Still, he knew what he’d heard, and called to his best friend.
“Juan!”
“Yes, Alonso?”
“There are still men out front?”
“Yes, and no one can get by them.”
“I think there’s someone in the house. Find them and kill them—hurry!”
Inside the house, on the rear staircase, Rodrigo lay on the floor of the landing with Alexa wrapped in his arms. He had grabbed the child and covered her mouth just as Alvarado turned to look up at the window.
“Shh, you must be quiet, child. If they find us, they will kill us.”
Alexa nodded her small head and Rodrigo let her go.
She rolled over on the floor and stared at him. “Who are you?”
Rodrigo wiped gently at her tears. “I am your pony. Now come, we have to hide.”
“No one?”
“No one is inside,” Juan said. “We checked the attic, every closet, looked under the beds, and peeked above the drop ceiling in the basement. Hell, Alonso, I even checked inside the refrigerator.”
Alvarado nibbled at his bottom lip, and then mumbled. “I know I heard something.”
“We have to go,” Juan said.
“We’ll go, but have the men burn this house to the ground.”
The men drained fuel from the tanks of the trucks and used it to encircle the home. After lighting a corner of the structure, the fire spread quickly. Alvarado was satisfied that if anyone remained hidden inside, they would soon wish they had taken a bullet rather than burn. The men climbed back into the trucks and headed away from the flames, assured that no one else would be foolish enough to cross them.
Rodrigo unlatched the top of the phony gift box. He and Alexa had hidden within it as the cartel troops had searched for them. Rodrigo sniffed at the air. Yes, he had smelled smoke.
While holding Alexa’s tiny hand, he crept into the hall and listened. Fire, the crackling noise of numerous flames, and the sound seemed to be coming from everywhere.
After picking up Alexa, Rodrigo rushed from room to room and discovered that the fire was on all sides of the house. He returned to the hallway. The men had searched the attic for them and had left the pulldown stairs in the down position.
After rushing up the steps, Rodrigo sat Alexa down and kicked out the glass in the attic window, he climbed up onto the roof of the home and then reached back inside to grab up the tearful Alexa. The poor child had been through hell and now feared her own death by fire. Rodrigo would not let that happen, and thanks to a set of old skills, they would soon be safe.
A thick cable, a power line, stretched from the roof of the house to a utility pole near the side fence. Rodrigo considered hanging from it and going hand-over-hand, but the cable was entwined with other cables. Their combined circumference was too thick to ensure a tight grip.
Fortunately, having been born into a family of tightrope walkers, Rodrigo saw another way to use the cable as their path to safety.
“We’re trapped,” Alexa whispered, as the flames ate at the house.
Rodrigo bent down and told her to climb on his back. “I’ll keep you safe, little girl, I swear it, but you have to hold on tight and stay as still as possible.”
Alexa climbed on, but when Rodrigo went to step on the wire, she shouted.
“We’ll fall!”
Rodrigo turned his head and stared into her eyes. “Trust me.”
Alexa stared back at him and felt herself grow calmer. She nodded, and Rodrigo tested the cable with his right foot.
Rodrigo said a silent curse. The damn thing had too much give and would sway wildly. He called on the spirits of all his circus ancestors and stepped out onto the cable.
It took him nineteen patient careful minutes to travel forty-two feet, and he was forced to dive for the pole at the end because the fire had reached the section of the house the cable had been attached to and was burning through the wood.
Once on the ground, both he and Alexa were drenched in sweat from the heat of the flames. The child clung to him as if he were life itself.
He looked down at her as she watched the fire and realized that if she were known to be alive, she wouldn’t be for very long. Like himself, she had witnessed a massacre and knew the face of the man who had ordered it.
“Come on, child, we have to go.”
“But what about the policia?”
“They can’t help you.”
Alexa’s face crumpled, and her small body shook from her sobs.
Rodrigo picked her up and hugged her. “I will protect you until the day I die. You have my word.”
The crying continued, and Rodrigo walked through the trees to the place where he’d hidden his car, while carrying the sole surviving member of the Cazares Family.
369
An Ally
Tanner returned to the hotel and found Pullo sitting in the bar alone and drinking a beer, although there were four men guarding the entrance.
He saw the weariness in Pullo’s eyes; it matched the fatigue he felt.
Pullo spoke as Tanner grabbed a beer from a refrigerated case. “I saw on the news where there was a plane crash and a fire up north. They seem to think the plane was brought down by a rocket. You know anything about that?”
“I know that I should have brought two rockets with me. Things would have gone easier.”
Pullo shook his head in amazement. “I thought you gave us hell when you were fighting the Conglomerate, but you were kissing us compared to what you’ve done to the Alvarado Cartel. How many men have you killed today?”
Tanner stared at Pullo. “Not nearly enough.”
“I hear you. And I’ve got good news, Sammy’s awake.”
“I guess I don’t have to ask how he’s doing.”
“He’s gutted, Tanner, and… he’s just not the same. This has changed him forever.”
“Yes, death will do that, so will surviving it.”
Pullo sipped at his beer and then sighed. “They’ll send more men, and the word on the street is that there’s a heavy price on your head.”
“I’ll watch my back, but we need to plan for these new men.”
“You’ve got something in mind?”
Tanner grinned behind his beer bottle. “Oh yeah, I’ve thought of something.”
In San Juan del Río, Alexa entered the home and saw Emilio seated at his piano. Emilio was Rodrigo’s long-time lover. He had recently lost his sight due to an illness. He had come into Alexa’s life when she was only eleven, and she thought of him like a second father.
Emilio knew the tragic and horrific tale that had united her and Rodrigo, but he was the only one either of them had ever trusted with the truth.
Alexa walked over and kissed Emilio on the cheek while hugging him. He patted the piano bench, telling her to sit beside him.
Like Rodrigo, Emilio had also grown up in the circus, and had done many things. He had been a master with knives as a younger man and had trained Alexa in the arts of knife throwing and acrobatics.
Rodrigo looked at the flyer with Tanner’s face on it. “A Tanner? If so, he’s the sixth or seventh, the fifth Tanner would have died years ago, but perhaps he’s just a man going by that name.”
“No Papa, I checked the internet when I stopped for gas and there’s a report that one of Alvarado’s jets crashed in New York State. The report also said that numerous bodies were found burned, far too many for one jet. The authorities there are calling it a mystery, but there’s no mystery, it was Tanner.”
Emilio laughed as he adjusted the dark glasses he wore. “It sounds like that bastard Alvarado may have angered the wrong man.”
“Yes,” Alexa said. “And I’ve just found an ally.”
Rodrigo had been sitting on a sofa. He stood and marched over to Alexa.
“I thought you had given up this insane idea of killing Alvarado. The man is too well protected in that fortress of his. No one has even seen him outside its walls in years.”
> “It’s not insane. He nearly died once; it’s how he was so badly injured.”
“Yes, and now he hunts that man night and day. Another useless endeavor, that man could be anyone his face is so common.” Rodrigo took Alexa’s hands in his. “I love you. It would kill me to lose you. Having you to raise and protect gave my life meaning. Please don’t throw your life away.”
“I’m not throwing it away; I’m living it, and I’ll have no peace until that bastard is dead by my hand.”
Rodrigo gave her a pleading look. “He’ll kill you. That bastard will kill you the way he wiped out your family.”
Alexa sighed, and then kissed Rodrigo gently on the lips. He had no idea she had already begun her quest and had been killing Alvarado’s men. If he knew how dangerously she’d been living he would never get a wink of sleep.
She had sold her jewelry shop and abandoned her career as a businesswoman, and afterwards, she had spent months learning all she could about the Alvarado Cartel. She knew the names and addresses of over a hundred of Alvarado’s men, and had recently begun hunting them. Killing Alvarado’s men was just practice. She would someday kill the man that destroyed her family, but only after she told him who she really was, the last survivor of the Cazares family.
“I will kill Alvarado, Papa. This I know.”
Rodrigo released her hands and began pacing. “You and that ‘little voice’ nonsense. It drives me crazy.”
Alexa smiled. “It’s never been wrong, and it brought you and Emilio together.”
Rodrigo’s face softened, and he laughed at the memory.
When she was eleven, Alexa dragged Rodrigo to the park every day for a week. He had been suffering from allergies. The park was the last place he’d wanted to be. On the seventh day, Alexa pointed to a man sitting alone on a bench and reading a newspaper. It had been Emilio.
“Go talk to that man.”
“What?”
“The man on the bench, go talk to him, I don’t know his name, but it starts with an E.”
“You are a very strange child, have I told you that?”
Alexa giggled. “Every day, Papa. Now go talk to him.”
Rodrigo did talk to Emilio, and they had been together ever since.
Rodrigo walked back over to Alexa and gestured for her to stand, when she did, he embraced her.
“You do what you have to do.”
“Thank you, Papa.”
“It serves me right for raising you to think for yourself.”
“Alexa?”
“Yes, Emilio?”
“This man, Tanner, you say that he’ll be an ally, but how will you find him?”
Alexa looked thoughtful, and then she spoke. “We will find each other.”
370
The Sky’s The Limit
Rico was fighting sleep by the time the artist finished the drawing, but he smiled with delight when the man showed him his work.
“How’s that look, Mr. Nazario?”
“Excellent! That is him. That is Tanner. Make copies of that and send them out everywhere. And don’t forget, the price on his head is now half a million dollars.”
Juan Alvarado entered the room just as the artist was leaving. Rico had spotted the guard drawing while the man was on his break and asked him if he could draw someone if they were described to him. The guard turned out to be a talented artist. Now Rico had a better rendition of Tanner’s face than the one seen in the mugshot. The guard soon scanned the drawing and sent the picture to Rico’s laptop.
Juan stared at it. “That’s a lot better than that blurry mugshot. But Tanner doesn’t look like much, and his eyes are weird.”
“Those are the eyes of the devil,” Rico said. He then smiled at Juan, as he tried to avoid having him grow suspicious. “I’d like to know more about the local players. Do you have files on them?”
Juan rolled his eyes. “I’ve got files on everything. The Cartel becomes more like Microsoft every day. Do you know how many office workers and accountants we employ? It’s insane.”
“I’d like to see those files if you don’t mind. It’ll help me pass the time until the new men arrive.”
“I’ll send them to you,” Juan said, and made a face as he looked at the staples in Rico’s head. “They look painful.”
“They are, but I’ll make Tanner pay for it.”
Juan left, and ten minutes later, Rico had the files he wanted. When he came to a photo of Sophia Verona, he sighed.
“What a waste, she was beautiful.”
His eyes were very near to closing on their own when Rico found what he’d been looking for. It revitalized him. After pouring a cup of strong coffee he sat back on the sofa and came up with a plan. It was going to be a long night.
STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK, 1:28 A.M.
Mike Conti, the leader of the Calvino Crime Family, stirred awake. Someone was calling his name.
Mike reached out, turned on the light beside the bed, and saw Rico Nazario seated in the chair he kept by the dresser. Rico was pointing a gun at him.
“Who are you?” Mike said in a scratchy voice, the sleep still evident in his tone.
“My name is Rico. I’m a member of the Alvarado Cartel.”
“Oh shit,” Mike said, and this time his voice was clear. He kept a gun in the table beside the bed, but knew he’d never reach it before being shot.
“I’m not here to hurt you; I’ve come to talk.”
Mike let out the breath he’d been holding and sat up straight in bed. “I’m listening.”
Minutes later, they were in the kitchen. Rico had rendered unconscious the two men who’d been watching the house. One had been sleeping when he came upon them, while the other was listening to earphones. He assured Conti they would recover, but likely not awaken for another hour or more.
Conti slid a beer across the kitchen table to Rico then sat opposite him with a glass of milk.
“All right, so what you’re offering me is a chance to step in if things go to hell?”
“Yes. Although your Family is much smaller than Michael Krupin’s mob. And since your war with the Giacconi Family years ago you’ve been relegated to the minor league.”
Conti bristled at that characterization, but before he could protest, Rico held up a hand.
“I meant no offense, but it is a fact that the Giacconi Family runs New York. But with the Alvarado Cartel behind you, you would rule.”
Conti glared at Rico. “Your people killed a friend of mine, Sophia Verona.”
“That was unfortunate. Tanner was the true target.”
“Ah, is that what this is about? You expect me to hand over Tanner? If so, you’ve got the wrong guy. I barely know him, and he wouldn’t trust me.”
“I don’t want you to hand us Tanner, but I do want you to give us Pullo.”
“A double-cross?”
Rico appeared perplexed. “I understood that while still a boy, Pullo killed the founder of your Family, Albertino Calvino. It seems to me that you would simply be repaying him for that.”
Mike Conti laughed. “You know your mob history, but that was a long time ago. Joe is a friend.”
“Pullo is your boss, whether you admit it or not. What I’m offering is a chance for you to be your own boss.”
Conti downed the last of his milk as he thought things over. He then had a question.
“What if I hand you Pullo and Krupin stays in control, what do I get then?”
“We’ll let you handle distribution for the Giacconi’s pot business. That’s worth many millions.”
Conti ran a hand over his face. “I could get to Joe, but the second I shot him, his men would kill me.”
“I’m not talking about a suicide mission. We just need to know where he’s hiding out.”
“Hmm, I could do that, and I know he’ll be at Sophia’s funeral.”
“That’s no good. Federal Agents will be there just waiting for something to happen. I have to believe that Pullo will have his troops ther
e as well.”
“I know, and I also know he won’t allow himself to be followed, but… I could probably slip a GPS device on him or one of his men. Would that work?”
Rico held up his beer bottle as if to make a toast. “That’s perfect.”
“Hey, listen, if I did take Krupin’s place in this deal, what kind of money are we talking about?”
“We would instantly double your Family’s wealth, power, and influence. After that, the sky’s the limit.”
Conti grinned. “I hope Tanner rips the kid apart.”
And although he didn’t say it, Rico wished the same fate for Juan Alvarado.
371
Boy Cody
The following morning in Texas found Laurel riding a horse for the first time in years.
She was a little nervous in the beginning, but she had ridden often as a girl and the skills returned quickly. By the time she and Romina had covered two miles along the ranch’s perimeter it felt natural for her to be in the saddle.
They found one section of fence that needed repair and Romina stopped to send a text off to the ranch foreman. As she was doing that, Laurel looked around and spied something odd.
“Romina, what’s that fencing over there at the edge of the pasture?”
“Oh, that’s a family cemetery, but not ours… it’s the Parker family.”
“Someone named Parker owned the land at one time?”
“Yeah, um, I’ll tell you the story while we ride over.”
Laurel stood looking down at the graves of the Parker family as she wiped at tears.
“That story is so incredibly sad. What kind of monster would kill a baby?”
“It is sad, even Tanner teared up a little.”
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 116