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?
“Everyone has. He’s a legend around here, on both sides of the border. He and his brother learned the business from all the old-time narcos, Shorty Lopez, La Vibora, and Pablo Acosta Villarreal, known as El Zorro de Ojinaga—the Ojinaga Fox. Pablo Acosta, along with Fox Uno’s brother, was gunned down in 1987 in a cross-border raid by the FBI and Mex Feds. Fox Uno picked up the pieces and started his own cartel with Acosta’s surviving men, calling it Nemesio, allegedly in honor of the brother who died. We think Fox Uno also took his nickname as some sort of tribute to Acosta, but who knows where these guys get their cartoon names from. Anyway, he’s since become kind of a Godfather figure along the border. For three decades, nothing has happened in Ojinaga without his blessing. However, he’s been on shaky ground for a while now. He’s old, maybe sick, not quite as sharp as he used to be, and he’s got several lieutenants and allegedly a son eager and ready to take over. Plus, he’s been locked in this bloody, never-ending struggle with the Serrano Brothers, who’ve been successfully encroaching on Nemesio smuggling routes in Ojinaga and the Big Bend. Our informants suggest this whole attack on the students was aimed directly at Fox Uno, to put him on the run and take him off the board once and for all.”
“Is it working?”
“That we don’t know. Time will tell. He’s a cagey son of a bitch, a survivor like a fucking cockroach. He’s lived a long time in a business with a notoriously short life span.” Garrison stopped, counting the gathering shadows. “Chris, why do you think Darin and Morgan were so interested in Rudy Reynosa?”
“He had information about Duane Dupree and Ross, about corruption here in the Big Bend . . .”
“Sure, it was easy for Rudy Ray to snitch on Dupree and Ross because they were all working for Nemesio, for Fox Uno. But it was more than that. They believed Rudy Reynosa was related to Fox Uno.”
Chris understood then why Garrison was giving him this history lesson about the Big Bend, about the cartels, and why he’d driven all the way down here to deliver it face-to-face. “Right . . . and this is where we circle back to America. You always start and end there, do you know that? This is nothing new.”
“Rudy Ray was snitching not only to get free of Nemesio, but to help his sister, too. Deputy Reynosa. He was very clear about that. Why do you think that was?”