DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

"I'm not telling you shit!" Katerina exclaimed as she was trying to cut the tight rope they had tied her hands with using a small nail file, an object she carried around with her all the time, proving herself right yet again that having one on you always comes in handy.

"Oh, but you will." the guy in the room with her said, laughing maliciously at Katerina as he put his hands on the table standing between them to lean on it. This man was large -significantly larger than Katerina-, medium build, and had his arm covered in tattoos. He stopped laughing when he felt a wet substance land on his face, "Vaffanculo!" he heard Katerina yell.

"Did you just spit on me? Huh? You're gonna regret that, you fucking cunt!"

Katerina jumped a little and started working faster on getting the rope cut when he violently moved the table out of the way and stepped closer towards her. He balled his fist and punched her right on the nose, the hit causing her to roar in pain. Luckily for her, she had been through worse, and she didn't mind the metallic taste of her blood running down her lips. Her nose had been broken once before, and even though receiving a punch on it still hurts as fuck, it takes a lot more than that to get Kat to talk.

If this had happened before she was in a committed relationship with Stefan Salvatore, she had happily given him up to save herself. It was what she had always done, survive. Things changed after she met him, though she was still as self righteous as she had ever been, when it came to Stefan, there was nothing she wouldn't do.

Swinging his arm back for another blow, this time using more force, the punch landed on her jaw, causing little drops of blood to splatter in the air. As she let her head hang down and she looked at her white shirt, which had now turned into a white shirt with a blood splatter design, she groaned in anger.

"You.. ruined.. my shirt!"

The last strings of rope were cut, and she immediately jumped up to attack the large man. Having the advantage because he had his back turned for a short moment, she jumped him and started lashing out on him. After repeatedly punching him in the face as he struggled to fight back, she pulled his head down, gave him a knee to the face and grabbed the gun he had tucked in the back of his pants.

He may have been a lot bigger than her, but if there was one thing you shouldn't do, it was piss Katerina Petrova off, a black belt in Taekwondo will beat size any time.

Some of the blood on her face was swept away by the back of her hand and after shaking it off, she cocked the gun and aimed it at the guy who was now kneeling on the ground, firmly holding the handle with both hands, her index finger resting on the trigger.

"You messed with the wrong girl, sweetie."

Still on the ground, he slowly started lifting himself up, probably hoping he could use the element of surprise on her, but he couldn't be more wrong. Upon noticing movement, Katerina aimed at his knee and pulled the trigger. The guy screamed out in agony as he felt the bullet struck his knee and reached for the body part to cover up the wound with his hands in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"If you and your family ever come after me or Stefan again, I won't be aiming for your fucking knee."

When Elena dreamed of Italy, things such as exploring the country and meeting new people was what she had imagined to do, the mess she just found herself in hadn't even crossed her mind. The fact that she wouldn't be able to go out by herself anymore because there was the possibility of her being kidnapped simply because she hung out with Damon Salvatore scared the shit out of her. Still completely clueless of who exactly he was and what he did, scared her even more. The phrase 'be careful what you wish for' suddenly became a hell of a lot clearer when for once her wish of living an adventurous life was fulfilled. Fucking figures.

"No way, Elena," Damon responded to Elena asking what happened, "you do not want to get involved in this mess. Trust me, it isn't pretty."

"Well, it's too late for that, Damon, I already am involved," Elena argued, "and if you're going to be by my side every time I go out from now on, I deserve to know what exactly you got me into!"

Fucking hell, Damon, why did you have to take this one out on a date? Why couldn't you just fuck her and move on to the next one? Why does she have to have these beautiful bambi eyes that glisten in the moonlight and why does her hair have to smell like you're lying on the beach with a coconut infused cocktail in your hand while the sunrays wash over you?

Waiting for an answer, Elena impatiently started tapping her foot on the ground, her brow furrowed and arms crossed. He just stood there, looking at her, asking himself why she kissed him just a minute ago instead of running as far away from him as possible. He scrubbed his face as he tried to find the right words to explain to her how drastically her life was about to change, merely because she had met him.

For a moment Damon was contemplating on whether he should tell her the truth or come up with a good lie. The possibility of her going to the cops made him want to lie because he didn't want to deal with them again, not because he'd get thrown in jail, but because ever since the first time the police showed up at his doorstep and took his bribe, their requests started getting higher every time someone mentioned the Salvatores to them. There was no way he was going to give them more money, he worked hard enough as it is.

Though something told him that, after seeing what she just saw and quite possibly having a hunch of what she's dealing with, she'd be smarter than to go run off to the cops. So, he decided on telling her what happened to Katerina, and why it happened to her.

"So, they took her, because Stefan messed up the deal? What deal?" Elena asked, squinting her eyes.

"He was supposed to deliver them 10 kilograms in coke. Showed up with 7. Ran like a bitch."

Unable to move, as if her body was struck by lightning and left her paralyzed, she stood there with her hand covering her mouth. And what Damon just told her barely scratched the surface. The blank expression on his face shocked her the most, because it seemed as if he had seen it happen so often, it didn't even faze him anymore.

"Elena?"

Her eyes started watering again once she realized that there was a 99% chance of what had happened to Katerina was going to happen to her as well.

"Did-.. Did they go after them again?" she asked, barely able to speak because her voice was trembling so heavily.

"They never got the chance to."

"W-what do you mean?"

"As soon as Stefan told me what had happened, I wanted to go after them. Of course, my brother doesn't like when I get all bloodthirsty so he told me to leave it and he'd take care of it when he had to."

"But you didn't listen."

"Of course not," Damon chuckled, "but he doesn't know that."

He never told him because he knew that if he did, he'd lose him forever. Stefan was the only one in the family who had been a friend to Damon, his father was merely his boss and his cousins were his coworkers, and despite having their fair share of fights, some of which ending up in not talking to each other for extended periods of time, they were there for each other when there was trouble.

Never being particularly fond of the Salvatore family business, Stefan tried to take jobs only when absolutely necessary, or if it involved Damon. He was a smart kid, since going to college was never an option if you were born a Salvatore, he had set most of the money he had earned from working aside until he saw a chance to leave, the day Giuseppe Salvatore would get their family into something so royally fucked he would be able to say this is the final straw, so he could live his life as he wished to live it. That day came when their father announced he was leaving for Sicily.

Great, now this girl knew that the guy she went out on a date with had killed people before and ran some kind of business which involved selling drugs for a living. What he had told her was just the tip of the iceberg, though, and he figured it was probably best to not tell her about the fact that the Salvatores ran one of the biggest drug cartels in all of Italy. She had heard enough for one day and he didn't want to have her imagine the rest of her time here looking like a scene from The Godfather mixed with a hint of Pulp Fiction. Because that was exactly what would happen if Damon didn't stay as far away from her as possible, but now that she was on someone's hitlist, staying away wasn't an option. Elena came to Italy to experience the lifestyle of a foreign culture and to go to school because she was tired of living her life in the always exciting little town of Mystic Falls, and she would have been able to do that in peace if he wasn't such a fucking douchebag who couldn't keep his dick in control. Fuck.

"You.. killed them?"

The amount of shock this girl has gone through in just one night made Damon feel an emotion he had only felt once before, the last time he got into a fight with Stefan when he decided to leave, because his selfish ass was jealous of him being able to live a life of his own, no fucking family business crap, a nice place to live, a well paying job, and a girlfriend who loved him despite her being a raging bitch, and even though he didn't like her, at all, he wished there was someone who loved him the way she loved Stefan. The fight that ended up in the two of them having no contact, whatsoever, for almost two years. The fight that was so fucking stupid to even begin with. He felt guilty. Guilty because he was the one that got her into this and all he could do for her now was make sure she got home safely and hope that she wouldn't hate him for all eternity, because he actually liked this girl.

"How am I supposed to believe you're going to protect me if you're a killer? Why in the world would I trust you?"

"Because," Damon said, tilting his head slightly and lifting his hand to Elena's face to wipe away a tear resting on her cheek using his thumb, the gesture causing her to gasp, "you'll end up dead if you don't. Lets get you home."

Forbes & Gilbert residence, 1.30 AM

Caroline stormed down the hallway as soon as she heard the front door open, a huge smile forming across her face because the fact that she came home pretty late must have meant the date went well, so she thought. That smile disappeared when she saw her friend's makeup had been smudged from crying.

"Oh my God, Elena, are you all right?" she asked, running up to her friend and throwing her arms around her as Elena lay her head on Caroline's shoulder, unable to hold back the tears.

"What happened?! Do you need me to go chase after Damon to whoop his ass? What the fuck did he do?!"

"No.. Care, that's not necessary." Elena said, her breaths short and voice shaking.

After she caught her breath and calmed down a little, Elena sat Caroline down to explain everything, not leaving any details out, even though she wasn't supposed to say anything. But fuck that, Caroline was her friend and there was no way she was going to lie to her about this.

Needless to say, this wasn't what Caroline expected to hear. She figured Damon might have been a jerk to her friend or made her do something she didn't want to, but him being a drug dealing psychopath who killed people had never even crossed her mind. She was so hung up on the fact that something could happen to Elena, she forgot that because she was her friend, she was in danger as well.

"Hey, we'll get through this. Nothing is going to happen to you, okay? I don't care who it is, if they want to lay a finger on you, they will have to go through me first."

At first glance you wouldn't think of Caroline as someone who would throw punches, well, except for when it comes to someone doing something that would result in them ruining her shoes, but underneath all of that goodness rests a girl who doesn't take your shit and fucks you up if she has to.

Stefan Salvatore's apartment

Unlocking the door to his brother's apartment and seeing him sitting on the couch playing video games as he entered the place, Damon started yelling at him for still being here.

"What the fuck are you still doing here?! Do you want to die?!"

No reaction.

"Stefan!" he yelled as he walked up to his brother, yanking the controller out of his hand and throwing it across the room.

"What the fuck, Damon?"

Fucking great, he's drunk, which meant there was a zero percent chance Damon would be able to have a normal conversation with him. But that didn't stop him from trying. He grabbed the bottle of bourbon sitting on the salon table in front of the couch and took a large jug from it before putting it back and making an attempt to talk to his brother.

He cleared his throat and counted to ten before he gave Stefan a whip to his head with his hand, "Why are you still here?" he asked, his voice low and his teeth clenched.

Stefan turned his head so that he was now facing his brother and sighed deeply, "Because, Damon," he said, "I don't want to go."

Was he a fucking idiot?

"Father stopped by today," Stefan continued, the look on Damon's face turning from angry to confused, because if he did visit, how the fuck was he still alive? "he was in a good mood. Told me I could stay. No need to get back into fucking business and shit. Something about him forming an ally with those Sicilians he went to see. 'S all good, brother."

"Well that is just fantastic news, Stefan." Damon said sarcastically.

Nothing about what he just heard sounded good to him, their father wouldn't just let him go. He wasn't a compassionate man, all he cared about was money and making sure his family worked for him so he could get that money.

Damon rolled his eyes upon seeing that idiotic drunk smile planted on Stefan's face. For fucks sake, he thought, grabbing the bottle once more.

"Where's Kat? I need to speak to her."

"Out, or something. Why?"

It was hard for Damon to admit that he needed her help, considering he hated the bitch's guts, but she was also the only one he knew who could train the girls so they could at least defend themselves if something were to happen when he wasn't around.

"Tell her to call me when she gets back."

One thing left to take care of, he jerked his chin at his brother in goodbye and headed out the front door, taking his phone out of his pocket and started dialing.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ric."

"Damon, it's been two years. What do you want?"

"I need a favor."

"What is it?"

"Do you still teach at that university?"

"Why? You finally decided to go do something with your life?"

"Two American girls will be attending this year, I need you to keep an eye on them for me. One blonde, one brunette. They go by Caroline Forbes and Elena Gilbert."

"What did you do this time?"

"Just make sure they're safe."

AN: Chapter 5! It's up early! I was originally going to publish it a week after chapter 4, but I got excited because I had finished it sooner than I expected!
Thank you so much as always for the reviews, favourites and follows, keep them coming!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, the flashback was something that I had in mind ever since I started the story so I was happy I found a good place to add it in.

Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon! Thanks for reading and for sticking with me!