Page 1 of Forbidden Hearts
Chapter 1
Alonzo
TWO YEARS AGO
Terror spreads through his face as blood and sweat pool in the valleys of his forehead.
“I had nothing to do with it, man,” he says, looking up at me. His voice quivers under his trembling lips.
“You’re in the game. In this life, we are all bound by blood,” I say, glancing at my two younger brothers, Santiago and Gustavo, before looking at the man kneeling before us. His arms are tied behind his back. “The sins of my brothers are mine to bear, just as the sins of your brothers are yours to bear, Hugo.”
“You don’t believe that, man,” Hugo says. He lifts a knee to get up, but Gustavo puts a hand on his shoulder and forces him down on both knees again. A plum of dust lifts when Hugo’s knee slams on the ground. He grunts and tugs at the ropes around his wrists. “Please, you don’t believe that. It’s insane! I’m me, my own person! I had nothing to do with what my brothers did!”
“All you Romeros have tainted blood,” I say. “Everything you touch turns to shit. But that ends tonight. You are the last of your lineage. After tonight, the world will finally be free of Romeros.”
I nod in Gustavo’s direction. He pulls out a revolver and tosses it on the ground in front of Hugo Romero.
“These are the rules,” Gustavo says. “When we untie you, you’ll grab the gun and run to those bushes over there.” He points at the bushes up the isolated trail.
We are in the middle of Nowhere, Texas, about to dispose of Hugo, the last member of the Romero Family. The sun is dipping over the horizon, but it’s still hotter than the devil’s pit.
“I don’t understand,” Hugo says. His terrified eyes jump between my brothers and me.
“There is a small box of ammo on the other side of that bush,” Gustavo continues. “It’s got three bullets. You have three shots, one for each of us, so make them count.”
Hugo drops his eyes to the gun in front of him. He still can’t believe this is happening.
“Please,” he says, looking up at me again. “I had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t even in the country when it happened! Please, man, just let me go. We’ll pretend this never happened.”
Pretend this never happened? Am I supposed to pretend the anger that’s been eating me alive for the past year doesn’t exist? That Esmeralda wasn’t…
Fuck that.
I kick the gun closer to him. He looks away to avoid the uplift of dust.
“Please,” he says again, this time in a calmer voice.
My brothers and I decided Hugo’s fate long before we brought him out to the desert. There is no room for negotiation.
“I hope we don’t have to state the obvious,” Santiago chimes in. “But in case we do, that gun isn’t loaded right now. Those three bullets Gustavo mentioned are your ticket to freedom.”
Hugo’s eyes return to the gun again. His lips are still trembling.
Unlike his brothers, Hugo isn’t a killer. He hasn’t murdered people in cold blood to expand the Romero cartel, but there is as much blood on his hands as on his brother’s.
Hugo is the youngest of the three Romero brothers. He cleaned their dirty money and their many crime scenes. Even though he wasn’t hacking off heads, hewaspaying off police departments on both sides of the border to turn a blind eye to his brothers’ violence.
“Untie him,” I tell Santiago.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Hugo’s eyes widen. “I’m not going to fight you. If you want our money, I can tell you where it is. There is a shit-ton of money that hasn’t been laundered yet, piles and piles for you and your brothers. If you let me go, I can tell you exactly where it is!”
Santiago looks at me as if I’m actually going to consider the pathetic offer.
I’m not.
“Untie him,” I say again. “I want to get home soon.”
The sun is now under the horizon. The orange sky surrendered to the stars, and the wilderness around us slowly faded into the dark.