Book excerpt: In an eerie preview to the Civil War, the Rio Grande Valley girds itself for battle as Martin Baron, head of the Baron family empire, struggles against greedy Matteo Aguilar, who threatens everything that Martin has built for himself. When Aguilar sends his vaqueros and assassins to take the Barons down, he starts a bloody war that won’t stop until one of them is dead. As the treachery continues to escalate, the Barons find themselves in a life-or-death-struggle that will change an entire family and an entire region forever.