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?
He had even killed a pregnant woman. He strangled her in a bathtub of cool water in front of her husband, and what he remembered most was how the woman had not tried to struggle at all. Instead, she gave herself over to him, gently. She was at peace. She did not scream or beg for her life or the life of her unborn child, and she did not tell her husband to tell Fox Uno what he wanted to know—the names of two men who had arranged for the checkpoint outside Saucillo that had claimed Fox Uno’s woman.
She did none of those things, floating in the water with one hand pressed against Fox Uno’s heart.
Instead, she said a small prayer, and whispered: Estamos listos. We are ready.
And . . .
Oro por su alma. I pray for your soul.
The woman closed her eyes and died praying for him.
As she lay there, he had Gualterio and another man named Miguel Ángel cut the child out of her belly, turning all the water red, and rushed the baby to the nearest hospital. The niña pequeña survived, barely, and Fox Uno then paid for new church and hospital records, listing his woman who had been killed in Saucillo as the birth mother. She had been a beauty pageant winner, one of the many women he had bedded and discarded. He ordered all who knew of it to say that it was she who had given birth to the baby, and that the child was Fox Uno’s.
The dead woman in Saucillo could say no different.
He had the real mother’s body burned, along with her husband’s, and their ashes and few remaining bones were buried beneath the pavement of a used-car lot.
Eventually, he had the doctors and a Catholic priest who might know the truth killed, as well as others who could have whispered otherwise, including Miguel Ángel.
Even Martino did not know the truth of it. He believed, as did most of Nemesio, that the girl—Zita—was his true half sister.
Su sangre.
Fox Uno had chosen the name Zita because it meant “Little Hope.” She had been so small and bloody in his hands, drawing her first breath, struggling to live.
He could not remember the face of Zita’s mother anymore, and he never knew her name, but he would always remember her praying for him.
Her hand on his chest, over his heart.
I pray for your soul.
Yo estoy de Muerte . . .
—
HE HAD WATCHED THE ONE they called Danny walk into the house with all his pistolas.