up to them like this, but he also knew I wouldn’t do so without a very good reason.
“Alicia. What is it?” he murmured in a hushed tone.
“I have reason to believe that this man, Alberto Milano, has acquired this land by force...which is against the law,” I proclaimed confidently, pointing my finger directly at Alberto himself.
A wave of conflicting emotions washed over my father’s face. Alberto’s men whispered among themselves, waiting to see what their boss would do. And as for Alberto...I could tell I took him by surprise. He gave me a scoffing laugh as we stared each other down.
I intended to storm up on them, seeming brave and fearless. I wanted these men to know I was powerful, and that I intended to carry on my father’s work long after he was gone. When their enemy Don Martino retired, they would still have Alicia Guevara to worry about.
But I froze the moment Alberto and I came face to face. He was a very tall, large man, which I expected from the stories I had heard. However, he was also much younger than I imagined. He was unexpectedly handsome with a certain alluring charm, which I was determined not to fall prey to the way everyone else did. Beyond all of that was a startling presence that shone out through his dark eyes. He was an intimidating force of a man, even when he was just leaning in a doorway. I didn’t know if it was my fear of him or this strange attraction to him that had me so taken back.
“This is quite the woman you have here as your daughter, Don Martino,” Alberto said with an almost stunned expression. He was impressed with me - I could tell. But mostly, he just wanted to agitate my father, who couldn’t stand to see Alberto’s eyes looking me up and down.
So he turned his attention back to me, the only thing he had any control over. “You can prove what you say?” my father asked.
“Yes. Over there. He described how his family had to leave…,” I pointed behind me, but was cut off by muffled laughter amongst the men. When I turned to look for the boy, he was gone. “No, he was just right there. I can tell you everything.”
I started looking all around, but it was too late. The boy had vanished, and I had already called out Alberto. He had people killed for less, or so it was rumored. You couldn’t call out a man’s honor without proof to back it up.
“She’s spirited, isn’t she?” Alberto grunted towards my father, but his eyes were glued to me.
It was as if he could see straight through me, but maybe not through to nothingness. No, it seemed he was studying me from the inside out. Assembling all of my pieces together one by one until he understood me. I imagined that was how he cut people down so well. He could read them well enough to tear them apart. I waited for him to say something vicious and cruel, but his intensity suddenly faded.
“If that is all of your questions for now, Great Detective,” he mocked. “And if your sharp-tongued daughter has no more ghosts of little boys to send us after...Can we be finished with all of this? I am a busy man. I don’t have time to stand here all day while you attempt to drag my name through the mud.”
My father nodded, knowing there was nothing more we could do for today. “This isn’t over yet, Alberto. We will continue our investigation of this transaction.”
“By all means...please do, Don Martino,” he replied in a smooth, smug tone.
But as my father and I turned to leave, I could feel Alberto’s eyes still burning into my relentlessly. The feeling he gave me stuck for days. I couldn’t stop wondering what happened to that little boy. I hoped he got afraid and ran off, and that one of Milano’s men didn’t catch on and do something to him. I couldn’t bear to know any harm had come to him because of me. The mere possibility made me hate Alberto even more.
Then there was Alberto’s haunting stare...the way his eyes glinted at me with surprise and curiosity, even if he kept it cleverly hidden. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wasn’t sure if it was from the way his looks caught me by surprise, or if it was over my anger and disappointment that he got away with