Chapter 5 - The King’s Justice
The silence in the underground medical suite was absolute, broken only by Carmine’s ragged, terrified sobs echoing off the damp stone walls.
Gabriel stood over the groveling capo, his face an unreadable mask of absolute authority.
“You wanted my throne, Carmine?” Gabriel asked softly, tilting his head slightly.
“No, Boss—never! I swear on my mother’s grave!” Carmine choked out, pressing his forehead against the cold concrete floor, trembling so violently his shoulders shook. “It was a mistake! Please!”
Gabriel didn't raise his voice. He didn't draw a weapon. He simply extended his hand back toward the corner of the room.
“Matilda,” Gabriel called out, his eyes never leaving Carmine.
Matilda stepped out from the shadows near the instrument cart. Her heart hammered against her ribs, but as she looked at the man who had terrorized her just a week ago now lying broken and weeping at her feet, the lingering fear inside her finally evaporated into ash.
“Come here,” Gabriel instructed gently.
Matilda walked across the room until she stood right beside Gabriel, her gray uniform crisp, her head held high.
Gabriel looked down at Carmine.
“Remember last week, Carmine?” Gabriel asked, his voice cutting through the room like a razor. “When you tripped this girl in the foyer and called her an earthquake?”
Carmine’s eyes widened in sheer horror as the memory slammed into him. He looked up at Matilda, his face twisted in desperate panic.
“M-Miss Higgins... I am so sorry... I didn't mean it... please, tell him—”
“You said that if she ever fell again, you would carry her,” Gabriel interrupted, his slate-gray eyes flashing with cold, lethal fire.
Gabriel turned his head slightly toward Salazar and the other captured enforcers.
“Salazar. Pick him up.”
Salazar scrambled forward, grabbing Carmine by the arms and hauling him roughly to his feet.
“You’re going to carry her, Carmine,” Gabriel commanded coldly. “You’re going to carry her out of this estate, all the way down the gravel drive to the front gates, on your knees. And if your legs give out before you reach the highway, my men will finish what the hospital started.”
Carmine let out a pathetic, wailing shriek as Salazar and another enforcer twisted his arms behind his back and dragged him backward toward the exit.
“Get him out of my sight,” Gabriel said.
Within seconds, the traitors were hauled out of the medical wing, their panicked cries fading down the stone corridor until the heavy steel doors slammed shut once more.
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The room grew quiet again.
Gabriel turned slowly, looking down at Matilda, the harsh, dangerous edge of his demeanor instantly softening as his eyes met hers.
