Page 68 of The Price of Power
“Is that true?” Gabriel arched a single brow. “Is that the only reason you’re here with me? Be honest, Liv.”
No, it wasn’t.
Maybe in the beginning, it had been. But now…
Now, I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Or why I was fighting so hard for the soul of a man who the rest of the world had written off as a monster.
“I am being honest,” I told him plainly, raising my chin defiantly. “That’s one of the reasons you made this deal with me in the first place—remember? You wanted someone who would confront you with the truth no matter what. Someone who wasn’t afraid to stand up to your pointless macho bullshit. Well, that’s what I’m doing.”
The muscle lining his jaw twitched and tightened at my words. “You think I want to go after this Giordano kid? You think I like ordering Tony to off someone I don’t even know?”
I don’t know about like, but... “I didn’t see a lot of hesitation from my perspective.”
“Do you know what would happen if I didn’t make an example out of this punk?” Gabriel demanded without an ounce of softness in his voice.
I could only shake my head. I couldn’t even pretend to know about the inner workings of the mob world. Not even after a month of living right in the heart of it.
“Then let me tell you,” he continued. “Let’s say this kid goes back to the Giordanos with half a million in black market pills. He tells his boss it was an easy score—no trouble, no pushback. That gets the head of the Giordanos thinking maybe there’s more opportunity on D’Angelo’s turf than he thought. Then do you know what happens?”
Yeah, I did. “They try it again.”
“That’s right,” Gabriel said with a humorless grin. “One incident becomes two. Then three. Then, I have no choice but to send my men in to stop them from taking what’s rightfully ours. Except now, we’re not just going after one punk, but dozens of them. And we’d take them out, sure—but how many men would I lose in the process? Three? Four?”
“Okay, I get it.” I held up my hands in surrender.
But Gabriel kept on going. “And these aren’t some nameless, faceless men, Liv. They’re my men. Men like Tony who have families. They’re men I look in the eye and talk to every day. Men who are my responsibility. Men whose deaths I would have to carry with me every day of my life, knowing I could have saved them if I’d only dealt with the problem before it grew into disaster.”
All I could do was nod as his words, hard and powerful, echoed off the walls around us. I saw his point.
That didn’t mean I agreed, but I understood…and for right now, that was enough.
Lifting myself up onto my knees, I reached out and cupped his cheek with my hand. Even though I could feel the tension in the taut muscles running along his jaw, his skin was warm and soft. I didn’t even mind the prickle of his five o’clock shadow against my palm.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I get it now. I really do.”
He was in an impossible situation, playing a part in a game he was born into. For someone so strong and powerful, he had little control of his own life. He couldn’t choose to be good.
He could only choose the path that led to the least amount of harm.
And that was something I understood completely.
Letting go of my grasp on the towel wrapped around me, I placed my other hand over his shoulder. A second later, the terrycloth fell away, leaving me totally naked and exposed.
His dark gaze flashed down the length of me before coming back up to lock on my eyes.
“Sometimes I wish I was a better man for you. The man you deserve.”
My cheeks warmed as a slight smile cracked my lips.
That had to be the sweetest thing he’d ever said to me. The most sincere.
“It’s all right,” I assured him, gently guiding him down onto the bed on top of me. “You’re the man that I want.”
And, God help me, it was true.
Chapter Twenty-Two
OLIVIA