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Mamma places her hand on my arm before moving it to my back.
Her voice trembles when she asks, “Did you hurt Gabriella?”
Hearing the question from Mamma makes me feel even worse.
“When I felt her hand on my gun, I just reacted. You know I don’t care whether the person is male or female. If they’re a threat, I’ll kill them.” I let out a sigh before I continue, “She practically weighs nothing, and I slammed her down harder than I meant to.” I shake my head again. “The moment I saw a broken shoe was responsible for her losing her balance, I let go of her.”
My mother scoots closer to me, her voice soft as she asks, “And the bruises?”
“At that moment, she was a threat, Mamma.”
“You should apologize to her,” she demands.
The fuck. I’m not going back to Gabriella’s room.
I close my eyes as the memory of what happened after Mamma’s panic attack plays out in my mind.
The instant I stepped into that suite, I was assaulted with Gabriella’s fresh scent. Seeing her masking her trauma took an unexpected swing at my heart.
Feeling her tremble while she still held eye contact made me realize nothing would be able to break her. Even the threat of death didn’t keep her from raising her chin and facing me head-on.
And then, the woman looked me up and down with interest shining in her eyes before she lowered her head to hide her attraction to me.
She belongs to Dario.
Christ, tonight has given me an emotional whiplash.
“Are you okay?” Mamma asks.
“Yes,” I lie because my emotions are all over the place.
I’ve never hesitated to kill anyone before, but Gabriella managed to escape death twice in one night.
She didn’t beg for her life.
She’s probably not even five feet five inches, yet she stared me down with way too much bravery.
Leaning back against the sofa, I glance at Mamma. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Of course. It was just a little slip-up.”
I wrap my arm around her shoulders and tug her to my side. Pressing a kiss to her hair, I ask, “Do you want to go out for dinner tomorrow night? Renzo’s girlfriend opened a new restaurant, and I think it would be good to get away from the mansion for a couple of hours.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Yes. Besides the guards, of course.”
“I’d love to,” she murmurs.
I hold my mother a little longer before I pull away and climb to my feet.
“Want me to walk you to the sitting room?”
Nodding, she gets up, and I hook her arm through mine.
“Thank you, mio figlio.”
After I leave Mamma in the sitting room, I walk to the veranda and glance over the property.
