THE TANNER SERIES – BOOKS 7-9
By
REMINGTON KANE
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE TANNER SERIES - BOOKS 7-9
First edition. October 17, 2015.
Copyright © 2015 Remington Kane.
Written by Remington Kane.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
LEARN ABOUT NEW RELEASES FROM | REMINGTON KANE
SUICIDE OR DEATH | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - A man with a plan
CHAPTER 2 - Suicide or death
CHAPTER 3 - Surreal
CHAPTER 4 - When it rains...
CHAPTER 5 - In the jungle, the mighty jungle
CHAPTER 6 - Extremist makeover
CHAPTER 7 - At last
CHAPTER 8 - Girl Talk
CHAPTER 9 - The one and only
CHAPTER 10 - Hope
Chapter 11 - Bro
CHAPTER 12 - Deep
CHAPTER 13 - Dad
CHAPTER 14 - To have and have not
CHAPTER 15 - Don Pullo
CHAPTER 16 - A familiar face
CHAPTER 17 - An army of one
CHAPTER 18 - What goes up...
CHAPTER 19 - Call me Sara
CHAPTER 20 - Weapons of mass proportion
CHAPTER 21 - Weird
CHAPTER 22 - Junior
CHAPTER 23 - Deny, deny, deny
CHAPTER 24 - Violated
CHAPTER 25 - The right boy
CHAPTER 26 - Temptation
CHAPTER 27 - Desperation and despair
CHAPTER 28 - Up close and personal
CHAPTER 29 - The Rookie
CHAPTER 30 - You’re with him?
CHAPTER 31 - Nobody’s perfect
CHAPTER 32 - Trust me
CHAPTER 33 - Listen and learn
CHAPTER 34 - Welcome to hell
CHAPTER 35 - Kill and kill again
CHAPTER 36 - Geronimo!
CHAPTER 37 - Change of plans?
CHAPTER 38 - The many, outnumbered by the one
CHAPTER 39 - The kiss of life
CHAPTER 40 - Goodbye
CHAPTER 41 - The hottest club in town
CHAPTER 42 - Hello and goodbye
TWO FOR THE KILL | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - Bones
CHAPTER 2 – Friends?
CHAPTER 3 – Gut feeling
CHAPTER 4 – The big boys
CHAPTER 5 – Bobby Volks
CHAPTER 6 – Sarcasm is costly
CHAPTER 7 – Testing 1, 2, 3
CHAPTER 8 – Travel plans
CHAPTER 9 – A cynical bastard
CHAPTER 10 – Talk to me
CHAPTER 11 – Be cool, stay in school
CHAPTER 12 – Endings and beginnings
CHAPTER 13 – What’s in a name?
CHAPTER 14 - Curious
CHAPTER 15 – El Diablo o La Diabla?
CHAPTER 16 – Goodbyes and farewells
CHAPTER 17 – Red, white, and black and blue
CHAPTER 18 – Mirror image
CHAPTER 19 – Yippee-ki-yay
CHAPTER 20 – Welcome to Rainberry
CHAPTER 21 – Dumb and dumber meet blonde and blonder
CHAPTER 22 – Dirty boy
CHAPTER 23 – Sinner or saint?
CHAPTER 24 – No way to treat a lady
CHAPTER 25 – Angels and bad boys
CHAPTER 26 – Oops!
CHAPTER 27 – Bees do it, birds do it
CHAPTER 28 – Easy rider
CHAPTER 29 – A changed man
CHAPTER 30 – The man himself
CHAPTER 31 – The offer of a lifetime
CHAPTER 32 - ...Nor iron bars a cage
CHAPTER 33 – One call does it all
CHAPTER 34 – A very bad man
CHAPTER 35 – Soulless Joe
CHAPTER 36 – Money or love?
CHAPTER 37 – Paper, mister?
CHAPTER 38 – The dance of joy
CHAPTER 39 – Hunting at night
CHAPTER 40 – Personal business
CHAPTER 41 – Death and deceit
CHAPTER 42 – Man of mystery
CHAPTER 43 – Sam the man
CHAPTER 44 - Chaos
CHAPTER 45 – Strange bedfellows
BALLET OF DEATH | By | REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 – The problem solver
CHAPTER 2 – A man of his word
CHAPTER 3 – Rings a bell
CHAPTER 4 – A safe place
CHAPTER 5 – Gathering and scattering
CHAPTER 6 – The man, the myth
CHAPTER 7 – Memories of Sophia
CHAPTER 8 – The report
CHAPTER 9 – Old friends and new enemies
CHAPTER 10 – Baby talk
CHAPTER 11 – There’s no place nicer
CHAPTER 12 – You can’t run, but you can hide
CHAPTER 13 - Pony
CHAPTER 14 – An ally
CHAPTER 15 – The sky’s the limit
CHAPTER 16 – Boy Cody
CHAPTER 17 – A new record
CHAPTER 18 – Missing in action
CHAPTER 19 – Goodbye Sophia
CHAPTER 20 – Take a meeting
CHAPTER 21 – Who watches the watchers?
CHAPTER 22 – Don’t just stand there...
CHAPTER 23 – Woof!
CHAPTER 24 – The right woman
CHAPTER 25 – The spy who loved me
CHAPTER 26 – Betrayal
CHAPTER 27 – You don’t have to thank me
CHAPTER 28 - Sandoval
CHAPTER 29 – Red meat
CHAPTER 30 - Delivered
CHAPTER 31 – Farewell my love
CHAPTER 32 – Pay day
CHAPTER 33 – Enough is enough
CHAPTER 34 – Two graves, one heart
CHAPTER 35 - Revelations
BONUS!
CHAPTER 1 – Surprise!
CHAPTER 2 – Job openings
CHAPTER 3 – Inevitable
CHAPTER 4 – Closing in
A PLEA
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SUICIDE OR DEATH
By
REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - A man with a plan
Tanner could feel the stitches in his side strain against the wounded flesh they held together, but ignored the pain and just kept working on the bolts.
He was in the basement of a restaurant that had been closed for many years and he’d been taken there after surrendering to Sara Blake, in order to save the life of Laurel Ivy.
After wallowing in unaccustomed melancholy and despair for a time, Tanner went to work doing what he did best and thought up a way to kill his captor, namely, Sara Blake.
He wasn’t in a room, but was on the inside of a huge walk-in freezer that still retained the faint scent of raw meat, although, he would guess that none had been stored there for years.
There was a long metal table just feet from him that was attached to the opposite wall of the freezer and someone had welded wrist and ankle restraints at its corners, which could be swung closed on hinges and secured with padlocks.
Beneath the table was a drain that was already stained red from the years of butc
hered meat that had dripped blood, and it would act as a drain for human blood if so needed.
Despite Sara’s earlier assertion that she wouldn’t torture him, Tanner still didn’t like the look of that table and had spent hours trying to ignore it, while working on a plan of escape.
He had come up empty.
The handcuffs he had been wearing were connected to a chain that ran down from the ceiling and they had been no problem, not once he managed to maneuver his hands from behind his back.
Sara Blake’s lackey, a man named Duke, had checked him over for weapons but had failed to find the handcuff key he had hidden on his person.
The key was part of the shoelaces of his boots. It sat at the tip of the lace and was hidden by a black rubber cap.
The laces were acquired from a spy shop on the Internet, had cost him $15, and Tanner considered it some of the best money he had ever spent.
Once his hands were free, he went to work on the leg irons, but found that the handcuff key was useless in opening them.
Still, with the cuffs off, he was free of the chain and could move around, although, due to the leg irons, his movement was restricted to a hesitant shuffling gait, but he had made his way to the door to see if he could breach it.
It was useless.
The door was thick, made of metal, and he had seen on his way inside the freezer that there were two iron bars slid across its width to keep it from opening.
He would not break out, but he would also not give up.
That was why he was clinging to a pipe after having climbed up the chain hand over hand, to investigate what the ceiling had to offer and in particular, he was interested in the large cooling fan attached there, which sat above the door.
The chain he climbed was padlocked to the length of metal strut that supported the heavy machine and he felt the whole structure shake with every pull he gave.
Tanner guessed that the machine weighed over three-hundred pounds and despite the fact that sixteen separate screws, washers, and nuts held it to its support strut, the strut itself was attached to the ceiling by only eight long bolts, two of which were ready to fall out, while three of the remaining six were loose.
Not too surprising, Tanner thought, because he had been listening to the frequent rumble of subway cars since entering the room and had surmised that train tracks laid on the other side of the basement wall.
Years, and possibly decades, of day and night vibration generated by the trains had caused the bolts to loosen and several years more would likely cause the machine to come loose and fall from its perch.
Tanner went to work accelerating that process and was blessed with a bit of luck, when he discovered that the inside diameter of the chain links fit snugly over the hexagon-shaped heads of the bolts and could be used like a wrench.
And although it took hours and left his fingertips raw, when he climbed back down the chain he was no longer just a beaten man awaiting his execution, but rather, he was a man with a plan.
CHAPTER 2 - Suicide or death
Tanner had been locked inside the freezer for the better part of a day, when Sara returned and peered through the tempered glass, which was set at eye-level in the door.
Tanner had considered breaking the glass earlier, but the slot was too small to reach an arm through and the glass was reinforced with a wire mesh.
During her absence, Tanner had relieved his bladder and watched the liquid flow down the drain beneath the long table, but with no food or water, he had wondered if Sara had simply left him alone to die of thirst.
When he finally heard the door that led down to the basement squeak upon opening, he got into position and was standing back against the opposite wall where she had previously seen him, and except for the handcuffs laying open on the floor, he looked as defenseless as the last time she saw him.
Sara’s eyes widened when she noticed that his hands were free, but she entered without hesitation and Tanner saw that she was holding a gun.
He was about to kill her when she did something that made him stay his hand.
After opening the door and stepping into the room, Sara leaned down and slid her gun across the floor to him.
“I know you have no reason to trust me, Tanner, but I’m hoping that you’ll at least let me talk, that you’ll hear me out and... I’m hoping that you won’t kill me.”
Tanner stared down at the gun and then back up at her face. She looked like hell and he wondered if Johnny Rossetti’s death was the cause of it, or... was there something else?
Tanner was standing with his arms up and was grasping the chain. He tightened his grip and spoke.
“What’s going on, Blake?”
Sara looked down at the gun and her face showed surprise that he hadn’t reached for it, but then she met his eyes.
“I want to make a deal.”
“What deal and why should I ever trust you again?”
“I could have opened the door and shot you to death or just left you here to die, but instead, I gave you my gun. Doesn’t that tell you that I’m serious, desperate even?”
“Alright, what’s the deal?”
“Your life in exchange for your help, my sister, Jenny, she’s being held for ransom by a group of religious extremists and I want you to get her back, to free her. If anyone could do it, it would be you.”
Tanner adjusted his grip on the chain again, as he pondered her words.
“Where is she being held?”
“She’s... she’s in Guambi.”
“Guambi?”
“It’s a small country located—”
“—near Indonesia, I know and these aren’t normal kidnappers, are they?”
“No, they call themselves the RRK, but it translates to the People’s Freedom Fighters and there are estimated to be hundreds of them.”
“You want me to travel halfway around the world, fight hundreds of armed men and free your sister. Is that the deal you’re offering? It sounds more like a suicide mission, and anyway, isn’t it something the government should be handling?”
“The State Department is in talks with the government there, or rather, what’s left of the government, but the people that have Jenny, my sister, they’ve already killed two hostages, they hacked them to death with machetes and time is running out.”
“Why should I care what happens to your sister? And you’ve already proven that you can’t be trusted.”
Sara stared at him with defiance in her eyes.
“I could have killed you and I didn’t, and I also gave you my gun as proof of my sincerity. I love my sister, Tanner, and you’re the only one I know who would even have a chance of getting her back. If you want me to beg, I’ll do it.”
“Come here.”
“Why?”
“I’ll consider the deal, but I want you to come over here now.”
Sara hesitated for just a second and then walked over and stood before Tanner with a questioning look in her eyes.
He let go of the chain and the massive cooling fan swung down from the ceiling and smashed the spot that Sara had been standing on.
The sudden noise and crash of metal frightened her and she grabbed onto Tanner’s arm without realizing it.
“Good God! That could have crushed me.”
“That was the plan,” Tanner said, as he picked up the gun with one hand and grabbed Sara by the neck with the other.
Sara swallowed a cold lump of fear, as she looked into Tanner’s eyes.
“You’re going to kill me anyway, aren’t you?”
“You stuck a gun in Laurel’s mouth and your own lying lips got Johnny killed.”
Sara’s legs gave out as she began to sob. Tanner released her and then watched as she slid down to the floor.
Her crying was harsh and made of her face an ugly mask, as she fell over onto her side while gripping her hair, as if she meant to rip it from her head.
Tanner stared down at her in bewilderment.
Sara Blake was one of t
he toughest people he had ever known and the only one ever to best him, even if her method to accomplish the task was unconventional. To see her fall apart was unnerving and he found his hatred for her dissipating, to be replaced by pity.
Nearly a minute passed before Sara sat up against the wall. She wiped away tears and mucus with the sleeve of her blouse, and after swallowing several times to clear her throat, she gazed up at Tanner with a sorrowful expression.
“I loved him, Tanner. I loved Johnny and because of me, he’s dead. My sister, Jenny, she always said that my hate for you would destroy me and she was so right, but it destroyed Johnny as well and I’m not sure that I can live with that, so if you want to kill me, just kill me... it’s what I deserve.”
Ten full seconds passed before Tanner spoke and they were seconds in which his finger twitched twice upon the gun’s trigger, but did not squeeze it.
He nodded towards the cooling fan.
“We’ll have to crawl over that thing to get out of here, so I hope you have the key for these leg irons.”
Sara stared up at him for a moment, before reaching into a pocket of her jeans. She then removed the key, leaned over, and freed Tanner from the shackles.
When she stood, she touched Tanner on the arm.
“Will you help me get my sister back? I’ll pay you anything you want.”
“All I want right now is food and a shower, but you can tell me everything you know about what happened to your sister after that.”
Sara headed for the door.
“I have a car outside; we’ll go to my apartment.”
Before he could comment, Sara had climbed over the fallen cooling fan and was headed for the basement steps. Tanner followed, but looked back at the place he thought he might die in, had expected to die in, even after rigging the machine to fall, because Sara could have shot him the instant the door opened, or, simply never have returned and left him to die.
Tanner took a final look, and then he followed Sara up into the fading light of a day he thought might be his last.
CHAPTER 3 - Surreal
Tanner stayed in Sara’s shower a long time, as he washed away the grime of the freezer.
While on the way to her apartment, she had ordered food from a favorite restaurant of hers that offered delivery, and Tanner had eaten steak, along with a salad and baked potato, after first downing four bottles of water.
The TANNER Series - Books 7-9 (Tanner Box Set Book 3) Page 1