Chasing Stars - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Forty-Two

Both were on their feet immediately and reached to their gun holsters which were empty and out of instinct in a situation of danger Alessio moved me behind him. I gently pushed my way beside him again and took the bottle of wine and held it out. "We, uh, we brought wine." I forced the biggest fake smile I possibly could.

"Kate...can I talk to you, alone." My dad said in a growl keeping his eyes on Alessio the entire time.

"Nope." I said still forcing a smile until my cheeks were hurting.

"Katherine." My father said sharply and Alessio pulled me into him protectively which served to only infuriate my father more.

My uncle on the other hand was far less no nonsense than my dad. He'd already lost one daughter to the dangerous drug selling boyfriend and he apparently was not willing to lose me as well. He stormed across the small apartment. "You son of a bitch-"

Alessio clearly preparing for an encounter pulled away from me and stepped forward and up to my uncle.

I came between the two immediately. "Wine glasses? Can you get the one glasses out?" I asked Sammy and forced myself against him to block his way. He put both hands on my arms and held me for a moment.

"Kate. Do you know-" He started in a low voice.

"We really need wine." I cut him off quickly. Maybe a lot of wine.

"My son-" Sam started again and I felt my heart clench. I was such a moron. I had been looking at this from the angle that they were cops and he was a criminal. Somehow, Nicolo had slipped my mind. Nicolo was something I had to accept, something I had known from the very start, something I had witnessed from the inside. For Sammy, who had seen only from the outside, Alessio might as well have pulled the trigger himself.

I forced the wine bottle into his hand and took several steps backwards until I was against Alessio again. "Wine Sammy. Please."

"It's, erm, from 1961." Alessio said his hand on the small of my back and I eased slightly at his touch.

Seeming too stunned for words Uncle Sam staggered backwards and then turned around walking in a zombie like state into the cramped kitchen while examining the bottle.

"How much was that bottle of wine?" I hissed to Alessio.

He ignored me, which told me more than I needed to know.

"So." I clapped my hands together. "What's for dinner? We are starved." I tried as casually as I possibly could.

Alessio shoved his hands into his pockets and followed me further into the house.

"Kate." My dad said when I was close enough to him he grabbed my arm and pulled me a few feet away. "Don't you know who he is?"

I had prepared for this question. No other question would have made any sense. Did I know? What was I thinking? These were the exact things any father would say. "His name is Alessio Dad."

"Yes I know!" He groaned. "Alessio Genovese."

I swallowed hard and nodded. "Yes. Alessio Genovese."

"He's the leader of the Genovese Mafia!"

I was half temped to tell him that they didn't call him the leader. I mean, he was, but there were other more Mafia like names to call him by. Like the Don, Godfather, old man, chairman of the board, capo di tutti capi...some how I felt like listing these names would serve only to make him more upset.
"He's my boyfriend." I said surprisingly firm for a girl who was likely giving her father a fatal heart attack. I glanced back to Alessio. He was looking calmly around the apartment. There wasn't much to look at. The old wallpaper was peeling in most places and the place itself wasn't much for size. It might not have looked like much to him but I could tell they had flipped the couch cushions to show their "good" side in honor of company and had thrown a table cloth over the old table which had been worn away in the spot where gram had sat rolling her cigarettes by hand until her last puff.