"So basically, we were set up?" Carter said in disbelief.

Lee signaled him to lower his voice, still observing the armed strangers. "Look, I know how it sounds, but there's people out there ready to shoot us on sight."

"Well... Maybe they're just here for backup," his friend suggested. "Yeah, we probably got everything wrong."

"Carter, I wouldn't take that chance. I say we escape through that window over there and get around from the back to the car."

"I don't know if my knees can handle all that action," Sammy spoke up, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Look, lemme just talk to them," Carter put his hand on Lee's shoulder. "They're probably on our side and we're making a big deal out of nothing."

"I heard them talking about us," Lee shrugged his hand away. "I'm pretty sure they were sent to eliminate us."

That wasn't enough to convince Carter. "See? You're not even sure! I'll just go out there and see what's up."

"You go out there, you die."

Trish perked her head up when she heard this, raising her eyebrows. "I mean, I think he should go."

Lee ignored her comment, looking at Carter directly into his eyes with an unwavering seriousness. "Help them climb out the window, I'll guard the door."

His friend crossed his arms together, knitting his brows. "Can I at least see what's going on out there?"

Lee sighed, turning towards him in resignation. "Fine, be my guest."

Carter took his position at the door, curious to see what had his partner so bothered. In his mind, he was sure that Lee was just showing obvious signs of jealousy due to his close friendship to Carl. After all, this was their first case back together in years and they usually worked only with each other, as they've always done.

Carter wanted to relive his glory days, exactly as he'd spent them with his partner-in-crime, but so much had changed since those days. Then, there was the looming question of what he was going to do once this whole investigation was over...

"Still not too late to go reason with them," Trish muttered as she struggled to scratch her wrist under her handcuffs.

Lee turned to her and Sammy, taking off his leather jacket and tying it around his waist. "You two, get to the window."

Holding their captive's arm, the elder dragged her with him. They watched as Lee got next to the broken window and crouched close to it, interlocking his fingers together to make a boosting pedestal out of his hands. He looked up at Sammy, waiting on him.

Sammy's eyes widened in surprise, he glanced at Trish, smiling nervously. "Ladies first."

Lee vigorously shook his head. "No, you go first. If she goes, she might escape."

Sammy looked at him hesitantly, then back at Trish who was glaring daggers at him, before finally letting go of her arm and slowly walking towards the inspector. He placed his foot in Lee's palms and clutched his shoulder tightly. Lee tried not to wince from Sammy's nails digging in his shirt. Trish smiled in amusement from seeing the elder's scared expression.

Steadying himself, Lee counted to three before lifting Sammy's foot up. The old man launched himself at the window, successfully placing his left knee on the ledge and sliding his body through the frame. With a helpful push from Lee, he fell on his stomach on the other side with a soft thud.

After checking if Sammy was okay, Lee looked back at Trish. "Alright, you're next."

"Are you gonna get me out of these first?" She lifted her wrists up.

He didn't answer, simply going back into his original position. Taking this as a resounding no, Trish made her way to him, placing her foot in his hand and grabbing the edge of the window with both her hands.

Boosting her up, she slid head-first through it, pushing forward with her arms. Wanting to help her as he did with Sammy, Lee grabbed her hips.

Trish jerked awkwardly. "Hey! Watch the hands!"

He put his hands in the air, letting her wiggle through the frame until she was outside. Sammy wasted no time grabbing her by the arm, Trish thinking he was helping her at first, but it soon became clear that he was just preventing her from running away.

Lee shook his hands a bit to relax his fingers, turning back at Carter still looking out the door, deep in thought. He slowly walked towards him, hesitant to disturb him. Working back together wasn't as smooth of a transition as he'd wished it be, but this was his best buddy and they'd surely bounce back to the way they were back in the day.

"Carter, come help me up the window," Lee lightly poked his friend's back. "I'll pull you out after."

"Uh yeah," he turned to him, pulled out of his thoughts. "Sure, man."

Carter got next to the window, crouched down and put his hands together. Lee positioned his foot and grabbed his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze and flashing a quick smile. This made the muscles in Carter's face relax, stretching the corners of his lips in response.

Pushed up on cue, Lee had no trouble sliding to the other side, doing a front flip to land on his feet. Sammy clapped at him with an impressed look on his face while Trish rolled her eyes, fiddling with the chain of her handcuffs.

Inside the warehouse, Carter reached up to grab the edge of the window, avoiding a few shards of broken glass. Lee grabbed his hands on the other side, pulling him up as he pushed himself up with his feet against the wall.

Meanwhile, Trish couldn't help thinking about  her dad and their encounter at the Lux Plaza hotel. She'd rarely seen the look he had in his eyes that night, paralyzed in fear and darkened with heartbreak. He looked so scared to lose her, they were all they had for each other. She felt horrible for disobeying his orders...

"Dammit!" Carter suddenly cursed aloud.

"Shhh!" Lee sharply whispered at him. "What's wrong with you?"

Hunched over through the frame, Carter looked back at the window, wiggling his left leg. "My damn foot's caught."

"Well, hurry up and get it out! You're creating too much noise, they might hear you!"

But it was already too late, as the hitmen were immediately drawn to the noise and ran into the room, quickly calling over the rest of their colleagues. Luckily, Carter had just enough time to get his foot uncaught, falling to the ground as they opened fire. Crouching down to avoid the bullets, Lee was the first to rapidly start making his way around the warehouse to reach their car.

Behind him, both Trish and Sammy dropped to the ground with their hands on their heads, joining Carter. Together, they slowly crawled further to the side to get away from the line of fire. Soon, the shower of bullets ceased and they knew that their foe would come outside to finish them off.

Quickly getting back on their feet, the three of them ran as fast as they could to male it to the car. But Sammy stopped in his tracks when he realized that Carter was no longer with him and Trish, looking back to see him limping behind, his ankle looking twisted or at least sprained.

This major setback proved to be ultimately detrimental to them, as the enemy had now reached them face to face, their guns locked and loaded. One woman smiled at Carter trailing behind, seeing him as a helpless wounded deer.

But just before they could meet their untimely demise, Lee rammed into the hitmen with their car. Sammy and Trish jumped out of the vehicle's way just in time before they could get run over, Lee stopped right in front of Carter.

"Everybody get in!" He screamed at them.

Trish immediately climbed into the car while Sammy went back to their foe now sprawled on the ground but slowly getting back up. He quickly snatched one of their machine guns, joining the rest of the gang after. Carter got in the back next to Trish while Sammy rushed in the passenger seat, carefully stroking his new weapon.

Tightly clutching the steering wheel, Lee pressed the gas pedal the hardest he could as they drove off into the highway that would get them back to Oakland.

Trish watched through one of the wing mirrors as the warehouse got tinier the further they drove away, until it disappeared in the distance. The other guys all started chatting with each other, whooping excitedly at what had just happened and feeling high off the rush of adrenaline, but she was racked with guilt and a tinge of growing desperation.

Maybe she was way in over her head if she thought she could actually solve her father's gang problems again. This was nothing like what she'd dealt before, it was bigger than her dad, bigger than California.

But it was the only obstacle keeping him from going legit, truly changing his ways for the better and finally ditching all the shady, toxic people he kept around them. They could spend more time with one another, have a chance to properly grieve together.

She couldn't keep risking her life for him, as much as she loved her dad. But he had to be willing to do the same for her; Trish always tried to tell him that there were other ways to provide for them, safer and more legal ways. Yet, she knew it would be hard for him to leave a world he'd always known, one where he's calling the shots and making the important decisions.

There was the fear of losing their big house, their cars, their notoriety in the city. Isaak always held on to his clean reputation, everybody respected him. But he never really listened to his daughter when she expressed uneasiness with that kind of reputation, one that made people side-eye you everywhere you went.

Sure, he was respected, but not necessarily loved by all, and that created too many enemies to her liking.

Everyone knew how the typical gangster story went: poor boy from the hood enters a gang, starts making loads and loads of money, the stakes start getting higher and higher, climbs up the ranks in the gang, gets more and more known in the neighborhood and either ends up getting killed or in jail with a life sentence.

Trish didn't know if her dad would ever get caught by the cops, but he'd surely be killed one of these days if they didn't do something fast...

Suddenly, the wing mirror shattered out of nowhere, silencing everyone in the car.

"What the hell?" Carter turned around to the back of the vehicle, perceiving another car at their tail with a man holding a pistol pointed at them.

"Who's chasing us?" Lee asked, peeping through his rear-view mirror.

"Some Chinese guy's shooting at us!" Carter told him, heavily squinting.

Rolling down his window, Sammy pointed his head out of the car, leveling his machine gun. "Don't worry, I got this, y'all!"

Lee started to accelerate the car as Sammy shot rounds after rounds at their chasers. They swerved around the other cars in the highway, careful not to hit any of them with any bullets. Behind them, their chasers shot at them too, breaking a few other windows.

The other cars began honking at them, drivers angrily yelling at the ruckus they were causing. To avoid further disturbing the civilians, Lee made a hard turn to the nearest exit route, scratching the side of their car along the way. Sammy kept shooting at their foe, but he was quickly running out of ammunition.

Now out of the highway, Lee tried swerving left and right on the road to lose their tail, but they always caught up to them. Suddenly, two loud popping sounds shook up their car and they started to slow down.

"They shot our damn tires!" Carter gripped his door handle.

Just as Sammy's machine gun jammed on him, Lee puled over to the side of the road, the car behind them doing the same. Both him and Carter reached for their own guns, quickly cocking them as their chasers got out of their vehicle.

"Never thought I would get pulled over," Lee muttered to himself.

A man walked up to his window, raising his pistol as he lowered his sunglasses and quickly swept his eyes across the inside of their car. His gaze stopped on Trish and she gasped.

"Han?!"

▄▄▄