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

Chapter 18

"Mmhmm." She seated herself on the end of the bench press, between his knees, and drank the rest of her tea. "Scared, I guess. Wondering how it'll go wrong this time. Whether I'll lose you both."

"You won't." Deckard set the bar on the rack then slid forward and sat upright. The ache in his arms was a welcome sensation, as well as the feeling of tiredness that came with it. "Someone could gather all our enemies and they still wouldn't have enough men to stop us."

Elizabeth cast a wary glance over her shoulder. That didn't sound quite as reassuring as Deckard presumably intended it to be. "How many do we have?"

"Not including the ones who are dead or comatose?" Owen's voice came from behind them. Deckard didn't so much as twitch, but Beth jerked in surprise. It was a…disappointing reaction. At some point, she'd lost her unconscious awareness of his presence. "Three."

"Cipher," Elizabeth said. "Naturally."

Owen nodded. "Toretto."

"And Hobbs," Deckard finished.

"So are you going to tell us who that was upstairs with you," Owen said, "or do I need to call Hattie and have her pry the answer out of you?"

Son of a bitch. Owen had seen that? "You tell me. I was looking right at them and couldn't make out a damn thing."

"What did they want?"

"Cipher sends her regards," Beth mocked. "And she now possesses a 'uniquely qualified' team."

"She wouldn't send someone here just to brag." Deckard frowned. If someone had breached the base, that didn't bode well for their overall security. They needed to pack up immediately. Move elsewhere. Go as far deep underground as they could. "What else?"

"That's it." She stood and kept her back to them, taking the opportunity to compose herself. Better her brothers didn't see the worried look in her eyes. "She probably noticed Toretto on one of her satellites and sent them as a warning."

"If Cipher knows we're here," Deckard swung himself around to face Owen, "she knows we're not ready. She could hit us at any time."

"What do you suggest we do?" It was dark, late, and they were being watched. She'd never liked having to look over her shoulder, but it was something Beth had grown used to over the past few years. "If we run, she'll still follow us on satellite."

"It's the only option we have right now."

Surely Deckard didn't think waking everyone and hopping on the next plane to Alaska would actually work. "The plan stays the same. No one needs to know about tonight."

"The base has been compromised."

"They visited her." Owen pointed at Beth. "Not anyone else. If we run, Cipher knows that the only Shaw she trusts has been turned."

Playing both sides was risky. Far too risky in Deckard's eyes. One slip-up and they would all be on the receiving end of a bullet. The cost of everything going wrong far outweighed the benefits, and he had no desire to go through this nightmare again.

"If you two are done," Beth interrupted, "I'm going to bed."

"Don't tell Hobbs either."

"I won't," she lied.

Who was Owen kidding? Of course she would, so long as the Fed promised to keep his mouth shut. Elizabeth didn't want him kicking her door down in the morning once base security told him someone tripped the alarms in the middle of the night. Better to piss him off now than later. Hell, there was a slight chance that honesty would even earn her a little wiggle room.