Page 36 of The Devil and the Dancer
“Have you ever known me to be involved with a human?” Gavin asked.
“More than for your own convenience? No.”
“Well then.”
Giovanni’s eyebrows rose. “I see.”
“Do you?”
Giovanni smiled a little. “Yes, I do. I saw months ago. Your new bar speaks for itself.”
Gavin felt his collar grow tight. “The Dancing Bear is a good investment. The theater crowd—”
“You didn’t build it for the theater crowd. You built it for her. Coming from you, Gavin, it’s practically a love letter.”
Gavin rolled his eyes. “Italians. So dramatic.”
“You mean observant.” Giovanni released his hands to take the glass of scotch the server brought. “Don’t be so defensive. I know we’ve never been confidants, but if anyone knows what you’re going through at the moment, it’s me.”
Gavin glanced at the bar. Chloe caught his eye and offered an easy smile. She loved Giovanni. He was Ben’s uncle, and he’d known Chloe since she was young.
Gavin forced the words through his lips. “When did you know with Beatrice?”
“You saw me after he took her,” Giovanni said. “You should know the answer to that question.”
The memory was one of Gavin’s few regrets in life. He’d been cornered into a meeting between Giovanni and his bastard of a vampire son, Lorenzo. Lorenzo had used Beatrice as leverage and put Giovanni into an impossible situation that forced him to let his son take the woman he cared about when she’d been a vulnerable human.
Gavin had suspected Lorenzo wouldn’t risk harming Beatrice; the bastard wanted her as bait.
He’d suspected. But he hadn’t known.
Putting the young woman into the hands of a vampire he knew was a killer was a decision that haunted Gavin. He hadn’t known how Giovanni felt about Beatrice at the time, but he’d known soon after when the fire vampire had erupted in rage and turned the vampire world red in a quest for the woman who would eventually become his mate.
Gavin sipped his scotch, unable to ease the tight grip on his glass. “Does she still curse every time my name comes up?”
“She hasn’t done that in years. She appreciates what you’ve done for Ben.”
“Ben is a friend,” Gavin said. “One of the few that I care to claim.”
“I know that. So does she. And she also knows you’ve taken our side in fights that could have meant your end.”
Gavin swallowed, and the scotch burned. “Fair is fair.”
“I think you’ve paid your debt—”
“Have I?”
“—but make no mistake; Beatrice will take your head off if you hurt Chloe.”
Gavin offered a rueful smile. “She did it to Lorenzo, so I don’t doubt it.”
“I’m serious, Gavin.”
“So am I.” His eyes rose to Giovanni’s. “I want to kill the vampire she’s talking to at the bar.”
Giovanni glanced at the grizzled vampire with silver hair and pox scars on his face. “Isn’t he one of Cormac’s crew?”
“Yes. It doesn’t matter. I want to kill him. I want to kill every man she smiles at. I want to hide her in the mountains and put a dozen guards on her. I’m having her followed every time she’s not with me.”
