You saved a talking cat one day, but it ran off after promising you that it will return the favor next time it sees you. You never thought that it would show up years later on your wedding day, screaming at you, “We gotta go, MEOW!”

“Rufus, dude, NOW!?” Jimmy exclaims under his breath. His bride to be’s face scrunched up in frustration.

“How well do you think you know this girl? HMM!?” Rufus snaps, looking at the bride behind them.

“Do you trust her?”

“What? Yes, of course I do!” Jimmy lulls to a mumble “I wouldn’t be standing here if I didn’t…”

Rufus starts frantically cleaning his paws “Well kiddo, I got bad news, you really can’t trust the gal and we really need to leave.”

Rufus leaps ontop of Jimmy’s shoulders, heads close enough to converse amongst themselves.

“The chick is with the mob, kid.”

Jimmy starts to laugh. Looking around at the people at the wedding, most of them seem normal. Well dressed. She did say her family was Italian, but not THAT kind of Italian.
He looks back at his fiance, Gabriella, still looking mildly annoyed at this interruption of the biggest day of her life. Her family is well off enough, that’s sort of why Jimmy was even there. Pretty gal with a short temper in a rich Italian family.

Oh god, he thought. Maybe he’s right. Not my Gabby…
“Rufus, look, the last time I saw you things were different. I haven’t seen or heard from you since. Now you expect me to just pretend to get cold feet on my wedding?”

“Look around you. You see any of those people out there look a bit… strange?”

Jimmy frantically takes a look around quickly again, scanning the perfectly normal crowd of people sitting in the pews before him. Normal.
“No Rufus, you need t-“

“Kid, the guys in the back.”

Jimmy looks again, at all corners of the chapel. Several large men line the corners. Most of them dressed the same. With the exception of one. Wearing white, with a black rose pinned to his shirt. Completely shaven head, a huge obvious scar from the bottom of his left cheek bone down across his lips and ends at the tip of his chin on the right.

An Ace of Spades, tattooed on the other cheek.

“That’s just Gino, the bodyguard.”

“You idiot! That’s not just Gino! They call him ‘Meatballs’ Mallozzi. He’s a known member of the Bacci Crime Family.”
As Rufus gives Jimmy the lowdown, he realizes that Gino is giving him the look he’s seen before. The “I’m going to beat the shit out of this kid” look.

“Oh jesus, look Rufus, even if I were to believe you. Why would I risk pissing off all these mobsters?”

“Because if we don’t, you are gonna get gunned down along with everyone here by Tiger Castellana and his merry band of killer mobsters. Time for the alibi.”

Rufus reaches into the tufts of his grey fur and pulls out a Beretta 92. Pointing it straight into Jimmy’s mouth.

“Alright nobody move a muscle or this floppy piece of linguini gets seasoned with lead!”
(to be continued…)

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