use to my advantage. I suspected he wanted me, and I had been right. The only thing I underestimated was how much I wanted him in return.
None of that mattered now. He had left me to flee, and now I didn’t know what waited for me in whatever prison I was being carted off to next. Alberto probably wouldn’t even come looking for me. He would probably just be relieved that he didn’t have to take care of me himself.
It must have been noon before we finally arrived at another estate and the men began to slow their horses. I had been bounced around on horseback since the early hours of the morning before sunrise. I felt nauseous and dizzy. They lowered my feet to the ground, but not without keeping a tight hold on me to keep me from running off. I was kind of grateful for it. My legs were tingling and felt like spaghetti, and I didn’t think I could walk.
Once again, I was carried down into a dark, stone room and locked inside. Only this time I didn’t know where I was or who ran this property. I knew it wouldn’t be Alberto walking through that door to torture me, and somehow that felt less safe.
When I was left alone once more, I started to wonder if I would ever be free again...if I would ever see my father again. Then I remembered what happened the night before and thought maybe it was best I never saw him again. I was forever changed, and I knew he would see it in my eyes the moment he looked at me. We were close, and sometimes it felt like he could make out the secrets floating in my eyes. I didn’t want him to know that about me...what I had done with Alberto. I couldn’t let him see what a disgrace I was.
11
Alberto
I sat in my chair in the corner of the parlor, thinking over everything that happened with Alicia. For all of the strange things that had ever come out of past interrogations, that was definitely a first. Looking back on it, it was hard to determine exactly how it even happened. The closer my body got to hers, and the more she refused to cave to me, the more charged my body became. It was a force I couldn’t refuse. As stubborn as she was, she seemed just as incapable of refusing it. We were pulled into it against our will. Or maybe it was what we really wanted all along, and we just got too tired to keep resisting it.
Her caramel skin was soft and warm, despite the cold water I had drenched her in. Moving inside of her felt like being wrapped in silk. I had never been a gentle lover, but something about her begged for a certain kind of softness...One I didn’t even know I was capable of. While she lured tenderness out of me, she gave fiery passion in return. She was every bit as stubborn and defiant in her movements as she was in everyday life.
Alicia was putting me in a very precarious situation to say the least. I never let myself stray from the course or my carefully laid plans. Yet I impulsively bought her at the market to save her life. I brought her here and fell for her charms. I let her deceive me, and all the while I treated her better than I would have with anyone else in her position. All of my weaknesses should have flown out the window the moment I discovered her lie, but I was foiled once again when I tried to interrogate her.
Now I didn’t know what to do with her. I didn’t know how she’d feel when she woke up, but continuing to question her seemed pointless after what happened. I still needed to protect my empire and figure out what she knew. But I wasn’t so sure chains and torture were the way to do it anymore. It would have worked if I hadn’t held back. Maybe...Or maybe Alicia really was as strong as she made you think, and she’d just as soon die rather than give in to my questioning.
I could hear a swell of commotion rattling through the halls of the estate, but I was too lost in my own head to bother with it. It seemed I didn’t have to, because Felix and Pablo soon came charging in, interrupting my solitude.
“It’s your little pet, Alicia,”