Page 53 of No Darker Temptation

“Hey jefecita! You heading out?”

I nod. “I’m going to the lounge. Take the walk with me? I can’t find Beni or Dimitrio.”

“Beni’s off today, it’s his cousin’s birthday.” Pedro says by way of explanation. “You sure you don’t want one of us to bring the car around?”

I shake my head. “It’s beautiful today. I don’t mind.”

I wait for Manuel to come down from the watchtower. Though, it isn’t actually a watchtower—just an upstairs sitting room with a mezzanine that overlooks this part of the house. Manuel opens the front door and we walk to the lounge in comfortable silence, engaging in occasional conversation over simple things like the weather or how bad the traffic is before it quickly fizzles out.

When we arrive at El Aliciente, the chairs are flipped over and the bar is empty, just as I suspected. A shrill ringing echoes across the room and Manuel comes to an abrupt stop at the threshold. He pulls out his phone and checks the screen.

“I need to take this. Are you⁠—?”

“Yes, go ahead!”

Manuel steps outside to take the call and I spot Joni rolling a mop bucket down the hall.

“Jefecita.” He smiles and leaves the mop and bucket perched against the wall. “I didn’t know you were coming in today.”

“I wasn’t going to but I need to see Alejandro,” I say. “Is he upstairs?”

He wipes his hands on the apron tied around his lips, brows furrowed. “I think I saw him down in the cellar about an hour ago. Probably doing inventory, we had a wine shipment this morning.”

I walk over to the bar and he follows, taking my jacket and purse to hang on the rack behind the counter. I slide onto a stool and he fills a cup with ice and water for me. “Are the kitchens open yet?”

“Silvie’s down there with Berto. Are you hungry? I’ll tell them to make you something.”

Joni’s sweet. Alejandro likes to tease him about the apparent crush he has on me but I’d never be so cruel. “It’s all right, I’ll wait⁠—”

“I’ll go right now.” He steps out from behind the bar and rushes through the double doors that lead to the kitchens.

I hop off the stool and walk around the bar, through the narrow swinging door that leads to the back end of the lounge. Through here, a series of doors along a lengthy hall lead to the employee bathrooms, storage closets, and break room. At the end of the hall is a left turn where one doorway takes me to the basement and straight ahead are the stairs leading to the upstairs office. I’ll try the cellar first to see if I have any luck.

The cellar is old and hasn’t been renovated in years, save the wine rack installations and a few more light fixtures. My hand grazes the damp stone wall in search of another light switch. When I find it, the room behind me sparks to life. I pass under the brick arch and examine the wine crates, all piled high across the stone floor. Some are already unpacked and labeled while others remain untouched.

“Alex?”

No response. With a sigh, I turn to leave the room but trip over one of the crates. A gasp catches in my throat as I reach out for something to catch my balance with. A wine bottle falls out of the wine rack and shatters on the floor. Instead of pooling at my feet, the garnet liquid spills across the floor at such a slight decline that if I hadn’t been watching, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. The wine leaks under the rack where for the first time, I see pale tendrils of white light.

Is there something behind this?

I pull my hand away from the wall, having leaned against it when I tripped. The rack creaks and the noise startles me. No hinges or handles in sight, I’m torn between leaving it alone and letting my curiosity get the better of me. I touch the wine rack again and it creaks so this time, I give it a firm push and it bounces back, as if rigged to do so. The rack swings forth from the wall to reveal a passageway behind it.

“What the hell…”

I reach out to touch the doorway and the smooth, sand-colored stone that supports the heavy beam above it.

I don’t see any light switches but there’s a harsh yellow lightbulb ahead which allows me to see where I’m going. Maybe it’s connected to the electricity in the lounge which means Alejandro must know this is down here. I suspect it’s used as additional storage or one of the halls leads above ground which allows for easier access to the cellar during supply shipments.

A million naïve thoughts run through my mind but none come anywhere close to the truth.

Voices come from down the hall and I follow, recognizing one of them as Alejandro. Joni said they had a new shipment of wine come in so maybe this is where they do the loading and unloading? I approach the door—wooden with a pointed arch and an old iron handle—and my palm rests on the handle, ready to step inside and announce my arrival. However, it’s already slightly ajar and I don’t have to push it open to see what’s happening.

Alejandro lifts his head toward the light. A splatter of dried blood along his jaw is disturbed the moment he yanks something back and a harsh, deafening crack echoes across the vast room. A man releases a blood curdling scream, cut short by Dimitrio, who shoves a rag in the man’s mouth. Fresh blood splashes across the side of Alejandro’s face but he doesn’t seem to notice. He’s too focused on the man beneath his boot, body crushed against the floor, with his arm behind him, bent at an unnatural angle. In fact, I think I can see the bone protruding from the flesh of his upper arm.

“Hopefully you’ll have an answer for me now that you’re down to only one limb.”

This time, I don’t recognize Alejandro’s voice. Deep, cold, piercing. It settles in my bones and the pit of my stomach where an anxious flutter unfurls. I want to move but remain frozen in place.