Did I ask if you agreed? Elena thinks, but keeps the thought to herself. What she’s asking him to do is enough without adding her bitchiness to it. She knows what’s behind it, too—she doesn’t want to kill this girl.
Elena sits down at the computer and turns on the monitor.
The girl is in her room—at a ranch just a few miles away—lying on her back, doing her nails.
In preparation, Elena thinks, for going home.
You do not want to kill this girl because she reminds you of your own wild child, of yourself during your brief flash of freedom in what now seems another lifetime.
Well, if you do not wish to kill her, don’t.
It is your choice, you don’t have to answer to anyone.
Elena recognizes this for what it is—a moment of rebellion against the present state of her life, against what she’s become.
A forlorn hope.
If you do not kill this girl—if you do not do exactly what you promised to do—then you put your own children at risk. Because the savages will see you as weak, and they will come for you and yours.
Lado has waited patiently.
She says, “Do it. And I want them to see it.”
I am the Red Queen.
Off with her head.
“Do you want to be there?” Lado asks.
“No,” Elena says.
But she’ll make herself watch it on the screen. If you can order it, she demands of herself, you can watch it.
“I want it done before Magda gets here,” she adds.
“It will take me a little time to get there,” Lado says.
“As soon as possible, please,” she says. She has another thought. “Get in touch with these bastards. Let them know.”
Let them suffer.
249
Ben and Chon wait by the computer.
The instructions come at two o’clock.
250
They have four hours.
To do what?
They know she’s at one of three places in the desert, but what are they going to do? Pick one and hope they get lucky? And even if it is the right place—
“We’d never make it in,” Chon says. “And they’d kill her when the shooting started.”
“What are we going to do?” Ben asks. “Sit and watch?”
“No,” Chon says.
We’re not going to do that.
251
CI 1459 has given Dennis a lot of good shit over the years.
Helped him take down two of the Lauter brothers and put them in jail. Put a few straws in the broom with which Dennis tried to sweep back the ocean of drugs coming from the Baja Cartel.
In turn Dennis rewarded him with a
Green Card
Sanctuary
A New Identity.
Now Lado calls to tell him something that he already knows—Elena Sanchez Lauter is on her way to a “safe house” in the desert.
He gives Dennis the exact location.
Did the dumb cunt think that he was preparing the ground for her? The years of work, of killing, for her and not himself? Yes, Your Majesty.
So the DEA will arrest Elena, and no one can blame Lado. And no one will want the weak-kneed son to take her place so there will be nowhere to turn but him. And he will make El Azul a peace offer—a fifty-fifty split of the American
Azul will not refuse.
It’s a home run.
252
Dennis gets in the car.
“They have the girl,” Ben says.
“Who?”
“The girl you met with us,” Chon says. “They’re going to kill her.”
Ben says, “Elena Sanchez Lauter has a daughter, Magdalena. She’s a student at Irvine.”
“Jesus, Ben.”
“Where is she?”
“Are you out of your mind?” Dennis asks.
“Yes,” Ben says. “Tell us where to find her.”
Dennis looks down at his gut. When he looks up his eyes are wet. “I’m into them, Ben. Big-time. Mid–six figures.”
“Fuck, Dennis.”
“Fuck, indeed, Ben.”
“Where’s the daughter?”
“Jesus, Ben, they’ll kill my family.”
“I’ll give you money,” Ben says. “Run with your family, tonight. But you’re going to tell me.”
Dennis thinks about this for a second, then gets out of the car.
The northbound Metrolink is coming up from Oceanside. The train where you can see dolphins and whales from the seaside windows.
He walks over to the track.
Ben jumps out of the car.
Too late.
Dennis steps onto the rails.
