Alexander leaned against the hood of his car and gazed cooly at Hector, "Toretto refuses to race?"

Hector shrugged, "Said he ain't in the mood, amigo."

Alexander quirked an eyebrow, "I am not your friend."

"Whatever, man. Only one of Toretto's crew willing to race tonight is Boswell."

"The kid?"

"Yep."

Alexander sighed, almost dramatically, "Any good?"

"Yeah, he's one of the best street racers on this scene. He's Toretto's. You expect anything less?"

Alexander willed his shoulders not to tense, "Very well." He turned to look over his shoulder. "Calvin, you've got the next race. Show Mr. Boswell what he lacks."

The man behind him, tall and too thin, with sharp brown eyes and blonde hair tied at the nape of his neck nodded and climbed into his car as Shaw passed Hector a wad of cash for Calvin's entry.

Sean eyed the Nissan Silvia idling next to him. Mara had had a guess at what was under the hood, but no guarantees. This race had to be flawless, and Sean would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous as hell. The driver, Mara had said this guy's name was Calvin, looked too lanky to be comfortable driving the little car, but Mara said he was one hell of a driver. Sean took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the shifter and focused on the road ahead of him. This plan might be even crazier than what the crew had told him about Rio.

"You want me to do what?" Sean sputtered.

Mara looked at him with seemingly infinite patience and repeated herself, "You need to be a quarter mile ahead of him by this corner. Calvin is a hell of a driver, but a shitty drifter, and you're the best drifter on our crew."

"Why that corner, though?"

"Look." Mara pointed at the map, "You'll have to take this corner, directly followed by this one. If you're at least close to a quarter mile ahead of him by the first corner, he'll lose sight of you long enough for us to switch the cars."

"And my Evo was the best choice?"

Mara shrugged, "Tej had an '06 same model as yours sitting in the garage. Easiest mod we could do in such a short time. Besides, your Evo will be safe."

Sean shook his head, "This is crazy."

"So you won't do it?"

He shot her an incredulous look, "Of course I'll do it."

He was rewarded with a brilliant smile.

"I still don't get why we've gotta switch the cars out in the first place. Why can't I just beat him?"

Hobbs stepped up and flipped on the tv they'd hooked into the computer, "See this little thing?"

"Looks like a metal hockey puck." Sean said.

"It's a bomb." Hobbs deadpanned.

Tej's eyes widened and Sean could practically see the gears turning as he tried to figure out how he could duplicate the explosive.

"Shaw's got a bit of an M.O. with this kind of thing." Mara continued. "He'll expect us to put you in first. You're young and more of a threat than you look. He'll expect the crew to use that to our advantage. It's flat out crippling for a crew to lose their 'kids' and Shaw knows it."

"He thinks we won't be able to function if we're grieving." Tej said.

Mara nodded.

Sean sat up straighter, "Wait! He's gonna try and kill me?!"

Mara grinned, "Try being the operative word."

The start signaled and Sean stomped the gas. The first straight half mile he was neck and neck with Calvin. He pulled in and ahead on the first curve, and further ahead on the second curve. When the first corner was about three quarters of a mile down a straight stretch, he his NOS, not missing the confusion on Calvin's face as he jetted ahead. By logical standards, it was way too damn soon for NOS. He drifted the two corners a little jerkily – too much NOS still running through the system – but managed to lose sight of Calvin. He yanked a hard right into a dark parking garage as an identical car shot out from the exit on the other side of the building. He whipped around into a parking spot just as Calvin's Silvia skidded around the corner and sped past the parking garage.

Mara whipped the duplicate Evo out of the garage in the same second Sean pulled in. Less than two seconds later, Calvin's car shot into view behind her. She toyed with him a bit, let him almost catch her before shooting ahead again. She finally let him pass her, with the obvious assistance of his own NOS, on the final curve. With the finish line and crowd in sight, she let him line up directly in front of her and watched as a small, round circle of metal dropped from the undercarriage of his car. She forced herself to steer the car straight forward. Seconds later, the world exploded with a bang and flash of fire as the Evo flew in the air, flipped several times, and managed to land right-side-up once again before the flames hit the NOS and caused another earth-shattering explosion.

Letty watched the cars fly around the final curve, and was honestly a little surprised to see Shaw's driver in the lead. Apparently he really was as good as Mara said. Or maybe Mara had told Sean to let the guy win – boost Shaw's ego or something like that. She was leaning toward that theory, because Sean wasn't even trying to get around the Siliva, he was just staying lined up behind the guy.

Then, before Letty knew what was happening, Sean's car launched into the air with an explosion she felt all the way at the finish line. The crowd around her erupted in screams and shouts. Most of the crowd immediately ran and she heard and felt cars all around her taking off, but she felt cemented to the ground as she watched the car flip and land again. A small group that had remained began to move toward the car, but immediately retreated when someone yelled something about NOS. The next explosion knocked Letty off her feet, but still she just stared. She didn't move until she felt someone pull her to her feet. She turned to face Brian's wide blue eyes.

"Come on!" Brian shook her. "Dom took off after Shaw."

That snapped her out of her shock as the anger set in, and she launched herself toward her car and took off after Dom's quickly receding tail lights, and knew that Brian would be right behind her.

Dom watched the explosion, and knew right away it was over. It took only a moment to find Shaw as he scanned the crowd. Shaw met his eyes and smirked before he calmly climbed into his car and joined the throng of cars speeding away. Dom saw red and threw himself into the Charger and followed without a second thought. Somewhere in his mind, he knew his crew would follow, but that didn't seem to matter. He followed Shaw to an empty lot on the outskirts of the warehouse district and slammed his door hard enough to make the car shake when he got out. He vaguely registered the sound of Brian, Letty, and Rome's cars as they pulled in behind him. He moved toward Shaw and didn't stop as he used the momentum of the movement to add more power to the fist he slammed into Shaw's face.

Shaw stumbled back and landed hard against the hood of his car. Dom kept him upright by fisting a hand in his shirt and pulled his fist back again.

"Give me one good reason not to." Dom growled out, voice trembling in rage.

Shaw grinned, bloody mouth and all, without so much as a grimace at his clearly broken nose, "Because one family member is enough to lose in one night, don't you think?"

Dom glanced over his shoulder to see sniper's lasers trained on Brian, Letty, and Rome. He released Shaw and shoved him back roughly with a growl. Shaw leaned over to spit a gob of blood on the ground near his feet before straightening up and casually smoothing out his shirt.

He smirked at Dom, "I knew you could be reasoned with."

"You'll pay for this."

Shaw laughed, "No. I won't. Don't you see, Toretto? This is my game. And this is just the beginning."