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

by Remington Kane

  Rodrigo looked both worried and suspicious as he helped the blind Emilio out of the passenger seat. “If what you’re saying is true, my daughter would have given you a code word to say.”

  Amy smiled. “Alexa said the code word was ‘pony.’”

  “That’s correct, but is my daughter all right?”

  “Yes sir, but Alonso Alvarado wants to hurt her, and Alexa is afraid that he’ll come after you as well.”

  Rodrigo’s face paled as the blood drained from it. “Good God.”

  Amy pointed to her vehicle. “We should leave right away.”

  “I can’t. Emilio ran out of medicine and I must go inside and get the rest of it, along with some important papers and a photo album. I won’t leave here without that album; there are pictures in it of Alexa when she was a child.”

  “All right, but please hurry, and while you’re doing that, I’ll help your friend into my car.”

  “I have to pee first,” Emilio said, and Amy sighed.

  Alvarado stood with the help of crutches on the front porch of his home and watched as black smoke rose toward the sky in the distance. That smoke was his money going up in flames.

  An hour ago, he would have said that it was impossible to hate Tanner and Spenser any more than he already did. He would have been wrong.

  Malena stood beside him. She was so angry that she was trembling. “How much money was kept there?”

  “Over fifty million.”

  Malena stamped her foot. “Why the hell are they burning it?”

  “Because Tanner is the devil, and the devil cares nothing for money, only souls.”

  Scar was coming out of a restaurant that sold ice cream when he saw the Federales drive by him in an official looking vehicle. Following close behind them was a Cadillac Escalade with two huge men in the front seats. He dropped his triple-scooped, chocolate chip mint ice cream cone, fumbled for his cell phone, and called Amy.

  “We’re coming,” Amy said, when she answered. “We’ve just gotten into the car.”

  “No, hey, you gotta get out of there. There are four dudes headed your way. They’re coming up the hill now.”

  “Oh no, um, stay away and I’ll call you soon.”

  Amy tossed her phone on the seat, started the engine, and looked lost as to what to do next. The only way to leave the area by car was to drive down the hill, since the other direction ended at a cul-de-sac. There was also the option of abandoning the rental and disappearing into the nearby trees. However, beyond the initial row of decorative ash trees, the land beyond was open and offered scant shelter.

  Also, due to Emilio’s blindness, Amy doubted they could make it far enough away in time on foot to be out of sight of the men who were hunting them.

  Rodrigo spoke from the back seat, where he was sitting beside Emilio. “The men are nearby?”

  “Yes.”

  Rodrigo pointed out the rear window. “Go in reverse and back into the driveway two doors down. The man that lives there never closes his garage door when he leaves for work in the morning.”

  Amy did as Rodrigo asked, and yes, the garage was sitting with its door open. It was an attached garage, and it sat at the bottom of a steep incline.

  As she backed down into the spot, Amy glimpsed the front of a car appear at the top of the hill, and then she was inside the garage.

  Rodrigo hopped out and pulled the door down as Amy killed the engine. A tinny voice could be heard. It was Scar. He had stayed on the line when Amy dropped the phone onto the seat beside her.

  “Amy?”

  “Hi, we’re good. We’re hiding inside a neighbor’s garage.”

  “Shit. What do you want us to do?”

  Amy hesitated in answering as she heard car doors opening and slamming shut.

  “Amy?” Scar said.

  “Call the others and tell them to stay away.”

  “Okay, but how are you going to sneak past those guys?”

  “I wouldn’t dare try; they might chase us. But listen, I want you four to get a taxi and ride back to the motel.”

  “What then?”

  “I don’t know but—”

  Amy stopped talking as she heard voices coming from outside. It was the men from the cars, the Federales. They were talking in Spanish and sounded very close.

  Amy whispered into the phone. “I can’t talk; they’re here.”

  Then, she ended the call, and murmured a prayer.

  26

  A Game Of Catch

  While Alvarado’s thugs broke into Rodrigo and Emilio’s home, the two Federales paced out on the sidewalk in front of the property. Amy heard them talking when they traveled as far as the home where she, Rodrigo, and Emilio were hiding in the garage.

  The men stopped pacing and just stood on the sidewalk. Amy hoped it was just a coincidence they had stopped there, and that they weren’t preparing to slide up the garage door.

  Her Spanish was just so-so, but she could make out enough to know that they were talking about a series of attacks carried out on Alvarado’s people in Mexico City, which was a two-hour drive south. Amy knew the attacks must be the work of Spenser, Tanner, and Alexa, and realized they were still too far away to call for help.

  One or both of the men must have been smoking because the scent of the tobacco drifted into the garage. Amy’s window was down, and the breeze blew the smell of the cigarettes into the enclosed space.

  Emilio sneezed. It was a small sneeze, and he had muffled it with a hand, but the men outside abruptly ended their conversation. When one of the men shouted, Amy feared that they were ordering them to exit the garage. However, the man was shouting for someone to get away from his car, and a moment later, Amy heard the men move back toward Rodrigo’s house.

  The Tin Horsemen were playing with their Frisbee around the cars belonging to the Federales and the thugs. One of the Federales shouted for them to go away.

  None of the Horsemen spoke a word of Spanish, but they had been hassled by cops before, and they knew how to piss them off without saying a word. Scar threw a thumb toward the Federale who was shouting at him, as if to say, “Do you believe this guy? He thinks he owns the whole street.”

  Bruise and Wound laughed loudly at the man, and while that was going on, Abrasion was beneath the vehicle and puncturing the rear tires with a knife.

  The other Tin Horsemen kept playing around the cars and laughing while Abrasion skittered on his belly and went beneath the Escalade that belonged to Alvarado’s thugs.

  He punctured their tires as well, by jamming the blade into the inner wall of the rear wheels, as his friends’ raucous laughter masked the sounds of the initial hissing of air. When he was done, Abrasion crawled out from beneath the vehicle, but kept low. When Scar saw that he had finished with the tires, he pretended to make a wild throw with the Frisbee.

  The plastic disc flew over the Federales, but since they were closer, they could pick up the toy first, and while they were doing that, Abrasion stood and began walking down the hill, with the other Horsemen following him.

  The Federale who had been yelling at Scar turned toward them with a smug look on his face after picking up the Frisbee. He was looking forward to taunting the boys now that he had their toy. The smug look turned to one of surprise when he saw that they were just walking away. He turned and gave his partner a puzzled look.

  Amy nearly screamed when her phone rang, and she answered it before it could ring again.

  “Yes?” she whispered.

  “It’s Scar, Amy, get out of there now. Abrasion fucked with their tires, and it won’t be long before they notice.”

  “What?”

  “Open that garage door and get out of there. You can pick us up at the bottom of the hill, hurry!”

  Amy tossed the phone onto the seat beside her and got out of the car. She flung the garage door open, and when Rodrigo asked her what was going on, she told him that he and Emilio needed to duck down low in their seats.

  Rodrigo placed
a hand on blind Emilio’s back and nudged him to lean over, and as he did that, Amy started the engine.

  She sped up the sharp incline of the short driveway and out onto the street, then was taken aback when she saw that the Federales were standing nearby.

  The men were too close. They spotted the hunched over forms of Rodrigo and Emilio in the rear seat, and then began shouting to the thugs who were still inside the house.

  When Amy brought the car to a halt at the bottom of the hill, she stopped so suddenly that Emilio’s dark glasses flew off and fell into his lap.

  The Tin Horsemen piled into the vehicle as the Federales’ car appeared at the top of the hill. Amy took off, leaving rubber behind while glancing nervously in the rearview mirror.

  The Feds were coming on, but their car seemed to shimmy, and behind it, a larger vehicle appeared, and it also rode along with a shimmying motion, as if the driver of the vehicle was fighting for control of the steering wheel.

  Scar had said that Abrasion had done something to the men’s tires; whatever he had done was having an effect.

  Amy slowed for safety, but ran a red light, and within seconds she was merging onto the highway. Behind her, her pursuers had fallen back farther as they also navigated the moving cross traffic at the red light. When the men chasing them tried to accelerate to match the flow of traffic on the highway, the shimmying of their vehicles graduated to a wild swaying.

  The car driven by the Federales then crossed into the next lane, bounced off another vehicle, overcompensated, and wound up running off the road and into a ditch.

  The Escalade kept coming. It had a superior engine and would have normally caught up to Amy with ease, but before long it was throwing off sparks as it rode on its rear rims. Once that happened, Amy’s rental grew far out of reach, and with several cars between it and the Escalade. The thug driving the Escalade faced reality and pulled over.

  Scar let out a cheer. “We did it! We got away!”

  Rodrigo was smiling at the four boys and asked them who they were.

  “They’re the Tin Horsemen,” Amy said. “And danger is their business.”

  27

  Reunion

  When Alexa arrived at the rendezvous point, she let out a cry of joy as she saw Rodrigo and Emilio. After exchanging hugs and kisses, Alexa called over Tanner and Spenser.

  Spenser clasped Rodrigo’s hand in both of his and told him that it was good to meet him in person.

  After shaking Tanner’s hand, Rodrigo glanced over at Alexa, and saw how she was looking at Tanner.

  “My daughter cares for you, is it mutual?”

  “Yes sir,” Tanner said. He rarely met the fathers of the women he slept with and felt the less said the better.

  He liked Alexa, and yes, he had come to care for her, but he wasn’t fool enough to make promises about a future together. For her part, Alexa seemed content to take things as they came.

  By noon of the following day, they would be inside Alvarado’s compound, inside the belly of the beast. There was no future beyond that in Tanner’s mind, not when he was so close to finally achieving payback on the man who had killed his family. With Alvarado dead, then he would make solid plans, plans that included doing what he did best, taking contracts and fulfilling hits.

  They were staying the night at a small motel that Damián Sandoval had recently bought and had yet to renovate. From his connections in government, Sandoval had discovered that the roadway outside the motel would soon be part of a new highway, and he had plans to build on to the existing motel while upgrading it.

  The place was closed for business, and Dante had left men to guard Tanner and his companions, as he went to finalize the plans that concerned hijacking the delivery truck they would use the next day.

  Tanner, Spenser, and Alexa welcomed the reprieve, although thoughts of the danger they would soon face was never far from their minds.

  As they all ate dinner together outside around a picnic table, Amy and Scar told of their escape from Alvarado’s men.

  Alexa rose from her seat and kissed each of the Tin Horsemen on the cheek, and then she hugged Amy where she sat at the table. “Thank you all for saving my Papa Rodrigo and Papa Emilio, I think I would die if anything happened to them.”

  Emilio rubbed a hand over his white beard as he asked Alexa a question. “Will we ever be able to go home, Alexa?”

  Alexa smiled, even though Emilio couldn’t see it. “Yes. Once we kill that bastard Alvarado we will all be free to live in peace.”

  Rodrigo let out a moan. “I’m so worried for you, Alexa.”

  She went back to her seat beside him and placed an arm over his shoulders. “Look across the table and tell me what you see, Papa.”

  Rodrigo did so, and saw Tanner and Spenser looking back at him.

  “I see two men.”

  “No, Papa, you see two Tanners, and they are every bit as capable as the Tanner you once knew.”

  Rodrigo stared at Tanner and Spenser. “If that is true, Alonso Alvarado is already dead and just doesn’t know it.”

  “We’ll make him aware of that fact tomorrow,” Tanner said, and Rodrigo smiled.

  After dinner, they talked for a while, but then Rodrigo and Emilio decided to go to sleep early, because they had to rise at daybreak to say goodbye to Alexa.

  The Tin Horsemen drifted from the table after that, while taking a six-pack of beer with them. That left Amy, Tanner, Spenser, and Alexa to go over the details of their plan once more. As they were talking, Spenser noticed that Abrasion was staring over at Amy.

  After Tanner and Alexa retired to their room, Spenser told Amy that he would join her shortly. He then drifted over to where the Tin Horsemen were drinking beer and listening to a radio station that played American music.

  “Lionel, can I see you for a second?”

  Abrasion walked over to him, and Spenser stared into his eyes. “You and I need to talk.”

  At his compound, Alonso Alvarado stood on crutches atop his porch and looked up at the night sky. Tanner was coming, and would be there tomorrow at noon, when the delivery truck pulled up to the gate.

  It was a bold plan Tanner had, and it might have worked if he hadn’t been betrayed by Dan Matthews, although the odds were against it. Still, when he gave it some thought, Alvarado saw no other way for Tanner to have made it inside. He had over two-hundred men camped outside the walls of his fortress at all times, and anyone attempting to scale those walls would be easily detected by sight or camera. To even reach the walls, one had to get past the men patrolling the desert.

  “Cody Parker,” Alvarado whispered, and remembered the boy who had slain eight of his men, two of them while gravely wounded. That boy was a man now, and that man was a killing machine who had never been stopped no matter what force was arrayed against him.

  A devil, that was what Rico Nazario had called Tanner and Alvarado thought it was an apt comparison. The devil was coming for him, and he had to be ready.

  He saw the man who was in charge of the guards’ schedule, and he called him over.

  The man, who was ex-military, stood at attention before him.

  “Yes sir?”

  “When the truck arrives tomorrow, send three more men out to greet it.”

  Confusion flashed over the man’s features. There were already two dozen men picked to meet the truck, but as he had done his whole life, he would follow orders.

  “Yes sir. I’ll tell the men who normally clean the barracks to be at the truck. Is there anything else, sir?”

  “No,” Alvarado said, and watched the man march off.

  Tanner was coming, and although he would never admit it, not even to himself, Alonso Alvarado was afraid.

  There was someone else fearful inside the compound. It was Martinez.

  If things didn’t work out the next day, Alvarado would kill him. Everything would have been so much better had Alvarado’s people grabbed Alexa Lucia’s father to hold as a hostage, but the old man had manage
d to escape and go into hiding.

  When the phone in his pocket vibrated, it startled Martinez, and when he saw who was calling him, he wondered if the news would be good or bad.

  “Scar, where the hell have you been?”

  “It’s not Scar, Martinez, this is Abrasion.”

  “What, Abrasion? Listen kid, put your friend on the phone.”

  “Scar doesn’t know anything about this call, and he can’t. But listen, I can give you Alexa Lucia’s father.”

  “What? How?”

  “Didn’t Alvarado tell you how the old man got away?”

  “Yeah, he said a woman and some kids helped him.”

  “I’m not a damn kid, but yeah, that was us, and the woman is with the guy who crippled Alvarado. I’ll give you her and the old guys, but it won’t come cheap.”

  “How much?”

  Abrasion named a figure and heard Martinez gasp.

  “You’re crazy.”

  “Talk to Alvarado and see if he thinks I’m crazy; I bet the fucker pays right up.”

  “Maybe, but tell me something, why are you doing this, just for the money?”

  “I have other reasons,” Abrasion said.

  “All right, call me back in fifteen minutes.”

  When Abrasion called back, Martinez, on speakerphone, told him that they had a deal. Martinez was in Alvarado’s office, and seated across the desk from the drug lord.

  “The money will be in your account when the banks open tomorrow,” Martinez said. “Now, tell us where we can find the woman and the old men.”

  Abrasion’s laugh was loud over the phone. “Yeah, right, and then the money never shows up. I’ll call when I see the cash in the bank, but one more thing.”