I slowly got out, seeing silhouettes of trees. We were on the other side of the small hill, the finca obscured from view, even though the hill’s outline lit up with another bomb blast or gunfire fight.
There was no time to panic. To worry about my empire. To be concerned about my wife.
There was no time at all because the heavy, clattering sound of many AKs being aimed at you seemed to make time slow.
“Put your hands above your head, Bernal,” a deep voice game from the direction of the trees. But they weren’t just trees. They were people.
The blinding red dot of a sniper’s rifle shone in my face.
I was surrounded by federales, each of them with a weapon trained on me.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t even think.
I heard Diego swear from beneath me on the ladder, still in the tunnel, and I knew he was running the other way, back to the finca. Maybe with Evaristo, maybe alone. He wasn’t abandoning me. He knew he wouldn’t have a shot.
He knew I still needed him.
“Javier Bernal,” that deep voice came again and footsteps seemed to echo through the earth. A wide-set man stopped feet away from me, his gun taking the stage. “You’re under arrest by the PFM. Surrender or we will take you in dead. We will gladly do it.”
I swallowed and slowly put my hands up in the air, knowing I was caught and there was no way out of it.
“Ah the federales,” I said. “I finally get to meet Mexico’s finest puta.”
Next thing I saw was the butt of the rifle.
Heard the crack of my nose.
And everything went black.
***
When I came to, I was being brought to my feet by a man who had horrible B.O. and being forced into a helicopter.
“Get him in,” someone yelled and it’s then that I felt the heat of the fire. I raised my head, my vision swimming, and saw the ranch burning down. Federales were everywhere and everyone that belonged to me was gone.
Everyone except Esteban and Luisa.
They were a few yards away, beside a convoy of SUVs, their faces lit by fire.
For one beautiful instant I was so damn grateful that Luisa was alive.
But then I became aware of what I was really looking at.
I was in handcuffs, being hauled into the helicopter, federales and their guns trained on me.
Esteban and Luisa were uncuffed. They were free. They were wrapped in rescue blankets, as if the federales had tended to them, fucking kissed their boo-boos and put Band-Aids on them. They weren’t even being watched, except for an agent who walked past Esteban and put his hand on his shoulder, whispering something in his ear.
Esteban kept his eyes on me, ablaze in the flames. His mouth curled in a slight smile.
He wore a look I hoped I’d never see.
The look that said, “I win.”
Then he turned and walked away toward the SUVS, pulling Luisa with him.
She was staring at me in utter horror, throwing the looks over her shoulder, as if she couldn’t quite believe it all.
I’m not sure if the horror was meant for me and my fate in prison.
Or for what she’d just done.
It wasn’t enough that they’d had an affair.
The two of them had set me up.
They’d turned me in.
And they’d rule the empire – my empire – together.
The chopper lifted off and as I stared blankly at the ground below, the two of them got smaller, along with the blazing ranch and the desert hills. It didn’t feel like I was flying though.
It felt like I was falling.
I was heading for rock bottom.
And if the impact didn’t kill me, it was going to fucking hurt like hell.
After everything I’d worked so hard for, in the end, love could have been my ruin.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Luisa
It had all happened in the blink of an eye. My world shifted from one horrific scene to another. One moment it looked like Javier was going to kill the both of us, the next moment the whole world exploded.
I didn’t even have time to react. Even though Esteban had seemed shocked, he acted right away, scooping me up and throwing me over his shoulder as we headed for the door. I screamed for Javier. I knew he’d gone down but I couldn’t see him in the darkness, the power all out and the only light coming from the flames licking the hole in the side of the room.
But Esteban didn’t stop. He kept running until we were in the kitchen. Even though it was late, Evelyn was there, with a rifle in her hands and she was telling us we were under attack, to get to safety. She didn’t even blink at the fact that we were both naked and together.
Esteban pulled me outside to the porch and I looked inside just in time to see Evelyn firing at men in black, masks on their faces.
The federales.
Many of them, one of her.
I turned away before I saw the result.
Esteban still had a stronghold on me and led me out to the dirt road that would take you to La Perla. In the distance, headlights and flashing sirens lit up the sand, coming our way.
“What are we going to do?” I asked him. “We have to get Javier.”