Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any part of the Fast and the Furious franchise.

Chapter 10

Mia looked back behind her to see the disappearing bumper of her brother's car.

"We can't just leave them," she said into the two-way.

"Mia, they know what they're doing," Kendall responded. "Don't worry about them."

"And us?" Mia asked.

"That's a different story," Kendall replied. "Sit tight. I'm going to see if we can shake these guys."

Kendall's car hit a wild reverse ramming right into one of the police cars behind her before sprinting ahead again.

In the same spirit, Kimberly tried to zigzag her way through the highway, leading an officer between several close calls, but he was too good.

"Alright Mia, I need you to sprint up about a good ten miles ahead of us, alright?" Kendall instructed over the two-way.

"Sure."

As Mia's car accelerated, Kendall switched lanes joining her sister and together they both reversed and simultaneously rammed into the back of the police officer's car. They both had to dodge to get out of the way as the car flew into the air, but with grins on their faces they both managed to skirt way with their lives.

As Kendall and Kimberly double teamed their victim, the last of the police cars sped forward zoning in on Mia. At first Mia didn't worry about the car advancing on her too much. It was only one police car after all, she could lose him.

But then her eyes spotted on the north, specifically the mass of cars that were advancing towards—police cars to be exact.

Sweat began to build on her hands as she struggled to find the best route out. She knew in a matter of seconds that Kendall and Kimberly would catch up with her, but she wasn't sure that she had those seconds to spare. Acting on nerve, Mia crossed the median into the northbound lanes. Crossing the median, Mia barely missed collision with a semi truck that blared its horn angrily at her. However, the hungry police officer trailing her was not so lucky.

The mere miss did not come without consequences. The truck did hit her on her back end, projecting her to the side of the road, running her into a tree.

As the airbags violently exploded in her face, Mia could taste the blood running down and her chest ached with pain from breathing. She wasn't there long before the door was opened and someone was pulling her out. At first she thought it was the hands of the police, but Kimberly's voice came to her ears.

"Come, Mia, get to the car fast. We don't have a lot of time."

Mia staggered out of the car and ran as quickly as she could to Kimberly's parked car on the side of the road. She could hear clicking behind her before Kimberly's grasp found her again and pushed her into the passenger's seat.

Mia got in the car in time to see the flames behind her.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Your finger prints were all over that car, babe," Kimberly answered. "I'm trying to lower our chances of getting caught."

Kimberly zoomed off from the sight quickly catching up with Kendall, who was about ten miles ahead of them. On the first exit they could they got off and got back onto Interstate 101 southbound for Los Angeles.

Before they hit the L.A. border, Kimberly and Kendall hopped off of 101 and drove through a local town.

"What's going on?" Mia asked.

"You'll see," Kimberly replied.

They pulled up to a barren, dirty public storage warehouse, where a man, just as rusty as the garage he patrolled, sat in an old booth.

"Parola d'ordine?" the man asked.

"What's the password for?" Mia asked.

"Casata," Kimberly replied winded.

The man slid Kim the keys, "Third to your left."

"Casata?" Mia asked as they walked back to their cars.

Kimberly grasped her hand and held it tightly, smiling even in exhaustion. "Casata," she promised.

They parked the cars in the storage room which easily held the two cars.

"Why did you burn the other car on the highway?" Mia asked as they walked from the garage. "We could have put it in there."

"There's no room," Kimberly explained.

"And do you really trust that guy?" Mia asked. "I mean that place doesn't look exactly well protected."

"That's the whole point," Kendall responded as they stopped at bus stop. "But Romano's has been open for a long time and it's the last place that the police come looking for confiscated things. It's private property, old and only old customers of Romano do business there. No new customers mean little attention."

"And when did you all become customers at Romano's?" Mia asked.

"Mia, has anyone told you that you ask too many questions?" Kimberly smiled as the bus pulled up.

When they were situated on the bus, Mia opened her mouth to ask something else when Kimberly shook her head.

"No more questions. Our only worry is getting to the hospital," Kimberly instructed. "Let me do the talking. After we get home from there, we'll worry about everything else."

The ride to downtown L.A. took about twenty minutes, thanks to vacant streets. When they pulled up at the hospital, Mia felt a wave of relief spread over her. They had made it. They escaped probably one of the closest calls of her life. Had Kimberly not came to get them, they would have all been in jail right now. The thought of it sent a shiver through her spine, and she silently thanked God for her casata.

Her pleasant mood, however disappeared when they reached Vince's floor.

"Well then you should have had a better eye on him!" Krystal was screaming. The anger and the anguish in her voice shook Mia's spirit and brought her crashing back down to earth—where things seemed to daily go terribly wrong.

"Mom?" Kendall asked approaching the scene. Krystal was yelling furiously at one of the doctors, a nurse, a police officer and her FBI boyfriend Brandon Collins.

"Everyone in this damn hospital is so anxious to put him behind bars! If you had actually treated him like a fucking human being—"

"Mom, what's going on?" Kimberly asked reaching the group first. At the sight of them, Collins stepped forward towards Mia.

"Ms. Toretto, I need to know where you've been today," he instructed.

"I-I, what's going on here?" Mia asked.

"Ms. Toretto, please," Brandon insisted.

"She was with us," Kendall answered. "Mia got a bit hysterical this morning and took off. We just came back in. Now what the hell is going on here?"

"I don't believe that," the officer spat from behind Collins.

"Why don't you go back to having your sprinkle covered donut and let us worry about the real police work," Kadeem snapped.

"You two were the only ones with her?" Brandon asked.

"Yes," Kimberly answered.

"Alright, I'm going to need a written statement," he told the girls. He then turned around to face Krystal and rested his hand on her shoulder, which she instantly rejected. But he continued to promise, "I'm going to find out who did this."

"You damn well better," Krystal replied. "Or there is going to be some hell to raise."

She shook her head in fury and stalked off down the hallway. Brandon spared Kendall one look, to make sure that she was visibly okay, before leaving in the opposite direction for the elevator.

"What the hell happened?" Kimberly asked Kadeem.

Her brother sighed, bit his lower lip and bowed his head as a fresh stream of tears appeared. "It's Vince…."

Mia wasn't sure how she was able to drive safely that night on her way home. The whole way her vision was blurred with constant tears and a shaking body. It was truly amazing how in a matter of mere hours her entire could start to patch itself up, only to be ripped apart all over again.

When she reached the driveway to the house, there were no cars, but her own and Kadeem's who was following her. He and Kendall emerged from the car and helped her into the house, before she collapsed from pain and exhaustion. Today had simply been too long.

Inside, however, Mia, Kendall and Kadeem were greeted by the sight of Letty, Dom and Leon resting on the couch. Her pained face was met with their instant worry.

"What happened?" Dominic demanded.

Tears filled her eyes again as her body shook, "It's Vince," she cried softly. "He's gone."

Silence swept over the room before Letty quietly asked, "What?"

"Vince is dead," Kendall clarified as Kadeem put Mia into one of the nearby chairs.

"What?" Leon asked louder. "How? He was in the hospital! It's supposed to be—no! No, he's not dead. They're wrong!"

"He's gone Leon," Kendall continued. "They found him dead in a bathroom."

Letty fell back on the couch and ran her hands through her hair as tears began to build. Leon sat down as well, gapping at her in shock, but Dominic still stood up, fist clenched and eyes tightly shut.

"A bathroom?" Letty repeated.

"Yeah, he asked for some assistance to the bathroom by a nurse and that's where they found him dead," Kadeem explained.

"So a nurse killed him," Dominic said softly.

"That's what we think," Kadeem answered. "Is there anyone who you can think of that has a grudge against you? Big enough for them to kill V?"

"Wait a minute," Letty interrupted standing back up. "What hospital was this at? Tell me—tell me that this was not at Good Samaritan…"

"Yeah it was…"

"God damn you Dominic!" Letty yelled. The sheer strength of her voice shook them all, and Mia raised her head from her sorrows.

"Letty…?"

"I TOLD YOU!" Letty screamed at him. "I BEGGED YOU NOT TO TAKE THE FUCKING DEAL!"

By then Dominic had enough. "DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?" he roared back. "I KNOW THAT JESSE AND VINCE'S DEATH ARE ON MY HANDS! I KNOW THAT ALL OF THIS SHIT WITH THE TRUCKS IS MY FAULT—"

"I'm not talking about the trucks," Letty hissed. "Do you even know who works at Good Samaritan Hospital?"

Dominic didn't answer immediately so Leon asked what they all were thinking, "Who?"

"Sandy," Letty spat. "As in Sandy Tran."

"Oh shit," Leon groaned.

"Tram, that's it!" Kadeem exclaimed. "She's the Asian nurse that my mother was talking to…oh my god, right before she went to get Vince. She was the nurse that took him to the bathroom."

"Sandy Tran," Letty continued, "is the little sister of Johnny Tran, who was just—"

"—just killed this past week," Kendall finished sighing.

"Killed?" Kadeem asked.

Dominic didn't respond but instead he headed towards the nearest wall and slammed his fist into it.

"I have to get to the hospital," Kadeem said heading for the door. "We gotta find this Tran girl before she gets out of town."

When the screen door closed, all that could be heard in the room was Dom's heavy and aggravated breaths. Leon wordlessly stood up and headed up the stairs to the bedrooms.

"Mia I think you should go up and pack your things," Kendall suggested.

Mia looked up in confusion. "Why? We can't leave now."

"Mia, I think it's best that we try and get you out of town before the Tran's try anymore cute ideas," Kendall reasoned.

"What about Vince? I'm not leaving him," Mia insisted.

"We'll come back when things have cooled down. Don't worry," Kendall assured, "we're going to take care of Vince."

Mia nodded, stood up and headed for the stairs. After she left, Kendall looked firmly at Letty and nodded towards Dominic before leaving the room silently for the kitchen.

Letty wasn't quite sure of what words to say. Her own emotions were conflicted between punching Dominic in the face and trying to not make him feel so guilty. She so badly wanted to make him hurt for the week that he'd put her through, but seeing him like this made her feel as though he'd been through far enough. After all, Cameron used to tell her that, "Even the guiltiest man, has innocence in him. You just have to dig deep."

So how innocent was Dominic? How much of this wasn't his fault?

She shifted on her feet for a moment and went she finally gathered the courage to speak, without spite in her tongue a crash erupted. Dom and Letty quickly ran to the kitchen where Kendall was on the floor groaning, her hands on her head covered with blood. Beside her was a rock, about the size of Letty's fist, splattered with blood.

"K, are you alright?" Dom asked rolling her to her side and helping her up.

Kendall groaned and Letty looked around to see where the rock came from and was met with the sight of a small woman outside on their lawn with a Corona in hand.

"That little bitch," Letty growled getting up.

"Letty!"

Outside of the house, Letty pushed the woman to the ground, and her fists began to fly across her face. Beneath her, the drunk Sandy Tran laughed and laughed, enjoying her drunken stupor.

"I killed Vince, I killed Vince," she sang loudly laughter breaking into her song.

Letty couldn't have hit the girl more times. There was so much anger that possessed her body and if there was ever a skank that Letty hated—it was Sandy Tran. It was Dominic, who grabbed her by the waist as she was kicking and screaming off of Tran.

"Letty, we gotta go, we gotta go!" Dominic yelled dragging her away. Letty tore from Dominic's grasp and pushed against him.

"Why?" she yelled back. "That stupid bitch—that cow, your little slut killed Vince! VINCE! Not Monica, not Edwin or Hector! Vincent! Mi hermano. Nuestra familia!"

"Letty, I know—"

"No, you don't!" she cried.

She was crying and it broke Dominic in two. Throughout their lives they had both dealt with their fair share of death of friends and loved ones, but even then, Letty only cried through three funerals: his father's, Cameron's and her grandmother's.

"Letty, Kadeem called," Leon cut in from behind. He was tying Tran with some extra sheets to the porch pillar. "The police are on their way to pick up Tran. We gotta get out of here before they come and pick us up too."

Letty's body collapsed into Dominic's embrace and he led her to his car which was in the shed. Dominic drove the car out of the shed and when they reached the front of the house, Leon hopped into the back and Dominic got out of the front. He walked back up the hill to the front door, where Mia stood, tears still running down her face.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gently wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mia," he apologized softly.

Mia threw her arms around her brother and leaned in his ear to whisper, "Promise me, you'll be safe Dom. You're the only family I have left."

"I'm not the only family you have left, Mi," Dom corrected. "Kendall, Kimberly, Kadeem and Krystal will all be here. They love you just as much as I do."

Mia tightened her grip on her brother, unwillingly to let him go.

"I gotta go, Mia," he said after a moment. He kissed her on the head softly before turning back to the car and driving off into the night.

Mia stood on the porch as another wave of pain hit her full force. More tears stained her cheeks and breathing became even harder. But the moment was short lived. Too close to her was Sandy Tran in her drunken state singing softly, "Oh Vince…poor Vince…killed Vince…oh Vince…"

Anger replaced her pain as Mia ran down the steps and quickly untied the sheets. She then grabbed Tran by her collar and dragged her up the street to Letty's old house, letting Tran's clothes tear from the coarse street road as her singing increased. Mia had almost made it to the house when she was interrupted by a small voice.

Mrs. Peters was a small woman, very polite and very considerate. She never asked for too much and had put up her the Toretto's and the Cadmen's with a grace that was only second to God. She was old in age, but not an ignorant woman as many people on 7th Ave. For a long time, they'd known that something was brewing down in that Toretto house. For a long time the neighbors debated about what to do with all the noise and the partying. They all knew it would come crashing down one day, but like many neighbors they sat by and watched the fire burn not bothering to help water the flame. But Mrs. Peters had finally seen enough. After watching those cars run up and down the neighborhood last week shooting as they went, after seeing more police cars in the last week than she'd seen in the last three years, it was well past time that somebody say something.

"Mia, darling," Mrs. Peters warned, "whatever that child is done, I promise you, it's not worth it. Someone is always watching."

"Well if you don't tell, I won't tell," Mia answered, spite filling her voice as she reached the door and began to drag Sandy's now unconscious body in.

"That somebody, Mia," Mrs. Peters continued, "He sees all things."

Mia paused and looked at the old woman. Deep in her heart she had no resentment for her and in the back of her mind she knew that she was only trying to do the right thing. But Mia was sick of the right thing, because no matter what she tried to do, no matter how good she tried to walk, the right thing always seemed to turn out to be the wrong thing.

"Thank you for your concern Mrs. Peters," Mia replied. "But heaven is pretty high up there and the weatherman called for a very cloudy night."

The end is very near. In fact, I think I might be able to wrap this up in one more chapter. Thank you for reading and reviewing so far, it really means a lot to me, espicially since we're so close to 50! Finally I think it's appropraite to say R.I.P. Vince. Hope you enjoyed the update and please don't forget to review!

Much Love,

Santiva Potter