This is just a filler really. More good stuff coming soon, just stick with me. Please leave me some feedback.
Chapter 4- In Too Deep
"Where is his father?" Luke asked without any reluctance, tearing into his steak while waiting for her response.
Letty was so caught off guard by Luke's question of Dom's whereabouts that she could feel her hand tightening around her beer bottle. Her hands were shaky as she released her hold on the innocent beverage and sat it gently on the table.
Sighing, Letty cleared her throat before speaking, "That is the million-dollar question."
Luke quirked a confused brow, "You don't know who his dad is?"
"Oh I know exactly who he is. I just have no fucking clue where he is," Letty responded through clenched teeth.
"Whoa," Luke sat back in his chair with guilt. "Your entire aura changed. This guy a scumbag?"
Dominic was the last thing Letty wanted to discuss, especially while on a date with another guy. The range of emotions his name sent her through was enough to have her running for the hills, but Letty wouldn't run this time. She had to face her demons eventually.
"Something like that. We were together since we were teens, eight long years. We were Bonnie and Clyde. I stuck by his side through everything until I woke up one morning and he was gone. We were in a lot of trouble, he said it'd be better for me, safer if he wasn't around," Letty looked down in a lost daze. "I haven't seen or heard from him since."
Letty didn't realize she was crying until she felt Luke's thumb wipe away the tears falling from her eyes. She smiled sadly and quickly down the rest of her drink, shaking off her broken-heart again.
Even on a date, the fucker manages to screw me over.
"So he doesn't know about Julian?"
Letty covered her face with her hands, hoping to wipe away all the negative emotions her ex-lover caused. She hated that he still had such a strong hold on her mental state. Letty never let any man have such pull on her and she hated herself for letting such an arrogant prick like Dominic Toretto do so.
She shook her head, "I found out a few weeks after he left."
"That's some tough shit, girl. He's missing out on a great kid and an amazingly beautiful woman."
Luke's words made her heart flutter and Letty could feel the heat rising from her chest. It had been a while since she felt beautiful, and even longer since she heard someone say it.
Dom used to call me that every day, Letty thought.
"Wanna go get the munchkin? I'm stuffed," Luke said, looking down at the crumbs and bones of the meals they devoured just a while earlier.
"Yeah, man. Those wings were awesome, though. Thanks for bringing me here," she smiled warmly as he tossed a few bills as a tip on the table.
"Oi! Pretty lady! I see the boy didn't scare you off yet," Rodrigo smiled as he parked the Mazda in front of the restaurant and handed over the keys.
Letty wrapped her arm around his waist and gave Rodrigo a sultry smile, "Oh no, Rodrigo. I'm gonna take him home and do dirty, filthy things to him. Ciao."
She laughed as Luke practically pushed her into the car and ran around to the driver side. Letty looked over at the bashful look on Rodrigo's face and gave him a wink before they sped off towards Benita's.
Leon groaned as he finally came to, cradling his head in agony. His body ached all over and he felt like his head was in the center of a bass drum. He tried to remember why he was in so much pain, but the wreckage of furniture and personal belongings in his home quickly refreshed his memory. Not to mention the strong taste of copper in his mouth.
Leon succeeded in dragging his pained body to an upright position, careful not to move too fast to keep the room from spinning. He used a nearby chair to hoist himself up and stagger to the kitchen, yanking open the stainless-steel freezer. He pulled out the first frozen food he saw – chicken fingers – and clinched them against his aching ribs. Leon grabbed another cold bag, this time of frozen veggies, and hoped it would ease his throbbing headache. He popped a few painkillers and made his way back to the room where he was previously tortured, stopping in front of the photographs on the floor. Leon could feel the tears pricking at his eyes, but he blinked them away quickly.
His breath hitched as he looked over the pictures again, this time carefully examining each photo. He hadn't seen either of the people in the pictures in years. He had been to Letty's funeral; he had no clue that she was, in fact, very alive and with child, nonetheless. The last he heard of her was that she was killed during a race.
And Luke...well Leon hadn't seen his own brother in two years since his father's funeral.
What the hell have I drug them into? Leon thought repeatedly as he flopped down on his plush, creme-colored sofa. How the hell do I get out of this one?
Leon picked up the pictures and his cell phone before stepping out onto the balcony of his condo in Colombia. His eyes gazed over at the beautiful Caribbean surf; it brought back memories of the team's weekly beach trips and how close they grew during a few hours in the sand. Now, he had no clue where half of the team was, or if any were in prison or even still alive.
After the semi heists in L.A, Leon fled to Baja, Mexico with Dom and Letty until the heat back home died down. He wanted to wait with Jesse, hoping he'd pull through after the attack from Tran so they could flee down south with the others. But when he received the news from Mia that his best pal Jesse had succumbed to his injuries just a week later, Leon bolted again. Completely distraught, he bounced in and out of the U.S before finally landing in Miami, Florida. There, he reconnected with his father Leonard Sr. and his baby brother, Lucas.
The two men were close as children, with Lucas being only three years younger than Leon. Leon harbored hatred for his parents splitting them up, but that didn't stop him from calling every day or going to visit during the summers.
Leon stayed with Luke for over two years before moving on to the Dominic Republic, where he met up with Dom and Letty again. The three manned a small garage with the help of two outsiders, Tego and Rico. But when Han showed up, Leon knew this reunion wasn't to hang out – Dom wanted to go back to "work". Leon promised himself after Jesse passed that he was done with Dominic's schemes, so he left again. This time to Colombia where Vince was living with his girlfriend, Rosa and working odd jobs in the housing complex in which they lived. The two friends took the Spanish country by storm, racing and beating every contender on the scene while enjoying the steady cash flow. But when V got wind of a big-payoff job, he and Rosa split, leaving Leon alone once again.
Being alone in a foreign country took its toll on Leon. He built a makeshift team of racers, they were okay, but nothing like Team Toretto. The muscle of the crew, a rowdy white guy named James, was dealing cocaine at the races, earning the crew extra cash for car parts and upgrades. After feverishly being convinced that the highly-addictive drug was a performance-enhancer not only in bed but on the blacktop by James, Leon began each night by snorting thick white lines of the drug. He admitted, the adrenaline rush he received while high in a race only pushed him further into the addiction, but now he was in too deep.
Flashback
"Oh shit Leo! Look at all this pretty, white money!" James said happily as he and the crew stood around their new shipment of Colombian cocaine: two kilos packed tightly in clear wrapping.
"Can I do the honors?" Leon smiled, standing with his pocket knife ready to sample their product. The gang cheered as he cut into the brick, scooping just enough to intensify his racing rush. They watched as Leon happily indulged himself in the substance, passing the knife around for everyone to enjoy.
"This is good shit, so it won't be hard to push at the races tonight. Carlos and Jerry, you two are dealing tonight," he said to the only Colombian natives of the team. "Red, I need you on the scanners. We can't have any bullshit like last week, though, with the cops busting in 'cause you were too busy getting your rocks off. Jorgie is facing a shit ton of prison time now that he got busted. Stay focused."
The fiery red-head rolled her eyes, "Bite me, Leo. You're just mad that chica went home with me and not you," she smiled, picking her fingernails with her own knife. "Besides, Jorgie was a screw-up anyways. He got busted because he sold to an undercover. Not because I was picking up chicks."
"Whatever," Leon waved her off. He wasn't in the mood to go at it with the strong-willed lesbian. She was worse than Letty, he always thought. "James and I will do the racing."
"When am I gonna get to race man? I'm ready to get out there," Jerry, a professional computer hacker, asked.
"I need you and Carlos out there with the crowd tonight. You guys are the only ones who can communicate with the locals without sounding like a total idiot. You'll get your chance soon, dawg."
That night, Leon and his dysfunctional crew ruled the races, providing the best quality high and entertainment for the entire night. When Leon and his restored bright yellow '97 Nissan Supra were up to bat, a newcomer with a dirty beard and a bad accent joined him at the line.
"Last race is always special circumstances. You up for that, big guy?" Leon questioned with glazed eyes. He was very much enjoying his high and he couldn't wait to add unadulterated speed to it. The brute only smiled and leaned closer to his black Porsche Carrera GT with his arms crossed. "Pinks."
The man's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and with a quick look at the car, he recovered and put on his smug smile again. He shrugged as if to say it made no difference to him, and Leon could smell victory in his near future.
"Man of few words huh? Very smart tactic," Leon smiled before slipping inside is Supra.
The two suped-up rides lined up and Leon looked over at the beautiful car one last time before they flew off the line towards the finish. The battle was back and forth and momentarily Leon worried if he was about to lose his precious ride, but all worry was washed away when he activated his NOS and launched his car over the line a car length ahead of the Porsche.
When everyone returned back to the start, the black car was no where to be found.
"That pussy ducked out, Le. You won that fair and square," James griped to Leon. He hated people who reneged on race conditions.
"Don't sweat it, J. We'll see him around," Leon said, calming his easily-angered friend. Leon had seen it many times; clowns with enough mouth to toss up their slips, but once the race was over, they didn't have the balls to hand another man the keys to their car.
The team partied later that night at their tiny three-bedroom place, enjoying every skirt, beer, and powdered line that crossed their paths. After calling it a night, on the route to drop off some female company, Leon and James spotted "his" new Porsche at a stoplight.
"Cocksucker," Leon muttered as he pulled up behind it. Leon reached into the glove box and pulled out his .9mm handgun.
"Go get your car. I'll drive," James said from the passenger seat.
Leon cocked the chamber back and approached the rear of the car slowly. He aimed his weapon at the man's shocked face through the window and yanked the door open.
"We meet again. Where you headed, buddy?" he asked with fake sincerity as he grabbed the giant by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out of the vehicle.
"You're making a fatal mistake," the driver said, standing next the car as Leon got in.
"Then fuck off before I make another," he growled in annoyance, pointing his gun at the man's head. He held his ground until the man with the weird accent took off running down the road.
End of flashback
"Fuck!" Leon yelled with frustration from the balcony.
Staggering back through the sliding doors and snatching his keys from the marble island in the kitchen, Leon stormed out of his place like a mad man and made his way to the parking garage. He pressed the button to locate his baby and smiled when she lit up the entire garage. He ran to the Supra and slipped in, speeding out of the garage. He dialed a familiar number on his cell, but received no answer.
"Luke! Pick up!" Leon yelled at the automated answering machine on the other in.
He knew he had a month before Koenig would go after his family, but he didn't trust that the kingpin hadn't already killed them. Frustrated, Leon threw his phone in the back seat and sped to his crew's warehouse.
He was definitely going to need some help.