Brian's POV
A knock on my door distracted me from case notes and folders which I'd spread across my coffee table. Quickly I bundled them up, hiding the details of the cases in pale yellow folders and shoved them under a stack of magazines. Glancing at the clock it read eleven. It was too late for most visitors.
The knock sounded again. This time impatient. The quick rap of knuckles on wood echoed slightly through the apartment. Whoever it was was anxious to speak to me.
Cautiously I opened the door the slightest crack. My eyes widened when I saw Letty Ortiz stood there. Her arms were now folded and her left foot tapped on the carpeted floor. Impatience oozed from her every pore. If it wasn't for the fact I knew she'd noticed I'd opened the door a slither I'd have closed the door again and hid.
I hadn't seen her in almost five years. The last time I'd saw her she'd been bundled up in the back of Leon's Civic with her lip bleeding and her eyes unreadable. Not long after she'd been fleeing through Mexico to get away from me. Now she stood at my door. The cowardly part of me wanted to dive beneath a table or barricade the door. However from what I knew of Letty if she wanted to hurt me she'd already have done so.
Unchaining the door I opened it wide. It was then I saw the depleted character of Letty Ortiz. Now she was up close I could see desperation written across her face. She seemed like she'd been through a lot and I wanted to ask her what had happened.
"Brian," she breathed. Her eyes widened as she took in every detail of my face. Her intense gaze drank in every detail of my face looking for changes.
"Do you want to come in?" I asked nervously, gesturing into my humble abode.
She nodded and stepped in. For a few minutes she restlessly paced around the coffee table. Curiosity wanted me to ask outright why she was here. What I could do for her? Though I was certain she was about to tell me.
Whilst she moved around I made us tea. I still remembered how she took hers, a drop of milk and no sugar. I brought her a cup over along with my own and we placed them on the coffee table. Inelegantly as she always had she plopped herself onto the sofa. She sat on the edge of the sofa, as she always had, ready to spring to her feet if the need should arise. I leant back in the sofa. It was time to hear what she had to say. I could delay no longer and neither could she.
"Brian," she began, her naturally husky voice hadn't changed, "You're part of the FBI?"'
Slowly I nodded. There was something in her words that made me understand she wasn't going to hurt me and that wasn't even on her list of intentions. I frowned as I considered her words. She was digging. Letty never asked a question like that unless she already knew the answer and what she was going to do with the information she received.
"Listen, I heard that the FBI is looking for drivers to bring down the drug trafficker Arturo Braga," Letty blurted out, obviously desperate to get to her point.
"How do you know that?" How could she know that? The last two agents were dead. We covered our tracks, no one should know the FBI was looking for Braga.
"I have my ways," she said with a slight grin, "I'd be willing to help you. Run for Braga, carry the drugs across the border, collect information, whatever you need."
I raised my eyebrow, her proposition was interesting and uncharacteristically submissive of Letty. She was willing to carry out a job for the FBI, a group of people she despised because we tried to stop people like her. People who raced on the streets, hijacked trucks and generally broke the law.
I drew a deep breath before asking a question I knew I didn't want to hear the answer to but one that needed answered all the same.
"What's in it for you?" I asked her.
Letty bit her lip, looking uncertain for what I thought was the first time in her life. Her eyes once lit with enthusiasm and fight were now shadowed with defeat.
"You have to clear Dom's record," she requested, "I'll do anything to bring down the Braga cartel in exchange for the wiping of Dom's record. His record is to be cleared so he can come home to LA, to Mia, to me." Her voice trailed off and I saw the glimmer of tears in the Latina's eyes. With some discretion she tried to wipe her eyes to conceal her feelings. Her hand crept to the necklace around her neck, Dom's necklace. I'd never seen him part with it but he'd obviously gifted it to her.
Where the hell was Dom? I had known they'd fled to Mexico and Puerto Rico and back to Mexico through the last few years causing the usual amount of chaos and disfunction that followed them everywhere.
"Why aren't you with Dom, Let? Where is he?" I asked, slipping back into our old way of talking to each other.
Our friendship had revolved around Dom but we had our moments where we had been close. It had always been Letty who'd stood up for me when it came to my relationship with Mia. When Dom had gotten hard on us, she'd used every resource available to her and tried to convince him that Mia was old enough to make her own decisions. For two girls the same age, Dom had always viewed Letty as strong and capable and Mia like a precious jewel to be protected. Every single one of Letty's decisions were not to be questioned but to be enacted exactly as she ordered. In contrast, Mia's were to be carefully scrutinised and picked apart before they could be enacted.
"Dom left me," she admitted. She mumbled her words and I could tell she was ashamed at having to admit that fact out loud. Though probably more ashamed with herself by the fact she wanted him back here so much. Fiercely independent it was probably killing Letty inside that she had to admit to loving someone as much as she loved Dom.
"Why?"
"He left me in the DR, that's where we were," she confessed, "Well we were in Mexico first then we went to Puerto Rico, back to Mexico and then to the DR, but you probably already know that." A slight flush crossed Letty's face and she chuckled at her memories of those places. I nodded and laughed in agreement.
"Some crazy heists went down in Puerto Rico girl, I'll not lie. When I heard the news I knew it was you two. No one else can do the things you two can." When Dom and Letty stole, they didn't really steal for themselves. They usually had that Robin Hood vibe to accompany them. They almost saw it as if people were in need, then you gave it to them. You don't hoard something if you don't need it, instead you hand it out to those that need it most. It was common criminals like them that I found it difficult to convict. How can any cop turn in someone who was trying to make the world a better place?
Rolling her eyes Letty ran her hand through her hair. I took a gulp of the fast cooling tea and waited on her to carry on.
"So, that day we pulled off our biggest heist in at least a year. The people of the DR they were struggling for fuel and they needed it to survive. You know Dom, he's a give the people what they need kind of person, so he persuaded us to band together and steal the entire haul on this truck." Letty sighed. "Things went a bit wrong and the truck exploded..."
"Yeh so I saw," I interrupted her. I was amazed she was even telling me all this, she was obviously trying to make me trust her and I had to commend her, it was working.
"Anyways that night Dom tried to convince me that I didn't want to be there when the cops caught up to him," she admitted. Her eyes lit with a passion and a fight as she said her next words. "But I tried to convince him I still believed in us. That we were still going to ride or die. I'll always ride or die with him, Brian. Always. We went back to the house we were staying in and when I woke up the next morning he was gone."
She drew a shaky breath and I reached across the table to pat her hand in a friendly kind of way. I could barely believe what she was telling me. Dom and her had always been a real couple. They'd been serious since she was something like fifteen and didn't mess each other around. It didn't seem like Dom to leave her, through everything, even when it had come to Vince hanging off the truck, he had still insisted that Leon turn back for Letty. Letty had always been at the forefront of his mind, never to be moved from that position. Unless he thought he was doing it for her, to protect her. Letty had never needed protecting, without Dom realising it, she'd always been the one protecting him. Without him realising it, it had been the Latina who so often stood by his side, that really had his back. While Dom did everything for Letty, it was Letty who gave a lot for Dom. More than he'd ever know.
"I'm so sorry Let."
"So will you promise me to bring Dom home if I run for you?" Instantly a determined look crossed her face and she stared me straight in the eye for the first time. Even now, after everything he'd gotten wrong and even though he'd left her, she was still protecting him. Even from this distance.
"You don't know everything," I said with a grimace.
Letty started into her tea, plainly she'd been too caught up in her story to actually drink her tea. She lifted the cup and slumped back into the sofa and sipped at the now cold tea politely.
"The last two agents didn't come home, it's really dangerous. I can't put someone I care about through that." My voice shook slightly as I spoke. This would either turn her against her idea, I hoped, or make her more determined to be the informer who lived.
She waved her hand dismissively. "Agents ain't real drivers, I'm a real driver. They'll never suspect me. Real racers aren't made they're born and I'm one of them."
I shook my head and a laugh escaped me. One thing about Letty, which would obviously never leave her, was her determination. Once she made up her mind to do something, she stuck to it. At my laugh she smirked. Her smirk was hollow without Dom there to smirk along beside her. Even her presence seemed halved with the absence of Dom. It was as though they were strongest when they knew the other was right there waiting for them, ready to spring into action if necessary, despite the rare need they had for assistance. Without him she was a shell of herself. I could only imagine that without her and the combined guilt of leaving her that Dom was in shreds, not knowing what to do with himself and punishing himself for what he'd done to the woman he loved most.
"Okay, I promise, in exchange for you working for me, I'll have Dom's whole record wiped and he can come home to you."
Involuntarily a smile crept across my face as I saw Letty grin. At the promise that Dom might be finally allowed to return home it had lifted her spirit. One look in her dark brown eyes highlighted her determination as they lit with that absolute fight that only the eyes of Letty Ortiz had ever possessed.
"Thank you Brian."
I nodded slightly, not having the words for this. There were no words for something like this.
"If I do die and he ends up returning to LA. Tell him it wasn't his fault. I did it for him," she murmured.
That was the Letty I knew, strong and driven. Even the face of death, something everyone else would be flinching at the thought of, she stood strong and stayed determined. That was another thing about her, she accepted the harsh realities of life in a stoic sort of way, never flinching from anything and never running until she had run out of options.
For a second she hesitated like she was about to say something more. Instead she gave me her cell phone number and I gave her mine. She had nothing more to say so she said goodbye and left, letting herself out into the darkness of the hallway.
I shook my head as I locked my door up after she left. She had really changed in the last few years. The only thing I now had to fear was what Dom would do to me if he found out that I'd been the agent who ran Letty if anything happened to her. Internally I vowed to bring Letty home in one piece and have her reunited with Dom. A person who is willing to carry out such a selfless act for another person, putting their own life on the line, did not deserve death but a long and happy life with the person that they loved most.