Chasing Stars - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Five

Day three

It was day three already, meaning I had only four more days to decide whose side I was on. I had slept through day two entirely. Well, almost entirely. I'd had to get out of bed a few times to hurl.

Alessio had forced me into a cold shower on day one, stripped me after, dressed me, made passionate and insane love to me, twice, and then tucked me into bed. In the morning he'd left aspirin, a glass of water and a single rose with a note under it on the nightstand beside the bed. The note had been brief. Five simple words. "My rarity, feel better." And his name had been written on the bottom making five.

Fụck. This was a hard decision.

I decided I would spend day three going over all the reasons I should help Nash, why I didn't want to be with Alessio and then on day four I would try to think of all of the reasons I did. I tried to force myself to think of my father and the way he'd insisted on looking at me through the hole in his arm. The words Nash had told me.

How many people had Alessio killed? What kind of people did he kill? Were they always bad guys? Did he kill people that annoyed him or got in his way even if they weren't a threat? Had he killed anyone young? Just budding into their life? Someone like my Nicolo?

I tried to be angry at Alessio because I felt like I truly should be. But I couldn't. I had known who Alessio was for a very long time, and this is still what I had chosen. Granted, I was pretty hopefully he wouldn't shoot my father, but if I want to look at things from a technical point of view he didn't, his men did. Not that that made it alright. But still. It was hard to be mad at someone for being exactly who you had always known them to be.

"Good morning Katherine."

I sat up slowly in bed, my hair hardly remained in the bun he had put it in the night before as I was puking, most of it fell now all over my face and was in rough knots. It kind of smelled too. Alessio on the other hand looked perfect. I could tell he'd just gotten out of the shower because his hair was still wet and his bare chest was shining from the moisture. What was I thinking about again?

"Get a shower, I was thinking we could go for a jog." On closer inspection the shorts he was wearing were grey and had a bright yellow stripe down either side. Not his usual apparel and sneakers. Had I ever seen Alessio in sneakers before? Oh yes, the last time I saw him work out.

"Do I look like someone who jogs?"

He smiled and leaned over the bed. He wiped the stray hair, stiff from dried puke, away from my face and kissed my forehead lightly. "Shower, it will make you feel better. We'll jog down to the coffee house you like so much."

We'd never gone to a coffee house before. Stacey and I had a favorite coffee place. Had I mentioned that to him before?

"That's like two miles away."

"If you get tired I'll just carry you."

I frowned. He knew I'd be too proud to admit I was tired and let him carry me.

He watched my skeptical look for a moment before climbing onto the bed with me. He wrapped his strong arms around me and I folded into his body. "Shower now, I'll jog down. Simone can drive you down, by the time you've driven down I should already be there and ordered for you. I'll order you..." He paused thoughtfully. "Donuts?" I shook my head. "Muffins?" I paused and then shook it again. "Ah, strawberry cheese cake."