Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
OLIVIA
T here it was—Gabriel’s house.
I shook my head as I stepped out of the passenger’s seat of the same Bentley I’d ridden in last night. House wasn’t the right word to describe the towering four-story limestone building. Mansion was the only word that truly fit.
Well, that or prison .
I craned my head back to take in the large, arched bay windows and decorative stone columns looming over me. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would have had to admit that the place was magnificent. A true masterpiece of nineteenth-century architecture.
And this was just the back entrance.
I’d only spied a glimpse of the front facade as we drove up 91st Street. I’d been too caught up in my spiraling thoughts and fears when Gabriel had sped past and didn’t get a good look. It wasn’t until he’d pulled past the back gate and into the rear driveway that I got a true sense of how magnificent and massive the place truly was.
I must have been standing there staring up at it with my jaw hanging open for a while because when I looked back down, Gabriel was already standing at the back door, patiently holding it open for me. Like an inmate stepping inside Rikers for the first time, I did my best to swallow down all my fear as I slowly shuffled forward.
But if I was a prisoner, then there was no denying I had the most luxurious cell in history.
“Welcome home,” Gabriel said as I stepped past him into a sprawling modern kitchen, the most beautiful and impressive that I’d ever laid eyes on.
A short, older woman carefully watching a trio of bubbling pots and pans on the gas stove turned around as we entered her space. She turned and gave a friendly smile as she wiped her hands on the kitchen towel hanging from her belted skirt.
“Mister Gabriel,” she called out in a gorgeously lyrical accented voice. “I wasn’t expecting you home so soon. Lunch won’t be ready for a while yet.”
“That’s fine, Letizia,” he said before sliding his arm around my waist. I did my best to keep myself from jumping at the intimate gesture, but I couldn’t stop every muscle in my body from tensing up at the feel of his touch. “I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine—Olivia Collins. She’s going to be staying with us for a while.”
The woman’s eyes went wide with surprise.
“That is good news,” the woman said, her thick square heels clicking across the stone floors as she rushed toward me. “Let me get a better look at her.”
“Liv, this is my housekeeper, Letizia Tarolli,” Gabriel said when she was right in front of me. “She’s been with my family since before I was born.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, putting out my palm to shake the woman’s hand. But the woman quickly swatted it to the side.
Instead, she cupped both her hands over my upper arms before boldly staring me right in the eye. I could only hold my breath and blink as she gave me a quick once-over.
“Not too tall. That’s nice. The last few girls have been too tall, like bean poles,” she commented off-handedly. “Such a pretty face, though a little pale, I think. Beautiful green eyes and red hair. Irish?”
It took me a second to realize she was asking me directly. “Uh…yeah,” I said. “On my dad’s side, but my mom is?—“
“I knew it,” she cut me off. After getting the answer she wanted, she clearly wasn’t interested in anything that might come after. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been the one Gabriel had picked that trick up from.
I didn’t spend much time thinking about it, though, because a second later, she pinched my arm— hard .
“ Ow !” I cried out, more in surprise than actual pain.
The gray-haired woman shook her head in disappointment before shooting Gabriel a judgmental look. “She could stand to gain a few pounds, though.”
“And with you feeding her, I’m sure she will,” Gabriel said with laughter in his voice.
Her brows shot up. “Just how long will Miss Collins be staying?”
“Through the summer,” he answered.
Now, when the woman looked me over, her gaze was far more assessing. I wasn’t sure if I should have felt proud or offended when she started to nod approvingly. “How wonderful.”
Well, at least someone was happy about the situation.
“I need to show Liv the rest of the house,” he said before pressing a sweet kiss against the top of the housekeeper’s head. “But we’ll be down for lunch in a couple hours.”
After the terrifying discussion we’d just had, it was jarring to see such a kind, domestic gesture from Gabriel. The sight of him acting like a regular human being was at odds with the monster I’d made him into in my mind.
“Of course, Mister Gabriel.” Mrs Tarolli nodded before stepping back to cast him a stern look. “Though, if you want this one to stay all summer, you’ll need to treat her right. I can see right now she’s not like the other ragazze you bring home. This one is no troia .”
Even though I only caught some of that, I was pretty sure I understood the broader meaning, and a ray of hope lit up my heart, thinking that I might have an ally in this house.
“It’s all right, Letizia,” Gabriel said, already guiding me away from the housekeeper and out of the room. “I already know.”
The moment we left the kitchen, my tension came roaring back. It wasn’t the house’s fault, though.
The inside proved to be every bit as graceful and beautiful as the outside. Tall windows in every room we passed let in loads of natural light. Even though every space was luxuriously decorated, the high ceilings and flowing design kept the spaces from feeling cramped or claustrophobic. Every piece of furniture, every rug, every gilded mirror and original painting adorning the walls were refined and elegant. We even passed a room that looked like a dedicated library.
It was almost impossible to believe that this gorgeous, sophisticated home belonged to the city’s most feared mob boss.
I kept my mouth shut and my opinions to myself, though, as Gabriel led me up a flight of stairs. And then another one.
But as we headed up toward the third floor and I saw the face of the man standing at the top of the staircase waiting for us, I couldn’t stay silent.
“What the…”
I turned to look at Gabriel’s dark, brooding face right beside me...and then up at the exact same face staring down at us from the next story up.
“Olivia Collins, meet my brother, Matteo.”
Identical twins—I hadn’t been prepared for that.
Still, I remembered my manners and pulled back my shoulders before giving him a slight nod. “Hi.”
“Hello,” Matteo greeted me back. His voice might have been the same as Gabriel’s, but the tone was worlds away, clipped and far more formal. The differences became even more evident when he turned his attention toward Gabriel, crossing his arms as he looked his brother in the eye. “Collins?”
Gabriel let out a hard breath. “The meeting this morning didn’t go as planned.”
“I can see that,” Matteo said, glancing back at me. Even though their features were the same, the differences in their mannerisms and energy made it easy to tell them brothers apart. “Should I take our guest’s presence as a sign that Theo didn’t settle his debt with cash?”
Well, that was blunt. Apparently, unlike the sweet older woman downstairs, Gabriel’s brother didn’t have any illusions about the nature of our relationship.
“Something like that,” Gabriel answered. “After I get Liv settled into my room, I’ll come down to fill you in on the details.”
“She’ll be staying in your room?” Matteo sounded somewhat surprised by that…and more than a little amused. “And how long do you think that will last?”
“We’ll see,” Gabriel said with a shrug.
We would ? Another dash of hope filled my chest. It was starting to sound like, despite Gabriel’s insistence that I stay with him for three months, no one who knew him well thought he’d stay interested that long. My heart leapt at the thought I might get out of this nightmare earlier than expected.
“The important thing,” Gabriel continued, “is that all the men know Liv is my guest and completely off-limits. I mean completely .”
Matteo nodded. “Understood.”
Well, that made one of us.
“Come on,” Gabriel said, pulling me forward again.
It was one more flight of stairs before we reached the master suite of rooms on the top floor. Gabriel had barely stepped through the door before he started giving me a rushed tour.
“This is the front room,” he said, gesturing vaguely to the welcoming sofa and armchair arranged in the center of the dark wood-paneled room. Carved maple bookcases and cabinets lined the walls.
“The bathroom is through here,” he flung open the left-hand door, revealing a beautifully restored century-old washroom with perfectly preserved blue and white tiles and a claw-foot tub with gleaming fixtures. My jaw dropped open at the sight of it.
But I barely had time to take it in before Gabriel strode back across the room to the door on the right-hand side. “Walk-in closet is here,” he declared. “Write down a list of your sizes before we go down for lunch, and I’ll contact the woman who does my personal shopping. It should be fully stocked for you by this evening.”
I couldn’t help but shake my head. Even for someone as rich as Gabriel clearly was, that was still too much.
“Or I could ask one of my friends to pack up my things and send them out here,” I tried. At least then, I knew I’d like what I was wearing.
Without even looking at me, Gabriel shook his head. “I already rejected that plan,” he said. “Don’t anger me by bringing it up again.”
“Or?”
It was only a single word, but I still didn’t know where in the world I found the courage to ask it. Especially when Gabriel spun around to stare me straight in the eye.
“Excuse me?” His voice was as hard as the marble fireplace set into the wall across from me.
It was a perfect opportunity for me to back down. To bow my head and mutter “ nothing ” like a petulant child who’d gone too far.
But somehow, I knew that wouldn’t help me.
Sure, I was afraid—absolutely terrified, to tell the truth. But out of all the worst-case scenarios I’d planned for in my life—encryption to keep my passwords safe, pepper spray on my keychain for muggers, extra bolts installed on the apartment door to keep out burglars—I’d somehow never once imagined ending up the hostage of a bloodthirsty mob boss. I had no clue what the consequences of breaking his unwritten rules might be.
“I just want to know what happens if I make you mad,” I said.
But Gabriel just shook his head. “No, you don’t. I promise you that.”
“Well, that puts me in an impossible situation,” I told him. “One minute, you tell me that you want me to tell you the truth, and the next, you’re saying I should be careful not to make you angry. I can’t do both.”
“You’re an intelligent woman,” he said. “You’ll figure something out.”
“Right,” I said in understanding. “So you want me to placate you—pretend that I’m telling you the truth when really all I’m doing is saying what you want to hear.”
Gabriel’s gaze darkened, his lips pressing together in a tight, straight line. “People who lie to me live to regret it…but not for long.”
There was no missing the deadly threat in his words.
“Okay, so I’m starting to get it,” I pushed my luck. “If I lie, you’ll have your scary brother downstairs break my neck like he did with your uncle.”
“Wrong brother,” Gabriel informed me coldly.
“You have another one?”
“Yes,” he said. “And if you think that Matteo is scary, then just looking at Dorian would make you shit your pants.”
I had no trouble believing that. Just one more horrific fear to add to the pile that had been growing since I’d answered Theo’s phone call a few days ago.
“So, lies are punishable by death,” I recapped with a nod. “But what about mild annoyances?”
The muscles lining his jaw jumped and ticked.
“Keep asking stupid questions if you want to find out.”
I mustered up the last few drops of my courage and somehow met his gaze without flinching. “What the hell do you think I’ve been doing?”