Page 33 of The Agreement

“They?” Vinny questioned.

“Well, I don’t know who was in the car, I didn’t get to see, so I just said they.”

“Let me go see Celeste.”

“I’ll be okay as long as I’m by your side.” Vinny’s gaze shot to Johnny, who only shrugged. Celeste was never on his radar as anyone to fuck with or marry, so where the hell was the idea coming from that he gave a rat’s ass about her? Who the hell was sprouting those kinds of lies?

“Were you making a left turn?” Celeste blinked at Vinny as they stepped into the garage. ‘Mistake number one in my book’, he thought as he stepped over to her car.

“Oh, yes, I was turning left.” Vinny eyed the holes, having done his own fair share of shooting from cars and being shot at while driving. The fact that the holes were more precise and in one area told Vinny this wasn’t shot while the vehicle was in motion. Mistake number two he figured. And the way the depth of the holes were, would have left the bullets in the back of the car, like the ones Frankie got from Val’s car, but there were none in her car.

“Where’re the bullets?” Vinny glanced at Celeste over his shoulder, and she blinked again. To Vinny, it seemed like she blinked every time she needed to gather her thoughts.

“I tossed the ones I found.” Vinny just lifted a brow at her answer. Anyone in this life knew you did nothing like that, you kept them so they could be traced if needs be.

“You tossed them?” Johnny asked and then looked at Vinny who shook his head. “Okay, I need to see your gun.”

“Why?” she asked as she looked at the two men. Vinny had conned a fair share of men and saw the same look in their eyes like they knew they were doing something wrong and weren’t going to confess to it.

“Driving or not, I would have thought you got a shot off and I want to make sure it’s okay and that it doesn’t jam up on you.”

“Oh, yeah, of course, let me grab it.” Celeste turned and walked back to the house and Johnny turned to look at Vinny. “Well?”

“This,” Vinny said, waving his hand at the car, “is a lie. I’ve done a fair number of car chases and never had such a precise aim, especially when making a left turn, as the driver would have a hell of a time holding the gun steady and turning let alone a passenger doing this shit.”

“That’s what I thought too.” The two men paused as the door opened and Celeste walked out, handing Vinny her gun. He took it, opened the chamber, and counted the bullets, noticing that only two were missing, which was not enough because she would have fired back.

“I’m taking this so I can clean it properly. In the meantime, Johnny has a gun you can borrow.”

“Thank you, Vinny.” Celeste offered him a smile and then walked back into the house.

“Talk to me, boss.”

“Val was chased and shot at, twice. The car that was following her was a black Bentley. Oddly enough, this gun is only missing two bullets.’

“She should have unloaded her gun,” Johnny stated.

“Not that Celeste would have any reason to be chased or shot at anyway. Which only adds to my problem.”

“Which is?” Johnny asked.

“You know Celeste as well as I do, this car is her baby and no matter the blame she would try to put on anyone else, she wouldn’t dare shoot up her car, she couldn’t.” Johnny ran his hands through his hair and then turned to Vinny.

“Where were Val’s guards?”

“Back home. Supposedly De Luca got a text that Val’s lunch was done so he told the guards to go back to his house.”

“A fucking setup?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. Which then leads me to the question, which is who is Celeste working with and why? What does she hope to gain from anything anymore?”

“The gain, I think, is you. I don’t know how, but Celeste has it in her head that she was going to be your wife.” Yeah, Vinny had picked that up too, but couldn’t figure out how. And if Celeste was behind this shit, didn’t she realize she was going to be starting this war all over again?

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Giovanni slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks as he stood outside the door, waiting for it to open. And once he heard the lock, he quickly turned around and offered a smile at the woman.

“Hello, Mrs. De Luca.”

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