Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm glad that people are enjoying this. I sort of consider it my own little Fast 9, though if even one tiny bit of what I write could actually happen in one of the movies I'd be so happy. So happy. I'm really enjoying writing this so far so I really hope you're enjoying reading it. Also, please be aware there is SMUT at the end of this chapter. If you do not like that, just skip the last section. Thanks!
The next morning the team packed up all their shit in the vaguely nondescript Honda CRV's they'd procured to help them travel a bit less conspicuously. After a quick run through a drive-thru for breakfast they made their way to the meet up point that Ramsey had received.
"I don't know if you've noticed this," Roman commented, from the back seat of the car Dom was driving, which he was currently sharing with a dozing Marcus, now safely buckled into his spare car seat. "But this is definitely the way to Vegas. Are we going to Vegas?"
"We are not going to Vegas, Roman," Letty replied, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses. She was still tired, and Marcus had woken them up at 5:30 this morning, much to her chagrin.
"But we're crossing the mountains," he said. "What else is out here?"
"Nothing," she replied, yawning. "That's the point."
They drove for what seemed like hours more, until even the little towns fell away, leaving only endless stretches of desert on either side of the road, cracked sand, sun-bleached rocks and little scrubby bits of brush that grew out of the ground like dry sticks. Eventually they turned off onto a dirt road that had been cut across the desert, passed through what looked suspiciously like a military check-point and onto a sprawling base surrounded by a barbed wire fence. They were directed to park in a large garage.
Everyone was piling out, stretching muscles gone achy from too many hours sitting and not enough sleep, as Tej pulled up alongside them. Ramsey hopped out just as a man in a suit wearing sunglasses came out of the attached building.
"Mr. Nobody is here?" Roman asked. "In the middle of all the nothing? Makes sense."
"Nice to see you too, Roman," Nobody agreed, stopping to survey the group of them. "Well, you all better come inside. Including your new… addition to the team?" he asked, glancing at Ray. "What is he? Your accountant?"
"Baby carrier," Ray answered, making faces at a giggling Marcus over Dom's shoulder.
"Okay well that makes about as much sense as anything ever does," Mr. Nobody muttered, leading them into the building.
It was blissfully cool in here, out of the glare of the sun, and with working air conditioning. There were men and women in vaguely military dress, but none of the uniforms looked exactly like someone you might associate with the armed forces of the US. Probably because Mr. Nobody tended to operate in the shadowy area where the law wasn't so important. They might even be vaguely more like mercenaries than soldiers.
"So," he said, motioning for them to take a seat at a conference-like table in what made one think of the war-room in an action film. "I got your message in regards to Cipher. Though of course, she'd already made quite a show for us in downtown LA. A bit of a mess, that."
"Tell me about it," Letty agreed.
"Oh yeah, I noticed you were there too." He nodded. "Good thinking on your feet there with the Uber, by the way. Her targets do not have much of a history of getting away."
"Well we're pretty sure she's going to come after us again," Tej said. "Which is why we came to you."
"And you were wise to, my friend," Nobody told him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Because it's so much easier to clean up after you folks when we know where you're heading. Not to mention, it's in everyone's best interests to take Cipher out of the equation."
"We just need to figure out how to do that," Dom said.
"Well, you might need some help," Nobody replied. "I have a few people I could call on to get the ball rolling, so that your team can deal with this the way they do so well."
"You don't mean Agent Hobbs," Ramsey said. "He's retired."
"And I would still be retired if some tired-ass cyber criminal hadn't made the mistake of sending her zombie car army after me when I was taking some of the girls home from soccer practice."
They looked up to see the man in question striding through the door with his daughter behind him.
"And just how did you get out of that one?" Letty asked.
"Well I don't have your driving skills so it mostly involved a lot of explosions."
"I got to throw grenades!" Sam announced, grinning.
"I had to make full use of all available resources," Hobbs explained as they joined the others at the table.
"Now that everyone's here," Mr. Nobody continued. "We can discuss a plan."
"No Deckard Shaw?" Hobbs asked. "You'd think he'd be at the top of Cipher's revenge list."
"Deckard fell off the grid along with his brother just after fulfilling his deal with Dom," Mr. Nobody answered. "I have no idea where he is. Odds are Cipher doesn't either."
"I don't think any of us were really jumping at the chance to work with him again anyway," Tej added. "The man is still responsible for Han's death."
"Yeah," Roman agreed. "Even if he did rescue Marcus, it's not so easy to just forget that."
"So," Hobbs said. "Do we have anything resembling a plan?"
"Our plan was getting here," Ramsey told him. "We have no idea what sort of resources Cipher has gotten ahold of."
They all looked at Mr. Nobody as if expecting him to have some answers. The man sighed, moving around to access the screen on one of the walls. "Well, I've put together the info we've managed to get since she resurfaced, but you're going to have to do some piecing together to try and figure out where she might be operating."
"We will? Roman asked. "What exactly is it that you and your people…" he wiggled his fingers. "Do around here?"
"Amazingly, Roman," Mr. Nobody replied. "We have a lot more we do than what you see when we work together. I manage hundreds of small team operations worldwide. And let me tell you that Cipher isn't even the most dangerous villain on our radar right now. So while I understand why this is important to you and I'm more than willing to offer resources and help, it's not a priority for my people. At least not until you've got a bead on her, all right?"
Muttering, Rome fell silent as the older man brought up the information on the screen. It was a world map with various points marked. Right away they spotted one in LA and another in DC, which must have been where she'd hit Hobbs. But there were also markers in a few other places. One in Santa Ana, and two in Mexico.
"These are all the places Cipher has been spotted in the last few weeks," Mr. Nobody explained. "Our earliest sighting was three weeks ago in Guadalajara. She's still being careful but her movements made us suspect she was setting herself up somewhere new. She made contact with a private security firm… let's call them."
"You mean glorified terrorists?" Hobbs suggested.
"Since the United States makes regular use of their services I'm going to stick with private security firm," Mr. Nobody continued. "But let's just say they operate in grey areas." He cleared his throat. "A week after that she was in La Paz. But we don't know what exactly it was she was doing there. Whatever movements she made were mostly limited to the digital sort from inside her hotel room."
"Well… that's not very helpful," Roman said. "Maybe she was just on vacation."
"I don't think Cipher takes vacations," Tej told him. "I think she just plots evil and tries to fuck up people's lives."
"We did manage to pull some of her internet history from the hotel," Mr. Nobody interrupted. "But she had it running through an encryption. You're welcome to take a crack at it." He stood. "Mr. Hobbs. We have a friend from that… security firm in our interrogation room, if you'd like to try an alternative source for some information."
He pushed out of his seat. "You coming, Dom?" he asked the other man, who nodded and passed Marcus off to Letty.
"Just one problem," he muttered as the two of them followed Mr. Nobody out of the room. "Which one of us is going to be the 'good cop'?"
Ramsey and Tej hunkered down in front of the computer as Sam bounced on her toes, looking hopefully over at Letty.
"What?" she asked the girl, disentangling her hair from Marcus' surprisingly strong grip.
"Can I show you some of the moves I learned in my jiu jitsu class?" Sam asked. "I hate practicing with my Dad because he's too big. I can't even move his arm!"
"Sure, fine. Let's find some space." She passed the baby off to Ray, who took him with a delighted grin. "Pretty sure we left his stuff in the car," she said with an apologetic shrug, then left with the younger Hobbs.
Until only Roman remained sitting at the table, watching Ray make faces at the baby.
"Hey?" he asked no one in particular. "What the hell am I supposed to do? Huh? No one gave Roman a job? That's fine. That's fine I'll just supervise."
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By the end of the day, Tej and Ramsey had managed to work out that Cipher's time in La Paz had been spent purchasing a boat. She'd had correspondence with a man in the area who specialized in custom boats and yachts, the kinds of things that the super wealthy might have a second or third home. She'd likely been in contact with him since long before she'd arrived, but she'd come to La Paz to finalize the deal. There was some mention of a meeting date and time, but not where.
Still, it gave them a lead to follow up on. Boats couldn't just up and disappear, and if Cipher had taken delivery of the thing in La Paz, someone had a record of it's departure somewhere.
Dom and Hobbs' run at 'no one is the good cop' had given them a little bit of information. Cipher had been looking for tech experts, unsurprisingly, and the group had given her leads on a couple of hackers in the Americas who would do jobs without any questions, especially if a lot of cash was involved. They'd also given her the contact info for a former black-ops mercenary and current gun for hire. They didn't have a location on the would-be assassin, but Mr. Nobody had recognized the name.
Now they just needed to figure out how to move forward with the information. It seemed likely that Cipher had already contacted the hackers, being as she'd clearly been in North America recently. Still, Mr. Nobody put in a call to some FBI contacts to check in on the young man who lived in Chicago. All of it meant more waiting for the rest of them, which led to restlessness. They couldn't go home, and they didn't have a solid lead just yet, so they were stuck sitting around instead. Sitting around a secret base full of soldiers and not a whole lot more.
This had worn on the youngest member of their team the fastest and when they had run out of baby toys and snacks to distract him with Letty had suggested letting him explore. So she and Dom had taken him on a little tour of the base, leaving the others behind to chase after the scraps of information they'd ferreted out or otherwise entertain themselves.
Because they were confined indoors they decided to head towards the training room where Letty and Sam had been practicing earlier. That would give Marcus some space to run around a bit without the danger of him touching anything terribly dangerous. He'd only started walking in earnest a couple of weeks ago, but once he'd begun it was almost impossible to stop him. If he wasn't strapped in the car, then he'd prefer to be running about. So he was off like a shot at soon as they turned him loose in the training room, which was thankfully empty at this time of day. Likely everyone was seeing to their regular duties.
Letty settled down cross-legged on one of the mats, watching Marcus toddle unsteadily around on socked feet. Dom lowered himself beside her, stifling a yawn and she chuckled, leaning over to rub his back with one hand, head tipping against his shoulder.
"Tired?" she asked.
He made a sort of grumbling noise of assent. "Remember what it was like to sleep in?" he asked and she laughed a bit.
"Vaguely," she agreed. "Don't think we've done that since Cuba."
Marcus was making his way back towards them, babbling to himself, or maybe to them. He scrambled over Dom's legs, climbing into his lap. He tickled the boy until he squealed with giggles, scooting away to run off, his laughter echoing in the large room.
"Cuba," Dom said with a sigh. "We should go back. Second honeymoon."
Letty laughed. "It's only been months since our first one."
"When this business with Cipher is over," he said, leaning over to press a kiss against her bare shoulder. "We'll go somewhere. Just the two of us."
She looked up at him, smile tugging at the edges of her lips. "One last adventure before we settle down?" she asked.
Dom chuckled, leaning back against the wall. "I'm not sure there's ever only one last adventure," he murmured. "We can't seem to avoid them."
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"Nelani Singh." Mr. Nobody tossed a file down on the table as he brought up an image on the computer screen.
The woman in the picture was Southeast Asian, or Indian, with browned skin and long black hair. Her eyes were hazel, bordering on green, and they stared out of the image with a sort of blank, dispassion. Nothing about her looked particularly dangerous, but this was the woman Mr. Nobody had identified as the former black-ops agent that Cipher was looking to get in touch with.
"She was in British Special Forces, before moving onto black-ops where she worked for several years. She specializes in several types of armed combat as well as long-range rifles." He paused. "Not only that, but we have some evidence that she's worked for Cipher in the past."
"So that means she'll have some sort of trust in the woman's abilities," Hobbs' said. "Where is this Singh now?"
"Last known location we have was in Jakarta."
"Indonesia?" Ramsey asked. "Why there?"
"Who knows," he replied. "Perhaps business, maybe pleasure. I hear it's quite nice this time of the year." He offered them a smile. "And you're all going to find out."
"We're going there?" Roman asked. "Why? Doesn't Cipher have a big head start?"
"Not quite," Mr. Nobody said. "Her travel plans out of La Paz indicated she was taking her ship up to California before heading to make port in Honolulu. That's a three day journey at best, plus a twelve hour flight after that."
"So we can beat her there," Tej said. "Get to this woman first."
"It's a good possibility, at the very least." Strolling around the table, Mr. Nobody's eyes moved over the group of them. "I'll arrange transport. But I think a couple of the younger ones should stay here, where it's safe, if you're in agreement."
"Yeah," Dom said. "The kids and Ray should stay here. And if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on Mia and Brian. They've been left out of things so far… and I know he's got security set up, but we don't know what Cipher's going to do."
"Yeah she sure went to great lengths just to fuck with you before," Roman put in as they all started to get up.
Hobbs collected the file and went with his daughter from the room, resting his hand against her shoulder. "I know I said I'd be retiring," he said. "And I plan to stay retired. Once I take care of this little problem."
She sighed, looking up at him. "Dad… I know. We won't be safe until Cipher is locked away. I understand." She paused, looking around. "Plus, it's kind of awesome I get to skip school until this is all figured out. I bet secret bases have all kinds of fun things to do."
He snorted. "I wouldn't bet on it kid." He shook his head. "I give it two days tops till you're bored out of your mind."
"No way." Sam grinned up at him. "I've got Marcus to play with and everything."
"Oh yeah? Gonna show him some of your moves?"
She nodded. "Mmm hmm. Maybe I should teach him to ask for a little sister."
Hobbs' laugh could be heard all the way down the hall.
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Jakarta was a light show of modern buildings in all shapes, sizes and colors, all competing to catch the eye. The long flight had landed them in the capital city of Indonesia late at night, so after a gritty-eyed ride to the hotel they'd been set up in, everyone collapsed into their beds in varying levels of exhaustion.
Letty stirred awake the following morning when the bright sunlight drifted in through the balcony doors, the curtains they'd forgotten to draw the night before. She groaned and rolled over, burrowing against Dom's chest. His arms came around her and he murmured a sleepy, wordless sound.
Neither of them moved, though she could tell from his breathing that Dom was as awake as she was. For a moment they could simply lie here, tangled together under the soft sheets. Letty shifted, pillowing her head against his shoulder and opened her eyes to look up at him. "This is a lot nicer from Mr. Nobody's usual M.O.," she murmured. "Where we're sleeping in garages. Maybe a cot if we're lucky."
He chuckled, turning his head to kiss her, one hand drifting through her hair. "Well this time Cipher doesn't have the God's Eye, so we don't have to be quite so… off-the-grid."
His eyes drifted to the bedside table, where the clock read six am. He could probably roll over and go back to sleep, but his body didn't have any idea what time it was, and his arms were full of his wife, who curled her fingers around his waist and pressed her lips against his throat. He drew her closer with a slow grin. "You know, we have a few hours till we have to meet the others to go get the cars," he murmured.
"I know," she answered, reaching for the hem of her nightshirt. She wiggled, tugging it up and over her head. She laughed when he pinned her to the bed, kissing his way down her throat towards her breasts. Her hands stroked over the back of his head, then trailed down over his shoulders as she murmured his name, dark hair a tangle on the pillow. Letty squirmed at the brush of his stubble against her belly as he worked his way lower, lifting her head as he disappeared beneath the rumpled sheets.
She lifted one corner of the material to peer down at him and Dom grinned wolfishly from between her legs as he inched her pajama pants over her hips, thumb brushing the scar there. That little bit of raised skin, before he knelt to tug the pants the rest of the way down, losing them somewhere under the sheets. His palm curved against the inside of her knee, stroking up along her thigh. She shivered at the press of the cool metal of his wedding band, until it warmed against the heat between them. His tongue drew a line over the tendon that stood out beneath her dusky skin, and Letty murmured a small complaint at his teasing, her fingers curling over his shoulders, trying to direct him towards where she wanted him.
His laugh drew a tiny sound from her, but his tongue drew a louder one, her lips falling open in a gasp as her hands clutched at the sheets. Her hips lifted off the mattress and Dom laid one arm across them to still her motions lest she buck him right off the bed. Letty curled one hand into a fist, using it to stifle her cries, eyes blown wide and hair curling damp with sweat against her brow as she writhed on the bed. She bit down on her own hand, fairly kicking Dom away as the orgasm washed over her, leaving her panting on the bed, her husband kneeling at her feet, smirking at her.
She licked her lips, eyes dropping to the obvious evidence of his arousal still mostly hidden by his sweatpants. "Lose the pants," she said, her voice huskier than usual. "And c'mere. I got something for you."
The pants were hastily discarded and Dom moved up the bed to draw her close, kissing her hungrily. She traced his lower lip with her tongue and he swept his hands through to hair as they knelt together on the bed. His big hands spanned her ribcage, thumbs feathering against the curve of her breasts, then drifted downwards to the curve of her hips, drawing her closer.
She pressed her hand against his chest, feeling the beat of his heart beneath her palm, trailed her fingers down over his skin. Leaning in, Letty pressed her lips there too, over his heart. Dropped her hand between them to curl around him, feeling the echoing pulse in her grasp. He groaned her name, his head falling forward to press his nose against the crown of her hair. Letty pushed at his shoulder, urging him to lie back. When he went she crawled over him, cupping his face in her hands and leaning in to kiss him deeply. Squeaked out a laugh against his mouth as he hauled her closer, turning them so they lie face to face. His hand curved against her hip, sliding down her thigh to hitch her closer, pressed up against her.
She murmured his name against his mouth and he drew back just enough to breathe 'I love you', lips whispering over her's. Letty grinned in response, kissing him again. His hands skimmed over her sides, touch reverent on her skin, guiding one of her legs over his hip. She breathed his name and their eyes locked as he slid into her. She wrapped her arms around him and Dom's hand drifted down to press against her lower back, before cupping the curve of her bottom.
Fifteen years and all that history between them now. Two young kids who didn't know what lie ahead, a newly married couple stupid in love with each other, a woman who'd forgotten everything and a man who'd barely been alive without her. They were all of these things, wrapped up together and intertwined. Sometimes it was mindless sex, a desperate fuck, but often, like now, it was making love. Their bodies spoke to each other as they moved together, one of his hands tangling in her hair as she panted out, breath hot against his chest. Her nails bit into his shoulders, scraped at his back. Letty pressed her nose against his throat, biting down, tilted her head to whisper dirty things in his ear until he laughed and caught up that mouth in a kiss.
"I love you." He pressed the words against her throat and slipped one hand between her legs, callused fingers teasing against her until she strained against him. Her teeth found his shoulder to stifle her cries. He followed her over the crest, coming back to himself with the awareness that he was holding onto her hip just a little too tightly as their hearts raced, chests pressed together. He loosened his grip, lying bonelessly back against the bed while the blood slowly trickled back to his brain, his breathing evening out. Letty laid her hand against his chest, her leg tangled with his. He reached up to press her palm against his thundering heart, the flat sheet beneath his back damp with sweat.
Dom drifted, perhaps dozing a little, before he was stirred by his wife scooting out of bed. He watched her naked bottom with lazy satisfaction as she made her way towards the bathroom. Pausing in the door she turned to fix him with a smirk. "I'm going to take a shower. Order breakfast?" she suggested, then disappeared through the doorway.
It took him another five minutes to roll over and search the bedside table for a room service menu. The shower was running when he called down to the front desk and placed an order. Twenty minutes. He had time to help Letty wash her back.