Tanner jerked the man’s head up by pulling his hair. “How much time is left until help arrives?”
It took Manuel a moment to compose himself, but he soon answered. “They are all in New York City.”
Tanner nodded, that was good; it meant he still had time.
“Tell me everything I want to know, and I’ll let you live.”
“You’re lying. You said I killed your friend.”
“Look at me,” Tanner said, and Manuel met his eyes. “I will let you live, but you have to answer every question.”
Manuel saw that Tanner was telling the truth. He nodded his head wildly. “I’ll tell you anything. I want to live.”
Tanner leaned closer. “Tell me about Alonso Alvarado, and I mean everything you know.”
357
A Man Of His Word
OSSINING, NEW YORK 9:49 a.m.
Roberto Simone stepped on a pair of broken eyeglasses that were lying next to a clipboard at the foot of the porch steps.
After walking up the steps, he looked down at the body lying in the doorway and grimaced with disgust. Something had blown the man’s left hand off and had taken most of his head with it.
Roberto had been born in San Diego, but after his parents divorced his mother moved back to Mexico with Roberto and his sister when he was eleven.
He became a Mexico City cop after college but was lured into the drug business while still a rookie. He stayed a cop for ten years but then grew tired of the charade and took a position as one of Juan Alvarado’s bodyguards.
When the call came in from the home in Ossining, Alvarado sent Roberto to check it out. The only call they had received said that it was one man attacking them. Roberto knew that it likely meant Tanner had paid the home a visit.
How Tanner knew where to find the home was another matter, and one that needed looking into.
He had heard the rumors that Tanner was a killing machine and assumed it was all bullshit. Tanner was a man like any other man. That meant he could be killed.
Roberto and his men had faced other men with vaunted reputations and those men were all dead. Tanner would join them when they caught up to the man.
Roberto turned and signaled to two of the three men with him, telling them to go around to the rear. The men took his meaning and headed toward the back while keeping space between them, and as they were doing that, the third man moved closer to Roberto and whispered.
“I hear something. It sounds like someone moaning.”
Roberto listened, then nodded in agreement. “I hear it too; someone must have lived through the attack. It’s coming from deeper inside the house. When we go in, I’ll take the left and you take the right.”
They entered with their guns up and ready and found a second corpse. The man had been caught by the blast from a grenade. He was lying in a puddle of congealing blood with the lower portion of his right leg blown off.
The moaning was coming from the kitchen.
It was Manuel.
He was lying on the floor near the stove.
Tanner had kept his word and let the man live, of course, he had never defined the term “living.”
Manuel had no eyes, was deafened, and Tanner had removed his tongue. The injury to his spine might be treated by medical science, but for now, the man’s back was broken.
Tanner had told Manuel he would leave him alive; he never said he would enjoy it.
The other two men entered the kitchen from the rear of the home and gasped at the horror of Manuel’s condition.
“Madre de Dios, why would someone do this to Manuel?” one of the men asked.
Roberto leaned down closer to Manuel. Manuel was shirtless, and there were words carved on his torso. Roberto read them.
“It’s hard to tell with all the blood, but I think it says, ‘This is for Sophia Verona!’”
The man who had entered with Roberto pointed over at the body slumped in the corner. There was brain matter and drying blood down the front of its shirt, and its head hung down.
“Who is that?”
Roberto shrugged. “Manuel’s cousin, I guess. We found Pedro and Savion up front.”
One of the other men shook his head. “That’s not Manuel’s cousin. Hector is out in the yard.”
And as Roberto looked back at the mystery corpse, he saw it bring up a gun and fire.
Tanner emptied his weapon before any of the men could return fire. He had killed two of the men outright, but Roberto and one of the men who had entered from the rear still lived.
Both were severely wounded, but Roberto was able to reach for a weapon. He had just closed his hand around it when Tanner walked over and kicked him in the face.
The gun slipped from Roberto’s hand and Tanner picked it up and shot the other survivor in the back of the head.
Manuel moaned louder from his place on the floor, but Tanner ignored him and went to Roberto. He reached into the man’s pockets and removed his car keys, wallet, and phone. After looking through the phone, he found a number for Juan Alvarado.
Roberto stared up at him. After he managed to push aside his pain, he spoke.
“You’re Tanner?”
“Yeah.”
“They were right about you… you are good.”
“Good enough,” Tanner said, as he shot Roberto in the face. He then dialed the number for Juan Alvarado.
“Roberto, what’s going on there?”
The voice sounded younger than Tanner thought it would.
“This is Tanner, Alvarado. I’m coming for you.”
There was silence, but then Alvarado spoke. “You’re nothing, Tanner. You’re just one man. I’ll send an army after you, a fucking army. Do you hear me?”
“I’m coming. Tell your father. Once I kill you and Krupin, he’s next.”
Juan Alvarado’s laughter was pure amusement. “You’re really insane, aren’t you? You don’t stand a chance, and that bastard Pullo will die too, count on it.”
“I’m coming, Alvarado.”
Tanner ended the call, but then dialed 9-1-1.
When the operator answered, he fired a shot into the wall, then laid the phone near Manuel.
Help would come, Manuel would live, and he would have kept his word.
Tanner went up the back staircase to the home’s bathroom, stripped naked, and washed away his disgusting disguise of blood and brains. He had removed a fresh set of clothes from the car he’d arrived in before pushing it down a hill and into a nearby pond. After cleaning up, he changed, and walked outside to Roberto’s car.
Manuel’s moaning was loud enough to carry through the open doorway and be heard outside, but Tanner felt no pity for the man. He and his cousin had killed Sophia, so the bastard couldn’t suffer enough.
Tanner climbed behind the wheel of Roberto’s car, a rented Range Rover, and headed back to New York City.
His day of death dealing was just beginning.
358
Rings A Bell
MEXICO, SEVERAL MILES OUTSIDE THE CITY OF ACATLÁN DE OSORIO
Alonso Alvarado put down his phone after talking to his son, Juan.
Juan had just informed him about Tanner’s rampage on the home in Ossining while also relaying Tanner’s threat to kill them both.
Alvarado was in his office at the desert compound that Michael Krupin had visited. His crutches were leaning against the wall, while he sat in a special chair behind his desk. The chair alleviated the pain of his damaged joints and had a laptop attached on a small table.
Alvarado swiveled the laptop into position in front of him and stared at a photo of Tanner. It was the mugshot taken by Mexican authorities. Alvarado found the face familiar.
When his wife, Malena, walked in, she leaned on the back of the chair and gazed down at the photo on the laptop screen.
“The man is handsome, but those eyes are filled with danger.”
“Does he look familiar to you, Malena?”
“No. Why, do you know him?”
“Who is he?”
“Tanner.”
“The assassin? I thought he’d be dead by now. Didn’t you send Manuel and Hector to kill him?”
“The fools killed his woman instead, and today Tanner killed Hector and seriously wounded Manuel. He also murdered Roberto and his team.”
“Oh no,” Malena said. She cared nothing for Manuel and Hector, but Roberto had been one of her many lovers. Malena had been with scores of men during her marriage to Alvarado, but still considered herself faithful, because she never slept with the same man more than once. Her husband knew nothing about her assignations.
Despite her odd view on monogamy, Malena went to great pains to keep her affairs a secret. Every staff member in the house knew better than to cross her.
“This Tanner,” Alvarado said. “He threatened Juan. For that alone I will see him dead.”
Malena moved around to the front of the chair to stare down at her husband. “Bring Juan home now. It is too dangerous for him to stay in New York.”
“Our son is a man, and a man does not run from other men. I’ll send a jet to New York with enough of our people to handle Tanner.”
“How many men?”
“The jet can seat sixteen.”
“Then send two jets, make sure that our son is protected.”
Alvarado sighed. “It’s overkill, but I’ll do it.”
“How soon can they be there?”
“They’ll be on the ground in New York by tonight, at the private airfield we use for drug shipments.”
Malena seemed appeased by the doubling of forces. She kissed her husband on the cheek. As she was leaving the office, she called back over her shoulder.
“This man Tanner, could he somehow have something to do with what’s been happening in Mexico City?”
“No. Whoever is killing our men there must be working for someone else.”
Malena turned in the doorway. “Sandoval?”
“No, that traitorous pig wouldn’t dare attack me.”
“Let me know when Tanner is dead. I’ll rest easier then.”
“You worry too much; he’s one man.”
Malena left, and Alvarado picked up his phone to order the deployment of his men. While speaking to the man who would manage the operation, he kept staring at Tanner’s picture.
“Jose?”
“Yes sir?”
“Send only the best men.”
“Yes sir, I’ll send Rico and his crew.”
“He’s available? I thought he was still handling that problem in Vera Cruz?”
“He just called and said he was on his way back. The men who were causing you grief were put in their place.”
Alvarado smiled. “That means they’re in the ground.”
“Anything else, sir?”
“Yes, I’ll pay fifty-thousand American to the man who kills Tanner.”
“Fifty-thousand dollars?”
“Absolutely, that is how badly I want this man dead.”
“I’ll spread the word.”
“Do that.”
Alvarado ended the call, but he kept staring at Tanner’s photo, as an old memory tickled the back of his mind.
359
A Safe Place
On Randall Street in Manhattan, Pullo nodded to the men guarding the door as he entered his suite.
He and Laurel were staying at the Rutherford Hotel along with over fifty of his men. The hotel was the property of the late Bruno Heinz and Pullo and his people had taken it over.
It had been Tanner’s idea, and Pullo had agreed that it might be the last place Krupin would look for them. But just in case, Pullo had men stationed on the roof, on each floor, and even in the basement and nearby alleyways.
Laurel looked up at him from where she sat on the side of the bed. Pullo could tell that she had been crying. Laurel stood and went to Pullo, and he opened his arms for her to fall into.
“You’ve been thinking about Sophia again, haven’t you?”
“Yes, she was so happy, Joe. She had just fallen in love with Sammy and it was like her life was beginning again, and now… now she’s dead.”
“That’s why I want you to leave the city. It’s too dangerous for you to be around me.”
“I don’t want to leave you.”
“Baby, I don’t want you to leave either, but it would give me peace of mind to know that you’re safe.”
Laurel wiped away tears as she separated from Pullo. “I guess I could visit Merle and Earl.”
Pullo shook his head. “That’s no good; it’s too obvious.”
“Then where do you want me to go?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll decide after I talk to Tanner.”
“Why Tanner?”
“Unlike everyone else I know, he can’t be bought.”
“You don’t trust your men?”
“I do, but the cartel could offer them millions or threaten their families to get them to betray me. Tanner has no family and he can’t be bribed. There’s one more thing too.”
“What?”
“He loves you, Laurel. He’s already risked his life once to save yours. If he knows a place to put you, I know it will be safe.”
“I’ll be safe, but what about you?”
Pullo stared into her eyes. “Nothing will keep me from marrying you. Do you believe that?”
Laurel hugged him. “I believe you, and there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“I know I said that I wanted a small wedding, but, oh I feel stupid bringing this up now.”
Pullo caressed her cheek. “You would really like a large wedding, right?”
“It’s foolish, I know.”
Pullo kissed her. “It’s not foolish, and I’ll make it happen.”
There was a knock on the door.
“What is it?” Pullo asked.
“It’s me, boss, Bosco. Tanner just came in.”
“Right, I’ll be out in a minute,” Pullo called through the door, then he spoke to Laurel. “Pack up a few things. You’ll be leaving soon.”
“All right, but where will I be going?”
“I don’t know, but I promise you you’ll be safe.”
Pullo joined Tanner at a corner booth in the hotel’s bar. There were picture windows along the wall that faced the street, but they had all been painted black, so no one could see inside.
“How’s Sammy doing, Joe?”
“The doctors think he’ll awaken soon.”
“That’s the only good news I’ve heard.”
Pullo leaned toward Tanner. “I have a favor to ask. I need you to find somewhere to stash Laurel. She’s not safe here.”
“There’s nowhere you can put her?” Tanner asked.
“I trust my men, but we both know that most people can be bought, and money is something the cartel has a lot of.”
Tanner thought of Romeo and Nadya, but then nixed the idea because of the travel distance involved. He then thought of someone else.
“I’ll need to make a call to someone. If they agree, we’ll send Laurel there.”
“You trust this person?”
“There’s more than one, and yes, I trust them. Laurel will be safe with them.”
“Can you make it happen today?”
“If they agree, yes.”
Pullo let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks Tanner. I won’t be able to think straight until I know Laurel is safe.”
“I hear you,” Tanner said, as he took out a phone.
Pullo rose from the table to give him privacy. “I have to check on my men. Let me know what your friends say.”
Tanner paused for a moment to recall a number, and then dialed.
A friendly female voice answered. “Hello?”
“It’s Tanner.”
“It’s about time you called me, Tanner. I�
��m always the one who calls you.”
“How are you?”
“I’m good, what’s up?”
“I need a favor.”
360
Gathering And Scattering
Tanner left the hotel soon after making the call. He had to meet someone at a bar in lower Manhattan.
The bar was on a side street and struggling for business, which was fine with Tanner, less business meant fewer people. The street was also narrow and offered scant places of concealment for a sniper.
After scouting out the area for the meet, he watched as the man he was meeting arrived alone in an old car. Tanner entered the bar a few minutes later and sat across from the guy at a back table. The man was about fifty, and his nose had been broken many times. The last time it was broken by Tanner.
“Did you get it, Duke?”
“I did, and the price was high, but I still managed to walk away with over a thousand dollars.”
“Keep it as a bonus.”
Duke smiled. “I knew I’d like working for you, and I won’t ask what you need that item for.”
“It will be used as intended.”
Duke let out a huff. “I’m so glad we’re on the same side now, speaking of which, have you heard from our mutual acquaintance?”
“Sara Blake? No, I haven’t, and I don’t expect to.”
“I always liked her, and she tipped as well as you do.”
“Where’s the item?”
Duke pointed across the street. “It’s in the trunk of the car I arrived in. If you need instruction in its use, there’s a video with it.”
“I’ve used one before.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
Tanner walked over to the car with Duke and had him start it up before opening the trunk.
“What? You think I rigged it to blow up?”
“Trust will come with time, Duke.”
“I hear you. But I’m too smart to double-cross a man like you, Tanner. I also have no reason to.”
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 112