The Mexican Mayors Club

By Raymond Shih and Sean S. Yang

After leaving his favorite brothel, Carlos Calderon, Mayor of Garcia in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, survives a violent attempt on his life. Known simply by the locals as "the Mayor", Carlos is on a personal mission to rid his town of the drug cartels that control it. Too bad his wife, his colleagues, and his whore all seem to get in his way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483543840

Book preview

injustice.

SPRING 2010

A wave of calm came over the Mayor. With his head tipped back and his eyes closed, he felt the tension drain from his body rendering it momentarily difficult to stand. He eventually forced his eyelids open to watch Julissa get off her knees and wipe her mouth. She batted her eyes at him seductively as he handed over a wad of pesos.

When are you going to take me all the way? she purred.

You know I’m not going to answer that, he replied. Despite his appreciation that Julissa accommodated his busy schedule, he never gave himself that way to a working girl. His wife, Sonia, was the only woman he made love to. She was beautiful, smart, and loyal. Although she had understandably gained some weight since giving birth to their sons, she was still very attractive and had the fair, aristocratic skin tone shared by most of the powerful women in Mexico. Sonia was everything that the Mayor wanted in a wife so he dutifully loved her. But Julissa had nothing to do with love. The Mayor had needs and sometime those needs were best satisfied with a dark, sweaty whore.

With all the chaos and corruption that surrounded his position as the Mayor of Garcia, Mexico, his devotion to Sonia and his single-minded drive to rid his city of the Zetas cartel were the only things that kept him convinced he was still one of the good guys. He dressed and followed his security detail to the car parked outside.

The Mayor had an olive complexion with wrinkles just starting to surface. Grey strands of hair were starting to gain a foothold on his previously jet-black crown. In contrast to many other politicians, the Mayor felt no need to hide his age. To hide age is to hide mortality. The Mayor was comfortable with death, so long as there was a good reason for it.

Despite the heat, he wore a plain charcoal tailored suit over a freshly pressed white shirt. Even sitting in the middle backseat of his black sedan, he maintained excellent posture as he surveyed his surroundings. He was flanked by two bodyguards wearing bulletproof vests over simple white shirts and khaki pants. The front of the car mirrored the backseat setup, with a third bodyguard in the passenger seat and the driver playing double duty as the fourth.

The car pulled out of the parking lot and into slow traffic. The Mayor was on the way to meet his new chief of police for a status update. The reason there was a new chief was that the Mayor fired the entire police force on his first day and tripled salaries for the new force to combat bribery. This set the tone for his reign, making him popular among locals who still remembered Monterrey before the cartels.

The semi-weekly visits were unusual but necessary. Improved salaries would not be enough to keep the police loyal. He needed to visibly support their work to inspire courage and loyalty. He also needed to show them he was still alive.

Just as the vehicle slowed into a right-hand turn, the window to the left of the Mayor shattered. The car accelerated forward onto the sidewalk to escape the crossfire. One of the bodyguards shoved the Mayor’s head down towards his knees. The Mayor clapped his ears to muffle the yelling and gunshots that the bodyguards now returned in equal measure. The smell of expended gunpowder filled the vehicle. Meanwhile, the Mayor could only see shoes, glass shards, and bullet casings.

The gunpowder gradually dispersed. The noise died down.

Are you ok sir?

Attributing his lack of pain to a surge of adrenalin, the Mayor inspected himself. He ran his hands over his chest and legs. Everything felt normal.

Yes, I’m fine.

Thank God. No one got hit. We got lucky.

The attack took no more than thirty seconds. He always thought such a seminal moment would arrive with more drama or premonition. Indeed, the broken windows were the only evidence that it even happened.

After completing a precautionary medical exam and filing his official statement with police, the Mayor returned home. He was relieved to see Sonia and his three year-old son Ramon running to him as soon as he opened the front door. Despite Ramon watching them both, he embraced Sonia with all his remaining energy and kissed her for half a minute before letting go. He then hugged Ramon and kissed him on his forehead.

His newborn son, Emilio, started to cry in the background. Normally, the sound of a crying baby was enough to drive him mad, but the Mayor couldn’t have been more happy this time to know that his family was not also targeted.

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