THE BRUTE CEO

the eyes are sucked into the pit of hell, since upon catching a glimpse of his soul, that of the unwary is lost. At 41, the widower and father of a baby is a wounded, vengeful and violent man. Years ago, his parents and little brother were murdered by land thieves. He was born to bring chaos and destruction, but also to profit and enrich himself, piling up money stained with white powder. He is an international drug trafficker who uses his farm as a front for his illicit businesses. During a storm, the farm's barn is invaded by a thin and frightened figure. Mariana is a homeless woman who fled her hometown because of her stepfather's attempts at sexual harassment and her mother's passivity. A misunderstanding causes Romeo to believe that Mariana is a boy and ends up giving her a job on the farm. An unexpected friendship emerges between them. However, when Romeo discovers the truth, that Mariana is a girl, his anger gives way to an intense feeling that turns into obsession. He desires her furiously and possessively, wanting the sweet virgin in his bed, but on her terms. He will make her beg to have him. More than that, Romeo will start a war to protect the girl rejected by everyone except him, the man who will build an altar to venerate her. An altar surrounded by walls and protected by armed gunmen. Because he refuses to let her go. Chapter 1 The open clearing around the dense forest was illuminated by the moonlight and the headlights of pickup trucks. The heavy, humid air hung over the men gathered there. Nature camouflaged them under the wide and vast crowns of trees with gnarled trunks, the foliage intertwined like spider webs. The sound of their voices mixed with the noise of nocturnal animals. Shadows spread here and there like specters in solemn expectation. Romeo was the last man to get out of the pickup. Every time he left the farm to resolve a pending matter, the earth shook beneath the feet of those who had unwittingly forced him to leave beyond the barbed wire fence of his stud farm. Dry leaves groaned beneath the leather boots, the worn soles also crushed twigs, some of them stained with blood, they crunched human bones from shallow graves dug years ago. Romeo stood before the three men dressed in frayed shirts, worn jeans, and worn-out boots. The overgrown hair, the unkempt beards, the sun-baked skin. All of them, without exception, with their heads down, shoulders hunched, humble and finished. Spreading his legs apart, he assumed a position of dominance, but he did so only to absorb the moment, the bonds of tension, the smell of fear, a mixture of dried sweat and fresh urine. Piss stains on the pants of one and the other, certainly, of the most lucid, of those who knew what happened when Romeo emerged from the darkness of his own life. Wherever he went, chaos accompanied him. Chaos and shadows. The abyss and the bitterness.