Death Blow by Isabella Maldonado

Author:Isabella Maldonado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: blood's echo;isabelle maldonado;fiction;mystery fiction;mystery novel;mystery book;thriller;suspense;drugs;cartel;veranda cruz;veranda cruz mystery;phoenix burning;mystery series;death blow;thriller book;suspense novel;novel of suspense;CVR05292018;CVR07092018;CVR09202018;CVR12282018
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2019-02-01T14:35:23+00:00

23

Villalobos family

compound, Mexico

Adolfo Villalobos pressed his fingertips to his lips and reached down to touch the gilded frame of his mother’s picture on the ofrenda. Her love had been his sole refuge. As the only one who understood him, her death five years ago had left him without an ally among his family.

Salazar stood to his left, inscrutable as ever, and his father to his right, head inclined, lips moving in silent prayer. When he finished, Hector picked up the photograph and kissed the glass over his wife’s face.

“She was everything a woman should be,” Hector said, placing the picture down next to a burning candle. “Lovely to look at, capable in the house, responsive to my needs, and obedient at all times.”

Adolfo bit back a retort. “I miss her every day.”

“Of the four children your mother bore, only you and Daria are left.” Hector reached out to rest a hand on Salazar’s shoulder. “I am grateful to have produced another son.” He squeezed. “One who is a fierce warrior like his father.”

Salazar made no response. During their observance on the patio outside the main building, he placed no photographs on the altar, burned no candles for the departed, and no prayers left his lips. Adolfo wondered if Salazar had ever cared for anyone.

Adolfo had struggled in vain for years to win his father’s approval. First, his younger brother Bartolo had undermined him, now Salazar had cheated him of his rightful place as El Lobo’s successor.

His hands balled into fists. “I’m a warrior too. I have fought for our business.”

Hector responded in his customary overblown style. “You are my chief financial officer. Your tools are spreadsheets, computers, and crypto currency. Salazar wields weapons of battle. He has proven himself to be capable, intelligent, and, most importantly, fearless.”

The last word delivered the punch to the gut he was certain his father had intended. Throughout the entire organization, everyone knew he abhorred violence. The sight of blood and gore made him retch. He called himself a man of intellect. Hector called him weak.

As Adolfo reeled from the verbal blow, Hector gazed up into the night sky. “The poverty and misery I suffered in my early life served me well. I craved wealth and power. That hunger drove me to create an empire out of nothing.”

He’d heard his father’s self-aggrandizing speeches before and tuned this one out until a phrase caught his ear.

“… and your secret is revealed,” Hector was saying to Salazar. “The DNA results leave no doubt that you are my son. They have your date of birth, so they also know you are my firstborn.”

Until a few weeks ago, Adolfo had been the eldest. Then his father admitted an affair with a married woman thirty-four years ago. The result of that union now stood between Adolfo and his birthright. Salazar was not a firstborn son. Salazar was—literally and figuratively—a bastard.

“Daria should not have planted that evidence,” Salazar said.

Hector sighed. “I regret sending a woman to do a man’s job. She has made a mess of our North American operations.

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