I've had to bury a body before.
I was kidnapped when I was eight.
Giovanni's three truths spoken in our first car ride together to Pittsburgh, that strange game played in the intimate confines of his Lamborghini.
Funny how memory works. At the time, I was concentrating very hard on the first and the last statements. The bookends. The shocking admissions that seemed designed to overwhelm me.
I shot someone when I was eight.
I was kidnapped when I was eight.
Those were the truths meant to horrify, to reveal, to establish the boundaries of his world and mine.
But here, in this moment—standing in Lorcan's warehouse with the South Boston waterfront stretching dark beyond the windows—I realize… it's the middle one I should've noticed.
I've had to bury a body before.
NotI helped bury a body. NotI 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."
