Chapter 5 - THE PHANTOM OF VALLE DE BRAVO
Moving through the shadows of his own home, Alejandro felt like a stranger in a tomb. The intruders were professional syndicates, the kind of men who worked for local cartels or corrupt land developers looking to snap up his multi-million-dollar estate for pennies. He caught movement near the study. Two men stood by his mahogany desk, tearing through private files, searching for the very papers now locked in his coat. Alejandro didn't hesitate. He raised the Remington, lined up the barrel with a heavy bronze floor lamp near the doorway, and fired a single, deafening shot into the metal base. The lamp exploded in a shower of white-hot sparks and metal fragments. The men dropped instantly, disoriented by the blast and the blinding flash in the dark. Before they could draw their sidearms, Alejandro closed the distance, bringing the heavy wooden stock of the rifle down across the shoulder of the nearest intruder. The man collapsed with a sharp crack of bone. The second man lunged, drawing a suppressed pistol, but Alejandro anticipated the move, kicking a heavy oak chair directly into his shins. As the second man went down, Alejandro pressed the cold barrel of the rifle against his temple. "Who sent you?" Alejandro demanded, his voice a low, lethal growl that barely sounded human. The man laughed, a ragged, defiant sound. "You're already dead, Garza. You and those little bastards. You think this is about land? That woman in the cabin knew too much about what your precious Isabella left behind." Before Alejandro could extract the name, a high-frequency whistle cut through the air—a flashbang grenade clattered through the hallway window from the outside. Alejandro threw himself behind the stone fireplace just as the room detonated in a blinding wall of white light and thunderous sound.
