The moans of the woman on the projector screen finally faded into a low, rumbling audio track as the movie credits began to roll, casting a white glare across the sprawling banquet hall.
The dim, secretive twilight of the room instantly vanished, exposing the flushed, trembling mess Joanne had become under the bright light.
Alfonso slowly lowered his hand from his mouth, his tongue tracking over his lips one final time to mockingly savor the cream he had just forcefully extracted from her under the table.
He leaned back in his seat, his jacket shifting slightly to reveal the absolute, unbothered discipline of a man who had just publicly stripped a woman of her dignity without a single person in the room noticing the mechanics of it.
He clapped his palms together once, a thunderous sound that instantly shattered the lingering post-movie lethargy in the room.
Hardened men straightened their backs, and the envious female servants immediately snapped their eyes away from Joanne’s shivering form to face their leader.
“Alright, enough of the modern entertainment,” Alfonso announced, his voice booming with a terrifying weight that commanded total submission.
“The sun is up , and we’ve wasted enough hours treating wounds and watching fiction. It’s time for some serious arrangement around here.”
He turned his piercing, dilated eyes slowly toward Joanne, who was still desperately trying to keep her breathing steady, her hands trembling as she held the nightgown over her cleavage.
“We want to officially welcome Joanne into our Excross Gang Underworld Family—our EGUF,” Alfonso stated, his voice laced with arrogance that echoed off the walls.
“She isn’t just a temporary guest passing through my corridors. Since she is officially under my roof and bound to my quarters, she must join the club and learn the basics of how the EGUF operates. I don’t tolerate weak, fragile liabilities in my inner circle.”
He paused, his hand sliding right back beneath the edge of the table, his fingers locking around Joanne’s narrow waist with a crushing, possessive grip that made her breath hitch.
“Sophie,” Alfonso called out, his sharp gaze locking onto the beautiful woman in blonde hair sitting a few seats down the table.
“You will be the one in charge of helping her train. I want you to teach her the basic skills of defense, tactical awareness, and hand-to-hand combat. Toughen her up, crack that soft medical shell of hers, and make sure she knows how to handle steel.”
Under the table, his fingers dug deeper into Joanne’s soft waist, pulling her shivering hip against his side.
A wicked smirk split his handsome face as he looked around the table at his captains.
“Toughen her up,” Alfonso added with chuckle, “so that the sweet nurse can actually find a way to match my crazy stamina and savage speed in bed without fainting every damn time.”
The entire banquet hall exploded into a loud, roaring chorus of laughter. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
The frontline men pounded their fists against the table, and Griffin let out an amused, mocking whistle, shaking his head at his boss’ completely unfiltered bedroom commentary.
Sophie, completely unbothered by the vulgarity, offered a warm, genuinely vibrant smile.
She looked at Joanne with an expression that was surprisingly free of malice.
“I will be very happy to train her, Boss,” Sophie replied smoothly, her voice clear and confident.
“I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what the sweet doctor is made of under all that soft skin. I won’t go easy on her.”
“Wait a minute, Alfonso,” a dripping voice cut through the lingering laughter from further down the table.
Dorea leaned forward, her arms crossed tightly over her surgical apron, her severe features twisting into a smirk.
Her eyes flashed with a bitter, unresolved jealousy as she stared at the way Alfonso’s arm disappeared under the table near Joanne’s lap.
“I could also train the nurse,” Dorea offered, her tone laced with a desperate bid for his attention.
“I’m always idling most of the time around this palace anyway. I always have to sit around and wait for these idiot, clumsy men to get shot or broken just to feel useful, and it’s incredibly boring since the boys rarely get injured in a fun or interesting way lately. Let me break her in. I know exactly where the nerves are.”
Alfonso didn’t hesitate for a single second.
He looked at Dorea with a cold, dry, and completely brutal detachment that would have shattered any ordinary woman’s spirit.
“Absolutely not,” Alfonso replied flatly, his voice echoing with an icy, merciless edge through the hall.
“I can’t risk your intense, ugly jealousy flaring up in the middle of a session, Dorea. The next thing I know, you’ll find an excuse to pour acid onto the beautiful nurse’s face out of spite.”
The table went silent for a beat before Alfonso let out a mocking snort, leaning forward.
“Besides… I can’t let you get too close to her during physical combat. You might accidentally infect Joanne with your persistent ugliness, and if she loses her looks, I won’t have a single reason to keep her around my bed anymore.”
The banquet hall erupted once again, the laughter this time twice as loud, vicious, and unbridled.
The syndicate members were entirely used to their emperor’s brutal, completely unfiltered words—it was the law of the EGUF, where only the strongest and most visually flawless survived without psychological scars.
Dorea’s face turned a shade of purple, her jaw locking in silent, burning rage as she stared down at her plate, but she swallowed it as she always does.
But Joanne didn’t laugh.
The utter, disgusting cruelty of his words slammed into her soul, completely overriding the paralyzing shyness and humiliation that had kept her quiet all morning.
Every single ounce of her moral fiber, her years of treating human beings with dignity, and her hatred for Alfonso’s tyrannical behavior boiled over like a volcanic eruption.
Under the table, Alfonso’s hand was still wrapped tightly around her waist, but his smirk suddenly faltered.
He could feel it perfectly—her body had gone completely rigid, vibrating with anger.
Alfonso tilted his head, a glint of amusement returning to his eyes as he leaned closer to her ear.
“What’s the matter, sweet nurse?” he whispered loudly enough for the closest captains to hear.
“Do you happen to have something you want to say to my family?”
Joanne didn’t just speak.
With a sudden, violent movement, she yanked herself entirely out of his vice-like grip, her chair scraping loudly against the floor with a screeching wail that instantly cut the laughter in the room dead.
Joanne stood up at the head of the table.
The nightgown flowed around her thighs, her breasts heaving with a breathless fury under the crystal chandeliers.
She completely ignored her nakedness, the armed guards, and the lethal nature of the mafia king sitting right beside her.
She turned her head, her wide, flashing eyes locking onto every single hardened face, captain, servant, and soldier sat around the long table.
“It is not funny!” Joanne shouted, her voice trembling with rage that stunned the entire room into silence.
“None of this is funny! That lady has feelings, and you are laughing while he brutally hurts her dignity! How can you people be so completely heartless?!”