Chapter Two:
"Just chill and breathe…" I hear Leon say. It didn't help much; I felt like I was centre stage with the biggest spotlight on earth. And then the door opened.
"How you livin', Girl?"
"It's five o'clock in the goddamned morning, Leon. Most sane fucks are asleep right now, man!" she snapped, a scowl not unlike mine crossed her face.
"Now that…that's just damn scary, man! Maya, get your ass over here kid!"
I pushed myself off the wall of the house, the heels of my boots clunking against the floorboards of the porch as I ran my hand through my hair. Letty's eyes nearly doubled in size when she saw me. Then she saw the chain with the dog tags.
"Does Dom know she's here?" I shot Leon a dirty look and Letty must have seen it.
"Nope, and I don't think Maya really gives a shit." Leon stated simply. "She ripped into Mia a few hours ago 'cause she saw you talkin' ta Coyote at the garage. Dom's kept pretty air-tight about you…even though the kid's been askin since she was six.
"We should move this inside." I rolled my eyes at this, thinking we'd be on our way back to LA in under half an hour.
The next thing I knew I was curled up on the corner of a couch, slumped against the armrest. As I stood up, I felt the effects of falling asleep on the couch.
"Okay, memo to self: don't sleep on a couch after a four hour car ride with Leon drivin' at 98 MPH…" I groaned to myself as I cracked my neck.
"I could have told you that." Came from behind me.
"Yeah, well, it wouldn't have happened if you'd been around." I snapped at her. At that moment, she was just like any other racer skank that fawned over my dad; the only difference was that she was my mother.
"Why are you here?" she asked. I could feel her eyes on me as I refused to meet her gaze; I wasn't sure how to answer.
"Where's Leon?" I asked her, deliberately changing the subject.
"Went out about half an hour ago; should be back soon though." I wandered out of the den and through the bottom floor, determined to find the kitchen. "Look, I know you don't like me…"
"I never said that. No, I don't trust you." I snapped at her as I turned on my heels. "Do you realize how sheltered I've been because you left me? I'm allowed to go to the races, but I'll never get to drive in one; I can work on all the cars I damn well please but I'll never get one of my own. And as far as race wars is concerned?" I laughed before continuing. "I might as well not even be Dominic Toretto's daughter."
"Maya…"
"No! When you left LA, you left being a part of my family. You don't know what I've watched my family go through in my life so spare me the fucking lecture!"
I stormed out of the houses as Leon was coming up the walk. He must have caught the look on my face cause as I climbed into the passenger seat, he was revving the engine and tearing out of the driveway.
"How much trouble am I in?"
"Not nearly as much as I'm about to be in when we get to Los Angeles for taking you on this little 'joyride' of yours…Mia's spending the night at the Narc's…ain't goin' see her for a few days till V goes all territorial an' shit."
"They still haven't jumped each other?"
"She's got Vince wrapped so tight around her little finger and she don't even know it."
"Maybe it's more than that, Le. Maybe…maybe it's like she's interested but she don't wanna wind up like Dad and Letty. Y'know, like the way Dad was about packin' Letty's stuff when she left."
"You sure you're Letty's kid? When you talk about that kinda stuff you sound more like Mia's kid."
"If this is my fault that she's gone back to O'Connor, I have to fix this…"
"The only place you're going is back to Los Angeles and back to the base. You got me in enough shit."
We were silent for the remainder of the drive back to LA as I slipped into a fitful sleep. The last half hour I was just sitting there pretending to sleep. When we pulled into the driveway, I bolted out of the car and into the house, nearly trampling Jesse en route to the full bath that Mia and I shared. As I left the bath, I heard footsteps behind me.
"I thought you were at O'Connor's place." The words barely left my lips before I realized that I'd spoken, what came next shocked me even more. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. You were right. I wasn't ready to confront Letty." Mia stopped in her tracks at the door of her room and turned to look at me.
"It's fine. I know you were upset. I actually spent most of the night walking the beach…with Vince of all people. I was going through my closet when I found this," she said, pointing to a book on the foot of the bed that looked about as overstuffed as it could get.
"The scrapbook."
"This one's mostly Letty; some of her and Dom…" I started flipping through the book but stopped abruptly when I saw the photos of the two of them together.
"They look happy together…what happened?"
"Johnny Tran and his crew started raising hell after the brawl at Race Wars; he'd beaten Jesse for the Jetta. Lance wound up dead and Johnny did a bang up job makin' it look like Letty did it." Dom answered entering the room.
"But why'd she run?"
"I told her to; we were in enough trouble as it was without murder one."
"And at present all I know about her is that Johnny tried to pin Lance on her and that she has a mouth as dirty as mine and anybody here. Might as well be dead, man."
"You need to get packin' for the desert; we leave at dawn." Dad left the room as he said this. Mia turned to look at me.
"For the record, Letty may be in the desert tomorrow, but as long as you stay out of sight you should be okay." I rolled my eyes at this.
"And here I was hoping I might actually get to see one of the grease monkeys race…hell, even seein' my dad win one would be nice. Price of being the legend's daughter, I guess, everybody's heard of me but no one's ever seen me."
"I can talk to him, try and get him to let you watch."
I went downstairs later that night to find Leon and Jesse playing some racin' game—Jesse wasn't doing very well.
"Leon, where's my dad?"
"Went out for a while, kid; didn't leave no details." This caught my attention. My dad never left the house without details.
"What about Vince?"
"Probably out back having a beer." Vince was my dad's age but I swear he was still seventeen years old in his head. He was my dad's best friend and if anybody knew where he was, it was usually Vince.
"V, you know where my dad's at, man?" he didn't turn around as he shook his head to negate my question. "Look, bro, I'm sorry about the stunt I pulled the other day…and for the position I put ya in with Mia…" That was all I said before turning to go back into the house.
"It's cool, kid. Gave us a chance to actually talk…somethin' that ain't happened since before O'Connor fucked things up. Came back right around the time your moms left."
"The next person that mentions her is going to lose a limb." I snapped.
"Ya used to like hearing those stories…" V said, finishing off the corona in his hand.
"Yeah, used is the keyword, there, Vincent. Ain't much to enjoy when I barely remember her." I sat down on the ground across from V. "This—none of this—would have happened if I'd just listened to Mia."
"Ya got yer mom's temper; Maya…ain't no gettin' around that. You're a Toretto to top things off; people in this family do stupid things when they get rubbed the wrong way.
"All these years I've listened to the stories about shit other kids did with their moms and I guess I just got sick of it. For a while it was enough to have Mia as a substitute, but it doesn't beat the real thing." I got up and brushed the dirt from the seat of my jeans and went back into the house to take a seat on the porch swing.
Hours later, I'd nearly fallen asleep when I was jolted awake by the familiar sound of my dad's engine and that of a car I didn't recognize. I couldn't see who he was with until they reached the porch. When they walked into the light, I saw that he had his arm around Letty's waist.
"Maya, where the boys at?" My eyes stayed fixed on Dom's as I answered.
"Vince was out back last I saw and Jesse was getting his ass handed to him by Leon at Auto Assault. Mia's probably crashed by now." There was more being said between Dom and I than one could hear, I don't know if Letty picked up on it. I could feel her eyes boring into me the entire time and it made me cringe as I knocked the lid to the box of letters closed.
As Dad went inside the house, Letty leaned against the porch railing. I could tell she was trying to work up the nerve to say something to me again, despite our last attempt not going so well.
"How far have you gotten in those?" Truth be told, I had half a mind to just flip the bird and be done with it, but I surprised myself when I spoke.
"Ninth birthday; year of NOS… Dad was so pissed at V and Leon when he found out they'd jumpstarted teaching me things they were doin' scud work for months." I subconsciously started playing with the chain around my neck. "I got these when I was eight… Mia gave 'em to me when Daddy wasn't lookin'." She didn't seem surprised. "These, on the other hand, I didn't get till three days ago…think the NOS finally got to Leon's head."
"And the drugs definitely didn't help." Letty supplied, actually managing to make me laugh. "He ain't always been as straight laced as he is. There used to be women in this house at all hours of the night…and not just me and Mia. That changed around the time I started showing."
"Why are you telling me this, Letty?"
"Because you need to know that your father had nothing to do with my leaving."
"I know that. My father and Mia told me before he went to Santa Rosa. Johnny tried to pin Lance's murder on you; did a bang up job to make Daddy tell you to run. But that ain't what bothers me, Letty. It's the way you never bothered with coming back; not once in fourteen years." I'm not sure why I did it but I got up and walked back into the house, letting the door slam behind me. I went up to my room and locked the door behind me. Mia walked out onto the porch and was surprised by what she saw.
"What is this, the twilight zone or something now?" she asked, handing the corona she had in her hand to Letty.
"At least you aren't yellin' at me…yet." Letty answered, taking a swig from the bottle. "I shouldn't have let him bring me back here." Mia's eyes widened.
"Dom drove all the way to Santa Rosa and brought you back here? Race Wars is tomorrow, you know that, right?" Letty's eyes flashed.
"Where is your brother?" she asked as she stood up. The edge was slowly creeping back into her voice.
"Probably upstairs with Maya…I don't know, why?"
"Cause he's getting ready to lose what balls he had left after I kneed him right before I left him."