Page 54 of The Price of Power

“You can ask me anything, dolcezza,” he said, shooting me a look over his glass. “But I can’t promise I’ll answer.”

That was fair. “Don’t you ever get tired of being treated this way?”

The sides of his eyes crinkled as they narrowed. Clearly, that wasn’t the kind of question he’d been anticipating. “What way?”

“Everyone tripping over themselves to make you happy because they’re afraid.”

A slight smile curled his lips as he took a drink. “No one here is afraid of me.”

“I’m pretty sure they are,” I said, turning my head slightly to look across the room. All around us, the other diners shot us quick glances and whispered to each other. Some had even scooted their chairs a few inches to the side as if that small distance could somehow buffer them from Gabriel’s presence.

“No one who works here is scared of me,” he amended. “They know me.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. I know you and I…”

The second I realized what I was admitting, I stopped myself. But it was too late.

Gabriel stared at me from across the table for a long moment, his gaze deep and assessing. “You’re afraid of me?”

There was no point denying it.

“That can’t come as a shock,” I said, nervously picking up my wine glass. “You’ve threatened to do all kinds of terrible things to my family.”

“But not to you,” he countered. “I thought we settled this last night.”

A blush crept into my cheeks at just the mention of all the deliciously carnal things we’d done to each other.

“Last night has nothing to do with this,” I said. “Put yourself in my shoes. How would you react if I threatened Matteo’s life?”

In an instant, his expression darkened. “Pray you never find out.”

His voice was so hard and full of warning that I had to gulp down nearly half my glass of wine just to have the nerve to look up at him again. “It’s not a nice feeling, is it?”

“Do you really think I don’t know what it’s like to live under constant threat?” he said. “I’ve seen death, Liv. I know it intimately. It runs in my veins. My own father was murdered in the same room I sleep in now.”

I winced. Not just at the image but at the pain in his voice. Without thinking, I reached across the table and covered his hand with my own.

“I’m so sorry, Gabriel,” I said. “I had no idea.”

He didn’t shake off my touch, but he didn’t look me in the eye either. His gaze remained unfocused and fixed somewhere far off across the room. His expression was so distant that I could almost see the memories flickering in his mind.

“It was the worst day of my life,” he said so softly that no one walking past the table could have possibly heard. “And the moment I saw his body, I swore nothing like that would ever happen again. Not to anyone I cared about.”

I swallowed down the last of my wine. There was a firmness to his tone that was both frightening and soothing at the same time. I believed him completely, for the moment feeling safe in his company but shuddering to think I might one day find myself on the wrong side of that deadly resolve.

“So you made yourself into someone so terrifying that no one would dare cross you. Was that the idea?” I asked.

He shook his head. I watched his dark eyes focus back on the present moment as he turned back to me.

“Fear can be an effective tool at times, but it’s not the goal.”

“Then what is?”

“Building a wall of protection around the ones I love.”

I have to admit it was strange to hear the word love from Gabriel’s mouth. Tolerate? Sure. Desire? You better believe it. Even care about didn’t cause me to blink.

But love?

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