Page 85 of The Price of Power

The whole pier went dead quiet—no one quite able to believe what they had just heard.

“What?” Theo asked, his voice thin and shaky.

“You heard me, Collins.” Gabriel’s commanding voice boomed again. “Go. Now.”

“G-Go?” Theo sputtered. “Go where?”

“Get on the fucking boat, you idiot. Sail away from my city and never come back.” Gabriel shouted. “And thank God every day that he blessed you with a sister who I love more than I hate you.”

“Yes. Of course, Mr. D’Angelo,” Theo said before turning tail and bolting down the pier toward the boats.

I didn’t watch him go.

I didn’t need to.

My brother was my past, running far away from me.

My future, on the other hand, was standing right in front of me.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

OLIVIA

MONTHS LATER

“Pistachio or chocolate?”

“You already know the answer to that,” I said to Gabriel, not looking up from the pile of paperwork on the counter in front of me. A second later, a hot, freshly baked cornetto on a plate slid into view. I picked it up and bit into the flaky crust. “Mmm…chocolate. Mrs. Tarolli, you really are the best cook I know.”

“You flatter me,” she said. “But how many times do I need to tell you to call me Letizia? There’s no need for family to be so formal.”

So said the woman who, all these months later, still called me Miss Olivia.

“But you forget,” I said, glancing up from my work. “I’m not family.”

“Maybe not technically,” the housekeeper admitted. “But if you live in this house, you’re family. Those are the rules.”

“Besides,” Matteo said from his seat on the stool across the kitchen counter. “We all know it’s only a matter of time before my brother breaks down, buys a ring, and makes it official.”

“I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, spinning around to face his twin. “How exactly do you know that?”

Matteo shrugged. “The guys even have a bet on which day you’ll pop the question.”

“And some of the girls, too,” Mrs. Tarolli broke in before shooting me a wink. “I have a few bucks down on the last week of October.”

I didn’t like her chances. That was coming up quick.

“I don’t know why everyone’s so impatient,” I said, washing my bite down with a sip of fragrant tea. “It’s not like there’s any rush. Even if Gabriel proposed and I said yes, between La Sera and the Liquor Distribution company, I’m up to my ears in work. I couldn’t even think about getting married for at least a year.”

“Wait.” Gabriel cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean ‘if’ you say yes?”

“You heard me.” I shot him a mischievous smile before dipping my head down to focus on the columns of numbers in front of me.

I may have been kidding about the if, but the work part was no joke.

After Theo had floated out of our lives, Gabriel had swooped in to buy my family’s now failing company. But instead of selling the bits and pieces of it off or absorbing it into the rest of the D’Angelo empire, he’d gifted it to me.

In the little time since the company had come into my care, I’d started to turn it around. Now, it was well on its way to making a decent profit.