Disclaimer: I do not own the Fast and The Furious. Sorry.
A/N: I want to thank everyone who reviewed. I definitely wanted to shout out tfatfreak207. I'll keep writing. =)
Chapter 6: KingDom
"Well I want to know if the rumors about 'King' Toretto are true," the San Franciscan punk stated loudly, the crowd around Hector growing in size to catch his challenge. A couple of people snickered but I couldn't tell if it was because they had a lot of confidence in my driving or because the guy didn't realize I could physically beat him into the cement.
It was March and I was trying to scrounge up this month's tuition bill. Thank God Mia had thought to spread the payment out over the semester. After much deliberation and a trip to the visit with the admissions counselors, Mia and I decided that it would be too much of a hassle for her to take classes at one college and try to make them transfer to the new school later on. UCLA was convenient and surprisingly cheap considering its reputation with the added bonus of having both an accounting and medical program. I only had to come up with slightly more than four grand for the semester, not including books. Textbooks cost almost as much as the first payment I made to the school though.
I took in the San Franciscan punk again, noting his pretty boy haircut and the arrogant way he smiled. According to his tirade, word of my consistent winning streak in L.A. had reached his corner of the universe and he'd driven six hours with a crew of twenty to find out if I was as fast as the rumors proclaimed. Hector had asked him who he thought he was and the punk had answered that he was the King of the Streets in San Fran. I rolled my eyes. Big deal. He wasn't on his block anymore, or even close to his own neighborhood. He thought he was going to school me on my own turf? I had a moment while he was prancing around the circle that had formed, laughing and slapping hands with his friends, thinking I would be too scared to even race him. I could have cut him down and told him that he wasn't even worthy enough for me to acknowledge and I don't think anyone would have blamed me. Hector looked like this guy was pissin' him off, thinking he could come over here and dictate what would happen six hours from his home town. I could have won without ever setting foot in the car. But I didn't want to win that way. Deep down I childishly wanted to see if I could beat him. Beating him would get me more respect out here than backing down.
So instead of backing away I stared him down and asked calmly, "You got money to put up against that mouth of yours?" The crowd 'oohed'. He turned to look at me again, reaching into his pocket to pull out a wad of cash.
"Will a thousand cover it?" He smiled that arrogant smile of his again. Internally I sighed. If he wanted a race only between me and him then he was going to have to put a little more on the line than that. I had bills to pay.
"Maybe in the minor leagues." The crowd 'oohed' again. He was making it too easy for me to verbally dominate here. Then again, I'd been playing cocky for so long that it was second nature to me by now. He seemed to realize that he was past the point of backing down.
"That's fair. Will four cover it?" Yeah, four would cover it…if I had it. I couldn't back down either.
"Tell you what: you put in four and I'll put up the pink slip to my car." Some of his crew started to smile. They thought I was getting ready to be sharked by the punk. He seemed confident enough to hand his cash to Hector. I motioned to Hector to follow me to the Mazda where I promptly handed him the pink slip.
"You're brave man," Hector told me, shaking his head. After counting San Fran's cash, he declared to the crowd at large, "Yo, let's race!"
The ride to the line gave me enough time to feel some unease about how easy it was to get myself in over my head. That punk had nerve to call me out but I let my pride override good sense. I let out a large breath. It was done now so I better get myself into the frame of mind to win this, else I would look like a gigantic fool in front of my girl, my best friends, my sister, and the racers. I wouldn't be able to live it down if that punk went back to San Francisco gloating about how he beat me. Hector let some random girl start us off to keep anyone from questioning whether I had an unfair advantage since we'd known each other since high school. I snapped of the line so fast that the punk never had a chance to catch up. I vaguely thought about how I wouldn't even need to use my nitrous to beat him but I heard the whining of the Mazda, pictured his overconfident face, and pressed it anyway. Hell if I was going to beat him, might as well slaughter him so bad there would be no room for doubt.
I finished the quarter mile two full car lengths ahead of him then allowed him to limp back to the start with me so we could regain the center of the crowd as we exited our cars. The whole crowd, both L.A. and San Franciscan was cheering. Hector ran over to me to slap me on the back, handing me the wad of cash and my pink. Mia was there to take it off me and count it again, her smile flowing from both her lips and her eyes. Vince stood close to her, unable to keep the grin off his face but at least keeping in the guffaws straining for release. I wanted to laugh at the punk full out too but forced myself to refrain and play it cool. I'd cleared Mia's whole semester of tuition in one night. If only he had shown up back in January.
"I'm impressed," he said, raising his eyebrows as if I was the class idiot winning the spelling bee. So he was going to try to play me since he lost. I felt myself huff at him. I heard Leon laughing close by instead.
"Dawg, the way you drive it's going to be a long trip home," Leon said. The whole crowd laughed. The punk looked humiliated but we were spared further commentary by the distant noise of sirens. He would be spared me rubbing his nose in my win by the cops. We ran, the crowd quickly disbursing to fade into the L.A. landscape.
My adrenaline running extra high from the win and the successful cop eluding spilled over, keeping me in good spirits for the whole week. For the moment I was caught up on the bills. I'd left all the garbage that had been riding me since I got home at the start line of that race. I felt like pre-prison Dom, carefree and playful. Monday night I went with Vince to see his mother. She was parked on a bar stool at her favorite dive but was happy to learn we weren't there to haul her out. Instead she regaled us with stories about Vince as a snotty ass kid. Around the fourth shot of tequila the stories started to seem funny to me and Vince too. We got so drunk that we had to call Leon to cart us home and paid for it during the first hours of Tuesday before the aspirin and water kicked in. Tuesday after work I kidded around with Jesse, even played some racing game against him on the PlayStation. My inability to beat him gave Jesse a lot of pleasure. He patted my back in a consoling manner after my twenty-fifth consecutive loss and begged me to pass the controller to someone who was more of a challenge. I could give it to him though. He could be champion of video game races since he wasn't a shining light on the real blacktop.
I let Leon help me grill Wednesday night. Grilling was my thing and I didn't let just anyone touch my grill. Leon was surprised when I handed him my grilling tools and told him not to screw up. Mia and Jesse stood over his shoulder the entire time, cheering him on and joking with him about burning the meat. But as we ate I looked down the table at him and gave him a nod. He'd done well. Thursday after picking Mia up from class I took her to dinner. We spent the alone time together catching up on what she was up to: school, her classmates, her conversations with her academic advisor, her indecision about majors. It felt good to listen to her chatter on about the life she was leading outside of the bubble of the café and the house. For a moment I thought about asking her whether she was dating anyone but then figured that my good mood didn't need to be tested that way, more so because I hadn't spent quality time with Letty yet.
Vince brought Mia up from the café at the official end of the work day on Friday so she could hang with the team while we tuned up our own cars for races the following evening. All of us guys worked on our respective vehicles which were spilling out into the driveway of the garage. We had a lot of cars now despite the fact that Mia didn't have one. She and Letty were working together to buff the wax onto the 240sx's purple paint evenly. They were speaking so low that I couldn't make out their conversation over the clank of tools and radio in the corner. I kept sneaking glances at them. Those two were up to something, probably nothing good either. I hoped Mia wasn't trying to enlist Letty in the campaign to make me ease up on Mia's ban from racing. I'd already put my foot down on this issue once before and I knew Letty didn't agree with my decision. She felt it was sexist. I was protecting my sister and I would not be swayed. Letty must have felt my eyes on her because she paused to look in my direction. I raised an eyebrow which made her start laughing. Mia looked confused for a second before Letty whispered something to her which made them both laugh. I shook my head. Whatever it was would have to wait. I finished exchanging out my empty nitrous tanks for fresh ones then walked around to help clear up so we could go home.
Dinner that night was pizza followed by a movie for entertainment. It was a poorly done horror flick that had Leon in the grips of a laughing fit halfway through. Vince picked up some popcorn and looked like he wanted to lob it at Leon for a moment. His stomach got the better of him though because he ate it instead. Mia grinned.
"You know, we haven't had a party here in a long time," Mia threw out conversationally. She was right. Although we'd been winning races, we'd yet to have an after-race bash. The timing and the money had never been right but things had changed last weekend. I grinned on the inside but kept my face impassive.
"Yeah, so?" Vince growled.
"Well since Dom's getting challenges from out-of-towners, maybe we should throw him a party after the races tomorrow," Mia continued in that casual tone.
Leon agreed instantly, "That could be fun."
"Yeah, can we have a party tomorrow, please?" Jesse asked in such a little kid way that Leon laughed and ruffled his hair.
"Come on, at least for kids' sake," Leon added still smiling. I looked down into Letty's face. She was curled up in my lap. My eyes asked the question.
"I'm down for whatever," she drawled.
"I guess we need more beer then," I told them. Jesse and Mia high-fived, hooting with glee.
The following night I arrived with the team at the races, still high on the fumes from the week before. I shook hands with Hector and Edwin. I made nice with Sam even though I felt a sting of jealousy when he briefly hugged Letty. I gave head nods to the random people I who hailed me. I'd even decided that I wasn't going to race tonight; I'd just bask in the left over glow from my win against the punk. And then we heard more cars pull up. I recognized some of them as the entourage that had come with the punk from San Francisco last week. Was he going to try for a rematch this soon? It took me less than thirty seconds to scan their crowd and find that he was missing from the group. Well good for him. A few of the guys approached me and I could feel the tension in the crowd building. As if they had homing beacons my team gathered closer to me, Vince standing behind my right shoulder ready to throw punches if this encounter came to blows. Hector gravitated towards what was fast becoming the epicenter of the crowd, unwilling to be kept out of the proceedings. I squared up with a guy who reminded me of Vince minus the tattoos and the scruffy face. He smiled and I reserved judgment.
"You're Toretto right?" I nodded so he would continue. "I'm Jackson. Heard you humiliated Harvey last week." Chuckles could be heard from the entire crowd. I nodded again.
"So what brings you here?"
"I wanted to see for myself how fast you are."
"I thought we saw the best S.F. had to offer last week," Sam threw in to more chuckles from the crowd.
"I don't know about all that," Jackson replied, a chuckle in his voice too. He was taking the whole thing in stride which brought him up in cool points for me.
"He ain't worthy," Edwin threw out which others parroted. Jackson stood his ground though. I gave him a sideways look. I decided to see how far I could push without coming to blows.
My attitude in place, I shrugged then said flippantly, "I dunno. Hector, you think he's worthy?"
Hector took his time to look Jackson up and down, getting into poking fun at the visitor. After assessing him he replied, "It's not my call. You're the king here." Hector's proclamation was backed up by the L.A. crowd. I took another quick look at Jackson then threw up my hands.
"Well we don't know if you are worthy…but we'll still race," I said loud enough for everyone to hear. Jackson smiled. He took it so well that I even approved his picks from San Fran for third and fourth in our race. Given the jovial atmosphere, I bumped the race down to a one g buy in. This was all in good fun, not a lesson like last week. Still I coasted over the line in first, regardless of the reason, but I shook the other racer's hands and the cops didn't show up. The team spread the word to the normal crowd about our after party then the crowd broke up, most of them ending up at our place to chill with King Toretto. After two Corona's the added euphoria was becoming difficult to contain. I started searching for Letty but she was somewhere in this madhouse with Mia, most likely dancing since I was pretending to be too cool to move from my spot by the wall. I made my way upstairs to my room and finally let go of a large smile once the door shut. I was feeling so good I picked up the phone and called Han, trying to figure out what time it was over there since he was either sixteen or seventeen hours ahead of us. Or was that behind us? Whatever, I didn't care. I just wanted to share the news.
"Hey," I started as soon as he picked up. My smile was still uncontained on my face.
"Dom, are you wasted?" He didn't sound sleepy, just concerned.
"Naw, nothing like that," I told him, pausing dramatically to peak his curiosity. "I have a rep now."
"What?" he asked like he didn't understand. I was eager to explain.
"It's official. I am King of the Streets." Yep, I'd have permanent stretch marks around my mouth tomorrow.
"Huh," he replied without enthusiasm. I felt my smile falter a bit.
"What do you mean, huh?" I said with a slight edge. Han started laughing. He'd been messing with me. "Jerk," I called him without heat.
"Well how did you manage that?"
"Well last week some punk shows up and starts going on about how he's the best in San Fran and that he's come out to race me and see if the "rumors about King Toretto are true" and all this crap and I just beat the breaks off his ass," I recapped, not bothering to take a breath in the telling of this tale.
Han responded in a drawl, "Oh is that all."
"Yeah," I thought back on that night, "but I think it really crushed him because he brought like twenty racers with him and they played him out afterwards. Anyway, some of the San Fran scene showed up this week and our scene deferred to me."
"Deferred? You mean you held the money?" Han asked, living up to his title of jerk for the evening.
"Naw, I got to decide if people were worthy enough to race with me." This sent us both into a good laugh. I wasn't expecting his next question.
"So what does the team have to say about it?" I hesitated, unclear on how to answer the question.
"Well…" I started and then I saw the Letty enter the room. She saw me on the phone and slammed the door grinning. Before I could register what she was doing she took a flying leap at me and I fell back on the bed, a whoosh of air escaping my lungs. "Han…" I started again but Letty took the phone from me before I could say anything else.
"Han, Dom owes me a very long massage," Letty told him in a low sexy voice. I immediately felt myself get aroused. She disconnected the call and tossed the phone on the floor. I cradled the back of her head, threading my fingers through her hair, kissing her heatedly. She groaned then tried to push herself up off me but I wasn't having it. Realizing struggling was getting her nothing but winded she leaned closer and to whisper in my ear, "I need to get up to show you something." I reluctantly released her, making sure to keep some part of my body in contact with hers: first one leg trapped between both of mine, then my hands on her thighs pushing her skirt up as she took off her top. She hissed, "Dom, not yet." I let her push me back down, stopping till I was propped on my elbows. She removed the skirt and then I understood why she wanted me to wait. Letty never wore lingerie to races. She never knew if a good wind or someone's exhaust would expose what only I had seen. The sexy, see-through, red and black, lace bra and panty set sent me into sensory overload.
"Huh," I said, trying to fake a nonchalance I didn't feel. I let my eyes sweep over her, taking in her signature smirk. She wasn't buying my act. I tried a different tact. "So am I worthy?"
Letty smiled widely, a laugh escaping her. She crawled on top of me slowly, sliding to a halt when her breath could tickle my ear. I groaned. "I don't know yet, but you can race," she told me, the swagger in her voice mocking my earlier words. In appreciation I made sure the massage and sex were very long and satisfying for her.
"I've got a way for you to stop nickel-and-diming it," Johnny Tran told me conversationally seven months later. I looked at Johnny cautiously. We'd come to an agreement that we should try to salvage the tenuous friendship that he and I'd had in high school. I frankly thought it was non-existent but Han told me that you could never have too many friends.
I'd been out of jail for a full year now. I had a tentative handle on the finances. Sometimes we still barely made it. I couldn't feign comfort in the team's financial situation just yet. I marked progress by how much wrench time and money I could sink into the charger which wasn't much. That's why I was entertaining this conversation at the races. I have found that the best place for me to have a covert conversation is amongst the chaos. Everything is so loud and bright that a quiet conversation is virtually confidential. Plus my team gets wrapped up in socializing with others on the lazy race nights so they aren't underfoot. I shrugged to urge him to continue.
"You know my family is in the import export business right?" he asked casually. Yes I knew his family was legally in shipping. It was the cargo that might not always be legal.
"Yeah, what about it."
"My father's letting me take on some of the accounts." This was news. I didn't look directly at him but he could see my eye brow rise slightly. "I'm hiring a few new drivers to help me make all of my deliveries."
"So you want me to drive for you?"
"Just move a couple of semi's across town once or twice a week." I raised my eyebrow again.
"So hire someone with trucking experience," I told him slowly. It was odd that he would ask me to do a job that he could go to a reputable truck driving school and recruit from. Johnny didn't disappoint with his reply.
"I need people I can trust not to piss me off or steal my shit." Ding! It wasn't exactly on the up and up. I know I should have immediately said no. After all I had seen what illegal activities could do to a man and his family. But I'd also seen the money that came from underground work. Besides didn't I have enough smarts to learn from others mistakes? Johnny could tell I was mulling the decision over in my mind so he sweetened the deal, "It pays twenty-five hundred a week."
I didn't have a chance to answer him. Letty and Hector strode over to us, Letty's mouth twisted into a grimace even though her eyes were smiling. She was getting ready to shark someone. Sure enough Hector confirmed my suspicions.
"Yo Dom, your girl got a challenge. Convince her to race man," he pleaded. Something must have gone down to make him beg to have her race.
Letty played it up, turning the corners of her mouth down in an imitation pout, "I don't have to prove myself to anybody, least of all a bunch of wannabe racers."
"Come on," Hector crooned, "we need some action tonight chica."
I looked at Letty's eyes then back at Hector, keeping my voice conversational, "And who's racing?"
"Sam, Joi, and that punk Robinson." I sighed. That punk Robinson had been trying to race me for weeks but I just kept refusing him. I'd seen him race before and he wasn't a challenge. I really didn't have patience for every arrogant wannabe racer to try his luck against "King Toretto". I looked at Letty's eyes for a third time. I knew she wanted to race him to set him in his place. He wasn't in her league either.
"Letty," I sighed for effect, pulling her to my side, "come on, just race him?"
She continued pouting. I could see a crowd starting to form around us as the other challengers sought out Hector. Letty whispered to me, "Robinson thinks if he beats me, you'll race him to salvage your pride."
I laughed out loud then whispered in her ear to raise the speculation of the crowd, "He's an idiot. Smoke 'em."
"So is your girl in, Toretto?" Robinson called out.
"Yeah, I'm in," Letty called back.
The crowd got amped up and Hector called out the cross streets for the race. I made sure to park next to Vince and the rest of the team near the start line. As we waited for Hector to start the race I sized up Letty's competition. Letty looked cool and collected in her car, her lips pursed to release an impatient breath of air, her eyes trained on the finish line a quarter mile away. Sam was more relaxed, his eyes alternating between Letty on his left and Joi on his right, his lips curled into a smile. He was probably thinking about how lucky he was to be between two girls but I was going to break his neck if he kept looking Letty like that. Joi Tran looked…wow, she looked great. Time had enhanced her femininity, her exotic eyes and slender fingers looking almost out of place behind the wheel of the Mitsubishi Spider.
I shook my head finally looking at Robinson. His arrogance could be felt all the way over here. He clearly didn't think a woman could be any competition for him at all. That was his loss. He found that out as Letty crossed the line first, closely followed by Sam. Robinson limped into third. Joi came in dead last but the way she was driving led me to believe that she just entered for kicks. Letty got out of the car back at the start to wild applause from the crowd. She grinned when I joined her, placing an arm around her shoulders and planting a kiss on her neck.
Hector came to give Letty the money, pulling her from me and into a big hug with a, "Yo chica that was awesome!" Before we could say anything to Robinson though, someone yelled 'COPS!' and the crowd scattered. I ran for the Mazda, glancing over at Vince who had Mia securely in his Maxima. We nodded then both peeled out in opposite directions. I lost track of the others as I wove in and out of side streets, finally taking care to park in a quiet parking garage before making my way on foot to street level. I walked across the street to a convenience store, taking my time to select gum and pay before making my way back to the car. I delayed long enough to give the police time to give up the chase for street racers then rode home, parking behind Vince in the driveway.
I counted the cars as I walked towards the front door. Everyone was home safe and we didn't have any visitors. Good. I'd had time to think about Johnny's offer and I wanted to get to bed early. The team was sitting in the living room: Leon and Jesse playing PlayStation, Vince absently strumming his guitar, Letty and Mia sharing secrets in the corner. They all looked up at me as I entered, visibly relaxing as I gave a lopsided smile crooking my finger at Letty, motioning for her to come to me. I wasn't expecting it but she took my hand, leading me to our bedroom. I wanted to talk to her but somewhere between opening my mouth and forming the words she was kissing me. I forgot what I wanted to say, getting caught up in her passionate adrenaline rush. Sex with her tonight was wild and frenzied. She didn't seem like she could get enough and I was eager to please. I was so distracted that I had to wait until morning to bring up my news.
We were lying in bed Sunday morning at nine a.m. lazily touching each other. It was comfortable, the desire for sex exercised out of us the previous night. She sighed.
"What?" I asked her.
"Whatever it is Dom, don't hide it," she stated. I hesitated to work out the best way to approach the conversation.
"Johnny Tran offered me a job." I felt Letty tense underneath the hand that was drawing circles on her back.
"Uh huh." Uh oh. She was not happy. I explained what he wanted me to do and how much he was going to pay. She pushed herself up to sit next to me, her nakedness forgotten in her anger.
"I need to do this," I defended quickly.
"No. You want to do this," she shot back. "Didn't you learn anything from Han?"
"Yeah Letty. That's how I know what trouble to avoid."
"Do you hear yourself right now?"
"Do you hear me right now?" I shot back, my voice rising slightly.
"You arrogant idiot. You'd risk jail for an extra twenty-five hundred a week? You'd risk making Mia suffer that way again for you? You'd risk…" she stopped short. Her voice had risen too.
"I'm not risking anything. I'm trying to provide for this family," I told her angrily.
"You are providing for this family," she reminded me.
"It's not enough!" I roared. I was frustrated. Didn't she see? Didn't she understand how horrible it felt to worry if we'd have enough for the car insurance this month? Didn't she realize how I still agonized over Mia's tuition and fees?
"Then tell us so we can all work to fix this," she opened her arms widely to encompass the house, the cars, the businesses. She was roaring too.
"I've found a way to fix this. I'm tired of nickel-and-diming it," I said, borrowing Johnny phrase. Letty frowned.
"If you are set on letting that snake coil you into his illegal mess rather than depend on this family," she said in a low and deadly voice.
"I'm doing this for us Letty," I said just as deadly. She got up and started putting her clothes on before wrenching open the drawers and putting stuffing her clothes into a duffel bag. I got up too, putting on clothes too before ripping the bag from her. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Leaving," she ground out, snatching the bag back from me. My temper took over completely. I knocked the bag out of her hands, causing some of her clothes to spill out.
"Ya ain't leavin'!"
"Ya ain't makin' me stay!" I grabbed her left arm. She slapped me with her right, leaving my cheek stinging. I grabbed her right arm to stop her from hitting me again and shook her. We started yelling at each other, Spanish and Italian swear words mixing incoherently with English. It took us some time to figure out that someone was banging on the bedroom door. I was so angry I couldn't even make out what they were saying. I tried to concentrate on what was going on beyond our argument which gave me enough clarity to see I still had her arms gripped in my hands. I released her and she shoved me in my chest to put space between us. Stunned I pushed her back harder than I meant to. Letty's body made contact with the door, her head rapping against it with a sickening thud. The banging on the other side of the door stopped. My mouth opened in shock.
"Oh shit! Letty? Letty? Letty?" I stammered. Her wide confused eyes started swimming in tears. I started to move towards her. I wanted to hold her, to tell her how sorry I was, that I didn't mean it. It truly had been an accident. She shook her head wildly then turned to unlock and open the door. She couldn't rush out of the room because Vince was blocking the opening, red faced and heaving, clearly as angry as we were. I could make out Leon, Jesse and Mia standing in the hallway beyond him. I could hear Mia's sobs. Vince took a look at Letty's bruised arms and he pushed past her, coming to stand in my face.
"You hittin' women now?" Vince snarled at me, flecks of spit hitting me in the face. I didn't flinch. I deserved anything he gave me. We stared into each other's eyes. He flexed his muscles preparing for a punch.
"Vince!" Mia yelled coming in to stand next to us, knowing it was futile to try to stand between us. "No more fighting please!" We didn't stop staring each other down but his fists stayed curled at his side.
Leon's calm voice filtered into the room, "Look let's take this downstairs." He was trying to get us to move out of the small tense space of the room to give us all a chance to breathe. He put a steadying hand on Vince's shoulder. Vince took a step back but didn't look any less menacing.
"Letty?" I said quietly. I didn't dare to move in case Vince decided to pound me. I needed to get this out before the fist fight began. She didn't turn to look at me. She started to rest against the door jamb but hissed when her bruised arm made contact with the wood. No one moved as she stared at her arms and then she started to cry. It was gross the way she was crying. The loud wailing was cutting my heart into little pieces. I'd never heard anything that horrible from anyone ever in my life. I felt selfish for being thankful that she didn't cry that way for long. Jesse started to walk towards her and she sniffed to an abrupt halt, brushing past him down the stairs and out of the door before I made a move. I wanted to follow her but Vince moved in my path again. Mia started to put her hands in between us but I looked at her.
"Stay back Mia," I told her, "I deserve it. Hit me Vince." I wanted him to make me pay for hurting Letty. I wanted to feel something other than sick and ashamed. Vince smacked me hard on the side of my head before storming out of the room. I was going to have a throbbing knot there but I didn't care. I heard the slam of his bedroom door three floors down and Mia heaved a deep breath, taking Jesse with her down the stairs and out of the house. The Jetta fired up a few minutes later and pulled away from the curb. I saw the keys to the 240sx lying on the dresser and I hoped they were going to look for Letty. They shouldn't have too much trouble finding her since she was on foot. Leon leaned against the wall, content to watch me as I righted the duffel bag, taking care to repack the clothes that had spilled out then add the rest of her meager wardrobe. I felt sick again. I went to the bathroom, making sure to grab her tooth and hair brushes, adding them to the rest of her things. Finally I walked back into the bedroom and grabbed the 240sx's keys and clipped them to the zipper of the duffel. I shoved her possessions at Leon who took them with good grace and left the room, not bothering to close the door behind him. I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, not moving until my cell rang four hours later.
"So what's your decision Toretto?" Johnny asked me.
"Yeah," I replied. I couldn't muster up any emotion or reservations. I'd already lost the respect of everyone important in my world so any reasons not to go forward were null and void. The least I could do was make sure that I provided for them.
"Great. Come by the office Monday night and I'll set up some driving lessons," he finalized. I disconnected then resumed staring at the ceiling till night fell. Mia and Jesse showed up at the house around eight, joining Vince and Leon in the living room. Around nine Leon and Jesse left together, the Jetta returning fifteen minutes later and everyone taking that as a sign to filter to their own rooms. Mia's footsteps stopped in front of her door, started towards my door, then returned to her room. I heard her rustling around in there for an hour before she fell asleep. It was around midnight that I heard the 240sx firing up at the curb. I didn't have the energy to get up to glimpse at Letty as she drove out of my life.