A/N: Editing is going so great that I decided to update today as well! I will update tomorrow and then updates will be every two days until I finish uploading all of it! Thank all of you for staying with me, for supporting me and for being THE MOST AMAZING READERS!
After she left I changed into a pair of black sweatpants with double white stripes on the sides and a matching cropped hoodie. I waited for the perfect moment and found it when Mia tried to stop him. I ran over to where I saw Leon and Vince go, smiling when their eyes widened.
"Penny . . ." Leon started but I didn't let him finish.
"Don't, whether you like it or not you're one man short and I can help. Leave Dom to me."
My brother's annoyed face turned to shock then anger when he saw me. He looked around but none of the team would look at him. I was just waiting for the arguing to start.
"No! No, no, no you're not coming with us. What the hell are you thinking Penny? What the hell were you three thinking?" he demanded.
"She followed us." Vince said quickly.
"Bitch! Listen, you're down one man and you need the help. You're losing time here Dom. I'll just follow you anyway now that I'm here. I'm not Mia, Dom, I won't take no for an answer." I told him.
"Fuck, fine, but you ride with me." he said, reconfiguring the plan in his head.
"Deal, now what?" I asked.
"Let's go, we're losing daylight." he said.
I fist-bumped Letty and hopped into my car with a smile on my face. This is going to be one hell of a night and it's just getting started. It seems hypocritical for me to be excited about this but Dom stopped including me on these my senior year of high school. These jobs are how I learned how to defend myself, how I learned to stand out in a man's world.
I followed them to Thermal, where they had the cars hidden and we uncovered the cars while they got everything ready.
"Alright, we're one man short so we've gotta bring Penny up to date on everything that I didn't tell her today. Penny, I changed my mind, you'll ride with Leon to even things out. Letty, I need you on the left side." Dom said as Leon chucked a bag at him.
"Let's do this babe." I told Leon, planting a quick kiss on him.
I could tell that the team wasn't completely on board with this. They're all tense and you could clearly read the worry etched over their faces. I don't know why though, I mean I think I do, but the one thing I do know is that their heads aren't here at all.
"Your sister's right about this one. This doesn't feel good." Leon said, handing Dom some metal something.
"Don't do that." my brother replied.
"Something's wrong." Letty agreed, handing me a metal contraption.
"Stop." Dom argued.
"We shouldn't be doing this without Jesse." Letty countered, confirming my suspicions.
"Look, this is the motherload, we've been waiting on this for three months now. After this its a long vacation for everyone. Let's go." my brother told the team.
"I hope so." Vince said.
Since I wasn't necessarily a part of that conversation I went to put the metal thing in the car that Leon pointed out to me when we arrived. I sat on the hood and thought about what I heard. They've been at this for three months now, where the hell does my brother get these ideas from? Three months of robbing trucks that is more important than being a big brother. This is really messed up.
As Leon made his way over to me I watched as Dom pulled Letty to the side. I know him well enough to know that he's trying to comfort her, to ease her nerves. Hell, I'm starting to get anxious with their nerves.
"Hey, take this." Leon said softly, handing me a black helmet and kissing my forehead.
"Are you okay?" I asked, noticing the change in his demeanor.
"I'm fine, just worried about you being involved in all of this and about Jesse." he replied, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Is this a good idea?" I asked him.
"You being here for this? Not at all."
"Leon."
"It doesn't feel right not knowing where Jesse is, but here we are." he replied before opening the passenger door for me.
Both of us stood behind our respective doors a second later, waiting for the green light from the boss. Vince looked over at me, motioning with his fingers from in front of his eyes to point at me then at Leon who repeated the movement. The meaning was clear; watch her and watch your back.
"Leon, keep on those scanners. Take care of her." Dom said as the rest of them started to get into their cars.
"Copy that." he replied when we got in.
Leon let me sleep for a while and by the time I woke up, it was already light out.
"I was gonna wake you up in twenty." he said, putting his hand on my thigh.
"I'm awake now. So tell me how this thing works again." I said, grabbing the thing from the back seat.
He took a few minutes to begrudgingly explain the mechanics of the damn launch thing to me again. I know that he doesn't want me here but he has to deal with it the same way my brother has to.
"Okay, so how does this go again?"
"When it's time, you're the first step. We'll pull up in front of the truck and at this point, you've gotta put the helmet on so you're not recognized. You'll go out through the sunroof and take out the passenger side windshield. You'll shoot the hook straight and pull once its gone through. After that Vince is up and you don't have to worry about it."
"You ready for this?"
"Not at all. Penny, can I ask you something?"
"You just did but shoot."
"Smartass, what would you say if I told you that after this is over I want us to be exclusive?" he asked.
"Before or after I laugh my ass off?" I said with a smile.
"I'm serious, Pen."
"So am I, Leon, you're not the monogamous type babe. We've long since established that."
"I want to be and I want it to be with you. I've missed you Penny and you know that before you left and every time you came back we ended up together. I have feelings for you Penelope, and I know that you have feelings for me. It's not just sex, your brother would kill me if he thought that it was." he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.
"I never said it was just sex Leon, I know better, and I never denied having feelings for you. Are they enough for us to try a monogamous relationship though? I don't really know."
"What do you say beautiful? You willing to roll the dice with me?"
"I say let's wait for all of this to be over and then we'll decide."
"If this, for some reason, ends badly . . ."
"No, don't do that. You've been doing this for months already, don't go there now." I told him.
"Yes, ma'am."
"There's the truck." I muttered, tying my hair up.
I pulled my hood up to make sure that my hair was hidden before pulling the dark helmet on. Making sure that it was securely in place.
"Okay, go time Penny." Dom said over the radio.
"Copy that." I replied as Leon pulled up in front of the truck.
The driver honked his horn as if that was gonna do something.
"Penny, go!" Dom shouted.
"Be careful." all three men said.
"I got this." I replied.
Turning around in my seat I got on my knees and opened the sunroof quickly. Making sure that I was steady before standing up, I put my hands on the headrest and took a deep breath, popping out. Leon handed me the thing and I lined it up before shooting, completely ignoring the driver. As soon as it shattered the glass I pulled the windshield out and unhooked the cord, letting it drop to the ground before getting back in the car.
"Good job P." Dom said.
"We're all good man, I got nothing on the scanners. Keep going." Leon told him as we switched places with my brother.
Letty remained on the left until we needed her, Leon and I on the right while Dom and Vince moved forward to take point on this. Everything looked really good until things went really bad. I pulled the helmet off in time to see Vince jump and then all hell broke loose. We heard the bang and saw Dom swerve before really comprehending what happened.
"He's got a damn shotgun! Leon!" my brother shouted over the radio.
"Back off! Back off! Get him off of there!" Leon replied.
Leon moved back when Dom came over to the right side of the truck to help Vince. All of a sudden Dom pops half of his body out of the window, holding his arm out to Vince. Before Vince could make a move the driver shot Dom's back left light tire, making him swerve. Leon and I looked on in horror, I tried to think of a plan but nothing is coming to me.
"Dom, I'm pulling in to distract him." Letty said.
I don't really know how this went down but the driver took a shot at Letty too. Then right as Vince was preparing to jump back onto the car the truck driver hit the brakes, sending Vince flying into the passenger side door. Dom got close again, holding his arm out but we saw the wire wrapping around Vince's arm and the blood start to drip down his arm. He got tangled and that makes it so much harder to get him off. From my position in the passenger's seat I could see all of it but Leon is frustrating me by staying here.
"Leon, we have to do something! He's not gonna be able to unhook by himself." I argued.
"I know but what? Dom isn't gonna move."
"He did for Letty! We have to do something!"
My brother was coming in again, trying to save his best friend. The closer Dom got, the further the driver moved away. Son of a bitch wants to kill them, us, technically. Suddenly we realized that Dom's front left tire was sparking up, the driver shot out his tire and it's already grinding down to the rim.
"Dom! Move out of the way. I'm coming to get him." Letty said as Dom lost speed.
Leon saw her moving under the truck and moved back. She pulled up in front of us, quickly passing under the truck and Dom accelerated as much as he could to give her space. She wasn't given the chance to do anything though. The truck driver hit her as she got close and sent her car flying, it flipped twice before landing on the roof.
"Letty!" Leon and I shouted.
"Leon, pull back for Letty! Get her out of there." Dom ordered.
"I'm on it! Go! I've got her, you get Vince off that truck!" Leon replied, turning around quickly.
He pulled up on the side of the road and both of us ran out. Her car was all fucked up and dented, it landed in the dry brush by the road in a huge cloud of dust.
"Letty!" I shouted as we ran.
"Letty, come on baby. You okay?" Leon said as we pulled her crawling figure out from inside the car.
"Oh shit, come on girl." I said.
"You alright? Let me look at you. Come on, we gotta go. Let's go." Leon said, basically dragging the poor girl along.
Before we got into the car a red, familiar Supra zoomed by us. I realized that - that was Mia's boyfriend's car. Relief flooded through me along with even more dread.
"What the hell is he doing here? How did he find us?" I asked Leon.
"I don't know babe, but we gotta go. Let's go." He ordered, getting into the car.