you.”
Pablo stood and motioned for Felix to follow him. “We’ll tend to our brothers,” he decided out loud. “You go take care of this.” He started towards the door, but paused by my shoulder and spoke to me in private. “She must know something. That’s why she was racing off on that horse like that...to run back to her father and report whatever she dug up.”
“I am well aware. Send my regards to Javier and Julian.”
They left me alone to wallow, but there wasn’t any time for that either. I was eager to face Alicia again and see what she had to say for herself. I had kept her locked up in a room on the farthest corner of the house for days until I could stand to look at her again. If I had seen her a moment sooner, I knew I would have lost it and done something irreparable.
I stormed through the manor, making my way down to the cellar. She had turned me into a fool...manipulated me just as easily as a little child. I was not about to let our whole business be put at risk over some woman. She would have to tell me what she knew and account for this whole charade. I didn’t intend for it to be a pleasant experience for her. She would have to suffer for the embarrassment I was facing.
The guards let me into her small, damp, and dark room where she was chained up against the wall. I nodded for them to raise her restraints to force her onto her feet. She didn’t speak to me at first. That was good. If she had started running her mouth from the moment I walked in, I knew I wouldn’t be able to restrain myself. It seemed she had finally been taken down by a healthy amount of fear after what she had done.
Once she was forced into a standing position, I nodded for the other men to leave us and began pacing in front of her. She watched each step I took carefully as she waited to see what I would do next. I let the uncomfortable silence hang there on the off chance that she might just start sounding off everything she knew without being asked. She should have been desperate enough by then without sunlight for over five days and only having been served food that was barely fit scraps for the hogs. When she started squirming in anticipation for what I might say or do, I finally opened my mouth to speak in a low growl.
“Well...it seems you were honest about one thing at least. You are a whore after all...just not the kind I thought you were.”
I cut my eyes over to her, noticing that she had started to shake in her restraints, even if she was doing her very best to hide it. She kept her chin tilted upwards with a defiant glare, but I could see the terror in her eyes.
“Go on then...What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I had my reasons,” she answered gingerly.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I let it out so freely and boisterously that it echoed off the chamber walls, making her squirm even more.
“Finally you’ve learned to choose your words more carefully! To think of how much you spewed all of your useless nonsense before, and now...Nothing? I guess you’re not so big and tough as you wanted to think you were. You couldn’t have been...to cling to a rouse like that to protect yourself.”
“I did what I had to do,” she answered through tight, trembling lips.
I marched closer, keeping my eyes locked on hers with a deadly stare. “And when you face your father now...if you ever see the light of day again, that is...How well do you think he will take to it?” I stopped within inches of her, close enough to feel her hot, labored breaths on my cheek, and trailed a finger along her cheek. “To see all of these beautiful features completely rearranged and misshapen. He won’t even recognize you.”
She jerked her head to the side to avoid my touch, writhing against the wall to move herself as far away from me as she could. I returned to my predatory stalking around the room.
“That’s good,” I grinned. “It’s better that you don’t say much at first. I’m rather enjoying thinking over all the ways in which I’m going to hurt you...and make you regret you were even born, much less charming your