On the very next day, Roman came home and parked his jeep in the garage. He picked up the brown paper bag in his back seat, which contained three sets of fresh insulin, and got out of his car. It was only him. He had dropped Lynn off here after yesterday's meeting and left without telling anyone anything. He drove for a while, trying to clear his mind, keeping his raging thoughts at bay and when that didn't work, he drove to the woods and took his anger out there.

On his way back, he had remembered Zadia was running low on insulin and decided to head over to his supplier's place to get some. Driving there and back took him a while, which was why he was currently walking through the house door at 1:21 in the afternoon.

The house was barely quiet with all the loud talking coming from the living room. Shutting the door to the garage, he made his way there, quietly. Leaning against the wall, he watched as everyone laughed and engaged in some stupid debate about something on the television.

"It doesn't make any sense for anyone to bite ice cream!" Zadia exclaimed with her hands. She sat on the sofa with her knees crossed, while pointing at the television. "It's called ice cream for a reason. You lick it. The way he's doing it is wrong and he should be banned from ever having ice cream again."

Lynn who sat on the other sofa with an unreadable expression nodded her head in agreement. "I'm not a fan of the non-meat eater here, but I'm gonna have to agree with her on this. Biting ice cream instead of licking it is wrong. Adam, your disgusting."

Abel laughed hard, clutching his stomach because of the look on Adam's face. "How the heck do you even do that?" He asked, leaning against Zadia with Tino in his arms. It seemed like the two of them had made up. "Don't your teeth be hurting from the cold?"

Adam rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "First off, that only happens if you have sensitive teeth. And second, I find it ridiculous that you all don't just bite the ice cream instead of licking. It's eaten rather faster with biting and takes a while longer with licking."

"Duh, it's 'cause you're supposed to take your time and devour it. It's not meant to eat in one go." Zadia explained. "That's like having a book and reading the last page before reading the begging. Backwards as hell."

Roman rolled his eyes, already over the whole debate. "Why is the garage door unlocked?" He asked suddenly, startling everyone. They hadn't noticed he was standing there. "Better yet, why isn't anyone's guard up?" No one answered, they just stared at him. "If I was an intruder, I could've easily taken you all out. Being sloppy gets you killed."

Adam cleared his throat, rising to his feet. "Apologies, Roman. I'm the one that suggested we even watch television in the first place."

Abel frowned. "No, he wasn't, I'm the one that did." He admitted.

Roman looked at him, leaning off the wall. "Did you get any work done this morning?" He asked.

"I decided to give him today off." Lynn piped in.

"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?"

"Well if Cortez has a strong media presence and he's a big influence among the community, I say we work with that. What's one thing people hate to hear about their trusted leaders? Anything that involves a scandal right? Cortez makes it seem like Eliśa and he is this big power couple, with the perfect marriage. If we can somehow put something out into the media that debunks that, then it would have tons of people questioning him and it would surely take some heat off our backs." Zadia suggested.

Roman thought about it for a second. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"I agree. I think I'd be able to pull something up that proves this." Said Adam."

"Any other suggestions?"

"I've got one," Abel stated. "Cortez is an investor, so what if we can prove that the things he's investing in are corrupted?"

Roman nods, after thinking it over. "Go on."

Abel continued. "Well, there's this really expensive furniture store on the west side of town that my tía used to warn me about. She and most of all the adults in my neighborhood used to always tell us not to go inside because they knew that there was a lot of sex trafficking involved there. Allegedly, the truck that they use to bring the furniture in and out is also filled with a bunch of people inside of it, mainly women and kids from different parts of the world. Guess who's currently the lead investor of that store?" Abel finished.

Everyone in the room shifted. "And you're one hundred percent positive that this is true and not just some story your aunt told you to keep you from wandering around?" Lynn asked.

"I'm positive. My aunt wouldn't lie about something so serious."

"Any other suggestions?" Roman asked. No one said anything. "Okay then, that leaves us with two suggestions and one choice. If we can get proof, then this will slow Cortez down. Lynn, what's your pick?"

Lynn placed a finger on her chin, thinking it through. "If we go with the first suggestion, there's a huge possibility people won't care. And since Eliśa isn't around, plenty of people will debunk the whole thing even with proof. Now Abel's suggestion... that would make Cortez catch a lot of heat. Even if it's true or not, it would get people asking questions. I'd say we go with that."

Roman looked over to Adam. He cleared his throat. "Abel's suggestion sounds good, but if we take this route I'm sure it would only frustrate Cortez more and do the opposite of benefiting us. Besides that, we've gotta think about the other factors at hand. The time and resources put into finding proof about this could be endless. Zadia's suggestion seems more convenient."

Lynn scoffed in disagreement. "All Cortez has to do is say fake news and the media will dismiss it. That's all it takes. With Abel's suggestion, there's no way of dismissing it. It'll stick."

"Why can't we just go with both?" Zadia asked. She didn't understand why they had to choose.

Lynn rolled her eyes at Zadia's question. "Because if we do both, then people would know that something is up. Just one is better."

"That's stupid."

"It's logical." Lynn resorted.

"We'll go with Zadia's suggestions," Roman said, shutting the both of them up. Zadia stared at him in surprise, while Lynn sucked her teeth. "Adam makes some good points, Cortez is a hothead, and outing the operation that he's got going on will only cause us to make enemies with other folks. We don't need that right now and I'm sure those people are as good as dead if word about this gets out. Cortez won't leave a trail."

"I'm sure they would rather be dead than trafficked for the rest of their lives," Lynn argued.

Roman sighed. "That may be true, but it has nothing to do with us. So we stay out of it for now."

"Whatever," Lynn mumbled.

"So what exactly do we do now?" Zadia questioned. "How do we get our proof?"

"Research," Adam answered. "We've got to get this scandal out into the world and make sure it doesn't lead back to us. Therefore all hands on deck with this one. There has to be proof somewhere and we're gonna need a credible source."

"TK still works at the news nine stations. He's not open to doing me any favors anymore, but I'm sure if you asked him he would." Roman said to Adam.

"Is that your way of giving me permission to leave the house?" Asked Adam.

He nodded. "Yup, call us if you run into trouble." Roman dismissed. "Lynn go with him."

Adam gave him a look. "I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself."

"I don't want to risk it, Lynn will just be there to make sure everything runs smoothly."

Lynn stood up and grabbed the car keys off the coffee table. "Guard duty yet again, how fun." She said sarcastically. The both of them left without saying another word.

Abel cleared his throat. "So..." He trailed on. "What do we do now?"

"You're gonna go run your laps and we're gonna start researching. When you're done, you can join in."

Abel passed Zadia the baby and stood up, his shoulders slumping in the process. "I guess." He muttered, disappearing into the kitchen.

Zadia stood up too. Tino in her arms and the bag of insulin. "I'm gonna put him down for a nap and come back." She announced.

Roman hummed a reply, grabbing the nearest laptop and taking a seat on the sofa. He got to work quickly, drowning out any further noise.

————-

A couple of minutes into his research, Roman could hear the sound of Zadia's footsteps coming down the stairs. He sighed momentarily, before taking a sip from his water bottle. His typing started again, long fingers tapping against the keyboard. When Zadia stepped into the living room, he paused again to look at her.

"Just got him down." She announced, talking about Tino. She placed the small baby monitor on the table.

Roman pointed at Adam's desk. "Pick a laptop or tablet, it doesn't matter." He said, going back to typing. He was currently going through the archives of his sister's old phone. There wasn't much to work with, seeing as someone purposely deleted a lot of valuable information, but with what remained he was bound to find something.

Zadia sat down on the opposite sofa, as she opened the tablet. She decided to take a different approach with her research and searched, "Eliśa and Cory Figueroa." At first, all she saw were the links that talked about Cory's news conference and updates, until she stumbled on one blog post that caught her attention. The headline was called, "Eliśa's Story" and it didn't take long before Zadia started reading. The article mainly focused on Eliśa's upbringing or at least part of it. "I think I found something." She said to Roman.

He looked up from his laptop again. "What is it?"

"Your sister interviewed with some blogger back when she was pregnant. They talk about a lot of things, but once the interviewer brings up Cory each time... it seems like Eliśa changes the subject and the blogger notes it." She said and began reading out loud. "My time with Eliśa was spent well and throughout our interview, she was happy and very bubbly. Her being able to share the news of her pregnancy with me brought her joy, and she loved talking about the aspects of being a first-time mother, but as we got further into the interview, I asked Eliśa about what makes her marriage with Cory exciting... she gets quiet as though watching her words carefully. Too careful if you ask me."

"That's it?" Roman asked.

"The interviewer goes on to say," she continued reading. "Eliśa, a woman with many talents and a bright future ahead of herself, can't seem to keep a smile whenever her husband is mentioned. We all know firsthand that no marriage is perfect, but it's clear that there's something in Figueroa's marriage that doesn't seem right. Call me passive, but I think there's a lot more digging to do. Which begs the question, how well do we know our city investor, Cory Figueroa?"

"What's the interviewer's name?"

"Jane Gwendolyn," Zadia answered.

Roman searched up the name and frowned upon seeing the results. "Jane Gwendolyn, a local blogger found dead after a home invasion." He read the latest headline. Zadia gulped. "When was that interview released?"

"Exactly seven months ago."

"She was found dead around that time too." He let out, connecting the dots. "Cortez had her killed."

"Can we use all of this as proof?"

"It could be tricky, but yes. We can." Roman turned his head slightly. "Did Abel come back from his laps?"

Zadia nodded. "He did, he snuck off into the shower." She told him. "Find anything?"

"Nothing too serious. Everything on here takes a while to sort out because it's scrambled around." He answered, clicking on the rest of the messages that he was able to scavenge. There was a glint in his eyes as he began reading them, and Zadia caught it.

She was way too focused on his face and when she caught herself, she quickly looked back down at the tablet. Zadia was curious, more curious than she'd ever been in her entire life about someone. As much as it pained her to admit it, there was more to Roman than he led on and she wanted to know why.

Why he functioned the way he did?

Why he choose this lifestyle?

It was all just pure curiosity. Nothing more...

She tapped the tablet screen, opening a new web page. She typed Eliśa's full name and hit enter. Once the page loaded, her eyes scanned the results, stopping where the label 'family' was written. It was nearly blank. No one but Cory's name was in the small box. It somewhat made sense why Roman wasn't listed. From what she put together, she doubted Roman's line of work allowed anyone to know he had a family. "Can I ask you a personal question?" She asked out of the blue.

Roman did something with his face and Zadia couldn't determine if it was a scowl or him expressing his distaste for the question. "No." He answered abruptly, his eyes still on her.

"Where do you see yourself in five years?" Zadia asked anyway.

Roman rolled his eyes. "What was the point in asking me if you were still gonna ask me anyways?"

"I'm curious and I knew you were gonna say no."

He looked away briefly, scrolling down. "You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat." He mumbled.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not a cat then," Zadia replied and the both of them gazed at each other, their eyes in some sort of contest.

When Roman saw that she wasn't going to let this go, he frowned. It was hard for him to wrap his mind around someone annoying him the way she did. He'd never experienced it before and it bothered him. "Mexico." He answered, eventually. "That's where I see myself in five years."

Zadia's eyebrows raised. "Seriously, that's it? Just in Mexico? No detail or nothing?"

His frown deepened. "Why do you wanna know so bad?"

She shrugged. "Just curious." She answered. "Will you at least be happy in Mexico?"

"Mind your business." He shook his head. "Matter of fact, who says I'm not happy now?"

"It's pretty obvious that you're not."

"Yeah, well maybe happiness is an illusion."

Zadia rolled her eyes at his lame-ass response. "There you go with that emo bullshit. No, it's not."

Roman paused, tilting his head. "Are you..." he stopped midway in his sentence to think. "You know what, stop bothering me. Just stop talking altogether. Your curiosity," He added in air quotes. "Is creeping me out."

Zadia sat the tablet in her lap and folded her hands together. "You didn't answer my question from earlier. You know, the one where I asked if you were going to put us down like dogs." She said, "I need an answer."

"That's why you're being annoying? You want my reassurance?" Roman sighed. "Fine. I won't put you guys down like dogs." He said and Zadia let out a breath. "I'll put you guys down like sheep's instead."

Zadia looked at him, not finding what he said amusingly. "If that was your attempt at a joke Roman, you failed miserably." She threw one of the sofa pillows at him and he dodged it.

He shrugged. "I thought it was pretty funny."

"Are you going to kill us Roman?" Zadia asked, more serious this time.

"I don't know yet."

She frowned. "You don't know yet? What kind of answer is that?"

"An answer." He said sarcastically. "It's up to you to decide if you like it or not, Zadia. I sleep fine either way." He threw the pillow back at her and unlike him, she didn't dodge it. It hit her right in the face, causing her to drop the tablet.

"You're a fucking dick!" She cursed, picking the tablet up.

When Roman saw that she was mad, he rolled his eyes. "Calm down, you threw it at me first." He got real quiet for a second. "I'm not going to kill you both, even though it means going against my bosses. I just need time to figure out what I'm going to do with the two of you, just in case things don't go as planned. Therefore, just sit back and for once in your life stop driving me insane."

Zadia squinted, not believing him for a second. "I don't trust you."

"Good. I wouldn't trust me either if I was you. But I gave you my word, so that should do. I've got no reason to lie to you."

Standing up, Zadia placed her hands on her hips and took several steps towards him. She stopped just inches away, standing in front of him, and looked down. "Your word isn't enough. I want you to shake on it too."

He stared up at her, and then her hand that she stuck out into the air. The nail polish on her fingers was tearing and needed a fresh set of colors. He blinked, realizing that he was staring at her hand longer than needed. "This is stupid." He mumbled, wrapping his heavy hand around hers. He shook it, and as usual, ignored the unknown feeling he felt when it came down to touching her.

Instead, he focused on their hand difference.

Zadia did the same.

The both of them were so focused on this, that they didn't realize when Abel came downstairs. "Did I miss something?" Abel asked awkwardly, causing Zadia to gasp. Roman on the other hand kept his cool at the sudden voice, before dropping Zadia's hand so he could look elsewhere.

"Nope, nothing at all," Roman said, going back to the laptop. He wiped his hand on his jeans.

Zadia sat down in her spot, cursing herself for her stupid reaction. "Yeah, we're still doing some digging."

"Right...." Abel trailed on, looking at them suspiciously. He picked up a laptop and joined them in their research, pretending like he didn't just see them shaking hands. And although shaking hands was something normal, he was curious about this small interaction he had just witnessed between the two weirdest people in the house. A couple of seconds had gone by and as he looked up from the laptop, he noticed Roman and Zadia take a small glimpse at one another. "Interesting." He whispered, slightly smirking. This was something he and Adam were going to joke about later on.

Roman cleared his throat. "So I'm going over my sister's old messages to herself... She always found texting or emailing herself therapeutic. I'm not sure why, but in some of these messages, she's talking about leaving Cortez." His brows furrowed reading the disturbing texts out loud. "He put a gun to my head today and said if I didn't find a way to breastfeed he'd kill me." He quoted.

"Christ," Zadia whispered.

Roman scrolled down to the last recorded message. "Leaving is something I've got to do, it's what's best for Santino. I can't forgive myself if he continues to grow around Corey. He's unstable and I'm as good as dead being here. It's time to go."

"Woah," Abel said. "Sounds like she went through it all."

Roman bounced his leg as he thought about the last time he saw his sister. Although he tried his best to warn her about Cortez, part of him felt like he didn't try harder. He felt like he could've said something in those final moments of them arguing that could've convinced her it was best to come with him. "I don't think we should use those messages as proof," Zadia said. "Besides them being very private, Cortez could just claim them as fake, especially since she wrote them to herself."

Abel shook his head. "Yeah, but they're also somewhat detailed. I think it leaves room open for people to connect the dots." Abel nodded towards Roman. "What do you think?"

"I'm gonna use them." He replied, his tone firmed as if leaving no room for debate.

Zadia decided not to voice any more of her input, not wanting to deal with whatever he had going on. "Okay, so we've got an interview, and messages from Eliśa to add to our list, that's not exactly much proof." She said and then paused to think. "If Cortez was beating on your sister, then she would have evidence of it on her body..."

Roman shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the topic. "So?"

"So," Zadia glared at him for interrupting her. "If she was ever badly hurt from it and ended up at a hospital or clinic, they would've documented such injuries."

"Meaning we should look up her medical records and see if we find anything," Roman concluded, beginning his typing on the laptop.

"Exactly. It would be hard for anyone to say those records are fake."

"Nice one." Abel complemented, playfully bumping his shoulders with hers. "Looks like the both of us do add something to the team."

Roman scoffed. "Like what?"

"Creative thinking," Zadia added.

"Good looks." Abel joked, making Zadia chuckle.

"All sounds like bullshit to me," Roman mumbled, clicking through the files he had access to because of Adam. "There's nothing creative about your thinking and if Lynn or Adam were here, they would've suggested checking the medical records as well. And having good looks is as good as nothing in a team."

"He's such a negative Nancy," Zadia whispered to Abel.

Abel smirked, placing his hand on his cheek to mask it. "Tell me about it. You think he'll ever get that pole out his ass?"

Zadia smiled. "Doubt it, I think it's gonna be stuck up there for eternity."

Roman blinked, looking up at the giggling two unamused. "You guys do know I can hear you right?" He said, causing the both of them to stop. Clicking on a couple of more files, he finally stumbled upon the medical records. "From what it looks like, she was in and out of the hospital for the past two years." He voiced and then shut the laptop, pushing it off his lap. He would look through each record later on tonight when he was alone in his room, making sure to read every detail, but as for now, it wasn't something he could stomach.

They all sat in the living room, with their eyes wandering. It got awkward quickly. "Anyone else wanna watch some television?" Abel asked, trying to make it less awkward.

"Tino's asleep, so I'm down." Said Zadia.

"That shit messes with your head, so I'm out," Roman said, bracing to stand, only to be stopped by Abel.

"Wait! You don't watch tv?"

"That explains a lot," Zadia muttered.

Roman gave her a look and then turned to Abel. "I don't."

Abel's eyes widened. "You have this big ass house with about three TVs and you mean to tell me, they're props to you?!"

Roman shrugged. "It's Lynn and Adam that want them around, I don't have the interest for them. They're time-consuming."

"But, so are books," Zadia said, not whispering this time.

"Books are productive time consumers, can't say the same for television."

"If you're bored, just say that. We aren't going to judge you for it."

"I'm boring because I don't want to spend my time watching a box filled with stupid programming that keeps people unproductive?" Roman asked. "You sound so smart Zadia." He said sarcastically. "I wonder how you got so far in life."

She flicked her middle finger at him."You know what, how about you go—-"

"Okay!" Abel semi shouted, stopping Zadia from saying what she was about to say. "That went left real quick. Roman how about you give us." Zadia glared at him. "I mean me, a chance to change your mind. Just watch one movie and we'll leave you alone for the rest of tonight."

Roman was going to decline, but then smiled thinking of how being around pissed off Zadia. "You know what, I think I'll stick around after all."

Zadia groaned, while Abel grabbed the remote and turned on the television. "Great, let's start with Greenland. Lynn said it was a decent movie."

————

Halfway through the movie, Roman wanted it to be over. Watching a movie about a white family trying to survive an apocalypse was boring. It was like any other apocalypse movie he heard of, literally. His leg bounced uncontrollably, arms behind his head as he looked away from the television. Abel's eyes were glued to the screen as he watched with interest, while Zadia looked like she was close to falling asleep.

Feeling a set of eyes on her, she had looked up in Roman's direction bored. "This movie sucks." He had mouthed and to his surprise, she mouthed back, "I know." 

They turned back to the screen to continue watching for a couple of seconds until they heard Tino babbling through the baby monitor. "I got it!" Both Zadia and Roman said at the same time, but Roman was already to his feet, nearly running out of the living room. He leaped up the stairs, pacing in the direction of Zadia's room before anyone could stop him. With his hands on the knob, he twisted it, opening the door. He noticed the lamplight on and frowned. "Now she's wasting my bills, great."

Tino was standing up in his crib, babbling like he had much to say.  "Mama." He pronounced clearly, asking for Zadia.

"Nope, it's just me," Roman said, walking towards him. "You're uncle. You think you can say that?"

"Mama," Tino said again.

Roman picked him up and lifted him so that he was in the air. "No, it's uncle," Roman said, trying to get him to repeat it. "Un—cle." He broke down. Tino stared back at him cluelessly. "Never mind, you'll get it right eventually." Bringing him back down, he threw Tino up again, causing him to giggle. "Aren't you one happy baby today." After doing it one last time, Roman decided to take a seat at the edge of Zadia's bed. Tino gripped his uncle's shoulders as a way to stand and smacked his nose. "Chill you little troll. So damn aggressive." He mumbled and Tino giggled again, pinching his lips with his small fingers. "I'm serious, I'm gonna drop you."

Tino continued to assault his face, finding joy in it. Roman who had enough, blew lightly in his face, startling the baby. "Didn't like it, huh? Now you know how I feel." He teased.

"Leave the poor boy alone," Adam said lightly,  standing outside the door. He walked into the bedroom with a smile on his face.

"You're back early, how'd it go?" Roman asked and then stood up, suddenly remembering the baby monitor was on. He shut it off and placed Tino on the ground so he could play with whatever was near.

"It took tons of convincing, but he eventually agreed to back the story," Adam explained. "We've just got to forward everything to him by the end of the week. He plans on doing his little investigation as well."

"That's good."

Adams's eyebrows raised. "You don't sound so happy about it."

"I am... it's just Zadia recommended looking into Eliśa medical records. And I couldn't even get through the first page because there was so much shit going on... but I know I've got to read it."

Adam looked at him concerned. "Maybe you shouldn't. If  you know it's gonna... upset you, then maybe it's not the best thing to do at the moment." He said. "If you want, I'll look it over and find what we need."

Roman shook his head. "She's my sister, I'll handle it."

Adam bit the inside of his lips. "You know you shouldn't blame yourself... for any of this right?"

"You know that bowling alley we've got in the east?" Roman asked, changing the subject. Adam nodded. "I want to use the profit from there and wire it to an off-the-record account for Zadia and Abel. I was also hoping that you could find a place near the beach or something in Mexico of course, where they could stay just in case things go sideways."

"That sounds nice of you. Are you sure that's something you want to do, especially from the... bowling alley?" Adam asked, already knowing the trouble Roman had coming his way if he agreed.

Roman nodded. "I've been thinking about it since last night, and I'm sure it's what I want to do. You think you can do it?"

"It could take some time, but yeah. I'm sure I can pull it off. How are you going to explain this to you know who?" Out of all the places they used to wash money, the bowling alley was the easiest. It was also one of the few places owned by Roman's family.

With a big sigh, Roman bit lips. "I don't know, but I know he's not gonna be happy about it. He's gonna have my balls."

"Well, I'm sure he'll understand... especially if you told him about the situation with Eliśa and Santino."

Roman looked over at Tino, who was using the nightstand to stand. "He's my brother Adam, I know him better than he knows himself. He won't care... at all. That's just how our family is... cold-hearted and stubborn." Roman said, but deep down inside, he knew it was only a matter of time before he would get a phone call from his little brother and he would be ready to deal with the outcome.

Not edited. Excuse any errors and point them out. Thank you!