She smiled at him sadly. "I'm fine, Abe. Are you alright?"
He sat beside her on the couch. "Surprisingly, fine. They ain't all that bad here."
"I let you eat my Yorkshire pudding, little shit," Adam said poking his head into the living room. "Damn straight we're not all that bad." He joked. He sounded like he was from the United Kingdom but Zadia wasn't all too sure because accents weren't her thing.
"Adam," Roman said in a warning tone.
"Right, back to work I'm on it." He said, walking back into the kitchen.
Roman glanced at Abel and Zadia. "I know your family isn't worried about you." He said to Zadia. "But what about you?" He asked Abel.
"My Tía. I was been supposed to be home. She's probably livid right now."
Roman nodded, figuring out how Cortez would use this to his best interest. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to give you a phone and you're going to text her and tell her that you're fine." He said. "Since you guys are locals, it's only a matter of time before Cortez finds out where you stay. Therefore, also explain that she'll most likely have guys coming to her home looking for you."
"Why would they go through all that trouble, if they know he's with me?" Zadia asked.
"It'll help spread the narrative that you're dangerous. When they go to his aunt's house and see that he's not there, they'll spin the story and say that you abducted him. They'll be amber alerts and stuff like that to increase the search for you guys. Your Tía should go along with it all. They won't hesitate to kill her."
Abel's chest raised and fell, thinking about his aunt getting hurt. He didn't want that. She was innocent in all this, just as he and Zadia were. "Where's the phone?"
Roman reached into his jeans and pulled out a flip phone. "Give it back when you're done." He told him, passing him the phone. "Even though it's obvious and you all should know, I'll say it just in case you guys are stupid." He started. "After you get done texting her, you both talk to no one outside of here. It's a stupid move if you do and you'll just be putting everyone here, including the baby in danger. Hopefully, it won't take long to find my sister and we can get all this cleared up soon."
Abel grasped the small phone in his hand and typed in his aunt's phone number. It took him a minute to type what Roman had said and when he was finished, he pressed send. "Done." He passed Roman back the phone and took Tino from Zadia to hold him.
Everything felt like it was moving so fast.
Clearing his throat, Roman glanced at his watch. He had drugs to get rid of. As promised, every hour his sister was missing, he'd been stealing Cortez's drugs and sending him videos of them going up in flames. Was it petty? Yes, but it proved he was serious. "If I'd known I was having more people around, I would've chosen a bigger safe house. You guys don't mind sleeping in the same room until we relocate?"
Zadia turned to Abel and he nodded. "It's fine."
"Great. I'll send someone to get a crib for the baby." He gestured around the house. "Make the most out of it or whatever, just be sure to clean after yourselves. Most importantly, stay out of my way." When neither Zadia nor Abel said anything else, he walked away.
"At least we don't gotta worry about rent anymore," Abel said, attempting to crack a joke, but Zadia didn't laugh. She stared straight ahead, tears gliding from her eyes to her cheeks.
"You're aunts gonna kill me." She cried. "I was supposed to watch over you and I'm failing at that, just like how I'm failing at everything else in life. You're young, you're not supposed to be involved in shit like this and now look at you... look at us."
Abel placed a hand on her shoulder. It was weird seeing her cry, she'd always do anything but that. "She's not gonna kill you." Zadia gave him a look and he sighed. "Okay, maybe she is but look on the bright side. You've got time to live before she does." Zadia found herself snorting at what he just said. "I'm serious. The least we can do while we're here is... make the most out of it and hope not to get caught."
"Do you think I made the right decision that night... taking this little guy in?" She asked, pinching Tino's cheeks.
"Of course I do. I'd do the same if I were in your position."
Zadia sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I think it's time I've told you about my parents."
Abel smiled at her sheepishly. "I may have already googled you, which led to me finding out about them."
Zadia laughed. "Seriously?"
"Yeah." He laughed. "My fault, it was just so tempting. No offense, but never in my life did I expect them to be loaded."
"They're loaded assholes if you ask me. Family sucks."
Abel leaned over, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. Tino smiled at them. "Good thing you've got us. We can be annoying at times, but I promise we'll look out for you. Always." He tickled Tino's stomach. "Well I speak for myself, all Tino does is eat and poop."
"Don't do him like that. He'll eventually grow and do more." She ruffled his hair.
Abel nudged her. "Anyways, we've got your back Yaya. Like it or not."
Zadia's face scrunched up. "Yaya? Seriously? I'll take a pass on that. It's either Zadia or Zee, nothing more and nothing less."
"Just you wait. You'll love it, watch." They both burst into a fit of laughter, their minds pushing away the hectic problems of today. Sure, sooner or later they'd have to deal with the brewing setbacks that were yet to come, but right now laughing together was all that mattered.
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