Page 44 of The Price of Power
His tone was hard enough to make me want to shake. For a second, I was ready to apologize on the spot. Beg his forgiveness and promise not to be so passive-aggressive again, just to get him to stop staring at me like that. But then?—
“Wait,” I said, a moment of clarity washing over me. “That’s bullshit.”
Gabriel’s lips pressed together hard in irritation. “What?”
“Your statement—I don’t like games. It’s total bullshit,” I said. “You’ve admitted to playing games with me and my life all damn day.”
For a blessed couple of seconds, he didn’t say a word. All he could do was blink until his voice came back to him. But even when they did, his excuse was pretty dam weak. “That’s different.”
“No, it’s not.” I shook my head. “I’m just playing by the rules you laid out earlier—an eye for an eye. You do it me; I can do it right back to you.”
“That’s a dangerous road you’re going down, dolcezza.” The same predatory expression from this morning tightened his jawline as he started across the room toward me. The difference was, this time, I didn’t try to get away. I held my head high and met his gaze with my chin up.
“I know,” I said with only the faintest tremble as he stopped just inches in front of me. “That’s why I don’t usually let my life be guided by such a selfish and violent philosophy.”
“Oh, really?” His voice dropped down to a low rumble now that he was so close, making his tone even more difficult to read—somewhere between contempt and desire. “Then enlighten me. What code do you live by?”
That was simple. “Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.”
“The golden rule?” He gave a mocking laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”
“At least my way doesn’t leave behind a trail of dead uncles.”
Oh shit.
The second the words were out of my mouth, even before I saw the rage spark up behind Gabriel’s eyes, I knew I’d made a huge mistake. But before I could apologize, he came out swinging with his own verbal punches.
“Better that than waste my life being treated like a fucking doormat.”
“I am not a doormat!”
“No?” One brow arched up high. “Then tell me why you agreed to come out here to New York.”
“My family needed my help.”
“And what? You thought if you helped them out of a bad situation, maybe they’d start treating you better? That they’d stop taking you for granted? That they’d finally start respecting you?”
“Fuck you,” I snapped. Anger burning in my blood, I tried to turn away, but Gabriel grabbed both of my arms before I could take a single step. Once again, I found myself imprisoned in his grasp.
“But that’s not what happened, is it?” he kept going. “Instead, you realized they’d sold you down the river. They offered you up as a sacrifice, hoping I’d take my revenge out on you and leave their precious Theo alone.”
“Stop it!” I tried to shake my way free, but his hold on me was too tight. “That isn’t what happened.”
“No?” His right hand went from my arm to my chin, finger squeezing hard as he stilled my head and forced me to meet his gaze. “Then tell me why it’s been over twelve hours since I contacted them about our new arrangement, and I still haven’t heard a single word from them.”
Wait, what?
I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. Radio silence during stressful times was kind of their thing. I hadn’t been able to get them on the phone either.
But pretending to miss my calls was a hell of a lot different than ignoring Gabriel fucking D’Angelo.
Still, there had to be a reason—one that wouldn’t prove Gabriel right and break my heart into a thousand pieces.
“They probably just don’t recognize your number,” I tried, knowing that even as I said it, I was grasping at straws.
“I called from your phone.”
He must have retrieved it from the office building. “Maybe they went straight to the authorities.”