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

Chapter 27

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" said Cipher, slipping a pair of black sunglasses off and resting them atop her head. "Our own little piece of paradise."

Luke gave their surroundings little more than a glance as he stepped off the cargo ramp and onto the private runway. Trees, the ocean, and a private beach lay to the east. In the west, the sun was slowly setting behind the clouds, turning everything some shade of orange or pink.

"Sure," he said. "If you like getting sand up your ass."

"This, however, isn't why I brought you here," Cipher continued. "You see, I realised I wasn't clear enough about what I expect from you, Luke."

"Oh, I'd say you were pretty fucking transparent."

Do what the psychopathic hacker said or his daughter would be killed. How much more clarity was required in a situation like this?

"No. I gave you audio when I should've shown you the real thing."

His head turned on a swivel, scanning his surrounds for any sign of a car. Any sign of men holding a child at gunpoint. Instead, Cipher produced a phone and offered it to him. Luke took it without hesitation. Blinking text at the bottom of the screen read 'live stream'.

"We've advanced to the point where deepfakes are becoming truly convincing," she continued, "so consider this the only confirmation you'll get that I'm not bluffing."

The camera turned, looking down from the corner of a room. Sam lay on a bed, her eyes closed and cheeks stained with tears. Next to her, unfolded on a drawer, was today's print edition of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, with the words 'I love you' scrawled in Sam's handwriting beneath the headline.

"You still haven't said what you want from me."

"For today? Relax. Make yourself at home." Cipher smiled. "But in future? I want you at your best, mentally and physically. No more losing fights to broken soldiers and street punks."

"Hobbs? ...Hobbs!"

He blinked, looking up from the steering wheel to find Shaw standing outside his door. As of thirty minutes ago, they were in the refuelling and reloading phase of the operation. Her Marussia and the ATV had both been removed from the cargo hold, allowing for two new vehicles to take their places.

His was an armoured beast that made Luke's old SUV look like a kitten. The other, once again, was a blue Mustang with white stripes for Jakob. The child who apparently wanted to play with one toy and one toy only.

"Yeah." Hobbs groaned and stretched the kinks from his neck. Being stuck on a plane was doing wonders for his posture. "I'm on it."

They were on the east coast, as far as he could figure. Georgia, Florida, or possibly South Carolina. The sunset and ocean spoke for themselves, along with the travel time. Still, that was too wide an area for him to pinpoint one private airfield based off the little he'd seen.

"Did she tell you anything?" Luke asked, keeping his voice low. Elizabeth walked alongside the car as he drove towards the ramp. "About Sam or where-"

"No."

"So make her talk."

"It's not that simple."

"Bullshit." Luke slammed on the brakes, stopping his new car short of the plane's loading ramp. His grip on the steering wheel tightened, eyebrows furrowing together as every muscle in his body went taut. "You've been with them for less than a week and already he's wrapped around your finger."