An Eye For An Eye (Fast & Furious | Hobbs/OFC)

Chapter 20

Letty didn't have to be a mind-reader to know something was up. They'd planned on fixing their cars first, getting ready — Owen's rampcar was still days from being finished, her own needed the wheels replaced and the chassis protected — and yet here Hobbs was, telling them things had changed.

She understood Dom's concern. Letty had seen the aftermath of Deckard's fury, experienced Owen's first hand, but Cipher? All she had was…nothing. The bitch couldn't plot her way out of a paper bag. Her plane and computer were locked up, secured by Ramsey herself, but one 'message' had Hobbs and Dom running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Once the meeting was over, the plan set in motion, Letty left the group to talk amongst themselves and made her way upstairs to the kitchen. She needed a drink, something stronger than water, and a moment away from this bullshit.

No one, not even the sly English bastard to her left, had mentioned what the rest of the team would be doing. She hadn't wanted to bring it up at the table, but Hobbs had conveniently avoided the obvious question: would it be the eleven of them leaving? Or just nine?

Letty had left people behind before — if Ivory's dead, he made a mistake — and the consequences were less than pleasant. She'd also been on the other end of the situation. When Dom had abandoned her in Mexico, she'd been furious at the idea that he could look her in the eye, tell her it was ride or die, then throw her aside like she was no more than a dirty rag.

"Goddamn you, Dom," she muttered. Letty swung a cabinet door open, withdrew a bottle of bourbon set aside for 'cooking', and popped the lid. The first sip burned her throat, made her cough and splutter. The second went down a little easier. She fixed the lid back on and shoved the bottle back into the cabinet before anyone saw or asked if she wanted to share. "We didn't renew our vows so you could throw them back in my face."

If they hadn't said anything, Letty wondered, would Dom have just upped and left with Hobbs and the Shaws during the night, and not told them about Cipher's message? Would she have found out tomorrow morning once he was gone and yet another note sat on her bedside drawer? Shit. Letty seated herself on a chair and braced her arm on the back of it, resting her head in her hand. Where's a phone when you need one?

A call to Mia, or Elena, might have pulled her out of this funk. Hearing Marcus's incessant laugh and that high pitch giggle would've brought a smile to her face, but Letty wasn't allowed to have that much. No contact meant no contact, not so much as five seconds to hear her son's voice for the first time in days.

Being stuck here, not knowing if Elena, Mia and the kids were safe, was already pushing her towards breaking point after only a few days. Yet the way Hobbs had talked in the beginning suggested he expected them to be there for weeks, possibly months.

"You look like shit, dyevushka."

Letty looked up to see Elizabeth standing in the kitchen doorway. Had Shaw come from the bathroom, she wondered, or been standing in the corridor, watching as Letty dulled the ache in her chest with alcohol like some pathetic teenager? "Did you really just call me—"

"Sorry." Shaw immediately held both hands up. Most women (in Moscow) would've gone along with it, but not her. No, she couldn't be charmed by complimentary nicknames and sweet-talking. "Old habit."

"Just 'Letty' is fine."

"Sure." Beth scratched the back of her neck with her left hand, right shoulder resting against the door jamb. Gaze focused on the countertop behind Letty, she asked, "…What's got you sitting in the dark then?"

There were so many things that it was hard to pick just one. She was tired of the bullshit, the lies, the fear she'd wake up one day and find Dom had walked out on her. Scared that in a few months, this thing that might very well be inside her would grow and everyone would notice. Worse, they'd all walk on eggshells around her like she was some fragile princess.