Diplomatic Security Service agents weren't normal ilk. They rarely came from nice homes, never sought the white picket fence, and never took too kindly to calm situations. Shit was always going down even under the surface. And this shit was starting to make Hobbs frustrated. He'd once slammed his fist into a deserving Portuguese man's face and crushed the two rows of front teeth, and was using this memory to keep himself sedated through the bitter moments of today. He, Wilks and Fresco were verifying O'Conner's information about dock 42. It wasn't hard to get a window of surveillance via military satellite on the dock that would hopefully turn up results.

As for tracking Johnny's and Lance's movements, they used bank ATM cameras and other feeds they found access to and went back for as long as the feeds had footage.

"I've found the engines to those Hondas being delivered," Wilks stated that morning.

Hobbs didn't even look away from his fast forwarding footage.

"Legit?" He asked.

"Can't tell. Happened around seven in the morning two days ago."

The whole point of the first raid was to find evidence of stolen property, including those engines. After two days…yeah, they weren't getting anything from that angle anymore.

"Told you they were coming, though," Roman Pierce said indignantly from his own computer, going over footage with them.

"Too late, officer," Fresco said.

"Haters," Pierce muttered.

All too clearly Roman Pierce was not the better pick of the two LA officers. He was Bilkin's choice that put them in this situation, though. This blonde cop was a better choice; he had no fear. Like…really, not normal levels of it. It was inspiring. It was also guessed to be a byproduct of that earthquake event those two FBI agents in Arizona were on the case of. Absolute insanity. All of it.

Hobbs may have seen weirder, though. He was reared in an antigay, misogamy, vials of wrath environment. He wasn't meant to be any normal man. He was a tool. Whether or not he found himself in favorable climates, self control was circumstance. He tended to irritate easily when operating with other authorities and governments, preferring his own plans. In that regard, both O'Conner and Pierce were rather similar. Brian O'Conner was all control, even if he was an easygoing guy with an attitude of being stuck in a concrete box and having to make good with those around him…while not getting the short end of a stick. It made him likable because he was working at it. He was batting for the other side, that was true. He'd been keeping it quiet but Tanner knew. Good for the sergeant for not holding it against his officer. If it was on any other's plate that shit would be held against the man.

Hobbs found himself thinking about it. He couldn't say he minded O'Conner's tactics or audacity. He'd had lesser men than O'Conner on his team, even that had to be said. (He'd had plenty like Pierce, though.) Even though he was handicapped in this career for being gay, he'd kept it to himself. Used it. Let it blow over like it was just the undercover personality he'd invented. It had worked so far.

This thing with Dominic Toretto may just be a play, too. Maybe. Maybe not. Most likely not.

The footage Hobbs was looking over blurred as his mind wondered. O'Conner had moved in on Toretto when it all began without any approval. It could clearly still end in O'Conner's dismissal in the least, which was more than likely why he volunteered to be their undercover officer. He was bound for the FBI watch list no matter what thanks to the case from Tucson.

But Luke Hobbs may have a solution, he just wasn't sure yet. O'Conner was young. Only twenty-six and begging for a promotion, just needing that one little kick. Hobbs oversaw the agency because he was the best of the best and had good judgment calls. He took in guys who could complete missions and be ready at the drop of a hat for the next one. He wanted loyalty from those who worked alongside him and a record showed it.

Hobbs winded the video from last night back to one o'clock in the morning. It was the time O'Conner left the club with Lance and two of his thugs shoving him from behind. The group went out to Lance's motorcycle and though O'Conner struggled he was placed on the back of it. They drove slowly out of the surveillance area but by then Hobbs in the hummer was trailing the group. The caravan veered away past the main road, only the targets continuing while the others held back. He knew what Lance as doing, but this is where Hobbs picked up the trail now to follow Lance and his gang back to Tran's.

It was all pointless, though. They just needed time to let the pieces fall together.

Hobbs parked the hummer across from Toretto's Market, took a duffle bag from the seat next to him and crossed the dead sunny street. His dark shades made the transition into the shaded room beyond the rollup garage door. He saw for the first time the walls decorated with spare used car parts. It was a sight to see for a car lover, but for Luke Hobbs it was a treasure trove of read-reach weapons. The music pumped a beat that would have been perfect for sparring. This was a nice place.

He had slowed his walk to have the look around, but now went up to the counter and the girl with her nose in a book. This was Mia Toretto, the woman he was looking for.

"Hey there," he greeted without affliction, setting the duffle on the counter.

She looked up at the bag and arched an eyebrow. When her eyes landed on Hobbs there was a sudden drop in interest and mood. The sight of him - a large muscled man posturing in a tight shirt - was one she was quite unimpressed with. Never had she met such a man who never gave her grief.

Mia turned back to her book.

"Can I help you?" She might have been talking to no one for how much importance she placed on those words.

"Got something for you," Hobbs said.

She grimace at the sight of the bag. "I don't want it. Whatever it is. Take it back and get your money back."

Her long silky hair fell over her shoulder and she didn't bother with it. To a certain extent, this girl was fascinating in Hobbs' eyes.

He patted the bag with patience. "But I need you to take it."

Her grimace turned into a full disgusted look and she clicked her tongue. Her dark eyes rolled up to him. She had no fear and no desire to give him an ounce of time. He felt a tickle of amusement by it.

"That shit is going out the door same as you, asshole. Take it and leave."

Luke Hobbs mouth stretched in a smile. "Would you just take the duffle and give it to Officer O'Conner and not throw it in the trash? I have a feeling he'd like the change of clothes while he's on hiatus at your house."

It was the line of flesh just atop her jeans, or maybe the smooth curve of her hips that drew his eyes when she finally stood up. She had more than a raised eyebrow for him after that.

"Who are you?" She asked.

Hobbs was more than pleased to be asked. "Call me Hobbs, Miss Toretto. Take care of our officer while he's with you. And see that he gets the duffel soon. His badge and gun are in it."

She narrowed her gaze, looking anew up and down him.

His ego was fully stroked and pleased.

Hobbs checked out the room one last time. This was where O'Conner had sat eating lunch, initiating himself for two weeks. It was such a small moment in someone's life that had led him into the mess with Johnny Tran. Hobbs' own life started out in a much smaller family owned establishment. Just a corner store, no lunch bar. He'd wanted so much more than this and joined the military.

Inappealable he said, "Nice place."

Mia didn't reply, but her etiquette returned and she nodded that she'd heard.

Only then did he turn and go.

Mia walked up to the duffle bag and opened it to see inside. There was a badge and gun on top of folded t-shirts, jeans, underwear, socks and Chucks. At the bottom was a thick manila envelope with cross print that caused her to looked up and around for anyone watching. The mountain of a man had driven away in his beast of a car, so she pulled the file up and looked inside.

There was the official LAPD logo which didn't frighten her at all. She opened it and the first twenty pages were blank report sheets, with a sticky note scribbled with a message to fill them in on the report and it'd be picked up again. Probably by Hobbs.

Mia kept leafing through the blank pages and came across a surprise. There near the back were pages with print and photos…pages about her brother. Mia swallowed thickly.

It was sandwiched to blend in, but it was Dom's record. It had every fact on him starting from the beginning. The three-quarter fork wrench he used against the man who caused her father's death was described in full. There was a color photo of Kenny Linder's face, too. Statements, years in prison spent, and something shocking. It was Dom's file from within the prison. Mia hadn't heard much about that. It had his sentence and inmate type, a list of rewards and demerits for behavior, and the dates and reasons for visits to the infirmary.

No demerits. No rewards. Seven infirmary visits for wounds to his hands and forearms. Defensive wounds only that didn't add any time to his sentence. She wondered how much it hurt her brother not to hit back. She wondered what words were spoken to him while he held his arms out in front of him…

The agony that flashed along her brother's face when Brian had spoken his plan to get in with Johnny and Lance was not a new expression she'd ever seen on Dom. Seeing this record now, she was reminded that she'd recognized it from back when he'd just come back home from Lompoc. It'd been years since she'd seen the misery. She'd never seen him revere someone so much, approaching him and kissing him out of need. Dom looked leaden as he fought Brian against him sacrificing so much just to catch Johnny and put him away - put him in a place where he'd have to suffer like Dom had.

There was a final page with facts about Vince and Mia. Traffic tickets, dates they'd graduated high school, ages and birthdays and such. There wasn't a story in their lives like Dom had…not one on record, anyway.

Mia looked for a long time at the pages about Dom, but came to the conclusion that this was part of the past. She returned the pages to the folder, leaving it right on top of the gun and police badge. She zipped the bag closed and put it on the floor, opening her phone to call Dom.

Dom and Mia were alone in the kitchen. Brian was upstairs showering the day off.

"So, what was he like? Hobbs." Dom asked his little sister.

"He was bigger than you," she confessed.

The dark skinned special agent was chiseled. She imagined he would have been a hell of a man to keep in a house, like Dom who only really hung out for meals but then always had his hands busy. Hobbs had this intensity about him that said he was holding in dangerous tendencies.

"And he put all that stuff in the duffel bag knowing we would find it," she went on. "Brian's badge and gun, and that file."

Dom had seen it. He'd come by with Brian right away and they'd picked it up. The gun and badge stayed in the Supra's glove compartment until they came home with him, and were now on Dom's dresser upstairs. The story was more complicated than just that, though. Basically, Dom and his crew got to know Brian's mission to get Tran, while Hobbs got to know that Dom and his crew thought it was just general Vice work that Tran got in the way of. The folder on Dom was a cover to prove Brian really hadn't known about Dom's past…maybe it was expected that Mia would find it and remove it from the stack of pages?

But really, how was anyone but Brian to know he was just trying to keep everyone safe?

Tomorrow they planned on taking the Supra out for a drive by the beach. The machine's opening run a day before Race Wars. Dom almost wanted to do it right now, but something that shiny deserved the sun to make it glow; the car and the blonde. And Brian was calm and easy and willing to put it off and turn in early…yeah.

He'd lost his train of thought again. That started happening a lot today.

"Is it Brian, or is it the trucks?" Mia asked quietly, catching onto Dom's mood.

Dom shook his head.

"We're going to have to cancel the last drive. Hector should understand…probably."

"He'd understand. Dom…" you can't get caught doing that.

As if he read her mind, Dom gave her a pained look and pulled her in for a hug.

He didn't stick around. Dinner that night was just takeout and they'd all eaten already. Vince was back downstairs, Mia was set up at the table with her homework. Dom took himself back to his room only to find Brian sitting on the edge of the bed, dressed in only underwear, scribbling onto the pages that had been left to him. He was using the stack of pages as the only support.

Dom closed the door and Brian looked over.

"Gotta get this filled out," he muttered, but he didn't turn away from Dom.

Dom could see it in his eyes. That lust that lingered at the edges every time he'd looked Dom's way. That new sort of desire of Dom's own coming back up to the surface.

"So fill them out," Dom said.

He came over, hand passing along Brian's bare shoulder and under his chin. Dom leaned down and sealed a kiss over Brian's mouth. He meant to be cool about it, keep going, walk into the bathroom for his own shower. But Brian set the pages to the side and grabbed handfuls of Dom's pants by his hips and pulled him down. Dom straddled Brian on the bed, both still sitting up, the kiss going deeper. Brian's hands caressing and squeezing Dom's ass.

He didn't think he'd like it this much being here like this. He didn't feel like he was going to squish Brian being in this position. And Brian's long back made it easy to reach his lips. Him and Letty couldn't have done this, but had done it in reverse plenty of times. Dom was proud to say he was big enough and long enough to penetrate Letty even in a sitting position. And he'd felt Brian up…he knew Brian could do the same.

Dom abruptly stopped the kiss and turned his burning face away.

"Sorry," Brian instantly said, thinking it was something he'd done. Loosening up on his death grip on Dom's ass, his hands moved to Dom's shoulders where he held him gently. "Too fast?"

Dom could only nod.

Yeah. Too fast. Too fast.

"Sorry," Brian whispered again.

Dom buried his face into Brian's neck. This really was some crazy turn to his life. Here he was, considering their dick sizes and approving of the match. Sitting on the man's lap and taking the initiative to be the - what? The receiver? The bottom? Where did this come from?

"Look…" Brian muttered into Dom's ear, his voice was soft and soothing. "I won't hurt you. I won't."

Brian bit his ear just to prove that he could make Dom's flesh sting, but real pain? The internal kind? That's what he meant. Dom's ear throbbed where he gnawed on it and licked. It caused Dom's groin to tingle and swell, his guts to clench. He wasn't even conscience of his hips starting to grind down until he moaned and bit on Brian's bare shoulder.

"Do you like this?" Brian sneakily asked, licking right up along Dom's temple, his stubbly chin scratching and sending stars behind Dom's closed eyes.

Dom pushed Brian down and clawed at the button to his pants, opening them and taking himself out from between the confines of his shorts underneath. He grabbed Brian's hand and shoved it down there, glad that he got the picture and clamped on tightly, already moving his palm swiftly.

"Again!" Dom demanded, shoving the side of his face nearer Brian's mouth.

Brian bit on his ear again and massacred it. His other hand wove under Dom's shirt and squeezed his pectoral, finding his tit and waking something extra up inside.

"So good…ah - !" Dom moaned.

He was such a moaner. Never even knew.

Letty gritted her teeth as yet another punch landed against her face. Her vision sparked and she strained against the bindings of the ropes. Her head was pounding by now.

"Give us an answer!" The unidentified man yelled at her bloodied form shivering on the chair in the middle of that empty warehouse. Unidentified, yeah. But Asian. And they were asking about Brian, Dom's knew mechanic. These five men were Tran's guys who had taken her while she was out at the bar tonight, trying to get wasted because she'd been dumped.

"It's not us!" Letty said for the hundredth time.

The man grabbed her by the jaw with a grip that would bruise, getting right up to her face. Without hesitation she bit down on his lower lip, drawing blood as her teeth met through the flesh.

"AH! Bitch!"

Letty was punched right in her nose and her head was knocked back. Her face burst with new blood as the blow broke her nose. But it got the asshole out of her space. He went dancing away in pain, holding his mouth that spewed red blood of his own.

They were all distracted, leaving Letty time to look around again for a way to escape. She strained on the ropes and felt them dig in deeper. Her wrists behind her, her ankles, it was all done right. She wasn't getting untied doing it herself. But looking around led her to see the shadows gathering around the edge of the light. Big shadows. Three of them.

Dom? Vince? She hated to guess…Brian?

Letty talked through the throbbing of her broken nose, keeping the eyes of them on her while the shadows grew closer from behind them.

"You motherfuckers," she said to the five of them, fire in her eyes and not fear. "You made a fucking huge mistake kidnapping me. Dom is going to find out and break your fucking necks! Might want to call your mommies and say goodbye right now."

Letty wanted so badly to be with the shadows creeping forward to take out these twerps.

One of them broke from the pack and came at her with a kick to her stomach. The booze she'd drank earlier helped dull all the blows until that one, because that one not only flung her tied to the chair back, but it made her hurl vomit as a reaction. It puddled under her head and across her chin, burning her nose, too. Fucking gross.

"Motherfuckers!" She spat.

The man who kicked her aimed another at her hip. It wasn't so bad. Dulled the burning in her face, anyway.

"I'll kill you!" She screamed.

Then the man she bit was in the place of the kicking Asian. He looked more enraged than Letty did.

"Tell us if you've been hijacking those trucks!" he screamed. "Tell us if it's that stripper mechanic you have working for you! Or Hector! Or Edwin! Tell us!"

Letty spat a wad of blood and lingering vomit onto the asshole's pants. Where were those shadows that were coming to save her!?

"It's nobody, assholes! How would I know?!" Letty gritted her teeth, her voice tight with pain and congested without much room to breathe.

She wasn't going to rat on anyone, not even the little racebunny cop who stole her man. She was doing it for Dom…not because she thought he'd get over the novelty of dating a guy, but because she knew Dom wouldn't be with him and tell her about it if it wasn't something troublingly permanent. She hated that this thought was coming to her so clearly while she was getting her ass kicked.

She took the weight of the Asian's foot on her shoulder. He pressed down with his heel causing lightening pain to go to the joint. She held back her shout and started to gather a new round of spit and blood and ready to aim for his face this time.

He leaned down over her, dripping blood onto her face, into her eyes.

"I would believe those words of yours…if that 'nobody' wasn't the only new driver in town with the skills to pull off heisting semi trucks. We saw that Skyline of his before it became a burning pile of metal - that was pristine work…more money put in it than a hustler could make. Lance wants a second date with him, but he's got to find out first if it was him who's framed Johnny."

Letty blinked out the blood from her eyes.

"Lance wants a date?" she asked bitterly. "He can get in line. Everyone wants a ride on that snowman. Are you fucking really telling me that all this is so Lance can get laid?"

The Asian leaned down and wrapped his hand around her neck. He wasn't squeezing too hard, though.

"He's paying us triple digits for the answer. Not to mention…" his words trailed off ominously, a feral grin spreading on his face. "It isn't that Lance wants to fuck him…it's that he wants to see your snowman get fucked front of him. Any of us who want to. Any - number - of - us. That's the reason for us to get answers out of you."

Maybe that wasn't the first clue that this asshole was as crazy as Lance. Letty might have been more wary of him, but those shadows were right behind the group standing around her.

"So," Letty said in a strained voice, looking now at those shadows, "you want to see someone fucked? Looks like that's just about to happen."

He cocked his head to the side, sneering, almost ready to ask what she meant by that.

Then suddenly he was pulled off her and the sounds of shouts and screams sounded out of her line of sight. Letty felt relief wash over her.

Hobbs came out of the shadow and gripped two of the kidnappers by their heads, sending them into each other and downing them in a quarter second flat. Fresco laid three strikes onto one dude and dropped him onto the floor with new vision of stars.

"Son of a - !" Barely got out the fourth kidnapper before he got the butt of Wilks' weapon to his face.

Free of the burden of the gang, Hobbs carried forward and took up the main assailant who was standing over Letty Ortiz and flung him so it looked like he was ice skating across the floor and into the waiting arms of his men. One took each of his arms and held him up from falling. It was laughable the expression on his face as he looked up at the two Diplomatic Security Service agents and realized he was truly fucked.

Hobbs turned to the woman tied to the chair and beaten to the floor. Blood oozed from her nose and vomit pooled around her. Her breathing was labored and she was twitchy in that in-pain way.

He knelt down and pulled the knife in his ankle, undoing her binds.

"So what the fuck - are you waiting for - while they kidnapped me - and beat the shit out of me?" Letty demanded of Hobbs.

"In an attempt to gain information on Tran, we stayed in the shadows. We wouldn't have let them kill you."

"Are you an idiot? Oh, wait. You're a cop. Yeah, you are!" Letty wasn't fucking around. She held no remorse for the assholes who waited while she got slapped, punched, kicked, and stepped on.

"Last I checked, I'm the one who saved you." Hobbs rolled her over away from the errant vomit, but it was in her hair. The woman curled up on her stomach away from him gaining her barring before rolling further to her knees, face still down. She'd need a hospital to check for internal bleeding; that was a hefty gut kick.

"Yeah, saved me," she choked out. "You motherfuckers."

Letty weezed. That was a wet breath, too. Hobbs didn't wait for her to find her feet. He pulled her into his arms and laid her vomit soaked head against his chest. She was up in his grasp and they were marching for the vehicle.

"I'm taking her to the hospital!" Hobbs yelled out behind him. "Call Tanner and get those guys booked! I want them in interrogation in an hour!"

They'd been lucky they were tracking Letty so closely. It was a long shot, but she might have felt some animosity against Brian O'Conner for moving in on her man. Hobbs had Tanner set up a local cop to surveillance her and they'd called in when two motorcyclists and three guys in a Honda showed up at the bar she was drinking at that evening.

Who would have known they were Lance's guys he hung out with. Now that Hobbs thought about it, they probably were the same close group who drove behind Lance while he was taking Brian to Dom's. Brian had already mentioned Lance wanting someone to fuck him and watch…it was not beyond him to believe the raiding party found that appealing enough to want to clear Brian's name more thoroughly to make that happen.

Sick.

Lights mixed with pain as the city flew by Letty. She couldn't find a comfortable position and could only suck in small gasps of air.

"Not unless you want me to kill you, take the turns more easy!" Letty glared at the idiot sitting in the Hummer's driving seat. Whatever he was, it wasn't a cop. He was obviously much more. As he drove, there was something dark in his thoughts that kept him focused on some end goal.

"Those thugs were high on the food chain," Hobbs pointed out, ignoring her last words and speeding the vehicle along to get her to a medical center. "Lance Nguyen's right hands. What he'll do when he finds out they got caught intrigues me."

Letty coughed, then swore internally she'd never do that again.

"Probably…blackmail a new posse…limp dick…drive slower!"

Still, Hobbs roared up the avenue in the Hummer.

When she saw the turn for the hospital coming up, Letty slammed her eyes shut. Nausea and pain rose quickly at the thought of the fast turn and sure enough he didn't slow as he made it up to the emergency entrance. Her face was flaming and something was really hot in her stomach.

"Sorry, girl," Hobbs said, slamming on the breaks in a decent parking spot close enough to the front door to take the good fortune while he had it. Now at least he could get her inside without having to come back out and re-park. He was up and out, over to her side and pulling her back into his arms. "I agreed to help take Tran down. You were saying all the right things to get him to talk. I couldn't help but hang back and see what you got out of him."

He'd confessed to planning to rape an undercover police officer. And on top of what he'd done to Letty, he was going down. Hobbs knew they'd be offered a plea deal to give up Johnny Tran, though. A part of him couldn't loosen up as he thought about Brian not getting justice.

It was like he'd already initiated the lad himself.

Does everyone want him? Hobbs wondered with deep curiosity.

The lights of the hospital gave way as he carried her into the building. It burned the busted side of her face where her eye stung.

"Hate you, shit head," Letty muttered against his chest as he found her help.