked into his wallet. Hector had given it to him. He'd considered going there but what could he say? Sorry that one of your arms is damn near useless because you were hanging off the side of a truck for me? It didn't seem right.
Leon was still Leon, living and working in Key West. Word was he had his own shop, a steady girl and raced when the mood struck him.
Letty. Dom hated to even think her name. Letty was living the American dream with two kids, picket fence and small yapping dog not to mention a husband. She had everything that she'd always said she never wanted.
A tap at the window startled him. He glanced over to see a man standing there. "Can I help you?" The man questioned and Dom realized that he'd been sitting outside long enough to draw attention to himself.
There was a time when he would have snapped an answer in reply and violence would have been a definite opinion but he didn't need any more attention. "No I was just going. I had a phone call and it distracted me. Women." He said simply with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "What can you do with them?"
"I hear that." The man said with more ease to his tone.
Dom smiled in response and fired up the engine to the sedate sedan he'd rented. He eased away from the curb and onto the street. Memory took him through the twists and turns of the neighborhood and he wondered why he'd even allowed himself to come back.