The Body #2: Lucio and Janie

Chapter 6 (Ginevra/Janie): The Rings

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

***TW for mentions of violence done to H and references to torture***

From my computer in my bedroom, I watched Lucio make three very short calls, then kick back on the couch with his hands behind his head. 

What are you thinking about, Lucio? Are you wishing you had a good little Body wife to fetch you a bag of frozen peas for your nose and your eye? Are you wondering if I'm really as clumsy as I claimed? Are you regretting coming to find your missing wife?

Knowing he was already uncomfortable from the kick to his balls and my head to his face, I decided to add to his discomfort for various reasons, number one being I was a huge grudge holder. Using the app on my phone, I cranked my air as low as it would go -- sixty degrees -- knowing I didn't have any blankets out there he could use. Maybe the hand towel hanging over the oven door, but that would barely cover one of his arms.

Then I called a rarely-used number.

"What?" came the low, deep voice.

"Thank you so much for telling him where I was."

Asshole was heavily implied, but I would never say that to this man. I wasn't exactly afraid of Butcher, but he was, hands down, the scariest man I knew, even more so than Lucio, which was saying something. There was something so dark in Butcher that even Lucio didn't quite reach his level of inhumanity -- and Lucio was terrifyingly cold-blooded and ruthlessly brutal. If I was a more spiritual person, I would have said Butcher didn't have a soul and he'd traded it away long ago. Lucio, on the other hand, may have kept his soul, but it was definitely shredded into pieces.

"You're welcome." Butcher sounded as if he'd missed the sarcasm and was taking my thank you seriously.

"You told him where I was!" I protested. "What the hell?"

"Watch your mouth and the answer is still you're welcome. He'd have found you sooner or later, my guess is sooner, but knowing where you were and knowing I was looking out for you kept him off your back for four years."

"Yeah, but --"

"Done with you."

And then he hung up on me, and I was left with no recourse but to stick my tongue out at the phone and flip him off. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and it definitely made me feel better.

After that highly unsuccessful call, I brushed my teeth, washed my face and pulled on some flannel jammies that I'd normally never wear except in winter, but...sixty was pretty cold so I might as well be comfy. Pulling a couple of extra blankets onto my bed, I snuggled under the covers for my nightly call with my girls. Our video conference calls were the highlight of my day. Since all of my girls were married to Body men, I had no idea what they told their husbands about their nighttime routine, but none of them ever missed a call.

Flopping on my stomach, I adjusted my laptop in front of me and pulled on a special headset that also scrambled the call -- unless you were wearing a matching headset. My girl Marzia -- we called her Moxie -- created these for us, and had she not been born into the Body, her brilliant mind probably would have been recruited by a secret government agency if she'd been given a chance at college and a career. She had one three-year-old and a husband who was pushing for another child. As always, she was first on the call.

Antonella -- Ant -- was a wizard at research, often with one or both of her two-year-old twins on her lap. She could find anyone, dig up any dirt on a person and do it fast. She gave a quick wave and started playing with her background. She always loved to find some interesting backgrounds that made us laugh. Today, it looked like she was at an adult toy shop.