VIPER ♱ b. o'conner

08: new beginning

[ FLASHBACK TO FOUR
MONTHS AFTER ACT ONE]

LALA shifted uncomfortably in her chair, she hated the hard and rigid shape of the seats they put in the interview rooms. They were even worse now with her leg in a brace. She glanced around the room with bored eyes. To her it didn't matter how many times they brought her in - she knew nothing.

The detective sitting across from her sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So you're telling me that you had no involvement with the illegal actions involving Dominic Toretto?"

"Nope." She lied and leaned back in her seat. They'd already gotten her witness testimony from the drive-by, months ago, along with a personal testimony in regard to Dom's alleged actions.

He gave her a look and marked something down on the file he had in front of him. "Did you have any involvement in the disappearance of his crew member uh..." he checked the file, "Vince I believe it was?"

She shook her head. "I have no idea how he disappeared, hope the poor guy healed well."

Lala was the one who got Vince out of the hospital. With the help of an old friend she got him to a safe house where he was laying low and healing before fleeing the country. She knew it'd be too risky for Dom to come back for him and Mia barely spoke to her, too heartbroken to even come up with a plan to avoid Vince taking the fall.

The case files and reports were set on the desk in front of her. Brian's reports. "This is what you're looking at if anything remotely incriminating comes back tying you to this case, Aguilar. I hope you're prepared to face that."

There were eight photos spread fan-like over the folder. Dom and Vince - they had a bold red stamp on their surveillance photos that stated 'wanted'. Leon, Letty, Mia and herself, didn't have any sort of stamps but rather circles around their faces with question marks next to them. Then one of Brian was halfway hidden, he had two stamps on his. One had 'terminated' and the other had the same 'wanted' stamp as well. Finally, Jesse's photo came across her eyes. She ran her fingers down it gently, his had a stamp that showcased his unfortunate fate. 'Deceased'.

A throat being cleared broke her out of her own mind. "Despite your claims on not knowing where Toretto and the others are, we do have enough sufficient evidence to have you sentenced to at least 3 years. Now, the court is willing to work on an agreement with you. Parole."

"I'm listening." She crossed her arms and stared at the detective. Parole was better than prison.

"Three years of parole, the conditions are simple. You must make yourself available within 30 minutes of your parole officer reaching out to you. You cannot leave the state - it was originally the county but they made an exception. No drugs, alcohol, races - unless you want to finish your sentence off in jail." He droned on and on while Lala simply just stared. "We'll have to go in front of the judge so they witness and agree to the parole if you wish to proceed."