Are You Ready? /// The Fast and the Furious /// Book One

Race

After dark, everyone was gathered in the warehouse district for race night.

Seven cars in the shape of a V drove closer to the group, pulling over.

Each of them were driven by Dom, Letty, Jesse, Leon, Vince, Mia and Anna.

Two blonde girls were flirting with Dom.

Letty walked toward them, jealous. "Wow. I smell... skanks." Anna leaned against her car, smirking. "Why don't you girls just pack it up before I leave tread marks on your faces?"

The girls walked away, leaving.

"Letty, I was just talking to them," Dom told her.

"Yeah, whatever," Letty told him.

"Okay, Hector," Dom told him.

Hector walked closer. "Yeah, what's up, man?"

They walked closer.

"Yo, what's up?" Edwin asked. "Edwin here. How we doing this tonight?"

"One race," Dom told them. "$2,000 buy-in. Winner takes all. Hector, you're going to hold the cash."

"Why Hector?" Jesse asked.

"'Cause he's too slow to make off with the money, man," Edwin answered.

Hector nodded sarcastically.

"Okay, good luck, guys," Mia told them.

"How about baby Anna Li?" Letty asked. Anna raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Well, you said it's time you grew up to the big streets. You've been coming out around here since you were ten. I think you're ready. Let's see how you really ride."

The crowd cheered.

Anna smiled. "All right." She looked over the crowd, picking the hardest to beat in a race. "Dom."

Dom smirked in amusement. "You sure you're up for this?"

"You sure you are?" Anna asked.

"Sure," Dom answered. "Then after, maybe we can take baby sis out and show her how to get a real car."

Everybody laughed and made 'burn' noises.

Anna smirked, nodding.

Brian walked up to them. "Four in a race, right?"

"Four in a race," Anna answered.

"I don't have any cash," Brian told them, holding up a pink slip. "But I do I have the pink slip to my car."

"You just can't climb in the ring with them, 'cause you think you box," Jesse told him.

Brian pointed at Hector. "He knows I can box. Check it out. It's like this. I lose, the winner takes my car. Clean and clear. But if I win, I take the cash, and I take the respect."

Everyone chuckled.

"Respect?" Dom repeated.

"To some people, that's more important," Brian told them.

Anna looked toward a lime green 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse. "That your car?"

Brian nodded.

Jesse opened the trunk of the car. "I see a cool air intake. It's got a NOS fogger system and a T4 tubro. I see an AIC controller."

"It has direct port nitrous injection," Anna told them.

"Yeah, and a stand-alone fuel management system," Jesse told them. "Not a bad way to spend $10,000."