Savages

142

The Lauter family consisted of four brothers and three sisters.

Chekhov, take note.

Elena was smack in the middle.

He finds a photo of Elena.

Definite MILF.

Ebony hair, high cheekbones, deep brown eyes, tight little body.

Queen Elena.

One by one, she watched her brothers go down. The only male left in the family is her boy, Hernan, but it’s not him, he’s not that guy, he’s not capable. He’s an engineer, he’s smart, he could learn the business aspect, but he’s not really serious about the engineering or anything else, except maybe pussy.

Mommy knew this, she knew that he couldn’t run the family business, part of her would have liked to just get out and let El Azul and Sinaloa have the fucking thing. But she also knew that as the last dick left standing his rivals couldn’t let her son live.

She had to take over, if only to keep him alive.

She didn’t want to find him in a barrel of acid.

She’s the most capable. She has the brains, the experience, the name, the DNA, the spine, the guys, the sangfroid, the balls and/or the ovaries.

And she finds that she likes running things, likes the power.

Elena’s hot—sexy, good-looking, smart, efficient. She uses all that to keep loyal supporters around her. She’s also ruthless—it’s love me or off with your head. She’s the Red Queen.

Azul, a former lieutenant, can’t take it. Just won’t let himself be bossed around by a woman, plus he doesn’t think she can do it. Probably doesn’t think she can drive or balance a checkbook, either, so he breaks off and forms his own thing. Goes back to the rednecks in Sinaloa and says, “Can you believe that, the Lauters are led by a woman, what’s going to happen when she goes on the rag, huh?”

“I’ll tell you what freaking happens,” Ben says, warming to the subject, “guys get their freaking heads cut off, blood’s going to flow, all right.”

But Elena is smart—she grew up in the drug trade, there’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, so she does a cold-blooded analysis and sees she’s going to lose in a war with El Azul and Sinaloa.

A recent analysis, written by Dennis, suggests that the Elena/Hernan section of the BC is allied with a group called Los Zetas.

“The vid-clip boys,” Chon says.

Los Zetas recently have branched out across the border into California and formed a subgroup called Los Treintes. DEA doesn’t seem to know much about them, but they appear to be headed up by a former Zeta named Miguel Arroyo Salazar, aka “El Helado”—“Stone Cold.”

Ben shows Chon the old photo in the file showing a Baja State Police officer. They pull up the recording of the hostage video and look at the man with the chain saw standing next to O.

“Same guy?” Ben asks.

“Looks like it.”

“Same guy I met with today,” Ben says. “Our new boss—Miguel Arroyo Salazar.”

“He’s a dead fucker,” Chon says. Sooner or later, he’s going.

So, Ben continues, Elena recruits Zeta—pays them well, gives them their own turf to use, and tells them, “Go forth and prosper.” Go north, young men, and take California (back).

“Why?” Ben asks rhetorically.

“Because that’s where the money is,” Chon answers rhetorically.

Or is it something else? Ben ponders.

He lets that slide, though.

First things first and the first thing is to get O back alive.

Buy her back.

“We have enough here to move on,” Chon says.

Fuck context.

Let’s get to content.