Chapter 3
Faith wiped her hands on a cloth rag as she sighed, and looked at the bonnet of her car. She glanced across the street at the kids playing out in front of their house, and at the man the house beside that cutting his grass. The sun was beating down so harsh on them; she'd resorted to a tiny black training bra and a pair of joggers. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, exhausted. She'd been fixing this car for hours, to no avail. "Where's help when you need it," she muttered to herself and threw down the rag. She gazed over once again at the man across the street, topless, sun kissed, quietly going about his own business.
She thought to herself for a moment, and grabbed a bit of the engine she was fixing, and wandered over to him, making sure not to step on his grass. "Lindon," she called out, and smiled, hoping that would catch his attention. No answer. She called him again, this time louder, to which he turned off the motor on his mower and turned to look at her.
She waved the piece of metal and smiled. "Familiar with these things?"
Cassie kept the guys in good view behind her, and made sure nothing would go wrong. She would make sure of it this time. As she approached the house, she noticed the bonnet of Faith's car wide up, and Faith across the road talking to Lindon. Cass knew he didn't know a lot about cars, but he knew enough to grab Faith's attention. She chuckled and pulled up into the driveway, with Dom right behind her. They all ambled out of their cars, and Cassie called out to Faith and waved her over, before curiosity got the better of her and she bounced up to Faith's car and peered inside. As Faith came up behind her she chuckled, "need some help there?"
Faith rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Hell yeah, been workin' on this thing for like days, still can't figure it out. Tell ya what, food, sex, drugs, even I know more about. But when it comes to cars I just don't get it." She threw the engine part Cassie's way and looked over at the three bodies approaching her. "Hey," she said, raising a hand. "You guys must be 'The Team.' Heard a lot about you."
Cassie caught the part that was thrown her way and blushed slightly as Faith said she had 'heard a lot about them'. It was true that Cassie spoke a lot about the team, but she didn't think it was that much. She looked down at the part in the hand and then down at the car and chuckled. She came up behind Faith and pointed out everybody as she introduced them, "That's Letty, Dom and Leon." Cassie juggled the piece in her hand and then picked up a screwdriver, fiddled with it a bit and then put it back where it was meant to go. She patted Faith on the back, "There ya go, luv." She nodded inside, "I think it's time for a drink."
Dom took Faith's hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you. We really appreciate you letting us stay here. It's not everyday that somebody just lets a couple of strangers to stay in their house."
Faith smiled. "Hey, don't be a stranger and maybe I'll let you in." She winked at him and let go of his hand. She pointed at Letty and smiled. "Dom's gurl, I wanna saay...Letty?"
Letty nodded and stepped forward to take her hand. "S'cuse the state I'm in we just er..."
"No problem, no explanation needed," she told her and patted her gently on the arm. She moved to Leon who was sneaking a peek and took a step back to talk into Cassie's ear. "Doncha just love how they 'observe' before they speak?" she nodded a little to him and smiled. "Leon, right?"
Leon licked over his lips and cleared his throat. "Er, yeah sure, baby gurl."
Letty glanced over her shoulder at him and chuckled. "Same ol', same..."
Cassie and Dom both shook their heads. Cassie looked over at Leon for a second before she shook the thoughts out of her head and wandered inside the house where the coolness of the air conditioning hit her straight away. "First things first, c'mere Let, I'm gonna take a look at you." She ushered Letty inside and pulled out a first aid kit from the hallway cupboard.
Letty as stubborn as she always had been backed from at first. "Nah, I'm fine, just grab me a glass of water I'll be alright."
Leon backed up Cassie with that one; he was sure she was in a lot of the pain, aside all the winces and the crying out there was blood and there were bruises. "Let I think you should, you're pretty damaged." He touched the lower part of her back and helped her inside and moved his hand up her back and round to her arm.
She glanced back over her shoulder at him and licked over her lips. These past few days had been hell for them, they all knew that and aside all the crap Leon had been there for Let no matter what. Much more than what Dom was. She hated that Dom would always skip out at the first sign of anything against him, but she loved that the boys would always take care of her at the first sign of anything going wrong. She liked that Leon put her before himself, and everyone else he cared about. She hated that Dom would be selfish and put the business before their lives.
She watched as Cassie grabbed some equipment and started opening gauze packets and lotion and the rest of it, deciding to let her do whatever she had to. There was no point in fighting.
Dom stared out at the cars in the driveway, his hands in his pockets and his thoughts elsewhere. He knew he had never been the best person the past few years, but with all the shit that had happened, he was determined to change. He would take care of his team rather than just see them as people who were there to help out. He nodded to himself mostly and then followed everybody inside. He watched as Cassie fixed Letty up, "anything I can do?"
Cassie looked up at Dom and shook her head, "nah, we're right." She gave him a reassuring smile and then looked at Letty, "it doesn't look like anything's broken, but I still wanna get you looked at by a doctor at least." She said it as though it were the final word, and she wasn't about to let Letty argue about it.
Faith stepped inside after Dom, scanning him over with her eyes. "Ouch," she mouthed to herself and stepped around him, headed for where Letty was. "Hospital's about a two mile drive from here if you're gonna go, downtown traffic's usually a tough jam right around now though." She picked up some gauze in the medipack and started playing with it. "Want me to drive you?" she offered, looking towards Letty.
"No; it's no big deal, just leave it."
Faith shrugged. "I dunno, you probably should just to be on the safe side." There was a momentary silence as she checked out Letty's wounds. "Car crash?"
Dom nodded absentmindedly, "yeah ... long story." And he left it at that.
Cassie looked at Letty and then at Faith and then back to Letty, "it won't take long, and you need to get looked at." She stood and pulled her keys from her pocket, "I can take her, it's no problem." Cassie helped Letty up carefully and smiled over at Faith and then mouthed the words, 'nothing shifty' and nodded towards the guys.
Faith shook her head and chucked the gauze at her. "Get to the end of the road take a left; then follow the signs downtown, should be no problem." She watched the two heading out, and the smile upon her lips gently faded. Everything she knew about 'the Team' wasn't necessarily good. She knew they'd been mixed up in dirty dealings for a hell of a long time and that asking questions was something she shouldn't do if she was curious. She knew that all their dirty dealings were enough to get them killed and that if they asked a favour the easiest option was to go for the yes. Faith wasn't the most typical girl who would just drape herself over a guy, but she also wasn't the kind of girl to just shut up when she knew something wasn't right.
"You guys wanna get something to drink?"
Dom smiled and nodded, "what've you got?"
She smiled and led them through to the kitchen. "Corona okay?" she asked as she headed for the fridge, sensing them follow behind her.
Dom nodded, "perfect," he chuckled as he grabbed the Corona from Faith when she handed it to him. He popped the cap open and took a sip, glad to have something stronger than soda to drink. He looked at Faith and sensed she wanted to ask something, she was curious about them and he could feel it. "Ok. Spill it." Dom smiled a friendly smile to let Faith know he wasn't a threat, "I can see you're busting to ask a question. Just ask it." He took another sip and leaned up against the countertop.
She handed Leon a Corona and popped one open for herself before leaning against the worktop and firing with the head full of questions she'd held back. "What are you running away from?" she asked him, before taking a sip of her beer.
Dom knew that would be the first question she asked, "quick version - we're running from the cops for some heists." He made sure to keep it short and straight to the point. He wasn't going to tell her every single detail of what happened, but he knew what it was like to be kept out of the loop and it wasn't a good feeling.
Faith nodded. "Heists, huh. So it wasn't you who offed Tran and his team?"
Dom sensed Leon's eyes on him, and he simply shook his head. "Cassie told you about Tran?"
She shook her head. "Don't get all pent up cos I know stuff." She shrugged and glanced out of the window, then back to them. "Did my homework. Had to know what...who rather, was comin' into my house. Had a couple of my boys do some recon, find out some stuff." She watched their reactions, then continued. "I knew you guys were in trouble, I knew you needed help. I owe Cass, so I said yea." Again she paused. "What about the cop?"
Dom nodded. Faith wasn't stupid at all. In ways, she was just like them - he admired that. "I'm not getting pent up," he shrugged and took another sip of his beer, "I was just curious how you knew. And the cop, well we dunno." He shook his head again, "he let me go, and now we're here. What he's said or where he is, we dunno. But we plan on finding out once we know Letty's ok, and we know we're safe here."
She nodded her head. "Good." She proceeded to speak more but had to finish the beer that was in her mouth first, and she made a face. "What about er...Vince, Jesse...your sister?"
"Vince and Jesse are in hospital, I'm sure Brian's gonna get 'em out and they'll be on their way here with us. And Mia, my sister, I'm sure she hates me right now - like I'm sure everybody else does - so I would like her to be here to, but she'll probably stay in Echo Park and finish her schooling." He shrugged again and his eyes wandered outside and he dazed off slightly.
She shook her head. "Man...you got yourself into a tough stitch. Ever wonder if it's ever gonna straighten out?"
Leon scratched his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "When will everything ever be straight...with us...I mean...we got ourselves into this. Nothing's ever gonna be alright."
Faith looked at him, furrowed her eyebrows a moment and then raised them. "Jesse's your best friend," she told him, pointing the neck of her bottle his way, to which he nodded.
Dom looked down at the floor then up to Leon, "I got you into this stitch. If the shit does find us, I'm gonna go down for it, nobody else." He mumbled something else incoherent and then finished off his beer.
Faith put down her beer, moved around the counter, and placed an arm on his shoulder and squeezed it gently. She smiled to him as he gazed up into her eyes and slipped her hand down his arm before moving away. "I'll give you guys some alone time. I'll be er... 'fixing' my car if you need me." She headed out, and shook her head gently, knowing that all that would be ahead of them were tough times.
Cassie knew instantly why Letty couldn't do it. It was hard to lose everything so close to you, and then re-enter the place it happened and pretend like it was all normal. She stood in front of Letty with both hands on her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes. "Babe, you need to get a check up. All it is, is a couple of x-rays, and just somebody to look at ya. I'll be right here. I swear to God! Please ... you gotta do this ... for me." She pleaded with her eyes as they both stood in the middle of the floor staring at each other - not caring about the people around them.
Letty tore her gaze from her concerned friend and shifted her weight from one foot to another. She headed out of the hospital, Cassie going with her and reached for her smokes in her pocket. "Least let me light one first," she muttered and did so, and looked out ahead of her at the car parked full of cars, and the busy people rushing around her.
"Since when do you smoke?" Cassie asked and raised a brow. In all the time she'd known Letty, never had she smoked - in fact, she despised them.
Letty shot her a look, and then offered her the stick and shrugged simultaneously. "What does it matter..."
Cassie shook her head no, "it does matter. Of course it matters. You've changed so much - it's like you don't care anymore. And you and Dom, don't get me started about that." Cassie's voice broke slightly as she said the words.
Letty scoffed and threw down the smoke. "Since when did it matter to you what was goin' on with Dom and I? Isn't that our business! And what the hell makes you think I don't care about shit anymore!' Letty couldn't deal with this. Her head was still spinning from all the stuff that had happened the past couple of days without this being an additive.
"Ok. Fine. I won't question it. Right now I give a shit about you." She grabbed Letty's wrist, and refused to let go. She practically dragged her back into the hospital, even with her screaming and trying to fight her off. Cassie asked the nurse behind the desk politely if she could see a doctor, and the nurse instantly went to get somebody without asking any questions. When the doctor appeared, Cassie pulled Letty into the room she offered and asked if Letty needed a sedative. Cassie pushed Letty into the seat and refused the sedative and explained that she just needed a check up. The doctor too stunned to ask any questions nodded and pulled out anything she might be needing.
