"Mama?"
-*-
"Leticia, mi hija, I'm so…so glad to see you," Blanca whispered, refusing to release her daughter, holding her in a tight, desperate hug. "I'm so glad to see you are safe, my sweet chica. I was so worried for you."
"Wha—how? You haven't seen me in twenty-three years," replied Letty, a small note of bitterness in her voice as she stepped back from her mother's embrace.
Blanca looked apologetic as she touched Letty's arm, tenderly.
"I had to leave. I couldn't risk staying, keeping my identity as Blanca Ortiz, taking you home. It would just have put you in danger again. Did abuela take good care of you?"
Letty nodded. "Until she died."
Blanca felt a twinge in her heart. Her poor mother, always such the saint, taking care of her little Letty for her. Her mother had always had faith in her as a mother. She just hoped she'd understood why she'd had to leave Letty in her care.
"Did she suffer?"
"No," Letty murmured. "She was sick for a long time. She died in her sleep. And it was like she knew she'd die that night because before that she told me that she loved you and me. And she never blamed you for anything."
Blanca smiled.
"But I did."
The smile dropped.
Letty sighed and turned to the destroyed toolbox on the other end of the garage, picking up a wrench. She examined for a long while, silently, as Blanca looked on, hesitantly. Then she jumped when Letty slammed the wrench down into the hood of an already bullet-ridden car and glared at her.
"I was three years old! And abuela was eighty-three! She was tough and she lasted thirteen more years after I came to live with her but you know, it's not actually a very good thing when a sixteen year old girl has to move in with the twenty-five year old guy and his family down the street. The twenty-five year guy old she ends up sleeping with. Oh, and hijacking trucks with, did I mention that?"
Blanca frowned, deeper.
"Ugh, but I can't even really blame you for that, can I? Because I could've been smart. I could've gone to college halfway across the country, away from him, away from the lifestyle he dragged me into. I had the grades for it, Ma, did you know that? As and Bs! But I was already stuck. In love with a demon in a fast car."
She threw the wrench across the garage and Blanca winced when it made contact with the wall, clattering loudly to the ground.
Letty slumped down onto the floor, leaning back against the destroyed car behind her and slamming her head against it. "Dammit, dammit, dammit. This isn't your fault. I just need someone to blame for the fact that I'm still in fucking love with him and I can't even be with him. Not just because it might be dangerous for him but look—look at this place. It's destroyed. And he was here when it happened. He might be dead, gone forever! Gone!"
She couldn't stop the tears now; no matter how tough she wanted to seem, no matter how tough she was, she couldn't stop them. "And the last thing I told him was that it was over. That he never kept his promises to me when all he ever tried to do was keep them. He only ran away because he wanted to keep me safe. And now I'm hiding behind that excuse, too, except that's all it is…an excuse. The fact of the matter is that I was running because I was still angry…that he left me…"
Blanca was silent, just letting the young woman speak.
"But I shouldn't be…" she whispered. "…because he came for me. He came for me here, he just wanted me back…and now it might've cost him his life. What the hell am I suppose to do, huh? He's my whole fucking world…shit, he's the only real family I got. Dammit!"
She threw something else—a random piece of rubble or glass. Something Blanca really couldn't distinguish. All she saw was the anguish on her daughter's face—the guilt because she thought she was the reason this man might be dead.
"He's not dead," Blanca finally said.
Letty's eyes widened and she looked at the woman and then she let out a bitter, barking laugh. "Stop jerking me around, lady, you don't even know who I'm talking about."
"Tall, muscular build, bald, drinks Corona?"
Letty's eyes got wider. "What. The. Fuck?"
Blanca chuckled. "I don't know his name but he was at a bar in the city with two other men. A scruffy looking man with a medium build and a slightly scrawnier man."
"Vince and Leon! You…you really saw Dom? He was alive?" Letty stood. "He was okay?"
Blanca nodded. "He was perfectly fine. Well…no, I can't say that. He wasn't physically hurt but…he sure looked lost, mi hija. I think you and he really need to talk to one another."
Letty shook her head. "No. No, this time it really is because he'd be in danger. I've got cops and the Yakuza on my ass, I am not dragging Dom into this."
"I know. That's why I came," murmured Blanca. "I saw the news report. Letty. You didn't kill Katsumoto-san, right? Please…tell me you didn't kill him."
"No! Hell no! His son is a pig but I didn't lay a fucking finger on him!" She pressed a hand to her own forehead exasperatedly, the other on her hip as she paced for a few seconds and then stopped. "I don't know who killed him or what the fuck it has to do with me."
"Leticia, mi chica, this is…" Blanca sighed. "…is there anyone you know who would try to frame you or may have come looking for you through Katsumoto-san?"
"I—no…I mean, well, Dom saw his son roughing me up the other night, but he wouldn't—"
For you, he would, Letty, a voice in her head murmured.
Blanca frowned and touched Letty's shoulder. "You have to consider that possibility, Letty. Especially if he ended up finding where Tei lives and found out that his family had a picture of you."
"No! First, he's dead and now he's a murderer? Dom's a lot of things. A thief, definitely. An illegal street racer, hell yeah and a damn good one. Even a thug who almost beat someone to death once, but not once, not ever has Dom ever intentionally killed anyone. Never," Letty defended, glaring at the woman.
She didn't know about Fenix Rise. She didn't know anything about what Dom had done to Braga's men after her alleged death.
But she wouldn't have faulted him for that, had she known. She probably would've done the same thing for him.
However, as far as she knew, she was telling her mother the truth.
Blanca was not convinced. "Just…I think we should look into this more. Come on, mi hija, Kenichi lives up the street. I think we should talk to him. If he was in the garage when your 'Dom' was then perhaps he knows something. Come on."
She wrapped an arm around Letty's shoulders and they left the dilapidated garage and started up the street toward the apartment buildings at the end of the block.
-*-
"She wasn't at the garage…" Ortega murmured, pacing his hotel room, puffing smoke rings out of his mouth every time he removed his cigarette. "And no one was at this Sean Boswell's house when we paid our 'visit'. So where is she, I wonder…"
He placed the fag back between his lips and inhaled deeply, reveling in the taste of the smoke as it snaked down his throat.
"Ah, it amazes me how a simple cigarette can be so calming." He looked at his men. "Isn't that so?"
They were all silent, watching him, calculating whether he was in one of his more sociopathic moods, where he acted pleasant, only to turn around and burn one of them in the eye with that very cigarette.
"Don't look so frightened, chicos. We'll find her. We just have to look harder," Rodrigo said finally. "By now, the federales are here but…I'm confident we will fix this little Ortiz problem before they are able to get to her, si?"
Unified nodding.
"Good. Now get out of my sight before I think of something terrible to do to each and every one of you. Slow and painful. Out, now!"
They scurried out like frightened mice and Rodrigo scowled and crushed the cigarette in his fist, hissing as it burned his hand. "Little puta, I will find you if I have to shoot every person in Tokyo to do it."
-*-
Blanca bit her lip, nervously, as they climbed the stairs to Yamada's apartment. She hadn't seen him in eight years. She had missed him but she didn't know if she could face him now.
Letty glanced at her and, despite holding some ill will against her, she squeezed her hand.
Blanca pointed. "This is it. I can't believe he hasn't moved…after all these years."
Letty looked at her. "He told me you wanted to name Retsu 'Leticia'."
"He told you about Retsu?"
"I found a picture of her with Teiichi."
Blanca smiled, bitterly. "That boy killed my daughter."
Letty shook her head and turned her eyes on her mother. "No, Ma. He didn't. Being with him might've, but it isn't his fault. I mean, yeah, he's the biggest cabron in the world but the way he looked in that picture…"
Blanca looked up at her daughter and Letty, laughed, warily. "…well, it's the same way some'a my friends said Dom used to look at me."
The older woman smiled.
"He sounds like he really loves you."
"Loved me. We've pushed each other away so much lately, I wouldn't doubt if he—"
"Didn't I tell you about how hurt he looked in the bar?"
Letty rolled her eyes.
"Oh, Letty, just knock."
So, she did.
-*-
Kenichi Yamada had been eating dinner, peacefully and alone, when he heard the knock on his door. He grumbled some explicative in Japanese and stood up, making his way to the door.
He was not prepared for what he saw behind it. First, seeing Letty there, when he knew she was in danger, was surprising but what was hardest for him was seeing the woman next to her.
Belita.
"Berita…" Yamada murmured as he took a step back. "You ghost?"
"Kenichi…" She smiled and shook her head. "I disappeared. That doesn't mean I died. We have a lot to talk about, Kenichi. Please let us in."
He wanted to close the door, to ignore her, to hide from this ghost from his past.
But she was just as beautiful as she'd been when he'd married her and it hurt him to realize how much he'd missed her. He stepped aside.
The two women came inside.
-*-
Mia sighed as she paced the hotel room. She hadn't seen Dom in almost a day. She was starting to worry. Had something happened to him? Was he dead? Had he been arrested? Damn, she was so scared.
So scared, in fact, that she jumped and yelped when Brian's hands came down on her shoulders, tenderly.
"Oh! Brian…"
"Calm down, babe, you're going to end up hyperventilating, or pacing a groove in the carpet," he said, softly, stroking his hands up and down her arms. "He's fine. You know how Dom is, baby. He doesn't go down without a fight."
"That's what I'm afraid of…" She sighed and turned, curling her arms around his waist as he held her close to him.
"I love you," he whispered into her ear and then sat her on the bed. "So please, stop worrying. I don't want you stressing yourself out and end up getting dizzy or something. Just…take a nap, okay? I'll let you know if I hear from Dom."
"Promise?"
He nodded.
Mia smiled and kissed him, before lying back on the bed and closing her eyes. As she fell asleep, Brian frowned, subtly, to himself.
Come back, soon, Dom.
-*-
"Sit, sit, sit," Yamada said. "You want sake?"
The two women nodded and so Yamada scurried into his kitchen to get a bottle of it and warm it up.
Letty looked around. She'd never been in his apartment before. She hadn't even really known he'd lived this close to the garage.
She wondered how broken up he was about its destruction. Badly, she assumed.
He returned with the bottle and some cups and set them down, pouring each of them some of the soothing alcohol and handing it out. Then he looked at Blanca.
"Berita…"
Blanca smiled, sadly. "That's the first thing I suppose I'll have to tell you. My name isn't Belita Sanchez, Ken. It's Blanca Ortiz. I was placed in the witness protection program by the US government after I testified against a drug lord in Los Angeles. They sent me here and I met you…and had Retsu. But after Retsu died, I didn't trust anyone, not even the program, so I ran away."
The older man scooted closer to her and placed a hand over her's. "I miss you. I think of you every day. I sad when you go. I sad when Retsu die. She my daughter, too."
He glanced at Letty. "This your daughter? Leticia."
Blanca nodded. "The one I wanted to name Retsu after."
"She look like you. Almost exact. But younger." His eyes widened and he turned to Letty. "You, you man…he come to garage! He look for you! He save me from bullets, push me down! He good man. Kinda scary looking but good man."
Letty had to laugh. Dom was intimidating. But he was a good man. The best she'd ever known as far as she was concerned.
"And he was all right?"
He nodded.
Blanca glanced at Letty and then at Yamada. "Kenichi…do you know anything about Katsumoto's murder?"
His eyes jumped to Letty for a moment and then he swallowed, nervously, and shook his head. "Only what I hear. It not true, right?"
Letty sighed. "No, it's not true. I didn't kill him. I didn't even know him. I only ever saw his son."
Yamada frowned and knocked back his sake before he leaned back in his chair and looked at them. It was obvious they were mother and daughter. Beautiful women, they were. For a moment, he looked frightened though. Frightened, yet relieved.
He felt as if he'd just seen Retsu, sitting between them, smiling at him.
A hallucination. He was an old man after all.
Still…it was nice, for a brief moment, to get a glimpse at the three women together. They belonged together.
He sighed and poured himself some more sake, knocking it back again. It wasn't time to be longing for something far dead.
He glanced at the women again.
He had to focus on the present. On the ones that were still alive.
That was what was best.
-*-
Teiichi made his way up the street toward Yamada's garage. He wasn't sure what he was doing here, of all places, but something told me even if that little saseko hated him, she wouldn't throw him to the wolves.
Not like he had to her.
He growled as he stopped in front of the garage and then his eyes widened. He frowned deeply as he stepped inside.
Broken glass, bullet holes in cars, wreckage left and right.
Someone had shot this garage up.
He had a feeling it was the same man who'd killed his father.
Was the owner at home? And where was the girl?
He dug through some of the rubble and then stopped, lifting a torn picture from the wreckage. His eyes widened as he stroked his thumb over the woman in the picture.
Retsu…
He closed his eyes
"Teiichi…Tei…run!"
Her screaming would never stop haunting him.
"Retsu…Retsu!"
BANG!
"RETSU!!!"
Tei growled and stood up. "Dammit, you stupid girl, why'd you jump in front of me?! I was the one who was supposed to—I was the one they were after!"
He missed her. God, did he miss her.
Her father owned this garage.
That girl, Letty, looked just like her.
He sighed and pushed the picture into his back pocket and then continued to shuffle through papers. There it was. Address book.
He opened it. He found the entry that said "Home" written in scribbled Japanese and then he picked up the phone and dialed.
-*-
Yamada was just finishing his second cup of sake when the phone rang. He noted that both women jumped at the sound and he smiled a little. So similar.
He stood and answered the phone. "Moshi moshi?"
His eyes widened and Letty's brow furrowed. She noted he spoke rapidly in Japanese and then he looked at her. He held the phone out to her.
She looked up at the man and then gingerly took the phone. "Hello?"
"Can you meet me down the street at the garage, kirei?"
Her eyes widened.
Teiichi.
"Why?" hissed Letty. "Do you have the cops waiting there to arrest me? I didn't fucking kill your dad, you sonuva—"
"That isn't it!" he hissed. "I know who killed my Otousama, and I know it wasn't you. But we need to talk. I need to explain a few things to you. So dammit, stop being such a saseko and get down here."
Click.
Beeeeep.
Letty glared at the phone and handed it back to Yamada. "I'll be back."
"Letty—"
"Ma, I gotta go myself. I'll be okay. I can take care of myself."
Blanca smiled, weakly. "Another one of those things you learned from that man of yours?"
"Probably. Can't really pinpoint when it started." She sighed. "I gotta go."
She walked out.
Blanca looked at Yamada and frowned, deeply, worry creasing every part of her face. She hadn't known Letty long, missed twenty-three years of her life in fact, but she was her first-born, the only child she had left. And she couldn't lose her too.
Yamada pulled her into his arms and 'shh'ed her quietly. He was worried too. She had been a good employee and an interesting girl. He'd gotten close to her over the months.
Han had been right. She was worth hiring a woman. It was no wonder they'd been friends.
He just hoped she'd be okay.
-*-
Teiichi was sweeping up the garage when Letty arrived and he looked up at her.
She raised an eyebrow at him, her arms crossed over her chest, her hip jutted out a little bit in a stance of irritation of impatience.
"What the hell do you want?" she asked, tapping her platform-booted foot against the ground.
Tei smirked, warily, and pulled a half-ruined chair up out of a heap of things and placing it in front of her. "Sit down. I think there are a few things I need to explain to you, and hopefully you'll stop being such a bitch once I do."
"Bitch? Uh huh. Bye." She turned to leave.
"Wait!" He lunged and grabbed her arm. "Wait…gomen nasai…just sit down, please. I know you're Retsu's sister. I've always known, somehow…but my father did some research on you and found a picture of your mother. She's Retsu's mother, too. Different name, same face. Just hear me out."
She rolled her eyes and flopped down on the bent-up chair, crossing her legs and arms and looking at him with a "get-on-with-it" expression.
"I'll start from the beginning, then. Which, for me, was when I met Retsu. She was my whole world," he murmured. "She was perfect in every way."
"Bet you thought that because she looked so exotic, huh? Just another shallow guy."
Tei shook his head. "No…it wasn't that, that pulled me in."
Letty furrowed her brow, a little more interested now.
"It was…her eyes."
"Her eyes?"
"She had those kind of eyes, you know?" Teiichi murmured, pacing back and forth. "The kind that could see through a lie in an instant. When she looks at you, she sees all the truths in your whole life. For me, she knew not everything about me was safe. But she loved me anyway."
Letty looked down at her knees. Dom had once told her that she had similar eyes. He hadn't been so eloquent, though. She couldn't remember his exact words now, but Teiichi's words made her realize, more than she had previously, that he and Dom were not so different.
"Go on," mumbled Letty.
"We met in high school. She was younger than me," he murmured. "Three years. We were friends at first. We'd eat lunch together, spend breaks together, and I'd walk her home every night to that same apartment the owner still lives in. It was nice just being near her, being around her.
"Soon enough, we ended up dating. She asked me out, in fact. She was brave. I blame that on her Hispanic genes. Always so brave. We dated for…six months, I'd say. I was going to ask her to marry me. We were still in high school but I wasn't far from graduation and I was willing to wait for her.
"But word got out around my father's branch of Yakuza that I was thinking of marrying a gaijinn, an outsider. Someone of mixed blood. And some Yakuza are very righteous about the Japanese purity of the group. But they blamed me for the thought of it. And they blamed my father for letting it happen. They were going to punish all of us by killing me. My father would have to live with the shame, Retsu would have to live with the guilt and I…well, obviously, I'd be dead.
"On the day of the attack, we were here. She was like you, always fascinated in cars, and I enjoyed learning about them as well. We spent a lot of time together in this garage. But that day, a few Yakuza came. They called me out and I told Retsu to stay inside with her father. She didn't listen. As they cocked their guns to shoot me, she rushed out of the garage, ignoring what I'd asked her to do, and jumped in front of me and was killed. It hadn't gone as planned for them since they were supposed to kill me but I guess they believed that one life was equal to another as long as they had a kill to report to their boss and obviously, so did the boss since no one ever came back to kill me. Also, they'd gotten rid of the gaijinn forever, so they felt satisfied with themselves.
"Retsu's father never forgave me. But to keep me from going to jail as an accessory, he asked my father to bring him business and in return, he wouldn't testify that I had something to do with her death."
He was silent for a long moment as Letty processed the story, going over the events in her head. So, he had been in love with Retsu. He wasn't just another rich snob bastard who'd grown up living a wealthy albeit dirty life. He'd once believed in love.
"I didn't want to be Yakuza, you know." He said finally.
She looked up at him again.
"I wanted to work in this garage and marry Retsu."
Her eyes widened.
He ducked his head, stroking a thumb over the photo he now held in his hand again. "I've never forgiven myself for her death. It was my fault and Yamada-san had every right to blame me."
He looked at her. "I want to help you. I'll tell the police you had nothing to do with my father's murder. I'll tell them who really did it. I saw him. But the man who did it is after you and you have to find somewhere safe. Please, don't try and be brave like Retsu. Yamada-san thinks of you as he did her and it would kill him if you died, too."
Letty sighed and shook her head. "I have nowhere to go."
"I know a place."
She looked at him.
"I have a friend. He owns a hotel on Harajuku Street. I'll make a call. You can go there and hide out until the cops can catch my father's real killer, the man who's after you."
Letty raised an eyebrow at him. "Besides my sister, why would you be doing this for me? I'll admit, I was a real bitch to you. I got you slugged in front of all your drift friends."
"So that guy was with you."
"He wasn't with me. Look, my connection to him is a long fuckin' story and I'm sure—"
"He's Toretto, right?"
Letty closed her mouth and looked at him with disbelief. "How'd you know that?"
"I heard my father talking to the man who's after you, the one who murdered him. Toretto's really making that man sweat. He knows Toretto would fight for your safety, tooth and nail."
Letty laughed, suddenly, and she couldn't stop laughing. Tei gave her a funny look.
When she finally stopped, she shook her head, murmuring, "He keeps showing up. First he calls here, then he's here when the place gets shot up, then my mother sees him and now even strange psychopaths know about him."
She was silent and then she murmured, "Wonder if that means something."
"Maybe it means you're running away from something you should be running toward," offered Tei, raising an eyebrow at her. Then he looked thoughtful for a moment. "Did you say your mother? You mean…Retsu's mother? She's alive?"
"Yes. And she's with Mr. Yamada. And I want it to stay that way. They need each other and her being with me would be too fuckin' dangerous," Letty replied. She started to gather up her things from her destroyed locker.
"What're you doing?"
"Write down those directions and call your friend. I'm goin' to that hotel. And then I'm gonna find a way to stop it."
"Stop what?"
"Running away from something I should be running toward."
-*-
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
AN: SO PROUD! This is my longest chapter yet AND it's special to me because it was the first chapter I've had so far where I actually had to get over a case of writer's block to get it written. So I hope you all enjoy!