“My boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, Billy. I broke up with him today and he’s been leaving me some really mean text messages since midnight. Well, some are mean, and then in others he begs me to give him another chance.”
“And will you give him a second chance?”
“No, and Chaz Willis already asked me out. I said yes.”
“Chaz, so he’s named after his father?”
“Um-hmm, and he’s so cute.”
Tanner sat across from Romina. “Would you like some advice?”
“Yeah?”
“Stop reading the messages this Billy sends you. You broke up with him and that’s that. Besides, don’t you have to take a math test in a few hours?”
Romina yawned. “I do, trigonometry, and I’d better get some sleep. I’ll also turn off my phone.”
She rose from her seat and kissed Tanner on the cheek. “Goodnight, and you should get some sleep too.”
“I caught a few hours earlier.”
Romina looked out at the darkness. “Do you really think someone might try to hurt us?”
“I don’t know, but if they come I’ll be ready for them.”
“Better safe than sorry, hmm?”
“Yes, better safe than sorry.”
And Tanner knew from personal experience that sorry never went away.
He watched Romina return inside and then continued his night of vigilance.
208
Sometimes A Rock Is All You Need
THE PARKER RANCH, SEPTEMBER 1997
They came just after three a.m. on a Saturday night.
All four men carried silenced Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns and were dressed in black.
They had parked their stolen vehicle at the mouth of the Parker driveway, and then walked in.
The home was dark and everyone inside was asleep. There had been a time, in decades past, when men, ranch employees, would have been asleep in the old bunkhouse, but that dilapidated structure had sat vacant for many years. The ranch hands all had homes of their own to go to when the day’s work was done.
However, the Parkers did have at least one employee on site, and his name was Tanner. Tanner, who had been awake, had heard the car doors opening and closing, and had positioned himself behind a tree where the driveway began.
The four shapes gliding toward him looked like shadows, and whatever they wore on their feet made very little sound as they moved across the gravel.
Tanner waited until they were ten yards away and opened fire with his .40 Smith & Wesson. The two men on the left went down with head wounds, then Tanner moved away just in time to avoid the barrage of bullets the other two men fired.
The pff! pff! pff! pff! pff! of their sound-suppressed shots was nearly as unnerving as the bullets themselves. Tanner knew these weren’t cowboys from McKay’s ranch, but professional killers like himself.
The remaining two men emerged from the driveway with each of them spraying bullets in a wide arc, three of which struck very close to Tanner, where he hid from sight behind the rear tire of Frank Parker’s pickup truck.
Tanner fired again, and although it took several shots, he killed a third man. The remaining man closed in on his position, but Tanner had already sprinted for a new place to take cover, as the man’s gun went dry.
He had been headed for a wide tree near the fence and away from the house, but the last man changed magazines so quickly that Tanner found himself forced to dive for cover behind a large wheelbarrow, which he tipped on its side.
It was damn poor cover, but the 9mm bullets did ping off the thick steel with a sound that reminded Tanner of a bell ringing.
He returned fire without hitting the man, then had to change the magazine in his own gun. As he did so, he heard the man sprinting his way while still firing.
One of the man’s shots ricocheted off the lip of the wheelbarrow and just grazed Tanner’s gun, causing him to fumble it. Tanner expected that at any moment the man would fire over the top of the wheelbarrow and blow him away.
A voice cried out from the barn and the man with the gun grunted, as a rock slammed into the side of his head, halting him for just a moment.
It was Pablo. He had awakened from the sound of Tanner’s gun and gave aid with the only weapon he could find. Frank Parker had offered the boy his guest room, but Pablo refused and returned to the barn.
Tanner was happy he had done so, as his sudden appearance and audacious attack gave him the time he needed to reload. Tanner slammed the new magazine home and was ready to fire when a shot boomed from the bedroom window of Cody Parker. The round hit the last of Martillo’s men square in the back, severing his spine and killing him.
Tanner looked up in time to see Cody slide down the roof of the porch and drop to the ground in a crouch at the side of the steps. Cody was barefoot and wearing only a pair of blue boxer shorts, however, his eyes were alert and his rifle ready.
“How many more?” Cody called to him.
Tanner stood. “Your man was the last, and thanks for that. I’m not sure I would have shot him in time. I also owe thanks to Pablo for giving me a chance to reload.”
Cody came out of his crouch and saw the other man lying dead past the truck. “There were two of them?” Cody said, as Pablo came over to join them.
“Four,” Tanner said. “I killed the first two while they were still coming down the driveway.”
“I only heard one gun, and that ringing noise.”
“Their weapons had suppressors; the damn things barely made a sound.”
The front door flew open and Frank Parker stepped out holding a large revolver. Like his son, he was dressed only in a pair of boxers. The sound of the baby crying carried from inside the house.
“Tanner, what’s going on?”
“Four armed men attacked, Mr. Parker. But don’t worry, they’re all dead.”
Parker spotted his son. “Are you all right? And how did you beat me downstairs?”
“I left by the window in my bedroom, and that last man over there was mine.”
“But you’re all right?”
“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine.”
“How about Pablo there, and Tanner?”
“We’re good, Frank,” Tanner said, then he tousled Pablo’s hair, causing the boy to grin. “And Pablo helped too. If he hadn’t distracted that last shooter I might be dead.”
“I’ll go call the sheriff, and Tanner, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, but I don’t think this is over. McKay is insane and needs to be put down.”
Frank paused before entering the house.
“We’ll talk later.”
The sheriff showed up just before four a.m.
He was out of uniform and wearing jeans that looked like they’d spent a week in a clothes hamper. His face grew paler with each body he viewed.
“These dudes are all Mexican by the look of them, and my brother doesn’t have any damn Mexicans working for him.”
“He hired them, just like he tried to hire me,” Tanner said.
“That’s a goddamn lie! I tell you my brother isn’t fool enough to do something like this. Frank, you must have made another enemy somewhere, maybe a Mexican?”
“I have one enemy, Sheriff, and that’s your brother. At least, he thinks he’s my enemy. As far as I’m concerned the man can go to hell.”
The sheriff waved his hands in the air as if to signal the end of the discussion. “Enough. My people will clean up this nightmare and then I’ll post a deputy out front for the next few nights. After that, well, we’ll see.”
When the sheriff walked off, Cody shook his head. “Mr. McKay has to go, or we’ll never be safe.”
Tanner silently agreed, and while the sheriff had his deputy guarding the Parkers, Tanner planned to pay a visit to McKay and put an end to things, the law be damned.
“It’ll all work out, Cody, trust me.”
However, Tanner’s words couldn’t have been more wrong.
209
&n
bsp; Home Is Where The Heart Is
The next “accident” at the Reyes Ranch occurred the following morning, when the housekeeper, Mrs. Salgado, opened a cabinet door and a butcher knife fell out and sliced open her forearm just above the wrist. The knife had been poised on a slanted cutting board in such a way as to make it fall. The cut was a deep gash that hit the vein and sent blood spurting.
Maria had been coming down the hall. After hearing the old woman cry out in shock and pain, she rushed into the kitchen.
“Madre de Dios!”
Maria grabbed a dish towel that was hanging nearby and tried to put pressure on the flow of blood. She cried out for someone to help while watching the white towel turn red.
Tanner and Doc rushed in from where they had been seated on the porch. Their guns were at the ready, but when Doc saw what was happening, he put his gun down, took off his belt, and wrapped it tightly around Mrs. Salgado’s arm, which he elevated above her head.
The blood flow lessened immediately, and Doc used a second dishtowel to apply pressure to the cut.
Romina appeared wearing a blue bath towel. She had been in the shower when all the shouting started. Her hair still dripped shampoo. When she was told what had happened to Mrs. Salgado, she looked over at the cabinet with a puzzled expression.
“How could that happen?”
“I was wondering the same thing,” Tanner said, as he dialed for an ambulance.
Mrs. Salgado, with her face looking very pale, murmured that it was an accident. However, the knife had fallen from the cabinet above the stove, when it should have been in its slot inside the knife set on the counter.
Before she climbed aboard the ambulance to ride to the hospital with Mrs. Salgado, Maria gave Doc a hug.
“Oh, thank God you were here, or I think she might have bled to death.”
“I was happy to help,” Doc said.
Maria smiled. “You have a job here if you still want it. Hopefully, I won’t need security much longer, but there’s always work that needs doing.”
Doc grinned. “Yes ma’am. That sounds fine.”
Maria climbed aboard the ambulance and Tanner watched it drive off, as Romina and Doc stood beside him. Romina had changed into her clothes, but still needed to do her hair, which was hidden beneath a kerchief. When she checked her phone, she looked startled.
“Oh, look at the time; I have to leave for school soon.”
“I’ll be here when you’re ready, and we’ll stop and get you breakfast on the way,” Tanner said.
“Okay.”
Romina took two steps, but she came back and kissed Doc on the cheek. “You’re not too old, and you’re my hero for saving Mrs. Salgado.”
Doc watched her go with a smile on his face. “That girl is gold, and nothing like that brother of hers. By the way, where is he?”
“He left out of here just after first light,” Tanner said.
“The kid is lazy, seems like all he does is sit in that room of his and play video games, that is, when he’s not off riding that motorcycle.”
“I’m going to run a little errand today and won’t be back right away.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to locate the Harvey brothers and find out what they know. If that knife had hit the old woman’s throat, she’d be dead. And it could just have easily been Romina who opened that cabinet.”
“You want me to come with you? I’m not much with a gun, but I could back you up.”
“Thanks, but I’ll go alone. Things could get… messy.”
“I hear you, and speaking of messes, I’ll clean up the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee for when Maria gets back.”
“It looks like you’ve found a home here.”
“You could probably make one here too if you wanted to.”
“What?”
“A home, you could probably make a home here too.”
“Home,” Tanner said, and as he looked around, his mind traveled backwards in time, to when the land he stood upon was owned by the Parkers, and he became lost in thought.
“Tanner?”
Tanner snapped out of his reverie and was surprised to see Romina standing before him.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine, are you ready?”
“Um-hmm, bye Doc.”
“Have a good day at school, sweetie, and Tanner, take care.”
Tanner drove away from the ranch with the girl, Romina, seated beside him, but it was a boy named Cody Parker that rode along with him, and who would stay with him the rest of his life.
210
Many Pawns
THE MCKAY RANCH, SEPTEMBER 1997
After learning about the slaughter of Martillo’s men, Jack Sheer informed McKay that there would be consequences. After contacting Martillo by phone using a number he’d been given, they learned how expensive those consequences would be.
McKay leaned over his desk and glared at Sheer, who sat in a chair in front of it with his crutches leaning against his legs. The two men had been in San Antonio so they would have an alibi, only to return and find that things didn’t go as planned.
“A hundred grand? Is this beaner insane?”
“Two of the men that died were his nephews, but on the bright side, he now wants the Parkers dead more than you do.”
“Big deal. That’s what I paid him for. If this Martillo asshole thinks I’m paying him another cent, he can go fuck himself.”
“I know it’s a lot of money, but Martillo, he’s part of a cartel down there. Andy, those bastards don’t mess around.”
“Cartel? So what? This is America. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay a man more money for screwing up a job. Those men that got killed must not have been very good. If he wants to send more of those losers against me, let him, I’ll have a dozen men guarding me at all times.”
“That’s expensive.”
“Hell yeah, but it don’t cost a hundred grand, and if he does attack, it’ll make me look innocent of the attack on Parker.”
“You really want me to tell him no?”
McKay grabbed the receiver off the phone on his desk, but then remembered that phone records could be traced.
“Go back into town and make the call. Tell that bastard that I said he can fuck himself.”
Sheer let out a sigh, stood with the aid of his crutches, and grabbed his hat off the desk.
“I think you’re making a mistake, but you’re the boss.”
“Damn right I am. And send Whit in here. I’ll have him and some of the boys work overtime as guards starting tonight. If that Mex tries anything, we’ll be ready.”
Sheer cursed and then winced in pain, as he accidentally slammed the door of the phone booth on his cast. When he was finally settled inside the cramp enclosure, he took the strip of paper with the phone number from his pocket and dialed the bar in Mexico. He had filled his pockets with change before leaving the ranch, but the call still ate up most of it and only a quarter remained by the time he finished feeding the phone.
The money bought him three minutes of talk time. He grew nervous when two minutes passed and Martillo had still not come on the line. But with less than thirty seconds left, he heard a scraping sound, as if the phone was being moved across a surface. It was followed by Martillo’s soft voice.
“Jack, what answer does your king have for me?”
“He won’t pay. He says it’s not his fault that your men failed.”
“I will come with many pawns, Jack, and the board will be swept clean.”
“This isn’t me, Martillo, you know? You and I are still cool.”
“You’re a pawn, Jack. If you stand near your king, you’ll leave the board too.”
There was a click and the phone went dead.
Sheer took the final quarter from his pocket and fed it into the phone. After a few seconds, McKay answered his call.
“Andy, about those guards, you might want to add as many as you can; Martillo is
definitely coming.”
“Let him come,” McKay snarled, and afterwards, Sheer heard the phone slam down.
He stood inside the phone booth with its little fan whirring overhead above its dim light. Two words kept passing through his mind.
Many pawns.
Sheer sighed in resignation to his fate, then left the booth to return to his king’s side.
211
Hard Or Easy?
Tanner found the Harvey brothers sitting inside their truck outside Stark Lake Park. After watching them for only a few minutes, he could tell they were selling pot.
The law enforcement in the town was never good, and it looked like the tradition continued. Either that, or the cops that patrolled the park were being paid to look the other way.
Stark Lake Park was a new addition to the town since Tanner had last been there. It was only about twelve acres of land, while the lake was man-made and about four times the size of a swimming pool. However, there was a running track, along with basketball and tennis courts.
The Harvey brothers were situated on a corner with a line of parked cars behind them. When Tanner pulled his pickup truck in front of them on an angle, the boys were essentially blocked in. Tanner reached the driver’s side window before either of them could react.
“Relax, all I want is information.”
“Fuck you,” Rich said, as Ernie gazed at him with fear in his eyes, while remembering how it felt not to be able to breathe. Tanner saw that Ernie’s throat was still bruised from where he had struck him.
“You can tell me what I want to know, or you can play dumb. If you play dumb, I’ll come at you again when you’re not expecting it, then I’ll ask my questions in a way you won’t like. What’s it going to be?”
Rich glared at him, but Ernie spoke up. “What do you want to know?”
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 66