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Dashing across two lanes of traffic to make the exit, Letty peered over her shoulder with a grin to see Dom barely making it as well. She loved racing with him. He was the only person who respected her not only as a mechanic, but a damn good racer as well. He was the only person she struggled to beat, the only real competition she faced on the blacktop. Though she only had one win against him under her belt, Letty was proud of that win.
Letty knew there no out-running a determined Dominic, so she decided to bring their game of cat-and-mouse to an end. She tried to remember the route Leon took that morning through the city and headed for the children's playground that she spotted earlier. She slowed to a lawful speed and pulled into the lot of the playground, with Dom parking directly behind her. He had no intentions of letting her get away so easily again.
"Ginger, I don't know how this will play out, but I suppose it's time. Time to face my fears," Letty spoke to her dog through the rearview mirror. Ginger playfully ducked her head and covered her face with both paws. "Good idea... this could get ugly."
Letty took a deep, shaky breath before stepping out of the car. Seconds later, Dom followed suit. Letty soaked in his rugged good looks; particularly the way his white t-shirt clung to his muscles. One thing she couldn't deny about her time with Dominic was her attraction to him. To say he was good-looking would be an understatement, and she had her curiosities about his abilities in the bedroom, though a part of her knew he wouldn't hesitate to rock her world if she asked.
She shook the naughty thoughts from her head. "Wasn't exactly how I planned my return, but that was fun." He didn't reply, but only stood staring at her as if she were an abstract painting that he was trying to decipher. Under his scope, she felt her confidence wavering. "You did all that just to stare? Definitely not how I saw this happening."
"How did you see this going?" he asked, his baritone voice rattling her to her core. Something about his voice made her feel at home. It was almost like music to her ears. He took a few steps closer and Letty felt her walls hardening once again.
"I was hoping to make it home without running into you, honestly."
This stopped Dom's movements and he settled comfortably on the hood of his car.
"How'd you find me?" Letty asked while reaching into her car for a cigarette. It wasn't a habit she was proud of, but her nerves had her on the edge and she needed relief.
"Why were you hiding from me?"
Letty froze with the lighter up to her smoke, "Dom, you have this thing about you. This energy, this pull. It makes people want to be around you, it makes people feel safe with you. I felt myself being drawn in so fast that nothing made sense. I went underground to avoid running into you and being drawn in again when I wasn't mentally prepared to be that close."
"You don't think you could've just said that to me? Did you really have to leave in the middle of the night? Do you know how scared Mia and Brian were for you? How panicked I was?"
Letty frowned, shocked by his chutzpah, "Probably not as terrified as I to wake up in the middle of some run-down shack alone, with nothing but twenty grand to keep me warm." She ignored the shame on his face, not feeling a bit guilty for his hurt feelings. "How did you find me?
"Facebook," Dom grinned, "Finally getting into social media, huh?"
She rolled her eyes and cursed Brooke in her head, "No, but my roommate is. I told her the shit she posts would catch up to her one day."
"Brooke seems like a wild girl. How'd she end up with Leon?"
His tone led her to believe that he wasn't pleased with Leon for his involvement in Letty's quiet return, and it annoyed her. He had no right to be upset over who she choose to go to upon her arrival, "What's it matter? He only found out today that I was still alive. Same for Mia, so cut them some slack. I was in a bad spot, she thought it would be good for me to see a familiar face... kinda ironic now that I think about it."
"And what kinda spot you in now?" he asked, his eyes never leaving hers. The longer he stared at her with those loving, longing eyes, the more she wanted to crawl under a rock and hide.
"I'm not sure," Letty chuckled dryly, "Still trying to decide whether to hug you or dart away as fast as possible."
"Make that choice when we're done talking?" Letty agreed. "How long have you been back?"
"Got in last night. Ran into some trouble in Vegas, so we split."
"That trouble still following you?" his expression gave away his worries about ruining his fresh start.
"I don't think so, but if it was, it's not your problem. I didn't come back to ask you to be my savior, if that's what you think. I'm not some damsel."
Letty wanted to blame her annoyed mood on her lack of sleep and food, but she knew it was the way he watched her like a hawk, his eyes dancing over every inch of her body. She felt herself losing her self-control, steadily fighting off the urge to run into his massive arms.
"No you're not," he murmured, a small smile curling on his lips. He pushed off the car, cutting the space between them in half. "Then why did you come back?"
Letty struggled with the question, "I ... I don't know. I guess I just got homesick."
Dominic now stood close enough for her to smell his cologne, exhaust fumes, and a hint of Corona that made her a little weak in the knees. His masculine scent, along with his perfectly toned body and deep voice was the triple threat that threatened to break down her fortitude, and slowly, it was working.
"Still using the coconut shampoo, I see," he said while sniffing her lightly.
Letty felt her cheeks rush with blood, "Some habits are hard to break."
"Ain't that the truth."
Before she knew it, Dom was locking his hand with hers, his thumb rubbing her skin gently. The shaking in her hands stopped immediately, and the pounding in her heart slowed to a smooth beat. She was grateful that he held on to her hand, because she was sure the butterflies in her stomach would cause her to float away at any given second. Letty couldn't pull her eyes away from their meshed hands, amazed at how well they fit together. She could feel his eyes on her, begging her to look at him.
"I know you're different... I know everything is different now, but I missed you. I'm glad you're safe."
Letty knew if she wanted to keep her sanity, she needed to leave now, "I have to go, I'm sorry." She gently pushed him away, slipping her hand from his grip before turning for her car. His hand grasped at her arm as he pleaded for her to stay. Ginger clearly sensed Letty's tension and quickly came to her rescue, showing Dom the door in her own way. He removed his hand, but inched his way closer, a move that didn't go unnoticed by the protective dog. She gave a few barks that would startle even the toughest man, and surely Dom backed away from Letty.
Letty reached into the window and gave Ginger a few settling rubs between the ear, though the dog was more interested in checking out the scent on her hand... Dom's scent.
She could feel him staring. She pictured the anguish on his face. If it mirrored what she felt in her heart, then she knew he was losing all control as well. "I missed you, too, Dom. More than I thought I would," her voice said shakily, "Move your car."
She slid back in her Camaro, her heart racing and her hands trembling as she waited for him to pull out. He backed out enough for her to exit the spot, but didn't speed away. She watched him in her rear-view, his eyes never leaving her car as she drove away. The drive to the hotel was painful and confusing for Letty as she battled to keep her emotions in check. The return trip to LA was nothing how she originally planned. Keeping away from the Toretto's proved easier said than done. She had managed to run into Leon, Mia, and Dominic, and it was only day one.
Before she knew it, tears were falling down her face and soaked her tank-top. Ginger's fur tickled at Letty's face as she offered up a few sloppy licks to her owner. She could sense Letty's sour mood and she tried her best to console her. Thankfully, they were pulling into the lot of the hotel because her vision had become blurry and her eyes burned with pain. Letty bowed her head on the steering wheel and allowed the racking sobs to come over her. The pain she tried so hard to push to the back of her mind the past two years came rushing back to the surface, and poured from her eyes.
She hated this. Not remembering her life before it went to hell in that crash. Not being able to trust the only people she once had as a family. Not having the ability to reciprocate the feelings for a man who adored her because of that lack of trust. Letty wanted nothing more than to reverse this curse bestowed upon her. She wanted to love Dominic. She wanted to be the woman they all loved and remembered but she couldn't.
Letty gathered herself and headed up to her room. Pushing open the door, she was immediately barraged by a frantic Brooke.
"Letty, thank God!" she jumped from the bed, "I have no idea what happened tonight. I shouldn't have agreed to go to that damn race."
"It's all right, B," Letty replied while shrugging out of her jacket, and soon after, her jeans, leaving them both crumbled in a pile on the floor.
"Well, did you see him?"
"Yeah," Letty sighed while crawling in bed, "I saw him."
Brooke stood frozen and confused by her friends zombie-like behavior. She watched as Letty reached up and shut off the bedside lamp before pulling the blankets over up over her shoulder.
"Letty... what happened tonight?"
Letty stared out the window across from the bed as the tears started again, rolling over her nose and down her cheek.
"Go to sleep, B. We'll talk in the morning."
She felt the other side of the bed dip as Brooke crawled in behind her, and wrapped a protective arm around her.
"Sometimes I wonder if they would've been better off with me dead. At least at some point they could've moved on. He hangs on to hope that one day I'll wake up and magically be that old girl again. I'm still hanging onto it, too."
Brooke didn't reply, but held onto her friend for dear life as she sobbed into the night. She didn't know how to help Letty, but she knew there was no way she could go on like this.
"Shh," Brooke cooed, "Everything will be okay. We'll figure this out together."
*Bark! Bark*
Letty peaked an eye open to see Ginger sitting at attention at the side of the bed, staring eagerly back at her. Her tongue hanged from her mouth and her tail wagged energetically.
"What is it?" Letty mumbled as she tried to sit up, but Brooke's arm clinging to her waist prevented it. "Can't it wait? I don't think Brooke's ready to get up yet, girl."
Ginger gave another ear-shattering bark before moving to the foot of the bed to tug the duvets into the floor.
"Ugh, Lett, come on!" Brooke groaned, finally releasing her hold on Letty to roll over into a ball for warmth.
Letty gave her friend a small grin and climbed from the bed, making her way to the bathroom to relieve herself. While washing up, she chanced a glance at herself in the mirror and instantly winced. Deep bags sat under her puffy eyes and her makeup was smeared over her skin. Letty splashed some water on her face and wiped it clean before slipping on some jean shorts and heading outside with Ginger in tow.
She settled on a wooden bench with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her brain throbbed between her ears and she regretted agreeing to meet with Leon today. She wanted nothing more than to stay hidden in her bed; away from the blinding sun, questions, and definitely Dominic.
A little more than a month after their return, and everyone was already back into the swing of living the free life. Dom and Brian were hard at work getting the garage back up and running, Tej and Roman had taken off on their own endeavors, Mia was busy settling Jack into pre-school, and Letty... was Letty was trying to figure out who the hell she was and why she was here with these people.
Currently, she was sitting on the porch swing, cold Corona in hand while enjoying the warm summer day. She watched as neighbors mowed their lawns, kids played basketball in the street, and dogs chased each other. Nothing about the neighborhood felt familiar to her, but she could see why the Toretto's wanted to be back. It was homely, and comfortable. A place where you could raise a family, a place that you could call home. The block was quaint and quiet, with the exception of power-tools blaring from the garage shed next door. Dom was busy working on Mia's new car - a white Charger SXT - with help from Brian and Jack.
"There you are," Mia said while stepping out of the house, her yellow sundress blowing in the wind. "I made something for you."
Letty made room on the swing for Mia. She sat down with a large black book in her hands titled "Our Memories".
"What is this?"
"I dug through about four boxes of old photos and put together a scrapbook for you. I'm in the process of making another, but I wanted to show you this first. I don't know if it'll help, but I thought it'd be good to see some old pictures."
Letty took the book into her hands and began flipping through the pages, taking in the dozens of photos of herself, Dom, and the others from the original crew. In the majority of the photos was a good-looking, salt-and-pepper haired man with eyes that mirrored Dom's and Mia's.
"Is this Dino?" Letty asked.
"Yeah, that's Dad," Mia smiled sweetly. "When your abuelita passed, he built on an extra bedroom for you, though you spent most of your nights with me or Dom. You were like his second daughter, the female version of Dom he always wanted."
"But he had you."
"No, he had you. I was more like Mom, or so they say, I was really young when she died. But you.. you were this sponge who wanted to soak up everything you could about cars. You would skip class just to go to the garage and watch him work. He adored you, loved you like you were one of his own."
Letty heart swelled with appreciation for the man, "I wish I could remember. I barely remember my own parents."
"I know," Mia gently laid her head on Letty's shoulder, "Keep flipping. There's some jewels in there."
The two women sat that way for over an hour, swinging slightly as Mia reminisced on over fifteen years of friendship between the two. Guilt weighed heavy on Letty's heart, along with sadness and frustration over the lost memories. She liked Mia and hated herself for losing all knowledge of their life as best friends. Though they seemed like complete opposites back in the day, they were close, and it was obviously something Mia was struggling to cope with now.
"Why didn't you stop me?" Letty asked out of the blue. Mia's confused look urged her to go on. "You said after Dom took off in the DR, that I came back here before going to Brian. Why didn't anyone stop me?"
"Letty, you weren't exactly the girl who took orders from someone," Mia gave a small smile, "You were so angry at him for leaving, and so sad. More depressed than I had ever seen. You hardly spoke. You spent most of your time in that shed working on the RoadRunner. Hell, I had to force you to eat most of the time. I didn't like to see you that way. I wanted you happy again, and I knew the only way that would happen was if Dom came home. So selfishly, I let you go running into the arms of the wolves to bring my brother back."
"I was an idiot, thinking I could take on a cartel on my own."
"You weren't an idiot, Lett. You were in love. You were trying to save a fifteen-year relationship, and I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same. Besides, you made out a lot better than those other FBI UC's."
"Why would he leave me though? I mean, if we were so in love, why?" the tears flowed freely from Letty's eyes as she stared at a photo of just she and Dom. His arm hung over her shoulder and hers wrapped tight around his waist as they posed in front of his red Mazda one race night.
"Because Dominic has been, is and always will be a Toretto man. The Toretto men have this trait of thinking with their hearts, and not their brains. The things he does comes from the goodness of his heart, and because of that, he doesn't always use his brain. That's why he left me to take care of the home and garage alone after the trucks. That's why he tried to dump Brian and I back in Rio, and why he dumped you in the DR. He doesn't want anyone else to pay for his sins the way Jesse had, or Vince after doing those two years in Lompoc for the heists. I don't think Dom would've been able to live with himself if you were locked up because of his stupidity."
"And now because of my stupidity, I'll never be able to live with knowing who he is, or you, or even myself."
"Hey," Mia put her finger on Letty's chin and forced her to look at her, "Fresh starts are never a bad thing, regardless of how we get them. This is a chance to get to know him better than before, and yourself."
Letty looked up as Dom was chasing baby Jack along the driveway, threatening to touch him with greasy, oily hands. Jack erupted in a fit of giggles when Dom scooped him up, tossing him high in the sky before catching him again. The visual was sweet, but it didn't erase the scene in her head of that destroyed room and that stack of cash draped with his necklace.
She struggled to see the good, family man they all portrayed him to be, when her mind consistently showed him as a renegade who abandoned her. For Letty, the idea of Dominic was too good to be true.
"Ma'am. M'aam, are you okay?"
The hotel custodian snapped Letty out of her daydream. She was still sitting on the park bench, staring off into a daze as Ginger harassed coming and going guests near the entrance.
"Yeah, thanks," Letty replied to him.
"You'll have to leash your pup when you bring her out. She seems a bit over-anxious and we don't want her scaring-"
Letty rolled her eyes before he could finish and headed back inside, whistling for Ginger to follow. She made her way back to her room, where Brooke was sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Thanks for keeping me cozy last night, honey," Letty teased, but the grief on Brooke's face said she wasn't in the mood. "Listen, don't beat yourself up about last night."
"It's not.. only about last night," she ran a shaky hand through her hair. "It's something else. Something I haven't told you."
Now worried, Letty settled next to Brooke on the bed. "What is it, Brooke?"
"You ever heard of a man by the name of Carter Verone?"
Letty shook her head, "No. Why?"
"Carter Verone was a major import/export dealer in Miami for over twenty years. Guns, drugs, cars, girls. You name it, he pushed it. Ten years ago he was taken down by an undercover operation led by the FBI and US Customs. He was sentenced to 25-to-life, but he has so many judges and officials on his payroll that I doubt he'll serve another ten years before he's out."
"Why are you telling me this, Brooke?" Letty asked apprehensively.
"Because Carter Verone is my father. And I think Brian O'Conner locked him away."