Page 6 of Vincenzo
“Huh?” Carlos grunts out.
I snap my gaze to his. “My five o’clock, Carlos,” I say, doing my best to mask my irritation with him.
His gaze drifts over my shoulder, and it takes a few seconds, but his eyes finally widen in recognition before snapping back to mine. “Oh, shit. Is that…”
“Yes,” I say, drawing my attention back to my phone. Vincenzo has just finished ordering and is now standing by the pickup counter.
“Damn, that is a coincidence,” Carlos says, and I raise a brow at him.
Setting down my phone, I say, “There’s no such thing as coincidences.”
Carlos furrows his bushy brows. “You think…”
Before I’m able to answer, I catch Vincenzo walking to the exit in my peripheral. Then he’s walking down the sidewalk with a coffee cup and a to-go bag, the steam from his hot breath filling the cold air around him. He disappears down the street as if he were never here.
“Yes,” I say, turning my attention back to Carlos. “There’s no way out of all the bakeries in the city, Vincenzo DiMaggio showed up at this little hole in the wall at the same exact time as us.”
“I don’t know, Amalia. They have fucking fantastic food here. And look around. It’s clearly a popular place with all the people they have here.”
Every seat is occupied, and there’s a line at the counter now. But even so, I have a strong intuition, and it’s telling me Vincenzo DiMaggio knows exactly who we are and him showing up here this morning was no damn coincidence.
“Come on, let’s get going,” Carlos says, and I give him a small nod.
We gather our things and put our coats on, and as we walk toward the door, Carlos says, “You really don’t think that was a coincidence?”
I pause with my hand on the door and look at him. “Not at all. The DiMaggios know we’re here, and that was them telling us to back off or step the fuck up.”
4
VINCENZO
“Cassius get the cameras installed at The Arlington?” Teo asks, from across my desk in my office at Fierce.
It’s a surreal moment seeing him in the same spot I’ve found myself in so many times before. My brother used to run Fierce before he met Lux, but ever since they got married, I’ve fallen into the role of running it.
He used to be a workaholic, but now with a wife to go home to, he’s finally let go of some of his controlling tendencies and has delegated more tasks to me.
It’s been fucking fantastic throwing myself into work. It keeps me preoccupied now that Teo’s always busy with Lux, and my sister, Izzy, is always busy with her man, Nicco.
“Yeah, he got them installed this morning while Velasco and Montoya were enjoying a nice breakfast at one of the bakeries nearby.”
“Good. Everything working well?”
Bringing up the app on my phone that gives me a direct feed into the suite they’re staying at, I inspect it for a second, then slide it over to Teo. “Yup. They were only back at the hotel once today. About a few hours ago. They have their ownseparate rooms and didn’t really speak to each other, which was interesting.”
“Interesting?” he asks, with a raise of his brow.
“Yeah, they ended up leaving a couple hours ago. I had to meet up with one of our suppliers and then get back here, so I put Rocco on it. They were at dinner, and then about ten minutes ago, he texted and said they’re on the move.”
“Any word where to yet?”
“No, but I’m sure he’ll text any second letting me know.”
“Good,” he says, and we sit here in silence for a few moments, his eyes never leaving mine.
“What?” I ask.
“What?” he says, feigning ignorance.
