The Body #2: Lucio and Janie

Chapter 20 (Janie): We Found Her

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

***TW for references to trafficking***

The man was standing in the middle of an empty room, and although I couldn't see his face, he had broad shoulders and strong arms and dark hair and his voice was deep when he said, "Come here." When I entered the room, he held open his arms to me, and I walked into them. Resting my head against his chest, I wrapped my arms around his waist. His arms went around me, his chin rested on top of my head, and just that quickly, he was surrounding me with his strength, giving me a break from having to be strong. Alone.

I bolted upright in bed as my dream faded away, blinking rapidly as I became aware of my surroundings. The dream had been the most vivid yet. Since Lucio had found me, the dream man was becoming more defined; the man holding his arms out to me was becoming more and more clear. More and more comforting.

After what had happened between us tonight on the couch, I wasn't surprised the dream had paid me a visit. I wasn't surprised that my dream man -- whoa! No. Scratch that and rephrase. I wasn't surprised the man who appeared in my dreams was reminding me of Lucio.

Although I'd been working on taking down the trafficking ring with my girls, I'd never had as much to deal with as I did now. And I'd never had so much blood and death to deal with, either, in an up-close and personal way. Lucio was ruthless and I was happy I didn't have to witness anything more than the encouragement portion of the time with the mistresses. I had no desire to know what Santo was doing to them after they'd answered all of our questions, but I suspected a bullet between the eyes was being served up.

When I was alone, I could admit the seemingly endless torture was getting to me. The other Bodies had been reporting progress, so I was pleased with our efforts. We were getting close, and even though I'd thought that before, this time I knew we were. We just needed to find the mastermind and shut everything down. I had tasked Lucio with determining who was involved with finding purchasers and how the victims were being moved from point A to point B. We needed to know how the supply chain worked so that could be dismantled as well. Lucio said he had a good man who could try to track the money and see if any of the poor victims could be recovered.

It was just hormones, and I hadn't acted on them. I kissed him back because that had been the terms of the agreement, but no matter what I'd felt, I'd walked away. I'd continue walking away, too.

I knew Cosi would be OK when she divorced Nico and walked away. So far, there'd been few divorces instigated by the wives, but Lucio and Santo were ensuring that there was no blowback on the women whatsoever. There had not yet been a husband-instigated divorce, but Lucio and Santo would protect the wife in that case, too. In Cosi and Nico's case, it was a matter of who filed first. He might have the signed papers, but Cosi was going to liberate them, add her signature to his and drop them at her lawyer's. She'd be the first.

At least, I hoped she would. Out of all of us, Cosi was the softest and sweetest, which is why we were all ready to kill Nico on her behalf. When Ant had called us really late with her report -- after my five minutes on the couch with Lucio -- we'd all jumped on except Cosi. We figured she was sleeping, given the toll the stress and pregnancy was taking on her mind and body.

"Well?" I demanded of Ant.

She shrugged as she shook her head. "I don't know. I just don't know. Here's the breakdown: they left the house at seven fifty-two this evening and I followed them to the ice cream shop. They went inside, and just stood in line next to each other, no nastiness between them, got ice cream cones and ate them outside at a bistro table. There were other people around them, and they didn't try to go anywhere more private so they could be alone. Step-sis is very handsy; every time she laughed or said something, she'd touch his hand or his arm. He never touched her. He didn't open her car door to help her in or out of the car. He was leaning toward her the way she was leaning toward him at the table, but that could have been because the conversation seemed really, really intense at times. Nico looked pissed off the entire time, but since that's how ninety-nine point nine percent of Body men look when in public, I didn't read too much into that. When they finished, they went back inside, again no nastiness, and they came out with a takeout bag of what I assumed was Cosi's ice cream. They drove off, and I followed them to Cosi and Nico's house. Nico walked inside at exactly eight-thirty, holding the takeout bag of ice cream, followed closely by step-sis."