"He seems to think that him and Mia might have something going on," Dom said.

"Why's he think that?" I asked.

"He said that she's been flirting with him. I think that Mia has probably just been giving him a lot of attention because he's hurt and she feels bad. But, why kill his dream?" he explained. "Why? What did Mia tell you?"

"You know Mia, she's really emotional. I don't think she really knows what she wants right now," I said. This was the best way I could think of telling him without disclosing the fact that if Brian weren't still in the picture, Vince would have a better shot.

"So she did talk about Vince to you?" Dom asked curiously.

"Yeah, sort of, but she didn't really give much info. She just basically said that she didn't really know how she felt about him," I said. I figured that was pretty similar to 'maybe more'.

"Well, this could get interesting," Dom remarked.

He had no idea! I think that it certainly could, depending on what Mia decided. I figured if she actually didn't have the strength, balls, courage, whatever it was that she felt like she needed to break it off with Brian, it could get really interesting. But, that was her decision. I did think it would be pretty hilarious if Mia and Vince hooked up. However, I had a very difficult time visualizing that actually happening. However, given as I was sitting in Hector's exgirlfriend's sister's house in Tijuana cuddling up to my ex convict boyfriend that I was pretty sure was wanted by the state of California, I probably wasn't the best at predicting a successful future. Guess anything was possible.

I closed my eyes and let the pain pill start killing the pain of reality and take me into the wonderful world of unconsciousness.

When I woke up it was not yet morning. I was really thirsty though so decided to make my way through the darkness to get something to drink. I went into the kitchen to get whatever was in the fridge. I heard voices down the hall. I looked around for the time until I remembered there were no clocks in this God forsaken house. I guessed it was probably around four o'clock.

I walked down the hall and saw a light on in the room Mia was using. She was quietly talking with someone. I couldn't make out the voice, but they were male. It was clear that they were arguing but both speaking too softly to be understood. But, then, the male voice got a bit louder. I was able to identify the voice. It was Brian.

Oh, hell no. I had to be dreaming. Maybe one of the side effects of this pill was auditory hallucination. I would have preferred that. Surely Brian was not here. If Dom knew that the buster was sitting a couple of doors down he would flip out, rightfully so. I could not believe this! What happened to Mia's rational for not being with him. I was too flustered by all this to think about knocking. Instead, I just opened the door.

Sure enough, there were Brian and Mia sitting on the bed. They looked up at me in complete shock, as if I had caught them with their hand in the cookie jar. I wished it had been that simple. I'm fine with cookies. But, I was not fine with Brian.

"Letty," Mia said, slightly jumping. "Close the door."

I obliged, mainly to avoid anyone else becoming aware of this horrible move on Mia's part.

"What the hell, Mia?" I asked with utter shock.

"Letty, listen, I'm really sorry about…," Brian started.

"No," I said holding up my handing and signaling him to stop. "I asked Mia. I don't want to talk to you."

"Keep your voice down. You'll wake up Dom and Leon," she pleaded. This statement appalled me. No she wasn't reprimanding me for something. At that moment, I almost wanted to call out Dom' name. I reframed, though.

"Alright, Mi," I said, trying to calm down and take this last statement in stride. "What's going on? Why is Brian here?"

"He came to talk," she said.

"What? The LAPD don't give you boys cell phones?" I said to Brian harshly. I guess that calmness was short lived.

"She wouldn't talk to me," Brian insisted.

"Wow, Brian. I know you aren't trying to get me to feel sorry for you," I said, astounded. That wasn't going to happen. I still wanted to blame him for all of this. He was an easy target. And, in reality, he had lied to all of us. We might not be in this situation if it wasn't for him- or at least that was what I was still telling myself.

"Letty, stop," Mia said.

"Mi, what happened to all that shit you told me earlier? You expect me to not be pissed to see him sitting here? How do you know he's not going to run off and tell the cops where we are?" I asked. I assumed this was unlikely but I wasn't really speaking rationally, more out of anger and frustration.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not a cop anymore," Brian stated haphazardly.

"What do you mean you're 'pretty sure'? Ain't that something you should probably know?" I asked, being as big of a smart ass as possible for four o'clock in the morning.

"I know I'm not a cop anymore," he replied.

"Bullshit. Same way you weren't a cop three days ago?" I retorted.

"He got fired," Mia added. "He wouldn't give you guys up. And, they knew he let Dom go. He wouldn't tell them where we went."

"It was the only way that you wouldn't get sent to prison. All of you," he said, emphasizing the word 'all' and looking right at me.

I didn't really know how to answer this. I knew I would never have lost my job over Brian, even before I knew he was a cop. That was a noble move. But, I wasn't going to let him off that easily. He was still in the house and he shouldn't have been.

"So what, you think that is going to make up for putting us in this situation?" I questioned.

"I didn't say that. But, let's be honest, you brought this on yourselves," Brian admitted.

At this moment, I wanted to punch him in the face. He had some nerve to say that, given the current circumstances.

"Oh hell no," I said, getting confrontational. I stepped up to him and he stood up off the bed. We locked eyes and I wanted to push him out the window. Unfortunately it was a single story house so I wouldn't have gotten nearly the effect I would have liked.

"Letty, Brian, stop," Mia said forcefully. She seemed to be getting very fed up with everyone at this point. I couldn't blame her. She was really the only innocent person in the whole situation.

I heard her but I really wasn't listening. I took another step closer to Brian. He may have lost a girlfriend and a job, but our world had evaporated in one fell swoop. I wanted to hurt him so that he would feel as bad as the rest of us. But, before I had a chance to act I saw Dominic at the doorway.

The next thing I knew Dom had Brian by the throat and was holding him against the wall. It happened quickly. I did not realize that anyone could move so fast this early in the morning. But, rage is an amazing thing.

"Dom, stop!" Mia yelled, there was no reason to be quiet at this point. The cat was out of the bag.

Dom didn't stop.

Brian was trying, unsuccessfully, to pull Dom's hand away from his throat. He was gasping. Dom didn't say a word. But, he was clearly extremely angry. The vein in the side of his head was pulsating and he was looking Brian square in the eyes.

"Stop it!" Mia yelled again. It wasn't doing any good. And, I didn't anticipate that it would.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing here?" Dom finally said. His voice sounded surprisingly calm for someone who was strangling another person.

"Let me go, dude. I'll explain," Brian chocked out in between gasps.

Dom hesitated for longer than necessary. He released his throat. And, as soon as he was released, Dom pulled back and punched Brian straight across the face. He fell to the ground, blood already starting to come out of his nose. In an effort to shield Brian from Dom, Mia ran over to him. It was very Pocahontas/John Smith. She put her arm around his head. Dom did not back away, but did not make any immediate attempts to hit him again. I just stood back. I didn't want to get involved. Someone needed to hit him. I was somewhat disappointed that I had missed my opportunity. I couldn't really do it now.

"You better have a damn good reason," Dom finally said.

Brian wiped his nose and stood up. Mia stood beside him. I was surprised with the allegiance that Mia was showing Brian right now. It actually pissed me off a little bit. Hours earlier she had told me what a backstabbing ass Brian was- my paraphrasing of course. And now she was trying to shield him from her own brother.

"I'm sorry, Dom. I did my best to get you guys off. I'm still waiting to hear if it worked, though. But, I've got to work it out with Mia. I love her," he stated.

I could tell by the look in Dom's face that this was not what he wanted to hear. I thought it would have been smarter for Brian to leave off that last part. But, then, he was a cop and they weren't really the smartest bunch.

With that, Dom tackled Brian and they were on the floor. Dom was punching Brian. I think it took Brian by surprise because it took a couple of seconds for him to respond. It became an all out punching match, with Brian losing. Brian wasn't as bad of a fighter as I would have thought. But, he was not nearly as big and strong as Dom.

"Letty, do something," Mia beseeched. Me? What the hell? I wasn't involved in this shit, right now anyway. I was enjoying the show. But, I knew that she was asking me to try to talk some sense in to Dom so he wouldn't kill Brian. But, I didn't think it was senseless. We all needed to get our anger out some way. And, if Dom wanted to get it out on Brian, I was okay with that. I looked over at Mia.

I looked in her eyes. They were watering. She was about to lose it. She really did care about this idiot. I guess we can't pick who we fall for. I was a good example of that. I did not want to side with Brian. But, I would side with Mia. She deserved something.

"Dom," I called softly. Amidst all his rage, he looked over. I nodded towards Mia. "Hold off for a second and listen to Mia."

He got up and stepped back towards me. I could tell that he was not extremely happy for what I had asked him to do. I just thought that Mia better have a pretty good speech worked out.

"Dom, you've taken everything away from me lately. You don't listen to me. You don't seem to care. I know that you think you do. But, if you did I wouldn't be here. Lay the fuck off and give me time to talk to him. I deserve that much. Stop acting like a macho prick and just back off for a little while," she said straight up.

I was impressed with her straightforwardness. I knew what she said made Dom feel bad though. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt Mia. But I knew, she needed her time. If I had stopped talking to Dom every time someone had told me I was sure that we wouldn't be where we are. Of course, I wasn't sure if that was the best example. But, it made me identify wit Mia's predicament.

It was after this that I noticed Leon standing in the doorway. He appeared tired and shocked at the same time, which is an interesting look on a guy.

"Hey, Le, you wanna get in this?" I whispered, mainly intended as a joke to pull me out of this seriousness this situation had just created.

Leon shook his head very hard, indicating that he did not care to get involved.

"Yeah, it's more of a spectator sport," I remarked quietly.

Dom briskly walked past me, past Leon, and out of the room. I heard him stomp down the hall towards the room that we were using and slam the door. I wasn't really surprised that he was pissed.

I looked over at Mia. She looked upset and extremely stressed out. She was still standing by Brian, who looked like he'd just been beaten up. I didn't feel like sticking around any longer for this. I was tired.

Leon and I both trailed out of the room at the same time. I hesitated before walking towards my room.

"Have fun with that," Leon stated, acknowledging an exceptionally angry Dominic on the other side of the door.

"Yeah, thanks," I said turning the doorknob.

I walked into the room. Dom didn't say anything. He was just pacing around. He stopped and punched a hole in the drywall. Awesome. That would be fun to fix. Rarely did I have an occasion to test my ability to accurately use Spanish carpentry terms, guess this was going to be my chance. I suppose I've always wanted to know how to say caulk in multiple languages. I appreciated that Dom had now given me this opportunity. At least he was hitting something that wasn't going to hit back. I would have preferred him to hit a tree or something we wouldn't have to repair later, but that was his prerogative. I didn't feel like now was the time to attempt to redirect his behavior. I just went and sat down on the bed. I was still thirsty.

"I can't believe Mia!" Dom yelled. I couldn't believe it either. I wonder if this was the type of interesting that Dom had been referring to earlier. I doubted it.

TBC

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AJ