"I want Diego there," Adn said, "so they'll know that there would be consequences for any betrayals."

Martn was the glove, Diego the fist inside.

"We'll both go," Diego said.

The meeting with the government assholes in Mexico City was funny. The suits just sat there while Martn Tapia carefully explained to them what the new world was going to look like.

"By all means," Martn said, "continue your campaign in Michoacn. La Familia is a dangerous threat to public safety-lunatics really-not to mention the largest purveyors of methamphetamine in the country."

"What about the Zetas?"

"They're under our protection now."

Amazing, Diego thought. The federales had been giving La Familia a pass and beating the Zetas like rented mules, but now they didn't even blink when they were told that they were going to switch sides.

But that's the way it is in this business.

Enemies one moment, friends the next.

Unfortunately, it also works the other way around.

Now Chele reads her husband's mind. "Don't worry. They chose us as their padrinos."

The padrinos are a married couple who mentor the newlyweds from the engagement throughout their entire marriage. It's an honor, Diego knows, in his case more symbolic than practical, because Adn has certainly not asked for marital advice.

Eva, on the other hand, has come to Chele to ask certain questions that Chele won't reveal and Diego can only guess at. He would have thought that modern girls didn't have these questions anymore, but from Chele's sly smiles, he guesses that Eva did.

"I just told her how to keep her man happy," Chele told him.

"And how is that?"

"Later, marido."

Chele didn't share it with the girl, but the sad truth is that Eva doesn't need to keep Adn happy in the bedroom-his spectacular mistress will see to that-she only needs to keep him happy in the delivery room.

Eva has to produce a son who will join the Barrera and Esparza organizations-rendering, however unintentionally, the Tapias outsiders. If Chele had a daughter of marriageable age, she would have shamelessly walked her to Adn's bed and tucked her in. But her daughter is too young, and anyway, inheriting more of her father's genes, unlikely to be as beautiful as the splendid young Eva.

Now Chele looks at Eva coming down the aisle between the rows of white chairs.

Nacho looks every bit the proud papa in his own black bolero jacket and tight-fitting pants as he walks her down the aisle, conscious of and gratified by the stares of envy both for his daughter's beauty and his good fortune.

Fortune my ass, Chele thinks-Nacho has been grooming the girl for this since she slid out between her mother's thighs.

- It breaks Adn's heart.

Turning on his old friend.

On the other hand, he has reason to believe that Diego Tapia has turned on him. Not with law enforcement, true, but with the Zetas.

It's your own fault, Adn tells himself as he waits for his bride. You practically shoved Diego and Ochoa into bed together, made them meet, asked Diego to become the Zetas' "friend."

Well, he did that, all right. Adn's informants have it that Diego has been steadily shifting his operation into Monterrey, basing himself in the tony neighborhood of Garza Garca, and that he's welcoming the Zetas into the city.

Where they're selling drugs, setting up an extortion racket and a kidnapping operation.

Stupid, Adn thinks, to go for chump change that could interfere with the real money pipeline from the U.S. by alienating police, politicians, and the powerful industrialists in Monterrey who, at the end of the day, control them.

Stupid and shortsighted.

Almost as bad is their ostentatious behavior, displaying their wealth and power like chntaros-hillbillies-instead of the billionaire businessmen that they are.

Adn was saddened to hear that his old friend is dipping into his own product, that, like To back in the bad old days, he has started snorting coke. If it's true, it's bad news, and certainly Diego's recent behavior supports the suspicion. Diego's been throwing huge, loud parties, and in the wrong places-Cuernavaca, Mexico City, where they can't escape the notice of the powers-that-be.

When will we ever learn? Adn wonders.

The cops, the politicians might be on our payroll; the financiers, bankers, and businessmen may be our partners in legitimate businesses; they might look the other way on our other activities-but you can't rub their noses in it.

Stupid and self-indulgent, Adn thinks. You can't be doing those things in a neighborhood like that. We have everything. Everything that money can buy. We can do whatever we want-only be subtle about it.

There are worse rumors about Diego, rumors that Adn doesn't want to believe. That he's started to follow Santa Muerte, the so-called Saint of Death, a cult that's sweeping the mostly younger narco ranks with blood sacrifices and God only knows what else.

Foolishness.

When he was young, Adn made a blood oath with Santo Jess Malverde, the local Sinaloan drug trafficking martyr who became something of a religious figure with his own shrine in Culiacn.

Adn blushes at the memory of his youthful foolishness.

But Diego is no kid. He's a grown man with a wife and kids and adult responsibilities. He's the boss of the largest drug trafficking organization in Mexico and he's messing around with this foolishness?

Ridiculous.

And dangerous.

But not as dangerous as him flirting with an alliance with the Zetas.

Adn gets it-Diego feels threatened by Nacho's rise. You gave him Tijuana to take, you're marrying his daughter.

Adn thought of reaching out to make things right with Diego. Sit down and talk like the old friends they are, and work it out. Apologize for any seeming slights or neglect. But now it's too late.

Diego is the price for stupid, idiotic, undisciplined Salvador's life. And it's for the best, Adn decides. The Tapias have to go. Face it, you were going to have to do it anyway, and Sal's issues are a convenient pretext.

It's all set up and ready to go.

Simultaneous raids against Alberto and Diego in Badiraguato, take them both out in one swoop.

Martn they'll leave alone, for now.

He has too many connections-another stupid mistake of yours, Adn thinks, to let the Tapias gain so much political influence-and you can deal with him. He'll be reasonable.

As long as there are no deaths.

Adn has insisted that both Alberto and Diego must, at all costs, be taken alive. They are his friends, his brothers, blood of his Sinaloan blood.

- The altar has been built under a bower of ficus trees. The chairs are set up on an emerald-green lawn clipped again that morning and lined with stacks of fresh flowers.

Adn stands by the priest. He smiles at Eva as Nacho releases her, kisses her on the cheek, and ushers her to the altar.

Opening a small wooden box, Adn pours thirteen gold coins-one each for Christ and the twelve apostles-into Eva's outstretched, cupped hands. Then he places the box on top of her hands. The coins signify his pledge to take care of her and her promise to run his household conscientiously.

They turn to the priest, who drapes the lazo-a long, decorated cord-around each of their shoulders, symbolizing that they are now attached to each other. They wear the lazo throughout the long ceremony, which includes a Mass, then the wedding vows, and finally the priest declares them man and wife.

Eva kneels at the little shrine that had been built to the Virgin of Guadalupe and makes the ofrenda, leaving a bouquet of flowers.

Then the bride and groom walk back up the aisle and the wedding party and guests follow them back to where the reception party will be held and the mariachi band-decked out in their finest costumes of black and silver-falls in behind, playing the estudiantina music.

- Salvador Barrera has kept a low profile throughout the wedding.

After the unfortunate incident in Zapopan, Adn called him back to Sinaloa and put him on double secret probation.

"If you were not my blood," Adn said when he sat Sal down in his office, "you would be dead."

"I know."

"No," Adn said, his face tightening. "You will never know-and I mean you will never know-what your freedom has cost me."

"Thank you, To. I'm so sorry." Then he had to sit and let Adn lecture him for twenty minutes about respecting women and innocent people. This from the same man who's invited his whore to his own wedding? Who had a woman's head cut off and sent to her husband like a muffin basket? The guy that once threw two little kids off a bridge? I mean, come on. This guy's going to lecture me on family values?

But now Sal knows that he's being watched.

Eventually, he hopes, his uncle will forgive him and bring him back into the business.

- Eva swoops in, takes Adn's hand, and pulls him toward the center of the reception area, a clearing in the middle of the dining and banquet tables.

It's time to lanzar el ramo, toss the bouquet.

As is traditional, the wedding guests form not a circle but a heart shape around the bride and groom. All the eligible women gather, and Eva tosses her bouquet back over her shoulder. It hits Magda right in the hands, but she squeals and bats it back up in the air, where it's caught by one of Eva's bridesmaids.

Then a chair is brought out, Eva sits down, and Adn-backed up by Diego, Nacho, and Salvador-kneels in front of her and, to ribald remarks from the guests, slides her dress up her thigh and pulls her garter back down her leg.

It feels odd, running his hand up her smooth skin, because heretofore they have done little more than kiss, and this feels oddly intimate. Then Adn stands up, throws the garter over his shoulder, and turns to see Salvador catch it.

Then the men swoop in, pick Adn up, and begin to throw him around and dance with him to the funeral music ("Your life is over!") that the band strikes up. When this stops, Salvador and the bridesmaid dance together, then Adn and Eva, then the entire party joins in the dancing. As they dance, married couples come up to the bride and groom, chat a little, and pin envelopes onto Eva's dress, money that will later be given to charity, as Adn Barrera and the daughter of Nacho Esparza hardly need money to start their married life. Eventually the dance turns into la vbora de la mar-"the sea snake"-the guests joining hands and "snaking" under Adn and Eva's outstretched arms as they stand on chairs.

- Magda finds Adn alone in a bedroom, changing clothes to leave for his honeymoon.

"How convenient," she says.

"How so?"

"Well," Magda says, kneeling in front of him, "we wouldn't want you to disappoint your new bride, letting that tight virgin chocha make you come too quickly. The poor thing expecting a night of breathless passion and youthful endurance."

"Magda..."

"Don't be so selfish," Magda says as she unzips him. "I'm only thinking of her."

"You're very considerate."

"Besides," Magda says, "when she's all fat, splotchy, and bitchy, you'll remember that you have this to come to. Just don't get anything on my dress, do you hear, there are appearances to keep up."

Magda brings him to the point of climax and then stops.

"On second thought," she says, getting up, "disappoint her."

"Magda!"

"Oh, come here. Do you think I'd really leave you like this?"

She finishes him, then feels melancholy.

It could have been me, Magda thinks. It might have been nice, maybe, settling into a life of domesticity with him, allowing myself a few extra pounds around the hips and watching my babies scuttle around at my feet.

Be happy with what you have, she tells herself.

It wasn't that long ago you were thrilled with a blanket.

And now you're rich, and soon you'll be richer, independent of any man, including Adn. You can have other men, and fuck him when he comes around, and have your own house and make your own money.

You're a narca, a chingona.

Your own woman.

Magda knows that they're already calling Adn's bride "Queen Eva I." The more culturally aware have dubbed her "Evita" (Don't cry for me, Sinaloa). She also knows what they're calling her.

La Reina Amante.

The Queen Mistress.

There are worse things.

- The meal was fantastic-chicken and pork dishes, potatoes and rice, tres leches and almond cakes, champagne, wine, and beer-and now the wedding party gathers to see the bride and groom off on their honeymoon.

Diego comes up to Eddie. "We'll be leaving soon."

"You headed back to Monterrey?"

"No," Diego says, "we're going to spend the night in the Badiraguato house. Come over if you want."

"I'm going to stay for la tona borda," Eddie says. "Too much pussy here to bail out now when they're all drunk."