Chapters (110)
- Cover
- ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- I
- II
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- PART TWO
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- PART FOUR
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Excerpt from LOST RIVER
- LITTLE PARIS
- DILLON
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Fox Uno had last been seen with Zita, on foot, running into the badlands around Manuel Benavides.
Running . . . very much alive, and very much trying to hold on to what remained of Nemesio. The attack on the normalistas had been the first part of Martino’s plan, and although it had done enough to unseat his father, the ambush in Manuel Benavides was meant to finish the job. It had not.
His father still had access to those old methods of his, scattered networks of runners and mules and sicarios and compadres. Enough of them still loyal, and alive, to carry out his threats and orders from wherever he’d hidden himself.
For a very desperate man, all alone and on the run, Fox Uno was proving to be surprisingly cagey and resourceful. But Martino didn’t know if his father could even begin to comprehend just how alone he truly was.
The question was not how long and how far he could realistically run, but where? That question had been put to Martino several times by Diego Serrano in the last two days, more forcefully each time. Martino had started to form an idea, but not one that he was ready to share yet with Diego, who might decide to take matters into his own hands. Diego was sniffing around, sending his own men out to find Martino’s father, and that was unacceptable. It was true that everyone involved wanted, needed, Fox Uno dead, but Martino couldn’t risk letting the Serrano Brothers and their sicarios claim that prize.
When Fox Uno finally fell, all those men Martino had promised and negotiated with, including Los Hermanos Serrano, needed to know that this one thing was done on his order, by his hand, even if his finger wasn’t on the trigger.
This was his contribution, his legacy, to the hostile takeover he had orchestrated. If he had any hope of retaining his position in the aftermath, of surviving, he could not fail in this.
Martino had learned about corporate takeovers in business school, as well as rebranding: changing the identity or corporate image of a business in the minds of investors, stakeholders, and even competitors. Nemesio, through the long, bloody years, had finally outlived its usefulness. It had been irreversibly weakened by its battles with the Serrano Brothers and had lost its influence and protection with those in power in Mexico City. Those powerful men needed peace between the cartels, at least for a while, because they also had been weakened by the bloodshed and publicity. They could no longer explain or justify Nemesio’s continued existence, and Martino had grown to understand that the only way for any of them to survive was to tear out the old and start again new.
Rebrand.