The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart

by Remington Kane

  “Yeah.”

  “He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

  “Alive and kicking. He’s been killing cartel members all day.”

  “He didn’t love Sophia, but I think he’s killing partly for her. I wish I could join him.”

  Pullo leaned closer to the bed and spoke in a low voice. “If I don’t come through this, I want you to make certain that Laurel is taken care of. Give her half of the money in those offshore accounts I showed you but keep the other half for yourself. If things go bad, you’ll be able to relocate and start a new life.”

  “Nothing will happen to you, Uncle Joe, but you can trust me to take care of Laurel.”

  Pullo shrugged. “It had to be said.”

  “Where is Laurel, is she safe?”

  Pullo smiled. “Yeah, she’s safe.”

  Laurel laughed aloud as Romina told her the story of how Tanner beat up the Harvey brothers.

  Laurel was seated on the front porch with Maria, Doc, and Romina. Maria’s son, Javier, was off at college. From what little Tanner had said about Javier, Laurel believed Tanner disliked the boy.

  Laurel liked Romina very much, and she could tell the girl had a crush on Tanner, while also hero-worshipping him. Despite his profession, there was a streak of decency in Tanner that Laurel had always loved; it was nice to know that she wasn’t the only one who saw it.

  “Not to pry,” Maria said. “But how long have you known Tanner?”

  “Oh, I guess about ten years, of course, he comes and goes.”

  “Are you his lover?” Romina asked.

  “Romina! That was a rude question,” Maria said.

  Laurel smiled at the girl. “At one time we were close, yes.”

  “Oh, so you’re just friends now?”

  Laurel looked down at her left hand. She had removed her engagement ring to avoid questions about Pullo, but she saw no harm in sharing with these people. If Tanner trusted them, then so could she.

  “I’m actually engaged to a friend of Tanner’s. The two of them thought that I’d be safer here.”

  “Tanner said that on the phone,” Romina said. “But he didn’t say why.”

  “Romina, what did I say to you before Miss Carter arrived?”

  “Don’t pry into her business,” Romina whispered.

  “That’s right.”

  “I’m sorry, Laurel.”

  “Don’t be, honey, it’s only natural to be curious… and this is an odd situation.”

  Doc stood up and stretched. “I think I’ll turn in. And Romina, I’ll have your horse saddled in the morning.”

  “Thanks Doc, and hey, Laurel, do you ride?”

  “I haven’t in years, but I owned a horse when I was young.” Laurel smiled. “My brothers bought it for me on my tenth birthday.”

  “Would you like to go riding with me after breakfast? We’ll just ride around the ranch and check the fences.”

  “That sounds like fun.”

  “I’ll saddle up Sally for her; she’s a nice gentle mare,” Doc said.

  Laurel grinned. “Thank you. Tanner couldn’t have sent me to a nicer place.”

  367

  You Can’t Run, But You Can Hide

  “Bring him home, Alonso, and I mean tonight.”

  Alonso Alvarado shook his head slowly as he looked at his wife. Malena was worried about their son, and with good reason, but if Juan ran away from Tanner, he would never stop running. Also, Alvarado’s enemies, such as rival cartel leader Damián Sandoval would hear about it and grow emboldened.

  They were outside on the home’s wide front porch. Alvarado was standing with the help of his crutches.

  “He has to stay in New York, Malena. Our son has to stand and fight. In this life, to run is to die.”

  Malena threw her hands in the air in a gesture of frustration. “How could this man Tanner kill so many of our people with impunity?”

  “Rico says the man is a devil, but it’s just luck. Eventually that luck will abandon him, and he will die.”

  “Will his luck run out before he kills our son?”

  Alvarado knitted his bushy eyebrows together as he grimaced. “I don’t know the future. I only know that Juan can’t run from this man, or any man.”

  “All right, he can’t run, but he can damn well hide. Tell him to leave that apartment on Fifth Avenue and to keep moving around.”

  “That’s already been handled. Our people and Krupin’s men are guarding them in an office building we own. If Tanner dared attack there, he’d be killed. It’s the reason Juan’s there in the first place, it’s impenetrable.”

  “I suppose you’re right, but you must do something.”

  “I’ll send another fifty men and raise the price on Tanner’s head to a quarter of a million.”

  “Send a hundred men and raise the price to half a million. This is our son we’re talking about.”

  Alvarado smiled at his wife. “Come here.”

  Malena went to him and hugged him.

  “I’ll do as you say and double the manpower and the reward.”

  “Thank you, Alonso.”

  Alvarado sighed. “Damn Michael Krupin; I should have sent him back to New York empty-handed.”

  “You risked much to gain much, and Krupin is an ideal pawn.”

  Alvarado kissed the top of his wife’s head. “And you are my Queen.”

  “Alonso.”

  “Yes?”

  “If anything happens to our son, I want Michael Krupin to share his fate. I don’t care how useful he is.”

  “I’ve already given Rico that order.”

  Malena smiled. “Good.”

  368

  Pony

  MEXICO

  Alexa parked her van in the driveway of an upscale home in San Juan del Río. A city approximately two hours northwest of Mexico City.

  The door flew open before she could even ring the bell, and Rodrigo Lucia, the man who had raised her, took her in his arms and hugged her.

  “Hello, Daughter, I love you.”

  Alexa smiled as she hugged him in return. “I love you too, Papa.”

  MATAMOROS, MEXICO, 1995

  Seven-year-old Alexa Cazares pointed at the huge birthday present that had just been delivered to her aunt’s bedroom. Her eyes were wide with wonder at the gaily wrapped gift, even as her mind pondered what could be inside it. The gift was half the size of a refrigerator. Its brilliant colors of blue, red, green, and orange sparkled in the light coming through the bedroom windows.

  “It’s so big, Grandma. What do you think is in there?”

  “I don’t know, baby,” Jennifer Cazares said. “But, my little voice is telling me that it was sent here for you, and not your aunt.”

  “Little voice” was the name that Jennifer gave her sixth sense. She had always considered herself psychic, and over the years, she had predicted many things that later came true. Her very life in Mexico was a result of her following her “little voice” back in 1946.

  During autumn of that year, Jennifer had begun getting the urge to go to Mexico soon after she turned eighteen and would dream about the country often. She had always followed her urges, her psychic feelings, but she ignored the impulse to go to Mexico for six weeks, because to just drop out of college and travel to Mexico was an insane idea.

  Insane or not, there came a day when she could no longer ignore her feelings. Despite her parents’ vociferous objections, Jennifer Grainger of Detroit, Michigan, dropped out of school and headed south in her 1941 Mercury Coupe. She traveled by feel and wound up in Matamoras. As soon as she entered the vibrant city, she knew she had come to the right place.

  She spoke Spanish because she had learned it from her parents’ maid as she grew up, and her first day in Matamoras she made fast friends with two young sisters who owned a clothing store.

  The women needed help in the store and were also looking for someone to rent the small apartment above it. Jennifer took the job, liked the apartment, and only hours af
ter arriving in the city, she had a job, a place to live, and two new friends.

  The sisters were leaving for a party that night. Jennifer begged off joining them, as she was tired and still had to unpack her things. After they left her, she had one of the strongest feelings she had ever experienced. It was telling her to go to the party. Jennifer caught up to them as they were getting in their car.

  The party took place at a ranch on the edge of the desert, which was owned by the sisters’ cousin. Jennifer had been there for an hour and was wondering why, when Thiago Cazares walked in the door.

  Love at first sight is an inadequate phrase for what she felt when she looked at him, and by the expression on his handsome face, Thiago Cazares was feeling the same emotions.

  Thiago walked up to her and told her his name, but before she could respond, he spoke again.

  “Jennifer, your name is Jennifer.”

  She laughed. “How do you know that?”

  “I told him,” said a woman standing to her left. The woman was tall and beautiful; she was also Thiago’s mother and a greater psychic than Jennifer would ever be. She studied Jennifer from head to toe and then said something that blew her away.

  “You are late. You should have been here six weeks ago.”

  Little Alexa smiled up at her abuela, her grandmother, Jennifer.

  “That gift can’t be for me; it’s not my birthday. It’s Tía Margo’s birthday.”

  “The gift is addressed to your aunt, yes, but I can feel that what’s inside is for you. Don’t you feel it too?”

  Alexa shook her head. She too had the gift of the “little voice”, but hers had not fully developed.

  “You’ll see I’m right, and your voice will grow stronger soon too. Mine didn’t really get strong until I turned ten.”

  “And bisabuela, how old was she when her voice spoke to her?”

  Jennifer laughed. “Oh, your great-grandmother was born knowing things, but even she said that the gift took time to mature.”

  Alexa reached out and touched the present. “Maybe it’s a pony.”

  Jennifer laughed. “The box is not quite that big.”

  When he was certain that the old woman and the child had left the bedroom, Rodrigo Lucia looked out once more through the air hole to make certain. After seeing no one around, he undid the latches inside the box and stood while lifting the top with him.

  Rodrigo was a skilled thief. He had used the ruse of the giant gift to gain entry to the home. The note attached to the box instructed that it was to be placed in the master bedroom. It had been, just feet from the wall safe.

  Rodrigo was in his mid-thirties, wore a beard, and was taller than most Mexican men were. Being inside the box for hours had made his back ache, so he stretched to limber up.

  Rodrigo had no idea what the old woman and the cute child had been prattling on about, and he didn’t care. All that concerned Rodrigo was the safe, and the jewelry and cash stored within it. He removed the picture hanging over it and went to work on the combination.

  Jennifer returned downstairs with Alexa and headed outside to the patio.

  The old ranch home was looking beautiful. Her oldest son, Alejandro, had done well in the car business and had refurbished the home in style. There was even a new swimming pool. It heartened Jennifer to see the entire family gathered together for a reunion.

  All six of her children were there along with their spouses and Jennifer’s twenty-three grandchildren. Jennifer reminded herself to spend time with each child over the weekend. She had such an affinity for Alexa that she often spent too much time with her at the neglect of the others.

  When the feeling hit, it was like nothing she had ever felt before, and when Jennifer looked down at Alexa, she saw that the child had sensed it as well.

  “Ooh, my head, Grandma, what is happening?”

  Jennifer looked about as she tried to catch her breath. Her mind was filled with fear and her heart was racing as if she’d run a mile, but as she gazed around, she saw that all was well.

  “I don’t know what’s happening, baby, but… I’m suddenly so scared… so afraid.”

  That’s when they heard the sound, the sound of the trucks. The two massive vehicles came around the curve that led to the driveway and kept going until they had trampled a small picket fence and entered the pool area. The trucks looked like farm vehicles and there were men riding in the back of them, many men.

  Jennifer grabbed Alexa by the shoulders, turned her small body around, and shoved her toward the house.

  “Run baby, run and hide now!”

  Alexa had just made it past the glass doors of the patio when the men jumped from the trucks. There were nearly two dozen men, and each one was holding a gun or rifle. They spread out among the crowd and kept anyone from leaving.

  Everyone at the party had been waiting for Alexa’s Uncle Alejandro to show up. He had just arrived. Alejandro had been beaten to death. One eye was closed, and his jaw sat crooked. A man with long dark hair and bushy eyebrows tossed his body from the cab of the first truck and onto the patio tiles.

  One of Alejandro’s brothers went toward the body. He was Alexa’s father. He made it within three feet of Alejandro before the man in the truck shot him five times.

  The shooter was Alonso Alvarado.

  The partygoers erupted in screams and turned to flee, but when they saw the men with the rifles behind them, they all froze in place.

  “Herd them into the pool,” Alvarado said.

  As he spoke, Alejandro’s wife, Margo, the birthday girl, lowered herself beside her husband’s battered body and wept. Alvarado shot her in the head and watched as she fell backwards into the spreading overflow of water leaving the pool.

  By the time everyone had jumped or been herded into the pool, the displaced water had spread across the patio. Those packed into the pool were standing in water barely waist high. Two of the women held babies in their arms. They cradled the screaming infants while trying to comfort them.

  The patio doors burst open and more of Alvarado’s men came out. They had been dropped off at the front, then went through the house to gather anyone found inside.

  They had seven people with them. Three of them were cousins of Jennifer’s late husband, while the other four were older boys from the family that had been in the den playing video games. They were all pushed into the pool with the others.

  Jennifer saw with great relief that they had missed Alexa. She assumed that the girl’s “little voice” had guided her to safety.

  When Alvarado looked about, he spotted Jennifer Cazares still standing by the patio doors.

  “Come here, old woman.”

  Jennifer did go to him, with her eyes full of tears, and when she reached him, she slapped his face.

  Alvarado laughed, and looked down at Jennifer’s son, Alejandro.

  “You have more guts than your son, but no more brains. He thought he could just walk in and take over my territory, but he was wrong.”

  “What are you talking about, you monster?” Jennifer asked.

  Alvarado looked toward the crowd in the pool. “What I do today lies at the feet of Alejandro Cazares, and it will let any other man as foolish as he know that I am not someone to be messed with.”

  One of Jennifer’s other sons spoke up from where he stood in the pool.

  “You’ve proved your point, Alonso, now just leave, man.”

  Jennifer gazed at her son, as an awful realization struck her. “Valentino… is this about drugs?”

  Valentino wiped at tears. “Yes, Mama, we were transporting drugs, Alejandro and I… the car dealership was just a cover for it.”

  “Oh Lord, oh dear Lord, how did I not feel this?”

  Alvarado laughed. “Ah, you are the so-called psychic I heard so much about, the North American, and you say that you get feelings? Well…”

  Alvarado walked back to one of the trucks and fished around in the toolbox beneath the front seats. When he returned to Jenni
fer, he was holding a hammer.

  “Let’s see if you can feel this, old lady.”

  Alvarado smashed Jennifer across the face. Pieces from several of her teeth exploded from her mouth. He managed to hit her again, even as she was falling toward the ground.

  Every woman present screamed. Valentino scrambled out of the pool to defend his mother. He was smashed across the face with a rifle butt and shoved back into the water.

  By the time Alvarado finished with Jennifer, the face on her corpse was nothing more than a scrambled blob of torn flesh, and he himself was covered in her blood.

  He had been kneeling beside her as he killed her. When he stood, wild-eyed and bloody, he pointed at the people in the pool.

  “Kill them; kill them all!”

  And as the guns and rifles roared, Alexa screamed.

  After entering the house, Alexa had run into the kitchen and shouted for the women there to hide. When they tried to question the child, there came the sound of the front door being kicked in.

  Despite her begging them not to go, all three women ran from the kitchen when they heard the rough male voices shouting at the boys in the den.

  When the women screamed, and the first shots came from outside, Alexa climbed inside a broom closet to hide.

  She emerged after peering out and seeing the men herd her cousins onto the patio. Afterwards, she climbed up the back stairs and looked down on the nightmare from the window on the landing.

  Her screams mixed with the screams of the others as she witnessed the brutal death of her grandmother, her beloved abuela.

  When the men opened fire on the pool, she felt as if she would die herself, as she watched everyone she ever loved be murdered.

  As the roar from the guns finally died down, Alvarado became aware of Alexa’s scream and realized it was coming from behind him, but when he turned to look at the house, he saw no one.