“The odds are 365 to 1,” Trent said.
“What? No, it’s got to be more than that.”
“Actually, you’re right; the correct odds are 365¼ to 1, because you have to also account for leap years.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Dying on the same day you were born are long odds, but hardly astronomical. Also, many suicides occur on anniversaries, birthdays included, so I suspect the odds are lower still.”
“I always heard you were smart, Trent, plus you called it on Richards’ girl showing up here.”
“That last part didn’t take intelligence; I simply know her well.”
“Were you two ever close?”
“Not as close as I’d have liked,” Trent said.
At the tree, Madison fell into Tim’s arms and he stroked her hair and kissed her gently.
“It looks like Timmy boy there has gotten pretty close to her though, hmm?”
“Very observant,” Trent hissed, as a murderous rage simmered inside him.
140
Money!
Jack Landstrom thought it was ironic.
He had cancelled a date to see a movie with his girlfriend, only to take a job where he wound up spending hours sitting in a movie theater parking lot.
There were three other men with him. Two of which he had worked with before and another man named Kalen.
The two men Jack had worked with were named Red and Silver. Red was called Red because everyone thought he was Russian. He was really half-Polish and half-Lithuanian, and whatever he was, his real name was too damn hard to pronounce, so he was just called Red.
Silver was easy to figure. The guy had a mane of silver hair and a beard to match. Jack liked working with them because they didn’t give him any shit and always let him run things.
However, Kalen bothered Jack, because Kalen seemed jumpy, and he was young, not that young is bad necessarily, but seasoned is better. Plus, the dude smoked, which made Jack want to smoke again, and he hadn’t had a cigarette since quitting a month earlier.
But what the hell, Kalen was Silver’s friend and the job should be a piece of cake.
He had watched the man with the spiked blond hair walk back to his car with the hot redhead, and he was unimpressed. The dude was… normal, just a normal-looking guy, and the contact had said he was a hard case. Jack had expected to see a guy like himself, six-five, two-twenty, and all of it muscle. This Romeo might be good with a gun, but they were four and he was one, and if things got physical, he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Then Jack realized that Romeo had spotted them and became pissed. The plan had been to follow them back to the house and wait until they were deep asleep. Then, they would enter the house, waste them, and bury the bodies.
That would have been good, nice and easy. Plus, Jack had planned to let his men have fun with the redhead before they killed her, like a bonus.
As he gave chase, Jack had been thinking, What the hell, we’ll just waste them out here on the road and go home early.
They each carried an AR-15 with a full magazine of thirty cartridges. The new plan was to force Romeo and the girl off the road, then they would light them up and haul ass away.
The Jeep was stolen and wore plates taken off another vehicle, so as soon as they did the hit, they would dump it and steal another car, along with another set of plates. Afterwards, they would drive back to the meeting point and wait for the rest of their money to be paid.
However, after Romeo made a suicidal lane change, Jack found himself falling behind. Afterward, a truck moved into the lane he was about to use to pass, and he had to sit and watch his target’s car put distance between them. Jack feared that they might lose them.
That’s when Romeo did a dumb thing. He skidded his vehicle to a stop off the side of the road, and he and the girl made a run toward a group of trees, hoping to get away.
Not a wise move.
There was a lake there or something, and there weren’t enough trees to get lost in.
“We got ‘em now!” Jack told his crew, and after parking, they went in pursuit on foot, the rifles held close, but ready, beneath their jackets.
“Does anybody see them?” Jack asked, as he slid down the slope.
“No,” Silver said. “But what’s that on the ground over there?”
They had all spotted it at the same time; you couldn’t miss it. The thing was bright orange and seemed to glow beneath the moonlight. But it was Kalen who first saw what was inside.
“Shit. Look! There’s money.”
Jack had time later to recall how stupid he’d been, not much time, but enough to curse himself.
Two thick bundles of cash were sitting inside the open box. The sight of the money made not only Jack, but also Red and Silver gather beside Kalen.
They weren’t completely foolish about it though, they did swivel their heads about to see where their prey had run to. There was no one around, but the money caught their eyes, made them group together, and sealed their fates.
Tanner exploded from the murky lake, and before his eyes had even cleared of the water running down his face, he sent a burst of gunfire to the spot where he’d left the box.
One man fell with two fatal wounds to his side. It was a guy with silver hair, and his gun bounced and landed in the water. Tanner had hit two of the other men in the leg, as his first shots had been low. They both stayed standing and took a bead on him.
Before they could shoot, Sophia came up gasping and firing. Her initial shots were high, but one of them clipped the largest of the men just above the left ear, writing a red line across the side of his head. He and the other men ducked while firing wildly.
That’s when Tanner fired a shot that struck the young guy in the crown of his head, as the fool bent over to try to grab the money from the box.
The man collapsed backwards into another man, one who looked foreign, and knocked him back against the trunk of a small tree. As that was happening, Sophia had shot the big man in his gun arm twice, which caused him to drop his weapon and scream.
Tanner changed magazines and rushed toward the man pinned beneath the young guy, but he slipped when he was halfway there, due to the mud coating the bottom of his shoes.
The stumble saved him from being wounded. The trapped man had managed to keep his gun and he had fired off two shots where Tanner had been.
Tanner returned fire and wounded the man in the side. That made the man arch his back from the pain, which shifted the corpse that lay atop him. It sent what was left of the young man’s brains leaking into his open mouth.
The foreign-looking man sputtered, spit, and dropped the gun, so that he could use both hands to clear away the gore. While he was doing that, he cursed in a language that Tanner recognized as Polish.
Tanner stood above him with his gun pointed at the man’s face, as Sophia held her gun on the big man. Meanwhile, across the lake, people were coming out onto their decks to see what was going on.
Tanner spoke to the man in Polish and asked him who sent them.
“Kto wysłał do nas zabić?”
Sophia did a double take at Tanner, but kept her gun aimed at the big man, who was lying on the ground and bleeding from his scalp and arm wounds.
The foreign-looking man stared up at him, surprise mixing with pain on his features.
“I speak English too, asshole.”
“Then answer the question.”
“Fuck you!”
Tanner kicked the corpse aside and fired a shot into the man’s heart. He then moved over to the big man and asked the same question, this time in English.
“Who sent you to kill us?”
“The Conglomerate, but I don’t know any names. It’s all handled online, and I’m sorry, dude, really, just let me go, please? I told you what you wanted to know.”
Sophia answered the man by shooting him in the chest twice.
The big man let out a moan, murmured something that sounded like, “St
upid,” and died.
Tanner scooped up the box with the money in it and he and Sophia reentered the trees and disappeared.
141
Never See It Coming
Gary pulled the van over to the side of the road, as he and Trent watched Tim’s vehicle wind along the gravel driveway that led to the farmhouse.
“Shit, that was a hike,” Gary said. “And I was hoping that we would follow them back to the city.”
They could no longer see the car after it made the first turn along the driveway but knew that there must be a house beyond the trees.
“We’ll give them time to settle in and fall asleep, then we’ll go in on foot and break into the house.”
Gary shook his head. “I’m not creeping around out in the sticks in the dark. Plus, we have no idea how many people are inside the house. Suppose they’re not alone?”
“What do you want to do, wait out here all night?”
“Screw that, we passed a motel two miles back. I say we go there, get some sleep and be back here right after the sun comes up.”
Trent gazed out at the driveway leading to the farmhouse. He was so close to seeing Madison again and clearing his name, but Gary’s words did make sense.
“What if they leave in the middle of the night?”
“Let them. We now know what they drive and where they live. Besides, why would they run? They think they’re safe here.”
“All right, but I want to be back here at first light.”
“Sounds good, but I also want to stop somewhere and grab breakfast before we come back. I’m tired of eating crap. I want some real food.”
“If I’m not mistaken, there was a diner near the motel, and you’re not alone in wanting a hot meal.”
Gary started the engine and looked over at Trent. All things considered, he liked the kid, and decided that when the time came, he would kill him in such a way so that he’d never see it coming.
After dropping Johnny off, Joe Pullo drove around for a while, but when he stopped moving, he found himself parked in front of Laurel Ivy’s townhouse. There was a light on upstairs, so he knew she was still awake.
Pullo, like Tanner, had never shied away from violence and had nerves of iron when involved in a firefight. The same could not be said when it came to affairs of the heart, and he feared being rejected.
He hadn’t been thinking of getting close to Laurel, of dating her, not in the beginning. He had only sought to comfort her over losing Tanner, a pain he too suffered from, and one that surprised him.
He had always liked Tanner, but the loss was like the loss of a brother, and the shared grief had bonded him and Laurel together as friends.
His growing feelings for Laurel left him equally surprised and although she seemed affectionate toward him at times, he never wanted her to think that his attempts at offering solace for her loss had been a sneaky way to move in on her.
After sitting in the Hummer for ten minutes, he walked up the concrete steps and rang her bell. By the time she came to the door, his palms were sweaty.
“Joe, hi, is something wrong?”
Pullo felt like an idiot, because it just occurred to him that she might not be alone. Laurel was young, beautiful, and smart, a Harvard-trained doctor for God’s sake, she must have men lining up.
He held up a hand and sighed. “This was a bad idea; I didn’t realize how late it was.”
Laurel stepped out on the small brick porch in her robe and slippers and took a good look at Pullo.
“Something is wrong. What is it?”
“It… it has to do with Sam, Sam Giacconi.”
“Oh God, he hasn’t died, has he?”
“In a way,” Pullo said, and as he said it, he could feel his eyes moisten.
Laurel took him by the hand. “Come inside.”
“You sure? It’s late.”
“I’m sure, Joe.”
Pullo let her lead him inside, and when she turned to face him after closing the door, he kissed her.
Blocks away, Sara opened her apartment door to find Jake Garner smiling at her.
“Hi, I hope it’s not too late, but I really wanted to talk.”
Garner caught movement behind Sara and saw Johnny Rossetti sitting on a sofa with a bottle of wine and two glasses on the table in front of him. Johnny recognized Garner and smiled, as he raised his glass in a toast.
“Mr. Fed, it’s nice to see you again.”
Garner glared at Johnny before looking back at Sara with dismay lighting his face. “Rossetti? Sara, you can’t be serious. You know what he is.”
“Yes, I do, and I’ve also begun to know who he is as well, and who he is, is a man who doesn’t look at me as if I were mentally incompetent.”
“I never said you weren’t sane, but I do think you need help.”
Sara smirked. “Johnny will be taking care of my needs tonight.”
Garner shook his head in disgust. “You just keep falling down, and when someone offers a hand up, you slap it away, but know this, I’ll still be there if you need a friend.”
“Goodnight, Jake.”
Garner watched the door close in his face and, with a great sigh, he turned and headed toward the elevator.
When the door reopened, he spun around with hope.
“One more thing,” Sara said. “Stay away from my sister.”
And then the door slammed.
Garner stared at it for several seconds before he turned and left the building, with a heart that was as confused as it was broken.
142
Mystery Man
Tanner stepped out of the shower and found Sophia staring at him from the doorway.
After leaving the dead men on the shore of the lake, Tanner returned to the car and grabbed his phone, which he had left behind. With his belongings removed, he checked out the Jeep the hit team had been using. It had been left running and the only personal items inside were a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
He grabbed the lighter as Sophia pleaded with him to leave before the cops showed. She was drenched from the lake, as was Tanner, but Sophia was also barefoot, as her shoes had been claimed by the mud at the lake’s bottom.
Tanner knew that the people across the lake must have reported the gunfire. What he didn’t know was if his vehicle’s license plate had been recorded by a traffic camera. He handed Sophia his “Emergency Kit” and told her to climb into the Jeep.
Afterwards, he grabbed a gallon container of gasoline from his trunk and splashed the fuel inside and outside the car, which was registered under the fake ID he was currently using.
After activating the lighter, he locked the flame on high and tossed it onto the floorboards in front, causing the gas to ignite and fuel a fire that would erase all traces of fingerprints and DNA samples.
Ten seconds later, the Jeep was back in traffic and headed for the nearest exit. After dropping Sophia at home, Tanner dumped the Jeep a mile away from her house, wiped it down, and left it sitting unlocked and with the keys still in the ignition. Fifteen minutes after that, he was back at the house and peeling off his soggy clothes.
“What’s up?” Tanner said.
“Who are you?”
“Are you asking me what my last name is again?”
“No, because that would be as phony as the first name, almost as phony as those tattoos.”
Tanner had been watching Sophia as he dried off, but when he looked down at his arms, he saw that some of the temporary tattoos had begun to fade or smear. Apparently, the word “temporary” was meant to be taken seriously.
He finished drying himself by rubbing the towel over his hair and grabbed the clean pair of boxers he’d brought into the bathroom with him. After putting them on, he gave Sophia a tight smile.
“I guess I’ve overstayed my welcome.”
She went to him and placed her hands atop his bare chest while gazing up into his eyes.
“I don’t want you to leave; I just want a few answers, a, a freaking nam
e. Is that too much to ask, that I know the name of the man I’m—” She sighed, realizing how close she’d come to saying too much, and very likely, the exact wrong thing. When she spoke again, her voice was less pleading.
“You saved my life and I don’t even know who you are, can you at least tell me that?”
“I could, but if I did, it would open up too many questions. And Sophia, there’s really no need to keep going on about this, is there?”
“I don’t understand what you mean?”
“I’m leaving the city tomorrow. I told you that, I never hid that, so just think of me as Romeo and let things be.”
“That car you torched, was it stolen?”
“No, it was legit, but was under a fake ID.”
“And you speak another language, what was that?”
“It was Polish.”
Sophia narrowed her eyes and spoke to him in Italian.
“Si può capire quello che sto dicendo in questo momento?”
“Yes. I can understand what you’re saying.”
Sophia gasped. “How many languages can you speak?”
Tanner slid by her and back to the bedroom where he began to dress.
“What? You’re leaving because I asked you to tell me your name?”
“Like I said, I’ve overstayed my welcome.”
Sophia took him by the hand and gazed into his eyes, as her own eyes searched for something that wasn’t there.
“You’re really just going to walk out and leave things like this, aren’t you?”
She saw it then, not what she wanted to see, but a faint reflection of it.
Tanner kissed her, then he gave her hand a squeeze. “My leaving is the best thing I could do for you. If I stayed past tomorrow, things would go to hell fast, trust me.”
“I do trust you, don’t doubt that, but I don’t understand you one damn bit.”
Tanner let her hand go and gathered what little he had.
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 43