Chapter 14
Letty sat swinging one leg, arms folded over her chest, sandwiched between Dominic and Vince. She wasn't really listening to what they were saying, but she was antsy, anxious to get on the road. There was a weary, delicious ache between her legs where Dominic had just been, and the muscles in her ass and thighs were sore from the weight of his body stretching them.
She could still feel him pumping in and out of her, in and out, in and out, could still feel the backwards jolt of her body on his rhythm. And that rhythm still pounded within her, dictating the swing of her leg, the boom boom boom of the pounding of Dom's headboard against the wall replaying in her mind.
Letty looked up and caught sight of Shadie, Dom's new guy Isaiah's girl. She was sitting beside Isaiah, her man, twirling a strand of long black hair around her forefinger and staring out the window at the long line of meticulously tuned cars parked along the curb. Letty followed her gaze that way, let her eyes rest on her own baby, her beautiful Silvia, now complete with decals. Sweeeeet Apollo decals all along the side panel either side of her car telling everyone who mattered that she rolled with Dominic Toretto.
She sighed, audibly, and issued a soft growl, and although Dom didn't stop talking, he acknowledged her impatient line of thought by giving her knee a gentle squeeze that said, 'Soon.'
One of the magazines is sellin' tickets," Leon interjected, out of nowhere. He was high and he had a very tired Mo draped over his lap, the small of her back across his thighs. She was hanging upside down and playing with a snagged string that had come loose from the carpet.
"Tickets for what?" asked Dominic.
"For that show we were talking about. I mean, the magazine isn't selling tickets anymore." Leon's eyes were jerking around in his head and his tongue was thick, slurring everything he was saying.
"How about I just sit here and wait for you to figure out what the fuck you're trying to say," Dominic said wrily.
"That works for me," Leon grinned.
"Good. Glad."
Dominic tipped back his beer and regarded Leon with a cool, comical patience.
"Okay. Lodging, airfare, and entrance fee as a package deal. You remember? We were looking at that together. In that magazine. But they sold out. But I got hookups though. That kid on forty-seventh with the VR-4. His cousin's got some, dirt fuckin' cheap. We could go. Dude, we could go."
Letty stopped swinging her leg and looked over at Leon.
"What, to Japan?"
"Yeah." Leon beamed at her, waggling his eyebrows.
Jesse was wiggling with excitement like a puppy that had to pee. His face was completely lit up, and when he spoke the words jumped out of him in an exclamation.
"Ha Ha! Wu chicks!"
"I think they prefer to be called Asians, Jess," Dom said soberly, but the rumble in his voice revealed the amusement under his reprimand. The room was quiet after he spoke, all eyes on Dom except Mo's, whose eyes were still focused on the loose string and becoming bloodshot from hanging upside down for so long. Everyone else was watching Dom. Waiting for the verdict. Waiting to see what the boss thought about the trip to Japan.
"How cheap is dirt cheap?" Dom asked Leon.
"Like eight hundred each."
"Oh yeah?"
"Man, yeah. They were like 1300 per in the book. Mag. They're not even selling anymore but he knows I'm with you and he said he'd do that for you."
Dominic grinned. "That's because I'm King of the Street."
Letty snorted and ran her eyes down Dominic's beautiful body, taking care to look unimpressed as she got stiffly to her feet. "Hey, King of the Street. Your fly's open."
The room erupted into laughter and Dominic looked down at his crotch, smiling sheepishly and then swinging one large hand to slap Letty's leather-clad ass, hard. She caught him in a headlock and scrubbed his scalp with her knuckles, and he closed massive arms around her thighs, yanking her off-balance and slamming her down into Vince's lap.
"All right, all right, I surrender." Letty squrimed free of Dom's grip. "Let me go and let's fuckin race already."
It wasn't particularly warm, but Letty had always been hot-blooded anyway. Her butterscotch skin was carpeted in gooseflesh and her nipples were like two blood-filled blackberries pushing at the black mesh material of her shirt, but she didn't feel cold. She felt flushed - feverish, almost, dragging in greedy lungfuls of adrenaline-thick air. Her black eyes were cold, sharkish and predatory as she scanned the crowd and the cars, which were all diagonally parked in show form, asses against the curb, noses toward the throng. Most of the hoods were popped, pricey guts glinting under the streetlights, and the glits and glory of the hundreds of hours spent underneath those hoods was readily evident to any trained eye.
And Letty's eye was trained. She assessed her circumstances, appraised both her competitors and her car's competitors. The girls didn't concern her. She was convinced, somewhere deep inside of her, that she was the toughest bitch alive. Most of the cars looked like shit compared to what Dominic had done to this 240SX, and she was pretty confident in her ability to drive it to victory, although a loss would put her to shame, as well as Dominic and the rest of the DT clan. And the last thing she wanted to be was a burden or an embarrassment. She wanted to do him proud. She wanted to be more than his woman. She wanted to be his equal. Letty wanted to make a name for herself on this scene that stood beside Dominic Toretto's, not underneath it.
Although, as she'd been reminded this afternoon, underneath Dominic Toretto was not such a shabby place to be.
Still...If she lost, it would be a disaster. She didn't have money to be throwing around. Not yet. Not like Dominic. And she didn't want to be racing on his dollar. But if she won... And could win consistently, and make money, she could get herself out of Quino's place, and get Ruben out, too. No more of his bullshit, no more of his underage concubines, no more eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, no more beatings, no more screaming...She could provide for Ruben and do well by him and give him the life he deserved.
Drawing a deep breath, she set a steely resolve within herself. Set a level of determination that was high, even for her. She WOULD win that car's first race. She would bring something home tonight if it killed her. Something to stick in Ruben's pocket for candy after school. Something to get him some new shoes and to put groceries in the refrigerator with. She was her own racer now, with her own vehicle. And she was going to milk that beautiful birthday gift for every dime it had in it.
Letty's game face broke into a friendly smile as she watched Brina's Explorer split the crowd in two, Sabrina making her way through the rows of people and sports compact cars like some kind of ghetto, modern day Moses. Brina backed cleanly into the space to the right of Letty's bangin' beast and Letty laughed as Sabrina climbed out, twirled her keys around her index finger like a gunslinger, blew the end of her ignition key as if it were a smoking barrel, and shoved them into her pocket, grinning.
Letty shook her head. "Look at you. Rollin' up in here like you own the place."
Sabrina wrapped her arms around Letty and squeezed. "Who says I don't?"
"I say you don't. Just LOOK at this shit." Letty forcefully turned Sabrina around to face the dark purple-crimson body of her new baby and grinned proudly at the admiration on her friend's face.
"Daaaamn." Sabrina whistled. "Happy birthday to you."
"No shit, right?"
"You gonna race?"
Letty lifted her chin in a jerky nod, "God damn right I'm gonna race."
"Where's Mo?"
"Down that way further." Letty pointed into the crowd. "Being a hood ornament for Leon."
"Aah, I see. Vince?"
Letty grinned. "He's down that way too. Bein' a hood ornament for Dom."
Sabrina elbowed Letty hard. "Girl, shut up."
"They're all pumped because now they're talking about going to some car show in Japan."
"What?"
"Yeah...Leon has some connection so Dom wants to talk to the guy about getting tickets. It's a package deal, you know? Plane, hotel, and show, and back again."
"Vince going?" asked Sabrina, as she took the soft cloth off Letty's front seat and began, absentmindedly, to rub down the roof.
"Where there's Dom there's Vince, right?"
"Yeah, like always." Brina sighed. "You?"
"God damn right."
"What about your counseling thing?"
Letty scoffed. "You are CRAZY if you think I'm gonna let that stupid sentence stand in the way of me going to Japan. That place is like...car Heaven."
Sabrina chuckled. "Every racer's Mecca, huh?"
"Fuck yes, and I fully intend to make my pilgrimage with the rest of those fools. Thank you very much."
"And land your hard-headed, law-breakin', Puerto Rican ass in jail and it serves you right, too."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Brina."
"Don't whatever me because you know I'm right." Sabrina glared at Letty, who just shrugged and took the cloth from her, picking at a tear in it and staring at it, willing Sabrina to change the subject, and she did. "Let. Who is blonde dude? The guy always on Dom's elbow lately?"
"Huh?"
"You know. The one with the teeeny tiny girlfriend?"
"Oh, Isaiah? That's Isaiah Black."
"Get out." Sabrina nudged Letty.
"No, seriously. His last name is Black." Letty folded her arms over her chest and yawned.
"Where did he come from?"
Leticia shook her head. "Noooo clue."
"Well...He makes my nerves bad."
"Everybody makes your nerves bad."
"No. Just him, Susana, and the Trans."
Letty rolled her eyes. "Oh, is that all?"
"That's all."
Both Sabrina and Letty looked up as they heard the rev and gun of several lovingly tweaked engines and fought their way to the front of the crowd fringing the street.
“Who is it?” Brina asked, raising her voice above the eager commotion of the motors.
“Looks liiiike…Dom, Johnny and Isaiah…I don’t know who’s in the fourth car.”
“How come you’re not in the fourth car?”
“Because I’m standin here talkin’ to your ghetto ass! And besides. I don’t have that kinda buy-in yet.”
Letty grew quiet as the flag was dropped, and the world seemingly stopped moving. Her heart throbbed loud and sluggish in her ears as she watched the MR2 scream into motion. The ache returned to the apex of her thighs, that fiery arousal that was always brought about by the sight of Dom in flawless steel tearing up the asphalt. She could feel her pulse at the base of her throat and hear the blood rushing and roaring in her ears. The familiar fragrance of burning rubber and exhaust assaulted her nostrils and she drank it deep into her lungs, black eyes never leaving that Toyota with her life inside of it.
Go, god dammit, her mind urged with a frightening calm. Go, baby, go.
It was an absolute fucking bloodbath, over completely from start to finish in thirteen seconds, and no one stood a chance. He WAS King of the Street, and if his fly was open…Hey, even better.
And even though she knew this was the part where she acted like every other ditzy, dick-whipped, devoted racer chaser girlfriend there, she didn’t give a shit. She loved this part. Making her way decisively through the crowd, she shoved a path for herself through the rest of the horde that was fast forming a thick circle around Dominic’s car.
She could see him, standing at the center of that crowd and multitasking. Counting his money, accepting his praise, and at the same time, searching. Dark eyes scanning the faces, looking for something...someone...Looking for her. She locked her gaze on his and his smile became easy, his nervousness dissolving. He handed Mia the wad of money and came at Letty, taking her hips in giant hands and pressing his forehead to hers.
"Eyyy, there you are."
"Eyyy," she said, smiling and kissing his lips. "Here I am."
"Did you see?"
"Por supuesto. You dominated. King of the Street."
Dominic pulled back a little to check his fly, and she laughed, taking his chin in her hand and tilting his face back up so she could kiss him again. For real, this time. A kiss that spoke a million words, to him and to everyone else there. To all the skanks who wanted to fuck him and all the posers who wanted to be him, her kiss said, 'This is mine. I love it and I fucking dare you to try and take it from me.'
It was a kiss reminiscent of the hunger they'd taken out on one another earlier that afternoon. A kiss of ownership and of love and of familiarity and celebration. She put her soul into that kiss and when the contact of their lips was broken by an off-sides tackle by Vince, she was breathless, grinning and triumphant.
"Annihilation," Vince growled, rubbing Dom's head and kissing his cheek with a loud smack. "Total genocide on these punks tonight, Dominic."
"It ain' over," Dominic said, patting Vince's back and pointing at Letty. "She ain't had HER run yet. We're makin' a clean sweep here this evening."
"Oh, is that so?" Letty raised one eyebrow, her tone husky and confident, hiding the brutal band of butterflies beating around in her belly.
"That's absolutely so." Dom's voice was dark and low and sure. "Go get your car."