He just regretted how it went down.
“She will come around, she just needs time,” Dominic parroted what everyone else had been saying.
He knew it was true.
That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt in the meantime.
He had come to think of Christine as more family than friend.
Now however, he felt cut off.
Like always.
Maybe it really was time for him to move on.
“You seem quiet. Are you mad at her?” Dominic asked, watching him closely. He had to give the man credit, he knew how to read people, but on this he was way off the mark.
“I’m not mad at her at all.” He said, not elaborating further and after a moment Dominic shifted, his eyes lighting as if an idea had come to him.
“You feel guilty.”
Maybe he can read you.
“I don’t regret what I’ve done. Just that it affected her so badly,” he said, shutting down his emotions, and pulling the blank mask that he carried with him down over his face.
“Hmmm.” Dominic opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it, seeming to think better of it.
“Well maybe this will be okay then,” he murmured, and Mark got the impression that it wasn’t for him to hear.
“Like I said before,” Dominic started, sitting up in his chair his face changing in a way that signaled that things were now serious, “I’m sorry to have called you in on your day off, but I need your help. As you know we have had a bit of an issue with a local cartel man that has now gone back on his word.”
“Yes, sir.” It had been a while since they all had talked about the men that had kidnapped Rick. “Have we received any new information?”
“Yes we have, and that is what I need your help for. Word on the street is that Alejandro is no longer running things. That another face has climbed up the ladder and is now the major player in the game.”
“He is remaining anonymous,” Mark answered, knowing where Dominic was going with this.
It wasn’t uncommon for the heads of big groups in the cartel to stay hidden, it helped to lengthen the already short life span of a cartel member. And that was saying something coming from a former enforcer from the Familia.
“You need me to flush him out.”
“Yes.” Dominic watched him, his dark eyes assessing, making even the strongest men feel a need to bend. But he simply nodded.
He was always ready to serve Dominic.
And the Familia.
The loyalty to the Familia was a trait that was beaten into you, bred into you, and it never left you.
Even after a supposed retirement.
“Normally I wouldn’t send you. As you know we are supposed to be out of the game and it is almost Thanksgiving. However, I’m finding that making contacts comes with a price and no matter how hard we try, the road of retirement is not as straight and narrow as I had hoped.”
“We are out of the mafia lifestyle. Our lives are no longer in immediate danger on a daily basis. I would call that a win, sir. Whether we lead the straight and narrow or we bend the curves of the road to fit us doesn’t matter.”
“Thank you, Mark. But I’m afraid that what I’m about to send you into will be putting you in danger.”
“I was never met for great things, Dominic. If I can help I would like to.”
