AN: I whipped this up for something to do today so if it sucks forgive me and I'm sorry to whoever's turn I just usurped but since it went so long since it was last updated I figured I'd just jump in. I got some requests for it to be updated so I decided to go head. Whoever wants to go next can do so I would think so it won't be so long between updates next time. Miss you all and I'm sorry that I'm never around anymore. Fifty hour weeks at work really suck hard. Any imput on how this story is going and what you think would be appreciated. To be honest I was pretty much at a loss of what to do with it until this kind of jumped out at me from no where. Ciao.
Puzzling Pieces
By -TempestRaces
Chapter 56 – Karma
-Chi tante male azioni fa, una grossa ne aspetta
(What Goes Around Comes Around)
The phone rang several times before it was answered on the other end. "chto?" The phone was answered abruptly, the man on the other end asking 'what' in a sharp tone, his language Russian.
"Zdrravstvuite." Hello, she answered. "Vanya?" She asked to clarify, unable to tell from the one short word snapped in such a short, irate tone over the long distance telephone line. She knew it was his cell phone number she had dialed but she wasn't sure it was his voice that had answered. For the request she had to make she had to be sure.
"Da. Who this is?" He asked in heavily accented English.
"Storm. Pomogite pozhaluista." Help me, she implored. "I've got more trouble than I can handle."
"What has happened?" His voice took on an angry cast. Her tone set him on edge. He was sensing a threat to her and not liking it at all.
"It's a long ass story Vanya," she sighed. "I need to meet with you. I can't discuss this over a cellular line."
"Where are you?"
"Miami. I can get a flight to New York in the next few hours."
"I will come to you. I have Yerik with me now. Will take plane to Miami now. Where are we to find you?"
"I know where the private airplanes land. I'll take a car and meet you there. Ok?"
"Da. Flight will take two hours. Should I bring more men with me than only Yerik?"
"No, the two of you will be fine. I don't need your help right here, I just need your help with something I can't talk to you about over the phone."
"I understand. Will see you soon. Will be ok while you wait for us?"
"Yes, I'll be fine. I'll see you soon." Storm flipped her Razr closed with a snap. After thinking for a moment she turned to go up the stairs.
"Where are you going? Where's Stacey gone?" Tabitha asked, fear evident in her voice.
"I'm going to meet some friends. I don't know where Stacey went, I only know there are a few things I have to do about it now. I have to meet some people."
"Can I come with you?"
"Nope, sorry kid, no can do. I'll call Matty or Taylor to come stay with you while I go take care of this." Definitely not Taylor. The last thing she needed was Taylor knowing she was again involving herself with the Russian man and his family.
Storm started quickly up the stairs. She didn't have a lot of time to get changed out of the clothes still stained from her ordeal with Dominic and the rest of his idiot squad. She wouldn't meet Ivan looking like death warmed over. He'd take it way too personal and that would be the end of Dom, Leon, Letty, and Vince if they were together when Ivan finally tracked them down. He would find them, no matter what she did. She showered the grime of her few days imprisonment off quickly and left the bathroom for her bedroom just as quickly.
There was little she could do about the marks from the rope around her wrists and ankles. At least her boots and pants would hide those around her legs. She didn't have any long sleeve shirts and wearing a jacket in Miami would arouse more suspicions than it would allay. She put on a men's undershirt with a shrug. He was going to find out soon enough why she needed his help. She would just have to hope that when she told Ivan to let them all alone the Russian man listened.
Once she was changed she pounded back down the stairs and zipped her boots up.
"I'll call Matty in the car. You won't be alone long." Storm told Tabitha as she twisted the doorknob in preparation for leaving. The shocked teen hadn't moved from the foyer.
"I don't understand any of this! Where's Stacey? Where are you going?" Tabitha was clearly distraught.
"I can't explain any of it right now because I don't know either. You're just going to have to trust me. Trust me to sort it out the best I can."
"I do, but I want to understand. Did Stacey run away again?"
"I think so. At least this time I don't think she ran off with one of her little friends. Listen," Storm took Tabitha by the shoulders. "I don't know what's going to happen at the end of this. I won't tell you I do. But I will make sure that at the very least Stacey is safe. Ok?"
"Ok."
Storm left the house on that note, darting over to her rented car which Taylor had retrieved from the beach the day of her taking. She got in and started it up, heading for the airstrip. By the time she got there Ivan and Yerik would either be there or would only be a few minutes out. What she wanted to do was warring with what she knew to be right.
Stacey had to be safe. She wouldn't compromise on that eventuality. No matter where she ended up living and with whom, she had to be safe. Since Dom and Brian were not going to hold that standard in mind someone had to. And that meant Mia had to be out of the picture.
The natural inclination of Storm was to simply have her taken out. She'd never be a threat to anyone again then. But that would only make Dom and Vince right about her and that she wouldn't have. The last thing she wanted to do was make them right. So, that left her with a dilemma. Did she do what she thought had to be done and end up living with the knowledge she'd proved them all right about her, or was there another plan she could enact that would have an equally satisfactory outcome?
She thought there was. But, she couldn't have anything tangible to do with it. If she was to be believed when she said she had nothing to do with things than she couldn't just go missing from Miami. She couldn't have anyone know of her involvement. She had to deal with the issue from a distance and in an anonymous way. Anyone could give her away; therefore she couldn't trust her father, Matty, Taylor, her mother, none of them. She had to do it all on her own without actually seeming to do it at all. If anyone had information than they could give it away, either by accident or under duress.
That was where Ivan came in. He wouldn't tell a soul and her family wouldn't even know she still talked to him, let alone think to question him.
She pulled up to the airfield and parked the car, getting out and crossing over to the small terminal building with long strides, looking nowhere but straight ahead. As usual she gave off an aura of total calm control. She didn't really feel that way but she was glad no one would know. She watched through a plate glass window as the Cessna owned by the Romanoff's taxied down the runway before Yerik backed it skillfully into a berth on the side of the squat grey building. He and his father disembarked, each carrying a briefcase. No doubt each armed for bear, given that because they owned the small aircraft there was no airport security for them, just a filed flight plan under a fake name.
She met them at the door of the building. Before she could so much as blink Ivan was hugging her against his massive chest. He had nothing but sons and had summarily adopted Storm into his fold as his only daughter early in her clandestine career. One he had inadvertently started her on when he had given her a job working for him. He was a huge man, easily three hundred pounds if not more. Not really petite herself, Storm always felt dwarfed by his bulk carried on his six foot five frame. She hugged him back gratefully, knowing that-as always-the Russian man was her friend and comrade before he was her father's ally.
He would see only one side in this issue. Hers.
His familiar leather coat smelled like a mix of the smoky air in his club, several different woman's perfumes, gun oil, and expensive cologne, with just a vague hint of something else, something that might have been the dirty streets or pollution of his home city. In short, to Storm, he smelled like home. After Ivan released her she and Yerik air kissed each other on both cheeks, the same European greeting as they always exchanged.
"So, what is problem?" Ivan asked as they started toward Storm's rented Cadillac.
"It's going to be a long ass story."
"I have nothing but time for you Bella."
Storm opened the driver's door and slid in, Ivan joining her in the front as Yerik climbed into the rear. Storm was glad she hadn't rented the Mercedes convertible she'd wanted to. There would have been no way to fit over six feet of Russian in the back seat of that car. Yerik was almost of a size with his father. "It all started about a year ago when I moved to Miami. I started seeing this guy named Carter. He was one of dad's small time guys in Miami. He had the potential to be big time."
"Why would you mix the business with pleasure? My Bella, you better."
"I do know better. But he was so smooth and cool. He opened doors, pulled out chairs, asked me what I thought, took me places I wanted to go, seemed to like me for what I was, not what he thought I could be. In short, he was everything Taylor wasn't and at the time that sounded like heaven."
"Da, so you dated this Carter. Then what?"
"He turned ugly. Tried to beat me up. We got in fights all the time and they always turned physical. I tried to leave him and he decided not to let me. We had one last fight and I left him for dead. Too bad he didn't oblige me and die. But he still worked for my dad. Until he fucked up a run and let a couple undercover cops work for him. The feds got dad's money and dad let Carter go to jail for being a stupid fuckup."
"And now is out?"
"Yeah, he got out on a technicality after six months or so."
"Want we should kill him?"
"I did that already. The issue stems from the fact that he'd kidnapped my mom and sister. He also staged their deaths and I had no idea I shoulda been out looking for them all that time. When I found out they weren't dead he kidnapped Tabitha's friend Stacey as well. He was drugging both girls." Storm shook her head. That wasn't quite right. "Well he wasn't. He took and brainwashed Brian-Stacey's brother's-girlfriend. You followin' me up 'til now?"
"Da."
"Ok, well, Stacey's brother Brian was one of the undercover cops that took down Carter, so that's why he took Stacey in the first place. Then, he figured that it would hurt Brian even more if he got Mia-the girlfriend-to be the one who was trying to kill his sister. I know Carter's capable of that shit because he tried it on me, I just wasn't havin' it."
"You are sure this Carter is dead?"
If he wasn't, it was clear he would soon be. Storm didn't doubt that Ivan would enjoy killing Carter by zamochit, the Russian torture technique of breaking each and every bone in a person's body, starting with the small ones that you knew wouldn't kill them, just hurt like hell, and continuing until every bone they had was broken and they were dead. Storm had seen the results once and even she had felt slightly queasy. The Italians liked their guns. Blood and brain matter were one thing. Seeing a human beaten and broken up like a sack of hamburger meat was quite another.
"Oh yeah, he's dead. But Mia was so brainwashed she kept on trying to kill Stacey even after Carter was dead. She even tried in the hospital. She even tried to kill Matty. So I decided to finish Mia. But the drugs I gave her didn't kill her, just put her in a coma. And in the end I think that's better. So, since I can't just kill her now, that's where you come in. I guarantee she's wacko. What I want you to do is go to L.A. and take her out of the hospital she's in and put her in a private facility someplace. I don't care where, but I want her locked up for being a nut job and I want her locked down nice and tight. I want the staff to be either so in your pocket or so convinced she's cuckoo that when she says her name is Mia Toretto they just say yes dear and roll their eyes behind her back because they know she's Adriana Bopinsero. That's if she ever even wakes up."
"What is name of hospital?"
"St. Francis Medical Center."
"The name of girl?"
"Mia Toretto."
"So you wish girl moved to place where she will never be found?"
"Da. Unless she ever gets sane again. I mean, should she wake up than they can try to do their thing in the loony bin and make her sane again."
"Is not like you to leave alive this girl."
"I know," Storm sighed as she pushed her hair back behind her ears. "But they called me a murderer even though they have no proof it was me or that I even tried to kill her. I won't give these people the satisfaction of being right."
Ivan laughed. "Ah Bella. Always with fur up. We will take care of problem for you. Correct, Yerik?"
"Da. So Storm?"
"Yeah Yerrie?" Storm asked, only paying a small amount of attention as she piloted the car through downtown Miami.
"Does death of the Carter mean you are again single?"
Storm laughed in spite of herself. "I was single long before the death of Carter but yeah, despite my best attempts to find another boyfriend and Taylor's best attempts to be that boyfriend again, I am at this point, once again single."
"I would be happy to become end to problem for you."
"I know you would. I just don't think we're quite allied enough for my dad to look the other way past that one."
All three of them laughed. Ivan's continued pushing of his oldest son Storm's way was an old joke. Storm even knew that Yerik didn't think of her in that way, he merely jested for his father's benefit.
"So, do you think you need to know anything else about what I've asked of you?" Storm asked Ivan.
"Net." No, Ivan insisted vehemently. "I understand," Ivan seemed to reconsider. "Do you want to know where she goes?"
Storm took a moment to of her own to ponder his question. If she didn't know she had plausible deniability. But if she didn't know she couldn't keep an eye on Mia. "Yeah, I guess I do. I need to keep tabs on her so I'll know Stacey is safe."
"Da. When will you again be in New York?"
"Soon I suppose. Now that Stacey ran off again there's nothing keeping me here. I don't know how it will affect my mom's suit for custody of the kid, but if she wants to live with her brother I don't think mom will force the issue."
"Is good. Will see you home soon. You will come to club, da?"
"Yeah, of course. Are you taking care of CJ and Devin for me?"
"They come every weekend to Overdrive and always 'where is Storm' they ask. CJ misses you from street races."
"I might just have to take a few in when I go home then. The car's up home anyway."
"Good."
"So, do you want to grab some dinner before you fly home?"
"We will go straight to Los Angeles from here, but dinner first sounds good."
Storm turned the car toward a nice restaurant she had been known to visit with her mother. Those times seemed like lifetimes ago now. When she pulled up to the establishment Ivan and Yerik started to howl with a mix of laughter and outrage. She'd taken them to an Italian restaurant. Storm got out of the car with a smirk and entered the restaurant under the arm of a still chuckling Ivan Romanoff. She took one last sniff of his familiar smell before she sat in the chair Yerik pulled out for her, wagging his eyebrows as if to say 'see, I too can be smooth.'
"Keep trying Yerik." Storm said as she giggled at the tall man who was shaved just as bald as his father.
"Someday you will see the light."
"Maybe someday I will."
They ordered and ate before Storm delivered them back to their plane.
"How will we manage to move the girl out of the hospital if she is on such a high floor?" Yerik asked his father, slipping back into his native tongue when Storm wasn't around to be confused by his rapid-fire Russian speech. Storm was good at Russian and had a good comprehension and vocabulary, but she couldn't keep up with a native speaker who wasn't attempting to speak slowly to let her understand.
"I have not yet figured that out. She is in a coma and is likely hooked up to many machines. But we will find a way because it is Storm who has asked. She does not take asking for help lightly."
"I know this, but this will still be a difficult thing you propose to do. It would be far easier to kill the girl than move her if she is out cold."
"We were not asked to kill her, we were asked to make her disappear so this is what we will do. I think we will move her to New York. She will be far from home and no one will believe she is an Italian woman from California. They will think she is the crazy relative of some Mafia don and has been put away to protect them from the shame of her illness."
"We will also be able to keep a check on her to make sure she never becomes a problem for Storm again."
"Da."
That decided they flew into a private airstrip in California and landed the plane. They rented a cargo van using fake passports from Israel for ID and drove toward St. Francis. They went to the room Storm had written down for them on a piece of paper and found Mia.
"She is pretty." Yerik commented.
"Yes, but crazy. To be brainwashed is to be weak of mind. To my mind, we are not lying. She is crazy if a man could trick her into doing such things as Storm says she has done. Besides, she is not as pretty as 'Bella."
"You would never admit it if she was," Yerik chuckled at his father. "You are so taken with Storm Demaret I never figured why you did not marry her yourself instead of trying to convince both of us it would be a match."
"She is too young for me and I know this. For you, twelve years is a good difference between a man and woman. A man could never be attached to Storm and be caught with another woman. She would kill him and the other woman both."
"I am sure you are right. This means she can never be with a man of our world, of her own world. You know there is not a man in the family who can remain faithful to only one woman. He would become the laughingstock of his whole family if he wasn't seen with his 'goomah'" Yerik used the Italian word for 'mistress' with a smirk.
"If a man is in love with a woman he does not want any 'goomah's. It is too bad that so many men of our position marry for money and connections and not love."
"Father, are you going soft in your old age?"
"Keep it up and find out for yourself."
Yerik backed off, knowing paternal love would only protect him from so much of the beating he'd have coming. "What are we going to do about this girl?"
"At least she is not on a machine for her breathing or to keep her heart beating. We will just have to take her in the bed she is in and lift it into the van the way it is. Then, in New York we will have to bribe a proper ambulance to move her to the hospital we decide on. If she arrives in the back of a cargo van the staff will know that something is strange about the situation from the beginning."
"What are we going to do about the heart monitor?"
"The only thing I can think of to do is for you to connect the terminal quickly to yourself and stand here for five minutes, giving me time to load her into the van and be waiting for you. You'll have to unhook yourself and get away quickly."
"What if you run into trouble on the way out?"
"With it being so late at night and all her family being in Miami, who will be looking out for her?" Ivan looked down into the pretty, calm face of Mia Toretto and saw only a woman who had wronged one of his own. He had no more concern for her welfare than he would for his most hated enemy. Only the fact he'd promised Storm to put her away kept him from killing her. He also understood the creed that if you gave you word, people had to be able to depend on you keeping it. If he killed the girl the family would blame Storm and the very thing she hoped to avoid would come crashing down on her.
They quickly attached the heart monitor's little white electrode pad to Yerik's broad chest. The machine protested when it didn't get a heartbeat but quieted quickly once it was again fed one. Swiftly, Ivan started to roll the bed toward the door. He got out of the room and onto the elevator quickly. They had thought to put a sheet right up over Mia's head to keep her identity secret. On the way into the hospital they had walked right in without a care. Now, on the way out Ivan wore a baklava over his face. He was confident he wouldn't be caught but it was true that Interpol no doubt had a picture of him on file to go by. As long as he wasn't seen committing a crime he knew he couldn't be caught. Storm would provide an alibi to him even if she had to lie about being in New York herself.
Just as he slammed the van doors shut and moved to get into the driver's seat Yerik came running up. He got into the van quickly. "I don't think I was followed."
"Good."
They drove directly to the airstrip and were airborne within fifteen minutes. Ivan called Storm from the air.
"Demaret." She answered.
"Is done."
"Good. I'll see you at home in the next few days to be filled in on the rest."
"Da." Ivan shut his phone. The plane banked hard left to head up toward New York State and the lights of the various cities enroute blinked underneath the plane's silver belly.
Storm felt like she could relax slightly for the first time since she had realized Stacey had run off. Mia would not be a threat, whether she woke up or not. It was a weight off her shoulders. Of course, had Stacey simply stopped being stupid it never would have been necessary to involve her friends in a felony. Of course, it wasn't like they minded, or like it was foreign territory.
Now that she knew Stacey would be safe she called her mother. She hadn't dared go home to the house Cara had borrowed with so much on her mind. Her mother was uncannily good at knowing when something was heavy on her mind.
"Hello." Cara answered the phone.
"Hey mom."
"Storm! Where are you? Tabitha is almost beside herself. She keeps going on about Stacey running away and you going to deal with it. Where is Stacey?"
"I honestly don't know. She just took off out of the house. I figure it has something to do with Brian."
"Never mind that! Your father is out of his mind too. When were you going to let us know you got free from the people who kidnapped you?"
"When you got home to the house if Stacey hadn't pulled her little disappearing act," Storm sighed. "I didn't plan this. I mean, I had to beat up Leon to get free and I never really had beef with him. Never mind that I had to run through about three miles of the Everglades to find a highway just to hitchhike back to town on."
The memory of her escape came back to Storm in a rush as clear as if she was watching it as a film on a big TV.
He was walking up the stairs. She could tell it was a man because Letty didn't walk that heavily. She listened as he approached her door and heard him sigh before the knock came. "You decent?"
She didn't answer. Instead she moved to the side of the door with the hinges. She knew he'd open it anyway and she knew when he did it would conceal her and give him a moment of disorientation as he tried to figure out why she wasn't sitting on the bed tied up where they had left her.
When he paused, likely swearing as he thought she'd escaped already she'd slam the door into him and at the very least if she didn't knock him down or out she'd stun him enough that he'd be off balance and she'd be able to use the rope she had in her hands to choke him into unconsciousness.
As she waited for the doorknob to turn she whispered to herself 'let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor.' She didn't want to fight with the Toretto team, she just wanted to get away to check on her family first. She knew that something had to be done about them thinking they were going to get away with kidnapping her, but it could wait.
The adrenaline was flowing through her blood, leaving her feeling like her blood was lava, hot and thick. She scented an easy kill. The easy way she'd snapped Carter's neck was still on her mind, making her feel a sense of euphoria. If she could kill a man like Carter with one twist of her arm than surely she could subdue Leon. He wasn't very big so she thought that with her training she should be easily able to control him. Dom might have been a problem for her but Dom, she knew, would never do his own dirty work. The doorknob turned and the door started to move.
It started to move out toward the hall.
She's forgotten that the door didn't open in like normal doors, but outward in some backwards, backwoods, hillbilly way. Fuck! Now what?
She darted to the bed and lay down, quickly twisting the rope around her wrists to make it appear she was still tied up. She lay on her back, acting as though she was still out cold. The door swung out and Leon peaked in. She watched him covertly under her thick lashes. He walked in the room carrying a glass of water and a sandwich on a plate.
Like I'd eat your food or drink your water! Likely poisoned, she thought. He set his burdens down on the dresser and headed toward where she lay on the bed.
"You should have woken up by now." He muttered out loud to himself. He didn't know she could hear him. She actually had him tricked into thinking she was still out cold. He leaned in and lay a hand on her cheek, checking for what she didn't know. He tapped her face gently. "Wake up Storm. You should drink something."
She almost wished he'd be mean to her. It would make what she was about to do a lot easier. She had no real issues with him but she was about to start some. Before he could stand up she threw herself up off the bed and at Leon with a roar, knocking him onto his back from his leaned over position.
"For what it's worth, I don't want to do this." She said as she wrapped the rope around his neck from behind as he tried to stand up. She tightened the rope more, watching as it dented in the skin of his neck.
Unfortunately she hadn't counted on Leon. He was far stronger than he looked. Not only that, but he was also trained in some sort of martial art. He got his feet under him and stood up as he tried to twist away from her grip. Because he had her by surprise he managed to hook her leg with one of his, reaching behind himself with his food, and knock her backward, where she landed with a startled oomph.
She was up again before he could do much more than get the rope off his neck and spin on her. "What the hell was that for?" Leon asked, rubbing his neck as they circled each other.
"Oh I don't know. Kidnapping me? Just maybe?" She asked sarcastically.
"We didn't hurt you! You just tried to kill me."
"Didn't hurt me? I'll knock you out with the butt of my gun and we'll see how much you agree that it doesn't hurt."
"That was Dom and he only did it because you threatened to kill Mia."
"I don't care. It's unfortunate that only one of us is going to walk out of this room and that it's going to be me. I'll do my best not to hurt you when I put you out."
"Do your worst." Leon retorted.
"Ok." Storm answered with a shrug and moved in with a punch to Leon's stomach. He blocked it, deflecting it to his side harmlessly and attacking with his own punch. Storm blocked it with an upper rising block and countered with a spin kick. It connected with his solar plexus, knocking him down.
He hit his head on the leg of the bed as he went down. Storm expected him to get up even more irate than before but instead he lay still. That worried her. It was either a lucky fluke for her that he'd knocked himself out, or he was pretending, hoping that she would go over to check on him so he could grab her. If that was his plan it was about to backfire horribly for him. She dashed out of the room and closed the door before moving the dresser in front of it to keep him in.
She never heard him make a sound, making her think he wasn't crying wolf, but really knocked out. She didn't have time to check on him though, she had to get away before one of the others came to check on what was taking him so long. She darted down the stairs carefully, listening the whole time for any movement or talking and also feeling with her instincts for another human presence. There was none.
After she was a safe distance from the house and in a stranger's car she used his phone to call Letty's. "I left Leon in my room and he seemed sick. I think you should check on him." With that vague tale, guaranteed not to let the man driving her know more than she wanted him to know, she had hung up and allowed John Redneck to make conversation with her back from the back of beyond into Miami-Dade county. From where the man let her off she had easily caught a bus back to the house her mother had borrowed.
"I know it couldn't have been easy on you." Her mother's answer brought her out of her memories. "I just don't see how this is going to help us find Stacey."
"If she's so unsure what she really wants maybe no one should find her." Storm offered.
"I thought that we covered this. She shouldn't do this sort of thing but we can't just treat her like a normal sixteen year old and let her figure it out on her own. She needs too much support."
"I'm not saying that we should just abandon her," Storm sighed. "I guess what I'm saying is that we should just let her have the freedom to do what she wants. It seems that right now she wants to live with Brian for whatever reason so I guess we'll just have to let her."
"What will happen if Mia wakes up and goes after Stacey again?"
"If Mia wakes up then I'll get involved again. But for now I'm just going to have to call that we let Stacey make up her own mind. Trying to do what's best for her and trying to give her what she wants don't seem to get a person very far."
"I guess you're right. So what happens now? Should I still try to become her legal guardian?"
"I suppose it hardly matters. Even if you do win you can just let her go live with Brian if she's so inclined."
"It doesn't feel right but I don't see what else can be done. When are you coming home?"
"Soon. Is Taylor there?"
"Yes. He and Matty arrived shortly after I did."
"Ok, tell everyone I'm on the way home now."
Storm headed the car toward the house and cranked her tunes up to drown out her thoughts. What would the Toretto's do when they got the word about Mia? They were going to blame her again, even with no evidence to support the allegations. It wasn't going to look good that she'd taken off on Tabitha out of the blue and wouldn't say where she had been either.
Fuck, there's just no end to it, she thought as she drove down the freeway.
She pulled up to the house and Matty came out to meet her. "Hey Storm."
"Hey Matty."
"We got trouble." Matty said, his face clouded with worry.
"Dominic Toretto please?" A somber voice requested.
"This is Dominic." Dom answered into his cell phone.
"This is Bernice from St. Francis Medical Center."
"Hello Bernice."
"Mr. Toretto, it's about your sister Mia. Could you come down to the hospital?"
"No, I'm out of the state. What is it?"
"Well," Bernice stammered, unsure how to say what she had to say. "Well, she's gone missing Mr. Toretto. Someone took her right out of her room, bed and all."
"Excuse me?" Dom asked, his tone so calm that anyone who knew him would know he was nothing of the sort. "Did you say what I think you just said?"
"Yes sir. It happened late last evening and there are no leads at this time as to who would have done this or where they took her."
"I can't believe your hospital would let this happen!" Dominic roared. "How could this happen?"
"Well, she wasn't exactly under lock and key sir. We were never informed that there was a risk someone would be looking to do something like this."
"I didn't think there was." Dom said, all the anger draining out of him. He should have known! He should have thought. Turnaround was fair play. They'd kidnapped Storm so she retaliated in kind and kidnapped his sister. It wasn't the hospital's fault. Coming up against Storm and her family was lose lose for them. "Thank you for informing me. I assume the cops have been informed and involved."
"Yes, of course sir! We take this very seriously and are co-operating fully with the LAPD to get to the bottom of this and get your sister back where she belongs."
"Thank you." Dom hung up and turned to Letty, Leon-who was still slightly off balance and suffering a headache from his concussion, and Vince. "That was the hospital. Mia went missing from her room late last night, bed and all."
"You shoulda known better than to mess with her family brotha." Vince was quick to blame Dom.
Dom noticed that Vince just assumed it was Storm right off the bat too. That was at least a good sign for Dom being right when he assumed it was Storm. He addressed Vince's comment. "That's not helping." Dom retorted. "I guess I'll have to call her, tell her I know it was her and talk terms."
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"I can't just let it go that she kidnapped my baby sister." Dom sighed and reopened his phone, calling the number for the house Storm was staying in. She wasn't there, he was informed so he went off at the brother out of his anger. He wasn't any farther ahead at the end of his conversation.
"What trouble?" Storm asked her brother on the tarmac driveway.
"Toretto called here and went off at me because he says you kidnapped his sister."
"I hope you went off at him because he really did kidnap your sister and you have proof." Storm smirked.
"I never thought of that. Did you really kidnap her?"
"Matty, I was locked up in the middle of no where with them for the last few days. When did I have time to kidnap her? I had to hitchhike back into the city."
"Tabitha says you've been gone for eight hours, since early afternoon."
"I was looking for Stacey, not kidnapping Mia! How would I have had time to go to Los Angeles, kidnap Mia, stash her someplace, and go eat at Bella Napoli this evening for supper?"
"I don't know, but I think you're about to get the chance to explain that to them first hand." Matty said as he sighed, watching the Toretto team pull up in a car together.
"Alright, I get where you're coming from, kidnap Mia because I kidnapped you. But Mia's sick and this isn't funny."
"No it isn't Dominic because I have no idea what you're talking about. Matty was telling me about you calling him and I don't know what you're thinking. I only got away from you about ten hours ago. When did I supposedly kidnap Mia? From that room in your rented house? From the hillbilly's truck on the way out of the everglades? While I was in the shower washing the dirt off me from being locked up in a room in the same clothes for forty eight hours? While I was frantically looking for Stacey before I figured out she changed her mind again and left with you guys?" Storm was a little taken aback by Vince's presence. She didn't know when he'd arrived in Miami.
"How'd you figure that out?" Vince asked. He was surprised she'd guessed.
"Makes sense really. I just don't know what you guys threatened her with to make her do it."
"She called us and asked us to come get her." Letty broke in.
"Ok. Fine. She can live with whoever wants to have her. I see now that she doesn't know what she wants and I'm through fighting over her. But that means done with her and you guys."
"Come on, tell us what you did to Mia. What good is a poor woman in a coma to you?"
"I really wish I was the superwoman you think I am. I had no time. I had supper out at my favorite Italian place today. They can tell you that as recently as six pm I was paying my bill. I didn't have time to kidnap Mia. I couldn't have. There's just no way."
"Well, if you're lying the LAPD will find out and we'll get you then." Dom threatened.
"Do your worst baldy. On the other hand I'm going home to New York so they'll have to come get me there, ok?" Storm didn't wait for an answer. She turned around and walked into her house. She went straight to her room and flopped on her belly on the bed.
Just doing her job wasn't this complicated. She was so tired of all the drama. She had a life to live and she just wasn't prepared to make it all about Stacey and her drama any longer. It was time for the girl to grow up and part of growing up was making her own decisions. At least she'd be safe from Mia while she made them. After she lay prone on her bed for about half an hour Storm sat up and reached for the phone. Before she could dial her father burst into her room.
"Why didn't you phone me and tell me you got home safe?"
"I didn't think of it in the ensuing drama. I'm sorry daddy."
The weary look in his daughter's eyes brought him to her side. He sat down heavily on her bed. "Who were you going to call?"
"Airline. I'm going home and I'm doing it on a commercial flight so that everyone knows where I am and how I got there. That way there can be no question of me doing things in Miami or Los Angeles or Timbucktwo. There will be both a credit card charge and airline ticket proving that I took a flight to New York City's JFK airport where there will be another credit card bill for the limo that takes me home."
"Book it for two first class seats kiddo. I'm ready to go home too, if you're safe and the Stacey situation is settled."
"May as well make it four." Matty said from the door of his sister's room. "Me and Taylor will come too."
"Ok, four first class tickets to JFK coming up." Storm said and started to dial.
To whatever outcome, her time dealing with the Toretto team was at a close. She knew she should be relieved.
So why was she feeling a deep sense of loss instead? Why couldn't she get his face out of her mind?
Ivan looked out over his dance floor the evening after he'd settled the still comatose Mia Toretto into a psychiatric hospital under her new name and spotted a head of curly hair in her usual corner, dancing with CJ and Devin.
It was good she was home. He went down the stairs and, with a quick stop at the bar for two drinks-both vodka neat-headed toward his 'Bella.
As usual, Storm's friends fell away in awe when Ivan came anywhere near their group. "Vanya!" She exclaimed happily before kissing him beside both his cheeks.
"Storm!" He handed her one of the drinks. "To New York. To home!" He offered before moving to drink the vodka. Storm followed suit and they both drank at the same time.
"To home." Storm said softly after she'd swallowed the fiery liquid.
She moved back out on the floor with Devin to dance some more. To try and dance away the pain of the second breakup in her young life that had cut her to the quick. There had been no closure to the relationship, but it could have no future either.
Knowing that like she did, why did it hurt so bad that he was gone from her life and hadn't even tried to stick around?
Stacey looked around the hotel room she was sharing with Brian, who was currently out talking to his lawyer, and sighed. She could hear Dom, Leon, Vince and Letty chatting in the next room over.
She wasn't sure how to deal with them anymore. The only one of them who had ever believed her was Vince and it was like he wasn't on speaking terms with her anymore. She couldn't shake the feeling that yet again she had acted without thinking and made a big mistake.
When she woke up it was to a very bad headache in a room that seemed to be spinning around in circles. The light seemed far too bright to be natural, yet she knew it to be the sun shining in the window. The scene outside the window was so unfamiliar.
There were hardwood trees some distance from her room and they were awash in brilliant colours, red orange, yellow. Trees in California didn't turn colours like that. So where the heck was she?
"Well, good morning young miss." A nurse dressed all in white said with a sunny smile as she walked into the room. "We didn't think you were ever going to wake up. You've been out for some time. You were in a coma almost two months. At three your organs normally start to shut down so you're one lucky young lady."
"Where am I?" She croaked out, barely able to understand herself. It seemed the nurse was good at understanding slurred, incomprehensible speech because her smile dimmed a bit as she prepared to answer.
"You're at Saint Vincent's dear. Your family had you moved here. They thought it would be better for you to be cared for in a more homelike atmosphere than the hospital. They thought it might help you wake up and I guess they were right. They hope you can get well here, get over your issues."
"Saint Vincent's?" She didn't know of any hospitals around California by that name. "Where are we?"
"New York dear. You're still in New York. Harrison, New York State to be exact. Don't you remember where you live? I should get the doctor."
"But I don't live in New York. I never did. I'm from California." She started to panic but she wasn't able to move. She was conscious but had not regained the use of limbs that hadn't seen use in months.
"California? Now miss, calm down. There's no need to get wound up and irrational."
"I'm not irrational." She started to cry. "She did this to me! This is her revenge."
"Revenge? Now Maria, you need to calm down. I'll get you some water to drink, you must be thirsty getting all your liquids through the IV for such a long time."
"I'm not Maria! That was my mother's name. My name's Mia! It's Mia Toretto and I'm from California!"
"Of course you are dear. Just lay back and be still."
Before Mia could protest further she was jabbed with a needle and injected with something that made further protest impossible.
"Poor dear!" Mia heard the nurse from her room talking to someone else. "I'm afraid her family was right to bring her here. She really is as demented as they said she was. She thinks her name is Mia and that she's from California. She'll likely never get well enough to leave the facility. Such as sin. She's such a pretty little thing, and so young."
Tears leaked silently out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks into her hair as she lay in her bed, unable to do anything or say anything. But in her head she was screaming. 'Mia! My names Mia!'
No one would believe her anyway.