Tanner- Year Two

by Remington Kane

  “That’s right, Luna,” Piper said. “I’m in control, and from here on in, you do things my way—or else.”

  Luna began crying, as the bright future she’d hope to find in Delran slipped from her grasp.

  22

  Change Of Plans

  “Why couldn’t you just leave us be, Steve?” Luna asked her ex-husband.

  She was seated in the rear of the pickup truck beside Sofia’s car seat, while Piper was on the passenger side and Morgan drove.

  Piper had an arm resting atop the seat. He was sitting sideways and smiling at Luna.

  “Why couldn’t you have minded your own business and not turned me in to the cops? Huh, Luna? I mean, you didn’t even give me a chance to explain things to you.”

  “You hid heroin inside our home, and it was all over the news that a group of drug dealers had been murdered and robbed the day before. I had to turn you in. I couldn’t risk you being caught and the police charging me as an accessory. If that had happened, who would have raised Sofia?”

  At the mention of his daughter’s name, Piper’s eyes went to the little girl and he smiled.

  “I’ll be damned if she doesn’t look just like my mother. I wish my mom was still alive to see her.”

  “You never told me how she died.”

  Piper’s expression turned grim. “She was killed by one of her johns when I was twelve. The cops never did find out who it was.”

  “Your mother was a prostitute? You told me she had been a secretary.”

  “Yeah, Luna. I told you lots of lies, but that’s all in the past. Now that you know the truth about me, we don’t need to hide from each other.”

  “I never hid myself from you. The deceit was all yours.”

  “Yeah, well, like I said. That’s all in the past.”

  “Please let us go, Steve, please? Let Sofia have a normal life. I can give that to her, you can’t.”

  “I’ll give her the life of a princess with all the money I’ll have. My daughter will never want for anything, and neither will you.”

  “Except for my freedom. Do you really think you can keep me a prisoner forever?”

  “I won’t have to; you loved me once, you’ll love me again.”

  “I loved a lie, not you.”

  Piper reached into the back seat and took hold of Luna’s hand. “I still love you, as much as I hate to admit it.”

  “If you really loved me, you’d let me go.”

  “Maybe I don’t love you enough then, because your ass is staying with me whether you like it or not.”

  Luna tried fighting it, but she cried anyway. Her life was about to become a nightmare.

  While waiting for Piper to return, Justen exited the depot through the side door that led to the parking lot. He was headed to his motorcycle where he had stashed some pot. He could use it to calm his nerves.

  A few hours earlier there had been eleven of them; now, as far as he knew, he was one of only three people left. On the other hand, his share of the cash would be epic with Bernard and the others dead.

  After taking several tokes of the weed, Justen did feel calmer. He leaned his left shoulder against the building and stared dreamily off into the distance. He was imagining what he would do with his share of the money. New cars were a given, and exotic ones. When he realized women would fight to get close to him once he was rich, he released a laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Justen spun around and saw Tanner staring at him. His eyes followed the path of Tanner’s arm as he raised a hand holding a rock. When the rock crashed down on the side of Justen’s head, his eyes closed. Tanner made certain they would never again open on their own.

  After dragging Justen off into the shadows, Tanner headed into the depot through the side entrance Justen had left unlocked. As he was closing the door behind him, the sound of an engine reached his ears. Tanner left the door ajar and peered out through the crack.

  When he saw the pickup truck with the diner’s name on the side, he knew that Luna had been found somehow. As the truck moved past the fence while headed for the gate, Tanner shut the door. Things had just gotten more complicated.

  Brandt and Daisy had also heard the pickup truck. They’d had no luck finding a way into the building but had found a crowbar that would aid them. The tool had been lying on the floor inside the excavator parked by the portable toilet.

  The pair watched as Piper and Morgan stepped out of the pickup truck with Luna and Sofia. They had been planning to attack Piper until they saw the child. They remained hidden until Piper shut the door, then approached it with the crowbar.

  Brandt counted to twenty slowly. He figured that would give Piper and the others enough time to move away from the door before he attempted to pry it open.

  “Be ready with your gun, Daisy, in case they hear us.”

  “I’m ready,” Daisy said.

  Brandt jammed the tip of the crowbar at the spot where the door lock met the jamb.

  “If we weren’t sure the cameras were off before, we can be certain now,” Daisy said. “There’s no way they would miss us trying to break in.”

  After several minutes of steady effort, Brandt was able to wedge the bar in and force open the door.

  “We’re in.”

  Brandt tossed aside the pry bar and took out his gun. They entered the depot and found themselves standing in a corridor. From the left came the faint sound of voices. Brandt and Daisy looked at each other with resolute expressions before taking off down the hall, while walking side by side. Greed for easy wealth had overpowered their good sense. It was one thing they had in common with Steve Piper.

  When he didn’t see Justen, Piper asked McHugh what became of him.

  McHugh pointed at the armored car they were standing near. “He said he was going to the bathroom after he finished changing the number on the roof. That was over ten minutes ago.”

  Piper smirked. “The kid’s a pot head; he’s probably smoking in a stall.”

  Luna was more afraid than she had ever been. Worse yet, Sofia was frightened as well. Luna was holding Sofia in her arms and could feel her baby trembling. Sofia had no memory of Piper, whom she hadn’t seen since she was ten months old.

  Sofia didn’t think of him as her father. Sofia saw Piper for what he was, a murderous monster determined to bring havoc to their lives.

  Piper had brought them to the depot where Luna received a shock when learning that Keith McHugh was involved with Piper’s scheme. During the ride from the motel, Piper let Luna know Callie had been helping him. He left out the part about caving Callie’s head in with an Elvis statue.

  They were standing by the open rear doors of the armored car Luna had been shown earlier. Bags upon bags of cash had been tossed inside it in a haphazard manner. Despite the dire situation she was in, Luna had been impressed by the audacity of her ex. The police detective she had dealt with at the time of Piper’s arrest said they believed he was the leader of a gang that carried out heists in the six-figure range. If that were true, Piper had graduated to the next level. The armored car held untold millions of dollars. As far as Luna could tell, there was no one around to stop Piper from taking it.

  Brandt and Daisy came to the end of the corridor which led to the loading dock area. A line of trucks was backed up to a concrete dock that was a foot higher than the floor. The extra height allowed the trucks to be loaded and unloaded without the need to step up into them. Beyond the dock was a wide area of polished floor space, which had been painted gray. The expanse shined brilliantly underneath bright overhead lights. That’s where the voices were coming from.

  The people who had arrived in the pickup truck were standing near an armored car that had its rear doors sitting open. There was another man with them. He wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and there were money bags piled at his feet, more than a dozen of them. Brandt wondered if he was looking at an employee of the depot. If so, the guy had earned a sweet payday for his treacher
y. The bags around him had to contain over ten million in total, likely his share of the take.

  Brandt lowered himself into a crouch as he whispered to Daisy. “We have to get closer. We can’t let them drive out of here with the money.”

  “Do you think it’s in that fancy-looking armored car?”

  “Yeah, and once they get in it, we’ll have a hell of a time getting them out.”

  Daisy gripped her weapon tighter. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

  Brandt smiled at her. Damn, but if the woman didn’t have guts. If they made it through this, he was definitely going to make a play for her.

  Brandt moved out of the corridor while keeping low, as he prepared to kill and steal.

  Luna didn’t like the way McHugh kept staring at her. He was eyeing her with the same gleaming gaze he had when he looked down at the bags of money, as if she too belonged to him. The reason became clear when McHugh spoke to Piper about her.

  “I can take Luna off your hands like we talked about, Steve.”

  Piper laughed as he shook his head. “It’s the damnedest thing, Keith, but even after what she did to me, I still want the woman. I’ll have to keep her in line this time though.”

  McHugh appeared crestfallen as he eyed Luna again. She realized at that moment the man had been thinking of raping her.

  To Luna’s further surprise, Piper began grabbing the bags that belonged to McHugh and was tossing them into the armored car with the others.

  McHugh watched dumbfounded as Piper added his cash to the money in the armored vehicle.

  “Whoa, Steve. I’m not going with you guys. I’ve made other plans.”

  “I don’t want you to come along either,” Piper said. As he spoke, Morgan brought up the shotgun he was holding and aimed it at McHugh.

  McHugh stared at the gun then up at Piper. “You’re robbing me?”

  “That’s right. But don’t worry, you won’t be needing the money anyway.”

  The shotgun boomed and McHugh’s white shirt blossomed into red as pellets shredded the flesh it covered. A second blast followed as the sound of the shotgun was still reverberating throughout the warehouse. Piper had taken out his gun and shot Morgan in the back of the head a split second after Morgan had blasted McHugh.

  Morgan’s wound killed him before his body hit the floor, while McHugh lingered in great pain for several moments. As his life ebbed away, McHugh was staring at Morgan, the man who had killed him. Although it was likely little consolation to him, McHugh got the last laugh by seeing the man dead first. The bloody scene of Morgan’s body was the final sight Keith McHugh ever saw.

  “Oh my God,” Daisy said in a hushed voice, as she witnessed Piper’s treachery. Beside her, Brandt was coming out of his crouch while raising his weapon. They were still farther than fifty feet from Piper and hidden behind the last truck at the dock. Despite that, Brandt felt he had to act soon or risk Piper getting away with the money.

  “We’ll never have a better chance,” he told Daisy. He was about to fire at Piper, but right before he pulled the trigger, Brandt saw a strange sight that startled him.

  Luna felt herself grow cold with fear as she backed away from the violence. She stopped when she felt the edge of one of the armored car’s open doors hit her shoulder.

  Morgan’s ruthlessness in killing McHugh with the shotgun was horrible, but Piper’s casual slaying of his own man sickened her by its revolting nature. It made Luna realize how lucky she was to still be alive. Piper was devoid of a conscience and an animal who killed others with ease. If not for the affection he felt for her, she knew she would have died back at the motel.

  Fortunately, Sofia had been spared witnessing the shootings. Luna was holding her, and the child had been resting her head on her left shoulder. The blast of the shotgun had scared her, of course, and followed as it was by the sound of the gun, Sofia was shaken and crying.

  When the crying stopped abruptly with a gasp of surprise, Luna wondered why. Before she could reposition Sofia to look at her face, she felt a hand grip the waistband of her jeans. That same hand yanked her backwards with a tremendous force and Luna found herself tumbling rearward into the armored car.

  It was Tanner. After entering the building, he had climbed into the armored car and burrowed beneath the bags of cash. He knew he’d be safe inside the vehicle while Brandt and Piper waged war for the money. Whoever came out on top would come after the cash, and in a sense, deliver themselves to him. The only complication to the plan were the innocent mother and child who needed to be protected. Now, with Luna and Sofia safe inside the armored car, Tanner reached out to close the doors.

  Piper turned his head to look at Luna. She had released a yelp of surprise as Tanner wrenched her backwards. Piper’s mouth gaped open as he saw Tanner, but before he could react a shot rang out. The fired round came from his left, where a man garbed in desert camouflage was standing beside a blonde. Both had guns aimed his way.

  Piper was about to dive into the truck when he heard the doors slam shut, locking him out. Tanner had his wife, his daughter, and his money. Piper dived in the opposite direction, hit the floor, and slid behind a round concrete support column. He had been on the verge of getting everything he wanted, and it had all been taken away by Tanner.

  Luna pushed aside bags so she could stand as Tanner closed the doors. When she looked at Sofia, she saw that her daughter was smiling.

  “Hello there,” Tanner said.

  Luna laughed. “Thank you; you’ve saved me again.”

  “Not yet. We need to put distance between ourselves and your ex. Luckily, they left the keys in this thing, along with millions.”

  Luna flinched upon hearing Tanner’s last words. “Don’t tell me you’re after the money too.”

  “All I want is to get out of this town and away from these idiots.”

  She smiled. “Then that’s something we have in common.”

  23

  Tanks A Lot

  Brandt had seen Tanner’s arm shoot out of the armored car and grab at Luna, then watched as Luna was jerked backwards and into the armored car. The sight had surprised him, causing his first shot to go wide.

  “Who’s inside the armored car?” Daisy asked Brandt.

  “I’m guessing it’s our pizza delivery guy.”

  “No! He’ll get away, and with the money too.”

  A slug ricocheted off the side of the armored car they were using for cover, as Piper returned fire.

  Then came the loud sound of a corrugated metal door rolling upwards. It was the dock door used by the forklifts, which led to a concrete ramp. One of the remote controls had been left inside the prototype armored car after it had been driven inside the building.

  Brandt thumped a fist against the side of the vehicle he was near. “Damn it! That bastard’s going to get away while we’re shooting at each other.”

  “He can’t, Brandt. We have to do something.”

  Piper shouted at them. “Hey over there! We need a truce or none of us will get the money!”

  The armored car began moving. It was making a U-turn before heading toward the ramp and the parking lot beyond it.

  Brandt peeked out and saw the vehicle leave the building. He called to Piper.

  “We split everything three ways?”

  “Sure!” Piper said.

  Brandt knew he was lying. He had just witnessed Piper shooting his own man in the back of the head when he no longer required him. He would attempt similar treachery on them once the time came. And yet, Piper needed them now, and they needed him. It would take the three of them working together to have a chance at stopping that armored car.

  After inhaling a deep breath, Brandt stepped from cover. When nothing happened, Daisy did the same. Piper stepped out from behind the pillar with his weapon hanging loosely at his side.

  “We can catch up to them on the motorcycles,” Piper said. “There are two of them left and the keys are in them.”

  “Let’s go,” Brandt sa
id, and Daisy followed him as he ran toward the open overhead door.

  “An oil slick?” Tanner said. “Like in the movies?” He had left the parking lot and was headed toward the ramp to the freeway. Luna was giving him directions and pointing out some of the prototype’s features.

  Tanner looked up at the camera that displayed the view behind the vehicle. So far, Brandt, Daisy, and Piper weren’t giving chase. That would change, as greed forced them to form an alliance.

  Tanner made a left onto Main Street, where the traffic light flashed yellow in the early morning hours. The street was deserted of traffic ahead. He had gone only six blocks when he saw two motorcycles make the turn onto Main. One of the bikes had two riders. The driver wore no helmet, but the passenger did, and blonde tendrils of hair flowed out of it.

  “They’re coming,” Tanner told Luna.

  She was in the shotgun seat. She leaned forward and let her finger hover over the button that would release the oil. Sofia was in the back, crawling on the bags of cash. She had struggled free of Luna, and with no car seat available to secure her in, the bags made for a suitable cushion.

  Tanner pointed at a button that was beside the one that released the oil. It had the word FUEL embossed on it.

  “What’s that do?”

  “That releases the gas tank, so that no one can target it to blow up the vehicle.”

  Tanner smiled. “I want you to take the wheel.”

  “What?”

  “Take the wheel.”

  “Why?”

  “The oil slick might cause them to crash, but it won’t keep them from coming after us in the future. I know something that will.”