Semua Bab Choke me daddy! (one night stand with a mafia boss.): Bab 91 - Bab 99

The Weight of the ThroneThe black marble steps leading into the Thorn’s council hall had always carried a heavy presence, but tonight they seemed carved from something colder, darker. A sense of urgency pulsed through the air like an unseen current. Gabrielle felt it before they even drew close, his hand instinctively drifting toward Alexa’s lower back, guiding her, shielding her.The emergency summons had come less than an hour ago ,a sharp, abrupt call from Cordelia, her tone clipped, expectant. Alexa didn’t ask what it meant. She had learned enough to feel the shift in the air when the Thorn moved.Inside, the hall buzzed with a muted chaos. Members whispered furiously, glancing at the entrance as though waiting for the next blow. Ever since Cordelia announced Alexa as Gabrielle’s second in command, the entire foundation of the Thorn had shaken. The old bloodlines bristled. The power-hungry seethed. The loyalists murmured. And the traitors ,those hidden among them watched quietly.

The aroma of sizzling butter filled the kitchen long before the sun had fully risen. Ava moved around her domain with quiet efficiency, her apron dusted with flour, her expression stern in the way of someone who had been worrying since dawn.Alexa stepped in first. There was a softness to her character this morning, a looseness to her shoulders, a glow she couldn’t quite hide. She tried to tug her hair behind her ear as if that could conceal the warmth still clinging to her skin from the night before.Olivia noticed. Of course she did. She had been with Alexa long enough to read every shift in her mood.“Well, well,” Olivia murmured as she slid onto a stool at the counter. “Someone looks… refreshed.”Alexa shot her a warning glare, but the smile tugging at her lips ruined the intimidation. “Don’t start.”“I didn’t say anything,” Olivia replied, eyes sparkling. “But someone had a very good night.”Ava turned from the stove, her brows raised not in amusement, but in concern so sharp it

Antonio closed the door to the small sitting room with deliberate care, ensuring the latch made no sound. Olivia stood near the window, arms crossed tightly, watching the early morning light filter across the manicured lawn.Neither spoke at first.They didn’t need to.“You saw it too,” Olivia finally said, her voice low.Antonio nodded once. “I did.”“The way he looked at her,” she continued. “Not like a wife. Not even like a partner.”Antonio leaned against the wall, exhaling slowly. “Like a ruler looking at his equal.”Olivia turned sharply. “That’s exactly it. And it scares me.”Antonio’s jaw tightened. “It should.”They both fell silent again, replaying the drama before in their minds,the raised voices behind closed doors, the sharp edge in Gabrielle’s tone when the oath was mentioned, the way Alexa didn’t back down. And then, later, the silence. Not the angry kind. The heavy, settled kind.“The house feels different this morning,” Olivia said quietly.Antonio’s gaze flicked towa

The car should have exploded.That was the first thought that crossed Gabrielle Casanova’s mind as he stood beside the mangled vehicle, surrounded by flashing emergency lights and the muted chaos of men pretending this was just another accident.The front end of the black sedan was crushed inward, metal folded like paper, the windshield webbed with cracks. The smell of burnt rubber and overheated engine oil clung to the air. If the collision had occurred a second later,if the brakes had failed completely,there would have been no survivors.Alexa would be dead. Antonio would be dead.And the Thorn would have lost more than it could afford.Gabrielle’s face was carved from stone as private investigators finished their work. Alexa sat on the curb, wrapped in a shawl,a faint bruise already forming along her temple. Gabrielle had forced them out to the scene of the accident, hoping to find some answers. Antonio stood nearby, jaw clenched, arm vibrating through his tight sleeve, refusing t

The fracture did not announce itself with raised voices or slammed doors.It arrived quietly.Gabrielle stood alone in the west study, the lights dimmed low, the city bleeding into the windows beyond the glass. The mansion slept, but he did not. Sleep had become a stranger since the accident, since Cordelia’s call, since the realization that every hand reaching toward him carried an agenda.On the desk before him lay a single object.A Thorn insignia ring.Cordelia’s.Antonio had delivered it less than an hour ago, without explanation. That alone spoke volumes.Gabrielle picked it up, turning it slowly between his fingers. The metal was cool, heavier than it looked. A symbol of lineage. Authority. Control.A reminder.His phone buzzed softly.He already knew who it was. He answered without greeting.“You found my messenger,” Cordelia said.Her voice was steady, unbothered, as if she were discussing the weather rather than the exposure of a planted operative.“You planted him in my hou