Addicted

Chapter 14

Giovanni Liotti

To be honest, there was a part which was true on why I asked Marina on another date. It was true that my stress was related to my job, but it was not quite a presentation. It was more related that Faddei had been messing around, and trying to get our attention. He didn't succeed at first, but he tickled me when he sent pictures of Marina - at her apartment, on the street, working, you got it.

Somehow, since we all met her, we all felt protective of her. But the one most all over the place was Chris, and I understood it. He saw her as his little sister. He felt the need to protect her. And then that I was kind of - you know - I do too.

I didn't even know what I was feeling towards her, but I had been feeling really confused over those feelings. And I didn't like having everything under my control in life. I needed to know what was going on with me. She was doing something to me, and ... I kind of liked it. I felt more free. I felt reckless. I felt - myself, somehow.

Feeling really tired, I didn't even bother to put on the contacts. Tomorrow was the date with Marina, and I was excited, as always. We had known each other for some time already. I believed since the day of the dude who pointed the gun at her it had been two months. Maybe even more.

I walked, tying on my phone, sending orders to the soldiers I had all over the city. He had been trying to take a hold of one of our shipments, and in three days, at night, it was going to be the biggest shipment of the year. Just as big, as you could count three tracks. Yes, this one was on land, because it came from Ecuador.

I walked into the meeting room of this house, and I saw our tech team, Angelo being the head of it, typing fastly on their keyboards, trying to keep every single Russian soldier of Fadei located. We didn't want to risk anything. We knew this was going to end. But hopefully, we didn't end up with a lot of losses.

"How is it going?" I asked Angelo.

"It's been good. We have tracked down a track full of weapons, which we sent to the other side of the country by changing the directions on his GPS." He nodded, while explaining. "We also have tracked around 70 soldiers all around the city, by the cameras." He brushed his hair back. He looked tired.

"You should rest, Angelo. You have been working hard for the past week." I said. "All of you should. Take the rest of the day to rest." I commanded the rest of the room. Looking down at my phone, I saw that it is 5 in the afternoon, so it would be fine.

"Giovanni, you can't do that." He sat down. "You know why we are doing this. This is not only about the shipment, you know that." He looked at me. "This is also about Marina. I know you care for her more than you let yourself see. And if she is important to you she is to me as well. I kind of got along with her as well. So, stop this. There are lives in danger." He exclaimed.

"Rest. It's a command. Now." I said, standing up. He rolled his eyes, standing up. He patted my back, and walked to his room.

He was not wrong, this was mostly because of Marina, and her life. But I also cared for Angelo, and his health. He and I had known each other for way too long, and we both knew that when we both put our minds into something we wouldn't rest until we finished. And I had seen him like this. Tired. Off. He was usually a happy, and chatty guy, which usually got on my nerves, but he was very hard working as well. Too much sometimes.

After making sure Angelo had gone to rest, I started walking down to the training room. Angelo didn't live here, but kind of had a room for himself as he had been spending lots of time since I could remember.

I took the stairs to walk down to the training room. I saw some of the oldest soldiers that had been in the mafia, instructing the newest ones for this hit. They were divided into sections. There were some that were sitting on one side of the huge room, and they were explaining how those kinds of situations work, especially with the Russians.