Walking back into the room, Roman switched Tino to his left arm so he could take the keys that belong to the handcuffs outta his pocket.
Zadia rubbed her wrist once the cuffs fell off. She stretched her arms out to take the fussy baby from Roman. With one final glance, Roman handed Tino over, ignoring the way the baby's crying stopped once she wrapped her arms around him. Walking to the corner of the room, Roman picked up the ivory round chair and set it down beside Zadia before taking a seat. He crossed his arms watching Zadia plant kisses all over Tino's face. "Would you stop that, he's fine. I wouldn't hurt a baby, let alone my nephew."
"I wouldn't put it past you."
"You don't even know me," Roman replied, snidely.
"You killed a man, that's all I need to know."
"And if I hadn't, you'd all be dead." He clasped his hands together. "In my book, I did you a favor."
Zadia's eyes twitched, her mouth ready to give him a piece of her mind, but she ate her words. She looked down at Tino, tickling his side, making him giggle. "You missed me, didn't you." She cooed as he babbled. "Yeah, you missed me." Picking him up, she laid him down gently on the bed. "How long was I out?" She asked, her question aimed at Roman.
"Four hours." He stated. "You're lucky I got you here when I did." He shifts in his seat. "That makes it twice I've saved your life."
"...Thanks." She mumbled, her eyes never daring to look at him. She took a peek inside Tino's diaper and saw that it was clean.
"Can you repeat that?" Roman teased. "I couldn't hear you the first time."
Sitting Tino up, Zadia let him play with a strand of her loc. "I never personally knew your sister." She started, deciding not to repeat herself. "She lived across from me for a couple of months and that's it. When we'd see each other in the halls, we'd say hello, but it never went past that. That guy Martin came by our apartment looking around for a woman that matched her description, so I wrote her a note and told her that, before slipping it under her door." Zadia tugged on Tino's cheek playfully. "Next thing you know, there's a knock at my door and Tino is laying in his car seat with a note."
"What'd the note say?" Roman asked his mind in thought.
"It said that she needed someone to watch over Santino because it was too much of a risk being on the run with him. She mentioned being chased by Los Ánarquistas and every other criminal organization in the city." She paused, trying to remember what else the note had said. "She also said not to call the cops, that they were all bad and that Tino has a soy allergy."
Roman watched her bite the bottom of her plumped lip. He could tell she was leaving something out, because of the lack of eye contact. "That's it?"
Zadia kept her eyes trained on Tino. "Yeah." She let out, trying her best to sound firm.
"You know, you can tell a lot about a person when it comes down to eye contact." He said a humorless chuckle followed afterward. "When a person fails to give eye contact, it's because of two things. One, they're lying or anxious, and two, they lack self-esteem. You don't look like the kind of person to have a lack of self-esteem, so I'm just gonna go with one on this."
Zadia cursed herself and her stupid need for eye contact.
She bit down on her bottom lip harder when her eyes betrayed her, finally looking into the depths of Roman's black pupils. He had light brown eyes, the exact shade of the Bronzite gemstone her father gifted her for her eighth birthday.
Looking into his eyes she was pulled into a daze trying to get a read off of him. His eyes were filled with such mystery and that's about the only thing she could comprehend. "You have nice eyes." She blurted out stupidly. Blood rose to her cheeks in realization. "I... That's not what I meant to say."
ChApTeR - 5
Start from the beginning
