Page 27 of The Agreement

“That’s from De Luca.”

“Her dad?”

“Sì, papa(yes, papa). Seems he didn’t like certain things and felt he needed to be put her in her place.” Donatello let out a breath and then swiped a hand over his face.

“Wow, I never would have guessed that one.”

“You and me both, dad, but believe me, I’m highly pissed and plan on asking to talk.”

“Remember,figlio(son), that man is a boss and her dad, so tread respectfully. And now that we know Salvatore is okay,” Donatello said, glancing back at David who nodded to confirm, “then I think we better go to your office.” Vinny nodded and walked out of the room, passing the room his men were in and got their attention. It’s nights like tonight that he wished he had a nice pair of thighs to sink between so he could fuck himself into a deep slumber.

Vinny sat down behind his desk while the few men took chairs and his dad stood against the wall, arms crossed. Vinny looked around the room and then at the men, their expressions all the same. He let out a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What happened tonight? This shit was set up and easy, should have gone off with no fucking problems. Did the shit get off the truck and in the hands okay at least?” he asked.

“That’s what’s so fucking odd about this Vinny?” Johnny spoke up.

“What do you mean? How was this odd, Johnny?”

“We had no problem getting to the shipment or even getting it off. If you are doing a gun run and you want that shit stopped, you are going to get to the men before they can get to the guns so that they can’t off you. Golden rule fucking 101 when you want to jack up a God damn gun run.

“But no, not this shit show. Most of the men had their shit and were already leaving by the time we heard the shots. And they weren’t firing at everyone, just at Salvatore’s car,” Johnny finished, glancing between the Boss and Vinny. Vinny looked up at his dad as he leaned back in his chair.

“And no one went after the other cars, just his?”

“Yes Boss, and even then, they weren’t fatal shots. Like they were aiming lower on the car and Salvatore was standing by the door. Not one of those shots would have killed him.”

“How did he get hit in the arm if that was the case?”

“That’s the other God damn bull shit Vinny, it was a ricochet shot. When he cried out, I was next to him and I could see how the bullet pinged the hood of the car and then hit his arm.”

“So, all of this was more like a warning than anything else?” Vinny asked, running his hands down his face. “But why now? Why this run? This wasn’t even a huge payload and jacking it wouldn’t have been horrible. But they didn’t jack anything.”

“A warning to whom though, figlio?”

“Any one of us, dad. Not like you and I are high on the list of favorites for people to like.”

“True, although it’s not like anyone can judge our runs. So, who would know about this one?”

“Everyone in this room knew and no one else,” Vinny told him. “Wait, Val was the only other person, but she would have had no clue where to even look about this run.” But by the look Donatello gave Vinny, Vinny knew what his dad was thinking, and that was that Val had something to do with this and nothing was going to change his mind at the moment.

~ Chapter 23 ~

“Are you okay?” Val looked up from her menu at one of her long-standing friends, a daughter of another family that worked under her dad.

“Yes…no…I don’t know Luciana.”

“Is it the prick again?” Val looked at her friend and shook her head. Throughout all the history with her fiancé here, Luciana knew it all. And the night that Val got the news; she had to call her best friend. To say that Luciana was livid was understating it. Every mafia child knew their place in the world; very few got to marry for love. Your one hope was that the man was kind enough to you. And well, they had both never thought that Val would be married off to her enemy.

And here came the fun part, trying to change her friend’s mind. Some were way more open but some, like Luciana, believed Vinny to be the devil and as such could never be good to Val. Of course, some of their moments were still tense, but overall, they had seemed to be working on it.

“No, it’s not Vinny, he’s been good.” Luciana sat her menu down and crossed her arms.

“I’m aware you and I haven’t talked much, I get that, but you cannot tell me that man has done a complete change. Hello, you do recall all the times he would push you in the hallways at school right?”

“Yes, I remember. But you can’t say he did that and not say how many times I tripped him or let something down so he would fall over it.” Luciana nodded her head in agreement. Throughout the many years of knowing each other, Val and Vinny weren’t ever nice. They often got into it at school and though Chicago was a big town, it seemed way too small for how often their groups would run into each other.

“Okay, fine, I will give you all of that. And if it’s not Vinny then what is up?” Valentina ran her nail over the edge of the menu, wondering how to bring it up. After all, Luciana’s dad worked for hers’. Not that she ever felt that Luciana would say anything. “Val?”

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