5
If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
Mario Andretti
Z
"You're up early." I lifted my head from where I was staring at the floor at the arrival of Brian and Mia.
"Hey. I couldn't sleep." I adjusted to sit a little more comfortably on the metal railing around the raised platform in the factory. They both walked up the steps to join me.
"How long you been out here?" Brian questioned good naturedly.
"Just long enough to get comfortable."
I had been miserable on the lumpy mattress all night. I was dead to the world for the first part of the night, then tossed and turned until I finally dragged myself up so I wouldn't wake up Han. I was still exhausted from the events of yesterday.
My hair was still soaking wet from a shower and hung in a sheet down my back. I had tossed on an old tank top and ripped jeans. I was planning on at least trying to not be sloppy, especially after not being able to keep my trap shut last night, but that kind of went out the window.
"How long have you known Han?" Mia started asking. She sat down in the chair in front of the computer desk while Brian remained standing beside her.
"Three years. I met him in Tokyo." I replied..
"Oh, you were in Tokyo? Dom didn't really tell us that." Mia answered. I could tell she was trying to figure me out, but I was too tired to really stress about it.
"Yeah, my family owed some money to Han's business partner's uncle and I wound up driving for him to pay it off. Met him at one of the street races."
"What kind of driving were you doing?" Brian asked.
"Running drugs and money mostly, but occasionally I would boost some cars and every once in a while I'd do some mechanic work for him." I listed. I started shifting on the cold metal pipe rail.
"For the Yakuza." We turned as Dom walked up the stairs.
"Yeah." Mia and Brian gave me a little bit of a shocked look.
"How old were you?" Dom's deep voice rumbled.
"Sixteen."
"Then you should have no problems now." He said with finality. I knew questions about my qualifications would stop now. "Since you're here, you want to give me a hand getting ready?"
"Yeah, sure." I hopped off the rail with a nod to Brian and Mia and followed Dom over to the corner where the guns for the day were laid out of the table.
I hadn't noticed, but standing beside Dom I was only just tall enough for the top of my head to be even with his shoulder. His biceps were literally bigger around than my skull. I wondered how massive the Federal agent was if he actually gave Dom a run for his money.
"I know we don't really know each other, but I gotta favor to ask." He said quietly. He picked up a gun and began to weigh it in his hand. I ran my hand down another one and glanced back to see if Brian or Mia could hear us.
"What is it?"
"I want you to stay close to Mia here and then keep an eye on Reyes." My heart dropped a little. I tried to keep the disappointment off of my face, but Dom saw through me. "Mia's pregnant. I don't want her alone." That made me feel a little bit better.
"Probably best. Reyes's going to be gunning for you when you show yourselves. He doesn't know me and I'm still labeled as a missing person so not much will come up on the police database about me. Might come in handy later." I said stoically. I was still a little pissed at not getting to play with guns, but I understood where he was coming from as a brother. Mine would do things like this to protect me if they thought I needed it.
"Missing person?" Dom asked interestedly.
"Japan wasn't exactly voluntary." I replied with an eye roll.
"You guys ready for this?" The ever-so-obnoxious Rome swaggered up to the table with a wide smile on his face. Tej followed behind him rolling his eyes at his friend's volume level.
"Morning." I called pleasantly. Rome walked up beside me and started picking his weapon.
"You ready for this, baby girl?" He asked me with a slap on the back. Rome and I had gotten along very well at the garage yesterday.
"She's going to be watching Reyes." Dom said with authority.
"Watching Reyes?" Han muttered behind me.
He and Gisele walked up together. Han came to stand beside me with a bag of chips as Gisele went to lean against a piece of machinery.
"We want to make sure he gets the message." He said with finality.
Z
Stupid Dom. I'd rather be breaking and enter and doing something entertaining right now. I thought bitterly. I had stayed with Mia until the team scattered to watch the cash houses. I had parked myself on a bench across the street Reyes's office building, and had been sitting there for over an hour.
I had changed into a nice, pale cream sun dress, the necklace Han gave me years ago in Tokyo for my birthday, and wedge heels which made me look like I just went for a stroll to enjoy the sun. I tried to steal Han's aviators to hide my face, but they were entirely too big for my face. I had to take a side trip to find myself a new pair. The whole thing left me in a sour mood.
Mia had also been left out of the break in, but because she had a really good reason to be left out, she wasn't complaining. Dom left her with me in the locked house in the favela. I might have been bored out of my mind, but at least I was with someone else.
Han hadn't really cared that I had been shoved out of the break in, which made me a little mad. I felt like Dom was doing it because he thought I couldn't keep up, but me being here did kind of help us with the next stage of the plan. Most of the team agreed with Dom that it would be a good idea, but I some saw it the way I didn't want them to.
After not being able to keep my mouth shut about not agreeing with Gisele, she had been a little cold to me, not that I had been any different. I didn't miss the triumphant look in her eye when Dom made the announcement that I would be tailing Reyes to wherever he was stashing the money. She made me feel insecure, and I that was something I didn't need right now.
I was interrupted from my thoughts when I saw an old Jeep pull into the parking lot. It was out of place from all the business people's cars that had been in and out of the parking lot. The man that stepped up was dressed in an old, sweat covered shirt with the sleeves cut out and baggy shorts. When he turned his head I saw the blood still shining on his upper lip. I waited until he made the long walk from the furthest edge of the parking lot to the front of the building before I casually glanced at my watch at stared timing.
After a few minutes passed, I pulled out my radio.
"Doorman walked in about five minutes ago. He should be just getting to Reyes." I said quietly. I let off on the button and waited for my reply.
"Watch the time. We need to see how quickly he gets his people organized." Brian answered.
I stood by the bus stop for not even ten minutes when I got our answer. I saw a few of his big henchmen walking out the front door, before Reyes himself and his main guy followed. His Escalade was pulled around and he got in the back after a quick order to his men who split up.
"Eight minutes. He's pulling out of the parking lot now." I said.
"Damn that's fast. Guys, this is crazy." Rome echoed his thoughts from last night.
"Car just pulled up over here." One of the Dominicans said after a short pause. He was closest to Reyes's office.
"Follow him best you can." Dom said. I rolled my eyes. I was useless on foot. If I had a car, then-
"Don't even think about." Han deadpanned. I groaned and started walking.
Z
"Are you looking at this? This is a police station!" Rome yelled. We were all standing on the roof of the building across the street.
"We can't do this." Santos deadpanned.
"Can't? More like we shouldn't do this." Han put in. I frowned at their words, but kept silent. I pulled some crazy things for Kamata without the option of walking away, so I wasn't the one to let things like this distract me. It was a miracle I didn't get caught or die.
"This doesn't change a thing." Dom replied with finality. "We stick to the plan."
"Stick to the plan? This went from Mission Impossible to Mission In-freaking-sanity!" Rome yelled. "I ain't scared, but I'm just letting ya'll know this is crazy!"
"We got this." Brian said encouragingly.
Everyone turned to head back to their cars. There was a heaviness on the group that wasn't there before. This really was insane, but so was the payout. We all knew we'd wind up doing it anyway.
The passenger door of Han's Maverick was closest, so he popped it open for me before walking over to his side. I sat heavily on the overly warm leather seat and shut the door behind me as Han got it. He glanced over at me before putting his hand on my knee.
"Dom liked having someone under the radar to follow Reyes. You might wind up doing that more often." He said slowly.
"You think he'll look for someone to get the money out?" I asked.
"I say he sits on it, but it's a possibility."
"I think he'll sit on it too."
Most of the road back to the favela was spent in silence. It was only occasionally broken by a comment about what was passing out the window. The difficulty of Dom's plan was weighing heavily on both of us. It wasn't impossible, but it was really close.
As the thoughts swirled in my head, I glanced over at Han. He had a tiny smirk fixed on his face.
"What?" I asked softly. He smirk got a little wider and he took a long time to answer.
"Just thinking about what we're going to do with all that money."
AN: I'm finally posting Consequences. There's a lot less editing to do, so it will be posted a lot faster.
I keep finding a ton of chapters that I don't have quotes for. If you can think of a quote that would fit anything that happens in this story, please tell me, because I'm coming up with nothing for a few of these.
Please review!