Mafia Runner

Chapter Twenty-Two

22. Chapter Twenty-Two

"...HIV is transmitted primarily via unprotected sexual intercourse (including anal and even oral sex), contaminated blood transfusions and hypodermic needles, and from mother to..."

I skimmed the article with a frown. The information began to get worse further down.

"...The majority of people infected by HIV develop a flu-like illness within a month or two after the virus enters the body. This illness, known as primary or acute HIV infection, may last for a few weeks. Possible symptoms include: Fever, Muscle soreness, Rash, Headache, Sore throat..."

Planting a palm firmly against my warm forehead, a heavy sensation began to grow in the pit of my stomach. As I reread the symptoms, my face crumbled and I threw back my head.

How could I have been so fucking stupid? Not realizing my family was in the fucking mafia aside, I had unprotected sex with Luciano Romano, the same playboy who admitted being interested in only the sexual side of his past relationships.

It hadn't even dawned on me at the time.

It had taken me four days to realize Lucian hadn't used a condom. I remembered—vividly— that he had climaxed inside me, but it didn't register that a wet ejaculation equated to 'no condom!' and the complications that went along with it.

He remembered the fucking lube but forgot the fucking condoms. It was so typical of Lucian.

After my arrival back home, I had holed myself in my bedroom for three days. Occasionally, I snuck downstairs for a bag of potato chips and a few bottles of Cherry Coke. My phone was always next to me, instructed to remain silent unless Tony called. Lucian had stopped calling on my second day of isolation. I had never answered his 'anonymous' calls.

He didn't leave a fucking voicemail anyway.

Besides, I still haven't come up with reasonable response to him or to the situation. I just... I haven't really gotten over the initial shock of everything. I was still reeling with all the information, with all the implications. Truthfully, I didn't know if I could ever reach a proper reaction to the mess.

Hell, I knew I was running away from things. Again. But this isolation was therapeutic.

I exhaled shakily.

This morning, I had woken up to a headache, muscle soreness, a sore throat, and a mild fever. When I had reached in my nightstand for some Kleenexes, I had the strangest flashback of Lucian reaching in the bedside table for his lubricant. And then it suddenly dawned on me that he hadn't used protection.

My heart was still beating crazily. Even if the article said it would take a month or two for an infected person to develop flu-like symptoms—and it had only been four days since we had sex—I still had this... sinking feeling in my stomach.

If Lucian...

Lucian couldn't be that selfish, could he? The thought of him having sex with other men before me was already bad enough, but if he...

"For fuck's sake." I slammed my laptop closed.

I needed to run. I needed to get out. I wanted to see Tony. We would have to meet outside his parents' house because I didn't want Emily to get sick. Considering it was five o'clock in the morning, Tony would still be at his house and my parents wouldn't harass me and ask where I was going.

They hadn't been overbearing by any means, just extra diligent.

Throwing a jacket over my sweatshirt, I threw up the hood, hoping to remain undetected.