When The Sun Goes Down - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Fifty

I had had many frightening experiences with Alessio before, but the moment I came into the following afternoon definitely took the cake.

The moment I stepped into the kitchen I stepped in powder. Because he was Alessio and he had all of the drugs in the world at his fingertips I wondered for a brief moment if I was standing in flour, or two inches on cocaine.

He was cranking yellow strips of pasta out of a machine. I could tell he hadn't slept, his hair was wrecked, bags were under his eyes, when he angled his body slightly to acknowledge me the white apron he wore had blood all over it.

"Jesus Christ Alessio!" I yelled. Maybe this was cocaine on the floor.

"What?"

"What?!" I gasped in disbelief. "Just look at yourself!"

He glanced down. "Oh."

"OH?!" I threw my hands up in disbelief. "OH he says!" I yelled to no one in particular.

"It's not human blood." He said with an eyeroll and then returned to his pasta making.

I waited patiently for him to explain further but he didn't. "Then whose blood is it?"

"A lamb obviously."

I put a hand to my head. It was literally about to explode. "Obviously." I said sarcastically. How could I have been so stupid? It was obviously lamb blood. "Why are you covered in lamb blood?"

He glanced up again. "We're having lamb tonight."

"You...you went out...and...butchered a lamb...today?"

"I thought we already established that. It's in the oven now."

"Oh Alessio." I groaned. When he walked around the counter eggshells crunched beneath his feet. "God this room is a mess."

"I'll clean it. I just have to finish making this pasta."

"They do make that stuff you know. Prepared, boxed, all you do is boil it?"

He looked disgusted and appalled. "I couldn't feed that horse shit to my mother."

"Funny, you just fed it to me last week." I muttered with an eyeroll. I walked further into the room. "You need to calm down. Step away from the pasta, take the bloody apron off, burn the bloody apron because that is seriously disgusting, and sit down."

"I'm almost done." He muttered.

"Alessio!"

He dropped everything at once, threw the apron off and collapsed into his seat.

"Wow, okay." I said shocked. I hadn't actually expected him to listen. "Now, what you need is a shower and a nap. Your pasta has to dry, your lamb has to bake, and you have to rest."

"But-"

"Breathe."

He sighed heavily. "Thank you."

I smiled. As soon as I got a few moments alone I would definitely have to delete Nash's number from my phone. I approached Alessio, stepping on eggshells, I could feel flour or cocaine or whatever it was between my toes, I was just really grateful I hadn't seen any lamb pieces laying around.

After a quick once over to ensure there was no blood on him I wrapped my arms around Alessio's neck. "You're welcome." I smiled. "Now, go shower. I'll find Pietro and ask him what to do about this mess!"

"Come shower with me." He said still lacking his usual calmness. He seemed to almost be pouting and it was absolutely adorable.

"I already showered." I thought the dripping hair might have been a tip off to that, but apparently I was mistaken.