Chapter 38 - That's when things went horribly wrong.
Vince gave up. "Fine, but you ride with Leon or Letty and you just sit in the car, got it." Vince knew he wasn't winning this argument.
"No way." Dom continued. He wouldn't have a rookie along on this job, it was too big, too important, and most of all, too damn dangerous.
"Dom, shut up and get in the car." Nyssa said in a subdued voice, she had a feeling about this and it wasn't good. All she knew was she had to be there. She turned around away from him and slid into the front seat of Vince's Maxima.
"Fine." Dom said with a sigh. Mia looked at Nyssa. She knew that Nyssa was worried, even if she hadn't heard her tell Vince how wrong it was going to go. And Dom would never have put up with being told to shut up under normal circumstances.
"This isn't goin' to be good is it Nyssa?" Mia asked her, leaning in the car window. Mia could see the cold fear in Nyssa's eyes. Nyssa tried to lie.
"It'll be fine sweetie, why don't you go back to the trailers in case Jesse comes back ok?" Nyssa said in her best calm voice. Mia took off, whether it was because she hadn't thought of Jesse till then or because she just couldn't take the stress anymore Nyssa didn't know. Brian heard the whole exchange from the trailer and ran out to meet Mia.
"Mia what's goin' on?"
"What?"
"You know what I'm talking about!"
"No I don't Brian."
"Oh so what, you always have tears in your eyes when Dom drives away?"
"What is the matter with you?"
"Come on Mia, what's your brother racin' off in the middle of the night for? I'm talkin' about the trucks, you know about the trucks?"
"NO Brian. Jesus. What trucks?"
"Mia"
"What?" He grabbed her and stopped her headlong flight away from him.
"Mia, listen to me. I'm a cop. I'm a cop."
"What are you talkin' about Brian? What is this?" "Ever since the first time I met you I been undercover. I'ma cop."
"Oh you bastard." Mia was barely keeping control of her emotions. She wanted to both hit Brian as hard as she could in his beautiful face and fall into his arms and weep. The emotions were so conflicting she almost lost it and did neither, rather she almost simply crumpled to the ground under the weight of all that had been heaped on her slim shoulders that day. She managed to stand her ground, she let anger take over and it saved her. "You bastard." She bit out and went to run from him again. Again he grabbed her.
"Mia!"
"Get off of me Brian." She tried to pull away.
"Mia, listen to me. Everything I ever said I felt about you is real, I swear to god. But right now this isn't about you'n me. Your brother's out there and he's about to pull a job and we're runnin' outta time. Those truckers, they're not laying down anymore. And you know what, maybe they'll make it through tonight. But every law enforcement agency in California is comin' down on 'em. If you don't want anything to happen to your brother, to Letty, to Leon, Nyssa or Vince you need to just get in that car with me. Mia you're the only one who can help me right now." Brian begged her to help him find the team with tears in his eyes. She knew then that Brian really loved her, her brother, likely even Vince in some way. They'd all become family to him and he wanted to try and stop them. If they stopped them then there was no evidence and the trouble went away. Mia was still very upset with Brian, but he really cared for them, he wanted to help. She agreed to go with him. They sped off in the supra to try and stop the team. The area of Cali they were working in to find the team was huge.
They traced Dom's cell phone to find them and the team was already on the move. Mia didn't want to give him the number. She felt like tracing the phone was admitting Dom was guilty. She gave the operator the number with considerable attitude and a dirty glare for Brian.
Dom and Leon arrived seconds ahead of Vince, Letty and Nyssa. Vince's turbo wound down as they all piled out of the cars and Dom started to take the covers off the civics.
"Letty I need you on the left side."
"You're sister's right about this one. This don't feel good." Leon couldn't shake the cold feeling he had that this was going to end badly.
"Don't do that." Dom stated with a mean look.
"Somethin's wrong." Letty said. Letty scared was scary in itself.
"Stop!" Dom was getting frustrated with all the negative talk around him. He just wanted to get the job done. "We shouldn't be doin' this without Jesse." Letty said with a frown. Nyssa just looked on, she didn't know what to say. She knew they shouldn't be doing this but she did know that anything she said would do any good. Vince also just looked stoically on. If Dom thought they should go ahead then they would. Vince would follow his friend anywhere if he thought Dom needed him. That was just how he was. Plus he had that nice long vacation to look forward to when this was over.
"Look, this is the mother load and we've been on this for three months. After this one it's a long vacation for everyone." Dom looked around. It was like he saw all Nyssa's objections in her eyes, he looked away quickly with a feeling of guilt, it was like he was forcing the team to do this and they would clearly rather not. He couldn't back down now. They were nicely set up for money now but after this they'd never worry about it again. Letty was giving him a look that let him know clearly she'd rather slave by his side in the garage for the rest of her life then do this one thing and have it easy, the look was mirrored in Nyssa's expressive gaze. She'd become one of the team so easily, she fit so well that it was like she'd always been there. She did have her feelings and she was almost always right. Still, Dom wasn't giving up on this money at this point. They'd pulled this job before and never had even a hint of any trouble.
"Let's go." Dom said and Leon smacked Vince off his padded chest. Nyssa turned to climb into Letty's civic. She was trying hard not to cry. Things were never going to be the same again. Vince grabbed her on her way by and gave her a hard hug.
"It's gonna be fine. We've been doin' this for months and nothin' ever goes wrong."
"Ok," She didn't have the heart to disillusion him. He saw her doubt in her eyes.
"You'll see, three weeks or less from now we'll be with them on some beach in Mexico." Vince smiled, trying to reassure her.
"Sounds good baby. Take carea you." Nyssa sat in the car and slammed the door. Vince opened the door again.
"Take carea you, see you at home in two hours tops, remember, just sit in the car and listen to Letty." She nodded and he gave her a hard kiss. Vince got in the first civic with Dom. They sped off into the night.
"Mia, she needs Dom's cell phone number." Mia gave the number reluctantly and Brian figured where they would have to be on the map. The team was outside Coachela.
"What're you gonna do Brian? What're ya gonna do?" Brian answered her with a look that let her know even he didn't know the answer to that yet, he still hadn't figured it out.
"It's gonna work out right Lett? I mean they've done this 5 other times and never had anything happen right?" Nyssa was trying to convince herself she was wrong this time. She'd been wrong before.
"Well, yeah, but I don't know Nyssa. I don't think it's gonna be good. But Dom always gets his way. We're set after this. Just keep thinking about the vacation Dom promised us and it'll be fine." Letty didn't look sure at all. It didn't help that she had heard Nyssa tell Vince that this was going to go incredibly wrong and she had never known Nyssa to be wrong about stuff like this.
"Ok Lett, you're the girl." Nyssa leaned back. She didn't know how this was gonna be ok at all. She'd known this day was coming for so long but she'd somehow convinced herself it was going to be fine. That it didn't matter. That race wars was going to be a big party and then everyone would go on racing and working together and everything would work out, they'd have the perfect happy ending. She hadn't counted on how much the last heist was going to suck. Her first race wars was ruined by this night from hell. She'd hardly gotten to race. She'd only done fairly, worring about Jesse and the thoughts of Vince doing this. They raced up on the back end of the truck.
"Ok, go time." Dom shouted over the radio.
"We're all good, I got nothin' on the scanner. Keep goin'." Leon's voice also came disembodied over the two ways.
They all moved into position on the trucker who honked his horn. Vince started out the car's roof and shot out the window. He got the second shot ready and fired. When he was hooked up to the cab of the truck he headed out onto the trunk of the civic. Dom checked the rear view. "Vince, Vince! Get back in." Nyssa was glad she couldn't see what they were doing from her vantage point on the left side of the truck. Vince jumped onto the front of the rig. They heard Dom's voice over the radio. "He's got a damn shotgun."
"God damn." Letty and Nyssa breathed.
"Get me off this thing." Vince shouted to his best friend, since as long as he could remember as Dom rolled down the window, look of worry on his face.
"Unhook yourself!" Dom shouted. "Do it."
"I can't."
"You can do it Vince."
The trucker shot out Dom's driver side tail light.
"Dom, I'm pullin' up to distract 'im." Letty shouted and then gunned the civic up beside the truck, slightly in front of the cab.
"Come on boy, shot doesn't get better'n this." Letty said. The trucker shot out her back window and both girls flinched and got down. "Shit! Son of a bitch." Letty shouted, falling back. Nyssa was terrified.
"I'm gonna unhook the wire."
"Letty what the hell are we gonna do. We gotta get him off that truck." The trucker was busy trying to prevent that. Dom tried again to get Vince but the trucker slammed his brakes and Vince was tossed to the side of the truck, where the drive kept trying to shoot him.
"Unhook yourself." Dom shouted at Vince.
"I can't get my arm free!" Vince screamed about his arm, it was being sliced into by the wire holding him to the truck.
"Give me your hand!" Dom called. Dom almost had Vince when the trucker took another shot and swerved the truck. Then the trucker took one more very well aimed shot and got the undercarriage of Dom's civic. "Shit!" Dom shouted as sparks flew from his brakes and ball joint that were now shot full of holes. He almost lost control of the car and ran it off the road but his superior driving skills allowed him to keep control. He could still hear Vince calling his name. His car faltered and swayed but he was able to continue on after Vince, however he was having trouble keeping up. Letty grabbed the radio.
"Get outta the way, we're comin to get 'im." Letty shouted into the two way and with a look of intense concentration slid the civic under the trailer of the truck and gunned it. Before she could get close to where Vince was suspended on the side of the truck the trucker slammed them broadside and knocked them into the ditch where they rolled over sideways then end over end before coming to rest on the roof of the car. The car was a twisted wreck.
"Letty!" Dom screamed. Vince was suddenly just as afraid for Nyssa as he was for himself. He'd just watched their car flip off the road from his backwards vantage point on the side of the truck.
"Leon!"
"Yo!"
"Fall back for the girls."
"Go! I got them, you get Vince off that truck." Leon locked up his brakes, pulled a 360 and roared off to where the girl's civic went off the road. He stopped with a squeal and ran up to the car. He could still hear gunshots and the air brakes on the big rig. He had never been more terrified in all his life as he was wondering what he was going to find inside the girl's Civic.
Dom pulled up beside the truck again and told Vince to unhook himself. "Dominic!" Vince shouted.
"V!" Dom shouted back as his car lost all compression and he started to fall further and further away from his friend.
The trucker took another well aimed shot and got Vince in his side. Right after he shot Vince he took aim and got Dom right in the engine bonnet of the car, taking out the head, heater core, and rad hoses. Smoke started to billow from the engine and the acrid stench of burning coolant filled Dom's nostrils even as panic filled his soul. His car was fast loosing all compression and in a few seconds wouldn't move. How were they ever going to get Vince off that truck? This was all his fault.
"Letty, Nyssa! Baby! Letty, you ok girl? Come on." Leon pulled her out of the car. She had a busted up mouth and her arm was either broken or dislocated. She was in a lot of pain but she knew she was going to be ok. There was a lot of blood on her though. "Come on girl, let me look at you."
"Get Nyssa." Letty said, she knew she was going to be fine, Nyssa on the other hand hadn't been moving at all after they'd crashed. Letty couldn't wake her up. Leon helped her into his Civic before he ran back to theirs.
"Nyssa! Come on baby girl, we gotta go!" Nyssa didn't move. "Nyssa!" She still didn't move. She was hanging from the top of the car by the seatbelt, her hair streaming down onto the roof. Leon knew that position could not be comfortable and doubted that anyone would stay that way if they knew they were being hung like that. Leon reached in and touched her cheek. "Oh baby girl." Leon sighedm, thinking she was dead or close to it. She felt his soft touch and moaned and her eyes blinked open. Leon was never more elated to see her pretty purple eyes. "Come on baby we gotta go! He had to undo her belt and she fell off the seat from the upside down position she was in onto the roof of the car. She let out a cry of pain but Leon dragged her out of the car, they had to get moving. "You ok baby?" Leon asked her as he half carried, half dragged her up to the car.
"No, but I'ma live, let's go." She moaned. They climbed in the civic just as the orange Supra flew by. "Leon, did Dominic get V off the truck?" Leon didn't answer or look at her. "Leon! Is Vince still on that fucken truck?"
"Yeah, and Dom's car's dead. We gotta stop for him up ahead then catch the truck." Leon admitted reluctantly. They came up on Dom and stopped. The girls were both in the back, Dom climbed in the front.
"You girls ok?" Dom asked. Letty wouldn't look at him or talk to him at all. Nyssa looked out the window. Leon gave Dom a look. The girls were blaming him for this. Dom gave up and turned to Leon. "Was that Brian that flew by."
"I think so Dawg." Leon said, still watching the road. They had a lot of ground to make up. Brian came up beside the truck, he saw the steel cable cutting into Vince's arm and trapping him on the truck. He decided what he had to do in that split second. He knew he didn't have any choice.
"Mia, take the wheel."
"What'doya mean take the wheel?" Mia asked, wondering if Brian'd lost his mind.
"Take the wheel and put your foot on the gas, I'ma get him." Mia took the wheel and started to slide into the drivers seat. Brian climbed up onto the top of the door and got ready to jump. "Get closer, he's having a hard time holding on." Brian shouted.
"I'm moving in." Mia moved the orange car closer. Brian jumped and started to unhook Vince noticing that the other man had also been shot and the trucker was reloading.
"Vince look at me." He tipped Vince's head back by his hair. "I'ma get you off this thing but you gotta work with me." Brian undid the cord and grabbed Vince. "Throw your arm around me and get up!" Vince somehow managed to comply, wondering the whole while both if he was gonna live, why the punk was helping him, and most of all if Nyssa was ok. "Mia, get closer." Brian called and when Mia complied he half threw Vince onto the car. Vince used the last of his strength to finish the jump. Brian saw the trucker was about to blow his head off with the newly loaded shotgun and jumped just in time to keep his head attached to his body. The trucker ran them off the road and Mia couldn't keep the car going. "Damn it." She cursed as the car spun out into the scrub on the side of the highway. They hauled Vince out into the field and tried to stabilize him.
The four in the Civic pulled up and saw Mia and Brian busy working over Vince. "Oh fuck." Dom said as he jumped out of the car. "V!" He leaned in the back and took hold of Letty's chin. "I love you." He said and two sets of eyes, one melted chocolate and one bruised violet stared back with mirror looks of disbelief. The look on the girls faces clearly said if you loved her then you'd have listened to us and this never would have happened. As hurt as Dom was by that he had to go to his friend. The girls were right and since this was his responsibility he had to go do what he could for Vince. Then he stood up and Leon got out of the car. As soon as he was out of her way Nyssa was running over to where Vince was, heedless of her own injuries and the pain she was in. "Take carea her." Dom said to Leon over his shoulder as he ran, pointing at Letty.
"Oh baby boy. Why'd you have to go and do this?" Nyssa asked softly as she dropped in the dirt beside Mia at Vince's side. Dom dropped a second later. He looked at Nyssa's face. It was in worse shape then Letty's had been. She was bruising all down her left side and he'd noticed she'd ran funny. Her head felt funny and she knew she'd hit it hard and she likely had a concussion. Her whole left side was in agony. She could feel bruises forming on her hip from the seatbelt and she thought she had blood running down her side.
"If we don't get him to an ambulance in 10 minutes he's dead." Brian told Dom and the girls started to sob harder. Vince coughed and sputtered. Dom gave Brian a half disbelieving, half dirty look and tried to stop the bleeding from Vince's side with his own shirt. Brian took out his cell phone and with a look at Dom that clearly said please don't kill me he dialled 911.
Vince gave up. "Fine, but you ride with Leon or Letty and you just sit in the car, got it." Vince knew he wasn't winning this argument.
"No way." Dom continued. He wouldn't have a rookie along on this job, it was too big, too important, and most of all, too damn dangerous.
"Dom, shut up and get in the car." Nyssa said in a subdued voice, she had a feeling about this and it wasn't good. All she knew was she had to be there. She turned around away from him and slid into the front seat of Vince's Maxima.
"Fine." Dom said with a sigh. Mia looked at Nyssa. She knew that Nyssa was worried, even if she hadn't heard her tell Vince how wrong it was going to go. And Dom would never have put up with being told to shut up under normal circumstances.
"This isn't goin' to be good is it Nyssa?" Mia asked her, leaning in the car window. Mia could see the cold fear in Nyssa's eyes. Nyssa tried to lie.
"It'll be fine sweetie, why don't you go back to the trailers in case Jesse comes back ok?" Nyssa said in her best calm voice. Mia took off, whether it was because she hadn't thought of Jesse till then or because she just couldn't take the stress anymore Nyssa didn't know. Brian heard the whole exchange from the trailer and ran out to meet Mia.
"Mia what's goin' on?"
"What?"
"You know what I'm talking about!"
"No I don't Brian."
"Oh so what, you always have tears in your eyes when Dom drives away?"
"What is the matter with you?"
"Come on Mia, what's your brother racin' off in the middle of the night for? I'm talkin' about the trucks, you know about the trucks?"
"NO Brian. Jesus. What trucks?"
"Mia"
"What?" He grabbed her and stopped her headlong flight away from him.
"Mia, listen to me. I'm a cop. I'm a cop."
"What are you talkin' about Brian? What is this?" "Ever since the first time I met you I been undercover. I'ma cop."
"Oh you bastard." Mia was barely keeping control of her emotions. She wanted to both hit Brian as hard as she could in his beautiful face and fall into his arms and weep. The emotions were so conflicting she almost lost it and did neither, rather she almost simply crumpled to the ground under the weight of all that had been heaped on her slim shoulders that day. She managed to stand her ground, she let anger take over and it saved her. "You bastard." She bit out and went to run from him again. Again he grabbed her.
"Mia!"
"Get off of me Brian." She tried to pull away.
"Mia, listen to me. Everything I ever said I felt about you is real, I swear to god. But right now this isn't about you'n me. Your brother's out there and he's about to pull a job and we're runnin' outta time. Those truckers, they're not laying down anymore. And you know what, maybe they'll make it through tonight. But every law enforcement agency in California is comin' down on 'em. If you don't want anything to happen to your brother, to Letty, to Leon, Nyssa or Vince you need to just get in that car with me. Mia you're the only one who can help me right now." Brian begged her to help him find the team with tears in his eyes. She knew then that Brian really loved her, her brother, likely even Vince in some way. They'd all become family to him and he wanted to try and stop them. If they stopped them then there was no evidence and the trouble went away. Mia was still very upset with Brian, but he really cared for them, he wanted to help. She agreed to go with him. They sped off in the supra to try and stop the team. The area of Cali they were working in to find the team was huge.
They traced Dom's cell phone to find them and the team was already on the move. Mia didn't want to give him the number. She felt like tracing the phone was admitting Dom was guilty. She gave the operator the number with considerable attitude and a dirty glare for Brian.
Dom and Leon arrived seconds ahead of Vince, Letty and Nyssa. Vince's turbo wound down as they all piled out of the cars and Dom started to take the covers off the civics.
"Letty I need you on the left side."
"You're sister's right about this one. This don't feel good." Leon couldn't shake the cold feeling he had that this was going to end badly.
"Don't do that." Dom stated with a mean look.
"Somethin's wrong." Letty said. Letty scared was scary in itself.
"Stop!" Dom was getting frustrated with all the negative talk around him. He just wanted to get the job done. "We shouldn't be doin' this without Jesse." Letty said with a frown. Nyssa just looked on, she didn't know what to say. She knew they shouldn't be doing this but she did know that anything she said would do any good. Vince also just looked stoically on. If Dom thought they should go ahead then they would. Vince would follow his friend anywhere if he thought Dom needed him. That was just how he was. Plus he had that nice long vacation to look forward to when this was over.
"Look, this is the mother load and we've been on this for three months. After this one it's a long vacation for everyone." Dom looked around. It was like he saw all Nyssa's objections in her eyes, he looked away quickly with a feeling of guilt, it was like he was forcing the team to do this and they would clearly rather not. He couldn't back down now. They were nicely set up for money now but after this they'd never worry about it again. Letty was giving him a look that let him know clearly she'd rather slave by his side in the garage for the rest of her life then do this one thing and have it easy, the look was mirrored in Nyssa's expressive gaze. She'd become one of the team so easily, she fit so well that it was like she'd always been there. She did have her feelings and she was almost always right. Still, Dom wasn't giving up on this money at this point. They'd pulled this job before and never had even a hint of any trouble.
"Let's go." Dom said and Leon smacked Vince off his padded chest. Nyssa turned to climb into Letty's civic. She was trying hard not to cry. Things were never going to be the same again. Vince grabbed her on her way by and gave her a hard hug.
"It's gonna be fine. We've been doin' this for months and nothin' ever goes wrong."
"Ok," She didn't have the heart to disillusion him. He saw her doubt in her eyes.
"You'll see, three weeks or less from now we'll be with them on some beach in Mexico." Vince smiled, trying to reassure her.
"Sounds good baby. Take carea you." Nyssa sat in the car and slammed the door. Vince opened the door again.
"Take carea you, see you at home in two hours tops, remember, just sit in the car and listen to Letty." She nodded and he gave her a hard kiss. Vince got in the first civic with Dom. They sped off into the night.
"Mia, she needs Dom's cell phone number." Mia gave the number reluctantly and Brian figured where they would have to be on the map. The team was outside Coachela.
"What're you gonna do Brian? What're ya gonna do?" Brian answered her with a look that let her know even he didn't know the answer to that yet, he still hadn't figured it out.
"It's gonna work out right Lett? I mean they've done this 5 other times and never had anything happen right?" Nyssa was trying to convince herself she was wrong this time. She'd been wrong before.
"Well, yeah, but I don't know Nyssa. I don't think it's gonna be good. But Dom always gets his way. We're set after this. Just keep thinking about the vacation Dom promised us and it'll be fine." Letty didn't look sure at all. It didn't help that she had heard Nyssa tell Vince that this was going to go incredibly wrong and she had never known Nyssa to be wrong about stuff like this.
"Ok Lett, you're the girl." Nyssa leaned back. She didn't know how this was gonna be ok at all. She'd known this day was coming for so long but she'd somehow convinced herself it was going to be fine. That it didn't matter. That race wars was going to be a big party and then everyone would go on racing and working together and everything would work out, they'd have the perfect happy ending. She hadn't counted on how much the last heist was going to suck. Her first race wars was ruined by this night from hell. She'd hardly gotten to race. She'd only done fairly, worring about Jesse and the thoughts of Vince doing this. They raced up on the back end of the truck.
"Ok, go time." Dom shouted over the radio.
"We're all good, I got nothin' on the scanner. Keep goin'." Leon's voice also came disembodied over the two ways.
They all moved into position on the trucker who honked his horn. Vince started out the car's roof and shot out the window. He got the second shot ready and fired. When he was hooked up to the cab of the truck he headed out onto the trunk of the civic. Dom checked the rear view. "Vince, Vince! Get back in." Nyssa was glad she couldn't see what they were doing from her vantage point on the left side of the truck. Vince jumped onto the front of the rig. They heard Dom's voice over the radio. "He's got a damn shotgun."
"God damn." Letty and Nyssa breathed.
"Get me off this thing." Vince shouted to his best friend, since as long as he could remember as Dom rolled down the window, look of worry on his face.
"Unhook yourself!" Dom shouted. "Do it."
"I can't."
"You can do it Vince."
The trucker shot out Dom's driver side tail light.
"Dom, I'm pullin' up to distract 'im." Letty shouted and then gunned the civic up beside the truck, slightly in front of the cab.
"Come on boy, shot doesn't get better'n this." Letty said. The trucker shot out her back window and both girls flinched and got down. "Shit! Son of a bitch." Letty shouted, falling back. Nyssa was terrified.
"I'm gonna unhook the wire."
"Letty what the hell are we gonna do. We gotta get him off that truck." The trucker was busy trying to prevent that. Dom tried again to get Vince but the trucker slammed his brakes and Vince was tossed to the side of the truck, where the drive kept trying to shoot him.
"Unhook yourself." Dom shouted at Vince.
"I can't get my arm free!" Vince screamed about his arm, it was being sliced into by the wire holding him to the truck.
"Give me your hand!" Dom called. Dom almost had Vince when the trucker took another shot and swerved the truck. Then the trucker took one more very well aimed shot and got the undercarriage of Dom's civic. "Shit!" Dom shouted as sparks flew from his brakes and ball joint that were now shot full of holes. He almost lost control of the car and ran it off the road but his superior driving skills allowed him to keep control. He could still hear Vince calling his name. His car faltered and swayed but he was able to continue on after Vince, however he was having trouble keeping up. Letty grabbed the radio.
"Get outta the way, we're comin to get 'im." Letty shouted into the two way and with a look of intense concentration slid the civic under the trailer of the truck and gunned it. Before she could get close to where Vince was suspended on the side of the truck the trucker slammed them broadside and knocked them into the ditch where they rolled over sideways then end over end before coming to rest on the roof of the car. The car was a twisted wreck.
"Letty!" Dom screamed. Vince was suddenly just as afraid for Nyssa as he was for himself. He'd just watched their car flip off the road from his backwards vantage point on the side of the truck.
"Leon!"
"Yo!"
"Fall back for the girls."
"Go! I got them, you get Vince off that truck." Leon locked up his brakes, pulled a 360 and roared off to where the girl's civic went off the road. He stopped with a squeal and ran up to the car. He could still hear gunshots and the air brakes on the big rig. He had never been more terrified in all his life as he was wondering what he was going to find inside the girl's Civic.
Dom pulled up beside the truck again and told Vince to unhook himself. "Dominic!" Vince shouted.
"V!" Dom shouted back as his car lost all compression and he started to fall further and further away from his friend.
The trucker took another well aimed shot and got Vince in his side. Right after he shot Vince he took aim and got Dom right in the engine bonnet of the car, taking out the head, heater core, and rad hoses. Smoke started to billow from the engine and the acrid stench of burning coolant filled Dom's nostrils even as panic filled his soul. His car was fast loosing all compression and in a few seconds wouldn't move. How were they ever going to get Vince off that truck? This was all his fault.
"Letty, Nyssa! Baby! Letty, you ok girl? Come on." Leon pulled her out of the car. She had a busted up mouth and her arm was either broken or dislocated. She was in a lot of pain but she knew she was going to be ok. There was a lot of blood on her though. "Come on girl, let me look at you."
"Get Nyssa." Letty said, she knew she was going to be fine, Nyssa on the other hand hadn't been moving at all after they'd crashed. Letty couldn't wake her up. Leon helped her into his Civic before he ran back to theirs.
"Nyssa! Come on baby girl, we gotta go!" Nyssa didn't move. "Nyssa!" She still didn't move. She was hanging from the top of the car by the seatbelt, her hair streaming down onto the roof. Leon knew that position could not be comfortable and doubted that anyone would stay that way if they knew they were being hung like that. Leon reached in and touched her cheek. "Oh baby girl." Leon sighedm, thinking she was dead or close to it. She felt his soft touch and moaned and her eyes blinked open. Leon was never more elated to see her pretty purple eyes. "Come on baby we gotta go! He had to undo her belt and she fell off the seat from the upside down position she was in onto the roof of the car. She let out a cry of pain but Leon dragged her out of the car, they had to get moving. "You ok baby?" Leon asked her as he half carried, half dragged her up to the car.
"No, but I'ma live, let's go." She moaned. They climbed in the civic just as the orange Supra flew by. "Leon, did Dominic get V off the truck?" Leon didn't answer or look at her. "Leon! Is Vince still on that fucken truck?"
"Yeah, and Dom's car's dead. We gotta stop for him up ahead then catch the truck." Leon admitted reluctantly. They came up on Dom and stopped. The girls were both in the back, Dom climbed in the front.
"You girls ok?" Dom asked. Letty wouldn't look at him or talk to him at all. Nyssa looked out the window. Leon gave Dom a look. The girls were blaming him for this. Dom gave up and turned to Leon. "Was that Brian that flew by."
"I think so Dawg." Leon said, still watching the road. They had a lot of ground to make up. Brian came up beside the truck, he saw the steel cable cutting into Vince's arm and trapping him on the truck. He decided what he had to do in that split second. He knew he didn't have any choice.
"Mia, take the wheel."
"What'doya mean take the wheel?" Mia asked, wondering if Brian'd lost his mind.
"Take the wheel and put your foot on the gas, I'ma get him." Mia took the wheel and started to slide into the drivers seat. Brian climbed up onto the top of the door and got ready to jump. "Get closer, he's having a hard time holding on." Brian shouted.
"I'm moving in." Mia moved the orange car closer. Brian jumped and started to unhook Vince noticing that the other man had also been shot and the trucker was reloading.
"Vince look at me." He tipped Vince's head back by his hair. "I'ma get you off this thing but you gotta work with me." Brian undid the cord and grabbed Vince. "Throw your arm around me and get up!" Vince somehow managed to comply, wondering the whole while both if he was gonna live, why the punk was helping him, and most of all if Nyssa was ok. "Mia, get closer." Brian called and when Mia complied he half threw Vince onto the car. Vince used the last of his strength to finish the jump. Brian saw the trucker was about to blow his head off with the newly loaded shotgun and jumped just in time to keep his head attached to his body. The trucker ran them off the road and Mia couldn't keep the car going. "Damn it." She cursed as the car spun out into the scrub on the side of the highway. They hauled Vince out into the field and tried to stabilize him.
The four in the Civic pulled up and saw Mia and Brian busy working over Vince. "Oh fuck." Dom said as he jumped out of the car. "V!" He leaned in the back and took hold of Letty's chin. "I love you." He said and two sets of eyes, one melted chocolate and one bruised violet stared back with mirror looks of disbelief. The look on the girls faces clearly said if you loved her then you'd have listened to us and this never would have happened. As hurt as Dom was by that he had to go to his friend. The girls were right and since this was his responsibility he had to go do what he could for Vince. Then he stood up and Leon got out of the car. As soon as he was out of her way Nyssa was running over to where Vince was, heedless of her own injuries and the pain she was in. "Take carea her." Dom said to Leon over his shoulder as he ran, pointing at Letty.
"Oh baby boy. Why'd you have to go and do this?" Nyssa asked softly as she dropped in the dirt beside Mia at Vince's side. Dom dropped a second later. He looked at Nyssa's face. It was in worse shape then Letty's had been. She was bruising all down her left side and he'd noticed she'd ran funny. Her head felt funny and she knew she'd hit it hard and she likely had a concussion. Her whole left side was in agony. She could feel bruises forming on her hip from the seatbelt and she thought she had blood running down her side.
"If we don't get him to an ambulance in 10 minutes he's dead." Brian told Dom and the girls started to sob harder. Vince coughed and sputtered. Dom gave Brian a half disbelieving, half dirty look and tried to stop the bleeding from Vince's side with his own shirt. Brian took out his cell phone and with a look at Dom that clearly said please don't kill me he dialled 911.