I got a text from Dom that evening, right as we reached our house from school, asking to meet up at his place.

Casey didn't look surprised. In fact, she had eagerly pushed me out the door saying that some guys night out would do me some good.

I knew that something was off the second I walked out the door after she banged it close behind me.

I left as I heard the lock click in place, just to make sure that she didn't forget to lock up. Call me paranoid all you want but I wasn't willing to risk it.

When I got to Dom's place, I rang the bell once before he answered the door and let me in. I sat myself down on the couch in the living room as Dom grabbed some cold drinks from the kitchen for us.

"Did Casey ask you to invite me over tonight?" I asked him from the living room, raising my voice so that he could hear me.

Dom walked out of the kitchen, handing me a bottled soft drink.

"Well there's that but I also wanted to ask you about the guys that chased us out of the café. I was about to bring it up the other day but the whole thing with Casey happened and I didn't get the chance." Dom searched my face for answers.

I leaned forward, propping my elbows on my knees and looking down at my wrung hands.

"It's a long story," I sighed, opening the bottle of soda and taking a swig.

Dom looked at me with a quirked eyebrow. "Do you have any plans after this? Cos' I don't. I have all the time in the world right now, mate."

I bit my lips as I capped the bottle again and set it on the coffee table in front of me.

Where do I even begin with this story?

What was safe to tell and what should I keep to myself?

I didn't want to get Dom involved in this situation in any way, even if it was just as someone who knew about what was going on. On the other hand, I didn't know if I'll be able to walk down this road all on my own without getting this load off my chest. I raised my head and met Dom's anticipating eyes.

"Should I just spill everything right now and tell him everything?" I thought as I looked at Dom.

What were my chances in staying sane if I didn't open up and find help right now?

Probably close to none.

I pursed my lips before finally making a decision.

"I got involved with some really bad guys." I started.

"Jax's people?" Dom asked.

I nodded. I cracked my knuckles nervously as I mulled over what I was going to say next, not entirely sure that I was doing the right thing by telling Dom my dirty secret.

"I was still a regular at the Underground Place until recently. Remember Joe?"

Dom nodded. "Yeah, the bartender."

I've brought Dom to the Underground Place a few times before, back when I first started going frequenting the place too.

"Joe's dad was being chased by loan sharks. He's a gambling addict and he was drowning in debt. He fell off the grid and the loan sharks went for Joe instead. Casey and I ran into them beating Joe up on our way back from the Underground Place and we stepped in. Joe disappeared shortly after and the loan sharks targeted us in his place."

Dom furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought, trying to piece everything together.

"So the people in the café was the loan sharks?"

I nodded, confirming his suspicions.

"I was desperate to shake these people off my heels, especially since they've seen Casey. I didn't want to risk putting her in danger. So I went and asked for help from a predator bigger than the sharks."

"Jax's gang." Dom concluded.

"What about the cops?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Useless."

"They have all these legal procedures to follow, paperwork to go through, and I was desperate to just get some protection from somewhere; anywhere, ASAP."

Dom blew air from his mouth and fell into silence.

"So, what happened afterwards? What's got you in a daze? Casey told me about what happened on the road this morning. You've been driving years ago, before you even got a license, and you've never made a mistake." Dom asked, looking at me.

I took a deep breath, hanging my head and pressing the heels of my palm against my closed eyelids.

Even then, I could still envision the scene unfolding behind my closed lids for that brief moment.

"I just got back from the second mission they assigned me to a few days ago. I.. I-" The words got stuck, forming a lump in my throat.

I swallowed and the lump eased slightly as I forced the words out of my mouth. "I saw someone get shot to death."

The house was dead silent for a few seconds. I took my hands away from my face and opened my eyes to look at Dom who was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Y-yeah." I cleared my throat, looking away from his shocked expression.

Dom was speechless. I probably would have been too if our roles had been switched.

I waited until everything finally sunk in for Dom.

"Bry..." Dom finally said after a while, the horror of the situation had probably hit him full force at this point.

"I know." I said before he could say anything about it. I knew better than anyone how fucked I was.

Dom opened his mouth before closing it again. After a moment, he finally straightened up. "Let's make a plan."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"What plan?" I asked.

"To get you out." Dom said simply as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We can't just leave you in that shithole. God knows what they're going to make you do. These people play with guns, Bry."

"I know, and trust me, I want to get out more than anything, but they know about Casey. The reason I joined them in the first place was to request for protection for both Casey and me. If I quit, it'd be too dangerous for Casey. I'll be a loose end that they need to tie up." I relayed what Jax said the other night.

"Then we'll shut them down before they can touch Casey." Dom decided as his eyes met mine. "We get me in and we'll scavenge any traces of their deeds that's left behind. We collect them and shut them down for good. They'll rot behind bars and won't be able to reach Casey or you by then."

It was tempting to agree to the plan as soon as Dom finished talking, but I knew that it was too dangerous for Dom. It's dangerous enough for him to know what was going on, but to get him involved as well? It could be a suicide mission for all we know.

Dom recognized the look on my face when I didn't say anything. "We've known each other our entire lives, Bry. You know I'm going to help you no matter what your answer is. You can either help me put this plan into action and work with me to get it done ASAP or you can sit on your hands and watch me jump into danger all on my own."

"Dom," I started to protest.

"We both know that you won't be able to get out of this situation unscathed on your own." Dom cut off.

"It's impossible to get out of this situation unscathed, period." I argued.

"Well at least it'll minimize the damage that we get if we're in it together." Dom shrugged.

I didn't know what else to say as I sat there and stared at Dom as if he was crazy. I wanted to get out of this situation whereas he wanted to jump into the middle of it all.

"Come on, Bry." Dom coaxed.

I shook my head at him, "Aren't you the least bit pissed at me for what happened last time?"

I didn't need to be specific for him to know what I was talking about.

"That's that and this is this, it's an entirely different matter and you know that. We're practically brothers. Which brothers don't fight each other? I know how to prioritize matters, Bry." Dom countered dryly.

I looked at him wordlessly again before finally sighing. "You're going to do it even if I don't agree, aren't you?"

Dom gave me a 'No shit, Sherlock' look.

I looked down at my hands once again, a small smile tugged at the ends of my lips. I was grateful. I knew that I wasn't going to feel trapped anymore in this situation. I wasn't going to come out of this situation as a survivor anymore, I'll come out of it as a fighter.

I knew that with Dom guarding my back, I'll be able to stop reacting to the situation and start taking control of it instead.

I finally gave in and stood to my feet. "Let's start planning how to take down these motherfuckers, then."

We went around the house, hunting for papers, tape and markers. When we've found all the materials we needed, we went to Dom's room and worker on taping the pieces of paper together across a wall to make a giant space for us to scribble on.

"Okay, so Quentin's the head," I briefed Dom as I shared what I've learnt so far.

"Jax was my first link to them. I think he's been with them for quite a while now. He was pretty experienced."

Dom's eyebrows were drawn together as his eyes jumped between the few pieces of information we've written on the paper so far. It wasn't much. There was a lot of negative space on the paper since all we knew so far was that the Mafia had access to a lot of weapons, the name of their leader and Jax.

"I think Jax joined them a couple of years ago. I heard that his uncle is part of it too and that's how he got in at such a young age." Dom inputted.

I nodded, adding that bit of information under Jax's name.

"I think we should find out who they just picked a fight with, which gang it was, who was Larry and why they killed him."

"Do you think we can use them as part of our plan? 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' strategy?" Dom suggested.

I shook my head. "I don't think that's a good idea. We're trying to worm out of this shithole, not get ourselves deeper in it. I don't think sleeping with the enemy's enemy will help us get to where we want to be. In any case, it would probably drag us even deeper into this shithole."

"Makes sense," Dom admitted. "But why do we need to find out about them, then."

I shrugged. "The more information we have on them the better?"

"We don't need to get ourselves involved with Larry's group of people but whoever Larry was, he had two hands, two feet and a beating heart. He was a person that was murdered. That's a homicide right there that can lengthen Quentin's sentence if we succeed in making him face trial and locking him up."

"Okay, so how do we find proof that he did it? Did you see any CCTV at the scene?" Dom asked.

I shook my head. "I was too out of it to notice anything. We can drive by and take a look. I'll drop by law offices for criminal cases to consult with them on what form of evidence is admissible in court."

Dom nodded. "Okay, sounds like a plan."

"Speaking of plans, we need to come up with a plan on how we get you in before we can do anything to root these guys out. Jax knows that we're close so he's going to be the first to suspect us. We need to be ready." The wheels in my head were whirring as a plan continued to unfold in my head.

I turned to the paper and stared hard at it before my hand reached out with the marker and started drawing lines and circles, writing down notes and names furiously.

Dom piped up behind me to throw in some ideas as we came up with an outline of a plan to get him in.

By the time that we were done, you could barely see any white on the paper.

I sat on the table beside Dom to analyse what I've written down.

We both sat in silence as we let everything sink in.

After what felt like forever, I finally found myself breaking the silence.

"You do know that this is going to be dangerous? And I don't mean dangerous as in getting beaten up to death. I mean dangerous as in dying with tens of bullets imbedded in your body." I wasn't trying to scare him but I didn't want him to jump into this situation without being fully aware of what was at stake.

When he didn't answer, I averted my eyes from the giant paper on the wall to his face.

Dom was staring at the wall with solemn eyes. I didn't blame him for not instantly answering me with a firm positive response. I wouldn't want to get involved in this mess if I had a choice either.

Instead of answering, Dom threw a question back at me, "What's going to happen if we don't do this?"

I didn't want to think about that scenario. I never knew it before but being stuck in this situation made me realize that I was a 'die trying' kind of guy.

I was quiet for a while, thinking about the answer to that question. The answer was obvious. If we don't do this, I'm going to be trapped in the Mafia until the day I die; be it from getting shot to death, from rotting in a jail cell or, by a slim chance luck, of old age.

Though I doubt that last one would happen. I don't think I have that much luck in me.

Leaving the Mafia and risk making Casey a walking target was a big no.

Dom knew that.

I knew that.

I didn't want to say my thoughts out loud, though. I didn't want to grovel at Dom's feet for his help – not to spare my dignity, but because I didn't want to put him in a tough spot.

We both knew that this wasn't a simple matter of wanting to help a friend. Our lives will be at risk and I didn't want to put him in the position where he felt pressured to help. We were no adults. Nor were we teen spy agents that were trained to do black ops.

We were less than qualified to take out a Mafia gang and we both knew that.

Our plan was betting on 30% acting skills and 70% luck in finding the right evidence to convict these people before they find out what we were up to.

Dom finally turned to look at me, speaking my thoughts as if he could read my mind. "If we don't do this, you'll be stuck in there, doing their dirty work for them."

I looked away, shame swirling in me.

"I know your conscience won't survive that, Bry. You're the straightest shooter I know. You got yourself in this mess because of your desperation to protect Casey but it's time to get you out."

Dom clasped my shoulder, getting up to his feet.

"Dom." I called out before he could leave.

Dom turned to face me. I stood up and looked at him.

"Thanks. I appreciate what you're doing for me."

"I know you'd do the same for me." Dom said with a smile. For a second there, all the drama over his feelings for Casey vanished in a puff of smoke. For a moment, we were back to being two boys who ran around the park together, protecting each other from the imaginary monster that was trying to eat us.

"You're not going to walk this path alone anymore, brother." Dom said, his hand landing on my shoulder, giving me a firm pat, before he walked past me to the door.