Tanner did as she said, and heard Victor answer the call.
“Ah, good morning Tanner, as you can see, I am a firm believer that sometimes less is more. If I had sent a dozen men to Miss Verona’s home, you might have fled, or given your skills, killed them, but a mere slip of a woman like Gerda has bested you with ease.”
“I asked her and now I’ll ask you, what do you want?”
“I want you, Tanner. You will leave and drive towards the main road, once there, turn right and travel past four traffic lights. You will find me and my men waiting for you in the parking lot of a boarded up building that was once a retail establishment.”
“I know it. It’s one light past the diner.”
“Yes, excellent, now come quickly. If I do not see you in fifteen minutes, I will call Gerda and tell her to kill Miss Verona. Don’t doubt that she will do it. Gerda is not a very nice person.”
“And you’ll also harm Sophia if I don’t agree to work for you, correct?”
“Yes, she will be our guest until you perform a task for us.”
“What task?”
“Johnny Rossetti, he has become a problem, but enough talk, you have fourteen minutes left.”
The call ended and Tanner threw the phone atop the table.
The woman, Gerda, smiled at him.
“You should hurry, Tanner, but know this, when Victor no longer needs you, I will kill you with pleasure.”
“Why?”
“Lars Gruber was my cousin.”
Tanner lowered his gun, while tilting it at an upward angle.
“Tell him Romeo says hello.”
The round hit Gerda in the throat, passed through and destroyed her brainstem.
She was literally dead before hitting the ground.
Sophia staggered and then fell on the grass beside her.
“Jesus! Tanner, that was risky wasn’t it? What if her finger twitched?”
Tanner knelt down beside her.
“They weren’t going to let either of us live. They just want to use me to kill Rossetti.”
Sophia stood.
“Heinz really wants Johnny dead, but what do we do now?”
Tanner looked around. The yard was surrounded by an eight-foot high wooden privacy fence on three sides, and couldn’t be glimpsed from the street because of an equally high gate. He pointed at the body.
“Can you get rid of her?”
“Yeah, I know people, and don’t worry about the neighbors calling anyone because they heard a shot. My father was as much a hard case as you are. The neighbors know better than to call the cops.”
“Good and I’ll be back soon.”
Tanner was at the gate when Sophia caught up to him.
“You’re going to kill Victor and those men, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
She kissed him, while being careful not to get Gerda’s blood on him.
“I’ll be waiting for you to get back.”
Tanner nodded, opened the gate, and went off to kill eight men.
CHAPTER 14 - Confit?
Reuben Smith hated Mondays.
And to make matters worse, he had the new guy riding along with him.
The boss said the kid was old enough and had just gotten his CDL, his commercial driver’s license, but the thin man named Julian looked like a teenager to Reuben’s fifty-year-old eyes.
Reuben drove a dump truck, one of the huge Caterpillar models, and today he was hauling over twenty tons of gravel to a construction site in Brooklyn.
But first, he had to have his coffee.
After parking the truck in the rear of the diner, he turned to the new guy.
“I’ll be right back, Julian; I’m just running in for a coffee and a cheese Danish. Do you want anything? It’ll be my treat.”
“No thanks, I eat Paleo.”
“You eat what?”
“Paleolithic, it’s a diet.”
“Diet? Kid, my dick weighs more than you.”
“It’s not that kind of—I’m good, but thanks anyway.”
Reuben grunted.
“Alright, I’ll be right back and don’t change my radio station.”
Reuben left the rumbling truck and headed inside, where he was pleased to see that the cute waitress was working the counter. The woman was not only good looking, but also a flirt. He’d never cheat on his wife, but Reuben loved to flirt with the cute ones.
He was smiling at something the waitress was saying, while trying not to get caught looking down the gap in her blouse, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
It was Julian.
The smile left Reuben’s face immediately.
“What are you doing in here? And please tell me that you have the keys with you.”
“He took it,” Julian said, and at the same moment, Reuben caught the scent of urine wafting off him. He looked down and saw that the kid had wet himself.
“What happened? Are you sick?”
“A man, he had a gun... told me to get out of the truck.”
“What man?”
***
Tanner was going over thirty miles an hour when he rammed the rear of the two cars containing Victor and his men.
Along with the twenty plus tons of gravel the truck held, its own weight and that of its fuel, added twelve more tons to the mix.
The cars were parked in front of an old Blockbuster Video with boarded up windows, and had been facing a cinder block wall full of graffiti.
The force of the impact plowed the rear car into its companion, and the front car rocketed towards the wall and hit it with enough force to push several blocks inward.
The driver of the first car had taken off his seatbelt as he waited, and he and his front passenger went through the windshield and splattered against the wall.
Their heads hit the cement blocks with enough force to shatter their skulls like eggshells, and their brains slid out and down into the weeds.
Tanner kept pushing after impact and soon the front car was half its normal length, as it crumpled in on itself like an accordion, while the tires of the dump truck rolled on top of the rear vehicle and began crushing it.
An arm brandishing a gun jutted out from a side window and pointed the weapon towards Tanner, but the limb was severed as the window frame collapsed.
Four distinct screams could be heard, but they died along with the men who made them as the truck advanced, crushed the passenger compartment, and settled atop the flattened rear car.
***
Tanner exited the truck from the passenger side, while inadvertently stepping on Julian’s brown bag lunch of roasted bone marrow and carrot confit.
Traffic had all but stopped out on the highway, as everyone took in the carnage, but Tanner still had a bit of work to do before fleeing the scene.
He had a hood pulled up and wore the set of sunglasses that Reuben had left on the dash, and so very little of his features showed.
Victor was still alive in the rear seat of the first car, alive, but judging by the way the seat back had him pinned against the splintered dashboard, Tanner knew the man would not survive, and then of course, there was the matter of the fire burning under the car’s hood, a fire that was spreading.
There was another survivor as well, a huge man with a piece of jagged metal through one cheek, which exited out of the top of his head. There was no indication that the big man was in any pain, but his lips moved soundlessly, as his eyes blinked non-stop and he waved bye-bye with one hand.
Tanner reached in with his knife, cut the man’s jugular and ended the show.
“Helfen Sie mir,” Victor gasped out in a weak voice. It was German for “Help me.”
“Wo kann ich Heinz finden?” Tanner said, as he asked for Heinz’s whereabouts.
Victor appeared startled by Tanner’s fluent use of German, and yet, after craning his neck to view the growing fire, he spoke in English.
“Please, Tanner, I do not want to burn to death.”
�
��You won’t, not if you give me Heinz’s location.”
“I want your word that you won’t leave me to suffer.”
Tanner lowered the sunglasses and locked eyes with Victor.
“You have my word. I won’t let you suffer.”
“Thank you,” Victor said, and then he looked down at himself. “The odd thing is that I feel no pain, but I suppose my spine is severed down below.”
“Heinz, where is he?”
“In the city, at the Hotel Rutherford, on Randall Street,”
Tanner raised his gun.
“Wait! Gerda, is she dead?”
“Yes.”
“Good, I never liked that little bitch.”
Tanner shot Victor twice in the head, and the three men who had parked and left their vehicles to walk towards the crash, turned suddenly and rushed back to their cars.
Tanner took off and reached the rear right corner of the property. A rusted chain-link fence separated the lot from the row of homes behind it, where several residents were just emerging onto their porches to see what all the noise was about.
He had just made it over the fence when a police car sped into the lot. It was followed by a motorcycle cop.
The cop on the Harley spotted Tanner leaving the scene and rode over to the fence.
“Get back here!”
Tanner ignored him and just kept running, but to his surprise, the cop left his bike, tossed off his helmet, and sprang over the fence as if it wasn’t there.
The man was fit, fast, and wore a determined expression.
Tanner sighed inwardly.
The chase was on.
CHAPTER 15 - Rumors of war
Johnny chewed on his lower lip as he studied Jade Taylor’s card.
“This is not what we needed right now.”
He was inside his office at the club, sitting at his desk, and Joe Pullo was seated across from him.
The door that had been shredded by gunfire was gone, but a new one was being installed the next day, while the holes in the walls had already been patched, with new carpet put down.
The desk bore three distinct bullet holes, but Johnny had yet to replace it, while saying that they gave the desk character.
The new door would be set in a steel frame and be made of bullet-resistant glass. Anyone in the office would be able to look out into the hallway, while the other side would be mirrored. A twin of the door would also be replacing the door that led to the alley.
Pullo made a sweeping gesture with his left hand.
“My guess is that she’ll start by auditing the club here; will that be a problem?”
“Not at all, I keep the club clean. I’ve never laundered a penny through it and we follow every law that concerns hiring and firing. You’re right though, she will start here, and so I’ll call the accountants and give them a heads up.”
“After the club, she’ll come for you personally with that forensic accounting voodoo. If you’ve spent a dime more than you’ve declared on your taxes, she’ll nail you for it.”
Johnny chuckled.
“You know what’s funny? I make millions every year, but the only money I spend is what I make here. It’s really all I need. The rest just sits in offshore accounts earning interest under a slew of phony names.”
Pullo shrugged.
“It’s the same with me. Hell, my wild days are behind me. The Hummer is my only luxury and both it and the townhouse are paid from my salary here, along with the two laundromats I own. Still, this IRS Fed will keep digging until she hits oil. That’s why we need to think ahead.”
Johnny tossed the business card onto the desk.
“Think ahead how?”
“The Feds love using snitches, and those two chauffeurs of yours are ripe for the picking. She’ll try to use them the same way Geary tried to turn Mario, because she’ll think that they know more than they do, believing they overheard things while driving you around.”
“So you’re talking about whacking them again? Why do you have such a hard-on for those two; they’re harmless.”
“They’re weak, and the weak are trouble. Look, personally, I can take them or leave them, but they knew that Tanner was alive and said nothing. What if Tanner had still wanted to kill you? You’d have never seen it coming.”
Johnny gazed out the open doorway. At the other end of the hall, he could see Merle and Earl seated at a table and playing cards. The bar wasn’t open for business yet and the boys were just hanging out in case Johnny needed them.
“Let me think about it.”
“Don’t think too long, or Jade Taylor might get her hooks into them, but now tell me, what’s the story with Tanner? Are you still trying to make peace between him and Sara?”
“Yeah, Tanner is coming by later.”
“He called you?”
“No, Sophia called me last night to see how I was doing and Tanner is staying with her. Apparently, those two have a thing going.”
“What time is he coming by?”
“Around six, and Sophia wants to sit in, so you might as well too.”
“Good, but Sara doesn’t know that he’ll be here, does she?”
“No, but she’s meeting me here so that we can go out to dinner together. When she shows, I’ll try to make peace.”
“If she won’t let her vendetta go, things are not going to end well.”
“Maybe, or maybe she’ll kill Tanner.”
“Even if she did, we’d be in trouble. We could use Tanner if a war broke out.”
Johnny grimaced.
“What’s that face for?” Pullo asked.
“Tanner, Sophia said a guy named Victor came to see Tanner yesterday. It looks like Heinz wants to recruit him. What do you think, would Tanner switch sides?”
Pullo laughed.
“Tanner doesn’t have a side. He just kills who he’s paid to kill.”
“Like my uncle?”
“That still burns you, doesn’t it, that he killed Al?”
“Yeah, but my uncle knew the rules just like we all do, and it’s better to have Tanner on your side than against you. So, I’ll just live with it.”
“If your girl would take that attitude we’d all be a lot better off.”
“Sara is intense and she tends to see the world in black and white. She’s already made a major change by being with me. Before we got close, I was just another mobster to her, a bad guy, and to her, Tanner is the worst of the worst.”
“He’s actually the best of the best, which is why we need him on our side, but if things don’t go well at this meeting and he kills Sara, what will you do?”
“I’d kill him, Joe. Sara means a lot to me.”
“You’d lose, and then I would go after him... and as much as I hate to admit it, I’d lose, and then Heinz would just waltz in and take over everything without firing a shot.”
Johnny hung his head.
“Sara has to make peace with Tanner, or... we could double-cross him at this meeting.”
Pullo tensed as he raised an eyebrow.
“I gave him my word, Johnny. If you go that route, count me out of it.”
Johnny waved a hand in the air.
“That was desperation talking. It’s like Sam always says, if you can’t trust a man’s word, he’s not a man.”
Pullo relaxed again and settled back in his seat.
“We’ll get Tanner and Sara together and see what happens, but if I know Tanner, he’s got plans of his own.”
“What’s that mean?”
“We need him and he knows it. If we can’t work things out, there’s always the chance he could go to work for Heinz.”
The phone rang. When Johnny looked at the caller ID, he saw that it was Sophia.
The call was short, the words spoken in code phrases, but Johnny understood that Heinz had made a move on Tanner that backfired. When he ended the call, Johnny was smiling.
“What did Sophia have to say?”
“You don’t have to worry abo
ut Tanner working for Heinz, and if I understood correctly, Tanner has already started on thinning his troops.”
Pullo laughed.
“Let me guess, Heinz tried to control Tanner?”
“Yeah, I guess he didn’t learn anything from watching Frank Richards make that mistake.”
“Where is Tanner now?”
“She didn’t say, but I guess he’s out on Staten Island somewhere.”
“Tanner and Sophia, now there’s a combo,”
“Think it will last?” Johnny said.
“No, I don’t think Tanner is capable of falling in love,” Pullo said, and then he thought about Laurel and hoped that he was right.
CHAPTER 16 - Catch me if you can
The cop was relentless.
And worse, the cop was gaining on Tanner.
After climbing over the fence upon leaving the scene where he killed Victor and his men, Tanner had run through a quiet neighborhood without seeing anyone, other than the few people who stood in their doorways wondering about the noise, or those passing by in cars.
He could hear the cop shouting his description and location into a radio as he ran, and knew that others would join the chase within minutes, if not seconds.
What had been a good lead had shrunk considerably, as the cop’s longer legs propelled him ever closer.
The man was in shape, as was Tanner, but unlike Tanner, time was on the cop’s side.
After reaching the next intersection, Tanner turned right and saw the entrance to a cemetery across the street and half a block away.
He headed for it, with the hope that by weaving around the mausoleums and statuary, that he could put more distance between himself and the cop.
A minute later, he knew the plan wouldn’t work, as the cop reacted quickly and mirrored his every turn, while still managing to grow closer to him.
At the exit on the other side of the property, Tanner cursed as he ran by an idling pickup truck that had the name of the cemetery stenciled on its side.
The truck was just sitting there ready to be driven away, but the cop was so close behind him that Tanner realized he would never have enough time to climb inside it, much less place the vehicle in gear. If he attempted it, the cop could just yank him out of the truck.
The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2) Page 30