STALEMATE [MAFIA] [MXM] ✓

30: RUNS

Salem ends up staying the night at Natalia's, as is typical for when he's over there late. He's expecting to wake up where he fell asleep: her couch. An expectation that he thinks is quite plausible. However, instead, when he is brought back to consciousness... he's in the backseat of a car.

That's at the back of his mind, however. His main focus is the fact that his phone is buzzing. He sits up and finds it laying underneath him, flashing Donny's name.

Okay, that's probably not good.

Salem yawns, rubbing his eyes and grabbing the device. He presses the green button and holds it up to his ear, trying to get his eyes to adjust to his new surroundings. Yeah, he's definitely in a car, which is moving. When he looks out the window, it appears that he's just exiting Natalia's neighborhood.

Okay, no way he's being kidnapped or something, Natalia wouldn't let something like that happen. So what is going on?

"Heart? You there?"

Okay, Donny does not sound happy. Salem already knows that Catrine fucking pulled something. "Yeah, what's up?"

"What happened?"

Salem frowns, eyes wandering over to the rear view mirror. He meets eyes with Atlas.

Oh. Natalia must've called him to come get Salem. It is pretty late in the afternoon, he slept in unintentionally.

"Huh?"

"With Catrine."

Salem does not understand what is going on in the slightest. Why does Donny want to know what happened with Catrine? Why does he even think something happened with Catrine? Her and Salem had a slightly hostile discussion in which she demanded that he basically allows Black Cross to do whatever they want with him, and in return Donny can keep his job. He had 72 hours, though! It hasn't even been a day!

"Nothing happened," Salem tells him, beginning to grow alarmed. Donny sounds really stressed. "What did she do?"

"Fired me." Donny says, and Salem's heart drops. What?! She said he had 72 hours!

Then again... that was before she found out that she's lost all her hard work. It wouldn't take much to guess who the reason is for that, especially since there's cameras. Then again, he thought the device probably messed up the cameras. Also, he and Donovan would've both been caught. Why is Donny the only one getting punished?

"She fired me, and she's promoting Ellis."

Salem can't stop himself from raising his eyebrows. Fucking what? She's promoting Jordan? That would make him a Lieutenant-he'd only be one rank away from Captain, which is what Jack was before he got promoted to Chief. Jordan's like, 25! He should not be advancing this fast!

"What?" Salem replies in complete disbelief. "No way, that's-that's not happening. I'll talk to her. Is she at the station?"

Salem isn't sure what exactly he could do to change the situation, but he owes it to Donny to try. To at least get some answers.

"She's at the promotion ceremony."

Salem freezes. No way this is happening. It's all just way too much. "It's happening right now?"

"In like an hour, I think."

Salem can't help the way his jaw drops, all this happening way too fast. So basically overnight, Donny was fired and Jordan has been promoted. What kind of timing? How does this even benefit her? Is she trying to give him more clearance or credibility or something? God, Salem is so sick of these people.

"I found proof." Salem says, having briefly forgotten about that. Should he just go straight to the media with this? No, he kind of wants to distribute it himself. He doesn't know what kind of connections Catrine has. "I found the body cam footage of her killing my dad."