Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA
Two of Ginevra's body guards walked into my office, both of them nervous as hell. They should be. They'd allowed her to get away the other night, exposing her to who knows what kind of danger. I'd had a tarp laid out on the floor in front of my desk, a psychological trick to put the people standing in front of me at even more of a disadvantage. They never willingly stepped onto that tarp until I told them to come right up to my desk.
"You can come closer," I said to them. They knew I wasn't really offering them a choice, so they each took two steps forward.
"My wife left the house last night without anyone seeing her or accompanying her. That means she was vulnerable, and my enemies could have gotten to her."
Like good Body men, their faces revealed nothing, but you couldn't hide sweat, and both of their faces were perspiring. They knew I could easily kill them for them failing in their only job, and that was protecting my wife.
"Your only role is to keep my wife safe. You failed. So that begs the question: where were you?"
"Swear to you, Boss, we were there with her, then --"
"Don't keep me in suspense," I said to them. "Then what?"
"She walked into the living room, and we were right behind her."
"And? That can't be the end of the story. If it is, your storytelling skills need some serious work because you're skipping over the best part where she got away from you two assholes."
"Boss, swear to you, that's all we remember. We followed her into the living room, then...nothing. It's a blank for both of us. The next thing we remember is waking up on the couch."
"So you didn't abandon your post? You just let my wife walk out of here without following her? And you admit to falling asleep on the couch?"
"We were right behind her. Then we were on the couch." Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee looked at each other, then back at me. "We were trying to figure it out, Boss, but we think...we think she drugged us."
"Had she given you something to eat or drink?" I asked because this was the same conclusion I'd come to. Both men wouldn't have the same story, the same lame recollection. I'd had Santo talk to them individually first, and he'd said the same thing. He didn't think they were lying. And they both had the same gap in time, following Ginevra into the living room, then waking up on the couch.
Who was my wife? What had she done to them? How had she done whatever she'd done to them?
"We'll find you some positions that you can handle since bodyguard seems to be a bad fit," I told them. This would hurt because being a bodyguard to the Head's family was one of the most prestigious positions in the Body. "Maybe collections."
Nobody liked collections in the Body, so they understood the demotion to the lowest of lows immediately. But they also knew I could have ended their lives. Mercy was much desired but rarely granted in the Body, especially from the Head. For messing up the way they had, they'd expected to die.
But more than I wanted to kill them, I wanted to find out how Ginevra had escaped for a few hours. I wanted to find out where she'd gone, who'd been with her and what she'd done. My instinct was to toss her room, but I refused. I wanted to figure out my wife but I wanted to do it without invading her privacy. Santo had agreed when I'd talked with him about it, telling him that I wasn't making any progress with my wife.
"What have you done to make progress with her, Lucio?"
"I was giving her space, but I got tired of being ignored and tried pushing her the other night."
YOU ARE READING
The Body #2: Lucio and Janie
RomanceGinevra Di Paolo was betrayed by her husband, Lucio Feroce, on their wedding night, so she disappeared. For five years. Now, he's found her and he's back to claim her. He was expecting a sweet, submissive wife. Instead, he got...Janie.
