Roman raised an eyebrow. "Is that your way of saying you care?"
Lynn rolled her eyes. "It's not... I just know how she feels right now." She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his wet cheek. She was kinda surprised that he let her do it, but she didn't press on the matter. "I'll see you whenever you're home, be safe."
"I'll call you later." He replied, walking over to the driver's side. As he opened the door and slid into the car, he watched as Lynn sped out the parking lot, before he started the car and drove away from the building complex. He hoped he saw the last of this place because honestly, he had enough of coming here. Flipping the radio on, the soft sound of Spanish music played in their background. He took small glances at Zadia when he stopped at a red light but only to ensure that she was okay... or at least looked okay.
This was the quietest she'd ever been and he didn't know how to feel about it.
"Did I go too far?" He questioned himself, his tongue running through his teeth. His lips munched together as he thought about it. It took him a while to realize what going too far was, because in reality he never had to think about it. Roman was punctual. He did what wanted, whenever and however he wanted, logically of course. People's feelings weren't his problem and they certainly weren't going to get in the way of how he thinks... yet he found himself here at the moment, wondering if his way of teaching went too far. "She was gonna have to kill someone, sooner or later... it's best it happened now." He tried to reason with his conscience. "She now knows how to shoot and defend herself better. It's a win-win, she'll get over it."
But what if she didn't?
"Where are you taking me?" Zadia asked, her voice low. Her hand found its way to the scarf around her head and she unwrapped it, letting her semi-wet locs loose. She wanted so badly to get out of these wet clothes and go home to bathe.
She was so pissed off at herself.
"You'll see when we get there," Roman muttered, leaning forward to cut on the heater. He had noticed her hand trembling and thought the heat would help. "You're fragile." He let out and Zadia's eyes snapped to the side of his face in confusion. "Just as fragile as my sister and... and I'm not the best teacher when it comes down to fragile people. Training a woman is one thing, but training a fragile woman is another... Lynn, she was different when I had to train her, she was more like me when and it just made everything mo—"
Zadia cut him off, a glare settled onto her face. "Are you trying to say that I've got to be more like you and Lynn to defend myself against people? Because if that is what you're trying to say, I'd rather fucking die right here, right now than to be anything like you sick, sadistic animals!" She shouted, angrily. "You guys are fucked up and not just physically but emotionally too! And don't even get me started about the way y'all have problems with admitting y'all have problems!"
Roman's lips pressed into a fine line. That's not even close to where he was trying to go with all of this. She didn't even let him finish because if she did, she'd hear something completely different come out of his mouth. He silently sat there, wondering if he should give her a piece of his mind. "You're the one that put yourself in this situation!" He wanted to yell out badly but didn't. He knew that she was most likely acting like this because her feelings were hurt. He made a right turn, purposely slamming on the brakes harder than usual, so she'd hit her head against the window. Zadia let out an "Ouch" and he smirked with satisfaction. Just because he didn't want to give her a piece of his mind, didn't mean he couldn't find another way to set her straight.
"You did that on purpose!" Zadia shrieked, holding the side of her head. She saw the small mischievous smirk that formed on his lips when it happened.
"No, I didn't, there was a pothole and I was trying to avoid it." He lied, causally.
Zadia looked out the window, her body tense. She kept playing the incident in her head over and over again like a stuck VCR player. "Why'd you make me do it?" She asked, her voice soft.
Roman didn't bother to hesitate. "I already told you... you've got to learn." He cleared his throat. "You're rolling with us until this whole thing gets cleared, that means sometime soon you're gonna get into a situation that requires you to start dropping bodies and making smarter decisions. Let today be that lesson."
"I don't want to kill people."
Roman shrugged, not knowing what to say to her. "We all eventually do the things we don't want to do." He replied. "Get used to it."
Get used to it? How could she possibly do that? Besides insects, Zadia had never killed anything... until now. She felt the inside of her stomach turn like she was about to puke. She had killed a living person. "Why are we in Tempe?" Zadia asked, noticing that they were driving near the Hayden Butte. Tempe was a city just east of Phoenix. Since it was a close city, it never took long to get there.
He ignored her and seconds later pulled up to a "Public Storage" facility and entered a pin code at the entrance, causing the huge black gates to open. "You know the process of washing money?" Zadia shook her head no. She'd never even heard about it. "I'm only telling you this, so you aren't clueless about it when you hear us at home talking about it. Let's just say, I've got a group of people who make counterfeit money, and as a way to get rid of that money and replace it with real cash, I use this place." He drove around, looking for something. "I brought you here so you could put your... stuff in my unit. Therefore you won't have to worry about your things anymore and you know it's in a safe place."
Zadia stared at him, her eyebrows raised. She was caught off guard by his attempt at... kindness. "Thanks." She mumbled, frowning at the pain she felt in her head. A headache was forming.
Roman parked the car near his unit, his bright headlights reflecting on the greenish barriers. The rain fell around them as the tension became thick and awkward. "I don't have an umbrella in here, cool with you if we wait till the rain stops?"
"We're already wet."
He rolled his eyes. "No shit. I didn't want to get your stupid paintings wet, since the towel is already soaked. If you think you can get them out the car without wetting them, be my fucking guest."
"They aren't stupid." She sighed, leaning more into her seat. She wanted to close her eyes, but she knew all too well the images would start to haunt her more. "How do you get used to it?"
He looked over his shoulder to stare at her. "To what?"
"The killing."
He paused, shaking his head. "You don't." And it was the truth. Both of them looked straight ahead, knowing that an awkward silence was yet again coming. They didn't mind it, their eyes too busy watching as the rain fell on the windshield only for it to get wiped off a second later. This was their reality, and although Roman was already used to it, Zadia was just settling into it.
She had a lot to learn and now she finally understood that.
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