Page 44 of The Agreement

“You think someone set it before we left your place Enzo?” Vinny asked.

“The goal was to get either one of you or both of you together because if that was a timer bomb, there was no guess when you all were going to leave the club. Someone had eyes on you knowing where you were. They couldn’t do it at the hotel, that would have been too many people,” Enzo shared and Vinny nodded.

“Which means they had to be watching us. But fuck, no one fuckin’ knew Enzo. Frankie and my dad were the only ones. For fucks sake, even Val didn’t know we were coming until I told her and I’ve been with her the whole time.” Vinny pinched the bridge of his nose, not understanding anything.

“Boss?” Vinny lifted his head and looked at Frankie.

“Yeah?”

“What if there was a tracker placed on the car? If someone had that then they could see how long you would have been somewhere.”

“But someone would have to know I was even in New York and renting cars.” Frankie shrugged as if to say ‘so’.

“There are cameras all over this city and word of mouth spreads. What if someone saw you and said something? You had enough time here that maybe someone planted it?” Vinny crossed his arms as he thought that over. It wasn’t a bad thought actually, but the problem was a lot of ‘maybes’. In their world, that wasn’t a term they could give credit to because way too much shit could be wrong. But it was a starting point and more than what they had.

Enzo locked gazes with him as if to say he thought the same thing. Enzo nodded and stood up. “I’ll put a word out, see if anyone heard anything or saw anything. Not that I’m holding a lot of stake in that. Do you think Valentina would be open to being seen in public?” Vinny cocked an eyebrow as he looked up at Enzo.

“You mean do I think she would stand for being a test dummy to see if anything else happens?”

“Vinny, if they realized they failed to get you or her, or hell even both of you, they will try again. At least we might be able to control things a bit more if they do. And over the next two days if nothing happens, then you know the eyes you have here aren’t in this city. That they had one chance and failed.” Enzo left with those words. Vinny glanced at Frankie who only shrugged. And as Vinny stood up to leave the room, he couldn’t help but think how much time did he have to not talk to his dad about this?

-----

Giovanni slipped back into the room, smiling at Val who was sitting on the couch, coffee cup in hand. Her stance alone told him that she was tense, as she had every right to be. He knew her well enough now to say that her mind would be focused on what happened. In a short time, that was the second attempt on her life. When do you stop taking things personally?

“I thank you for the note. I know you don’t live with women so you might not think about explaining where you go.”

“I don’t actually. And if it wasn’t for the fact of what happened last night with the attempt and with us, I might not have. But I figured you might wake up scared so I thought I would put your mind at ease.” She nodded and took a sip of her coffee as he moved to sit in front of her on the coffee table.

“When I was 16, my uncle sat both my mom and me down and said that my dad had been hit in a shoot-out at some uptown restaurant. He was in critical condition and they weren’t sure about the outcome of it.

“Two weeks after that, when I was leaving the hospital after visiting my dad, we were fired upon but never shot at, like the bullets were a warning. Those have always been the two worst times in my life. I know it’s crazy that I grew up with a mafia boss as a dad and didn’t see much of his world but he really protected us, he sheltered us.

“Last night outweighed anything in my past. Please tell me you guys have something, anything. Any little thing to put my mind at rest so I don’t think someone is really out to get me.”

“I wish I could, more than anything, Val. We have thoughts, but they aren’t facts and don’t get us any closer to figuring anything out.” Val took another sip and set her cup down. She clasped her hands in her lap and looked at him.

“But?”

“But what Val?”

“I hear it in your voice. You needed to add something on and didn’t. What is it?”

“We have a plan to maybe try and narrow some things down, but I need you; you are a vital part of it.”

~ Chapter 35 ~

Val looked at him, not sure what to make of that one. Personally, she couldn’t see how she could be, but she trusted him, that much was at least clear. The door to the suite opened and Frankie walked in, followed by Enzo. She looked at each man in turn before looking at Vinny and lifted a brow.

“Okay, why don’t you all explain, or at least one of you?” Vinny cleared his throat and nodded; looking at him like this almost made Val laugh. Vinny was a well-known badass on the streets and yet he was scared to mention a little plan that put her in possible danger; she just couldn’t understand why that was. “I’m all ears here guys.”

“I know, it’s just how to tell you.” Vinny cleared his throat again and Val had to stop her chuckle. “We aren’t sure if the target is you or me, although I will assume it’s you. So, I need to make you…well…more like take you out more while we are here to see if it is you. I also need to see if someone is actually tracking us somehow or if they tracked you somehow.” Val wrinkled her brows at that.

“What do you mean? How would anyone even be able to do that? I’m never alone for anyone to put anything on me.”

“That’s what has us confused. We know you wouldn’t set yourself up, Valentina, but with you already having two attacks behind you, this looks like it’s you everyone maybe after,” Frankie shared and this time Valentina couldn’t hold back the laugh. She was the daughter of a mob boss who was engaged to the next heir of a huge mob family and they thought it was her someone was after?

“Your life in danger is funny?” Vinny asked and Val sobered up rather fast. She shook her head as her attention turned to him.

---