Chapter 5 - The King's WrathAlejandro’s private study was a fortress within a fortress. Soundproof walls, bulletproof glass, and a heavy steel door disguised as dark mahogany. When the door clicked shut, sealing them inside, the silence was absolute.
Alejandro walked behind his massive desk and sat down, steepling his fingers. His terrifying aura filled the room.
"Let me see the drawing," he demanded softly.
Valeria let go of Mateo’s hand. She reached under her oversized gray apron, unbuttoning the hidden pocket she had hastily sewn the night before.
She didn't pull out a drawing.
She pulled out the black leather ledger, the burner phone, and the velvet box. She placed them on the immaculate surface of the cartel boss’s desk.
Alejandro frowned, his eyes darting from the items to the young maid. "What is this?"
"I broke your rule last night, Mr. Ríos," Valeria said, her voice shaking violently as the adrenaline crashed into her system. "Mateo led me to the North Wing. To the old library."
Alejandro stood up so fast his heavy leather chair crashed into the wall behind him. His hand instinctively shot to the pistol holstered at his hip. "You went into my wife's wing?" he roared, his voice shaking the glass frames on the walls.
Mateo flinched, clamping his hands over his ears.
"Please, look at the book!" Valeria pleaded, tears streaming down her face as she shielded Mateo with her body. "Look at the dates, Alejandro! Look at them!"
Alejandro froze. No one ever called him by his first name. No one dared to raise their voice at him.
Breathing heavily, the cartel boss looked down at the ledger. He flipped it open. His dark eyes scanned the rows of numbers, the offshore account numbers, the routing codes. Then, he hit the date of his wife's murder.
Payment 2: Sniper Team - 2,000,000 MXN - Target: S. Ríos.
The color drained from Alejandro’s face. He looked like he had been physically struck. His hands, which never shook when holding a weapon or signing a death warrant, began to tremble violently.
He opened the velvet box.
The silver signet ring with the jagged onyx stone sat innocently against the red fabric.
"Ignacio," Alejandro whispered, the word sounding like a death rattle.
"Mateo saw him," Valeria sobbed quietly, crouching down to hold the trembling child. "Mateo saw the ring on the man who gave the order that day. That’s why he screams. That's why he breaks things. He has been trapped in a house with his mother's murderer, and every time someone in a suit came near him, he thought he was next."
Alejandro stared at his son. Two years of agony, two years of millions spent on doctors, and his son had been trying to warn him all along. His loyal head of security, the man who ate at his table, who guarded his back, who comforted him at his wife’s funeral... was the architect of his destruction.
A low, guttural sound tore from Alejandro's throat—a sound of pure, unadulterated heartbreak, rapidly shifting into demonic rage.
He didn't yell. He didn't break anything. The calm that settled over the cartel boss was far more terrifying than any explosion of anger. It was the absolute zero of a man who was about to scorch the earth.
He reached across his desk and pressed a red button hidden beneath the wood.
"Sir?" a voice crackled from a small intercom. It was Hector, Alejandro's second-in-command of the outdoor perimeter.
"Bring my personal guard to my study. Not Ignacio's men. My men. The old guard from Culiacán," Alejandro ordered, his voice smooth and deadly. "And tell Ignacio to step inside my office. Tell him I have a... security concern."
"Right away, patrón."
Alejandro turned to Valeria. He walked around the desk, knelt down, and did something no one in the mansion had ever seen him do. He pulled his son into a desperate, crushing embrace. For the first time in two years, Mateo hugged him back, burying his face in his father's neck and sobbing.
Alejandro looked up at Valeria over his son's shoulder. His eyes were completely black, empty of mercy.
"Take Mateo to the panic room behind the bookcase," Alejandro instructed quietly, handing her a silver keycard. "Do not come out until I come for you."
"What are you going to do?" Valeria asked, her voice trembling.
The heavy mahogany door began to rattle as a key turned in the lock from the outside. Ignacio was coming in.
Alejandro stood up, pulling his heavy, chrome .45 caliber pistol from his holster.
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"I am going to tear my empire down to the studs," Alejandro said, racking the slide with a deafening clack. "And I am going to start with him."
Here are chapters 6 through 10, continuing the high-stakes drama and tension of the story.
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