The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2)
Page 1
THE TANNER SERIES – BOOKS 4 - 6
By
REMINGTON KANE
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE TANNER SERIES - BOOKS 4-6
First edition. September 12, 2015.
Copyright © 2015 Remington Kane.
Written by Remington Kane.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
LEARN ABOUT NEW RELEASES FROM | REMINGTON KANE
THE FIRST ONE TO DIE LOSES | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - The greater of two evils
CHAPTER 2 - Man on the run
CHAPTER 3 - Scared rabbit
CHAPTER 4 - Help from above
CHAPTER 5 - Finders keepers
CHAPTER 6 - Hunted
CHAPTER 7 - Ryder on the storm
CHAPTER 8 - ... but you can’t hide
CHAPTER 9 - Checkmate!
CHAPTER 10 - Straightjacket
CHAPTER 11 - Nosy, Nosy
CHAPTER 12 - Caged
CHAPTER 13 - Lucky
CHAPTER 14 - Like looking in a mirror
CHAPTER 15 - Run!
CHAPTER 16 - New beginnings
CHAPTER 17 - Sour puss
CHAPTER 18 - Won’t somebody please think of the children!
CHAPTER 19 - Career change
CHAPTER 20 - The eyes have it
CHAPTER 21 - Bye bye, bitch
CHAPTER 22 - A fine day indeed
CHAPTER 23 - Nobody does it better
CHAPTER 24 - Not just another pretty face
CHAPTER 25 - Ask questions later
CHAPTER 26 - A smile would have looked weird
CHAPTER 27 - Former Agent Blake
CHAPTER 28 - Hard to swallow
CHAPTER 29 - Treed
CHAPTER 30 - Jingle all the way
CHAPTER 31 - “Yeah, like I’m gonna fall for that,”
CHAPTER 32 - The evening commute
CHAPTER 33 - There’s got to be a morning after
THE LIFE & DEATH OF CODY PARKER | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - King of the road
CHAPTER 2 - Cody Parker
CHAPTER 3 - The old and the new
CHAPTER 4 - Indecent proposal
CHAPTER 5 - Entrance exam
CHAPTER 6 - Fair warning
CHAPTER 7 - Regrets
CHAPTER 8 - Hell hath no fury
CHAPTER 9 - Killing is so much easier
CHAPTER 10 - Friends with benefits
CHAPTER 11 - Round two
CHAPTER 12 - Pablo
CHAPTER 13 - Guilty or innocent?
CHAPTER 14 - Centavo-wise and Peso-foolish
CHAPTER 15 - Risky business
CHAPTER 16 - Red sauce
CHAPTER 17 - Punk ass
CHAPTER 18 - Hero
CHAPTER 19 - Sorry hurts too much
CHAPTER 20 - Sometimes a rock is all you need
CHAPTER 21 - Home is where the heart is
CHAPTER 22 - Many pawns
CHAPTER 23 - Hard or easy?
CHAPTER 24 - A rat abandons his ship
CHAPTER 25 - Me first
CHAPTER 26 - A waste of a good room
CHAPTER 27 - Dragon slayer
CHAPTER 28 - They’re coming
CHAPTER 29 - No appeals
CHAPTER 30 - Massacre
CHAPTER 31 - Coming clean about being dirty
CHAPTER 32 - The gift
CHAPTER 33 - Matchmaker, matchmaker
CHAPTER 34 - “I’m Death.”
CHAPTER 35 - “Say my name.”
CHAPTER 36 - Apprentice
CHAPTER 37 - It’s good to be home
CHAPTER 38 - Lost and found
CHAPTER 39 - Shades of the future
CHAPTER 40 - Rabid bitch
WAR | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - It begins!
CHAPTER 2 - The curse of the human race
CHAPTER 3 - The other Ms. Blake
CHAPTER 4 - Meet & Greet
CHAPTER 5 - There’s a thin line...
CHAPTER 6 - Pets or Pests
CHAPTER 7 - Reunited
CHAPTER 8 - Invasion
CHAPTER 9 - The thug and the stud
CHAPTER 10 - Just how many former Navy SEALs are there?
CHAPTER 11- The heir unapparent
CHAPTER 12 - Weak links
CHAPTER 13 - Give him my regards
CHAPTER 14 - Confit?
CHAPTER 15 - Rumors of war
CHAPTER 16 - Catch me if you can
CHAPTER 17 - Peace in our time
CHAPTER 18 - Wrapped to go
CHAPTER 19 - Words fail him
CHAPTER 20 - Fool me once...
CHAPTER 21 - Just one of the guys
CHAPTER 22 - Saint Brian
CHAPTER 23 - Dead men driving
CHAPTER 24 - Bathroom break
CHAPTER 25 - Cold sweat
CHAPTER 26 - The best
CHAPTER 27 - Thumpity, Thumpity, Thump,
CHAPTER 28 - Too clever by half
CHAPTER 29 - Obsession
CHAPTER 30 - Rampage
CHAPTER 31 - Envious eyes
CHAPTER 32 - Achilles’ heel
CHAPTER 33 - Plan to be lucky
CHAPTER 34 - Wheels within wheels
CHAPTER 35 - All ears
CHAPTER 36 - How hard can it be?
CHAPTER 37 - Unintended consequences
CHAPTER 38 - It makes the world go around
CHAPTER 39 - Confession
CHAPTER 40 - It ends!
A SPECIAL BONUS!
CHAPTER 1 - A man with a plan
CHAPTER 2 - Suicide or death
CHAPTER 3 - Surreal
A PLEA
ALSO BY REMINGTON KANE
LEARN ABOUT NEW RELEASES FROM | REMINGTON KANE
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Further Reading: Suicide or Death
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THE FIRST ONE TO DIE LOSES
By
REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - The greater of two evils
Tanner shook off his surprise at seeing Sara Blake at the farm and went for his gun.
He cleared the small pistol from his pocket in a smooth motion, while simultaneously thumbing off the safety, and as he was doing this, he turned his body sideways to present a smaller target.
The gun was lined up with the center of Sara’s forehead, when Tanner became aware of the hulking figure coming up behind her, and aiming a shotgun his way.
He made an instant adjustment in the angle of his shot and placed a round into the big man’s chest. He was prepared to send his second shot at Sara, but was unable to, because when she returned fire, her shot had smashed into the front of his weapon and sent it flying from his hand.
That’s when the big man collapsed onto Sara. The weight of his corpse drove her to the floor and trapped her legs beneath his bulk, as Tanner’s shot had caught the man in the heart and killed him instantly.
Sara, having been unaware that the man was even there, cried out in shock, before angling her gun over her shoulder and firing off a second round,
The bullet entered the body beneath the left shoulder blade, but then Sara saw the man’s empty eyes and knew that he was already dead.
She brought the gun back around to fire at Tanner and just caught a glimpse of him as he sped down a hallway headed for the rear of the house. She then spotted his gun, which was lying atop the floor
six feet away.
Her shot had rendered Tanner’s weapon useless, because her bullet had hit the side of the barrel and knocked it askew, damaging the slide to such an extent that even the recoil spring could be glimpsed.
That meant that Tanner was unarmed and an easy kill, but when Sara tried to rise and go in pursuit, she realized that her legs were trapped beneath the dead man’s bulk.
“Damn it!”
And as she struggled to free herself, she heard someone outside shout, and then the sound of footsteps coming up the porch, as the rain continued to pour down in waves and Tanner put distance between them.
***
When Tanner and Sara fired their weapons, outside the farmhouse, Tyler Gray and Sherry Weston had looked at each other in dismay.
Tyler was a rawboned man who stood well over six-feet tall and had stark cheekbones, along with an eyebrow ridge prominent enough to keep the rain out of his eyes.
Sherry was his lover, as well as his partner. She had dark hair and dark eyes, along with a wide mouth that was set in a permanent frown. Her body caused men to stare in desire and, at twenty-five, she was nine years younger than Tyler, and the more ruthless of the two. That was saying something, given Tyler’s propensity towards violence.
The two of them had been standing beneath an evergreen tree, while Tyler’s younger brother, Randall, went to check out the house.
Just minutes earlier, they had been headed to the farmhouse when they saw Sara park in the driveway. After driving past and hanging a U-turn, they coasted their car to a stop behind Sara’s.
Randall had been driving, while Tyler and Sherry were in the back seat with the bags of money they’d stolen from a bank, in the nearby town of Ciderville.
Sherry’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“I thought the place was supposed to be abandoned?”
“It is, or it was, the damn place is called Forgotten Farm,” Tyler said.
“Someone remembers it, or that woman wouldn’t be here.”
Randall tossed his chin in the direction of Sara’s car. He was a huge man, as tall as Tyler, but bulky and not nearly as bright as his older brother.
“Why do you think she parked so far from the house?”
“Maybe it’s too muddy up ahead, and that is a nice car,” Tyler said.
Randall had grabbed his shotgun from the seat beside him and opened his door.
“I’ll go check it out, Tyler.”
“Alright, but don’t let the bitch see you until she opens the door, then find out how many are in the house. If it looks good, come get us and we’ll take it over and have a place to hide until things calm down.”
“Gotcha,”
Randall took off at a trot, having no fear that Sara would hear his approach above the sound of the deluge that was pouring from the sky.
When Sara stopped to check something on the computer tablet she held, Randall had been less than a dozen steps behind her, and when she continued on, he followed in her wake.
When the front door opened, Randall raised the shotgun, thinking that someone was coming out to greet the woman, but the door just stayed open partway and the woman went up the steps, while Randall stayed on the ground, standing behind the porch’s railing.
After she discarded her umbrella, he followed her up the stairs and then caught sight of his brother and Sherry, as they took shelter beneath a tree on the side of the driveway.
They were both carrying a sack of money and had their guns out and at the ready.
Randall held up a hand, telling them to wait, and then he entered the house with his shotgun up and his finger on the trigger.
Something inside the house was making an annoying sound, and the woman still hadn’t realized he was behind her.
The sound seemed to perplex the woman, because she was creeping towards it. Randall had to slow his pace, or risk walking into her.
Up ahead, in the living room, a man stood with his back to them and was holding the thing making all the noise, while staring down at it.
Then, the woman spoke, the man spun around, and the last sight that Randall ever saw was that of the man moving in a fluid deadly grace while firing a shot.
Randall’s brain had just enough time to register the flash of the gun, before his heart exploded in his chest, and the world disappeared forever.
***
FIFTY-THREE MINUTES EARLIER
The armored car parked in front of the Fidelity Bank & Trust on Front Street in Ciderville and two armed guards exited by the rear door of the vehicle. They then walked into the bank carrying canvas bags that appeared to hold rolled coins.
The bags did not hold rolled coins, the guards, a man and a woman, were not really guards, and even the armored car was just a panel truck, which had been modified and painted to look as if it were from the armored car service the bank routinely employed.
The only thing real about them were their guns.
Tyler answered the welcoming smile of the armed bank guard by slamming the canvas bag into the side of his head. After the man fell to the ground looking dazed, Tyler snatched the gun from the man’s holster, and dumped out the rocks that the bag held.
Afterwards, he followed Sherry towards the bank manager’s desk, while demanding that everyone, “Get down on the damn floor, now!”
The customers complied, as did the tellers, who disappeared from sight behind their bullet-resistant glass. Tyler and Sherry weren’t worried about a teller activating a silent alarm, because they expected it, but also knew the average response time of the Ciderville police, and they planned to be gone before they arrived.
Besides that, they had also phoned in a phony report of gunfire, which would have the police scrambling in the wrong direction.
The bank manager was a portly man with thinning brown hair and bright blue eyes. Tyler placed the tip of his gun between those eyes and made a demand.
“Take me to the vault.”
The man did as ordered while walking on shaky legs and, within two minutes, Tyler had the coin sacks filled with unmarked bills, while Sherry kept her gun aimed at the bank’s patrons, one of whom kept staring up at her face, which was half hidden beneath the oversized guard’s cap she wore.
“What the hell are you looking at?”
The man didn’t answer her, but he also didn’t take his eyes off her.
Tyler returned seconds later and passed one of the sacks to her. Sherry took it and looked back at the man in the suit who had been watching her.
She locked eyes with him, raised her gun, and placed a bullet in the center of his forehead. The scrutinizing gaze was no more.
Tyler spun around, saw what she had done, and let out a curse, as several women screamed and began crying, while an older man gripped a silver cross hanging around his neck and recited a prayer.
“Why did you shoot him?”
“He stared too much for his own good.”
They left the bank, climbed into the phony armored car, and Randall drove them away.
The man Sherry murdered was named Michael Ryder, and killing him was the biggest mistake of her life.
CHAPTER 2 - Man on the run
Tyler stared at the farmhouse
“That wasn’t a shotgun. Somebody’s shooting at Randall.”
Sherry thumbed off the safety on her gun.
“Two people, I heard three shots from two different guns.”
They moved out from under the tree. Tyler was faster and was nearly at the steps when Sherry spotted Tanner coming around the side of the house.
She yelled, “Hey!” and Tanner stopped moving and stared at her. When he spotted the gun in her hand, he reversed course, and headed for the trees behind the barn. He kept changing direction while he ran, to make himself harder to hit.
Sherry was about to let loose a shot despite knowing it had little chance of finding its target, but heard Tyler yelling Randall’s name.
She entered the house and saw Tyler diving back towards her as a shot
rang out. Tyler had dropped his sack as he dove for cover, and stacks of unmarked bills spilled out onto the floor.
“What the hell is going on?”
Tyler answered Sherry in a voice filled with hate, as he rose to his feet.
“Randall’s been shot and the bitch just fired at me too.”
Sherry looked over and saw the soles of Randall’s boots, and, the movement of his body.
“He’s alive, Tyler. I saw him move.”
“It’s her; Randall fell on top of her after she shot him.”
Sara called out to them.
“I didn’t kill him. He was shot by a man named Tanner, and he’s getting away.”
“He’s dead? My brother’s dead?”
“Yes, I’m sorry, but yes.”
“Why did you kill him?” Tyler said.
“I didn’t, Tanner did, but I’ll shoot you if you come any closer.”
Sherry grabbed Tyler’s arm.
“She’s not lying. I saw a man run into the trees in the back, um, dark hair, jeans, and a black hoodie.”
Tyler pointed towards the living room.
“I’ll go get the motherfucker, you handle that bitch.”
“No, Tyler, first her, then him,”
Tyler spoke as he ran out the door.
“Just handle her and see to Randall, this bastard is not getting away.”
Sherry cursed, but moved towards the doorway to get a look at Sara. She eased her head around the doorframe just in time to see Sara free herself from beneath Randall’s bulk.
“Don’t move!”
Sara answered Sherry’s demand by firing upwards at her. The shot missed by a foot, but did cause Sherry to pull her head back. When she looked again, she saw that Sara was gone, but heard the sound of her footsteps as she fled down the hallway.
Sherry entered the room, knelt beside Randall as if to check for a pulse, but then saw the sightless eyes staring back at her.
“Oh shit. Shit! Shit! Shit!”
Sherry left the farmhouse in pursuit of Sara, amidst the driving rain, as in the distance, there came the roar of Tyler’s Magnum, causing Sherry to wonder if the dark-haired man had just been blown to bits.
CHAPTER 3 - Scared rabbit
With his gun rendered useless and his hand stinging in pain, Tanner left the farmhouse by the back door; while his destination had been the pickup truck parked out front, where he could get a fresh weapon.