The love I choose to keep | manny montana

Long time no see, huh?

I woke up from the sun rays that were flooding through my window. I always forget to let the curtains down at night. I looked at my phone to check the time. 8:43. Okay, i didnt oversleep. When I went downstairs to get my first coffee for the day, Mike was there, drinking his coffee.

"Hey, I'm sorry for drinking your milk again, i bought a couple of boxes tho, they're in the fridge.", he said before i could say something rude about the empty box he left yesterday.

"Thank you.", i coldly responded to him.

Me and Mike don't really have much of a relationship. I didn't like him when i first came to Graceland, but over the years, we started getting along more. He is one of these guys who always try to overachieve and be better than everyone else. I'm pretty sure this isn't a competition, all of us have our strenghts. Charlie is great with drug dealers and junkies, Paige somehow always manages to get the guys she's after become obsessed with her and just sing it all out without thinking much about it, I'm great with gaining people's trust fast and leading tactical and Paul... well, Paul is good at being Paul. He's done some pretty fucked up shit in his past and i'm pretty sure he still does some shady things, but at the end of the day, his methods work and i'm not the one to judge his choices.

After i made myself a cup of coffee, i went back to my room. After a couple of hours of digging i finally found a way to get in the game. Apparently one of my old informants used to work with the gang a while back in Michigan. Of course it wasnt officially documented but it wasn't hard to put two and two together. I called him and arranged a meeting.

I was parked in front of a pawn shop in a very sketchy neighbourhood, waiting for Doug. He came out of the shop and got into my car.

"Long time no see, huh?", he said almost hatefully.

"Doug, i'm sorry, you know i haven't been on many active cases lately. But i really need your help.", i said apologetically.

He shook his head and let out a deep sigh.
"Aight, boss, whatchu need?" he asked.

"I need you to introduce me to the leader of a gang that recently came into town. Rio.", i made a short pause and continued. "Introduce me as someone you've worked with in Detroit. My back story is that i used to work for Santiago Abrigo. His whole gang is gone so he can't check it. I'm looking to do some jobs for him because a couple of weeks ago my mom died in a car crash in Detroit and i moved here. Got it?"

"That's a very touching story but he has some people at the police, what if they check your record?" he asked.

"I'll take care of this. Now, can you introduce me or not?", i asked with annoyance.

"Sure, i'll let you know when it's set up." he replied and with that got out of the car.

He's been very helpful throughout the years and i like to keep an eye on him just in case. But he's a junkie after all, so i can't fully trust him.

After the meeting with Doug, i went straight home with nothing to do but wait for his call. So i decided to go surfing because i hadn't done that in a while. We live in a beachfront house so it's pretty conveniet. That's exactly why i got into surfing. When i first got into Graceland, this was the first thing Paul and Charlie insisted they teach me.

After a couple of hours at the beach, i went home just in time for dinner. After three days, Charlie's famous sauce was finally ready. We all had dinner together and after we were finished, it was my turn to do the dishes. Of course it had to be my turn just in time for Charlie's pasta.

Me and Paige came home after we got a couple of drinks at the nearby bar and just as i was getting ready to go to bed, i got a message.

im sending you the address tomorrow at 12. be ready
- Doug

Reading that, i knew things were finally gonna get real. I was going to finally meet Johnny, the guy my friends loved and missed so much, the guy who was no longer the man they once knew.

xxx