Kissing The Moon Goodbye - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Five

Kate

                I stumbled over Donato and cursed. The look on his face told me he knew. It was after one in the morning and I had snuck into the kitchen for a late night bowl of coco puffs. I watched him for a moment before sighing and pulling another bowl out and filling partway. I sat down on the floor and set his bowl down for him.

No milk for the pooch, but he seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. Things were moving awfully fast. We would be married in less than three months. Could we have planned any worse timing? Stacey would be ready to pop. She was almost six months pregnant now our wedding date was only three weeks before her due date. She was going to be huge and furious at us years later when we looking at wedding pictures.

Of course I had pointed this all out to Alessio who said it would be better before she had the baby lest we wanted leaking breasts and screaming children during our ceremony and unless we wanted to wait an entire extra year she probably would not be in her best shape after the baby and would be furious looking back at her post baby body in these pictures.

Better for her to say "Oh look how huge I was here!" in reference to the pregnancy rather than "Oh my God look how fat I was here!" In reference to herself.

Donato ate his coco puffs merrily while I stewed over mine. I loved Alessio and I wanted to marry him there was not the faintest shadow of a doubt in my mind. He was a real ásshole sometimes, and I was a real bítch. It was our thing, I thought it was endearing really.

But Alessio's mom was right. He was sensitive. I snorted.

It caught Donato's attention. He raised his head and tilted it to the side, a single coco puff was sticking to his upper lip.

"Your grandma thinks Daddy is sensitive." I explained to him.

He stared at me for a moment and then licked his lips and returned to eating his coco puffs. I shrugged and did the same.

Alessio and I had clearly had our problems, but things were better now. And there was literally nothing in the world that could be worse than what had already happened to us. We were still together, after everything. His leaving for so long, my betrayal, shooting Nash, getting shot, my father dying, months of shitty mood and surgeries and rehabilitation. The vows call for "for better and for worse" and we had managed to get through the worst which is clearly what pulls people apart so I was sure we would be fine.

The kitchen light turned on, Donato and I raised our heads and looked to the doorway in unison.

I had never met the guy standing in the doorway before. That typically didn't surprise me around here. Ugo Genovese had guards around every corner here, drivers coming out the wazoo, cleaners, and the occasional raunchy dancers to reward his guys after a particularly good month where they met three quota requirements.

1. Obviously they had to make a large enough profit.

2. He set a limit on members killed each month. Most months this was never not a problem. They were pretty skillful at their jobs and few were killed in the line of duty.

3. Issues with the police. They had a limit of how many times they were interrogated, caught on scene, and of course arrested. They had a few people who were paid monthly for their assistance in keeping things under wrap but any time they were caught it required another payment or corpse. Both were unacceptable.

He paid for dancers often. Like I said, his men were good. They usually met these requirements and their quotas, honestly, I think it was really just an excuse to watch the sexy dancers himself as I imagined Mrs. Genovese was not a fan. But he insisted it was to reward the men for a good months work and Mrs. Genovese was all about taking care of the family.

The one thing they did not have was a professional cook. Mrs. Genovese did the cooking. Sometimes, rarely, it was just us at the table, other times there were fifty of us. No matter how many people were at the table she always made a full course meal and guests were always sent home with left overs.

But here I was staring at an unfamiliar face and I was positive he was not an employee here as he was standing in only his boxers. Ugo would have someone's head for that. He scrunched his face up when he saw my and ran a hand through his hair. It was a bit too long and messy as he'd obviously just crawled out of bed. Without realizing what I was doing I immediately sized him up.

Starting from the thick and messy hair that so many spent hours trying to imitate, down past smoldering dark eyes, down his jawline. He could stand to shave, Alessio some days had a shadow along his jaw but this guy had a beard. It was short and neatly trimmed, but it was there nonetheless. Finally my eyes traveled lower, past his well defined collar bone, the tattoos snaking up his entire left arm, down further to his torso, barcode tattoo along his side, lower until the waist band of his boxers-

"Who the fȕck are you?"

I snapped my eyes back up to his. Donati's ear flattened against his head and he laid down with a whine. Some guard dog. "What?"

"Oh God, don't tell me you're deaf and stupid."

I frowned deeply. "I'm not deaf."

"Great. So just the latter." He said and scratched his stomach carelessly. He opened the fridge up and stared blankly into the well lit tundra for a few minutes. "The fȕck is the milk..." He muttered to himself and leaned forward into the fridge. He had wings tattooed onto his back.

"On the counter."

He straightened up again and turned around with a scowl. "You heard that, huh?"

"I heard you before too. I just chose not to reply because you were rude." I huffed. "And really, I should be asking you the same question. I live here, who are you?"

This time it was his turn to give me a once over.

With my medium length hair in a messy bun and a thick headband on it to keep stray hairs from my vision, an over sized sweater and a pair of Alessio's gym shorts I wasn't much to look at right now.

"You want your dog dead?" He asked motioning towards Donato.

I gasped and put my hand on him, pulling him over to me quickly. "You leave my dog alone!"

He rolled his eyes. "That shit you're feeding him. Are you like, missing a few or something? In the head?" He asked cocking an eyebrow.

Heat rose to my cheeks and I stood up. "Now you listen here!" I slammed my bowl on the counter sending milk and coco puffs out of the bowl in a messy displace and smacked my hands on the kitchen island between us. "You've got a lot of nerve coming down here and talking to me like I'm some sort of idiot, talking to anyone that way really. I don't know who you think you are but-"

"Keep wagging your finger at me mommy and I swear I'll break it off." He said in a flat tone.

I had totally been wagging my finger. Immediately my hand returned to a fist and I pulled away from the island. "Who are you?" I demanded.

"Hungry." He replied easily and picked up my bowl. Without another word he spun on his heel and walked out of the kitchen leaving my mouth hang open.

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I feel like I HAVE to say, because I'm sure the moment a new guy walks into the picture you are all LOSING YOUR MINDS but I need you to know, and I HATE to just come out and say it but I know you guys will be freaking the hell out right now so I want to say....

He will NOT be another Nash. He will NOT be a love interest. 

But he will be an important character. Details as to wtf is up with the sporadic updates and whats going on will be in the next chapter.