Billy looked past Cindy at Tanner.
“Did you kill the men who were after you in the house?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you kill those two back there?”
“They’re useful to me.”
Tanner knew that they were heading away from Vegas after being spun around, but as he passed a road sign, he realized that he could take care of other business that he had nearby and hung a right onto Route 215.
“Where are we going?” Cindy said.
“I have to pay a visit to a friend,” Tanner said and aimed the truck towards Dwight Sorrell’s home in Spring Valley.
CHAPTER 21- Should I, or shouldn’t I?
Tanner parked the pickup three houses away and called Sorrell.
The voice that answered was hesitant, but familiar.
“Hello? Tanner?”
“It’s me, Dwight, are you alone?”
“I’m alone and I’m at my house. I know better than to try and hide from you, but I do hope that you’ll give me a chance to talk.”
“We’ll talk, but it won’t change what you did.”
“I know that.”
Tanner ended the call and got out of the truck with Billy and Cindy.
“This is where we go our separate ways,” Tanner said.
Cindy pouted and gave him a quick hug, while Billy shook his hand.
Tanner stared into Billy’s eyes.
“You take care of Cindy.”
Billy put an arm around her shoulders.
“That’s the plan.”
Tanner had taken shells for the Mossberg from the center console of the Land Rover, and he carried it pointed downward, and flush against his leg as he walked toward Dwight’s house.
Billy gave the horn a toot as he and Cindy drove away, and Dwight opened his door before Tanner could ring the bell.
Dwight swallowed hard as he looked at the shotgun.
“C’mon in,”
“If this is an ambush, if there’s someone else in there, I’ll kill all of you.”
Dwight spread his hands.
“There are no tricks, Tanner. I just want to talk.”
Tanner entered with the shotgun up and ready, but found no one lying in wait.
They went into Dwight’s office and Tanner took the seat behind the desk, where he could keep an eye on the door, while Dwight stood in front of the desk, with his face looking pale and shadowy, despite the sunlight beaming through the window.
Tanner smirked at him.
“So what do you want to say to me?”
“I betrayed you and I was the one who planted the drugs on you, but I only did it because Rossetti threatened to kill Lillian.”
Tanner squinted at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“I was afraid. I knew it wouldn’t keep you from going after Rossetti and I didn’t want Lillian caught in the crossfire.”
“After you betrayed me, Rossetti let her go?”
“Yes, she’s fine, and I know it doesn’t change what I did to you, but I wanted you to know that it wasn’t about money or anything like that.”
“Are you done?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“I can help you get to Rossetti.”
“How?”
“There’s a tunnel that runs past the pool and leads from Rossetti’s office to an exit behind the old bunkhouse. There’s a shack there atop a hill, an old tool shed.”
“How do you know that?”
Dwight shrugged.
“I’m in real estate, commercial real estate, but I have a friend on the residential side who handled the property, and he told me about it. The tunnel was built the same time the original pool was put in, back in the sixties when some mobster owned the place... some other mobster.”
“How do I get in and out?”
Dwight explained where the tunnel’s entrance and exit were located and pointed to an envelope lying atop the desk.
“That envelope is for you. It was delivered by one of Frank Richards’ men.”
“The client? He must be mad that the hit has taken so long.”
“No, he and Rossetti settled their dispute while you were... away. If anything, I think he wants to call it off.”
“Is that how you found out I was free?”
“Yeah,”
“Two guys tried to kill me in Brownsville. I thought Rossetti was behind that, but maybe it was Richards.”
“It could have been both of them. Don’t trust Richards.”
Tanner stared at him.
“Do you want to talk about trust, Dwight?”
Dwight opened his mouth, but then closed it and seemed to shrink beneath Tanner’s gaze.
Tanner opened the sealed envelope and saw that it contained only a phone number. He memorized it, folded it once and stuck it in his shirt pocket.
“I need a car. I’m taking yours.”
“The keys are in the kitchen, on a hook by the back door.”
“Do you have anything else you want to say?”
Dwight wiped his brow. He had begun to sweat and was taking short, shallow breaths.
“No... no, that’s all I had to say.”
Tanner gripped the shotgun and stared at him, still deciding Dwight’s fate.
“Why are you unarmed? You knew I was coming.”
“I betrayed you. I did it to save Lillian, but I still did it.”
Tanner stood and the movement so unnerved Dwight that his knees nearly gave out.
“I’m not going to kill you, Dwight, but we’re through.”
Dwight breathed a sigh of relief, then leapt across the desk and began fighting Tanner for control of the shotgun.
CHAPTER 22 - It was an accident...honest
Lillian’s eyes had become bleary from spending so much time looking at her house through binoculars.
She rubbed the area between them and then realized that she had to use the bathroom.
When she returned to the window and raised the binoculars up, she nearly fell out of her seat when she saw Dwight and Tanner talking at her front door, and felt her heart hammer away as she spotted the shotgun gripped in Tanner’s hands.
She grabbed her purse, rushed from the motel room, and found a wall of traffic blocking her path. Lillian hopped about from foot to foot as if the ground was too hot to stand on, but then she caught a gap in the traffic and rushed across the road while removing the gun from her purse.
Once she reached the other side, she struggled to control her rising panic, and was so nervous that she dropped her purse, after going back for it, she dropped it again, picked it up by its bottom and sent her wallet and everything else tumbling out onto the ground. She cursed the bag in spades and left it and its contents where they lay, as her only thought was to save her husband.
As she drew closer, she saw Tanner stand up from behind the desk with the shotgun pointing towards Dwight. Lillian took aim while running at the window, and fired just as Dwight tackled Tanner to the floor.
***
Dwight’s leap took Tanner by surprise and he was sure the man was trying to kill him.
Then, Tanner registered the muffled shot and the falling glass, and realized that someone was firing from outside.
Dwight had his hands on the shotgun as he screamed in Tanner’s face.
“Don’t shoot her! Don’t shoot her!”
Tanner wedged a leg up between them and kicked Dwight away and up in front of the window.
Lillian fired again, not realizing it was her husband, and the bullet ricocheted off the window frame and into the room.
“Lillian don’t shoot! It’s okay! Tanner won’t hurt us.”
Tanner stood and placed the barrel of the shotgun under Dwight’s chin.
“Drop that gun, Lillian, or I’ll kill you both.”
Lillian began to cry.
“Why did you push him out of the way? I wanted to save you.”
Dwight held out
a hand and then lowered it, gesturing for Lillian to drop her weapon.
“Put it down,” he said and then he looked at Tanner with wet, pleading eyes. “Please don’t kill her, don’t kill my wife.”
Several people came out of nearby homes and Tanner spotted one woman talking on the phone, doubtless calling the cops. He stared at Lillian through the hole in the window.
“Drop it!”
Lillian startled from the sound of his raised voice and released the gun. It clattered to the ground and Tanner told her to walk towards the front door.
He met her there with his shotgun still pointed at Dwight, and watched as the two of them embraced.
Dwight looked at him.
“What are you going to do?”
Tanner lowered the shotgun.
“I’m going to kill Rossetti, for both of us.”
A vehicle came to a squealing halt out front and Tanner nearly blasted it, but then he saw Cindy and Billy giving him worried looks.
Tanner left the house.
“Goodbye Dwight.”
Cindy slid over and Tanner climbed into the passenger seat, as a siren could be heard approaching from the west.
Billy sped off, as Cindy gasped and touched Tanner’s back. When she moved her hand into sight again, he saw that her fingers were red.
“You were shot?”
He nodded.
“Grazed by a ricochet, Rossetti should hire that bitch to kill me. She might get the job done.”
“Where to?” Billy said, but Tanner ignored the question and asked one of his own.
“Why did you come back?”
“We were in the donut shop across the street when I saw that woman run this way with a gun in her hand. I figured that couldn’t be good.”
“You were right.”
“So where to?”
“Just drive around these back streets for now, while I look for a place to lie low.”
Cindy smiled at him.
“It looks like you’re stuck with us again.”
And although it was against his nature, Tanner smiled back.
CHAPTER 23 - No ifs, ands, or buts
Merle and Earl Carter were in the basement of a home on Stewart Avenue in Las Vegas.
In particular, they were in a back corner, where a small soundproof room had been constructed. There was a metal pole in the center of the room that stretched from floor to ceiling, with a drain to the right of it, and Merle took note that the drain cover was tinged a dark red.
Albert Rossetti stood just inside the doorway staring at the two brothers, while Ramone leaned against one wall with a baseball bat. The wooden bat also had flecks of color on it, dark brown splotches that looked like dried blood.
There was another man there, but Merle hadn’t caught his name. The man was short, but looked strong, and when he had taken hold of Merle’s wrist to handcuff him to the pole, Merle had felt his carpal bones grind together.
Once they had been secured to the pole with handcuffs, Ramone told them to sit on the floor, and after they sat, Rossetti waddled over and glared down at them.
“I don’t know you two. What’s your game?”
Merle swallowed hard and felt his mouth go dry and when he spoke to Rossetti, he barely recognized his own voice.
“We, we were in California, in LA, and heard about the reward for Tanner, so we came here to look for him.”
“You don’t sound like you’re from LA.”
“Oh, me and Earl travel around a lot and ah, we saw your nephew once, Johnny R? We used to bring cars to his chop shop.”
Ramone laughed.
“They’re a couple of cheap hustlers. I told you that ten G’s would bring them out.”
Rossetti gave the brothers a sour look.
“Explain to me how Tanner got away but you’re still breathing.”
Merle attempted to look sincere as he repeated the lie Tanner told him to say.
“Tanner had help, some dudes that work for a guy named Hank O'Grady, and they say O'Grady wants fifty grand for Tanner.”
Rossetti’s face screwed up and he looked over at Ramone.
“Who the fuck is Hank O'Grady?”
“I never heard of him,” Ramone said.
Rossetti pointed at Merle.
“Are you fucking with me?”
Merle opened his mouth to answer and nothing came out.
That son of a bitch Tanner had made it sound like all they had to do was mention O'Grady’s name and everything would be all right, but Rossetti looked more pissed than ever.
“Colorado!” Earl shouted, and it startled Merle so much that he felt his bladder let loose a squirt. “Hank O'Grady is some big shot from Colorado and, and the guys that took Tanner said that they’d contact you soon about trading Tanner for the money.”
Rossetti’s face screwed up again. Merle thought that it made him look like a confused frog.
“Some sheep fucker from Colorado thinks he can shake me down? Ramone, do we have people in Colorado?”
“Nah, but we know people that know people in Colorado. Do you want me to find out about this O'Grady?”
“Yeah, do that.”
“And what about these two?”
Ramone asked the question while gesturing with the bat, and both Merle and Earl made a soft whining noise in their throats.
Rossetti threw his chins at the short man.
“Vinny here can keep an eye on them while we check things out.”
“And what about losing Tanner? Do you want me to tune them up for that?”
Rossetti stared at the brothers for several seconds, but it felt like hours to Merle and Earl.
“We’ll just keep them on ice for now, but if this Hank O'Grady story turns out to be bullshit, it’ll be the last lie they tell.”
Vinny opened the door and Rossetti and Ramone walked out of the room with him and up the stairs, leaving Merle and Earl alone.
Earl whispered to his brother.
“What happens if Tanner’s story about O'Grady doesn’t check out?”
Merle gazed about the stark room and noticed that the walls and ceiling were also stained with blood.
“We die, Earl, that’s what happens, we die.”
***
Sara learned of the shooting incident at the Sorrell’s home and went there to question them about Tanner, but when she and Garner arrived there, they found the couple in their driveway, loading Dwight’s suitcases into a car.
“Are you going on a trip, Dwight?”
Dwight looked up, blinked rapidly several times and then sighed.
“Agent Blake, why are you here?”
Sara pointed over at the boarded up office window.
“Someone fired shots into your house. Was that someone Tanner?”
Lillian wiped at her eyes and it caught Sara’s attention.
“Mrs. Sorrell, is there something you’d like to tell us?”
Lillian shook her head and kept her mouth shut, just as she had when the police arrived and Dwight sent them away with a lame story about a gun going off by accident.
Dwight stepped in front of his wife and closer to Sara.
“Why are you harassing me? I told you months ago that I had no connection to Tanner.”
“Yes you did, but I later found out that wasn’t true, and now there’s a rumor that you’re also connected to Albert Rossetti somehow.”
“I’m just a real estate agent.”
Sara stepped closer and got up in Dwight’s face.
“Tanner is still alive, isn’t he? He’s alive and tried to kill you.”
Dwight laughed in her face and Sara took a step back.
“What the hell is so funny?”
Dwight smiled.
“If Tanner wanted to kill me, I’d be dead, no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Sara knew that Dwight spoke the truth, and once again wondered if Tanner was dead.
CHAPTER 24 - Temptation
After spotting an old house with a pile of news
papers lying atop its porch, Tanner told Billy to back the pickup in the driveway, and afterwards, he proceeded to break in the home’s back door, to find the house devoid of its owners.
On a kitchen wall was a calendar with the current week circled and the word VACATION written inside it.
There was an old motor home at the bottom of the slanted driveway, and after confirming that it was drivable, Tanner gave Billy the chore of ditching the pickup. He told him to park it at least two miles away, wipe it down, and then travel back to the house on foot.
That left Tanner alone with Cindy, and as she hovered over him while cleaning his wound, he felt his desire for her rising again.
They were upstairs in the master bedroom and Tanner was shirtless and sitting on the bed, as Cindy swiped at the bullet scrape with a cotton swab. The wound was on his back, just behind his right shoulder, and Cindy was on her knees behind him as she worked.
When he removed his shirt, her eyes had taken inventory of his earlier scars, and his fresh bruises, before her fingers felt along the marks of former battles.
“This puckered scar here on your chest, is that a bullet wound?”
“Yes, from years ago.”
“How bad was it?”
“I nearly died.”
Concern clouded her lovely face at those words and she began ministering to his newest wound.
Her touch was gentle, her breath warm and sweet upon his skin, and her breasts brushed against him now and then. When she leaned over, her long blond hair would fall forward, framing her beautiful face, while blanketing his naked chest.
Cindy shifted, and once again, Tanner felt the firm breasts rub against him.
He turned his head, locking eyes with her, and saw the breath catch in her throat.
Tanner kept staring, as he searched for lustful intention, but found only a sense of girlish excitement in her blue eyes.
Cindy blushed, returned Tanner’s stare, and then gave a little shrug with one shoulder.
“I’m with Billy, Tanner, he’s my guy.”
Tanner turned his head, breaking eye contact, and Cindy finished cleaning the wound, before placing a bandage over it.
When he stood, she got off the bed as well, and Tanner thanked her for helping him.
The TANNER Series - Books 1-3 (Tanner Box Set) Page 7