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The Pact with the Devil
When compelling economic circumstances catapult a headstrong and successful Texas business executive on to a collision course with Mexico’s most ruthless drug lord, only one is likely to survive. One man bullies his way through life leveraging the force of his personality and the advantages of his executive position. The other rules strictly through the intimidating scepter of physical violence. Neither has ever known a peer in his own domain.
Travis Nelson is a highly respected, and admired businessman, who owns a housing development company. Handsome and articulate Nelson runs in elite social circles and has an impressive home in a prestigious community. His “perfect” family and trophy wife seem an impeccable complement to his professional achievements, except that the home front is a virtual sham. Suddenly his company is suffering an unprecedented cash crunch. Coincidentally, the Los Toros drug cartel in Durango, Mexico is desperate for new ways to distribute contraband across the Rio Grande. A brash US educated cartel member proposes to drug lord, Rodolpho Morales, using the Texan’s border properties as halfway houses in their smuggling operations. Nelson, who has never let ethical issues deter him, quickly strikes a deal, which promises to bring him the cash he desperately needs.
The devious arrangement works well for a while but sours just as Nelson’s tenuous personal life falls apart. Feeling jilted by the American’s perfidy, the cartel boss kidnaps him to a remote outpost in the bleak Chihuahuan desert, where sitting alone in a cold adobe hut he finally realizes what his obsessive ways have cost him. He is facing a firing squad while his sons rush to rescue him. Fate steps in at the drug lord’s compound when the condemned Nelson’s impulsively acts during a surprise suicide attack by a hated rival warring cartel and creates an immense debt which the drug lord cannot ignore. The Mexican cannot release his dishonest ex-partner, but should he execute him as planned?
Travis Nelson is a highly respected, and admired businessman, who owns a housing development company. Handsome and articulate Nelson runs in elite social circles and has an impressive home in a prestigious community. His “perfect” family and trophy wife seem an impeccable complement to his professional achievements, except that the home front is a virtual sham. Suddenly his company is suffering an unprecedented cash crunch. Coincidentally, the Los Toros drug cartel in Durango, Mexico is desperate for new ways to distribute contraband across the Rio Grande. A brash US educated cartel member proposes to drug lord, Rodolpho Morales, using the Texan’s border properties as halfway houses in their smuggling operations. Nelson, who has never let ethical issues deter him, quickly strikes a deal, which promises to bring him the cash he desperately needs.
The devious arrangement works well for a while but sours just as Nelson’s tenuous personal life falls apart. Feeling jilted by the American’s perfidy, the cartel boss kidnaps him to a remote outpost in the bleak Chihuahuan desert, where sitting alone in a cold adobe hut he finally realizes what his obsessive ways have cost him. He is facing a firing squad while his sons rush to rescue him. Fate steps in at the drug lord’s compound when the condemned Nelson’s impulsively acts during a surprise suicide attack by a hated rival warring cartel and creates an immense debt which the drug lord cannot ignore. The Mexican cannot release his dishonest ex-partner, but should he execute him as planned?
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 8, 2017
5 people are currently reading
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About the author
Robert John DeLuca
27 books23 followersAs a businessman and real estate developer Robert John DeLuca was compelled to operate within tightly restrictive parameters defined by market conditions, standards of conduct, government regulations, and many other restraining variables. As an author, however, he is pleased to be enjoying the incredible uplift of an unbounded endeavor limited only by his own creativity and passion. He has always had a strong interest in writing, which he cultivated at Brown University and the University of Pittsburgh, where he holds BA and MBA degrees respectively.
After college, he served with the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam and left as a Captain to join the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, where he was a national accounts real estate lending officer. Eventually, he settled in Houston to become the chief financial officer for a residential construction company. He also spent time as a lender with the local office of Citibank, N.A. He became a partner in a shopping center development company, and subsequently founded Desert Southwest Realty which offered an array of industry services. Until recently he was a developer of affordable multifamily housing using low income tax credits. In fact, his extensive business background provides a strong platform and fertile resource in support of his writing endeavors
His books include two novels: “The Pact with the Devil”, which pits a head-strong Texas businessman against a vicious Mexican drug lord and, “The Sister Edith” centering on the dreadful dilemma of a man torn between his birth and blood brothers. A non-fiction work, “The Perfect Pro Football Coach”, ranks the proficiency of every NFL head the past fifty years. ”Beatles, Books, and Bombs” is a tribute to fallen comrades and a self-account of life as an ROTC student on an ultra-liberal Ivy League campus and then serving with the Marines in Vietnam during the turbulent 1960’s.
A New Englander by birth and jarhead by choice, Mr. DeLuca left Boston before the Patriots stopped being a joke. He has raised a family of four sons, and resides with his awesome wife, grandchild-of-the-week, and bullmastiff in Friendswood, Texas.
After college, he served with the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam and left as a Captain to join the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, where he was a national accounts real estate lending officer. Eventually, he settled in Houston to become the chief financial officer for a residential construction company. He also spent time as a lender with the local office of Citibank, N.A. He became a partner in a shopping center development company, and subsequently founded Desert Southwest Realty which offered an array of industry services. Until recently he was a developer of affordable multifamily housing using low income tax credits. In fact, his extensive business background provides a strong platform and fertile resource in support of his writing endeavors
His books include two novels: “The Pact with the Devil”, which pits a head-strong Texas businessman against a vicious Mexican drug lord and, “The Sister Edith” centering on the dreadful dilemma of a man torn between his birth and blood brothers. A non-fiction work, “The Perfect Pro Football Coach”, ranks the proficiency of every NFL head the past fifty years. ”Beatles, Books, and Bombs” is a tribute to fallen comrades and a self-account of life as an ROTC student on an ultra-liberal Ivy League campus and then serving with the Marines in Vietnam during the turbulent 1960’s.
A New Englander by birth and jarhead by choice, Mr. DeLuca left Boston before the Patriots stopped being a joke. He has raised a family of four sons, and resides with his awesome wife, grandchild-of-the-week, and bullmastiff in Friendswood, Texas.
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April 2, 2016
I will start out by saying I grew up with Robert DeLuca. I was friends with his younger brother and Robert used to beat the crap out of us every now and then.
Now on to the book! I really like this book! It's not perfect, maybe we don't need to be reminded how low income tax credit properties work so much but that doesn't take away from the story. The book starts fast and except for a short bit where the workings for the property's the book continues along at a good clip. Robert shows his skill as a master story teller. I've read some books by "Award Winning Authors" that aren't anywhere near as good as this book! I look forward to reading more of his books. Yes he is that good!
Now on to the book! I really like this book! It's not perfect, maybe we don't need to be reminded how low income tax credit properties work so much but that doesn't take away from the story. The book starts fast and except for a short bit where the workings for the property's the book continues along at a good clip. Robert shows his skill as a master story teller. I've read some books by "Award Winning Authors" that aren't anywhere near as good as this book! I look forward to reading more of his books. Yes he is that good!
Displaying 1 of 1 review