When The Sun Goes Down - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Nine

Alessio did something that both shocked and frightened me, something I never expected. He laughed. Well, if anything it was more of a faint chuckle, but it suspected it was the closest thing to a laugh that I would hear from him.

"Why do these girls come here?" I pressed again. "You know I could just start asking around and putting the pieces together myself."

"You know I could just save both of us the time and expose of you now?"

"If you were going to do that you would have already!" I accused.

"And how do I know you aren't going to talk?"

"How do you know anyone here isn't going to talk?"

"Because they're grateful." He said simply with a shrug.

"Or terrified of you."

"Perhaps. I've never bothered to ask, only to cover my trail."

"So? You know I'm not going to talk. You've totally covered the terrified portion of this thing."

"Fine."

I tried to stop my mouth from gaping open like a fish, but I didn't do so well.

"But nothing I do comes free of charge."

I snapped my mouth shut. "O-okay." I stammered.

Everyone has a price. I remembered from my list of things I had learned.

"You stay, finish out the year. It gets terribly fun around the holidays down here. When midnight strikes, December the 31st, you may leave if you so choose, and to finish I'll grant you the same luxury I grant all of our women."

"Which is?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself. I'll tell you everything, if you stay."

"And what if I don't want to stay?"

"Then you leave tonight."

"How do you know I won't tell?"

He raised a coy eyebrow.

"Okay, okay. So you know I won't tell. How do I know you aren't just screwing me? That I'm going to walk out the door and you just shoot me immediately?"

He laced his fingers together. "And what would you do if I told you that was precisely what I was to do Katherine? Would your predicament change in the least? If I told you I was fucking with you right now would you have any other options or would you be just as against the wall then as you are now?"

Point made.

"We'll be relocating as it is anyway. We don't take unnecessary risks." It was hard to imagine a place this big just picking up and moving somewhere else. How the construction could possibly be done in secrecy, how would they cover up this place? Of course I knew without a doubt I wouldn't tell. If it was just my life on the line I might risk it. But I knew I wouldn't be the first they took down to protect this secret and I wasn't willing to have my family killed for my poor decision making either.

"So I could leave today? You'd just let me?"

"You'd know nothing of course."

"What does my staying do to benefit you?"

His cocky air fell for a brief moment. "I'm curious Katherine. Simply curious."

"You're curious?" I repeated. He didn't say anything, just stared me down. "I'll stay." I decided. I had already lost my job, been missing for nearly a month, if I just walked out today I would have no clue what all of this was for and still be just as lost and possibly in danger as I would be if I stayed. I had literally nothing to lose by staying a few months.