Page 49 of Eyes Like Angel (Eyes Like Angel #1)

With his boisterous tone, I shrank, so does my lungs.

My fists clenched harder, nails dug in.

Behind Romano, a few eyes were watching me.

I’m Fine. I’m Fine. I’m Fine—

“I have to go. There are some other things I had to attend to,” I said stiffly, without glimpsing back I headed back, but Romano blocked my path in advance.

“Don’t walk away from me,” he said. “I had to say so many things I want to tell you during my travel to London and Brazil, then to this glamourous lifestyle in Mykonos for the past two years.”

My fingernails dented onto my flesh.

I’M FINE. I’M FINE. I’M FINE.

“My hands are tied at the moment,” I said, averting from his watchful gaze. “Excuse me.”

Heading to the side, he blocked me once more.

My shoulder blades stiffened.

I’M FINE. I’M FINE. I’M FINE.

“Come on, don’t be glum, sweet-thing,” he pressed on, leaning onto my face with his.

“I’d love to stay and have a long chat with you since we’re on a break.

Besides, lunch isn’t over just yet. You and I have so much to discuss.

I want to know what you’ve been up to nowadays, Eden .

” His voice lowered at the end, anticipating the answer he’s been searching for. From me.

I’M FINE! I’M FINE! I’M FINE!

In my veins, my blood was rushing and boiling, heart quickened, and my head was about to implode, clinging onto the thread, wanting to crouch and cry on a ground.

Dark demons laughing, weigh their souls onto my shoulders, surrounded and seeped into me, drowning my every last breath I’ve held, ready to strike.

I’M FINE!!! I’M FINE!!! I’M FINE!!!

I’M ALWAYS FINE—

Gulping, mustering up my courage once again, I tend to repeat my statement. “I—”

“There you are, Sister Eva. I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” a smooth deep voice blared.

Behind Romano, Adrian Rivers appeared just in a nick of time, relying on his right shoulder to leaning in sideways against a wide-open door of the church, gazed at Romano in slight glare, an expression I could easily recognize behind his pitch-black hues.

Rather in a casual attire he wears, he fashioned himself in an open-button shirt, dark suspenders, a long dark coat over the white shirt, black trousers and Oxford shoes, his blond hair tied to a regular ponytail.

His long coat floated in the soft breeze, as his gaze veered at Romano underneath and passed through the loose strands that used to hang and veiled his ears.

Three silver chains over his open-button chest glittered in the afternoon sun.

Meanwhile, Romano studied Adrian, glancing from head to toe, giving elevator eyes, in demeaning, condescending glare, and disguised his expressed eyes as a congenial grin with his lips curved upwards.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Romano spoke up, as cool-headed as possible.

Shrugged, Adrian Rivers implied his answer with a cool-headed shrug, hands in his front pockets. “I’m the assistant.”

That didn’t give much of a clear answer, but Romano’s disgruntled expression said it all.

Romano once again gave a quick, approachable beam etched on his features. “And as it turns out, I’m also the assistant.”

Deafening silence expanded between them.

Romano chuckled. “I’m just kidding, dude. Name’s Romano, Romano Salazar. Rome or Roman, they call me—those are my well-known nicknames. Uh, I didn’t get your name.” His hands splayed, reaching out to Adrian’s, eccentric smile spread wider.

Puzzled when I heard his surname, when Romano introduced himself fully, I never knew despite him residing in Fort Heaven.

I memorized through everyone’s interests and their personalities, and I knew everyone’s last names but his.

How odd it must’ve been since I caught the current material he announced.

Meanwhile Adrian didn’t reciprocate at Romano’s attempted welcoming of his semi-overhyped introduction. Eccentric and over-the-top wasn’t in Adrian’s best interest.

“Sorry, my hands are cold,” Adrian reasoned, shoving down his hands deeper.

Awkwardly, Romano retrieved his hand back, scratching his back head. “Um, I see. Anyway, I’m just catching up with people I haven’t spoken to for a while—trying to get the details and the gossip in Fort Heaven, see what’s been hanging, and…you know the gist, I’m sure.”

Adrian didn’t nod or acknowledged Romano’s outgoing clarification.

His pitch-black eyes stayed formation, as if he’s judging Romano or had Romano in place by quiet force.

He usually takes his time to acknowledge someone, given a smallest nudge of his nod, despite being boring, but somehow Adrian wasn’t clearly in the playful or sincere mood.

He’d pay anyone to have his spare time to be used, eager for a best performance.

However, Romano tipped Adrian over at the very edge. No one likes to be put into a corner like Adrian Rivers.

And I don’t believe Adrian would spare change at Romano’s lacking performance. But it was wasted.

Over Romano’s lanky shoulder, Adrian’s jaw ticked, but did his effort to hide it.

“I see,” Adrian replied, taciturn. He then faced me, his expression briefly softened. “Sister Eva, someone needed your assistance for a moment.”

Even his long coat flowed in the breeze like a dark romantic cape, summoning himself from the nightly shadows.

My brow quirked. “Who?”

“I don’t recall her name. She’s in dire need of your help and would appreciate your full cooperation ,” Adrian’s sly tone hinted behind his stifling grin.

“Where is she?”

“Somewhere around the church,” he guessed, his shoulders bopped. “She roamed around a lot—too fast for me to keep up.”

I sighed somewhat exasperatedly. “Alright. I’ll be there.”

As I strode passed Romano, without warning, he gripped my forearm in a swift action. The suddenness in my breath shuddered, gasping at an unforeseen conclusion.

“We’ll talk later,” Romano hissed sharply into my ear.

Attempted to haul myself, Romano subtly pulled me closer in an inch, kept me lock in place, gripping my forearm until my bone hurts.

In the corner of my eyes, Adrian clenched his fists flexed beneath the loose pockets, teeth beneath his sealed mouth grinded, and a muscle ticked in his pointed jawline, but he got near in gentlest, and in cleverest way possible for people to overlook at his sudden demeanor, unrecognizable from his usual cool self.

Like girls, men hated ruining their own image by impulse.

“I’ll see you then, Eva, if that’s even your real name,” Romano added, and released the grip on me. Up until now, Romano still doesn’t buy it when I said my actual name, especially when Adrian corrected him on the spot.

Without looking back, Adrian and I entered the church’s imposing halls, red carpet polished and vacuumed, and where the pew chairs at; the homeless were sheltered and fed at their seats, in their new attire, for the time being.

Leading ourselves up to the empty halls, he took by the large painted mural on the wall of Virgin Mary, carrying dying Jesus in her motherly arms, mourning for him, alongside of angels weeping and his apostles mourned for him as well. It’s beautifully lit painting, a solemn one, nonetheless.

But I was no mood for an inner talk or critic of the painting. My body collapsed against the famous biblical figures, stroking my pained forearm.

“I don’t think I ever see you look so…exhausted,” he said, in a husky voice, approaching closer.

The doors had been shut. And the air condition buzzed in, spreading its sharp bitter air.

“I’m fine,” I told him half-truth, eyes lowered on the floor.

The temperature didn’t aid the wavering sickness tied into me.

“My God, you looked so stiff back there,” he pointed out.

“Am I?” I said, numb.

“Don’t. Don’t do this to yourself,” he warned me again, growling.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” I answered, inert.

“And yet, you’re doing it again,” he reminded.

Silence prevailed longer than our exchanged words, planted to one another.

“Sorry,” is all I said, muttering under my breath.

The last energy in me drained out; I barely catch on to what Adrian openly addressed.

During vital moments, that’s where I lost sight of my personal focus. Despite my attempts on running a best behavior to get through the day, I still like to believe I’ve done good for lasting long on the outside world.

His gloved hands mingled mine, his big and thin thumbs traced at the back of my gloved hand back and forth.

“He’s giving you trouble,” he snarled. “And the way he spoke to you was…weird.”

“Um, so, you heard it all?”

He nodded. “I did.”

Suspicious, my brows scrunched in soft movement. “How? We were so far away.”

“I…” Adrian’s lips smacked lightly, in careful notion. “I’m actually quite good at reading lips.”

I paused, scanning him. “Oh, really?”

“Actually, I didn’t hear all of it, rather reading lips through it all. Romano kind of talked fast, fast as a squirrel. I’d say it’s weirdly ridiculous of him to go his way trying to catch your attention, chasing you down like a wild animal that’s been starving for weeks.”

I shot a disbelief look at him. “Is that how you described people in general or was it just him?”

His shoulders shrugged, caressing my upper arm. “Not if I can’t help it.”

Impressed, my shoulder slumped. “I’m thankful that you’ve…stepped in.”

Adrian’s mischievous sly smirk emerged. “Oh?”

Rolling my eyes, I turned away, peering at the shut door. “I’m glad that you did. It saved a lot of…time.”

“Who was he?” he inquired with a lace of curiosity.

“He’s…a nobody,” she answered with honesty.

“Right,” he replied, his hues dimmed.

The pout on his lips pursed harder.

“But,” he resumed, “something tells me he’s more than a stranger. What is he to you?”

Gulping, I formed the words in my brain with caution, unsure if it’s okay to exploit my deepest regret and shame. Thus, I couldn’t lie in a house of God.

“He used to be the guy I admired,” I said with honesty.

Adrian contemplated at me momentarily.

“Is he anything special to you? Anything at all?” he uttered, unable to detect his unreadable tone.