Page 32 of The Agreement

“Oh! Are you okay to talk about it?” She knew she didn’t have much of a choice so she nodded. For her, she didn’t think there would be a right time to talk about it, but at least here, she was still in his arms and he was still protecting her.

“I’ll be fine.” Vinny held her a little tighter, his eyes catching Frankie’s as the man walked up to the car as well. “We were just about done when they were called to go see my dad and Luciana and I decided to go back to your place, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of someone watching me. And I know you think that since Luciana is a chick, she’s weak but she’s not. If I had no one, I knew she would watch me and have my back if anything happened.” Vinny nodded, for they had all picked up on their friendship.

“We know, think she kicked Frankie’s ass once, but we don’t bring it up much,” Vinny told her, causing the man outside to grumble and Val to laugh.

“Yeah, I think I heard about that. Anyway, I got us out on the main road and I checked my mirrors, and sure enough, there was someone behind us. I did everything I knew to shake them; I weaved, I was doing 80, I went down side streets. Finally, they got close enough to shoot out my back window. I called Joey and I knew he would be here fast and when I pulled over and I thought the car would hit me or that the people would take me.”

“What kind of car was it?’

“A newer black Bentley. And I know it had horsepower because it was keeping up with my Porsche.” Vinny and Frankie shared a look and Val’s brows came together. “What is it?”

“You didn’t shoot back? Or Luciana?” Frankie asked and Val shook her head.

“No way. I don’t have a gun, barely know how to shoot one and I know Luciana doesn’t carry one, she has other things.”

“Could you say how many shots you heard?” Val licked her lips as she tried to think it over.

“Maybe two or three? I guess that’s why I felt like they were coming after me. Why?” The two men shared another look and Frankie walked away, the cell phone going to his ear to call Johnny.

“The Bentley you described, it’s not a cheap car, and modifications done to it are very pricey. Unless you have a connection with a dealer.”

“Okay, and?”

“Celeste has that same type of Bentley and her uncle is a dealer.”

“She did this?” Val’s eyes opened wide and Vinny shook his head.

“I don’t know. On the way here, Johnny called and said Celeste came to his house, her car was shot up. If this is to make any sense, it would mean that Celeste was following you while someone was following her and then either shot her car after she shot yours and a stray bullet got you.”

“But there was no other car Vinny. Both Luciana and I kept checking on that.”

“I also know Celeste and though she can take on a bitchy role, to save face, she wouldn’t shoot up her own car.”

“So that would mean what?” Vinny sighed and hugged Val closer, not liking the thoughts either.

“That Celeste may have help.”

~ Chapter 26 ~

“I need to check out her car Valentina.” Val lifted her head and looked at him, the fire flashing in her eyes and he had to smile, for no matter what, she really wanted nothing to do with Celeste.

“Do I need to go with you?”

“No, we can drop you off and you can invite Luciana over if you like.” Vinny brushed her hair away and she nodded. “Good, maybe you girls can go for a dip, and spend the day as you wanted.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Well, you know I don’t have many women around, but I’ll let it slide this once.” She gave him a smile and for that beauty, he would give her anything she wanted. After the day she had, she deserved to have something good today. Frankie closed the door on them and then walked around, climbed into the driver’s seat, and took off. Vinny kept his arms around Val the whole time, who kept her head buried in his chest. He wanted answers and badly, and though he was going to go talk to Celeste, he knew she would sprout lies in order to make herself look better and he was going to be stuck weeding through all the bullshit.

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Giovanni pulled up to Johnny’s house with Frankie and looked around, hearing the front door open. Vinny turned his attention around at the time that Celeste ran to him. He blinked as she wrapped her arms around him, his arms remaining at his side.

“You came to check on me. I told Johnny you would, that you cared enough.” Vinny removed her arms from around his waist and shook his head.

“No, Celeste, I came to look at your car and to ask you what happened.”

“I was driving downtown and then had someone following me. As I turned to go down the road to escape, they shot at me.”

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