Letty laid next to Zan reading to him from Alice in Wonderland, "...Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well." She closed the book.
"You just started." Zan whined.

"Sorry, bedtime Kiddo. Next time when I tell you to shut off video games maybe you'll listen." She placed a kiss on the top of his head. "Night."

The boy sighed. "Night."

Letty joined Mia on the couch watching TV. "What we watching?" She asked pulling her knees to her chin.

"The French Connection." Mia replied.

Letty couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the night. First Zan wanted to read Alice in Wonderland about a girl who got in over her head going blindly down a rabbit hole and now Mia watching a movie about cops on the trail of a heroin shipment. Mia looked at her funny. Mia had fallen asleep before the best part of the movie the car chase scene through the city. Letty shook her gently to wake her after the movie.

"Is it over?" Mia yawned looking to Letty.

"Yep. You look tired."
"We have this new nursing director who is driving me crazy." Mia stretched out on the couch.

"Go to bed Mia." Letty laughed.

"I'm not tired." She replied between yawns. "Besides we haven't hung out much lately. You've been working at Harry's or on the Charger. I miss you."

"How bout I drop Zan off at Abuelita's one weekend and we can go out."

Mia smiled at the thought of that. "God remember when we use to go out dancing all night? What was the name of that club?"

"Midnight." Letty laughed. "Dom would be waiting for us to get home on the bottom step."

"Where were you guys." Mia imitated Dom cracking up.

Letty waived her finger. "Don't laugh. When you were sleeping soundly in bed I had to hear him whine all night about how you should be studying and I don't need to go out because I have a man."

Mia laughed even harder. "Sorry, Let." She flipped around so her head was resting on Letty's lap. "He changed a lot when he got back. It was like he wasn't my brother anymore." she mused.

Letty found Dom sitting on the porch steps looking up at the stars. It was his first night out of Lompoc and Mia and Vince had thrown him a welcome home party. She took a seat beside him. Dom took her hand and interlocked their fingers. "You're missing Vince doing his Ace Ventura." Letty told him. "I've seen that man's ass one time too many."

He chuckled slightly but then got really quiet. "Everything has changed I don't know where I fit in anymore." He said softly.

She squeezed his hand tighter. "Right here Papi. Things haven't changed that much... Mrs. Carter still wears those short shorts that her ass is too old to wear to water her petunias. Mr. Dowely still refuses to get his muffler fix, even though Vince and I offered to fix if for free, waking up the whole damn neighborhood up at 3 in the morning when he goes to work. Thompson is still complaining about Wu's hedges being too tall..."

Dom chuckled slightly. "Yeah but you guys..." He said looking in her eyes.

Letty put her hands up in protest. "What! We still need you. I mean who else is going to save Vince from those lame ass pick up lines, Mia still needs her big brother and someone to reach the high shelf."

Dom nudged her slightly with his shoulder. "What about you?" He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "You still need me?"

She blushed slightly."Who else am I going to get to watch Return of the Living Dead marathon with me until 4 in the morning." She nudged him back. "Come on... if we hurry Vince will have pulled up his pants by now." She stood holding her hand out for him to take.

Letty left Mia on the couch asleep, she went to check on Zan before she left the house for the races.

The race scene was pretty much like she remembered it. Music blaring, flashy cars, and women wearing napkins as clothings. She felt a little over dressed with her tank and jeans, but she wasn't there to impress. She was there to kick ass. But her insecurity kicked in when she stepped out the car. Usually she had her boys and Mia. That's when it hit her, she was alone in this. No Dom, Vince, Leon or Jesse to get her back if she got in too deep. Letty always prided herself on being independent, but at this moment she could use all the help she could get.

She looked around to see if she could pick out Hector's cousin Remy. She scanned the crowd for the likely candidates. There were a couple of guys that fit the profile, but they didn't have enough flair. She was sure anyone related to Hector would have flair. Then she saw a pack of boys with women draped around them sitting on the most expensive looking cars. Remy had to be in this crowd.

Letty took a deep breath, they couldn't let them see her sweat. "Hey, I'm looking for Remy."

A large, muscular guy grabbed her wrist. "You lookin' for a baby daddy I'm your man."

Letty scoffed and leaned close to the guy and in a soft, sultrily tone. "Even if you were the last man on earth and the re population of man kind depended on you and me producing an offspring I would rather take my chance with a monkey cause at least I would know the kid would be cute."

The guys friends laughed. "Now can one of you tell me where I can find Remy?" She said with her arms crossed.

One of the guys in the group pushed off the car. "You have to be Letty. Tio Hector said you be coming round." He took her away from the others. "Sorry bout my boy Luke, he has a hard time talking to pretty girls."

"Hey Remy, whose this?" A red head asked wrapping her arms round him. "She gonna party with us tonight?"

Remy shook his head no and took the girl off of him. "Naw, sorry boo Letty don't party. But, why don't you go ask Megan."

The girl pouted. "To bad, looks like she plays dirty." She blew a kiss to Letty.

Remy had a huge smile on his face. Letty couldn't help but laugh slightly she was used to the skanks hitting on Dom.

He clapped his hands together. "So I don't know how Tio used to run things but this is how I do it. It's a 3g buy in and a 500 holding fee."

"Holding fee?"
"Yeah it cost money to look this good." He paused a moment. "But since you're a friend of Tio's I'm going to waive the holding fee. Besides I'm looking forward to seeing the queen re take her thrown."

She arched her eyebrow. "Queen?"

"Tio Hector said your man was the king of the streets back in the day, so that would make you the queen." Remy told her. "So how you want to do this? I got three races tonight. The pee wee league basically rich boys in their daddy's car wanting to play bad boy for the night just to get their girl wet. Then there's the minor league wanna bes with decent cars but don't know how to drive. The major league that has my boy Spider. He's the man to beat. Drives a Acura NSX Mugen RR." He pointed to a bright blue car with a skinny kid with a Dodger hat and spider neck tattoo.

Letty thought a moment if she was going to do it she had to go and dive in. It had been three months since Dom left. Zan was still afraid of waking up and finding her gone in the morning, so he kept sleeping in her bed at night. She didn't want that burden for her son. "Go big or go home, right?"

"That's what I'm talking about." Remy had the same wide smile as Hector did. Letty handed him the money. "So the main event is a little later. So why don't you enjoy the sights and I'll holla at you when the time comes."

She watched as Remy walked away towards his boys and she was missing her boys at that moment. She thought about what Remy had said about Dom being the king and her being the queen then her boys were the knights. Leon on the scanners making sure everything was clear. Jesse all hopped up on the pretty shiny engines, and Vince flexing his muscles every time a pretty girl walked by. Letty felt an arm wrap around her. She was about to put who ever it was in there place when she saw the familiar pearly whites.

"What are you doing here?" She asked Brian.

"I couldn't miss out on your first race." He leaned into her. "Besides who gonna look after you?"

"I can look after myself."

"I know you can, but if something happened to you Letty..."

"Brian, this isn't my first time. I've popped that cherry a long time ago."

Remy waived at her indication that she was up. She sighed heavily. "I'm up."

Brian opened her car door. "You'll do fine."

She gave him a nervous smile and drove off.

Letty pulled up to the line. She eyed her competition. To her left was this butch looking girl with cornrows she was driving a Honda S2000 it was fast but nothing she couldn't handle. On her right was this kid who didn't look old enough to drive and looked like he was sitting on phone books to reach the steering wheel. Her real competition was at her far right the Spider guy Remy told her about. He was the new king of the street and she had to dethrone him.

"Alright people tonight we got ourselves a special event tonight. We got the original queen of the street returning to claim her throne." Remy pointed to Letty's car. Everyone looked in the direction to try to get a glimpse of her, but she didn't notice because for her everything grew quiet. She didn't hear Remy or the crowd. The only sound she heard was the pounding of her heart and she felt like it was going to jump out her throat. Letty pulled out her favorite picture of Zan and Dom from her glove box kissed it then put it back. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"So what are you going to do?" Letty asked Leon. She gazed out to the Baja night skyline. The sun was just setting and the sky was colored in orange, read, and pink hues it was the most beautiful sunset she had seen.

Leon took a drag of his cigarette. He had taken up smoking the last few weeks. He said it calmed his nerves. "My half sister has a farm out in Virginia thought I might look her up or something." He replied taking another drag.

Letty huffed. "A farm, what you gonna start racing trackers or something?"

He coughed phlegm rattling in his throat."Naw, I need a change. Slow down." They was a life defining silence between them, neither of them not waiting to say what was on their minds.

Leon threw his cigarette down crushing out the embers. "You don't owe him anything."

Finally Letty meet his eyes and shrugged. "I love him."

He picked up his bag. "Just don't let that love get you killed." He kissed her on the head. "Take care baby girl." He wiped away the tear that was falling down her cheek.

It was hard for Letty to watch Leon walk away, but even harder for her not to go after him hop in the drive and away in the sunset with him.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the life she knew just drove away, her new life sat on the musty hotel bed with his head in his hands defeated.

"Hey." She said lifting Dom's head to look at her. He grabbed her waist pulling her closer. She held him like she did when his father died, like the night before he went away to prison, and she would continue to hold him as long as he would let her.

They screeching of tires broke Letty from her trance. She needed to go. She put the car in gear and pressed her foot to the pedal. She got off the line slower than she would of liked. But still able to pull up pass Doogie Howser and the butch chick so that she was close running with Spider and another guy. Remy was right Spider was fast really fast, but she was determined. She had managed to corner the other guy out now it was just her and Spider. He jetted out in front of her quickly. Letty knew that he prematurely ejected his NOS. Patience was a key in racing, both her father and Dom's taught her that. She shifted to a higher gear giving her more speed, she could see the painted finish line in the distance. She was neck and neck with Spider. She ejected her NOS propelling her forward. But she wasn't sure if it was enough to win. She had cross the finish line not sure if she had won or not. Returning to the start with Remy and the crowd she got out the car with cheers from the crowd and seething looks from butch chick and Spider.

"Damn Ma, Tio Hector said you were fast..." Remy shouted handing her the money she had won.

Letty looked around the crowd for Brian, she saw the blond in the distant getting in his car. He smiled and waived before he drove away.

*Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll