Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I've had to bury a body before.
Not I helped bury a body. Not I watched someone bury a body. Just that simple, declarative statement that I let slide past without proper examination because he sold me on the dog story and I was too busy processing red shoes and color-coordinated garment bags.
Giovanni buried a body.
With Jino.
And his Uncle Manzu.
In the frozen woods behind their property.
"Yer thinkin' hard again," Lorcan says, his Irish accent wrapping around the observation with something that might be amusement, or concern, or both.
His voice pulls me back from the spiral, from the connections I'm making, from the realization that Giovanni's confession wasn't about some random victim—it was about Enzo. The German Shepherd. The beloved family dog who was suffering and needed mercy.
Except… I meet Lorcan's gaze. "How do you know Giovanni again?"
He actually laughs. "Why do you ask?"
"You… just… never told me."
"Hasn't been time to hash out backgrounds, has there?"
I don't know if enough time has now passed that I'm coming to grips with my situation, or the submissive programming is starting to wear off now that I'm no longer in a sex dungeon, or I'm just not a critical thinker in dangerous situations… but I'm just starting to notice that… it's starting to feel weird that… Giovanni is missing from this entire adventure. Seeing as how he's pretty much the main character.
I get it. I was kidnapped. My save-me-expectations could, perhaps, be a little high considering the fact that I'm in the middle of a mob drama.
But shouldn't Giovanni be making more of an effort?
Not because I'm special. But because I'm an actual witness to Rico's murder.
A murder Giovanni executed.
A murder that will ignite a mob war across state lines?
"Emmaleen?"
"Hm?" I look at Lorcan and find him confused.
"Ya OK, there, darlin'?"
I could lie. Or deflect. But I don't. "I'd like to hear that story now."
"Which one?"
"Why you care so much about my safety. Why you haven't handed me over to the LaRiccia's. Why you think Giovanni is a monster, why my collar triggered you into seeing white, and why you're not answering his calls. I mean, I get that last one, at least on the surface. You broke into his house. And—" I sigh, panning my hand to indicate the apartment as a whole. "—all this makes sense now. The security stuff, I mean. I don't know much—anything, really—about Giovanni's security. But I'll tell you what I do know." I narrow my eyes at my handsome, heroic kidnapper. "He's way more paranoid than you. In fact, you're just the kind of person he might hire to install his security."
Lorcan laughs. It's not even sarcastic. It's real. "Ah, yeah. Ya got me."
Did he just breathe a sigh of relief?
"I did his security. I've got all the passwords. I just turned it all off. I didn't plan on findin' you, Emmaleen. I didn't plan on findin' anythin'. I was goin' through the motions. My uncle sent me down there to check shit out. He was ordered to do this by the LaRiccia family. I was ordered to get it done. It didn't matter what I found in Giovanni's mansion. It never mattered. I was gonna report back and say I found nothin'."
"Why?" My voice sounds very small right now.
He waits for nearly thirty seconds, before answering me. But when he does, he's different. Not cold. Lorcan really isn't a cold man. Just… resolved. "Like I said earlier," he finally says. "There are things you're never gonna know about him. Me. Us. And that's it. The end."
There is a big, black period at the end of that sentence.
The End.
"Can I call him?"
Again, Lorcan laughs. "You want to call him right now?"
I nod. "I bet he's worried."
"Oh, I bet he is," Lorcan agrees. And though these words are low, they are not soft. "I bet he is."
"Is that a no?"
"It's a no. For now. And not because I care if you talk to him, but if you talk to him, I'll have to talk to him. And I'm not ready to do that."
"So it's real?"
"What?"
"This kidnapping. I'm your prisoner."
"I feel like there are worse things for you to be right now."
"Better things, too."
"Like Giovanni's sex slave?"
"It wasn't like that."
"Wasn't it?" His eyebrow goes up. "You're wearin' a collar, Emmaleen. I don't care if it was your choice, it's weird."
Weird.
Weird.
I hate that word. And I hate that Lorcan says it to me now. Because I had just come to terms with not being weird. Jino had me convinced that my submission was something natural. Maybe not 'normal' when considering the number of people who don't want a live inside a power exchange relationship. But it felt good to me.
"I like it," I tell Lorcan.
He shakes his head. "Nah, Emmaleen. Ya don't. You were programmed to like it."
"That's just… not true. I was happy. You took me away from my happy. And now you're… what? What are you doing with me? Because the moment you let me leave, I'm going back to Giovanni. There's nothing you can do to stop it."