“Use that gun if you need to defend yourself, but I should be back in less than twenty minutes. After I have more information I’ll know what strategy to use.”
“Good luck, and be safe,” Andrea said.
The driveway wound a quarter mile through land thick with trees that were still tinted white from a recent snowfall. Tanner heard the voices before he saw them. He slowed his approach among the pines.
Cynthia Geary had her back to Tanner. Standing beside her was the driver from the limo. The man was reaching into an inside pocket of his coat, which was sitting open. As he removed a pack of cigarettes, Tanner saw that he was wearing a shoulder rig.
Three more armed men stood around the man Cynthia was speaking to; two of them wore guns on their hips, but the third man carried a rifle with a scope. These weren’t the rent-a-cop type that Kent Mead had protecting him, no, these men had the look of trained mercenaries or ex-soldiers.
Tanner studied the man Cynthia was talking with and compared it with the description of Mr. Smith he had memorized. They matched, although the man he was looking at had streaks of white running through his hair.
Even though there was peril involved in using the binoculars because they might give him away by reflecting the dim winter light, Tanner risked it.
As he focused on the man’s chin, he saw the distinctive half-moon scar that Andrea had described.
Tanner smiled. “Hello, Mr. Smith.”
“He’s here?” Andrea said. “Geary is really here?”
“That he is, and I have a plan to deal with him.”
“I hope your plan involves Cord.”
“He’ll be the star of it, although he won’t know it.”
“What’s the plan?”
“First, tell me, do you have any acting experience?”
“Just high school theater, why?”
“We’re about to put on a play,” Tanner said.
After moving the SUV into Geary’s driveway to block the exit, Tanner removed Cord’s gag, blindfold, and ear plugs. Before freeing Cord’s hands, he issued a warning.
“Try anything and I’ll leave your corpse among these trees.”
Despite the warning, Cord took a swing at Tanner, Tanner avoided the punch and shoved Cord to the ground.
“See,” Andrea said. “I told you he can’t be trusted.”
“He’ll listen to reason once he hears me out,” Tanner said.
“No, we should just kill him.”
“Who’s running this show?”
Andrea looked down at the ground.
“You are.”
“That’s right, so stay quiet while I talk to Cord.”
“Talk to me about what?” Cord said. He was shaking his hands in an attempt to get feeling back in them after having his wrists bound for hours.
Tanner pointed up the driveway.
“Geary’s up there with his ex-wife. It occurred to me that I could kill him, or Geary and I could make a deal that would be good for both of us, and you too.”
“What sort of deal?”
“It took six years, but I tracked him down. I’ll find him again if I need to, but where’s the profit in that?”
“Profit?”
“Yeah, I’m a businessman, same as Geary. If he agrees to pay me a million dollars, I’ll let him live and leave him be.”
“And what about me?”
“You’re going to play messenger. Walk up to the house and tell Geary what I told you. A million dollars and I’ll let him live.”
“I never should have trusted you,” Andrea said. “You’re scum, just like the rest of them. All you care about is money.”
“This deal will also keep you alive, sweetheart.”
“What do you mean?” Andrea said.
“Cord wants to kill you, so might Geary now that he knows you wanted him dead. Part of the deal will be that they both leave you alone.”
“Fuck that,” Cord said. “This bitch killed my brother.”
Tanner smiled. “Did I mention that there’s something in it for you, Cord? For agreeing to broker the deal between Geary and me, let’s say you’ll get, oh, how’s fifty grand sound?”
“You’ll give me fifty-thousand-dollars just for talking to Mr. Geary for you?”
“Why not? It’ll be Geary’s money. If he takes the deal, everybody is safe and goes on with their lives, and you and I will be richer too.”
A look of greed flashed in Cord’s eyes as he smiled. He rose from the ground, then stamped his feet, which had also grown numb.
“I’ll talk to Geary, but I can’t say what he’ll do.”
“Yeah, but he’s a businessman. He’ll see the deal makes sense.”
Cord looked up the driveway toward the house.
“I can go now.”
“Just one more thing,” Tanner said. He reached into the SUV and grabbed Cord’s cowboy hat.
Cord took the hat and smiled as he put it on.
“I felt naked without it.”
“Go on, see Geary and make yourself fifty grand.”
Cord sent Tanner a nod, scowled at Andrea, then walked along the driveway. The moment he was out of sight around the bend, Tanner and Andrea were on the move.
32
All Eyes On You
DOUGLAS, ARIZONA, APRIL 1999
“It’s a damn shopping center,” Romeo said.
“Yeah, I don’t get it,” Cody said.
They were standing on the site where Nate’s trailer once stood after going to the address on the label of the girly magazine they found inside the shack. Instead of a home, they were looking at a shopping center.
“They must have torn down the house that was here to build this; it all looks new,” Romeo said.
Cody looked around and spotted someone who might help. It was a mailman. He was a Native American with short hair who was about thirty. The guy was wearing a postal uniform and sitting in a mail truck with the sliding door in the open position. He was sipping on a coffee while reading a newspaper.
The boys walked over to him and the man looked up from the sports page.
“What’s up?”
“We were wondering if you could help us,” Cody said. He held up the magazine and pointed at the address label affixed to it. “What can you tell us about this?”
The mailman stared at the magazine.
“Those are tits.”
“Not the girl, the label,” Romeo said. “It has this address, but there’s no house here.”
The man set down his coffee.
“Let me see that.”
Cody handed him the magazine. After reading the label, the man smiled.
“There was a drunk who lived here in an old beat-up trailer before they kicked him off the land to build this place. He’s the one who gets these porno mags.”
“And that’s his name there on the label, Nathaniel Hurst?”
“Yeah, but he goes by Nate.”
“Do you know where he moved to?”
The postman smiled. “Nate had that train wreck of a trailer of his towed across the highway. It’s out in the brush there just over that hill.”
They thanked the mailman and headed across the highway on foot. As soon as they crested the hill they saw Nate’s trailer sitting about a hundred yards away. The land around it was dotted with cactus and other desert plants, but the remains of an old concrete driveway led to the trailer. The trailer itself was sitting on a piece of cleared land that at one time had a home built on it. A pickup truck that was as old as the trailer was parked beside it, indicating that someone was inside.
The boys talked while keeping low among the brush.
“This guy Nate must be a friend of Roscoe’s,” Romeo said, “and that magazine tells us he knew about the shack.”
Cody looked back at the shopping center. It was busy, and there was a police car parked outside the coffee shop. If they moved in and started shooting, the cop would be on them in no time.
“We’ll watch the driv
eway over there to see if that truck leaves, but I don’t think we should make our move until after midnight.”
“Yeah, it’s too busy around here now,” Romeo agreed.
They moved back down the hill and across the highway, unaware that four sets of eyes were watching them.
One set of those eyes belonged to Pete Roscoe. He had walked over to the shopping center right before the boys had shown up. As he was headed back with a bag of fast food, he caught sight of Cody and Romeo climbing the hill, then ducked behind a car to observe them.
How the hell they had tracked him down to Nate’s trailer he couldn’t imagine, but he was glad to see how young they were. Why, they were just a pair of snot-nosed punks. Roscoe felt confident that he could outsmart them, and a plan to do just that formed in his mind.
The other eyes watching the boys belonged to Farnsworth, Kayla, and Zoe. They were parked in the shopping center, after having used the tracker to follow Cody and Romeo.
“Those boys have finally tracked Roscoe down,” Farnsworth said.
“What makes you so sure, Granddad?” Kayla asked.
Farnsworth handed her his binoculars as he pointed out at the highway.
“There’s Pete Roscoe now.”
Kayla looked through the lenses and saw Roscoe’s balding skull glinting in the sun, as Roscoe crested the hill, he looked back in the direction where Cody and Romeo were returning to their car.
“Oh no, I think Roscoe knows the boys are after him.”
“Yeah,” Farnsworth said. “He was watching them as they came down the hill.”
“Why don’t we go grab Roscoe right now?” Zoe said.
“We could, but then those boys would come after us. No, we have to play this one just right and outsmart those two and Pete Roscoe.”
“Okay, but why aren’t the boys going after Roscoe?” Kayla said. “They have no clue that we’re here.”
“They’ll probably wait until after this place closes down for the night and then move in, while hoping to catch Roscoe asleep,” Farnsworth said.
“But he won’t be sleeping,” Zoe said. “He knows the boys are here and that they’ll be coming for him. They’ll be walking into a trap.”
“They sure will,” Farnsworth said, “leaving us to come in and scoop up Roscoe.”
Kayla and Zoe exchanged glances and Farnsworth saw the worry in their eyes. He gave a heavy sigh.
“You want to warn those boys, don’t you?”
“We have to, Granddad, otherwise they might get killed,” Kayla said.
“They’ll think we’re lying, girls, and worse than that, they’ll know we’re here. We don’t owe them boys a thing.”
“Please, Granddad?” the girls said together.
“All right, we’ll go talk to them, but they won’t believe us.”
The girls each kissed him on the cheek and Farnsworth smiled.
“What do you mean some guys are here to kill you?” Nate asked Roscoe.
“They’re a couple of punks looking to make a dollar by killing my ass, but they’re the ones who will be lying six feet under.”
Nate grabbed up a shotgun he kept by the door; like the trailer and the truck, it was ancient and had once belonged to his father.
“We got to get ready for them.”
“We’ll be ready, don’t worry, but they won’t be back for a while.”
Nate wrinkled his brow in confusion.
“Why did they leave?”
“They didn’t. They’re parked over at the shopping center. I bet they come in at night.”
“Damn, I guess I ain’t sleeping tonight.”
“You can sleep your ass off after we kill these two punks, and I’ll buy you a new trailer to do it in.”
“Why would I need a new trailer?”
Roscoe grinned. “Because, I’ll be blowing this one up, and those two punks along with it.”
“You want to blow up my daddy’s trailer?”
“And get you a new one, well, not new, but better than this.”
“I don’t know, Pete. This is my home.”
“I’ll buy you an acre of land too. That way nobody will be able to run you off again.”
“My own land? Damn, that would be nice.”
“So, we got a deal?”
“I guess, but I’ll miss this place, and won’t the cops come calling?”
“I’ll make it look like an accident by rigging up the propane tank to blow. You’ll be in the clear.”
Nate looked around at his hovel on wheels.
“I’ll sure miss this place.”
“But you’ll be a landowner,”
Nate smiled. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
Roscoe smiled back at his dim friend. He had no intention of buying him a trailer or land, nor did he have the money to do so. Most of the cash he’d cheated his partners out of was lost at a blackjack table in Vegas, while the rest was spent on hookers and cocaine.
Roscoe liked Nate, but you did what you had to do in this world. Nate would be just another person he used along life’s journey, but Pete Roscoe would survive. That was more than he could say for the boys out to get him.
Roscoe laughed. “We’re gonna have a blast tonight.”
33
Pissy Pants
MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK, MARCH 2018
Dalton Geary a.k.a. Mr. Smith was wondering what was going on.
His aide, Kent Mead had been abducted and the bodyguards claimed that Cord Givens the limo driver was involved, along with a blonde woman.
Then, his ex-wife gets a visit from the police, and again, Cord’s name is mentioned. There was also talk of the incident that took place in Death Valley, where several people died.
“What the hell is Cord up to?” Geary wondered aloud.
“I don’t know, Dalton,” Cynthia said.
“Exactly what did the police say?”
“They mentioned Cord and Herb Barker. I’m sorry, Dalton, this is all my fault for hiring Barker in the first place.”
Geary stroked her face.
“You were young and confused at the time, but we’ve gotten past that.”
“Have we? Then why are we divorced and living separately?”
Geary smiled. “Just because I’ve forgiven you doesn’t mean that I trust you. In fact, I’m wondering if you’re a part of this somehow?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Do you own any blonde wigs, Cynthia?”
“Dalton… I love you.”
“You love the things I can give you; you only tolerate me. If I was a different man I’d have had you killed years ago, Cynthia. If I find out you’re involved in this I just might—”
A voice called out from the driveway. “Mr. Geary?”
The figure came around the bend and Geary saw that it was Cord. He pointed at Cord while talking to his bodyguards.
“That man is Cord Givens. I want him alive, but you kill him if you have to.”
“No problem,” said one of the men. “He appears to be unarmed.”
“Then he’s an even bigger idiot than I thought he was,” Geary said.
One of the bodyguards stayed with Geary while the other two, along with the limo driver went for Cord. Before he could speak, Cord’s cowboy hat was knocked off his head and a punch delivered to his stomach. Afterward, he was shoved to the ground, then once again his hands were bound behind his back.
“He smells like piss,” the limo driver said in a tone of disgust, “and his pants are damp with it.”
They dragged Cord back to where Geary stood. Geary looked him up and down, then asked a question.
“Have you gone mad?”
“Mad? No, I was kidnapped.”
“Mr. Geary,” said one of the bodyguards. “Jake and I will check out the driveway. This man didn’t arrive here on foot and he may not have come alone. I suggest you get inside.”
Geary nodded his understanding, took Cynthia by the arm, and began walking toward the house, as the bodyg
uards jogged away to check the property. When Cord spoke again, it froze Geary in his tracks.
“Tanner, that’s who kidnapped me and killed Mead. It was Tanner, Mr. Geary.”
Geary turned and stared at Cord.
“Tanner?”
“He’s here, out front in the driveway. I think he followed your wife here.”
Geary cursed and rushed toward the house while practically dragging Cynthia along. Once inside with the doors secured. He breathed a sigh of relief.
While watching from the doorway that led to the kitchen, Tanner and Andrea smiled.
34
A Word To The Wise
DOUGLAS, ARIZONA, APRIL 1999
“I don’t freaking believe it,” Romeo said.
He was talking about Farnsworth, who had pulled up beside them in his dark blue van. Farnsworth exited the vehicle along with Kayla and Zoe.
“We come in peace,” Farnsworth said.
“How the hell did you get here?” Romeo asked, but Cody stayed silent. He had an idea how Farnsworth had gotten there.
“Never mind that, boy. We’re here to warn you about something.”
“I thought Phoenix was your turf,” Cody said. “Or are you now warning us to stay out of all of Arizona?”
Kayla moved close to Cody.
“Granddad is serious… oh, what do I call you? I know your name isn’t really Jack.”
“You don’t need to know my name.”
Zoe was pouting at Romeo.
“Are you still mad at me?”
“Yeah, and my name isn’t Brett.”
Cody brushed past Kayla and got into Farnsworth’s face. The two were both tall men, but Farnsworth was a hair taller. If Farnsworth was intimidated by the angry young man glaring at him, it didn’t register. If anything, Farnsworth appeared to be amused.
“I’m getting sick of you and these granddaughters of yours. If you keep butting in to our business I’m going to forget how old you are and kick your ass.”
Young Guns 3Beyond Limits Page 12