The Pact with the Devil

One man bullies his way through life leveraging the force of his personality and the advantages inherent in his executive position. The other rules strictly though the intimidating power of the iron fist of physical violence. Both dominate their spheres of influence where neither has ever known a peer. When compelling economic circumstances catapult an influential and eminently successful Texas business executive on to a collision course with Mexico’s most authoritarian and ruthless drug lord, only one is likely to survive. 

 Basking in all the benchmarks of personal affluence, Travis Nelson is a highly respected, and universally admired businessman, who owns an affordable housing firm, the Mesquite Development Company. Handsome, distinguished, and articulate Nelson runs in elite social circles and has an impressive home in a prestigious gated community. His family situation with two grown sons, college age daughter, and trophy wife seems to lend the perfect complement to his professional achievements, except that, in reality, the home front has become a virtual sham. Mesquite is suffering an unprecedented cash crunch and is being pressed by lenders. Coincidentally, the Los Toros drug cartel in Durango, Mexico is desperate for new ways to distribute contraband across the border. A brash US educated cartel member proposes to the supreme drug lord, Rodolpho Morales, using Mesquite’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 crafty arrangement works well for a while but sours just as Nelson’s personal life utterly falls apart. The cartel 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 truly cost him