Hi everyone, I will be trying to update weekly (once a week). Right now, i'm at a pretty good start. Thank you so much for the reviews! I mean WOW, I was blown away by your responses (loooooove to read them).
Again, this is an un-beta work, sorry for any grammar mistakes. Enjoy.
Letty woke up with a jolt. She breathed in a shaky sigh before moving to the edge of her bed and standing. Through the thick venetian curtains, she could see a sliver of sunlight. Letty figured that it had to be close to 9:00am, if the sun had already risen. She groggily stepped over her rumpled clothes from yesterday and slowly dragged herself to the kitchen.
After relocating to London, it took Letty several months to find an affordable flat. She thankfully snagged one with help from a former/current employer, up until then, she had been living in her car. The place she snagged was half a loft, residing on the third floor of a building near Hyde Park. For living single by herself, it suited her needs fine and was spacious enough for company.
Reaching her open kitchen, Letty reached into a cupboard to fish out a bag of ground coffee. She placed the bag on the counter and went to get a tea kettle.
'Knock knock'.
Letty turned towards the door of her flat, she glanced at a wall clock, 9:10am, now who would be up at this hour? She placed the kettle on the stove and walked over to the door. Looking in the peep-hole all she could see was red. This made Letty grin. She undid the locks and opened the door.
"Pan, what are you doing here?"
The man, Pan, smiled with a boyish grin before bowing politely. He was tall and slender, with fiery orange hair. He had a long chiseled face, pale skin, with a long nose and hazel eyes.
"Leticia love, how are you?" He said, then gazed at her sleeping attire with slight confusion. "You're not ready yet?"
Letty moved out the way as he walked in. "Ready?"
Pan smiled as he waltzed into her flat, there was a slight tremor to his gait, but it didn't seem to stop his confident persona. Letty noted the cane he carried in his hand and the fact that he wasn't using it. "Darling, it's quite late. Almost tea-time in fact."
"It's nine o'clock in the morning Pan."
"Exactly."
"Or just maybe you're here because your sooo bored, with your luxurious, lonely and dreary life."
"Sticks and stones, love."
He walked over to the kitchen and sniffed the air. "Really Leticia, Coffee?" He asked grimacing.
Letty shrugged as she went back to the kettle, she filled it half up with water before putting it on the stove and turning the burner to high heat.
"It wakes me up," she confessed.
Pan kept his disgusted look as she grabbed two mugs from another cupboard.
"I have tea too."
His face immediately lit up as he sat at the kitchen island across from Letty. "But honestly Leticia, why aren't you dressed?"
Letty half glared. "Did we have a date that I didn't know about?"
"Not really."
"Pan, not everyone is a morning person like you."
The man's face fell. "I know, its quite sad."
Letty chuckled. "What do you want?"
"Why aren't you dressed?" He asked ignoring her question.
"Pan."
"You have Earl Grey Tea, correct?"
"PAN."
"Just a sugar cube please."
"PAN!"
The English man smiled, before clearing his throat. It was a habit of his, to piss her off at some point during their meetings. "Are you still in the 'Shaw' contract?"
Letty crossed her arms, clearly annoyed at the current subject. "Unfortunately yes. Just three days left."
"Three days of what?" He asked curiously.
"You know I can't talk about it," she answered. "Shaw is extremely paranoid at the moment because some hotshot cop is on his trail."
Pan frowned. "I hope that doesn't include you."
The kettle started to whistle and Letty turned off the burner and moved it to another. She shook her head as she placed the steaming water in a mug and handed it to Pan. "No, I'm just there for the cars, but I want out asap."
Pan nodded. "Indeed," he said taking the cup. "I came here to see if you wanted to do a job for me," he said in a more serious tone.
"What exactly?"
"My auction," replied Pan. "Just a simple get-together with the worlds most eager entrepreneurs."
"Entrepreneurs are NOT simple."
Letty placed a teabag in Pans mug. She could see the boyish smile return. "You make it simple, love. I'll pay you the usual, of course, for the knowledge in that noggin," he said tapping his own head.
Letty pulled out her french press and dumped some of her ground coffee inside, next she poured hot water. "When?"
"Tonight."
She stopped and looked at him. "You know I don't overlap on contracts."
Pan nodded. "Yes, yes, I'll pay you an extra fee for the inconvenience…but Leticia, this is important. We are getting a large shipment with top of line products, I need you to butter the patrons up."
Letty slowly stirred the mixture, pondering. "Throw in a car and you got a deal."
Pan started to sputter and choke, which caused Letty to smile even more.
"Are you mad?!" He asked.
"That's my cost," she said shrugging.
With a low grumble the red-head agreed.
Han checked his reservation and let out another deep breath. He could see his girl inside the cafe, getting a small croissant and danish roll. The pick-up would be within five minutes, the meeting, extremely confidential and location unknown. Han was lucky to even find the 'drop' point to get this particular invitation. But apparently miracles did happen, and he was here, waiting for their ride to a party that only millionaires would be invited too. Even though, Han guessed that did apply to him and Gisselle now in their current financial standings.
The buzz of his phone knocked him out of his thoughts and he immediately answered it, without looking at the caller ID.
"Han," he answered.
"Yo, it's Brian."
Han turned back to Gisele. He smiled at the looks she was getting from the regulars. She was extremely over dressed, but looked like a greek goddess. Perfect for what he had in store.
"How are you Brian?" He asked still following her movements.
"Not as good as I hoped."
The answer snapped Han back to reality. His gaze flickered around the street, alleyways and back to the cafe. He walked anxiously over to the store's entrance. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing too bad. But we need you and Gisele here to help out."
Han relaxed. "Where's 'here'?"
"London."
Han paused and gave a light laugh. "That should be easy. We're already 'here'."
There was a pause on the receiving in. "Do I even want to know?"
"I can't give you too many details, but I will once it's over. Send me the address and we'll be on our way tomorrow."
"Alright, thanks man. See yah soon."
The phone ended with a click.
"What's funny?" Asked Gisele in her thick accent as she gazed at Han's smirking face.
"We have to go see the family tomorrow."
She nodded looking slightly surprised. "Is everything okay?"
"I think so. Brian sounded normal, we'll see."
Moments later, a black unmarked car pulled up beside them. From the front passenger seat a man in all black wearing a cabbies hat walked around to open the door.
"Mr. Hayashi." He stated.
Han nodded and ushered Gisele in first before stepping into the car himself. The door was closed behind them. Seconds later the man was back in the passenger seat and turned to them with two champagne glasses. "Compliments from your host," he said smoothly. "We will be arriving in several minutes."
Gisele smiled, taking her glass and turned to Han curiously. He could tell she was clearly impressed. "Are you going to tell me what this is?"
"In time," he said.
"Cocky bastard," she mumbled with a small smile.
They drove in silence sipping on there glasses until they reached a deserted alleyway. From behind and in-front of them, two cars identical to there own emerged. They all assembled in a neat line and stopped at a dead end. From what Han could tell, they were near the waterfront, in the warehouse district. Han counted a dozen of cars in-front and behind them. They all turned to face a solid wall and cut off their lights.
His phoned buzzed again and he gazed at the address where O'Connor was located. The rest of the crew would already be with him or on the way.
"Thats interesting," he heard Gisele murmur as she gazed ahead.
Han looked up to see the solid walls of the stone wall lift up to show a garage of some sort. Each car was positioned in front of one. Without hesitation they all drove in, disappearing in the gloom.
When Dom opened his eyes, he already knew that this was a dream. The water was too crystal blue, the beach to white and the sun, it was just right, something that just couldn't exist in his current mind set. He was standing on the beach, gazing at the sea, wondering exactly why he was there.
"Ride or die, right?" Came her voice from the left.
Dom bit his lip before turning to her. She was a sight to see, beautiful, healthy and alive.
"Right, Lett," he almost choked.
His weak answer seemed to get 'dream' Letty's attention. "Ah, so you're really starting to feel it now."
"What?"
"Guilt."
Dom said nothing for a while, all he did was stare. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you. I was wrong."
Dream Letty shuffled her feet and looked down. "It's too late for sorry's Dom."
"It may not be."
"Holding on to me being alive than?"
Dom turned fully toward her. "I have too."
Letty gazed at him with that piercing stare. It was the 'no-bullshit' look. Something he hadn't seen in years and surprisingly had missed, even if it was directed at him.
"Don't lie to me, Dom. You have a new life. A new girl. You left me."
He sucked in a breath and reached out to her and cupped her face. "I was stupid."
"You're damn right."
Dom chuckled. "That doesn't mean that I didn't stop thinking about you."
"It doesn't make it right."
Dom sighed and rubbed his head. "I wanted a better life for you. I wanted you alive and thriving."
Letty frowned. "Yet, here I am…dead. I died by myself, alone and you were nowhere in sight."
Dom's heart constricted at her brutal words. "You're alive," he said more forcefully.
Dominic woke up feeling worse then before. It had been a long time since he had a dream of Letty. He wondered why he had stopped in the first place, but as soon as he asked the question, he already knew the answer. Elena. She made him forget and be satisfied with his life. Before the discovery of Letty, Dom had worked hard to move on, with Elena, and now here he was, a wreck and in search of his soulmate.
After four days of searching, the team hadn't spotted anyone that had a single resemblance of her. They all complied with Hobbs's needs, but all were getting restless. The team was started to wonder if Letty was truly alive or was this just a way for Hobbs to acquire their services. They already had several run-ins with a man named 'Shaw', Hobbs was pleased, but the cop knew he was on a thin line and he doubled his efforts to find any traces of Letty to satisfy the others.
'He's just keeping appearances.' complained Brian yesterday. 'Hobbs wants us to think that his team is doing everything he can to find Letty. To keeps us doing the dirty work.'
Based on the cops actions, the statement seemed to be true, but Dom didn't want to believe that it was. He wanted to keep on searching for Letty. Either way, Dom and Brian decided that they would leave Hobbs's service with or without a spotting of Letty.
Dom slowly got up from the bed and walked to the lofts main room. He saw ahead O'Connor fiddling with his phone next to several huge bay windows.
"Hey," he said walking up to Brian.
O' Connor turned slightly and gave a small smile. "Hey, can't sleep?"
Dom shrugged. "A lot on my mind. What you doing up so late?"
Brian lifted up his phone. "Finally got through to Han, he'll be joining us tomorrow," he answered. "I was just sending him the address."
"Gisele with him?"
Brian broke out with a smug grin. "Is that even a question?"
Dom chuckled and gazed out at the city. The only lighting in the room was from Tej's computer with the search program he had initiated several days ago. Dom was told about the program about two days ago and there were still no signs of Letty.
"So how you really feeling?" Asked Brian.
Dom glanced at him. "I'm okay, just anxious," he responded. "I hate waiting, and Shaw doesn't seem as connected to Letty as Hobbs hinted."
"We going out?"
Dom shook his head. "Not yet. But we're close to bailing if we don't find any leads in a few days."
"That will be difficult to tell Hobbs," Brian admitted.
"We had a deal, and he isn't keeping up his bargain. It's plain and simple."
"That's not good enough reason for a cop."
"We've run from cops before and we've out-smarted him before," pointed out Dom. "It won't be hard to do again."
Brian nodded, they both stood there for several minutes looking at the city in the darkness. The peaceful silence was broken when Brian's phone started to buzz uncontrollably. Giving an apologetic look to Dom he quickly answered it.
"Yo…Hey Han, whats up?….Wait what?… Woah, woah, slow down, I can barely hear you." Dom watched the conversation with mild interest. He cocked his head to the side when Brian's eyes widened and the other turned to look his way.
"Are you sure?" Asked Brian anxiously.
His eyes were as large as saucers. "Send me a picture okay…Yea….just keep a visual. Where are you?"
Dom was starting to get concerned at the franticness in Brian's voice. The man quickly headed over to Tej's monitors and turned on two other screens. He brought up Google Maps and clicked on 'search'.
"What do you mean you don't know?….You gotta be kidding me Han…" He continued shoulders slumping. "Do you have any idea where you are?"
Dom moved over to nervous man, now alert and face riddled with concern. Brian growled in frustration and turned to Dom. "Can you give me anything?…A cafe?…What's it called?…Abbey Mews?…Warehouses…okay, I'll start searching. Just keep a visual and send me the pic…yea, text me….okay….bye."
Brian hung up the phone and and gazed at the computer screens for a few seconds in silence.
"Is everything okay?" Asked Dom.
The other man was suddenly alert and at that second Brian's phone buzzed again. He unlocked the screen and glanced at its contents. The blonde man exhaled out a long breath and held up his phone for Dom to see. The screen showed a picture of a woman. She was in a black tailored dress that flowed down her body like water. She looked professional, but sexy, with her hair in a tight but stylish bun. Cupped in her arm was a clipboard, while in her other hand she help a champagne flute.
Only minor changes by age and weight made her look different, but Dom knew who she was. Letty.
Thanks for reading!
Q
