Monday morning dawned too early, and Mara grumbled a curse at the light the fell across her eyes before rolling away from it… and into the solid mass of Dom's bare back. She almost rolled away. Regardless of the fact that they'd been sharing a bed for weeks, and despite their banter, they had kept to their own sides of the bed. Then she remembered the events of the night before, and vaguely registered that neither of them had bothered to put so much as underwear back on, and pushed closer instead, gently kissing his shoulder before resting her cheek against his back.

Mara didn't realize she'd drifted off until sometime later when Rome came crashing, uninvited, in to the room.

"Yo, Mar – oh, hell no! I did not need to see this." Rome exclaimed.

Mara glared at him, "Well, heaven forbid you fucking knock."

"I fucking… looks like you're the one fucking." Rome smirked.

Mara groaned and buried her face against Dom's back, "Rome. You have ten seconds to tell me what you want before I shoot you."

"You wouldn't –"

"If she doesn't, I will." Dom's voice rumbled, rough from sleep.

"Right, I, uh… I forgot." Rome clapped his hands together and slowly backed toward the door, "I'm sure I'll remember later. And I'll uh… catch you then."

The door slammed behind him as he made his escape.

Dom rolled over to face her, "Morning."

She smiled, "Morning… guess we don't have to worry about telling everyone we, uh… yeah."

Dom chuckled. "Everyone'll know before we even manage to make it downstairs."

Mara shook her head, "I am not facing the hoards until I shower."

"Why the hell do I smell baby oil in the shop?" Rome's voice carried across the bay.

Mara looked up, ready to revisit her earlier threat of shooting him, if only to get him to shut the hell up, when she spotted a guy tatted arms striding in like he owned the place. A petite Latina trailed him.

"Hobbs." she greeted, stepping away from the car she was working on and wiping her hands on a shop rag.

Luke Hobbs was not a man who was easily surprised, so Mara didn't bother hiding her smirk when his eyes widened at the sight of her, "Spilner. Shit. This just got a whole lot more interesting."

Rome sidled up behind her and threw an arm around her shoulders, eying Hobbs, "Jack's too big for baby oil, you're gonna have to hit the corner shop like regular folks."

"And your forehead's still too big for the rest of your head." Hobbs retorted. "Where's Toretto?"

Mara shrugged, "Busy."

Hobbs tried not to let his irritation show, but she saw it, "O'Conner?"

Mara smiled brightly, "Busy."

Hobbs glared at her.

"I could always send Rome looking for them." she offered sweetly.

"Why don't we do that?"

"Why I gotta be the errand boy?" Rome whined.

Mara glared at him, "You are still on my shit list, and I'm still not entirely past the urge to shoot you today, Rome. Go."

"Snow Queen." he muttered as he stalked off.

Hobbs looked her up and down assessing, "Heard you were doing a stint in Dublin."

Mara nodded, "I did."

He shook his head, "I didn't believe it."

She cocked her head to the side, "You didn't get your hands on my file?"

He shook his head again, "Even the redacted version is classified to hell and back."

Mara smirked.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not."

"How'd you fall in with this crew?" he asked, clearly honestly curious.

Mara smiled genuinely, "Grew up with Brian and Rome. Bri and Dom were there the day I got out."

"Can't imagine your parole officer likes you associating with Toretto."

Mara shrugged, "They don't have any records and this is a legitimate job. They can't say a damn thing. You trying to say you don't like me associating with them?"

He shrugged, "They're not so bad. For criminals."

Mara rolled her eyes, "Your concern is touching."

"Hey, no need for the sarcasm."

Mara smirked and looked past him, to where the Latina was leaning against the bay door, keeping a respectful distance, but her eyes never strayed from Hobbs for more than a few minutes, "So how long have you been sleeping with your partner?"

She was rewarded with another bout of shock he couldn't quite hide. He was saved from answering by Dom's entrance. Mara was acutely aware of how he placed himself faux casually between her and Hobbs.

She stepped defiantly into the open and glared at him, "I don't need the protective alpha male bullshit, Toretto. And I certainly don't need protection from Luke."

Dom turned and raised an incredulous eyebrow at her, "'Luke'?"

Mara shrugged, "We knew each other when I was on the other side of the law."

Dom nodded in quick acceptance before turning back to the DSS agent, "What do you want Hobbs?"

"I need your crew." Hobbs answered simply.

"Not interested." Dom turned to walk away.

"Shaw." Hobbs called after him.

Dom froze and Mara's blood ran cold.

Dom turned around slowly.

"Your crew took out Owen Shaw. And when Ian Shaw came after you for it, you took him out. I'm giving you the chance to close the book on the Shaw family once and for all."

Mara felt her knees giving out and leaned back against the nearest car.

Dom stared hard at Hobbs, "Explain."

"They had another brother. And he's coming for you Toretto. I'm giving your crew the option to take him out without getting new records."

Dom smirked, but it was cold. "And that's all the incentive I get?"

Hobbs scoffed, "What else do you want?"

Dom jerked his chin toward Mara without taking his eyes off Hobbs, "Her record cleared."

"I'll see what I can do."

"I'll talk to my team. What do I need to know about this guy?"

"He's pissed as hell at you and looking to take L.A. as revenge. He's the youngest, but he's also the most brilliant and ruthless of the three."

Dom raised an eyebrow, "Name?"

"Alexander." Mara said, voice shaking.

Both men's head snapped toward her with a simultaneous, "What?"

Mara gulped and repeated herself more clearly, "Alexander." She looked up at Hobbs, "You want us to take Alexander fucking Shaw on headfirst because you know you can't handle him yourself."