The Body #4: Nico and Cosi

Chapter 17 (Cosi): Stem The Tide

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Janie and I had liberated ourselves from Lucio's house and had gone on the run for two weeks, winding our way around various states until we landed at our safe house.

Which wasn't so safe because Lucio was already waiting for us there. Janie didn't say anything, but I knew he'd impressed the hell out of her with that move. Lucio might not be exactly sure of absolutely everything Janie was capable of, but he knew enough about her and about the rest of us and what skills we each had to know he'd be smart to try to stay one step ahead of her.

After assuring us that Nico had no idea where I was and Lucio wouldn't be telling him, he also told us that my even-tempered husband was losing his mind: he'd ripped off some man's arm and beaten him to death with it. 

I'd excused myself so Janie and Lucio could talk and went up to my room to think. Never did I think I'd leave Nico. Never did I think we'd come to this in our marriage. But keeping me on birth control for so long? Allowing Desti back into our house? Although we had no proof yet, we were almost positive Desti had been putting foods that I shouldn't eat because of my histamine intolerance into my food and covering it with salt. 

Nothing to kill me, but enough to keep me sick so she'd have to stay to help me until I was feeling better. And I had to wonder if Nico was playing any part in this. I didn't think so -- couldn't bear to think so -- but stranger things had happened and I couldn't rule it out.

It was embarrassing that I'd missed it, but I didn't want to accept that my own step-sister would do something that awful. Someone who had watched out for me and protected me for almost my entire life? Did she honestly think she had a chance with Nico now that the Body allowed divorces? I would have said no, but then there were the ice cream dates and the signed divorce papers that were now currently sitting in my suitcase. Janie and I had make a quick stop on our way out of town to liberate those papers.

"Do you want to drop them at the lawyer's?" Janie asked as we drove away from my home.

I put my hand on my still outwardly-undetectable baby, so torn and confused. "No. Not yet."

Janie had taken her eyes off the road for a minute. "It's OK, Cosi. You don't have to decide anything right now. Escaping is big enough."

Looking out the window, I swallowed down the tears. "Escaping. Just another word for running away. Does that mean I'm a coward?"

"You're asking the wrong person," Janie said, patting my leg. "I ran away from Lucio for five years, so I don't think it's cowardly. I think it's a bold move to say fuck you, I've had enough of your shit and I'm done with your fucking behavior, asshole."

I hadn't told the girls yet about the birth control because I wasn't sure if they'd ride at dawn, chop off Nico's dick, cut it up and throw the pieces around like confetti at a ticker tape parade -- right before they buried him with a mouthful of oral contraceptives. They all thought it was strictly the situation with Desti and the divorce papers.

The night we arrived at the safe house was the first time in two weeks all of us had talked. Janie told us that when she'd walked Lucio out to his car, he'd told her he was sending Nico away for a couple of weeks.

"Nico's going on a mission to receive some super secret fight training from a branch of the government that doesn't even exist," Janie said. "He didn't elaborate, other than to assure me the training wouldn't include ripping off any arms. He's hoping it provides some stress relief for Nico, who'll come back and train the Body men on these new techniques."

"He talks to your pictures every night when he comes home," Vic said next. She was still monitoring our house with the bugs she'd given Janie to plant in case Nico had a call with Desti or there were more ice cream runs. "He wants you to be safe, come back home and remember he loves you. There was a lot of static, but I was able to hear that well enough."