Chasing Stars - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Thirty Five

                I brought my fork slowly back and forth, moving the mashed potatoes from one side of the plate to the other and back again.

"You're awful quiet tonight Kate-pie."

I stabbed, getting a forkful of ham and rather than eat it myself passed it over to Donato. Alessio would have my head if he knew I was feeding him table food.

"Penny for your thought."

I looked up again, both my father and Uncle Sam were watching me somewhat expectantly. I sighed heavily. "Officer Cooper...."

"The tart?"

"Yeah Dad, the tart. What exactly do you know about him?"

"Well, not much." Dad admitted.

"He doesn't exactly spend time at the station. Would be too risky of course. Think I've seen him all of three times." Sammy shrugged and watched me as I handed Donato another piece of ham. "Eat, you need to eat."

"Why?" Dad continued. Naturally, he would be ready to attack the moment I would mention a boy.

"He's legit though? Like he is on the force?"

"Of course. Why the sudden interest in Cooper?"

"Would you have any reason to believe he's, erm, well, could he possibly be corrupt?"

Their forks hit their plates in a noisy platter. "Why?" Dad demanded.

"That's a pretty large accusation Kate." Sammy continued.

"No, no, no. I'm not accusing I'm simply asking if you know-"

"You should know better. Why you would even ask such a thing Kate. Honestly."

A lie. I blurted out a lie, something that was far better than admitting to the two officers that my mafia running boyfriend had suggested he was some sort of scum. "My boss suggested a story on corrupt cops."

"Hope you told your boss he was an idiot." Dad grumbled to himself and violently speared his meal.

"Of course Dad." I mumbled.

"Kate, you know you can't right about Cooper. He's undercover."

"I know, I know I just thought – oh never mind." We fell into a few minutes of silence before I decided to press the matter again. "He's an informant, has he you know, worn a wire, turned anybody in, actually gave any information?"

"Are you trying to worm a story out of us?" Sammy asked raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not, I just wanted to know if he was on the right team."

"Eat your green beans." Dad grumbled and motioned to my plate. "And don't feed them to the dog."

"Yes Daddy." I sighed

"Sometime you reporters." He grumbled under his breath eating with significant annoyance as he stabbed noisily at his meal.

"Easy." Uncle Sam urged him and then turned back to me. "So how is that boyfriend of yours?"

Not talking to me, staying out later than usual, coming home with raw knuckles and blood along the collar of his shirt. "Good."

Was there anyone I hadn't lied to lately? Between Stacey not knowing Pietro was in the mafia, Alessio not knowing Nash was a cop, and Nash having not known I was living with Alessio for months, and my family not knowing who was dating the list was becoming quite extensive. Sometimes it felt like I couldn't do anything right.