Page 74 of The Agreement

“What makes you think I’m going to talk to you at all? You deserve nothing, Vinny.”

“You wanted Val, you would have married her, I know. But it seems to me like a lot of instances here would have hurt her as well, so why take that chance?” He watched as Dante’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “Look, you’re going to die anyway. From one mob boss son to another, you knew if I caught you, you wouldn’t live.”

“Celeste said this was the best plan of action, but we would both die if we were caught. She left you know; Celeste, she went to your house to kill Val. Did you not notice she left?” Vinny’s eyes shot to Salvatore who nodded. They knew, but they just assumed she went back home, but it was her who turned his alarm off. How the fuck she got that information, he wasn’t certain, but he had a suspicion. Salvatore stepped away and pulled out his phone as Vinny watched, knowing he was sending a message.

“You underestimated some members though, Dante. Luciana would die for her best friend, so Celeste wouldn’t have gotten very far.”

“Would you bank on that?” Vinny leaned closed to Dante, his eyes dark with anger.

“I would stake my life on it. Do you think I would let people around my wife if I didn’t trust them? How did this whole thing even start with Celeste?” When Dante refused to answer, Vinny shrugged. He stood back up and walked over to the corner, grabbing the bat that was there. He looked it over for a moment as he walked back and without thinking, swung it hard and connected it with Dante’s knee, causing the other man to cry out.

“The mall.” Vinny narrowed his eyes as rested the bat on his shoulder.

“The mall?” Vinny questioned.

“Yeah, the fight with Celeste, that was all staged. It allowed us to put in the tracking and hearing device. My dad wasn’t thrilled that I took it but when I made a mention of taking down a rival family, he saw no problem with it.” Dante clenched his teeth again at the pain radiating from his knee and Vinny smirked.

“Was your dad upset that the Constantini’s and the De Luca’s weren’t at war anymore?”

“Very much so. However, I was working on some type of plan to do business with De Luca. It would have been nice if I could have sealed the deal with the woman I wanted as a wife. Although, since she was whoring herself out, I might have thought twice about it.” Without blinking, Vinny swung the bat down again and connected it with the bad knee, hearing the crunch as bone broke and relished in the cry of agony that came from Dante’s mouth.

“Non prendo gentilmente le persone che parlano in quel modo di mia moglie, quindi che ne dici di non dire quella merda(I don’t take kindly to people talking that way about my wife, so how about we not say that shit)?” Dante glared up at him but he nodded. “Good, now then, go on. This is quite the tale you have.”

“I hate you, Giovanni, that’s nothing new.” Vinny lifted a shoulder, his free hand sliding into his pocket.

“No surprise, Dante. I hate you too.”

“If my family was bigger, stronger, I would have taken you out ages ago. Instead, I had to settle for the little chances I got.” Vinny glanced over as Salvatore walked back, nodding his head once. Vinny uttered a little prayer of thanks that, for the moment, all was okay at his house.

“You had your hand on the destruction of our gun run, didn’t you?” Dante smirked and for that, Vinny pulled out his brass knuckles and quickly punched him, landing the hit directly on the jaw. Dante turned his head to spit out the blood and the tooth, his eyes turning darker with his anger.

“I knew it wouldn’t have done much to you all, but it would have caused suspicion.”

“Except, I blamed the wrong person, didn’t I, Dante?” Vinny glanced over his shoulder as his father walked into the room, his hands in his pockets, a blank expression on his face. “I never would have thought you would have done this. You or Celeste, actually.”

“Why? I hated your son enough, Constantini!”

“That you did. But my war was never with you, or your family. Let’s be honest here, the only family strong enough to push me out of this area was De Luca. You and your family Dante, they’re just too weak. However, I have to give you props for trying to take out Vinny and Val. Like I said, I never would have guessed.” Vinny lifted a brow at his dad who just nodded. “Your plans die tonight though, Dante. I’ll make sure Celeste is taken care of and I trust Vinny to take care of you.” With those parting words, Vinny watched his dad walk out and then turned back to Dante, who only glared at the retreating back.

“He’s right you know,” Vinny said, looking down at Dante. “You aren’t strong enough to maintain a woman like Valentina. In fact, I’ll bet you don’t know much about her. And I’ll even bet that you don’t know how she tastes when you kiss her.” After that comment, Vinny reached for the piece of broken glass that was right by Dante and slammed it into his side, smirking as he cried out. “Why did you allow Celeste to shoot Val?” Dante shook his head, rolling his eyes at the question.

“I didn’t, that was all Celeste. She thought she could get rid of the problem, as she saw it. When she noticed she had a problem with Luciana, she called me and I shot up her car.”

“Smart. Make it look like it wasn’t her at fault, huh?” Dante coughed, blood trickling from his mouth, and Vinny reached down to wipe it away. “You’re bleeding.”

“Fuck you, Giovanni.”

“No thanks, I’ll save that for Val, she enjoys it.” Dante growled and tried to lunge at him, forgetting that he was tied up or that there was a piece of glass still stuck in his skin. He let out another cry and fell back against the pillar, glaring at Vinny. “Then what happened?”

“When we couldn’t break you guys up, we figured we had to scare her away. She wasn’t ever hurt or attacked under her dad’s protection; she hadn’t seen the ugliness of the mob world.”

“You thought the two of you would show her?” Vinny asked.

“I knew of no other way to get her away from you. You would only ever destroy her Vinny; you don’t know how to love. Val needed someone who cared, who could protect her, wanted her…” With that, Vinny swung the bat again, this time breaking Dante’s wrist.

“You have no idea what Val needed, but just so you know now, I’m everything she will ever need. What about New York and Vegas?”

“I followed her to New York, thanks to the bug. I planted the bomb Celeste gave me. When that failed, we talked; she was in your club, in fact, plotting our next trick. Although, in Vegas, we had to hire someone who failed us, of course.”

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