Disclaimer: Don't own the following: The Fast and the Furious, The Italian Job, Ocean's Eleven, or anything else possibly recognizable.
A/N: Thank you again to all who read, all who reviewed. It's been awesome writing this story. I'm ready to put this one to bed.
Chapter 15: Coup
"Charlize Theron is so bad ass in this movie," Leon said appreciatively before stuffing more popcorn in his mouth.
"Le, less eating, more stringing," Mia told him stopping to thrust another bowl of popcorn at him.
"Mia, I'm really starting to get tired of doing this every couple of days," Leon pouted.
"Well if someone would stop eating the strings bare we wouldn't have to constantly replace them."
"I wonder if it's even possible for a MINI to hold that much weight, adjusted shocks or not," Jesse mused, stringing his popcorn absentmindedly. At his current rate he'd never finish a full string. I grinned. Only Jesse would be concerned about something so small.
"Are MINI's even Italian?" Mia asked. Vince threw popcorn at her.
"Hell no." The rest of us laughed.
Jesse spoke up again, his eyes still oriented at the TV, "Wonder how feasible it is to pull a heist."
"What is your fixation on movie reality tonight Jes?" Leon asked seriously. His tone made us all look up and stare at Jesse.
"Dunno. But if it's done right, it's the best kind of self employment," he stated.
"Sure. Minimum work, maximum pay…if it goes well," Leon agreed.
"Unless you get caught," Mia said slowly.
"Or shot," Vince added evenly. I gave Vince a sharp look but he rolled his eyes at me. I grinned. Vince was worried about shooting other people, not himself being on the receiving end.
"Yeah. But think about it, if you plan it right no one has to be hurt," Jesse continued.
"Where is this coming from Jes?" I asked. He shrugged.
"Just thought it would be a cool family activity," he stated before returning his focus completely to the movie. Leon shook his head and I heaved a big sigh. Jesse was starting to sound like Letty. She wasn't thrilled that Vince and I still worked alone. Mia waved her hand in front of my face. 'What?' She pointed at the popcorn string and I handed it to her.
"We are doing a family activity," Mia chirped, ruffling Jesse hair as she collected the other strings. Vince stuffed popcorn in his mouth, chomping loudly. "Well most of us," she amended ruefully.
Mia began to work on the tree while we continued to watch the movie. My mind was starting to wander. Towards the end Letty walked in, carrying a handful of mail. She tossed it onto my lap then plopped down on the floor next to Leon, resting her head on his shoulder. He tugged her hair and she mumbled something in his ear. I couldn't make out the words but her voice sounded suggestive. He laughed pushing the popcorn at her. Those two were like unruly siblings: nothing but trouble when they got together. The last time they'd been this secretive, Mia had gotten unauthorized mods to her car. I was going to keep a sterner eye on them.
We were ten minutes into a second movie when Mia grabbed the mail, coming to sit between me and Vince. She started sorting through it, occasionally tossing some back on my lap. She paused to look over an abnormally thick letter, her eyebrows coming together as she chucked it onto Letty's lap. Letty looked startled for a moment then she looked at the return address. I noticed her blinking rapidly before she sat on the envelope. Leon broke the silence.
"Maybe we should consider doing heists," he suggested mildly.
"Where is this coming from?" I asked again.
Letty nudged him, "What you think we could be like Ocean's Eleven?"
Vince snorted, "Not likely. We don't know any Ocean and I don't know five other people I trust."
"No. I mean we should consider something like fencing jewelry or popping trucks or something like that," Leon explained in between bites of popcorn.
"Popping trucks might be cool," Jesse agreed eagerly.
"Are you serious?" Mia asked shocked.
Vince gave her a long look, "That might not be a bad idea."
"Oh yeah, and how would you do that exactly?" Mia shot back.
"Well it looks like the best way is to get the truck while it's en route. Less security and whatnot," Jesse said looking Mia in the eye for the first time tonight. She shook her head.
"Actually that makes a lot of sense," Leon added.
"Think about it, there's only one guy on the truck," Vince said.
"And if it's isolated on a road at night, all alone," I continued more to goad Mia than anything else.
She huffed impatiently, "But it would be in motion." She sounded like we were idiots.
"There are ways around that," Letty said quietly. Leon grinned.
"We could really do this Dom," Jesse continued seriously to make us give it the consideration it deserved, "only you can't go in your car. The Mazda is like your unicorn Dom." I understood. It was too original for it not to be recognized in an instant. The same could be said for all of our cars.
"It's not like we're keeping with the law right now," Vince noted.
"Well I want to do it," Leon said abruptly. Mia smacked the back of his head, "Did I say you had to join me?"
She got up moving to the stairs muttering under her breath, "This family is insane."
"I'd do it," Vince said as soon as we heard Mia slam her bedroom door, "probably more fun that what we're doing now."
"Can we do it, please Dom?" Jesse begged, smiling a bit. He knew I was caving, giving the idea more thought than I should have.
"Sure. If we can plan it right," I said. After all why do the work for someone else when you can do it for yourself?
"Yes," Jesse said punching the air happily. Leon laughed.
"I'm in," Letty told us calmly. I looked at her long and hard.
"Didn't think you'd consider doing something like this," I commented. She'd balked when I'd decided to run trucks for Tran. She'd really flipped out when she found out I was working for Lucky. What we were discussing was a hell of a lot more than that. She squared her shoulders.
"I said I'm in."
"You sound sure baby girl," Leon agreed. Vince gave her a warning look.
"I'm not going to watch on the sidelines while the boys have all the fun." Finally it clicked for me. Her participation would make the difference for her. She'd wanted the option to choose whether she went along with us or not. And she was ready to ride. The thought sobered me. I realized that if we went through with this I would be risking her life. Prison or death awaited capture. I folded my arms over my chest.
"Oh there he goes, assuming responsibility for all of us," she grinned throwing up her hands in exasperation. I grinned back. She was such a smart ass.
"You wish," I countered. "I was just thinking about you pulling jobs in tight black spandex."
Leon laughed, "I definitely wouldn't mind seeing that."
"I will if you do," she grinned saucily punching Leon lightly in the arm.
We sat up for the rest of the night, making jokes and intermittently planning out how we could potentially rob trucks while they were in motion. Jesse came up with the idea of grappling guns to remove the glass and allow for someone to jump from the roof of a car into the truck. Vince volunteered to jump into the truck. He didn't have a problem with any of the job duties: jumping between moving vehicles, incapacitating the drivers, or driving the rig. Letty suggested that maybe Vince could tranquillize the drivers instead of killing them. Leon suggested a helmet to protect Vince's pretty face. Vince suggested a knuckle sandwich for Leon and a place for us to stash the cars we would use for the jobs.
Jesse was really getting into the planning. He'd joked that we should refer to the house as "The Fort". I was really glad we were all getting entertainment value from planning grand theft. Letty suggested that we only needed three cars. Letty would drive the first with Leon. Leon would use the first gun to remove the glass from the truck. I would drive the second with Vince. Vince would use the second gun to repel onto the truck. Jesse would drive the third, keeping us informed of any police activity on the scanners. That brought the conversation back around to inconspicuous cars that we could use in place of our more conspicuous ones. We hadn't come to an agreement when Mia finally broke up the party as the sun came up. She made breakfast and we ate quietly, stewing about the rides.
"So did ya'll work out all the details?" she asked sleepily.
"Yeah," Vince grumbled between forkfuls of food.
"That's good." Mia never mentioned it again. She went on to pretend she never knew what we were up to. But she helped us make up the best alibis, keeping suspicion non-existent. In her own way, she'd worked herself into the plan too.
Surprisingly we weren't too abnormal after we pulled the first job three months later. It had taken time to get three Honda Civics and secure the parts to fix them up without arousing suspicion. We were all running high off the adrenaline rush of pulling off our plan. No one had been hurt. No one was locked up. So in honor of this we had an impromptu barbeque after we closed up the shop and café. Mia reached in for the corn first eager to thank God for bringing us back safe, for returning her family to the fort. And we had a great time trading jokes and ribbing each other about mundane things.
But it was the second job that started to eat away at the people we once were. This time, the knowledge that we had pulled off the first job flawlessly gave us the confidence to pull off the second job. The adrenaline, coupled with this confidence amped us up, our egos slightly larger than the house could hold. Mia suggested that we have a party to relieve the pent up stress which was unanimously seconded. Eagerly we got dressed and rode out to the races.
"Hi Dom!" the greeting hit me seconds after I exited the car.
"Josie," I returned in greeting. She smiled. Guess I got her name right. She reached over to touch my bicep lightly.
"So can we expect the party to be at your place tonight?" she asked batting her eyes a little bit. She was missing the mark on playing coy. I leaned in a little bit, taking her hand and removing it from me in such a way that it didn't seem rude.
"Of course," I replied giving her a wink. Josie looked ready to continue the conversation but she hesitated as Letty walked up from behind me. For a moment I didn't think Letty was going to stop until she decked the girl. Josie must have thought the same thing because she took a few stumbling steps back.
"Letty," Josie said with all traces of flirtation gone from her tone.
"I suggest you keep backing up unless you want me to help rearrange your face," Letty growled aggressively at Josie who quickly scampered away. Letty stood still, watching Josie melt into the crowd, her arms folded. As far as I was aware, Letty had never threatened any of these flirts before. Or if she had, it had never occurred in front of me or in front of a crowd of nosy people either.
"She was just saying hello," I told her defensively. We didn't need to have this out here.
"Whole lotta touching for a simple hello."
"It didn't mean anything."
"Oh, so is that what I have to put up with from now on?" Letty snapped. I didn't bother to answer turning to watch Hector approach me. I heard her mutter under her breath, "Coño." I felt my temper simmering beneath my skin. We were going to fight about this later.
"Hector, how we doing this tonight?" I asked to cover our skirmish. Letty moved to stand next to Leon and Vince, her posture stiff. Oh yeah, the battle was coming later.
And I remembered two hours later when we were back at the house with a few beers under my belt that we were at war. I'd walked into the house an hour earlier, purposefully ignoring Letty. I chatted up every girl in the place. It didn't matter if I was just making a random introduction or asking the girl to excuse me while I went to get another beer: I made sure to touch them all. I expected to get approached about it but somewhere in all of that I lost track of her. It was just as well. I was starting to get tired of making nice. Some of the girls were taking it a bit far, making suggestions that I would never take them up on.
"Hey, I brought cigars. You want one?" Hector asked me shaking a box in front of me. I nodded placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him. Mia would kill us if we smoked these things in the house.
"Backyard," I told him, pointing to the general direction of the kitchen.
Hector grinned in understanding, "Cool. I'll meet you there. I'm going to rustle up some of the boys."
I met him, Vince, Leon, Jesse, Edwin, Sam, and at least five other guys out there. He passed the box of cigars around and we each took one. Jesse eyed his warily, giving it a tentative sniff. He frowned.
"Um, how do I smoke this?" Jesse asked still turning the cigar around in his hand. A couple of us chuckled quietly. Jesse seemed to know that it wasn't meant to hurt his feelings though.
Leon gave his cigar a sniff, "Who's got the cutter?"
One of Hector's friends produced a cutter before unwrapped his cigar and snipping off the end. He stuck the cigar in his mouth then produced a fancy looking lighter. We watched him take a few small tugs to light it, finally giving it a deep pull. The resulting exhalation of smoke he gave out sounded satisfied.
"Hmm, it's good," the guy said twisting his cigar in his fingers to give it an appreciative glance. Vince nodded, taking the cutter next and following the same procedure. Jesse gave his cigar another sniff.
"I should have known," Letty teased from the top of the back stairs. Heads turned and a few of the guys waved to her. I watched her approach us, coming to stand next to Jesse.
"You want one too?" Hector offered with a grin. Letty shook her head no.
"Can't handle it baby girl?" Leon joked. She grinned.
"You need something?" Vince asked after taking another puff of his cigar. Sam, Leon, Jesse, and I were the only ones still waiting to start ours.
"Nope," she grinned wider. Something in that grin was evil. My eyes narrowed. I couldn't say anything to her since I was pretending to ignore her.
Jesse cleared his throat, "Letty, you ever smoke a cigar before?" She nodded and he shoved it at her. "I need an assist."
Letty chucked along with the rest of us, sitting on top of the picnic table. She turned the cigar around in her hand, before giving it a slow sniff. Every eye back here was on her. She shrugged carelessly removing the wrapper slowly. She held her hand out and the cutter appeared in her palm. We watched her snip the end then give then place the cigar between her fingers. I stopped breathing when she slowly opened her mouth, licking her lips before wrapping them lovingly around the cigar. Hector's friend produced a flame for her which she carefully used, her small puffs making her mouth contract in a way that I never wanted to see again outside of our bedroom. When she was satisfied that the cigar was lit, she held the end she'd just caressed out for Jesse. He looked like I'd felt years ago when I realized Letty was in fact a girl worth noticing outside of the garage.
"Jeez Letty, do me next," Sam whispered reverently. His breath was coming quicker than it should have. She gave him a lopsided smile.
"Jesse's young and cute. What's your excuse?" she threw back. Hector laughed. I clenched my teeth.
"You've got hella skills mami," another one of Hector's friends commented. I just wanted to punch everyone in the face.
"Whatever," Letty said without heat. She yawned then came to stand really close to me, "When you're finished, I could really use a massage." I sucked in a deep breath. She smiled and then we watched her walk back in the house.
"I wonder where she learned that," Edwin commented idly. So did I.
"Um Dom, you want mine?" Jesse asked me nervously. He still hadn't put his lips to the slowly burning cigar. I shook my head. I didn't want it, not really. I was supposed to be pretending that she had no affect on me. He wrinkled his nose.
"It's not like Dom can trade you," Leon quipped. I finally looked down at my hand. I'd crushed the poor cigar. Vince started guffawing, the rest of the guys joining in. Great. Well if I couldn't win in the small battles, I guess I should just go try my hand at the overall war. Throwing down my cigar on the table to more laughter, I ground out my 'good night' then trudged up the stairs.
"So Mia, I was thinking that we should get dinner together sometime," I heard Vince tell her two days after our third heist. I was sitting in a chair far behind the café counter, pretending to look over the books but really reading a magazine. I was waiting with Mia for one of the vendors to show up, roped into moving her heavy shipment boxes.
Mia reply was slow and deliberate, "It's not wise for me to date my brother's friends."
"Come on Mia, it's just dinner…," she must have shaken her head no because he gave a frustrated sigh, "I really think you'd like Cha-Cha-Cha."
"I'm sorry but no," she stated softly. I flipped another page without really looking at it. Huh. Despite all of my warnings to Vince, he still had the chutzpa to ask her out.
"I'm not Dom and Dom's not Tran," he said quietly, his voice slightly more forceful.
"I wasn't thinking that at all."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Dom and Letty…" she began but he cut across her viciously.
"Comparing us to them would be like comparing domestics to imports. Don't do it Mia."
She took a deep breath, "I've known you too long to risk us having a relationship that would end badly."
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do. I've known you practically my whole life. You don't like to be tied down and I want more than fifteen minutes with you in bed."
"You saw how Dom…"
"I thought we weren't going to compare us to them."
Vince ground his teeth together, "Mia you're more to me than a quick lay."
Mia seemed to ponder this information over in her head, "Can you tell me where you go on those nights you aren't with the rest of the team?"
The question brought Vince up short. No one knew what he did on those random nights. I just assumed that he was going to help his mother. But I knew that wasn't always the whole truth. Mia seemed bolstered by this lack of response from Vince. I heard her start to bustle around the counter. A car, well sounded more like a pick-up truck came to a stop across the street. Finally a stool scraped across the ground.
"Later Mi, later Dom." I flipped another page as his engine came to life then sped away. He was gone in less than thirty seconds and I was going to pretend I never heard the conversation. I heard the stool scrape the ground again, but it was lighter in quality.
"Hi, what can I get you?" Mia asked. I paused mid page flip. The casual question had been laced with curiosity and interest.
"Ah, I dunno," the voice was new, male, and sounded just as interested as Mia's had a second before. "What's good here?"
"Pretty much everything," Mia said noncommittally.
"Everything huh," he parroted. It sounded like he was smiling. I flipped a page more roughly than I intended.
"Tell you what. I'll make you the house special."
"Oh yeah, what that?" he teased.
Mia chuckled, "Tuna on white." What the hell was she trying to do to that guy? It had been years and her tuna salad had not improved.
"Tuna on white."
"Yep."
"Could you cut off the crust?" What was this, second grade? What sort of adult cut the crust off his sandwich? Mia didn't respond but I could hear her working to put together the sandwich. There was a chopping noise. Guess he was getting his ends cut off. I heard the plate being set on the counter.
"Here you go. Tuna on white, no crust."
"Thanks," he said politely before talk ceased. I could only assume he was trying to choke down his sandwich. I heard the rumble of a much larger truck come to a stop outside. Must be the vendor. The driver came in, dropped off a few pallets of soda then left. I made a production of standing, flexing my muscles before starting to move the pallets left by the front counter. Rather than get the hand truck which would have made the job quicker, I decided to pick them up one at a time to prolong my assessment of the situation. I gave the guy at the counter a cursory glance but he didn't seem bothered by my appearance. Actually it looked like he was trying not to look at Mia too long. She was leaning on the counter with one of her textbooks open, at a minimum pretending to read. He kept sneaking glances at her between bites of his sandwich. I was surprised he wasn't having trouble swallowing it. He didn't complain either.
Moving the soda didn't take long but I didn't like the way surfer dude had been looking at my sister. That would be my nickname for him until I got his real one. He looked like a surfer with his fresh faced, boy next door kind of look. His sandy blond hair had been long enough to show off its natural curliness. He was lean like a surfer too and his tone sounded like he was used to hanging out on the beach a lot. But it was his smile that made me afraid to leave Mia alone with him. When he'd figured out that she was pretending to be preoccupied he'd smiled to himself, taking another bite of his sandwich. The grin had been wide showing all of his pearly, even teeth. His face had lit up and his eyes had crinkled happily. There was genuine attraction there. I'd be damned if I'd leave him here alone to hit on my sister. I resumed my seat in the back, going back to pretending that I was super absorbed in my magazine. Finally the surfer dude finished his sandwich and I heard the plate being pushed up the counter.
"How much do I owe you?" he asked politely.
"Three bucks," Mia said. There was a clink of the plate reaching the sink and the rustle of the surfer removing his wallet and his money.
"You make the tuna every day? That sandwich was really great," he complemented with a smile in his voice.
"Yep."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow," he said jovially before the stool scraped the floor. I heard his footfalls fade from the building. I left not long after him. I expected the encounter to fade from my consciousness as the day wound to a close. And it would have too but Mia had this dreamy half smile on her face for the rest of the night.
"Jesse you look horrible," Mia told him when he finally crawled out of his room at eight in the morning the Saturday after our fourth heist.
"Might have something to do with the chick I saw skipping out of here near dawn," Leon joked. Jesse flashed him his middle finger. He flopped down in the armchair, covering his eyes with his arm.
"That will teach him to try keeping up with us shot for shot," Vince said around his beer. He was trying to relieve his hangover with a bit of the hair of the dog. Letty and I laughed lightly in agreement. We'd really gotten sloppy drunk last night. Leon had bought her a massive bottle of Patrón to congratulate her on pulling off a really bad ass move during the last job. When confronted with barreling into a construction site she'd driven her car under the rig, keeping pace until we returned to unblocked roadway. Days later I thought the move had been awesome but that night I'd made her miserable, yelling myself hoarse till we got home. Leon had suggested the liquor as a peace offering. And we'd all ended up passing out trying to beat the bottle.
"Play nice," Mia said as she crossed the room to answer the now ringing doorbell. Jesse moaned in pain. Leon shook his head as he chucked the bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water into Jesse's lap. The door creaked open, "Yes?"
"Hello ma'am. I'm looking for Leticia Ortiz. Does she live here?" The voice wasn't one I was used to but something about it sounded familiar to me. Letty popped out of my arms, running for the door. From what I could see she was stunned by the tall black guy standing in the doorway.
Mia cleared her throat backing away, "Ok then."
"You never responded," he told her smoothly.
"Uh, wait here a second," she stammered out, turning to race up the stairs. We could hear her throwing open a drawer. The jingle of her keys were drowned out by her rapid decent back down the stairs. She pushed past him slapping the mystery envelope into his chest. His smile was all I saw before she shut the door and moved down the front steps. The voice clicked in my head. I'd heard it only once when I'd called Letty while she'd been away. I practically dislodged the door when I threw it open, stomping angrily down the stairs. Vince, Leon, Mia, and Jesse spilled out of the house after me. But Letty was already peeling off down the street, her ex trying to follow in his rental car.
I was expecting an explanation from her but she walked in the garage at nine thirty she breezed past me to work on a Honda 2000. Rather than get into an argument I finished hooking up undercarriage lights for Mia then drove her car to the café at eleven. Tossing her keys onto the counter I went to take up my position at the desk in the back. I sifted through the mail here until I got my hands on the latest Import Tuner magazine. A turkey sandwich appeared on the desk. Mia put her hand on my shoulder.
"Remember she chose you," Mia said wisely before patting my back and returning to the counter. I returned to my magazine. An hour later I heard the familiar sound of The Racer's Edge truck pulling up. This guy just didn't give up.
"Tuna on white, no crust right?" Mia called out to him. She'd been making him the 'house special' for three weeks now. This had become a contest of wills between them. I felt my face split into a wry grin. I was waiting to see which one of them would crack first. Perhaps today would be the day when things might change…