RUSH ― han lue

COURTESY

"Ooh, this is nice."

Hobbs made good with his word when he said he'd handle the logistics and reasonable expectations for resources when he delivered new cars for each of us, all the same unit and color, and they were admittedly nice. Although, cars vary differently for us, like always, tinkering and customizing to our heart's delight until we wait for word of what we'll have to do next. While so, I went ahead and found the brand new tools at the other end of the room, newly expanded to fit our toys. I tied my hair up, opened the hood, and started getting to work since it's the only thing keeping my mind off of a lot of noise—vacation, Shaw, ring...

"How do you know Owen Shaw?" Brian greeted as he leaned at the side of the car with curiosity lacing his familiar features.

"I had a life before you knew me." I didn't seem to escape the line of question when he inclined his head.

"I wanna know, too." My eyes darted at Han, who wheeled off from under his car, not even noticing he's nearby since my head had been clouded up the minute prep was over. "How'd you know his brother?" They were not letting up as soon as Han stood up, standing right next to Brian and definitely not amused.

"If it's important to the job, we gotta know." Brian shrugged, definitely knowing what he's doing.

"Fine." I seethed, dropping the torque back on the box and closing the hood to sit on it, wanting to get this over with. "As you know, I was making unsanctioned hits back when I was still working for the division. One of them involved dealing with an international threat, some military asset that they deemed too unstable to keep. I didn't understand why they wanted him gone when we're basically doing the same thing, and I had this stupid realization that if I kill him, and if they made me like him, a few years from now I'd be meeting another me who's gonna put a bullet in my head. I guess somehow he caught wind of what I did when I intentionally failed the mission, and we had uh—" Han's features hardened before I could even say it, "—a little rendezvous. And through him was how I met Owen Shaw."

Brian groaned almost as if he was trying not to laugh or throw up or get angry, I wasn't sure. But Han, his ever so stoic demeanor, remained as he turned and went back to what he was doing before he insisted to know why. Brian understood immediately and glanced at me as he clasped my shoulder and stepped away, leaving me to the sorry bits of what I just declared out in the open quite surprisingly. It's not exactly a dire secret, but it's one I didn't like talking about a lot since the punishment I got for it was definitely not one for the books. "Han." I called, but he was purposely ignoring me. "What do you want me to say? You and Brian insisted to know. Do you know how long ago that was? I can't even remember where I was those days."

"I'm not mad at you, Violet."

"We're on a first-name basis now?"

He finally turned, looking at me with eyes I knew so well. "Promise me one thing, red. Just this." I nodded, waiting for what he's going to say. "Promise me you're not gonna do something stupid—or anything by yourself." I frowned, proving it pretty hard to keep a promise for the sole reason that someone has to step up, one way or another, to get the job done. But Han looked at me like how he did when he thought I left that day we finished the job in Rio, when we got all this money in the world to hide, and all I can feel was immense guilt. "I won't forgive myself if something happens to you." His pleading eyes made my stomach turn upside down, as if I'm going to be sick by the mere thought of it, and maybe the best thing I could do is nod my head and say it.

"I promise."

Heavy footsteps came echoing behind us and we found Hobbs, together with his current partner who kept looking at me like I'm riding bitch, sauntering about all dressed for the prom. "You guys ready?" We were definitely not, but it's time to go.