Page 69 of The Price of Power

At three o’clock in the morning, I still couldn’t sleep.

Even though the sex after our argument had been explosive, my mind was still reeling. While Gabriel lay peacefully next to me, his breathing slow and rhythmic, all I could do was stare through the darkness at the ceiling above.

Something had changed between us tonight. Something fundamental.

Even our argument had changed.

No matter how heated our words became, there were no veiled threats. No condescending tones. We may have disagreed with each other vehemently at times, but we’d done so as equals.

At no point did he disregard my point of view outright, and I never resorted to name-calling. No matter how passionate our conversation became, it never descended into nastiness. It always remained respectful and ended with us having a deeper understanding of each other.

And strangely, that was what concerned me most of all.

Because people who argued like that actually cared about each other. They weren’t just two souls that were so blinded by lust that they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

They were a couple.

A real couple.

And that was a frightening thought. The kind that had my mind whirling in the dead of night.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to fall for a mob boss, especially not one who was after my brother and out to destroy my family’s business. It didn’t make sense.

I’d always been the rational one. Back when I was a kid, I shook my head at Belle for falling in love with the Beast. I was the type who complained against fairy tales for promoting Stockholm syndrome.

And yet, here I was, falling in love with the monster myself.

Clearly, what my naive younger self didn’t understand was that sometimes the monster is the only one who understands your pain. That the beast is the only one who knows the value of protection from a world that couldn’t care less about your well-being. Or that only a villain can truly appreciate the redemptive power of love.

My heart understood these things now. But my head…

My head was still struggling to reconcile them with the fact that Gabriel was still a threat to those I loved. And that if I didn’t do something soon, he would be forced to take actions I would never be able to forgive him for.

Which meant it was up to me to stop that from happening.

And if I had any hope of sleeping tonight, I needed to do it now.

After turning my head to the side to make sure Gabriel’s eyes were still closed, I gently peeled back the sheets and quietly rolled out of bed. He didn’t stir as I tiptoed across the room or when I slid the robe he’d been wearing earlier off the chair.

Being Gabriel’s though, the garment was so much larger than I was used to. I had to hoist it up and wrap the belt around my waist a couple of times to keep from tripping over the hem. But somehow, I made it all the way to the door without creaking a single floorboard. Even the door hinges were on my side, swinging open as easily and silently.

Once I was out of the bedroom, I became less careful and more focused on speed. Staying on tiptoes, I picked up my pace, racing out into the hall and down the steps to Gabriel’s office on the second floor.

With two floors of space between us, I felt like I could breathe again.

I pulled the phone out of the drawer and waited in the dark as it powered up. Then I called my brother.

This time, it actually rang a few times before sending me to voicemail—a sign that Theo had turned his phone back on.

“Hey, Theo,” I said softly after the beep. “It’s Liv.”

I was back to being Liv with him again. It didn’t matter that I was still upset with him for his bad choices. If the worst-case scenario happened, the last thing I wanted was for him to die thinking I hated him.

“I know my last few messages to you have been a little desperate,” I continued, my voice softening with every word. “But that’s only because you’re my brother. I…I love you, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

It was true.

It didn’t matter that he was a screw-up. It didn’t matter that, more often than not, he was a total pain in the all. He was still my brother.