Chapter 1 - The Culvert Betrayal
The muddy water of the Los Angeles river basin surged through the concrete drainage culvert like liquid ice. Mateo Vance spat out a mouthful of silt and sludge, his lungs burning as if filled with broken glass. He pressed his back against the slime-covered pillar under the roaring overpass, his tailored Tom Ford suit completely ruined, soaked in oil-slicked river water and mud. Every breath was an agonizing battle, but he didn't care about his own pain. He only cared about the small, shivering hands clinging tightly to his neck.
"Hold on tight! I've got you!" Mateo choked out, his deep voice raspy as he dragged himself up onto the sandbank beneath the towering concrete arches of the freeway.
"I'm scared, Mateo! They're coming!" eight-year-old Aurelio Mendoza cried out, his small body trembling violently against Mateo's chest. Mud smeared across the boy's fair forehead and blond hair, but his dark, intelligent eyes burned with raw terror.
Above them, the deafening thrum of afternoon traffic roared on the freeway, but beneath the bridge, a far deadlier sound echoed through the shadows. Heavy combat boots splashed through the shallow canal. Tactical boots. Two men in black armor, carrying silenced submachine guns, were descending the concrete embankment with lethal precision.
Mateo pulled the boy into the shallow ditch beside a rusted drainpipe. He coughed violently, retching up dirty canal water onto the sand, his heavy gold chain dangling into the muck. His hands shook as he grabbed the boy by both shoulders, forcing Aurelio to look directly into his eyes.
"Listen to me, kid. Look at me!" Mateo growled, his eyes wide with adrenaline and intense urgency. "What's your name, boy?"
"Aurelio... Aurelio Mendoza!" the boy gasped, wiping tears and grime from his cheeks.
"Aurelio, listen very carefully. Everything they told you at the estate was a lie. You hear me? A complete lie!" Mateo gripped the boy's small jacket tighter, his fingers digging into the fabric. "Your grandmother isn't dead as they told you!"
Aurelio's eyes widened in utter shock. "What? But... but Uncle Victor said Grandmother died in her sleep three years ago! He showed me her grave at Saint Jude's!"
"Victor lied to you! He lied to everyone!" Mateo hissed, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. The two mercenaries were barely thirty yards away, scanning the shadows beneath the bridge with red laser sights cutting through the gloom. "Victor orchestrated the hit, but Elena survived. She's been hiding in Santa Fe, waiting for the right moment to reclaim the family dynasty before Victor wipes you out for your inheritance!"
Aurelio gasped, a tiny sob escaping his throat. Before the boy could ask another question, the sharp ptzz-ptzz of suppressed gunfire kicked up spray and sand right next to Mateo's knee.
"Movement by the fourth pillar! Kill the boy, keep Vance alive for interrogation!" a cold voice shouted from the slope.
"Not today, you bastards!" Mateo snarled. He reached into his mud-soaked jacket, drew his sleek Sig Sauer P226, and fired three rapid shots up the concrete incline.
The first bullet struck the lead mercenary square in the chest, sending him tumbling backward down the embankment into the murky water. The second mercenary ducked behind a massive concrete pillar as bullets ricocheted with metallic pings against the rebar.
"Run, Aurelio! Up the access ladder to the service road!" Mateo yelled, shoving the boy toward a rusty metal ladder attached to the bridge support. "Don't look back! Run!"
Aurelio didn't hesitate. He scrambled up the rungs like a nimble cat, his tiny boots digging into the rusted steel. Mateo provided covering fire, emptying his magazine into the gloom before sprinting after the boy.
As Mateo reached the top of the embankment, his cell phone vibrated violently in his waterproof inner pocket. He ripped it out and tapped the screen without stopping.
"Mateo! Did you secure the boy?" a low, gravelly female voice demanded through the speaker.
"I have him, Elena," Mateo panted, vaulting over the concrete barrier onto the deserted frontage road. "We're alive. But Victor knows we have the kid. He sent a full strike team to the basin."
May you like
"Good," the voice of Elena Mendoza, the matriarch everyone believed six feet under, replied with chilling calm. "Victor just played his hand. Now we tear his empire down to the ground. Get Aurelio to the safehouse in Malibu. The storm is just beginning."
Mateo looked back down into the dark cavern beneath the bridge. The shadows were moving, and the sound of approaching sirens wailed in the distance. The war for the Mendoza empire had officially begun, and there was no turning back.
