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“Kujo! Wake up!”
A nightstick was banged twice against the bars of the cell to emphasize the harsh words, and the rattling clangs echoed in Jolyne’s ears. She picked herself up and scowled at the general direction of the cell door. “What?”
“It’s your lucky day, bitch,” the guard snapped. He sounded angry about it. “You’re walking.”
She squinted. “I’m what?”
“Somebody made your bail,” the guard said. “You’re going free.”
She blinked. “But-“
Admittedly, Jolyne’s knowledge of the legal system was fuzzy at best, but she was pretty sure bail was something that came before the trial, before you’d been convicted of anything. It didn’t mean jack shit once you were already serving fifteen years on a felony charge.
“Look,” the guard said, cutting her off with an edge to his voice as he stabbed the key to her cell into the lock. “Do you want to get out of here or not?”
“Well, no shit,” Jolyne said, pushing herself to her feet and approaching the bars, leaning up against them. She gave the guard a watchful look from behind her bangs. “Course I do. I just want to know who’s paying my way out of the dump.”
“Ask him yourself,” the guard grumbled, turning the key and swinging the cell door open. “Says he’s your cousin. Come on, hurry up.”
Cousin?
She didn’t hesitate even a moment longer, despite her reservations. This was obviously shady as fuck, but a chance to get out of this place was too good to pass up. The guard clapped a pair of handcuffs onto her wrists and gestured for her to follow him, and they walked down the hall, past the rows and rows of parallel bars.
Walking at his side, she could see that the guard escorting her had his teeth clenched tightly, fists shoved into his pockets. He wasn’t angry after all. He was nervous.
Before long, they were out of the cell blocks and into the administrative areas of the prison. In a blur of activity, they unlocked her shackles, handed her back her belongings, took back her uniform coat and ID bracelet. It was as though they suddenly couldn’t wait to be rid of her.
Who would do this for her? Who could? She didn’t even think she had any cousins. Her mom had a sister in Hawaii, but no siblings in the mainland states.
The doors of Green Dolphin Prison swung open, and Jolyne stepped, dazed and blinking, into the sunlight. The afternoon Florida heat hit her like a physical blow.
There was a white Lamborghini idling at the curb, waiting for her. The driver was wearing a patterned hat and a wide grin, but Jolyne’s attention was immediately drawn to the taller man leaning up against the car’s bumper.
He had long, wavy blonde hair, curled into ringlets, and an unreadable expression that turned into a smile as she approached. He was wearing sunglasses and a dark blue suit with little gold and red ornaments decorating the cuffs and lapels- ladybugs, she thought.
“There she is!” he said. He had an Italian accent that, together with the car, made Jolyne immediately think ‘mafia.’ “La farfalla.”
“Who the hell are you?” Jolyne demanded.
He didn’t look fazed at all by her rudeness. “My name is Giorno Giovanna. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kujo.”
She didn’t bother to return the greeting, instead asking the next extremely important question. “Are you in the mafia?”
“I run the mafia.”
“Right,” Jolyne said. “So, like, I don’t want to offend you- I really don’t- but am I gonna like... owe you for this? Cause if so, I think I’d just like to head back inside and-”
“No, no, of course not,” Giorno said, waving a hand. “I would never seek repayment for favors done for family.”
Family. There was that again. “Yeah, you told them you were my cousin or something?”
“I did, yes. Rather a simplification, but it seemed more plausible,” Giorno said. “We’re related through your father’s family. I’ve been told you don’t have any relationship with them, is that right?”
“Yeah,” Jolyne muttered, folding her arms defensively, the mention of her father immediately putting her on guard. “Is this a favor for him?”
“Not at all!” Giorno said brightly. “In fact, he was planning on coming here to break you out himself in a few days, and is doubtlessly going to be very irritated with me, but I felt the matter could be resolved much more peacefully if I dealt with it myself. And it seems I was right.”
Jolyne blinked, stunned for a moment. “He was gonna try and break me out?”
“Yes, and it would have been violent and probably quite stupid,” Giorno said with a nod. “He’s rather upset you were framed to get to him, which is understandable, but really, he needs to learn on occasion problems can be solved without any punching.”
“Yeah, speaking of that,” Jolyne said, hooking a thumb over her shoulder towards the towering grey complex behind her. “How did you...”
“With concerning ease, actually,” Giorno said. “I just had a few words with your state’s governor. A man of rather exotic imported tastes, if you understand. The sort one would not want being released to the American press. I believe he will be more intelligent about his expenditures in the future.”
“So, no punching, just blackmail.”
Giorno beamed, bringing his hands together. “Exactly!”
“Nice,” Jolyne said, and stuck her hands in her pockets, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “So... what happens next?”
Giorno shrugged. “Have you ever been to Italy?”
“I’ve never even been out of the states,” Jolyne said honestly.
“Would you like to? There’s a few matters we should deal with here in Florida first, but afterwards I would be happy to host you,” he offered.
Jolyne didn’t even need a moment to think it over. “Hell yes. But,” she added, before Giorno could respond, “before anything else, I need a shower. And a burger. Prison food fucking sucks. And- I need to stop by my mom’s house and let her know I’m okay.”
“Absolutely,” Giorno agreed, and opened the car door, stepping aside for her. “Shall we?”
Jolyne grinned, and stepped into the car. The driver twisted around to wink at her before turning the key in the ignition. The seats were leather, soft and red, miles nicer than anything she’d even seen in prison. Giorno slid in after her, and pulled the door shut behind him.
As the car hummed to life and pulled away from the prison complex, Giorno’s phone rang.
He picked it up. “Hello?”
There was a pause.
“Ah, Jotaro!” Jolyne immediately snapped to attention at the name, whipping around. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you,” Giorno said with a faint smile.
“Yes, she’s here with me-” Giorno said before moving the phone a few inches away from his ear. He waited for about thirty seconds before returning it and continuing the conversation. “Now, there’s no need to shout. She’s perfectly fine. Hold on, I’ll send you a picture.”
He shifted his gaze to Jolyne, and held up the phone camera. “Smile!”
Jolyne flipped the camera off- the Japanese way, so she could be sure he understood. Giorno chuckled and snapped the picture, sending it off to her father, before bringing the phone back to his ear.
“See? She’s fine. And I‘m looking into the situation in Florida, you don’t need to worry about that either.” Another pause. “Jotaro, I know you don’t trust me, but really, I feel responsibility for the situation my father left behind. At least give me a chance to rectify it.”
This time, the gap dragged out for an almost painfully long stretch, and Jolyne found herself fully distracted by the phone call, leaning closer to listen for her father’s response.
Finally, there was the dim crackle of a voice on the other end of the line. Giorno relaxed marginally, and smiled. “Thank you. Besides, you do know you’re the one he’s after. You’re best served staying far away from this. Jolyne and I can handle it. Yes, of course I’d let you know if I needed your help.” There was one more pause, and then, “I’ll tell her. Goodbye, Jotaro.”
He hung up the phone.
“What was that all about?” Jolyne asked. “That was my dad?”
Giorno tossed the phone onto the car seat. “Yes, it was. The prison called him about your release, since he’d been in contact with them to schedule a visit. He was rather upset.”
“And the... ‘situation’?” Jolyne asked, surrounding the word with air quotes.
“Ah,” Giorno said, “that’s a somewhat longer story. It has to do with the reason you were convicted unjustly in the first place. Some decades ago, your father killed mine.”
Jolyne jolted at the words, but Giorno had looked nothing but casual as he said them, and he continued easily without seeming to take note of her shock.
“He was a terrible person, of course. He needed to die. But he had a number of loyal followers, and it was these people who were responsible for your imprisonment, which I believe was done in order to lure your father here to Florida. Which is why I wanted him to stay far away. He would be in a great deal of danger here.”
“And are we?” Jolyne asked. “In danger, I mean.”
“Oh, we absolutely are,” Giorno agreed serenely. “And it will only increase as we pursue the people responsible. I assumed that wouldn’t be a deterrent.”
“Damn right it’s not,” Jolyne said with a grin.
“Excellent,” Giorno said, as the car rounded a curve and started onto the long suspension bridge that connected Green Dolphin’s island to the mainland. “Oh, your father also wanted me to ask whether you’d received a pendant from your mother.”
Jolyne blinked, digging the twisted little golden pendant out of her pocket. “Oh- uh- yeah.”
Giorno held out a hand. “May I?”
Jolyne hesitated a moment before shrugging to herself and pressing the amulet into his palm. He held it up and fiddled with it for a moment before it clicked open, and the little fragment of yellow metal that had nicked Jolyne’s finger earlier tumbled out into his hands.
“Of course,” he muttered with a faint smile before looking back up at Jolyne. “Did it cut you?”
“Yeah,” Jolyne said, absently rubbing at the now scabbed-over nick on her finger with her other hand. “While I was being processed into the jail.”
“And have you seen anything strange since then?”
“Define ‘strange.’”
Giorno looked thoughtful for a moment. “Brightly colored spirits?” he suggested. “Unusual abilities?”
Jolyne looked at him for a long moment, then wordlessly drew Stone Free into existence over her shoulder. She could tell Giorno saw it, too, because his smile immediately widened, and a golden shadow flickered momentarily over his skin.
“Bellissima,” he said. “I think you and I are going to get along very well.”