Chapter 6 - Beatriz’s Desperation
Cornered rats bite, and Beatriz Rivas was the most venomous rat of them all.
With their empire crumbling and the trial looming, Beatriz realized that legal avenues were closed. She resorted to the tactics that had built her family's wealth in the first place: violence.
It happened on a Tuesday. I was riding in the back of my father's armored sedan, returning from a meeting with the District Attorney. We were stopped at a red light in the financial district when a black van suddenly swerved, blocking our path.
"Down!" Diego barked from the driver's seat.
I threw myself onto the floorboards just as the sound of automatic gunfire erupted. The heavy, reinforced glass of the SUV spider-webbed but held firm against the barrage. Diego didn't panic. He threw the heavy vehicle into reverse, slamming into the car behind us, creating enough space to whip the wheel hard and ram the side of the attackers' van.
The sound of crunching metal was deafening. Diego pushed the accelerator to the floor, pushing the van out of the intersection and speeding toward the safehouse.
My father was waiting when we arrived, his face a mask of cold, terrifying rage.
"They missed," I said, shaking as I stepped out of the bullet-riddled car.
"They won't get a second chance," Ricardo vowed.
Within three hours, my father’s intelligence network had tracked down the shooters. They were low-level mercenaries hired through a burner phone. But my father’s people extracted the truth. The money had come from a pawn shop owner, who had received a diamond necklace in exchange for the cash.
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The necklace belonged to Beatriz.
That evening, the police raided Beatriz’s luxury condo. They found her packing a suitcase, trying to flee the country. She was arrested for attempted murder and conspiracy. She was denied bail. The Rivas matriarch was finally in a cage.
