Chapter 6
Chapter Six
OLIVIA
T his couldn’t be happening. I refused to believe it.
For a second, I was even able to convince myself it might be a dream. A horrible nightmare, sure. Even worse than the recurring one I had about being back in school and showing up naked to all my finals. But a dream nonetheless.
There was no way that life could be this cruel.
But who was I kidding? Of course, it could.
“Gabriel.”
Somehow, just saying his name was enough to bring the reality of the situation crashing down on me. Suddenly, I had to grab onto the side of the table just to keep myself upright.
The man I’d given myself over to last night was a mobster?
This was exactly the kind of karmic retribution I deserved for daring to step out of my shell and indulging in a single night of unbound hedonism. The only thing left was for God himself to step in and strike me down with a lightning bolt.
Honestly, I was starting to think I’d prefer that outcome. It might have been dramatic, but at least a death like that would be quick and relatively humiliation-free.
The silence in the room stretched on for a long moment. Long enough that even the three men standing behind Gabriel—men I couldn’t believe I’d ever mistaken for lawyers—started to shift on their feet.
After another couple of seconds ticked by, Silvestri asked, “Do you know this lady, boss?”
Boss ?
Oh, shit. My knees started to wobble as all the puzzle pieces started to fall together in my mind.
“ You’re Mr. D’Angelo?”
Gabriel slowly cocked a brow, his coal-black eyes burning with a mysterious intensity that made me tremble.
“And you’re Theo Collins’ sister.”
His tone wasn’t any easier to read than his expression. All I knew was that the shimmer of warmth I had seen in his eyes last night was gone. It made me wonder if it had ever really been there to begin with.
“Did you know?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “Last night at the bar, did you know who I was?”
His nostrils flared as he drew in a deep breath. He glanced over his shoulder at his men as he let it out. “Tony, you and the boys wait out in the hall while I talk with Miss Collins.”
“You got it,” Silvestri said without hesitation before turning around and stepping out the door with the other two men.
The moment we were alone, I felt my knees start to tremble, but this time, it wasn’t because of the memories of all the amazing things he’d made me feel the night before. Hell, it wasn’t even from shame or embarrassment. In that moment, the only thing I felt was fear—plain and simple.
Those headlines about the new head of the D’Angelo family were terrifying. If they were to be believed, the man standing in front of me right now—the man who had played my body like a goddamn virtuoso last night—was the same man who had ordered the death of his own uncle.
And if he could do that to his own flesh and blood, then I didn’t want to even imagine what he might order his men to do to me.
I shuffled back a step as Gabriel propped his hands on the table in front of me. I noted that he was wearing a different suit today—a jet-black one instead of dark gray—and the inky color fit the threatening energy he gave off.
“I was alone when I got out of the shower last night at La Sera,” he said. “It seems you left in a hurry. You didn’t even stop to eat the dinner I ordered.”
“I-I’m sorry about that,” I sputtered. “I should have told you that I couldn’t stay. I needed to get some work done back at the hotel.”
“Of course.” He nodded, his slow movements and pursed lips blatantly mocking. “You needed to work…to prepare for today’s meeting.”
“Exactly.” It wasn’t a total lie, after all.
His face didn’t betray a single emotion as he stared across the table at me. I, on the other hand, had to fight not to wither under the crushing weight of his gaze.
But eventually, he straightened up and crossed his arms over his wide chest. “All right then. Show me what you got.”
For the first time since Gabriel walked into the room, I felt a sliver of hope.
“Yes. Yes, of course.” I said as I carefully opened the file in front of me and slid the top page across to him. “I am aware that Theo borrowed a large sum of money from your organization. And, while my family’s company, Collins Liquor Distribution Ltd., doesn’t currently have the liquid cash reserves to repay that amount in total, I took the liberty of drafting a loan repayment schedule that I think you’ll find is not only fair but will help both parties avoid costly and time-consuming legal proceedings. If I can direct your attention to Line 1?—“
Riiiip .
My eyes snapped up from my copy of the spreadsheet to see Gabriel slowly tearing his paper in half. Crumpling the shreds in a ball, he tossed them over his shoulder. His eyes didn’t flicker from mine for even a second.
I didn’t have a clue how to respond to a move like that.
“I… uh …am open to revisions if you have suggestions,” I tried.
“So, you don’t have the money.”
That didn’t sound like a suggestion. Unfortunately, it also didn’t sound like a question.
“Well…like I said, not at present,” I hemmed. “But?—“
Gabriel didn’t have to say anything this time to cut me off. Just a shake of his head was enough. I could tell by the twitch that ran along his jawline that he wasn’t interested in hearing another word of excuse.
“Do you know what I was doing in the hotel lounge last night?” he asked, dragging his hand across the top of the table as he slowly started to walk around it, headed my way.
I shook my head. Even though I knew it was wise to keep some distance between us, I found myself caught like a deer in the headlights, too mesmerized and frightened by his approach to move.
“I was looking for your brother,” he continued. “I didn’t see the point of waiting a few hours to ask him the only question I cared about. Do you have my money ? And do you know what I was going to do if he said he didn’t?”
I wanted to say no, to feign ignorance, but I couldn’t. Besides, there was no point.
Still, my tongue was heavy as I forced myself to say the words.
“You would have done the same thing you did to your uncle and snapped his neck.”
Gabriel stopped mid-step, still a few feet away. “That’s right.”
After a beat, he cocked his head to the side, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of his lips, but I wasn’t about to ask what he found so amusing. There was only one question I cared about at the moment.
“And are you now planning on doing the same thing to me?”
“Can you give me a reason why I shouldn’t?”
Damn straight, I could.
“Of course. First, killing me wouldn’t do anything to help you recoup your financial loss. If anything, it would only make your situation more difficult.”
For some reason, Gabriel’s smile grew wider, and I started to feel like a mouse being played with by a house cat. “Is that right?”
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “My family’s business has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for years now. Without my help, it would go under almost immediately, and then you wouldn’t be able to squeeze out a penny.”
He didn’t seem overly impressed by that line of reasoning. “And second?”
“I mean…you probably don’t want to go to prison.”
“Not particularly.” He cocked his hip against the side of the table and picked up my file before beginning to leisurely flip through the pages. “But I somehow doubt you’d be the first murder case the cops could make stick.”
The first out of how many? Never mind. I really didn’t want to know.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I said. “You’re forgetting about Oscar.”
His gaze lifted up from the pages while his head stayed put. “Oscar?”
“The waiter from last night,” I reminded him. “The one you made promise to go to the police if anything happened to me.”
“Right,” he remembered with a nod. “Well, then, I guess I’d just have to break his neck too.”
“But what if he told someone else about it? A co-worker or someone in his family?”
“They’d die too.”
“That’s a lot of broken necks,” I said.
“That’s right.” Gabriel shut the file with an annoyed snap before slapping it down hard on the table. I couldn’t help jumping at the sharp thwack that resounded through the room. “I don’t think you fully grasp that I’m not the good guy.”
As his stare settled back on me, I clasped my hands to keep them from shaking. “No, trust me. That part is perfectly clear.”
“I don’t think it is,” he said, the flinty hardness in his eyes and the smile teasing his lips at complete odds. “Because if you truly understood who I was and what I was capable of, you’d be on your knees begging for your life right now.”
The trouble was I did understand.
After all, the man had just casually threatened to murder three or four people just to get back at my asshole brother.
“Why bother?” I said. “Somehow, I doubt that’s ever worked on you before. Has it?”
“No,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “But then again, no one has ever dared to speak to me the way you do. I thought it might have just been ignorance and gin talking last night, but you don’t seem any more shy with your opinions his morning. Tony even mentioned something about you saying you were ‘the best I was going get.’”
“Yeah, about that…” I let out a long breath. “I didn’t know who you were when I said it.”
“And do you want to take it back now that you do?”
“That depends. Would it make you change your mind about breaking my neck?”
He gave a short laugh—a sharp, hard sound, but a laugh all the same. “No.”
“Well, then, I stand by what I told him,” I said, straightening my back as best I could—maybe for the last time. “I really am your best chance at recouping anything from this bad loan.”
A second of silence ticked by. Then another…and another...until the tension inside me grew so taut that I feared I was going to snap.
But before that could happen, Gabriel surprised me by nodding. “You know, I think you might be right.”
I was?
I mean, I knew I was, but I didn’t believe he could be convinced so easily.
So, I was left eyeing him skeptically as he pushed himself off the table. He pulled up a chair before gesturing for me to sit next to him. When I hesitated, he made his desires clear.
“Liv, sit.”
I didn’t dare refuse. Still, I had to ask. “Why? So I don’t have as far to fall when you kill me?”
“No.” His laugh had a little more humor in it this time. “Because you’ve convinced me that if I want to get anything out of this shit situation with your brother, then we need to cut a deal.”
I had ?
I may have been confused as hell, but I wasn’t about to ask how the hell I’d managed that minor miracle. I was too busy offering up my prayers of thanks to the almighty for allowing me the chance to get out of this alive.
“Great,” I said, opening up my file again. “Fortunately, I made extra copies of my proposal, so?—“
“I’m still not interested in your payment plan, Liv.”
I raised my head. “You’re not? Then what are you interested in?”
“You,” he said.
One word, plain and clear. Still, I didn’t understand.
“ Me ?” Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I still wasn’t getting it. “You want me to what? Work for you? As an accountant?”
Even if that were true, the math still didn’t work out. Based on my current salary, I figured I would have to work for him for nearly fifteen years free of charge to make up for what my brother owed him.
But Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t need an accountant. That’s my brother Matteo’s area.”
“Then what?”
“I want you, Liv,” he said, his dark eyes drilling into mine. “ You . All of you. Just like I had last night. Your body in exchange for my forgiveness.”