"Not acceptable, he didn't do anything to earn a day off." He said, looking back at Abel. "Two laps around the house, as soon as we're done here." Abel sighed heavily, knowing if he talked back it would earn him another lap. He nodded, leaning into the sofa. "What about you, did you get any work done?" He asked Zadia.
She nodded. "Surprisingly, I did." She answered and it was the truth. She got out of bed bright and early and worked on a couple of exercises that were on the list Roman gave her a few weeks back.
"Good. At least one of you is taking this seriously." He walked over to her and placed the bag with the insulin beside her.
"Thanks." She mumbled, already knowing what it was.
Roman didn't reply, instead, he stood in the middle of the room with his shoulders straight. "This." He looked around the living room. "Is a house meeting and I've decided to have these from now on, whenever we have new leads or vile information that deals with you two." He points at Zadia and Abel. "I'm hoping, this will keep some of you from doing something stupid."
"Like running away and putting everyone's life at risk?" Lynn said, looking right at Zadia. Zadia glared at her, her face hot with embarrassment.
"Yes, exactly that," Roman said. "Yesterday I had an important meeting with some important people and they have given us six months to get this whole situation situated. If we don't get this done in six months, I'm told to put you two." He points at Zadia and Abel. "Down."
"What?!" Zadia and Abel exclaimed. "You can't just put us down like dogs, none of this is even our fault!" Said Zadia. "You're gonna put us down because whoever these people are told you to?"
Roman didn't answer, instead, he moved on. "Currently, what we know is, Eliśa and," He points at Lynn. "Your cousin Draya is on the run together. We don't know where they're going, but their last place seen was at a train station downtown. While we continue to search for their whereabouts, Cortez is playing his own game. He's trying to take us out with any chance he gets and he's doing that by upping the number of people he has on the streets and having them look for us. He's also putting a lot of presence on the media, so random folks are looking for us as well. Now, for us to be done with this whole thing and put this behind us, we need to find Eliśa. Once we find her, she'll set the record straight which will gain Zadia her freedom back and everything can go back to normal."
"So, since we can't find her, what do we do in the meantime? Lynn asked.
"Good question. In the meantime, we need to get Cortez into the media for something that doesn't pertain to us, so there isn't as much pressure on our backs."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Adam asked.
"I was hoping you guys had a suggestion." He said, looking around the room. Zadia bit the inside of her cheeks, thinking. She raised her hand, earning a questioning look from Roman. "Why are you raising your hand, just talk?"
"Oh, well Adam raised his hand so I thought it was a thing we're doing." She said.
"I just like raising my hand, it seems like the proper thing to do," Adam said. "It's not mandatory, though."
"Okay, cool I just didn't wanna speak over anyone."
"You speak over everyone all the time, how exactly is this different?" Lynn questioned.
Zadia frowned. "That's not true, I don't talk over everyone."
"If I wanted to hear fucking bickering, I would've stayed at my supplier's house!" Roman shouted, shutting the two up. "Now, Zadia. What's your suggestion?"
ChApTeR - 10
Start from the beginning
