"I don't got this," Zadia whispered, as rain fell heavily against the car window. The sound the water made when it connected with the car, sounded like a bunch of pinballs hitting something all at once. "Come on traffic! Fucking move already!" She shouted, her hand pushing down on the car horn with force. It was a quarter past seven and the dark cloud that huddled over the sky was soon to disappear because of the night that was minutes away from appearing. Zadia had been stuck in traffic for what felt like an hour but was only twenty minutes. She was only fifteen minutes away from her old apartment and she just wanted to get there already, but the universe didn't want her to be great.

"They definitely know I'm gone by now." She said, watching the roof of other people's cars get sprayed with droplets of rain. "Should've just cut through the city, but no I always think I know best." Her hand pressed down on her car horn again, halting the car to the right of her that was trying to get into her lane. "Don't try to fucking cut in front of me, idiot!" Zadia was very... verbal when it came down to driving. She was a good driver of course and it was something she took seriously, but as soon as someone did something stupid on the road, she couldn't help but voice her opinion.

As the car in front of her started to move up, she did too, not leaving any room for the idiot that was trying to cut her off.

"Almost there." She muttered as traffic started to move along. Even though the windshield wiper helped with keeping some of the rain off the windshield, Zadia still had to squint as she drove because she couldn't see all too well. Getting off on the closet exit so she could get off the highway, she made sure to keep her pace slow. "That's better." She said, driving into the city. Seeing the city's welcome sign made her chest tighten. She'd grown up here all her life, and even though she was here a couple of days ago with Roman, it felt weird being away from home. Phoenix was her life... literally and staying over in Mesa felt weird.

It didn't feel like home.

But she had to make it feel like it was, for both Abel and Tino. Just until her name was cleared... whenever that would be.

She gulped, thinking about it. "What if my name never gets cleared?" She questioned herself. The thought of spending the rest of her life on the run was haunting. "Think happy thoughts Zadia." Her mind often thought about the bad more than the good, because truth be told, no matter how many times people try to say the opposite, it's always the bad that outweighs the good.

Or at least that's what she thought.

Zadia switched lanes and soon regretted it, once she saw what car was behind her. "Just my luck." She groaned, hands instantly getting sweaty. It was a sheriff's car, one that looked new enough to resemble a Ford Escape. Her body trembled as she tried focusing on the road, the rain not helping one bit. There were numerous reasons why she should shit her pants right now, fear settled in her, her grip on the steering wheel tightened. "God... ancestors... and whoever else is listening, please don't let me get pulled over tonight. I swear after this I'll be good, and I'll start listening more, I'll follow my instincts more and... and." She trailed on, not knowing what else to say. As she made the car come to a complete stop because of the red light, her heart started beating uncontrollably.

"Come on green light, come on." She muttered, lowering the volume to the radio. She turned on her turning signal, waiting patiently for the light to change. Once it did, she made a decent left turn, her eyes on the rearview mirror watching out for the sheriff. She let out a deep breath when she noticed that he wasn't following her anymore. "Thank goodness." From there on, she rode on one lane and only switched when it was needed. Her speed was just as the speed limit listed, thirty. The rain kept pouring, the wind now by its side, blowing twenty-five, maybe even thirty miles per hour. Zadia could feel the wind against the car, almost like it was pushing her. "When the hell did it start raining like this down here? Probably that damn weather control."

Spotting the familiar neighborhood, Zadia smiled a little looking at her old apartment. She took a right turn, driving towards the back. She'd often spend some time back here when one of her neighbors played loud music, or if she needed some inspiration to do something. It was here she learned how to back park, here where she got chased by a homeless man, and here where she cried when things got too hard. Parking the car, Zadia shut off the vehicle and placed both hands on her lap nervously. "In and out, that's it." She said out loud. Leaning forward, she laid her forehead on the steering wheel, listening to the sound of the wind whistling through the rain. "I can do this... I've got—-"

The rest of her words became jumbled in her mouth as she heard a knock on her side of the window. She jumped at the sudden noise, her eyes wide staring at who it was. "Shit!" She cursed.

"Open the fucking door!" Roman shouted through the glass window, rain pouring against him. He was mad... no, furious. "Now!" He commanded, breathing sharply. Zadia debated for a second whether or not she should. Her eyes went from him to the door lock. He banged his fist into the glass. "Right, now Zadia!"

She sighed and then unlocked the door before unbuckling her seatbelt. Roman swung the door open as far as he could and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the car. "Don't fucking manhandle me!" She shrieked, fighting off his hand.

Roman shut the door and pushed her against the car, the rain pouring on both of them. "You ungrateful, fucking brat!" He shouted, his voice heated. "I give you a roof over your head and provide you with basically everything you need, only for you to turn around and put not just your life, but everyone else's at risk. Just how stupid are you!"

"I'm not stupid!" She shouted back at him. "Don't call me out my name!"

Roman got into her face, he watched intensely as the water fell from her skin. "It's pretty hard not to when all you do is act stupid." He resorted and then smacked his left hand down to the roof of the car. "There are no words other than stupid to describe how stupid y—-"

Zadia cut him off. "Call me stupid again and I swear on everything I've got left, I'll bite your fucking face off!"

Roman stared at her, thrown off by what she just said. He was expecting her to say something... anything else, but not that. "What are you, a fucking cannibal?" He asked sarcastically. Roman glared at her. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't leave your ass here all by yourself and call the cops my damn self?!"

"Besides the fact that you need me, you also fucking owe me!" Lightning cracked through the sky and the both of them visibly flinched. The both of them didn't quite like lightning.

"I owe you? Or my sister does?" Roman asked, crossing his arm together.

Zadia was close to kicking him in the balls. "The both of you fucking owe me! I don't know how you keep fucking forgetting it, but it's me that decided to keep Santino for weeks instead of giving him up. How easy do you think it would've been to find him if he wasn't in my care!" She shouted, angrily. "Or better yet, if his father got a hold of him." She moved closer to him, her body moving off the car. "You and your sister owe me, Roman." She pressed a finger to his solid chest. "And I'll be damned if you say otherwise."

Roman took a step back, not liking the fact that she touched him. "You don't need the money, so I don't understand why you'd stupidly show up here."

"I didn't show up for the money... I showed up for my things... my paintings." She finally admitted.

Roman blinked. "Jesus, that makes it even worse. You risked everything to come here for fucking paintings!"

Zadia frowned. "I don't expect you to understand... you're an asshole, one who's most likely never cherished anything in life before. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into every one of those paintings and there's no way I'm just gonna let them dump it in the trash!"

Roman scoffed. "I had to stop my fucking execution, just to drive over here and get you because you wanted to get some of your fucking paintings!" He stated. "Do you know how crazy that is? Don't you see how crazy you sound?!"

There was something that lit inside Zadia, and the best word to describe it was anger. She pushed Roman back, making him stumble a bit. "Don't call me fucking crazy!" That word did rub her the wrong way. She hated it, hated that it was even a word, hated that people used it to describe her.

She wasn't crazy. She was anything but crazy.

Roman's jaw twitched. The cold droplets of water that fell against his skin helped stop him from pushing her back. "You push me like that again and I'll..." He caught himself.

Zadia huffed. "I... I didn't mean to push you like that. I just don't like that word." She said and wiped her wet face, due to the rain. "You love your car right?" She waited for him to respond. "Well imagine if you had to leave it behind for a long ass time... wouldn't you come back for it if you could?" She asked. "I won't be in there for long, please I just need to grab the paintings.

For a second Roman shut his eyes and sighed heavily. As much as he didn't want to... he understood where she was coming from. "You've got thirty minutes. Any longer than that and I'm dragging you out of the building." He told her, marching over to his Jeep that was parked further away, he opened the door and took out a flashlight, making sure not to get it wet as he shut the door and walked past Zadia. "Hurry up." He grumbled.

"How'd you know I was coming here?" Zadia questioned while following him. They stopped at the building's back door, getting away from the rain. Zadia kept a lookout at their surroundings as she watched Roman get down on one knee and began to pick the lock.

"You're predictable." He stated. "Adam called me earlier today and told me about the whole news thing, so I already knew you were gonna be up to some bullshit. Which is why I told him to keep a close eye on you, which he also failed to do. Lynn called and told me you left, so I looked up the GPS tracker in the car and it showed you were on the highway. I put two and two together and beat you here. Go through the city next time will ya, I was waiting almost two hours for you to get here." Roman got the door to unlock and he opened it slowly, hating how it creaked loudly.

"Lynn was the one that told you I left?!" She shrieked. "She was the one that let me go in the first place." Roman walked inside and didn't bother holding the door for her. "Asshole." She mumbled when the door nearly hit her face.

"Of course she did." Roman sighed, looking around the vacant building. "Lead the way." He said, throwing the flashlight at her.

Zadia's hands flew through the air, and she caught it easily. She gave him a smug look as she walked in front of him. "Could've just handed it to me." She stated.

Roman shrugged. "Where's the fun in that?" His response seemed to anger her some more and he smirked. He watched as she sped up her pace, his eyes accidentally falling to her backside. He stopped almost immediately, something else catching his attention. He caught a glimpse of something that moved on his left side as they climbed up the stairs but didn't acknowledge it. "This place known for being haunted?"

Zadia glanced back at him. "Yeah." She said, nonchalantly. "Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts."

Roman kept his head forward. "I'm not afraid of everything."

"Everyone's afraid of something."

"Yeah, well I'm not everyone." He grumbled.

Zadia rolled her eyes, using the flashlight to check the floor numbers. "So you're telling me you're not afraid of losing the people closest to you, that you're not afraid of the unknown or the ocean."

"I'm not." Roman frowned. "Why would I be afraid of the ocean?"

She glanced at him again. "More than eighty percent of our ocean is unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored. It doesn't scare you that there's shit in the water that we don't know about?"

"No." He answered. The both of them jumped again at the sound of lightning striking.

Neither of them addressed how uncomfortable the sound made them feel.

"You do know it's okay to feel things right... whether it's fear or happiness, or even sadness... it's okay to feel and have emotions." Zadia told him.

Roman yawned. "Just stop talking."

"You're so unlikeable." Zadia groaned.

"I don't ever recall asking if I was or not." He resorted. "That's your problem. You seem to always talk or bring up some shit that no one gives a fuck about."

"Now you're in your feelings."

Roman's forehead creased as he frowned. "In my feelings? Please. You're the last person that could ever get me in my feelings."

Zadia sighed. "I'm starting to think—"

Roman cut her off. "I don't give a shit about what you think."

"Dial it the fuck down! You don't have to be a dick all the time!"

"And you don't have to be a..." he stopped midway into his sentence. He caught another glimpse of something and that caused his eyes to slant. Something was off about this place. "Go get your stuff. I'll be back."

Zadia's walking came to a pause and she turned to scowl at him. "We're in the middle of an empty building, in the middle of the night and you want to split up? That doesn't sound very smart now does it?"

Roman rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

A scoff left Zadia's mouth. "Why is it so hard for you to admit when I'm right?"

"It's not." Roman let out. Admitting she was right, was admitting that he was wrong and Roman didn't like to be wrong. At all. This had been something he struggled with since he was a teenager. Being right got him through the shit he was going through, being wrong put him in stupid positions.

"Then admit I'm right."

"Why is it so important to you that people give you recognition?!" He asked, louder than needed.

Zadia paused and gulped at the question. She didn't know what to say. She liked when people gave her recognition because truth be told she didn't receive it much as a child from her parents. At home, whatever she did, it was like she was supposed to do it or know it and when she was at school... it was the total opposite. Her teachers, coaches, and even peers would give her recognition for the littlest of things, and from there on it became something she obsessed about sometimes. "It's not." She lied.

"So why do you care if I say you're right?"

Zadia's lips pursed. "I don't care." She corrected him.

"You're a bad liar."

She placed her hands on her hips. "I can say the same about you, with you're fucking, 'I'm not afraid of anything,' bullshit."

They made it to her building exit and opened the door. This time Zadia purposely slammed it so it could hit Roman, but he caught it quickly. "Childish." He muttered.

"But when you did it, it was perfectly fine." She bit back. Even though Roman was getting on the last of her nerves, she still found the courage to smile as she made it in front of her old door. Twisting the doorknob, she pushed it opened and stepped in. Her smile disappeared when she saw the yellow police tape around the place, the little furniture she had thrown all around. "Fucking hell." She grumbled, picking up the book that was gifted to her years ago.

She went around picking up the things she needed, ignoring the mess the best she could.

Roman stayed quiet, his wet clothes clinging onto his skin. He walked around the living room, analyzing the place she once called home. Her apartment lacked space and chairs and other things that you usually see in an apartment, but he could see why she loved it so much. She made it hers, adding cheap carpet and bean bags to give the place some aesthetic look, her book and pen collection adding some color. "Why do you have a pen collection?" He asked out loud. He bit the inside of his cheeks, shocked that he asked.

When Zadia wasn't looking, he took two of the metallic pens and stuffed them into his pocket.

He liked the way they looked.

"Started collecting them when I couldn't find the courage to paint." She answered, stacking her paintings on top of each other. She was grateful that her paintings of all things were still here, whoever looted her apartment took the majority of her books and clothes, silverware too. "Watch these real quick. I'm gonna get the money."

Roman nodded as she went into her old bedroom and he took that as his chance to look at the infamous paintings she was risking her freedom for. "Hum." He hummed, his eyes going over them. She was a good painter... an excellent one matter of fact. He'd never seen paintings like these, colors so well blended that they became new colors that were yet to be named.

"Got it." She beamed, carrying a duffel bag out the room. "It's surprising still here even though they took everything in my room, pillows included." She had hidden it in a hole that was in the wall of her closet. The hole was there from before she moved in, no one but her knew it was there. She walked towards Roman and put some of the books she found into the duffel bag before zipping it up. "I'm all set."

Roman picked up a towel off the ground and placed it on the stack of paintings and carried them. "Let's go then."

They walked out of the door and back in the direction of the fire exit stairs. Zadia sighed, looking down at the stairs. "I don't remember there being this many steps."

Roman was too busy pulling his gun out of his waistband to hear what she had said. "Get down!" He shouted but didn't wait for her to comprehend his words as he pointed his gun up and began shooting. Shots were fired back at them, the sound of bullets and metal colliding. Zadia leaned back and got down as fast as she could. The ringing in her ear made it hard to focus on what Roman was saying. "Move to my right, and keep going till you make it outside!" He shouted, but she couldn't hear any of that.

"My... my ears." She stuttered, covering them.

Roman sighed angrily and forcefully grabbed her by the arm, pulling her wet body onto his side. "Try to keep up!" He shouted over the gunfire, as they zoomed down the stairs hurriedly. Zadia's heart felt like it was going to erupt any second now, the ringing in her ears getting painful. "Shit!" Roman cursed, he should've tried and aimed someplace else, so her hearing wouldn't be affected, but he had to think fast or else there'd be a bullet in her head.

Zadia held on tightly to Roman's body, her eyes trying their best to watch her feet so she wouldn't trip. "Who's shooting at us?!" She practically yelled.

"How the fuck am I supposed to know!" He shouted. "You want me to ask?" He said sarcastically, but then stopped shooting, and peeked up the stairs. "Hey, who's shooting at us?!"

"We're with Cortez you idiot, drop the gun and give us the girl. We don't want any trouble."

Roman scoffed. "You don't want any trouble, but you had the audacity to shoot at me?!" He yelled. "Fuck that, I'll give you all the fucking trouble you want!" Roman fired his gun again and pulled Zadia so they could continue running.

Zadia's eyes widened, as she saw someone moving from down the stairs. "They're below us too."

"We're fucking surrounded." Roman let out. He paused to shoot again, this time hitting one of the idiots in the head. "One down, two more to go."

"Let's take this exit," Zadia said as they stopped near another floor exit. It'll take us to the second floor and from there we can and get the hell out of here.

"Alright." Roman breathed. "Let's do that." Opening the door, he made sure he looked both ways before stepping into the void floor. "Turn off the flashlight and stay close." He instructed, letting her go. They both began running side by side, trying to make it to the normal stairs that were at the end of the foyer. This would lead them to the first floor and they would be closer to getting back to the cars.

"Over here" Zadia panted and they turned towards the stairs, their feet barely having time to adjust as they skipped different steps, trying to make it down. When they made it to the first floor, they got quiet, carefully trying to not bring attention to their location.

"You see anyone?" Roman asked.

"No." She let out. "But they could be hiding, waiting for us to come out."

Roman nodded, picking up his gun. He aimed at the glass window the furthest away and fired, causing the glass to shatter. Seconds later, he heard another bullet fire but it didn't come from him. "Yup, they're definitely in here."

"Come out Roman! You've got nowhere to run!"

"How can we get out of here?" Roman asked Zadia, his voice low.

"There's a door to the right of us. If we take it and run as fast as we can it'll lead us to your car."

Roman shut his eyes, thinking. "Is there still ringing in your ear?" Zadia nodded. "Past me the flashlight." She did. "Stay put here, don't come out unless I call for you." He grunted, before turning to his side. "Hey, you fucking bastards?! How about we put our guns down like the civilized people we are and just talk. We all know who I am... where I come from. If we talk I'm sure I can give you something that Corey ass can't."

"Our loyalty is to Cortez and him alone."

Roman chuckled bitterly. "We all know loyalty is just a word. Y'all have loyalty to him, but where's his loyalty to you?" He asked. "There's none if he has y'all in my presence."

"Enough of that mind bullshit! Give us the girl."

"Fuck you!" Roman chuckled. "Would y'all believe me if I said I had a grenade?"

"Bullshit." The other guy said.

Roman nodded, setting the paintings down. "Let's see." He threw the flashlight to the other side of the room and as both men stopped abruptly to look, he started shooting as he crossed over to hide behind a desk. He had hit the taller one in the neck and his body dropped. "Two down, one more to go!" He shouted. "Just give up now and walk away."

"Never!" The guy yelled, crouching behind a wall.

Roman sighed, biting down on his bottom lip. This whole thing was dragging out now and he just wanted to get home. "I've don't got time for this shit!" He grumbled, standing up from his hiding spot. He cocked his gun back and began walking in the direction of the man, shooting like a maniac. "I'm tired of this shit!" He exclaimed and as he got closer a bullet hit the guy in the stomach, causing him to drop to the ground. Roman kicked the gun out of the man's hand but kept his pointed in the man's face as he groaned. "Zadia! Get over here!"

Zadia, who had been hiding where Roman had left her, crouched and took a peek just to see if anyone else was there. When the coast was clear, she picked up her paintings and held onto the duffel bag tightly, before stepping out into the open. "Can we go now?" She asked.

Roman glared at her. "No, not until you kill this bastard!"

Her eyes widened some more. "What!" She said, frantically. "You kill him, I'm not killing anyone."

"But you are actually. You're the one that wanted to come down here! You're the one that got us shot at! Therefore as punishment, you're gonna be the one to kill this dumbass." Roman shouted.

Zadia's head shook. "No... I can't... I'm not killing anyone."

"Yes, you are!" He walked over to her and grabbed the paintings from her hand. "I told you on the day we met every corrupted decision you make from then to now would lead to fucking consequences. And this here, Zadia." He pointed at the man. "is one of those consequences!" He cocked the gun back. "Now, it's either you shoot him dead, or I shoot you in the fucking leg and you have to use a cane for the rest of your God-forsaken fucking life." He aimed the gun at her knee. "So what is it going to fucking be, Zadia?!"

"I'll... I'll do it." She whispered, her eyes glossy with tears. This was the last thing she wanted to do... but she knew for sure if she didn't, Roman really would follow through with his threat. Zadia's hand trembled as she lifted her hand to take the gun. "I'll do it." She said more firmly this time. She's the one that did the damage... therefore she had to face the consequences... even if it meant killing someone...

Roman chuckled humorlessly. "The best gotdamn choice you've made all night. Who would've ever known." He said passing her the gun.

"No! Please don't do this, I've got a kid a home." The injured man pleaded. "She's only ten."

Roman frowned. "Shut that shit up." He said, stomping on the man's hand. "Were you thinking about your daughter when I told you let's talk?" He asked and the man groaned. "I didn't fucking think so!" Roman looked at Zadia who held the gun awkwardly. He rolled his eyes and sighed. They had gone over target practice once and she had yet to learn anything. "Grip the fucking gun like your life depends on it." She followed his directions. "Now web between your trigger finger and thumb to be as high as possible on the grip. Fix your posture, legs straight, and focus on your sight." He instructed. "And when you're ready, take a deep breath and shoot the fucking dumbass in the head."

Zadia held in her breath just long enough to get her hands to stop trembling. She focused on her sight, just like Roman had said, and blinked away her tears... And when she was ready, she fired the shot, letting out a gasp, when she saw the bullet in his head... the life leaving his beady his eyes. His posture was rigid, blood from the headshot wound dripping to his temple. "I...I killed him." Zadia stuttered, her voice shaky. She looked down at her hands in disbelief. "He's... he's dead."

"He is," Roman said, no expression in his voice. He took the gun from her and put it back into his waistband. "Let's go." He said, grabbing the paintings and walking towards the door on the right. He unlocked it and swung it open... holding it for her to pass this time. Zadia was busy focusing on her hands to notice though. She had just killed someone... she couldn't believe it. She'd never imagine doing something like that.

They walked quietly in the rain again. The sound of their footsteps trailing in the rain. "Took you guys long enough," Lynn exclaimed, an umbrella in her hands, keeping her from the rain's wrath. She was leaning against the Lincoln, her arms crossed. It took her some time to get here because she had to catch an Uber, after a much-heated call from Roman a while back. He had cursed her out for allowing Zadia to leave the house, which she responded with; "She's a grown-ass woman and isn't part of my responsibility to look after her. You brought her here, you deal with her bullshit." Somewhere in their heated conversation, he had convinced her to come get the car, and now here she was.

"What's she doing here?" Zadia asked, looking up from her hand.

"She's here to take the car back," Roman said, handing Lynn over the keys to the Lincoln that he took from Zadia earlier. "You're riding with me. We've got another stop to make." He unlocked his car and Zadia quickly opened the passenger door and settled into the passenger seat, without putting up a fight.

"She looks like shit," Lynn commented.

"First kill. Cortez had his guys inside." Roman stated simply. They both knew how a first kill could change a person's mood drastically. "Thanks for picking up the car."

Lynn shrugged. "No problem, just don't yell at me like that again." Her eyes snapped towards a silent Zadia and she sighed. "Go easy on her for a while... she seems like the type who can't take the heat."

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.

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