Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:

"Let's go for a little ride."

~Dom Toretto, The Fast and the Furious

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Chapter 9

When Dom and I arrived at the hospital, mom was waiting for us. She enveloped me in a huge hug, asking if I was okay. I told her I was, apologizing sincerely for having running off. I knew Dom was going to tell her why later so I didn't bother explaining. I was also too embarrassed to say anything on the subject.

"Where's Jace? Is he okay?" I asked.

"Jace is fine. The bullet hit him in the arm but didn't do any significant damage. He's upstairs. Hobbs has security stationed outside his door now that we know Lynch is after us. He's out there right now trying to find him but the whole group has disappeared off the radar."

"We're going to need to get out of town," Dom said. "Lynch has too many allies here. He wants us so badly, then we're going to lead him to a place where we have more connections than him."

"Where's that exactly?" I asked.

"Rio. We'll play Lynch's game, but on our own terms. We'll leave in the morning. Ember, go see Jace. Check on him and tell him what we're doing. Invite him to come along. Your mom and I will be up soon."

I nodded and dashed upstairs. I found Jace chatting with Brandon. Both of them looked tired but okay nonetheless, except for the fact Jace had his arm wrapped up in bandages. They both looked at me when I entered the room. Brandon was on his feet in an instant to pull me into a hug.

"Thank god you're okay! You scared the shit out of us!" he said.

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Where did you go?"

"To see my dad..."

"You better now?"

"Yeah, but I still shouldn't have scared y'all." I pulled out of the hug. "Hey, um, do you think I could have a minute or two with Jace?"

"Yeah of course. I'll go get some coffee and let my mom and dad know you're all right." Brandon left the room and I turned to face Jace.

"How are you doing?" I inquired, slowly walking up to his bed.

"I'm okay. You? You look like you've been crying."

"Oh god, still?" I groaned, wiping under my eyes to make sure any mascara or eyeliner that might've run down my face disappeared. Sighing, I said, "I guess I'm okay. Better than earlier but now I feel like crap for scaring everyone. But I'm also not the one that got shot. What happened?"

"Brandon and I headed downtown searching for you. I don't really know what happened to be honest. I just remember opening the car door and a gunshot ringing out. I felt pain explode in my arm and I got in the car before I could see who had done it. Brandon got me here as fast as he could."

"You'll be okay though right?"

"Yeah. In fact I'm getting let out tomorrow morning."

"Good." The two of us fell into an awkward silence for a few moments before I finally broke it, saying, "Listen, about how I've been acting towards you recently, I want to apologize. I know you were just trying to protect me and I shouldn't have gotten angry at you for that."

"I need to apologize to you too, for getting with my ex that night. I didn't realize that you were thinking of giving me a chance and if I had, I never would've jeopardized the one chance I had with you."

"I shouldn't have gotten jealous though. I'm not exactly an open book with my emotions."

"You forgive me though?"

"Only if you forgive me."

He smiled. "Yeah."

"I can tell you're tired but before I let you get some rest, my family and I are leaving in the morning. We're heading to Rio."

"Why Rio?"

"We have connections there and if we're going to go against Lynch, we need to go somewhere we have more connections than him. Dom wanted to know if you wanted to come with us."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Dom said, entering the room with my mom. "You're close to Ember which means you have influence over her. Anyone close to Ember is a target for Lynch. The doctors say you can get out of here in the morning. We can pick you up or one of us can bring your car. It's up to you whether or not you want to drive."

"I'll drive sir."

"I'll have Ember and Brandon go get your stuff and car and bring it here. The rest of us are going to go pack. Get some rest Jason. You're going to need it."

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After making sure Jace would be okay by himself, Brandon and I left the hospital to go to Jace's apartment to pack his things. I'd never actually been there so I had no idea what to expect. I wasn't expecting him to be living in one of the most dangerous parts of LA. No wonder he was always dashing off to his house the moment he got off from work. No one wanted to be out here at night, not even at dusk. I pulled my jacket closely around my shoulders and tucked my hair underneath my cap. Brandon pulled into a garage. I mentally started betting how long it would take for someone to try and take our car. It wasn't a smart idea to bring it to this area but we needed to get here sooner than later.

Jace's apartment was on the top floor. It seemed more secure than most of the apartments. Brandon unlocked it and ushered me inside. Even he was on edge being in this part of town.

"Okay, so I'll grab clothes. You grab toiletries and stuff or whatever those things are called?" Brandon suggested.

"Yeah, sure. Let's hurry. I don't trust someone not to try and steal our car."

"True. Let's try and be out of here in ten or less." I went to work grabbing all the toiletries I could think of that Jace might possibly need: razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, hair gel (so that's how his hair was always so perfect...), body wash, shaving foam, deodorant, cologne, and more. Brandon was pretty quick about the clothes, mostly because Jace didn't have much apparently. Compared to my life, Jace was living pretty much in poverty.

I encountered more than one spider, roach, and mouse. The shower seemed to be in dire need of repair, the toilet looked extremely sketchy, and the sink barely worked. It was terrible. I was going to bring this up with Dom and see if he and Letty could take Jace in just so he could live in a better, safer place. No one deserved to be living like this.

"You ready?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah, I have never-" I cut my sentence short with a scream when I saw a spider crawling on my arm. I shook it off while Brandon stomped on it for me. I was absolutely terrified of spiders which might have something to do me being bitten by a tarantula when I was little. Scarred me for life.

Brandon and I hurried downstairs and to our car which was amazingly still there, unharmed. We threw the bags into the trunk and were in the process of getting into our car when another car pulled up. One I recognized. I got back out of the car, grabbing the gun from the glove compartment and hiding it behind my back. Jackson got out of his Mustang.

"You weren't kidding. You are following us. Where's the rest of your gang?" I demanded.

"They're not here. They don't know I came here. They're keeping an eye on your mom and uncle. I offered to follow you. I needed a way to talk to you alone," he replied, holding up his hands in surrender.

"What do you want?" Brandon growled.

"I came to warn you. Lynch wants Ember here on his team badly. Badly enough that he's planning on killing one of your family members tomorrow to give you an incentive to join. He knows how important family is to the Torettos and O'Connors."

"He's done research on my family," I said. "Why? Why my family?"

"Because he hates them. He knows everything about your family: birthdays, deaths, former addresses, former jobs, former acquaintances. You name it, he most likely knows it."

"I bet he knows my father's name real well," I snarled. "After all, Lynch is the one that got him killed, didn't he? He planning on killing me too?"

"If you don't join, then yes!" Jackson sighed. "Look, I have my reasons for helping you. I didn't get a choice in joining this life. He forced me into it and I have nowhere to go to escape it. I'm stuck in it. And the other people he's recruited, they didn't have the right support system to stop him from getting to them. You do, and I know Dom Toretto isn't going to let Lynch get away with threatening his family. So I'm telling you to get out of here and get a game plan ready before Lynch comes to get you, because he will. Once he wants someone on his team, he won't stop until they are."

"I've heard."

"So are you going to listen to my advice?"

"I wouldn't tell you if we were. Torettos and O'Connors don't run, especially one who's both."

"You don't run, I know you fight, but fight smart." Jackson opened his car door. Just as he was about to get in, he said, "Remember, it's ride or die."

He got in his car and drove away. I stared after him with my mouth slightly open.

"Did he just say what I think he said?" Brandon asked.

"No one outside our family knows that motto," I replied.

"Then how does he?"

"I don't know. But we're going to find out."
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Hope you enjoyed! I'd written a chapter before for this but it somehow got deleted and I don't know where it went and you only got the hospital scene in that one so you got more this time around. Reviews would be lovely people :)