Tainted Cure (The Rememdium Series Book 1) by Ashley Fontainne

would forever carry a scar from being shot.
    And he’d been in Arkansas for the last eleven years, completely oblivious he’d been less than one hundred miles from his small spread in the outskirts of Pulaski County. Adding the latest new tidbits to the pile of other thoughts inside his mind from the events of the past year, Everett was surprised he hadn’t suffered a psychotic break.
    Unbelievable.
     

THE END BEGINS - Present Day - Thursday - December 18 th – 10:00 p.m.
    Maria Alvarado’s new huge breasts were still tender even though the surgery was two weeks ago. Though she was in first class, the flight from San Salvador to Phoenix had been full of turbulence. All the shaking and bumping made her chest ache.
    The throbbing pain she’d endured from the minute she awoke in her bedroom up until today was well worth the transformation. When Maria looked at herself in the mirror the first time after the bandages were removed, she saw the body of a real woman in the reflection. Finally, the bubble on the backside had a matching set in the front.
    Shifting in the seat, Maria stared out the window. The trip was her first airplane ride and taste of real freedom. When she first boarded, a fleeting thought of never returning danced in her mind. Knowing she would be hunted down like a lost pet, she quickly dismissed the idea.
    The plane started its descent into Phoenix. Lights glittered below as far as she could see. The excitement of seeing her sister and showing off the rock on her finger and newly acquired breasts made her giddy. Though they talked often on the phone, they hadn’t seen each other since their father had been murdered two years ago. Teresa flew down to San Salvador and attended the funeral then stayed an entire week—long enough to witness their papa’s killer die for his crime at the end of a rope in the stables. Since Teresa was the older sister, Benito allowed her to be the one to pull the lever.
    Though rarely discussed, both sisters knew exactly what their father and future husbands did for a living. They each liked to refer to themselves as businessmen, but Teresa and Maria both knew what the term really meant. Their father attempted to shelter his two daughters from the truth, keeping them away from the ugliness of his world, yet failed.
    Teresa and Maria Alvarado were the children of El Salvador’s biggest drug dealer.
    They grew up in the lap of luxury, no expense spared or request denied. Their mother died giving birth to Maria, so she grew up surrounded by men. Maria’s only interactions with females were with Teresa and the teachers brought in to provide both girls with an education. The flip side of being borne into privilege was neither of them ever went anywhere without bodyguards while on the sprawling, twenty-five thousand acre grounds.
    Up until Teresa fell in love with one of their father’s lieutenants, Roberto Sanchez, neither girl had ever left the estate. Teresa drove their father crazy with her requests to follow Roberto to Phoenix, eventually threatening to kill herself if Roberto left without her. Benito was instrumental in convincing their father to concede defeat. Mario Alvarado hated to lose, so to save face, he agreed as long as one condition was met: Teresa had to give up her heirship to his fortune and let it pass on to Maria. Blinded by love, Teresa eagerly agreed and a few weeks later, she and Roberto left for Arizona.
    Maria had been only seventeen and naively assumed Benito grasped the concept of love at all costs, sacrificing anything, including one’s life and rightful ties to a family fortune, to be loved. While she listened to the heartfelt speech Benito gave to their father, she felt herself fall head-over-heels for the boy. Up until then, she’d always considered Benito San Nicholas nothing more than an adoptive brother. She’d viewed Benito as common street trash. A boy rescued by their father on a whim one afternoon while in San Salvador conducting