Another update! I'm sure many of you are wondering what's going to happen and, well, you may or may not find out in this chapter. I do hope you enjoy. Send me a review or a message telling me what you think.

Disclaimer: Look in the previous chapters.

On with the chapter.

Fast and the Furious 14

Jesse didn't know what to do, only one of them was allowed to go in the ambulance with Ashlynn. He told Mia to go, she was family, but Mia insisted that he go and she would wait for Dom. So here he was, in the waiting room of the hospital waiting for news on Ashlynn. He'd found out what happened to Vince as he was pacing down the hallways after they'd taken Ashylnn into surgery. There were two police officers standing outside the door and Jesse talked the story out of them. Deep lacerations and nerve damage to the right arm and a gunshot wound to the left side of his low abdomen, but he would recover. His arm would probably never function one hundred percent the same, but he'd still be able to use it. He was still knocked out from the anesthesia, but he'd be awake in a few hours. Or so they'd told him.

Now, he was sitting in the waiting room, four or so hours later, Ashlynn's cell phone in his hand. One of the nurses had brought it out to him. Where the hell had Ashlynn hid it that no one had seen it before? How the hell had she hid it? That didn't matter now, he told himself. What mattered now was getting ahold of Venus. He scrolled through the contacts until he found Venus' number. She picked up after the first ring.

"Hello?"

"It's Jesse."

"How is she?"

"In surgery. I haven't been told anything. What's going on with Dom?"

"He rolled the Charger. His shoulder was dislocated. He's in the bath with Letty right now."

"Letty and Leon are alright?"

"Yeah, Leon and Letty are alright. Letty's banged up and bruised, but I'm having a doctor friend come look at her to make sure nothing is broken."

"That's good."

"Leon's asking about Vince. Do you know how he is?"

"They got cops outside his room. They told me that he's stable, he's was going to be unconscious for another few hours until the anesthesia wore off. The lacerations on his arm caused nerve damage, but he should still be able to use it after he heals."

Jesse listened as Venus relayed the information and heard Leon say something, but couldn't be sure what the words were.

"Look, I'm coming back down, where's the hospital, I'll figure out how to get there."

"Mia's at the house still, she stayed there to wait for Dom. If you go back to the house and pick her up, she'll get you here."

He heard Venus sigh. "Alright. I'll be leaving soon, so I'll be back there in a few hours."

"I'll be here."

"Alright."

Jesse sighed as he hung up. It was going to be a long night. A very long night.

Silver didn't know these people, but apparently Ashlynn's cousin sent them to take care everything and she and Luciano were to go with them. Silver was hesitant, but they needed to move fast so she went with them. Luciano was still asleep when she moved him from the trailer into her car, not even waking at the movement.

"Who are you and where are we going?" She had asked.

"I'm Hector, Dominic called me to get all their stuff they left here last night." One of the guys explained. "He said to make sure you and the kid were safe. We're going to my mama's house. Safest place I know."

That's how they ended up in another place they didn't know. Luciano had woken up on the drive from the desert to the house they were at now.

"Auntie Silver, where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe Luc."

"What's going on?"

"I'm not sure."

"Where's Mamma?"

"I don't know."

The rest of the drive was quiet, except for the Avenged Sevenfold cd playing softly. When they got to the house, Silver didn't let Luciano out of her sight. For the first hour, she held him, not letting go of him in the small house as they were surrounded by strangers. They were fed, given use of the bathroom, and Luciano was given free reign of the television. When Silver finally let Luciano down, she didn't let him stray from her sight, always keeping him in sight as she listened to the conversations being held.

"What's going on?" She asked Hector softly from where she stood in the doorway watching Luciano stare at the television.

"The heist went bad. Vince is in the hospital. Letty and Leon are gone. Apparently to Ashlynn's house." Hector informed her quietly. "Other than that, we're not sure what's been happening."

"Do you know where Ash and Venus are?"

"When Dom called, Venus was at the Fort and Ashlynn was with the snowman."

Silver nodded.

"We'll be in the garage, making sure everything is taken care of." Hector said, pointing to the door leading to the garage.

"Alright." She said softly.

Luciano didn't know exactly what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good. He knew that he was in a place he didn't know. He knew that Auntie Silver was with him, hardly letting him out of her sight. He knew that Mamma's car was outside, but Mamma wasn't with him. In fact, he was fairly sure the Dom's and Leon's cars were outside too, maybe Letty's too, but he couldn't be sure. They weren't here either. Everyone was talking in hushed voices around him. Whenever he wandered into a room, they would whisper or stop talking. He didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit. No one would answer him when he asked where everyone was or what was going on. Just because he was only four didn't mean he didn't deserve to know what was going on.

Auntie Silver was on the phone, but she was speaking Japanese and he only understood a few words. None of those words were able to tell Luciano what was going on. He was confused when Auntie Silver picked him up with tears in her eyes after getting off the phone with who Luciano assumed was Auntie Venus. He was even more confused as she carried him into the kitchen and sat him down in one of the counter bar stools and kissed his forehead.

"Stay here, alright?" She said softly.

"Why? Auntie Silver, what's happening. Where's Mamma?" He asked her, watching as her eyes filled with more tears that threatened to fall.

"Auntie Venus is going to explain everything when she gets here, alright?" Silver asked him, petting him hair.

"When will that be?"

"I'm not sure, but she's going to be here, or we'll go meet her somewhere and she'll explain everything, ok?"

Luciano nodded. "Ok."

"Good, now stay here. I'll be back in a few minutes." Silver said before walking out of the kitchen.

Luciano didn't like not knowing. He didn't like not knowing where his Mamma was. He didn't like not knowing why Auntie Silver was crying. And he really didn't like not knowing what was going to happen. He wanted to follow after Auntie Silver, he wanted to know what was happening, but doing as his Mamma taught him, he was going to stay where he was like Auntie Silver had told him.

Silver walked into the garage cautiously, gaining the attention of a few of the guys. One of them yelled for Hector in Spanish, saying something about the hot woman coming into the garage.

"Tu puedo enteder idiota," She said with a roll of her eyes as Hector walked through the open garage door.

"Something wrong?" Hector asked, glancing between the man that called him and Silver.

"No." Silver answered, turning her attention to Hector. "Venus just called me. Dom's at the house, with Letty and Leon. She's coming back down. She's apparently got a story for the police that is going to clear the team." She rubbed her temples with a sigh. "Ashlynn is in the hospital; two gunshot wounds courtesy of Johnny Tran's cousin. Jesse is safe and Vince is stable."

"You gonna tell the little guy?" Hector asked.

"No, Venus is. She insisted that she be the one to tell him." Silver said softly. "Just thought I'd let you know, seeing as you're close with Dominic."

"Gracias por decirme." Hector said with a nod.

Silver nodded before going back inside to sit with Luciano until Venus got back into town.

Venus mumbled to herself as she finally pulled up in front of the Fort. She'd take a few wrong turns, delaying her further, but she was here. Getting out, she walked up to the door and banged on it before walking right it.

"Mia!" She called, looking in the living room and glancing up the stairs as she shut the door.

"Kitchen!" Mia called back.

Venus walked into the kitchen to find Mia cleaning up what appeared to be a mess of food remnants. "What happened in here?"

"I cook when I'm nervous and I made quite the mess."

"Ah.. You know where Hector lives?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"We have to pick Luciano up. I have to tell him what's going on."

"What is going on?"

"Letty and Leon are fine, Dom's with them. I don't know if Jesse called you, but Vince is stable and Ashlynn was in surgery when I talked to him."

"Brian?"

"I don't know. He was going to give Dom the car so Dom could run, but I intervened and put my plan into action. After that, I don't know what happened to him. He's most definitely in trouble with his superiors, but I don't know what's going on with him."

Mia nodded as she wiped off the counter.

"C'mon, we gotta go." Venus said as she turned around.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Mia asked as she followed Venus out of the house.

"I'll explain on the way, just get in the car." Venus told her as she walked around to the driver side and got in.

Mia looked indecisive for a few seconds before she got in the car as Venus started the engine.

"You'll have to give me directions to Hector's." Venus mumbled as they took off.

"Go out to the main street and take a right." Mia said softly, buckling herself quickly as Venus sped down the street. "So, what are you going to do?"

"First and foremost, from this point on, all you tell anyone is that you know nothing. The police ask you questions, you tell them that no one informed you of anything, got it?"

"Yeah. Take a left after the next street."

"Good. So, We're going to pick up Luciano, we're going to the hospital. No doubt the police will be there, seeing as they have to guarding Vince. You're going to stay with Jesse and Luciano, you're not going to tell that boy anything, I am. Then, I'm going to talk with the police, don't worry about what I tell them, the less you know, the better. And after I get them cleared, Silver is going to take you home, you're going to pack clothing for Dom, Letty, and Leon and she's going to take you to Ashlynn's house. You're going to stay there until I say so."

"Take the left up here and then another left after that, the house is on the right." Mia said softly. "So, you're going to harbor criminals in Ash's house until what? The cops decide your story doesn't work or they just don't believe you period?"

"You're not criminals, you're family. And it's not harboring, it's protecting. I made a promise to Ash, and in order to keep that promise, I have to do all of this." Venus said as she parked her car and cut the engine.

"So, you're doing this because you're obligated to."

"No. I'm doing this for reasons I'm not going to explain to you."

And with that, Venus got out of the car, leaving Mia to follow her up to the open garage.

"Hector," Called one of the two guys in the garage. "Una mujer sexy está aqua."

"No soy gilipollas sordo, yo entiendo lo que está diciendo." Venus hissed as she glared at the man.

"Is there a problem?" Hector asked as he walked out from the house.

"I'm here for Silver and Luciano." Venus told him, doing her best to not look at Ashlynn's car.

"You're Venus?" He asked.

"Yes, I am. Where's the squirt?" She asked.

"Prove it." Hector said, crossing his arms.

"UGH! I don't have time for this!" Venus snapped.

"It's her Hector." Mia said from behind the enraged girl.

"Venus?" Silver's voice came from the door.

"Silver, where's the squirt? We gotta go." Venus said, looking over at the shorter girl.

"Auntie Venus!" Luciano cried as he pushed passed Silver and ran at Venus.

"Hey kiddo." She said as she picked him up. "Watch the cast, I don't need a bigger headache."

"Auntie V, what's going on?" He asked her softly, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm going to explain everything in a little bit, but we have to go now." Venus said, turning towards her car again. "Silver, we gotta go."

Venus grabbed the spare booster seat out of her trunk and situated it in the back seat before putting Luciano in the car and buckling him up. She quickly got in the front seat, Mia next to her, watching as Silver got in her car before starting the engine.

"I'm going back out to the main road, you give me directions from there." Venus mumbled to Mia. The ride was silent except for Mia's directions and they soon arrived at the hospital.

"Auntie V, why are we here?" Luciano asked as they all got out of the car.

Before Venus could answer, someone cleared their throat behind her, and if Mia's narrowed eyes were anything to go on, it was Brian. Growling softly, Venus turned to look at him.

"What?" She snapped.

"The officers heading the investigation would like to talk to you at the station." He told her.

"Can't this wait?" She growled.

"They've been waiting for hours, they're adamant on seeing you asap." He told her. "If it was up to me, you wouldn't have to, but it's not up to me."

"Fine." She mumbled angrily. "Luc, go with Mia and Silver."

"No!" Luciano cried as he latched himself onto her leg. "You said you would tell me what's going on! I wanna go with you!"

Venus looked down at the young boy to tell him that he couldn't, but the tears in the boy's eyes stopped her. "Alright." She looked back at Silver and Mia and gestured towards the hospital. "Go makes sure everything is alright."

When the two had disappeared inside, Venus looked at Brian. "So, you have to bring me in?"

"I was told to wait for anyone to show up, but they wanted the person that Dom get away with, that's you." Brian said, leading her to the police car. "They were mighty pissed. And they want to know how someone who has only known the Toretto team for the span of about a day knows that the team was blackmailed, while I have been undercover on said team for months and not known."

"Tche, let's hope they buy in to what I'm selling." Venus muttered as she slid into the front seat, Luciano on her lap.

"That's so not safe." Brian muttered.

"So long as you don't plan on crashing, we're fine." Venus told him, pulling the seatbelt around herself and Luciano.

Brian didn't say anything as he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"Auntie V," Luciano said softly. "Are you going to tell me what happened now?"

Venus sighed softly. "Guess I should."

Luciano leaned back against her as he looked up at her face.

"When your mom left last night, I went with her, I was driving. And we found some bad stuff happening. After the bad stuff was taken care of, we went back to Dom's house. You remember how Jesse left after his race?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he showed up after we did and not too long after that two people on motorcycles drove by. One of them was Johnny. The other was his cousin, Lance. Johnny was trying to stop Lance, but he couldn't." Venus said softly. "Lance had a gun and he started shooting at everyone. Your mom protected Jesse by pushing him to the ground, but she got shot."

"Is Mamma okay?" Luciano whimpered, tears in his eyes.

"I don't know, kiddo." Venus whispered. "I really don't. I hope she's alright, but I couldn't tell you."

"Is Mamma gonna die?" He asked as his tears fell.

"I hope not." Venus told him, her own eyes filling with tears. "I don't know what I would do if I lost your mom."

"We're here." Brian said gently as he pulled into a parking stall and cut the engine.

Venus wiped her face to makes sure no tears had fallen and unbuckled herself and Luciano, holding him as she got out of the car. She followed Brian into the building and to where his superiors were waiting.

"Tanner, Bilkins." Brian greeted. "This is Venus, the one you guys wanted to talk to."

"This is the girl who interfered with the investigation and broke the law by harboring a fugitive?" Bilkins asked. "The one who says these people were blackmailed?"

Venus glared at the older man as she held Luciano close. "Don't try to subtly insult me right in front of me. I don't appreciate it."

"Venus, these are my superiors, Sergeant Tanner and Agent Bilkins." Brian informed her, gesturing to each in turn.

"How long is this going to take?" Venus asked.

"What's it matter to you, have more fugitives to aide?" Bilkins shot at her.

Venus stared at the man. "If you want a fugitive, look at Tran's cousin Lance, or find Marcos Garcia-Rivera. I'm not aiding fugitives. I'm protecting family."

"Not your family." Bilkins pointed out before Tanner could speak.

"You're right, they're not my family. They're Ashlynn's family, they're this kid's family." Venus said in a clipped tone as she sat down in one of the chairs.

"So why did you help Toretto?" Tanner asked.

"I made a promise. I'm fulfilling that promise."

"How do you know that Toretto was being blackmailed?" Bilkins questioned.

"Well, I can't say I actually know that for sure. It was more of an assumption." Venus started, pausing to glare at Bilkins who had opened his mouth. "Don't say anything until I'm finished." She paused again. "Good. Anyways, we were at Race Wars yesterday and a fight broke out between Dom and Johnny. During that time, Marcos, Luciano's father, had snuck up to where the team's stuff was at and when the commotion had died down, we heard Luciano screaming. Ashlynn and I rushed over, Silver was on the ground and Luciano was gone from sight. Now, that had been some sort of revenge plot against Ashlynn for pissing him off to the point that he hit her. Brian here rendered the asshole unconscious and security had him removed from the premises." Venus paused, looking thoughtful. "Lance had his own issues, those snakeskin pants being one of them, but when we showed up to visit, he wasn't particularly happy. Especially after Johnny started spending time with me. I don't think anyone else noticed, but I saw the glares he sent me when he thought no one was looking. Anyway, rewind a little bit, before the fight between Dominic and Johnny, Jesse had raced Johnny for slips. He lost, he freaked out and-"

"Yeah, we've been briefed on that." Bilkins cut in, causing Venus to glare at him.

"Auntie Venus hates being cut off." Luciano muttered from where he sat on the woman's lap.

"As I was saying," Venus growled. "Jesse freaked out and took off. So I assume that Lance decided that the rest of the team needed to pay for Jesse taking off. But that's getting a little ahead of the story.-"

"Well get to the relevant part." Bilkins snapped.

"Look asshole, my best friend is in the fucking hospital, I want this over even more than you do. So shut the hell up and let me fucking talk." Venus snapped back. "Anyways, Vince had disappeared, I didn't really care, 'cause to be honest, I don't really like the guy, the rest of the team thought nothing of it. I guess they thought he was off getting lucky with some, what's the word, racer chaser? Yeah, one of them. So, no one thought about it until it got to the early hours of the morning and the rave was going on and he was still nowhere to be seen. I guess the team searched for him and didn't find him because then they left. Ashlynn got upset and Brian had been looking for Mia and then we all left, except Silver, she stayed with Luciano, but we went after the team. When we found them, they were just coming up to this rig, Vince was dangling from it. They were trying to get Vince off the truck, but the driver kept swerving and shooting at them. I wouldn't be surprised if he was paid off by Marcos or someone beforehand to hurt Vince. So, none of them were able to do it. Then crazy ass here," She waved a hand at Brian. "Jumps from his car to the damn truck, frees Vince, then throws Vince and himself back to his car as Mia's driving. Ashlynn's freaking out as we pull of the road after them. And after Vince is air lifted to the hospital, we all end up back at the Toretto house. I heard Brian yelling and then Ashlynn said something, Jesse pulled up and Mia and I walked outside. Ashlynn was ecstatic. And then we heard the motorcycles." Venus paused, swallowing hard as she stared at the wall as if she were reliving the scene, and she most definitely was. "Johnny was trying to stop him, but he wasn't able to. Lance opened fire and I was froze, watching as Ashlynn shoved Jesse to the ground. She got two gunshots to the back for her effort of protecting him. Mia had pulled me down out of firing range, but as soon as the shooting stopped, I was at Ash's side. Dom turned her over, but she was unresponsive, he yelled at Mia to get towels. Then Brian disappeared and Dom soon after. Mia was holding Ash and I was talking to her, hoping she would wake up. And she did. She told me to keep the stupid fucking promise. And I did." She paused to take a couple deep breaths.

"Why?" Tanner asked. "I mean, she's your best friend, but why keep the promise if you seem to hate as much as it sounds like you do?"

Venus looked at him, her head tilted to the right slightly. "Do you have family, Sergeant Tanner?"

"Yeah."

"I don't."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't. I don't like the pity in your eyes and voice. I don't have a family. Ashlynn is all I have left. We're best friends. We would die for each other. If I could have, I'd have taken those bullets for her, but I can't change the past. So, I kept my promise because she's all I have, and because I take my promises seriously. I don't make a promise without fully intending to keep that promise. I kept my promise. And I'm going to continue to keep my promise if I have anything to say about it." Venus said matter-of-factly.

"What happened to your family?" Tanner asked.

"Is that really relevant?" Bilkins snapped.

"At this point? Possibly." Tanner said before turning his attention back to Venus.

"They all died." She said, taking a deep breath. "You probably heard about it. The Russo family."

"Russo? As in the Russo neurosurgeons?" Tanner asked. "Those Russo's?"

"Ah, yeah, those were my parents." Venus said, as if the reminder of her lost family didn't faze her. "Why?"

"I knew your parents. I met you once. You were too young to possibly remember, but I remember you now. You and your brother, Xander, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, that was my brother."

"How is this relevant?" Bilkins snapped.

"Well, let's put it this way. My brother and I were in a car crash, I went through the windshield. I shouldn't be alive. There were only two people there for me through everything that happened after that accident. Ashlynn and Silver. So, I guess it puts everything into perspective as to why I've done what I have to protect her family." Venus hissed.

There was a knock on the door that cut off anything Bilkins was about to say.

"Come in." Bilkins ordered.

"Sir, the suspect is saying something about being paid off by a," The officer paused to look down at his notepad. "Marcos Garcia-Rivera."

"That's just too coincidental." Bilkins muttered.

"Doesn't mean it's any less true." Tanner said.

"How do we know she didn't talk to the suspect before hand?"

"Because she wasn't here." Brian said, speaking for the first time since the introductions had been made. "She didn't even know we had a suspect in custody."

"You're already on thin ice, so you just keep your mouth shut." Bilkins ordered.

"Look, I'd like to get to the fucking hospital to see what's going on." Venus snapped. "So let's finish this discussion. I kept my promise to Ashlynn. I took Dom, I'm not telling you where, that would defeat the purpose of getting him out of town. Anyways, I took him to keep him from you guys, but also to keep him safe from whoever else Marcos had hired, because I'm sure Lance wasn't the only one."

"Where does the blackmail come into play?" Bilkins asked, arms crossed.

"The team had a debt to the Trans. They could have paid it off with cuts from the shop and winnings from Race Wars and the night races, but someone got to Vince. Vince talked the rest of the team into hijacking the trucks because it would be a quick way to get the shop out of trouble. Now, they hijacked three trucks. That's about or more than six million dollars worth of merchandise. They would have only needed to 'jack one truck and have enough money to pay the debt maybe twice. So they only needed the one truck, but the person who had got to Vince confronted the whole team, well, except Mia, she was so oblivious it was kinda sad. But anyways, that person confronted the team and threatened to out them to the police unless they 'jacked more trucks, so, there you go, there's the blackmail."

"How do you know this?" Tanner asked.

"Dominic told me."

"He told you?" Bilkins asked suspiciously. "Someone he's known barely a full day."

"Well, it was a long drive." Venus told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We might have not known each other long, but we have a respect for each other, and it was due to this respect that he told me."

"So, who was the blackmailer?" Tanner asked.

"Marcos." Venus said simply.

"Why does it seem that everything comes down to this guy?" Bilkins asked.

"Because he's a dick?" Venus muttered. "Can I go now?"

"Yes, you can go." Tanner cut in before Bilkins could say anything.

"We may need you to answer further questions." Bilkins called as she walked out the door.

"Whatever." She muttered. "Brian, you're driving us back, let's go."