Sara moved closer to Garner.
“That might cause Tanner to hit Rossetti somewhere else other than his home. If that happened, Tanner might slip away.”
“We’re talking lives here, Sara.”
“I thought we were partners, Jake?”
“We are, but we’re also talking about slaughter. O’Grady sent a dozen men and Rossetti will have at least that many. If they go at each other it will be brutal.”
“They’ll be thugs killing thugs, who cares?”
“Their families care, and maybe innocents will get hurt, like that girl, Joy.”
“Rossetti’s whore? I think she’s far from innocent.”
“You know what I mean?”
Sara took several steps toward the elevator, then looked back at Garner.
“Are you coming?”
“No.”
“Will you warn Rossetti?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Let it be, Garner,” Sara said.
She walked over and pressed the elevator button, then stepped on when the doors slid aside. Just before the doors closed, she saw Garner staring at her with a face contorted by indecision.
Sara sighed. Who knew the stud had a soft heart?
31
Stress Is A Killer
After giving Rossetti the news of Tanner and O’Grady’s seeming alliance, Ramone feared for his life, as he saw the murderous glint in his boss’s eyes.
“You just gave him the money without a fight?”
Ramone spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
“We were in the middle of a crowd of shoppers. If I went for my gun it would have been on the news, and then we’d have all kind of heat come down on us.”
“Fifty fucking thousand dollars and Tanner is still out there.”
“He’s coming, and he’s coming here with O’Grady’s men. In fact, he had Preston with him at the mall.”
Rossetti laughed, and the suddenness of it unnerved Ramone even more.
“Some Colorado cow pie thinks he can send a few troops here and I’ll have a fainting spell and cough up a million. The man must be crazy. How many guys are here?”
“Besides myself, fifteen, counting those two brothers who lost Tanner to O’Grady’s men.”
“Place those two at the front door. When O’Grady attacks, they’ll be the first ones whacked and we won’t lose any good men.”
“There’s one more thing. That hot FBI agent is back. I spotted her watching the place from across the highway.”
“Hopefully, when the shit goes down she’ll get hers, useless bitch. All she cares about is catching Tanner.”
“Al.”
“What?”
“You can still leave. Everything is set, including the ATV.”
“I’m not running, not yet, my guys will handle this.”
“That’s what you said about Aldo.”
Rossetti groaned. “Go check on things; I need time to think.”
When Ramone left the office, Rossetti went to the closet in the corner of the room and stared at the back wall, which was the entrance to his escape tunnel. It comforted him to know he could run if needed.
After pouring a glass of Scotch, he went to the window behind his desk and stared out at the pool, hoping that the sight of the blue water would soothe him.
He didn’t fear O’Grady, or even Tanner, but he was not a young man anymore and he could feel the stress eating at him. He rubbed his temples in an attempt to halt the headache forming behind his eyes.
“My boys will stop Tanner,” he mumbled to himself, but the words sounded as false as a promise. When he wiped his brow, his hand came away slick with sweat.
There was a knock on the door, and after Rossetti yelled, “Come in!” Joy entered the room.
“Mr. Rossetti?”
“What?”
“Can I talk to you, sir? There’s something I want to ask you.”
Rossetti stared at her. Joy had been out at the pool earlier and she still wore a red bikini beneath a pink silk robe, which showed off her long legs.
Rossetti took his seat, told her to close the door, and gestured her over. She was just what he needed to relieve the stress.
At the door, Joy took a deep breath knowing what was coming, but also knowing that afterwards, the fat man might be more agreeable to her request.
She smiled the practiced smile of the whore and walked over to stand in front of Rossetti.
“Get naked and suck me off,” he said.
Joy removed what little she wore and dropped to her knees, to begin unzipping his pants.
As she worked on him, Rossetti reached atop the desk, removed the belt from Joy’s robe, and played with the sash between his hands, enjoying the feel of the silk as she pleasured him.
The entire act took less than ten minutes, and as Rossetti sat slumped in his chair with the slack look of satisfaction on his round face, Joy decided to ask her question.
“Can I leave? I heard that there might be trouble and I don’t want to get caught in the middle.”
“Who said there might be trouble?”
Joy gave a little shrug. “It’s just talk.”
“Don’t I pay you enough?” Rossetti asked.
Joy heard the anger creeping into his voice. She smiled and began massaging his limp member between her hands.
“You’re very generous; it’s just that I’m scared.”
Rossetti narrowed his eyes and looped the sash from the robe around her neck.
“Why are you scared?”
“I heard some men were coming here to cause trouble,” Joy said, and tugged at the sash, which had begun to tighten.
“Are you saying that I can’t protect my turf?”
“No sir, I would never—”
“You think a bunch of clodhoppers from the Rockies can just come here and dictate to me, is that what you think?”
Joy shook her head as she tried to yank the sash free from her throat, but Rossetti had tightened it to the point that she could barely breathe.
She wheezed out words from a face that was turning red.
“Please, don’t… I, I have a, a little girl.”
Rossetti gnashed his teeth and pulled harder. “Is she a worthless whore like you, a fucking worthless whore who wants to run at the first sign of trouble?”
Joy’s eyes bulged. She grabbed Rossetti’s wrists and attempted to break his hold. He was too strong and she gave up that tactic, then hit him. When her right hand brushed his penis, she was struck by two thoughts. First, was her surprise that the violence had aroused him to hardness, and second, was that it made him vulnerable.
Joy grabbed hold of Rossetti with both hands and dug her nails into his flesh.
Rossetti let out a cry of pain and shoved her away, before standing and feeling his penis for damage. A visual check was out of the question, as his gut stuck out too far for him to see it without a mirror.
Joy ripped the belt from her throat as she gasped in air. She had made it to her hands and knees when the first kick landed.
There was an audible CRACK! as two ribs on her left side broke. The pain made her roll over onto her back. Rossetti smiled, raised his foot high, and stomped down with his full force and weight on Joy’s stomach. Joy screamed and doubled up in agony. That’s when the foot left her midsection and collided with her chin, snapping her head back and bouncing it off the floor.
That kick was followed by more kicks that broke several teeth, her nose and her right eye socket. Every time she cried out in pain, it only enraged him more.
By the time Rossetti finished his assault, he was drenched in sweat, wheezing as if he’d run for miles, and Joy had been dead for nearly a minute.
He sent a gob of frothy spit onto the body as he spoke in a gasping breath.
“You wanted… out… you’re out.”
He headed for the bathroom on the right side of the room to clean up, while leaving bloody shoe prints in his wake.
> 32
Goodbyes
Tanner said goodbye to Billy and Cindy in the parking lot of the Greyhound bus station on South Main Street.
They were standing outside the motor home and Billy wore a backpack with the cash inside. It was money Tanner had tricked out of Hank O’Grady.
Cindy gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, while Billy pumped his hand and thanked him yet again for giving them money for a fresh start.
“You have that address I gave you?”
“Yeah, Tanner, but do you really think Cindy and I need new identities?”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry, and with a new ID, O’Grady will never find you. It won’t be cheap though, expect to spend a good chunk of that cash.”
Cindy wiped away tears. “I’ll miss you, Tanner. Be careful at Rossetti’s.”
Tanner smiled at her. He liked Cindy, and that was something he couldn’t say about many people.
“You two take care of each other, this world’s a bitch.”
They sent him a wave and walked off toward the entrance to the train station, which was adjacent to the bus terminal.
Tanner went back inside the motor home and stared at Buck, who was sitting at the table.
Buck swallowed hard. “You weren’t lying were you, about letting me go?”
Tanner reached into his side pocket and took out a thick wad of bills. It was what was left of the money he’d taken off the pimp he killed.
He handed it to Buck and Buck took it as if it might bite him.
“You’re giving me money?”
“You never got paid by O’Grady, and you did good work for me.”
Buck looked down at the pile of cash. “You pay well, and this will give me a good start in L.A. Thanks.”
Tanner walked over and opened the door. “Break a leg.”
Buck headed down the motor home’s metal steps, then looked up at Tanner.
“Thanks Tanner, and you know what, I might write a screenplay about all this someday.”
Tanner shook his head. “No one would believe it.”
Buck laughed at that, and then he was off with a wave.
Tanner got behind the wheel of the mammoth vehicle and headed for Rossetti’s, however, he did make one stop along the way, where he bought four bags of ice from a liquor store.
With that chore done, he was back on the road, confident that he would finally fulfill his contract on Rossetti.
33
Thank God For Power Windows
Joe Preston was sitting on the side of the bed in a motel room with several of O’Grady’s men standing around him.
He had put off making the call as long as he could, but eventually he called O’Grady, and the rancher tore him a new asshole over the phone.
“Let me get this straight. You lost a man, you gave away my money to another man, Billy Benton is still walking around, and you have no fucking idea where Cindy is. Do I have that right, Joe?”
“We know where Cindy is, we’re still tracking her phone, but the thing is, she’s at Rossetti’s house and he has men there.”
“He has men? I have men, or don’t you remember the twelve goddamn guys I sent with you?”
“Hank, do you really want to start a war out here?”
“I want my money back. I want Billy out of the way, and I want Cindy’s ass back here so I can stop hearing my son whine about her. Do what it takes, Joe, but bring that girl back here, and don’t think that the money isn’t coming out of your ass too.”
“Hank, I—”
“Enough of you, is Drake there? Put Drake on.”
Preston held up the phone and spoke to a bearded man dressed all in denim.
“He wants to speak to you.”
The man took the phone with a grin on his face.
“It’s me, Hank.”
“The thousand-dollar bonus just became two grand each, but I want you to move on Rossetti as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more men he’ll be able to call in.”
“How many guys does this Rossetti have?”
Preston overheard the question and answered.
“Buck said Rossetti had six men protecting him.”
Drake rubbed a hand across his beard. “This shit could get serious, Hank. I mean, we’ll probably have to shoot our way in there.”
“I know that, but here’s what you do. You make sure Rossetti starts things first, that way it’ll be self-defense. Afterwards, we’ll claim that Cindy was kidnapped and that it was a rescue mission. The man already demanded a million dollars for her, so we’ll call it a ransom. If the cops get involved, blame everything on Preston. Hell, it’s his daughter.”
“That’s smart, and it should cover our asses too.”
“All right, put Joe back on.”
Preston took the phone from Drake and looked at it a second before placing it to his ear.
“Yes, Hank?”
“If you don’t come back here with Cindy, don’t come back at all. And remember, Billy is your responsibility. Don’t fuck this up, Joe. If you do, you’ll not only be out of a job and homeless, but I might ask the law to look into what happened to your wife. You get me?”
“I understand. Goodbye, Hank.”
Drake stared down at Preston. “We’re doing this, right?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
They piled out of the room, gathered the rest of their men, and headed their caravan of rented trucks down the highway. And as they drove along, Preston vomited out the window.
34
The Truth
Sara tensed up as a car came to a hard stop behind her, but when she saw Garner at the wheel, she relaxed.
The handsome FBI agent left his vehicle and slid into Sara’s passenger seat.
She smiled at him. “Thank you for sticking with me.”
Garner pointed across the road at Rossetti’s house.
“I can still walk over there and warn Rossetti that this whole thing is a set up, and I will if you don’t tell me the truth.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I talked to Marty Brewer. He told me you passed up a spot on the Terrorism Task Force last year so you could stay on Tanner’s trail. Most agents would kill to get on that team rather than chase some two-bit hit man.”
Sara gave a sarcastic laugh. “Two-bit hit man? You really have no idea who you’re after, do you?”
“I’ll admit it, he’s left quite a trail behind him today as far as body count goes, but every one of those men was out to kill him, or so he thought. That would make it self-defense.”
“What about the pimp yesterday? He murdered him and the others for their money and vehicle.”
“There’s no proof that was Tanner, although it likely was.”
“It was him. He chose to go up against three armed men rather than rob a store for money. It’s because he has no fear. And the bastard always wins, no matter the odds, that son of a bitch just keeps coming out on top.”
“He’s been extremely lucky, but it will run out someday.”
Sara’s gaze turned hot and her face flushed with anger as she stabbed a finger at Garner.
“You’ve read the reports, the intelligence gathered; you can’t possibly believe he’s not who he claims to be. Luck can’t explain the things he’s done.”
Garner cast a cynical look her way as he realized what she was asking.
“The legend of Tanner? That myth has been around for about a hundred years. This Tanner is not the latest in a long line of elite assassins, Sara. He’s just another hit man.”
“I’ll admit that much of it is supposition, but it’s a mountain of supposition. Maybe advance training explains what makes him so good, and so hard to kill.”
“He’s exceptionally hard to kill, and he’s smart; I’ll grant you that. Despite what we suspect about him, he’s never left a print behind at a murder site, including today. Hell, he’d never even been arrested until the Mexicans caught him with those drugs. Even now,
no one knows his name. All we know is that he calls himself Tanner.”
“Bullshit legend or not, he’s killed dozens over the years, and goddamn it, Tanner killed Brian. He killed my… my CI.”
Garner watched with sympathy as tears rolled down Sara’s cheeks.
He reached over and took her hand. “Brian Ames wasn’t just your CI, was he? He was your lover, and I’m guessing that you loved him very much.”
Sara squeezed her eyes shut in a vain attempt to hold back the tears. Seeing the pain etched on her face, Garner knew he had guessed the truth.
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go, then passed over the box of tissues that were sitting in the car’s center console.
“We’ll get Tanner, Sara. We’ll sit back and let this war happen and then we’ll use it to hang Tanner with, and he’ll spend the rest of his life rotting behind bars.”
Sara had composed herself. She looked over at Garner with eyes that were red from crying.
“Three meals a day in a comfy cell, do you think that’s justice?”
Garner sighed. “I think it’s all we’ve got and that it’s not our job to play judge and jury.”
Sara said nothing more. She didn’t give a damn about acting as judge and jury. In her eyes, Tanner was guilty. He had killed the man she loved. It was time to carry out the sentence, and the sentence was death.
She would not act as judge and jury; she would be his executioner.
35
Hookers And Blow
Merle and Earl Carter stood guard outside Rossetti’s home while praying that O’Grady’s men wouldn’t attack.
Ramone had armed them with sawed-off shotguns, which would do them little good if even one of O’Grady’s men had a rifle with a scope.
Merle felt like a sacrificial lamb and figured they were only given the shotguns because the weapons were loud, and if fired, would warn those within the house; the house that provided cover.
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 11