Life In The Fastlane

Summary: Sophie O'Conner runs away from Barstow not long after Roman Pearce is arrested by the team of cops that her brother Brian was working with. She ends up in LA and quickly is taken under Mia Torretto's wing.

Rated M for Adult content

01: Prologue

'He was a hard headed man."

"Ya know you don't have to go to that hell hole.' Vince commented from where he was standing in the doorway of Sophie O'Conner's bedroom watching her get ready for the shift she had at the strip club she had been working at.

"Relax V, it's not like I am taking my clothes off or anything." Sophie returned, he had come in one time when she had to fill in for Janet, one of her friends from the club and he, Leon and Jesse came in. It took all of 30 seconds to realize who was on the stage and for Vince to peel off of his tank top and try to cover her up and remove her from the stage.

It had been one of the most embarrassing things that had happened to her and that was under the time that Roman Pearce, her older brother Brian's best friend walked in on her and her high school boyfriend. Her cheeks still burned in embarrassment even now. "And besides that, when have I done anything wrong?" Sophie was right, in the last 6 months that she had been there, she hadn't so much as blinked an eye the wrong way at any of them and she had been giving a share of her tips to Mia for the bills. "And I will be done after the set up is done. It's some sort of private event and he is only keeping a few people and Kevin hates me."

Vince and Leon who joined them smirked. "You look smug now but this gonna come back and bite us all in the ass." She said waving her fake ID at them. They had recently told her about their side gig and Dom was working on bringing her in slowly. "Then quit kiddo, we can take care of you.' "I like to remain self-sufficient, thank you.' Sophie rolled her eyes, that is the one thing that her drug addicted mother had taught her, be able to take care of herself, and not needing a man to take care of her. It was hard for her to let Dom and the boys take care of her. But she was learning.

Slowly.

"Oh, come on Soph, there has to be something that you look forward to." Janice Conard said looking at the young blonde that was sitting across from her at the bar. The younger blonder smirked and picked up her vodka and soda and took a sip off of it before looking back at her, "There's not a damn thing that I am looking forward to." "Come on! Everyone has something they are looking forward to. You are young. You have your whole life to look forward to!"

Taking another sip of her drink, Sophie turned the barstool around and stood up, there was nothing in this world that she was looking forward to. She was just shy of 18 years old and didn't think her life had much meaning. "What about finding your brother?" Janice asked, she had to dig deep and chip away at the many layers she had built up around herself to find out that she had an older brother that she hadn't seen in years.

Not since he had joined the police academy.

"I don't think I am ever going to find him. And besides, Rome told me to give up on him." Sophie answered as she went up to the low sitting stage and wrapped her hand around the pole before she spun herself around. "Since when do you listen to everything he says?" "Since he is the one that paid for me to get out of Barstow. And he is the one that stopped my stepdad from beating the hell out of me." She returned, "After Brian left, Roman is the only one that gave a damn." "He never reached back out to you?" Janice asked as she stood up and started to wipe off the bar top with a damp towel. Sophie sighed as she looked up at the tinted two-way window that overlooked the floor, their boss and his boss were up in the office and she didn't want them to hear what they were talking about.

They had a strict leave it at the door policy. And they would take it on them if they heard them talking about anything.

"I don't know, to be honest, I left almost 3 months after he did. So, I don't know if he even went back home."

"Why not look for him now?"

Sophie shrugged her shoulders; she really didn't know why she didn't reach back out and get in contact with her older brother. Part of her wanted too but the other part of her wanted to keep the freedom and independence that she had since she left Barstow. Here she was Sophie O'Connor, the girl with no family and no past that would come back and haunt her. In Barstow, she was Brian O'Conner's little sister and she ran with Roman Pearce and his friends.

She was in trouble. Nine times out of ten if Roman and his friends got in trouble, she was right there with them.

She spent many nights in Juvie because of it. In many ways, she was just acting out to get her mother to pay attention to her and to reach out to Brian and have him come home.

That's all she wanted but she wasn't going to admit to that. Not even to Janice who was close enough to be an older sister.

Janice's reply was cut off by a loud banging on the door. "We are close!" Sophie called as Janice heaved herself off of the stool to get to the door.

"Come back in two hours!" Janice laughed, "You are trouble Sophs. Trouble."

"I know." She grinned as she hopped off the stage and went back over to the bar to grab the bottle of Vodka that they were drinking off of.

"Open the damn door!" A loud voice boomed from outside as they banged on the door again. "This is the LAPD!"

The door that led to the office upstairs flew open and the owners came down pelting down the stairs. "JANICE! Do not open that door!" Roger ordered as he grasped Sophie by the forearm and started pulling her back towards him. "Hey! Roger let go!"

"Shut up!" He ordered as he reached behind him and pulled a gun out of his waistband.

"Hey! Roger man calm down!" Janice said, seeing the shiny gun in his hand.

"Just shut up!" He ordered as there was a loud crack of breaking wood.

Despite herself, Sophie yelped and took a step back only to be pushed back forward by Roger.

"Stay right here." He muttered, digging the barrel of the gun into Sophie's lower back.

"What the hell? What is going on?" Janice asked, holding her hands up as one of the officers went over to her, "Soph? You okay?"

"Fine." She returned through gritted teeth; she was absolutely terrified. The cop closest to Janice turned and looked at her once he had heard the all too familiar nickname. His underage sister was being held at gunpoint by the owner of the bar. How in the hell did Sophie end up here and how the hell did she end up working in a place like this?