POV: Raphael
Only a fool dares to steal from Dominic Morrell. I took a huge risk when I double-crossed him. It was just a business deal that was supposed to stop the trafficking of underage girls in the city. At that time, I thought I was doing the right thing, I was hell-bent on making this city better and I made such a stupid move that put me in such a terrible situation.
You see, two years ago, when my family thought I was out of town studying to be the businessman they wanted me to be. I was actually here in this city, building my business network, and making my position known in the city. I made friends with some guys in the Mafia, and I got close to cartel rings, keeping my enemies closer like they say.
I did all this to gain relevance in the city and know my way around. I made allies and friends in a few months, and I had one friend who helped me get around easily. His name was the one person I could trust, the one person who saw through my disguise before anyone else.
His name is Dominic Morrell, and at that time, I had no idea that he was a mafia lord. The number one man in the Mafia world. Dominic knew my reason for sneaking around behind my family and he helped me cover my tracks. I investigated my cousins and my uncles. I am the tough guy I am today because of him.
He showed me the streets, showed me how to work the streets, and how to get what I wanted. Working with him was so good, it felt so good to have someone who truly cared about me. It felt good to have a friend that watches my back always.
I found out my uncles were high drug traffickers in the city and my cousins are arms dealers. They use the business as a front, but behind the scenes, they were fucking trafficking drugs and guns, ruining the city. I found their warehouses filled up with bad heroin. I couldn’t let that get into the city, so I burnt it to the ground, destroying their piles.
I didn’t bother with other drug traffickers because I wasn’t related to them. I would have turned a blind eye to my uncle’s shady businesses if I hadn’t found out about their other line of business. I found out they were smuggling underage girls and selling them to anyone willing to pay for their services.
If they were discovered, it would affect the company because that year, our company, I mean my company was still being run by my uncle and they all worked in the company as well. I had to do something about it, I had to make sure get didn’t ruin the company before I got back to town.
I made an effort to destroy their links and stop them from ruining my company. The plan was to destroy and get them blacklisted and kicked out of business, but I underestimated my uncles. They didn’t back down, even when they lost a major shipment after a ship capsized and destroyed their goods.
My uncles had no idea it was me, so they blamed their business partners and went to war with the wrong people. Dominic didn’t like that, he tried to stop me and in so doing he ruined our friendship. He threatened to expose me to my enemies and put me on their radar. I had no choice but to back off and leave the city for a while for things to cool off.
While I was away, I had a visit from the one person that Dominics hated the most, the one person who could bring him down, Carlos Gonzalez. It was Carlos that opened my eyes to many things I didn’t know about. I found out that Dominic could never side with me because he gets a huge percentage on every deal. He was the owner of the ships used for smuggling the girls and the other consignment.
It was Carlos who made me know that Dominic was the Mafia Lord, and try only way to get my uncle’s stop was to help him take that power away from him. I felt betrayed by Dominic, he had many opportunities to tell me that he was the mafia lord, but he chose to deceive me.
He was going to expose me if I didn’t stop, so I wasted no time in thinking about the offer from Carlos. I turned against him in the twinkling of an eye, and I helped Carlos to Usurp him and send him into hiding. It took several months of careful planning and preparation.
I thought I could get Carlos to stop the human trafficking and smuggling, I thought I could make him stop my uncles from using my company to launder money for cartels. But he made it clear to me that he couldn’t do anything about it because that’s how it works in his line of business.
I felt so stupid when he told me I would need to come to terms with how things work in this city. I’ve always prided myself on being very smart and careful. But this one time, I was stupid enough to let him receive me. I thought Dominic was the problem, he made me believe that Dominic was my problem.
I could have carried out my investigations to find out if he was telling me the truth, but I was too busy hating Dominic for trying to stop me from being careless and ruthless. I guess he was only trying to stop me before I got myself killed. But I got pissed off at him for interfering and I screwed him over.
It’s been six months since I last heard from him. All this while, I’ve been thinking about him, but I couldn’t face him after what I did. I thought he would get back at me by leaking my secret identity to the people I’ve destroyed their businesses. But so far, he hasn’t responded in any way. His silence meant anger and revenge.
I have no idea if this incident is his way of getting back at me, I don’t know if he is trying to hurt Victoria and her family because of me. The thought of that makes my heart beat faster. If this is his way of getting back at me, that means Victoria’s life is in danger because he would kill her and send her body parts to me as a gift.
“How do you know that he stole a car, how did you know that he has your sister and her boyfriend?” I asked Victoria, looking at her for an answer. She told me the guard had told her Kyle stole his car and heroine.
“I saw him with the car when he came over to the house. He knew his life was in danger and he wanted to stay over and hide out for a bit. But I wouldn’t let him stay there. I chased him out and she decided to go with him.” she sobbed.
“It is all my fault, Ralph. If only I didn’t hate him so much, I would have let him stay and they would both be safe.” She cried sadly. I turned to her sternly, forcing her to look at me,
“This is not your fault, Victoria, it’s Kyle’s fault for stealing from someone like Dominic. You should be glad you sent him away, you and your mother and everyone else in that house would have been dead now if you didn’t send him away.” I told her truthfully, dragging my hand through my hair.
“You speak as if you know this Dominic guy that they are talking about. Have you met him before?” she asked me, looking at me strangely. I nodded in response, my face turned to the road as my eyes stared ahead looking at nothing in particular.
“If you know him, Raphael, please take me to him. Help me find my sister, Raphael. It would kill our mom if something happened to her. Help me get her home safely, please,” she begged with tears in her eyes.
“You don’t know this guy, Vee, he’s too dangerous. We used to be friends before. But now, I can’t even say I’m his enemy because he doesn’t hate his enemies as much as he hates me. He would shoot me on sight, that’s how much he hates me. Do you expect me to risk my life to save your sister?” I asked her. I don’t expect to get an answer from her.
Looking at the sadness in her eyes and seeing the tears on her face. I know I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her sister back home safely. Even if it means to face my worst nightmare and pay a visit to Dominic Morrell. I screwed up and I have to make it right, this visit is long overdue…