| 8. Vince followed Bridget home. Neither of them had said a word. They just got in their cars and left, Vince in his cherry red Eclipse and Bridget in a very plain; slightly beat up white Honda Civic. Bridget�s apartment wasn�t too far from Tran territory so V. kept an eye out for trouble. She didn�t live in a very good section of town. No wonder she was leaving her former employers, the housing they provided was shitty to say the least. The apartment complex looked to be about 30 years old and in need of some serious repair. Vince was glad Bridget was moving to the small apartment over the garage. It was a whole lot safer there and he could keep a distant eye on her. They parked their cars and Vince started to follow Bridget up the stairs. �It�s alright, really. I can make it from here.� She said to him. The light in the stairwell was out and they stood in shadow. Anything or anyone could be hiding on those stairs. �Letty told me to make sure you got home safely. A lot can happen in the time it takes to get from here to your door. I aint leavin.� Vince said as Bridget started up the dark stairs. Vince was absorbed in the sway of her hips on the steps ahead of him until she tripped on an empty Budweiser can on the second flight and almost fell. Luckily Vince grabbed hold of her before she lost her balance completely. They walked up to the fourth floor to Bridget�s door. �Four floors? Vince was almost outta breath and his side ached terribly but Bridget wasn�t winded at all. She unlocked the door and let Vince into the small apartment. �I know. Its one of the reasons I left my old job. The apartment wasn�t what they led me to believe it would be before I took the position.� Bridget threw her keys down on the small table beside the front door and looked around at the soon to be vacated apartment in disgust. Vince looked around at the cramped space. She had just about everything packed. There was nothing on the walls and several boxes were stacked in a corner. �So what were the other reasons?� He asked curiously as he took a seat. Bridget plopped down on a beat up old couch. �The kids were spoiled rotten brats and had a tendency for violence. That and the dad was a bit too �touchy feely� if you get my drift. They were the worst family I have ever worked for.� �The guy ever hurt you?� Vince knew if she said yes, he would have to beat the man into a stain. Bridget got up and walked to the galley kitchen. It was so small she could open the fridge and be completely closed in. Bridget grabbed a coke for herself and offered one to Vince. He readily accepted and when she couldn�t get hers open, he took it from her and popped the top. He handed it back to her and was rewarded with a blinding although somewhat crooked smile. �No, but the oldest son broke three of my fingers. That one�s headed straight to prison or a high paying government gig. He�d be well suited to either.� She mumbled. �What happened?� Vince couldn�t believe it. �There were three of the little monsters. The youngest is 6, the middle is 8 and the oldest is 11 and pure evil! I was getting them out of the car after school one day and had the misfortune to have my fingers too close to the car door. The youngest distracted me and then Junior slammed the door shut. They dropped their book bags and stood there laughing like maniacs. There was no way it was an accident. They didn�t even try to play it off as one. Their mother told me I needed to be more careful with her children; one of them could have been injured. I gave notice after that. Buncha freaks�� Bridget held up her right hand and sure enough the first three fingers were still a bit swollen and discolored although she wore no brace or cast. Her middle finger was a bit more out of alignment than the others. Vince stared at her hand; rage welling up within him. �I finally got to take the little brace thingie off a few days ago, but the doctor says I need to have surgery on my middle finger. It�s kinda crooked now, but I have pretty good range of motion and its getting better everyday. And at least they don't hurt much anymore!� Bridget laughed as she sat back down on the couch next to Vince. �Damn! Who are these people?� They had hurt Bridget and she was his, whether she knew it yet or not. Nobody hurt what was his. Bridget looked at him questioningly. �Why? What are you gonna do? Go over there and spank them all? It doesn�t matter anyway. I�m working for the Toretto�s now and I�ll be outta here soon so I�ll never even see them again. Thank God!� Bridget yawned and looked around the room. �I�ll be so glad to get moved into the new place. Its so much nicer than here.� She said in a wistful voice. Vince wanted Bridget out of that apartment as soon as possible. He was tempted to knock her over the head with something and haul her back to his place but he didn�t think that would go over to well. �You need help moving?� Vince asked watching as the small woman moved to put some assorted books into a box. �Actually, yeah, I do.� She replied. With that, Vince took every box he could get his hands on. He made two trips up the four grueling flights of stairs and welcomed each pulled muscle in his legs. He stuffed the Eclipse as full as he could get it and promised to take everything over to the garage immediately. Bridget tried to get him to let her help but he wouldn�t have it. He stayed until she had safely locked herself in the dingy apartment and then took off to unload her stuff. He�d be back first thing in the morning with a truck for the rest of it, he had told her. He intended to move her completely while she was at Dom and Letty�s with Jesse. If he had his way, Bridget would never see the inside of that shitty little apartment again. 9. Good for his word, Vince moved Bridget the very next day while she worked. He told Dom what had gone down with her former employers and he; Dom and Leon had gone over first thing and pulled every last box out of the apartment. They had it unloaded and in the apartment over the garage before noon. She didn�t have a lot of stuff so it wasn�t too hard. Vince never complained even though his legs felt like jelly from taking all those steps the night before and his scarred arm would surely ache for days afterward. He loaded and unloaded like a man possessed feeling his anger at her former employers dissipate slightly as he settled her things in their new home. When they had finished, they went back to the fort and found a note from Letty taped to the fridge. It simply said� Gone shopping with B. Back later. XoXo Letty. At the bottom of the note, Bridget had penned a small note to Vince that said� Thank you, V. I owe you one. She signed it with her first initial. B. Vince took the note off the fridge folded it in half, then again and put it in his shirt pocket next to his heart. Dom smiled at him. They grabbed a few drinks and went back to the garage ready to get started working for the day. The guy that was making the new sign was on his way and Dom didn�t want to be late. The garage was getting a much-needed facelift. Going completely legit was new but he liked it so far. Of course having several million bucks sitting in the bank helped. When they arrived at the garage Letty�s car was parked out front. Letty, Bridget and the baby were upstairs in the apartment. Vince rushed up the stairs followed by Dom and Leon. He knocked on the door and Letty answered. �Come on in! Jesse and me were just helping B. get settled.� Letty held Jesse on her shoulder patting his back and bouncing with him as she walked. Bridget came in from the bedroom and smiled when she saw Vince. �Hi! Man, you guys work fast! It would have taken me all night to get my stuff over here. I really appreciate it.� Bridget flitted about the apartment arranging and rearranging items here and there; she was beginning to understand that she was being accepted as more than just an employee. �You guys hungry?� Letty asked settling Jesse into his portable bouncy seat and turning the vibrations on. She looked at the guys as they stood in the living room of Bridget�s apartment. What a stupid question. They were always hungry! �Pizza?� Vince asked. Letty made the call and four steaming large pizzas with extra cheese were delivered 45 minutes later. The crew sat around eating the pizza, drinking cokes (Letty didn�t allow corona around the baby) and talking. Jesse snoozed on the bed in Bridget�s room surrounded by pillows. Dom had approved the sign guy�s ideas and the new sign would be ready in three weeks. Just enough time for the exterior work to be completed. The place was gonna shine! �Toretto�s Garage� was becoming �Toretto Performance Racing�. They talked about the garage and how much new business was coming in even though Letty wasn�t doing as much as she had in the past to bring it in. �Wait, let me get this straight�� Bridget couldn�t believe what she was hearing. �Letty? You work on cars too? And I�m sorry but I gotta ask. Why did Mia�s husband try to put you all in jail?� �Get another coke, girl, you�re gonna be here a while.� Dom laughed. �It�s a long sorted story and starts with my fool-ass trying to make some money.� Bridget listened as they all took turns telling the story of their lives. Vince said that he and Dom had known each other since the third grade and that Dom had done time in Lompoc and fell in love with Letty because she wrote him letters and called him nasty names. Dom talked about how Letty worked in the garage and did as much if not more work than the guys did at times. Leon talked about their street racing habits and Letty inserted the parts where they hijacked a few trucks to fund the garage, almost got busted by an undercover Brian O�Conner and how Dom had managed to get away to Mexico but not before they lost the first Jesse. Vince took over again and told about them meeting up again in Mexico six months later and how Dom freaked out when Letty turned up pregnant with little Jesse. Dom finished with the part about them coming home, him getting married, testifying and Jesse being born all on the same day only six weeks before. Bridget looked from face to face and blinked. She didn�t know what to say. They were all so close and loved each other so much. These people were more of a family than she had ever had and she longed to be a part of it, to be included. �Wow�� She breathed. Letty laughed in that low throaty voice of hers and patted Bridget on the back. �You gotta real way with words, girl.� 10. There were three packages delivered by courier to Johnny Tran, Olivia Ling and to her father Robert Ling at his office. They arrived at different times, Olivia�s first and then her father�s. Tran�s package was delivered last. By the time he got it, Olivia was crying her eyes out in her father�s office. Her father called the airport and made special arrangements for her and her mother to leave for China immediately. Her father would join them as soon as he settled a few things with Tran. Johnny Tran rolled out of bed as the doorbell sounded yet again. He had had one hell of a night at the club and who ever was ringing it was about to get pounded. He jerked the door open in a rage to find a dorky looking kid in a courier�s uniform holding a package and clipboard loaded with papers. Tran signed for the package and took it expecting to find new information about some girls he was looking into bringing over from China. He ripped into the package but it wasn�t what he was expecting. There was a video in the package, papers showing him as part owner of the Pussy Cat Palace and photographs of him, but not just him. Johnny Tran sat down as his world was pulled out from under him. There were five pictures in all. One of him collecting money from a white guy while two Asian hookers hung off of him, one of him beating the shit out of a dirty immigrant kid who hadn�t coughed up the right amount of dough for drugs, one of him making a large deposit into his secret swiss accounts and the last two were taken at the club. Inside the fucking club. The pictures showed him and Jade making out at their private table, and the last one�the last one was the crowning glory for whoever had been paid to take those pictures. The last pictured showed him and Jade in one of the private rooms at the club. He was half naked on top of her, her legs thrown over his shoulders and a huge smile of her face. He was fucked! Blackmail? But who? Toretto wasn�t smart enough, Tran thought as he tossed the photos on his coffee table. That left several other underworld figures whose path he had crossed. He braced himself as he slid the video into the VCR. The images that popped up made him sick. There was more of him and Jade going at it live and in living color and then him sitting alone at a table in the club talking on his cell to one of his contacts in China. He had been talking about the women he wanted to bring over. ��Young, but not too young, don�t care if they�re junkies or not, sometimes junkies are easier to control. I don't care what you tell them. Just make sure they know that once they get the free ride over here, they gotta pay me back...� Oh, God! He didn�t know what to do. There was no blackmail letter; nothing telling him that someone wanted a shitload of money, nothing, just the video, the club�s papers and the photos. Fuck! If Olivia ever saw those pictures it would kill her! He couldn�t have that so he took the contents of the package and put it all in the fireplace. He lit it and watched it burn, feeling as if he�d hopefully just saved his own ass. The phone call came twenty minutes after he got out of the shower. He answered expecting a voice to tell him where to leave whatever ridiculous amount they wanted. In stead it was his dad. His father wanted to meet with him. Tran hung up the phone. A meeting with the old man was never good. He valued his place in western society too much and was always telling him to stay out of trouble. What if he knew? 11. �Hey Dom? Could you come in here?� Letty called him into the kitchen. Mia and Brian were hanging out in there with her and it looked like something was up. Dom took a seat at the table and waited. Shortly thereafter, Mia and Brian announced that they were moving out. Mia wanted to be closer to school and of course Brian wanted to be where Mia was. �We found a great little house! It�s not perfect but we can fix it up over time and it�s in a good neighborhood. There are good schools in the area too so when we have kids we wont have to worry about them being bussed or anything.� Mia told them. Dom was pissed. They had been together for so long, excluding that little six-month tour of Mexico. He wanted his family together. His whole family! Letty stood behind him and rubbed the knotting muscles in his neck and shoulders. �Mia, you�ll be twenty minutes away. What if I need you?� �Dom, in case you haven�t noticed, you�re a big boy now. You have a wife and a kid and everything. You knew we couldn�t live here forever. I gotta be closer to school and Brian is opening a little office and�� Dom cut her off. �So you�re leavin? Just like that?� He had no reason to be but he was a little hurt. Letty continued to try to calm him down. �Dom, they need their own space! You know, privacy! Maybe they wanna get wild and have sex on the kitchen table? They cant do that here�� Letty said before Brian started to cough. Mia was looking all around the room nervously. She couldn�t look Dom or Letty in the eye and she couldn�t look at the table either. A deep blush rose in her cheeks. Dom pushed away from the table like it was covered in cockroaches. �Ew! Dude! You did my sister on my kitchen table?! Fuck! That thing is going with you when you move!� He pointed to the table, completely grossed out. Brian spoke �Thanks, Dom. Now we wont have to buy furniture for the kitchen!� Mia and Letty started laughing. �You think this is funny? You think this is a good idea?� Dom yelled at them. Letty increased her deep massage of his shoulders, �I do, Dom. Just think; it�ll be just you and me and Jesse here alone in this big old house. Sure Bridget will be here during the day but at night�� Letty leaned over Dom�s shoulder and whispered the rest in his ear. Dom stood up, walked over to the fridge and opened the freezer section door. He didn�t take anything out he just stood there briefly with the door open letting the cool air hit him in the face. Mia looked to Letty with a puzzled _expression. What had Letty said, she wondered? Letty just winked at her and then turned her gaze back to Dom. All eyes were on him. He closed the freezer and turned slowly to face them. �So, how soon did you say you were moving?� He said to Brian and Mia and then smiled wickedly at Letty. 12. Tran parked his black Jag outside his father�s office and entered the large glass and steel building. His father�s secretary buzzed him in immediately, never making eye contact. Fine, he thought. Stupid Bitch. He took the elevator up to his father�s elegantly decorated office and entered, startled to find that his father had company. Olivia�s father was there too. His stomach knotted up when Mr. Ling held up a videocassette. The normally reserved Chinese gentleman threw the video at him, narrowly missing. The video banged into the wall beside his head and slide to the marble floor. �I�� Tran started to speak, to try to get out from under the mountain load of shit that was threatening to smother him alive. Mr. Ling threw up his hands. �You have dishonored my daughter. There will be no wedding. The engagement is off.� Mr. Ling stated matter-of-factly. Johnny swallowed hard. No! He loved Olivia. He truly did even if he didn�t show it. �Sir, I�Olivia?� �Olivia has gone back to China with her mother. I will be joining them soon. You will not try to contact her. Is that understood? Whatever you felt for her, if there even were feelings involved, that is all over now. She will marry a respectable man who will love her and treat as she should be treated, not some playboy, drug pushing, pimp!� Ling turned to Tran�s father. The two were old friends and now that friendship was strained to the breaking point. �If the boy tries to see Olivia, contact her in any way, I will have the matter resolved immediately.� With that, he strode out of the office; his expensive Italian leather shoes barely made a sound as he slipped passed the door. Johnny stared at the gleaming black marble floor beneath his feet. Mr. Ling had just threatened to have him killed if he tried to see Olivia. He wished he could melt and ooze into the floor. �You will forget Olivia Ling. You have caused that girl enough heartache to last a dozen lifetimes.� �Father, I never meant�� Johnny stammered raking a hand through his shiny dark hair. �You never meant for us to know. That is obvious. John, how could you do this? I know your mother and I have spoiled you, but to do these despicable things! We gave you everything this country had to offer and more. We sacrificed to bring you here and make our family respected among the community. Why? Why would you do these things that you have done?� Johnny was sick of his father�s holier than thou attitude. �Money, respect, entertainment. I did it because I could.� His father looked stricken. �Money? You�re mother and I have given you more money than you could spend in a lifetime. You say you wanted respect. The respect of whom, drug dealers and whores? Your friends on the motorbikes and in those supped up cars? This Jade woman?� Trans father slapped the photos down on his desk. �It�s my life, I�� �I thought you had gotten your life together after that swat team crashed through our front door. I have been such a fool. You have prostituted women barely older than your sisters at home, sold drugs to children! It sickens me to look at you! Yes, it is your life and now you must go out and live it. But you will do it without my money. You have disrespected this family and shamed us in the eyes of the Chinese community. Don't bother coming to dinner this weekend. You are no longer welcome in my home and your accounts have been canceled.� �Dad!� Johnny cried ready to throw himself at his father. �No! You are no longer my son.� His father pressed a button on his telephone. �Miss Tsai, please have security escort John from the building. He released the button and stared that the man who was no longer his kin. Johnny looked defiant. �You think you�ve broken me, old man? Taken away my allowance? That�s bullshit! I got money you don't even know about! I�ll show you! I�ll show you!� Johnny screamed at his father as he was forcibly removed from the building. 13. After Brian and Mia left, Dom and Letty took Jesse over to the garage. Dom wanted to check on some new inventory and Letty wanted to hang with B. for a while before the weekend started. The two women had really hit it off and were quickly becoming best friends. Letty found B. getting ready for a date. Uh oh, she thought, Vince aint gonna like this. Letty tucked Jesse into the swing that Bridget had in the apartment for when she watched him there and programmed it for thirty minutes. That should put him to sleep, she thought and sure enough; ten minutes later the baby was snoozing away. �So, um, who� the guy?� Letty asked sitting on the counter painting her toenails bright red as B. stood in front of the bathroom mirror putting on her make up. �His name is Doyle. I met him at the bookstore. I haven�t been out in a while and I figured �why not�. It�s not like I get that many offers. I don't think men appreciate red hair and freckles� Bridget artfully applied black liquid eyeliner. The result was smoldering. �You don't go out much? Seriously?� Letty asked incredulously. Surely there were dawgs lined up around the block just itching to get a passing glance from the lovely redhead. �I can count on one hand the serious relationships I�ve had. And now that I think about it, I wouldn�t even call them serious. I just don't do well with men. I try but, it�s never enough.� Bridget smoothed the front of her miniskirt, booty shorts combo. They were going dancing and she wanted to be able to move without flashing her ass at every person there. �Girl, you do know Vince is developing a thing for you, right?� Letty asked as she helped B. tie the back of her black halter-top. �I was kinda hoping.� Bridget smiled at Letty in the mirror. �But he doesn�t say anything, ya know? I just catch him looking at me sometimes.� �Vince is really a big ole teddy bear. He comes off as rough and tough but he is really just an overgrown kid. I mean, he looks kinda scary and all, but�� Letty didn�t get to finish her sentence. The girls finished in the bathroom and went back to the living room to await the arrival of Bridget�s date. Jesse was still asleep so both of them kept their voices down. �Scary? You think Vince looks scary? What world are you living in? Vince is a GOD! I mean all those muscles! His eyes are so amazing and his smile�his tattoos�� Bridget stopped before she made a complete fool out of herself. Letty sprawled out on the couch while B. sat in the recliner putting her big black boots on. �So your into the whole tattooed bad boy thing, huh?� Letty laughed, glad that her new friend had it just as bad as her old friend. Bridget stood up and walked closer to Letty. �Don't tell, but�� Bridget pulled the waist of her mini skirt down over her hipbone. There, tattooed in stunning black and vivid green was a four-leaf clover surrounded by Celtic knot work. The tattoo was small but incredibly detailed. Letty wanted one immediately. �Oh my God! I love it! I have to have one. Will you go with me?� Letty was dead serious. �Of course! Maybe I�ll get another one.� Bridget said as the doorbell rang. �Well, that would be Doyle. I guess I�ll see ya over the weekend?� �Girl, you know I�ll probably be in the garage with the dawgs! You just gotta stick your head out the door and yell at me if you need me! Have a good time tonight. But not too good a time, ok? Give Vince a chance to get his nerve up and grow the balls to ask you out.� Letty smiled at Bridget as she walked down the stairs with her date. Letty walked half way down the steps to watch Vince�s reaction to B. date. She didn�t have to wait long. As soon as Bridget and the guy were gone, Vince picked up a heavy wrench and started pounding the shit out of a busted engine. When he was finished, he threw the wrench down and stalked out of the garage. Letty smiled and hoped that V. got off his ass and made a move on Bridget before that Doyle guy swept her off her feet. 14. Tran sped away from his father�s office and went to find Jade. He no longer had Olivia so there was no reason to put Jade on the back burner anymore. He pulled up at the small house he had given her and got out of the Jag. He walked up to the front door and found it that it was slightly open. Chills ran through him. He stepped into the darkened house and immediately noticed an odd odor. Nothing looked to be out of place. Maybe Jade had forgotten to take the trash out again. She was probably soaking in that giant Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. Several dishes were left next to the sink in the drainer and one of the knives had been left out of the butcher�s block. Tran put the knife in its assigned slot and put the dishes away. He tried to teach Jade to clean up as she went along, but the woman never did. She was just as sloppy as he was neat. The smell of the trash was getting to him so he went to the garbage can to replace the bag. When he opened the lid, there was no trash in the bag at all. Tran closed the lid. Where was Jade? Her car was there, so she had to be there too. He had figured she was in the tub, but surely she would have heard him banging around in the kitchen and come out to greet him in her usual naked, wet way. She hadn�t. Where the fuck was Jade? Tran went through the house opening doors. He stopped at her bedroom door and carefully cracked the door open. Relief washed over him as he spotted Jade asleep under the covers, the top of her jet-black head barely peaking above the white silk comforter. He thought to go in and slide in next to her but when he opened the door the smell hit him full force. He walked slowly to the bed. �Jade? Jade? Dammit are you sick? Jade?� Tran tried to wake her. Her shook her slightly but she didn�t move. �Jade?� Tran pulled back the covers recoiling in horror. There was blood everywhere! Dark red blood stained the white silk sheets around Jade�s pale body. A deep gash was drawn into a grotesque grin across her throat and there were bone deep slashes all over her body. Her dead eyes stared at him accusingly. Johnny didn�t know it, but in her cold, stiff hand Jade held tight onto a thick gold chain. Just like the kind he always wore. Shaking violently, Johnny stumbled out of the room, knocking over the entry table and breaking the lamp. He tried to set it right but figured �what the fuck� and scrambled out of the house. He had to get out of town fast. It was about that time that the local police received an anonymous call ratting Johnny Tran out for murdering his part-time girlfriend. When the police arrived, they found the girl just as dead as the caller had said she would be. They also found the murder weapon. One of the knives in the butcher block had blood residue on it and was consistent with the wounds on the victim. In the fireplace they found the half charred remains of some legal documents with Johnny Tran�s name all over them and a pair of blood splattered black leather driving gloves monogrammed with the letters JRT. John Richard Tran. After their guy had dusted for prints and ran them through, they also had Tran�s prints. All over the house and the murder weapon. |