| Title: Fuel Author: Priscilla Chapter 9 After dinner everyone pilled into the living room to watch "Goodfellas" on T.V. Evelyn just happened to walk by and peek into the kitchen to find Mia practically drowning in dirty dishes, pots, and pans. Walking into the kitchen with a smile on her face, Evie started rolling up her sleeves, they were going to be in there for a while. Mia tilted her head sideways to look at her, never pausing her scrubbing as she watched their family's newest member roll up her sleeves. "What are you doing?" She asked amusement evident in her voice. "Oh yeah, like you don't want my help?" Evie replied giggling. "Fine. Get your ass over here." Both women worked side by side in silence. Each lost in their own thoughts. Evelyn was happy for the distraction, the more she could avoid telling Leon that their time together was slowly diminishing, the happier she was. Mia took another side glance at Evelyn's profile. The truth was that all Mia knew about her was that she was Leon's girlfriend and that was all. Leon had never spoken about meeting anyone new to the guys or to anyone as far as she knew. Yet, he'd shown up with this woman one day who was covered from head to toe in name brands, expensive ones at that, laughing and playing as if they'd known each other forever. Well, it never hurts to ask....right??? Mia turned towards Evie then, brows furrowed together. Unsure of how she should start on this. "Evelyn, I don't know how to ask you this so I'm just going to spit it out.....What are your intentions with Leon?" Evelyn was taken a little off guard by the change in Mia's demeanor. She looked curious, but defensive at the same time. Their eyes locked for a minute and then Evelyn stated what she thought should be obvious. "My intensions with Leon are simple and crystal clear: I love him and I plan to stay with him for as long as he wants me to." "So this isn't some kind of rich girl goes to Mexico and finds herself a little fling to occupy her time right?" Mia shot back, putting her thoughts out into the open. Evelyn's face reddened, but not from embarrassment, from barely suppressed rage. What the hell is this chick's problem anyway? "Let me get his shit straight, you-" "Whoa whoa, what's going on here ladies?" Brian asked from the doorway eyes darting back and forth between the two women in a staring match like a deer caught in the headlights. "Nothing B, just getting some shit straightened out is all." Mia replied coolly before grabbing hold of a very confused Brian's hand and walking upstairs to their bedroom. Evelyn took a deep breath to steady herself, she straightened her shirt and smoothed down her hair. Then she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. Evelyn numbly kissed Leon on the cheek and mumbled a half goodbye to the others as she walked out their front door into the cool beach air. She was just a few steps away from the house before the tears finally spilled over. That's what they think of me? That Leon's just a fling? Well, fuck them and fuck me for ever thinking that I had something to prove in the first place.... "Evie!" She heard a male voice call from behind her. Shit. Her walking picked up it's pace as she heard him run to catch up to her. "Will you just stop?" He asked in an exasperated sigh and Evie did, waiting for the onslaught of questions that would spill from him too quickly for her to answer. Leon reached out a tentative hand to her face and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "What's wrong baby? What happened?" He almost whispered in that growly voice of his. Evelyn couldn't hold back anymore, she had to tell him the truth. "Leon c-can we go somewhere and talk?" She asked from the place in his chest where her face was buried. "Yeah sure c'mon let's go home." Leon said wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they walked to his house. Mia walked downstairs a half hour later and looked around the living room. Leon was missing......and so was Evelyn. She couldn’t help feel guilty about the way she must have made her feel. The word cheap and snobby came to mind. Mia let out a sigh as she plucked herself down on the couch next to Letty who she could tell through the corner of her eye, was watching her intently. “What?” Mia questioned angrily. “Whoa, calm down baby, I didn’t say anything.” “Sorry Let, it-it’s just....I think I fucked up.” “Yeah? Tell me all about it.” Letty said with a smile as she got up from the couch and pulled Mia up with her, dragging her over to the kitchen. Dom and Brian looked at each other quizzically. “Women.” They said simultaneously as if that one word was the explanation for what they’d just seen. ************************ Leon watched Evelyn as she paced back and forth in his small living room, never taking his eyes off her face. Something big was going down, he could feel something radiating off her in waves but he couldn’t figure out if it was fear, anxiety, anger or a mix of all three. “Evie, what is it? You know you can tell me anything right? Leon said getting up from the couch in stepping into her field of vision, emphasizing the word ‘anything‘. She looked up at him with eyes the color of glowing amber, full of tears that had yet to spill. “Leon, remember when I told you to come get me at the hotel? I didn’t mention Frank did I?” Leon shook his head no as she went on. “Well that’s because I didn’t want to think about him, I didn’t want to face the situation.” “And you won’t have to because you ain’t going back to him.” Leon replied cupping her face in both his hands. “That’s not what I’m afraid of....the day I called you, he’d just left for New York on a three-day to a week long trip, meaning I don’t know when he could show up to find me gone.” There I said it.... “Don’t worry about it, I’ll keep you away from him if it’s that last thing I do.” He said holding her tight. ******************** “Yeah boss, she’s with him right now.......yeah we’ll take care of everything, just say when.” Title: Fuel Author: Priscilla Chapter 10 Evelyn woke to the sound of Leon's doorbell being rung. She slowly peeled the covers off her body and put on her robe all the while cursing under her breath. Who the hell is it?!? She yelled at herself. She walked down the stairs and sighed heavily before swinging the door open to find a grinning Mia and Letty on her front porch. "How you doing girl?" Letty asked walking past Evelyn into the front hall of the house followed by Mia who averted Evie's eyes as much as possible. "Can I ask you two what the hell do you think you're doing?" After looking the place over a little, Letty looked at Evelyn again and nodded towards Mia. "Mia's been having a nervous breakdown thinking she ruined your relationship with Leon by opening her big mouth. I tried to convince her that I'm the one that usually puts her foot in her mouth but she wasn't hearin' it." Evelyn looked from Letty to Mia and back, still a little groggy from sleep. "Yeah, listen Evelyn, I messed up. It isn't my place to ask you things like that but you have to understand that the team is all each one of us has got and I refuse to let anyone I care about get more hurt than they already have been by a stranger. But still, I am sorry." A slow smile crept up on Evelyn's face as she contemplated Mia's words and she realized that the girl had meant no harm. She was just looking out for her friend. Evie put her hand on Mia's shoulder and smiled at her. "Thanks Mia and you're forgiven." Mia let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and all three girls started laughing at the absurdity of their current situation. "See I told you she was cool." Letty piped in with a sly grin. "So what are we gonna do to celebrate?" "Umm, let's go shopping!" Mia suggested suddenly and Letty's smile widened. If there was anything Letty loved it was clothes. They both turned their expectant gazes to Evelyn's unsure facial expression. "Ok, ok, we can go shopping just let me write a note for Leon." "Oh no you don't have to, he knows you're with us." Mia blurted earning a dirty look from Letty. "You saw him?" Evelyn asked confused. "Yeah, Dom had Brain and Leon come to the house early this morning. He said something about a project they’re working on or whatever." Letty said. "Alright just let me take a shower and we can hit the road." ************** Brain and Leon looked at each other and then back at Dom. Confusion, mistrust and disbelief only some of the emotions coursing through them. "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me! You fucking let me believe two of my best friends... m-my family was torn to shit when they were really in a hospital!" Leon stood up from the couch abruptly his green eyes flashing with barely held back rage. Vince and Jesse were alive? How? Why hadn't they gone back to get them yet? Too many questions running around in his head made Leon dizzy and he found himself sitting back down in stunned silence. Brian put voice to his questions though, and Leon was glad for that. "You mean you knew those guys were alive you still kept it from us? Like you knew that if Vince and Jesse were in a hospital somewhere they barely get to blink without a cop breathing down their necks asking questions and you kept us from saving them that crap? For weeks?!?! " Brain was damn near hysterical with disbelief. Dominic had had just about enough. He was going to defend his decision, no matter who liked it or not. He sighed deeply and ran his palm down his scalp, a calming ritual Letty was really good at....Where is she when I need her? "Yeah I did fucking keep it from you because I knew that if I told anyone you'd all wanna go off half cocked when we all know that there was no way we could have gotten them as good medical attention in Mexico. I did it to save them, to give them time to heal before we tried anything. The bottom line is none of us was in a shape to go start shit with the cops.....until now." Dominic let his voice trail off in a suggestive gesture. Letting the other guys come to their own conclusions to what he was implying. "What are we gonna do?" Brian asked almost immediately after it registered. "We're gonna go get em'.... tonight. You guys up for it?" "Hell yeah dawg. Let's do it." Leon said. A few minutes later the trio dispersed, each going to pack some clothes and whatever else they might need for the long ride to LA. ********************** About ten minutes later Leon walked in the back door of his house, not wanting to cause attention to himself if Letty and Mia hadn’t been able to make Evelyn go with them. He didn’t hear any voices inside so their plan must of worked. By the time Evie might even suspect they were missing they’d be halfway home. He ran up the stairs to their bedroom and started stuffing a change of clothes, underwear, a comb, shades, his Nike sneakers and his toothbrush into a duffle bag he’d kept in his closet in case of something like this. There was something missing though, he thought to himself as he looked around their room one last time and then it hit him. A picture of Evelyn. He carefully removed the picture Mia had taken when Evelyn had joined them for dinner out of its frame and put it in his wallet. It captured all he loved about her, those big glowing hazel eyes and her warm brilliant smile. When he thought he had everything he needed, Leon bounded down the stairs again and headed back to Dom’s. When he got back, Brian and Dominic were just finishing packing up their stuff and putting it in the car. He saw that Dom had asked Mia to make food for them before she and Letty left and that too was packed into a cooler filled with ice. Soon, they were ready to go. They arrived in L.A. about six hours after leaving Mexico and they were very tired, but they knew that from what Frank’s men had told Dom they only had about a couple of hour’s opening to get in and get out. They drove into their old stomping grounds and found the warehouse where they’d told Edwin to have a car ready for them when they got there. Dominic got out of Brian’s old 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse which he’d brought to Mexico, and walked over to the other car peeling away the protective cover. Edwin had come through; he’d left a Black Honda S200 waiting for them. Perfect, Dom thought, as he looked the car over. Then the others took out their black ski masks and black gloves as to not leave any evidence that could be directly tied back to them. They drove out of the warehouse in the Honda and headed for LA’s Lady of Mercy Hospital parking lot, which was practically deserted at that time of night. Making sure that there were no security cameras and no people around they quickly screwed silencers onto their guns and headed for the back stairs. They jogged up the stairs as quietly as possible and headed for the 15th floor. Frank told Dominic that Jesse and Vince were in the same room, Room 15E at the end of a hall which was right next to the doors that lead to the stairs. The thing was that they were supposedly guarded by two police officers and there were cameras trained on the door to their room. Through the small windows in the center of the stair well doors, Leon could see the Nurse’s Station for the floor was empty and there was only one cop in front the room, slumped over, and practically snoring. There were two security cameras trained on the front of the door and that meant they had to take care of those before anything. "You see those two up there? Leon asked the other two men and continued when they both nodded. "One of us has to take those out while another takes care of the guard and the other one gets Vince and Jesse ready." Dominic and Brian nodded their agreement to Leon's breakdown. Dom smiled, Leon had always been smart as hell, able to break things down to a level where even Vince could understand them. "Alright Brian find some way to disconnect those cameras for about a couple of minutes. Leon you go in and try to get Vince and Jesse ready. I'll take care of the guard." Dominic relayed duties out to each of them and them nodded towards the door as a silent signal to head to them. Brian snuck under the camera lenses and removed the small cable cutters from his waistband, reaching up, trying to figure out which one to cut. He chose the blue cable and holding his breath, cut it. The small red light on the side of the camera shut of instantly. "We got three minutes before somebody thinks something's up!" Leon reminded them and himself out loud. Dom was watching the sleeping guard's face intently for any sign that he was waking up. Leon hesitated at the door only a second before turning the doorknob and walking into the dimly lit room. He looked first a Vince then over to Jesse's sleeping form and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. What he saw before then was a shadow of the men they had once been. Both had lost weight and their once muscular and tanned bodies were pale and weak looking. Leon shook his head and got back to the object at hand, they had about two minutes. He quickly moved over to Vince's bedside first and nudged him. Vince woke with a start grabbing a firm hold around the wrist of the person nudging him. |