Stalking Horse (A Tanner Novel Book 40)

by Remington Kane

  After thinking over what he’d learned about Morelos, Tanner decided to make a call to a man named Duke, who could supply him with anything he needed.

  “Hey Tanner. I was wondering if I’d hear from you. I figured that you were back in the city, judging by what went down in Brooklyn last night.”

  “I could use a few supplies.”

  “Give me a list and I’ll get it ready.”

  “Are you still buying items from that ex-CIA toymaker?”

  “Oh yeah. And he recently came up with something that’s a doozy.”

  “What is it?”

  “Get this. You can make yourself invisible.”

  “Invisible?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “I’m interested. I’ll be in later this afternoon.”

  “See ya then.”

  Cody smiled as he put away his phone.

  “Invisibility. Yeah, that I need to see.”

  6

  Morelos

  The killer calling himself Morelos had begun his training as a sicario when he was only fifteen. Before that, he was a drug mule for the old Mercoto Cartel.

  Because he could pass for an American and spoke English well, he was a natural to make border runs into San Diego. Morelos was paired with a man named Carlos who pretended to be his father. On one of the trips when they had been trusted to deliver twelve kilos of pure cocaine to an address near Balboa Park at dusk, Carlos robbed Morelos.

  The man had been twice his size. He struck Morelos in the face with several hard blows and left him dazed. The ring he wore sliced open Morelos’s right cheek. It was the cause of the scar he had.

  Morelos recovered from the beating within moments and followed Carlos through the park. Along the way, he picked a bottle out of a trash can and broke it in half to use as a weapon.

  Morelos, although a boy, had attacked Carlos from behind ferociously and jammed the jagged end of the bottle into his neck. Carlos managed to strike him once more before pressing a hand to his throat to stop the bleeding. There was no staunching of the blood flow. Morelos had severed the man’s jugular vein. As he watched the treacherous thief bleed out, he smiled. Afterward, he dragged Carlos’s body out of sight, but was certain it would be discovered once the sun rose.

  He had been given a phone number to memorize if something went wrong. He dialed it from a pay phone and was a strange sight to behold. He was a shirtless kid holding a suitcase with a swollen lip and a gashed cheek. The shirt he’d been wearing had been covered in blood.

  A voice answered the call in Spanish and Morelos explained what had happened. He was told to wait on the outskirts of the park and to avoid contact with anyone.

  Three hours passed slowly while he ducked out of sight whenever anyone came near. That included several police cars. When someone finally came, they had snuck up on him and whispered his name.

  Morelos had spun around to find three Mexican men. Two of them were young, muscular, and wore tank tops that showed off their arms. The third man was wearing a suit and was older. He smiled at Morelos.

  “You killed Carlos?”

  Morelos nodded.

  “Good. I never liked him. I also told Hector that he couldn’t be trusted.”

  Morelos blinked at that. “Hector Mercoto?”

  “Yes. Have you ever met him?”

  Morelos was surprised at the question and shook his head. Why would the leader of the cartel ever want to meet a nobody like him?

  “Show me Carlos’s body. I need to remove his ID.”

  Morelos took a wallet from his pocket. “I have it here. It will make it harder for the police to identify him.”

  The man smiled again. “Exactly. You are a smart boy. I like that.”

  “What’s your name?” Morelos asked.

  “I am Alonso Alvarado.”

  It was Alvarado who suggested to Hector Mercoto that Morelos be trained as a sicario. The boy had shown no remorse at killing Carlos and wanted respect. Sicarios were not only respected, they were feared.

  By the time he was sixteen, Morelos had killed eleven more men, three women, and a seven-year-old girl. The girl and her mother had witnessed another slaying. The mother, a devout Catholic, had been foolish enough to talk to the police. The officer who took her statement was paid for her name and address. He also modified her statement to change her description of the killer.

  When Morelos showed up on her doorstep, the woman thought he was harmless and was one of the children in the neighborhood. She learned how wrong she was when she saw him bring out the knife he had hidden. Morelos jammed the blade in her chest before she could release a scream. When it came to killing the little girl, he smothered her with a pillow.

  Murdering the girl had bothered him. He didn’t like the way it felt and kept seeing her face in his mind’s eye. When he mentioned this to Alvarado, he was given advice that only a monster would offer.

  “Kill more children. Once you’ve murdered enough of them, you’ll no longer feel anything. It will also make you a more dangerous killer.”

  Morelos took the advice to heart. His targets were the children of members of a rival cartel. Morelos had killed five of them when a war broke out between the cartel and one of their other rivals. Morelos had left behind clues that led the cartel to come to that conclusion. When Hector Mercoto learned that Morelos had started the conflict, he rewarded him with a large sum of money and began giving him tougher contracts. He later supplied him with a crew to assist him.

  When Damián Sandoval betrayed Hector Mercoto and took over the cartel, Morelos left and followed Alvarado south. When Alvarado formed his own cartel, it was Morelos who became his main enforcer. Years later, Morelos suffered a gunshot wound to his left leg while fulfilling a contract. He’d lost a significant amount of blood and was weak and in a doctor’s care while suffering from an infection. It was at that time when Tanner traveled to Mexico and killed Alvarado. Since that day, Morelos had been waiting for an opportunity to kill Tanner. That time had come at last.

  In the years since Alvarado’s death, Morelos had been busy working for an up-and-coming cartel in El Salvador. Of late, due to his reputation, he’d been hired out to the cartel’s allies whenever they needed a problem to be solved with bloodshed. One of those allies was the Primeros.

  Along with Tanner, Morelos was to kill Joe Pullo. Pullo had been fortunate to regain control of Manhattan after Alvarado’s death. It was because of Pullo that Tanner became involved in the Mafia’s war with the cartel, which led to Alvarado being killed. Alonso Alvarado had been a friend of Morelos. It would be a pleasure to slay Pullo.

  And although he was only being paid to kill Tanner and Pullo, Morelos had a third target in mind. Rico Nazario had been trusted by Alvarado. And yet, upon his death, Rico went to work for Pullo. Morelos couldn’t prove it, but he believed that Rico was somehow involved with Juan Alvarado’s murder. Rico had always disliked Juan because everything had been handed to the young man, while Rico had to claw his way up from the slums.

  Even if Rico was innocent, he could be tortured to provide information that would help Morelos get to Pullo.

  As for Tanner, he would be dealt with last. Morelos knew of the hit man’s reputation and wasn’t the least bit intimidated. Everyone had a weakness. Tanner would be no different. The man must care about someone. Once Morelos found out who that someone was, he could use them to make Tanner come to him on his terms. After that, the man’s fate would be sealed.

  Morelos had fallen in love once. When he realized that she could be used against him if anyone ever found out about her, he broke things off. That fear came true a year later when the woman was kidnapped in order to lure Morelos to his death.

  Morelos used a sniper rifle to kill the two narcos who were after him. He also shot and killed the woman he loved. Once she was dead, she could never be used against him again. It was on that day that the last bit of humanity was extinguished in Morelos’s soul.

  He was like a sha
rk now. A killing machine. And Tanner was his latest target.

  Morelos had no problem getting across the border in Brownsville, Texas. He had his mother’s fair skin, was driving a car with Texas plates, and had a phony ID and credit cards that gave his name as Richard Henderson.

  Once he was across, he met with an illegal arms dealer he had used before. The man supplied him with everything he needed.

  Another contact gave him a different car, then he met a woman at a bar in Arkansas. The woman was a drug mule Morelos had known for many years. She would accompany him to New York City and back. A couple traveling attracted less attention than a lone man. She could also act as a helper once they reached New York and keep watch when he needed to sleep. Her name was Amber.

  Amber was a blonde in her thirties with blue eyes who was of average height. Her face was pleasant, but she was not beautiful enough to attract the stares of men and bring attention to herself.

  Amber was in love with Morelos but had never told him. The two were lovers whenever they traveled together, which was usually two or three times a year. She spoke English and Spanish and had a weakness for fine chocolate and good weed.

  It was the weed that led her into the drug world when she was still in high school. These days, Amber acted as an escort for new mules. It was her job to see that the nervous newbies didn’t make stupid mistakes or draw attention to themselves. Once she accompanied them to their destination, Amber received an envelope of cash and would be free to do as she pleased until called on once again. It was easy work, paid well, and involved little risk—thanks to well-placed bribes.

  Amber had nearly a million dollars stashed away and was renting a luxury condo. She went on vacation five times a year and spent her days pampering herself and hanging out with her best friend from high school, a woman named Heather. Heather was also in the drug trade. She made her living ferrying loads of drugs across the Texas/Arkansas state border inside a van that had the name of a catering company on the side. Like Amber, Heather made good money, but spent most of it on clothes and jewelry. When her apartment was robbed a year earlier, the thief made off with over half a million in diamond jewelry. Heather would have been more upset had the man taken her Hermes handbags and Christian Louboutin shoes.

  Amber was aware that Morelos was a sicario. It turned her on to know that there were people alive who would be dead once Morelos caught up with them. She had always found him to be handsome, despite the scar on his right cheek. But knowing he had the power of life and death was a turn-on for her. She could never kill anyone. Her mother’s boyfriend had raped her when she was sixteen. Amber got a gun and confronted the man in the parking lot of a bar. As much as she’d hated him, she’d been unable to pull the trigger and end his life. Instead, she ran away from home and never looked back.

  They were driving through Tennessee when Amber woke from a nap. The light was fading, and she knew it would be dark soon. When she looked over at Morelos, she saw that he was glancing at her.

  “Was I snoring again?”

  “A little.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It does not matter.”

  Amber put a hand on his leg. “I want to be with you tonight.”

  “After we stop to eat. I also need to make a few calls.”

  While driving, Morelos had time to think. He had come up with a plan to deal with Tanner that he thought would give him the advantage he needed. To carry it out, he would need a pawn. One of the calls he would make was to a man who could arrange that sort of thing, for the right price.

  “Are we near Knoxville?” Amber asked.

  “We will be in less than an hour. Why?”

  “There’s a great hotel there that I’ve stayed at before. The room service is better than most restaurants. We could eat in.”

  Morelos nodded. “We’ll go there.”

  They checked into the hotel an hour later. They’d been fortunate to do so. There was a convention of doctors in town and the hotel was booked solid. However, they had gone to the front desk moments after a cardiac surgeon from Detroit had called to cancel his reservation. The man had to stay in the Motor City to perform an emergency triple bypass.

  Morelos paid for the doctor’s suite although it was more than he and Amber required for a one-night stay. The suite came with a balcony. It was on the twelfth floor and overlooked a golf course. Morelos didn’t play golf. The only time he had been on a golf course had been in Mexico, where he had killed three men on the ninth hole on the orders of Alvarado.

  He made his calls while Amber showered. One of those calls was to his boss. Morelos wanted to know if anything new had happened in Manhattan that he should know about. Nothing had changed, but his boss reminded him that Pullo and Tanner would be expecting trouble. Morelos assured him that he would be careful and reminded the man that he had never failed to kill a target.

  “This will be no different.”

  “It’s kill or be killed with Tanner. Failure is death,” his boss said.

  Morelos wanted to point out that he was stating the obvious but decided to let it go.

  After talking to his boss, he called a contact in Texas and asked him if he knew anyone in the New York area who could acquire some items he needed. Among them was a sniper rifle and a car with New York license plates. One item in particular would require effort, and was not something sold in stores. That something was actually a someone.

  “Are we talking about a hooker?”

  “No. This would be similar to the request I made of you three years ago, in San Antonio.”

  “Ah. Now I get you. Damn. I know a guy in Newark, New Jersey, who could get you what you need, but it will cost you.”

  “How much?”

  The contact named a price, then told Morelos that he would want a referral fee of ten percent.

  “And you’ll take ten percent of the money I pay your friend too, yes?”

  “Of course. That’s just good business.”

  “I agree to the price. But warn your friend that he needs to be selective. If I’m not satisfied, I’ll let him know it.”

  The contact laughed. “I bet it would be the last thing he ever knew. Don’t worry, the guy is a pro. He’ll get a good one for you.”

  “Should I send the money to the same account as last time?”

  “Yeah. And I’ll text you my guy’s info.”

  “Don’t. I won’t be using this phone any longer. I’ll call you back in the morning.”

  “That should be enough time. And happy hunting.”

  Amber walked out of the bathroom a few minutes after Morelos had finished his calls. She was dressed in a white, terrycloth robe, but opened it for a flash to give Morelos a glimpse of the sheer red nightgown she wore beneath it.

  “That’s a sneak preview for tonight’s action. Go take your shower.”

  “Order room service. I want a medium-rare steak with a baked potato and a house salad.”

  “Okay. And what do you want to drink?”

  “Just coffee.”

  “And dessert?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Suit yourself, but I’m going to order this incredible chocolate mousse they have here.”

  “I’ll be out of the bathroom before the food arrives,” Morelos said. Once inside the bathroom, he took out his phone and used it to view the hidden cameras he had placed throughout the suite. Amber had never given him a reason to be suspicious of her, but that didn’t mean he trusted her implicitly.

  She was still in the bedroom and had put on the TV. As she watched a movie, she began doing her nails. Satisfied that she wasn’t up to anything, Morelos stripped off his clothes to reveal a lean and muscular physique. He opened his toiletry bag and took out the things he needed. After a quick shave, he stepped into the shower.

  As the warm water poured over him, Morelos thought about Tanner. Although he didn’t fear him, he was aware that Tanner would be the toughest target he had ever gone after. He would get one chance to kill the man
, and that would only occur if he managed to outwit him.

  After being wounded in the leg years ago, Morelos had stopped working with a team. It was one of the team members who had screwed up and made their position known. At the time, he had been in Los Angeles to kill a regional leader of the Crips gang. The man had cheated Alvarado in a drug deal and needed to be taught a lesson. Morelos and three other men were attacked by eleven members of the gang while on their way to fulfill the hit.

  Morelos managed to get away by stealing a delivery van. The other men with him all died. By the time he was able to seek treatment in a way that wouldn’t involve the police, Morelos had nearly bled to death.

  After recovering, he never went back to Los Angeles to seek revenge. That would have been foolhardy. Besides, by then, Alvarado was dead. Morelos thought that revenge was for fools. Had he gone after the target while still recovering from his leg wound, he would have been at a disadvantage. However, he did kill his target nine months later in Bakersfield. The Crip was known to visit a married woman there. Morelos had paid the adulterer’s neighbor to let him know when the gang member showed himself. When the word came, Morelos traveled to Bakersfield and killed the Crip, the woman, and the snitching neighbor. No one likes a snitch.

  Seeking revenge on Tanner for Alvarado’s death would have also been foolish. But now fate had given Morelos a reason to kill the hit man, and he would be compensated for doing so. Along with that would come the prestige of slaying a man who so many others had failed to kill. Once Tanner was dead, Morelos would be considered the greatest sicario and the fee for his services would rise.

  If he decided to become an independent killer, he could make a fortune for each hit he took on. Money meant little to him. The truth was that he’d stopped caring about most things after he had slain the woman he loved. All he had left was the work of killing. The more challenging the target, the greater his pleasure in taking them down. Killing Tanner would be the height of his career.