Page 9 of Cold

ChapterFour

VITO

I unlockedthe door to Romare's room and peered in on him. He was curled up around the orange and white cat, his hair splayed all over his pillow and face. Romare's lips pursed, and he sighed softly before he groaned and rubbed his cheek against the cushion.

As I stood there and gazed down at him, I felt as if I could see more of him, the man behind the mask that he wore. Because Romare Ashford wasn't what he seemed to be. He watched too closely and he thought too much to be an empty-headed boy with nothing going on behind his eyes. It made me uneasy.

My phone buzzed, and I closed the bedroom door but left it unlocked. Hopefully, he didn't realize I'd locked it in the first place. Romare wasn't the first person I'd had to house in my place for work, but he was given the nice bedroom. Not...the other one.

I walked to the kitchen and picked up my phone. "Yeah."

"How's Romare?"

Amadeo first thing in the morning after he'd stuck me with Romare wasn't what I wanted to deal with. I grabbed a carton of eggs, some bacon, and muffins.

"He's alive. Weird and alive."

"Weird?" Ama repeated. "What do you mean?"

I paused. "How much do we know about Romare?"

"Like I said, his mother was a maid in the Sicily house. He was always a sweet kid, but that's about all I know about him."

I frowned. "I don't remember any maids in Sicily."

"That's not surprising. By then you were off running around with ‘that woman’ as Dad referred to her as. And you weren't around us as much. I doubt you noticed much of anything back then."

"Hmm."

I remembered those days. That was back when all I wanted to do was be as far away from my family as possible. To put all of their bullshit behind me so I could have a little bit of freedom. I'd given my entire life to supporting my brother and I wanted something of my own. A life, a family, a world that wasn't blood and death.

But that had all been shattered.

"Uncle Vito, you know I wouldn't ask you to keep an eye on him if I didn't think you were capable," Ama said, and I heard the softness in his voice. "I would never disrespect you. The past is the past and I'd like to keep it that way. I need someone who can handle what he's probably going through. Being trafficked that young, he's going to be a little fucked up in the head. And I think you know what that feels like."

"To be fucked up in the head," I muttered, my chest constricting at his words.

"Putting it bluntly? Yeah," he said. "I know everything you went through and if anyone can relate, it's you. Maybe you'll have to let down some walls and shit, but you've got this. Romare needs a place to be safe and besides," he exhaled and I could practically see cigarette smoke billowing into the air, "he might have information we need. I want to know how Sergei is tied to Andrei. And why our searching led us to that house."

"Yeah."

"Don't be sore, Vito," Amadeo said. "Come to family dinner this week. Everyone misses the hell outta you; we're always sayin' that."

I nodded as if he could see me. They were steadily trying to convince me that they wanted to see me, but I didn't believe it. I knew what I was. The piranha, the one that was left on the outside. Yeah, I was still loyal to my family, but that didn't mean they wanted me hanging around them.

"Vito?"

"I gotta go," I grumbled.

I hung up and shoved my phone in my pocket. If Amadeo needed anything else, he could tell me later, but I was done talking. Bending down, I grabbed some pans and popped them on the stove before I started cooking.

Romare had been starving before so I doubled the amount of food that I would usually make. While the bacon cooked away in the oven and the muffins toasted, I cracked some eggs into a pan and opened my phone again. I dialed and it was picked up immediately.

"Tom," I said. "I need you to go and pick up some clothes for me. Not sure what sizes, but...he's small. Slender, I mean. And short."

"Do you want me to come measure him first, boss?"

I thought about it. "Sure. Come in about an hour. We should be done with breakfast and you can grab your measurements."

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