Young Guns Box Set

by Kane, Remington

  Willow’s friend turned out to be a plump woman named Anna. Anna said she really didn’t know anything about what her husband was into and she preferred to keep it that way.

  “I thought you were the same way, Willow?” Anna said.

  “I was,” Willow told her. “But they’ve dragged me into the middle of a rivalry.”

  Anna waved those words away. “I don’t want to know any details, but I can call my husband and let him know you want to meet with him.”

  “Thank you, Anna.”

  Anna looked Spenser over. “By the way, I like your new man, he’s very sexy.”

  Willow smiled at Spenser. “I agree.”

  * * *

  In Indonesia, Cody and Romeo were working a heavy bag as they practiced kicking. They paused when Maz walked over and introduced them to Throne, the man who was the current champion of Maz’s yearly competition.

  Throne was a giant and bulging with muscle. He had an ego that was bigger than he was and a mouth to match. His shaved head gleamed in the sun and his black goatee was well-trimmed. Among his many tattoos was his own name, which was written across his massive chest. When he spoke, he betrayed an Australian accent. It made Cody think of Spenser and wonder how he was doing.

  When Maz told him that Cody and Romeo were first-year students, Throne laughed at them.

  “They won’t make it past the initial round, especially the blond one.”

  “Why do you say that?” Romeo asked.

  “I never met a blond guy who was tough. You’re all pussies.”

  Romeo took a step toward Throne, but Cody held him back.

  “Save it for the competition, Romeo.”

  Romeo relaxed, even as his eyes burned with anger.

  “I hope we get to fight each other, Throne. I’ll show you how tough I can be then.”

  “If that happens little man, I’ll break you in half.”

  Maz pointed at Romeo and Cody. “Don’t underestimate these two, Throne.”

  “I’m the champion, Maz, and I’m going to stay the champion, mark my words.”

  As Throne strode over to the sand circle to train with Maz, Romeo stared after him.

  “I would love to knock him on his ass, dude.”

  “He’s the man to beat,” Cody said, “but remember, Spenser said that brute strength is not always the answer. We need to have an ace up our sleeves.”

  “What kind of ace?”

  “I don’t know yet, but let’s keep an eye on Throne. The man must have a weakness.”

  Inside the sand ring, four of the students attacked Throne at once while using the training weapons made of rubber. Throne moved with a speed that belied his bulk and dispatched the men within several seconds.

  “Damn,” Romeo said. “He lives up to the hype.”

  “He’s good, and he’s strong,” Cody agreed, “but maybe he tires easily.”

  That hope dissipated later on, after they watched Throne grab a jump rope and begin using it to work out on a wooden platform. Twenty minutes after he started, Throne was still jumping and looked as fresh as when he’d begun.

  Romeo sent a vicious side kick into the heavy bag. “I still hope I meet him in the competition.”

  “Better you than me,” Cody said, and they laughed.

  * * *

  Anna’s husband agreed to meet with Spenser and Willow at an auto body shop he owned. The man was named Charlie Grant. He entered the shop area from behind a door marked OFFICE. Charlie had an open freckled face and wore a perpetual grin.

  Spenser recalled something that his mentor, Farnsworth, always said.

  “Don’t trust a man who smiles too much, boy. Ain’t nobody that happy.”

  The place was a drop-off point for stolen goods and a front for a chop shop, although they also performed legitimate body work.

  Charlie’s Auto Body operated on one side of the block, while a fictitious business named Specialty Auto was on the other side of the building. In reality, they were connected, and both owned by Charlie. However, if Specialty Auto was ever discovered by the cops, they would find no way to tie it to Charlie’s legitimate business.

  Spenser saw only one man working inside the shop, then realized the room’s dimensions were off. The outside of the building had seemed much larger. He guessed that illegal activity took place behind the rear wall, which was made of brick.

  Charlie’s smile was bright as he greeted them.

  “G’day mate. How you going? And hey there, Willow. Anna says you had a bit of trouble?”

  Willow looked over at Charlie’s employee and asked if they could speak in private. When Charlie suggested the office, Spenser and Willow followed him into the small room. Once inside, Charlie shut the door behind them, then slid behind an old metal desk to take a seat.

  “Now then, what’s your troubles, eh?”

  “Greg is dead, Charlie. Jock Martin killed him, and he’s framed me for his murder.”

  “Oh, that. I know all about that.”

  “You do?” Willow said.

  “Yeah, see, I never really left the gang; I was acting as a spy for Jock,” Charlie said, his smile never wavering.

  The door that led to the shop burst open. The man who’d been working on the car entered brandishing a crowbar. Spenser did a scissor kick and caught the guy on the chin. In the meantime, a bookcase filled with car manuals slid aside and two more men entered the room. One of the men grabbed Willow and pressed a knife to her throat. The other man had a shotgun pointed at Spenser.

  “Don’t be stupid, mate,” Charlie said. When Spenser looked over at him, he saw that the grinning man was holding a revolver.

  “Is Jock Martin coming here?” Spenser asked.

  “He sure is, and you’re going to be damn sorry when he gets here,” Charlie said, then he spoke to the man who had been kicked in the face. “Brett, go fetch some rope so we can tie these two up. But first, see what weapons our American friend has on him.”

  Brett rose from the floor with a bloody lip that was becoming puffy. After removing Spenser’s gun from a hip holster, he patted him down while glaring at him. Brett handed Spenser’s weapon to Charlie, then spun around and planted a fist into Spenser’s stomach. After showing little reaction to the punch, Spenser backhanded Brett and sent him sprawling onto the floor again.

  The man with the knife at Willow’s throat sent a warning.

  “I’ll slice open the bitch’s face if you don’t behave, Yank.”

  Spenser saw that Willow looked terrified, while the knife at her throat had already nicked her and caused a trickle of blood to creep down toward her breasts. Spenser sent the man a nod. There was no point getting them agitated. It would only make things worse.

  Brett rose up on a pair of shaky legs and headed off to get the rope. When he passed by Spenser, he looked like a man avoiding a live wire.

  16

  Chaos

  PHOENIX, ARIZONA, AUGUST 2018

  Tonya arrived in the area and traveled down the same parallel road that Tanner and the Farnsworth sisters had used. The infection spawned by the cat bite had been worsening and the wound itself was an inflamed sore leaking pus. Tonya had begun wearing a red bandana tied around her neck, as the wound was sensitive to sunlight.

  She drove slowly, then stopped when she saw the top of the van above a field of high weeds. She had no idea if Tanner and the women were parked together, but she thought it likely that at least one of them had gone over to the house with Harvey. If she snuck up on the remaining two at the van, Tonya felt she would have a good shot at killing them before they knew what was happening.

  * * *

  At the van, Kayla was on the phone and talking to Tanner.

  “I thought I heard a car before, but it must have been a noise from the road,” Kayla said.

  “If anyone comes to the house, I’ll dodge out of sight and leave Harvey out in the open to draw them in. If you hear a shot, come here and block the driveway.”

  “I’m sta
rting to think that Russell is playing with us. If that’s the case, what’s your next move?”

  “Now that we know Tonya’s last name, I’ll look into her past. If we can’t track down Russell, maybe she’ll be easier.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Kayla said.

  * * *

  In a field to the north of the house, Kuper was deciding whether to kill Harvey or Tanner first. He decided on Harvey when he saw how nervous the man appeared. If he killed Tanner first, Harvey might bolt for cover like a jackrabbit, and anyway, Harvey was the main target. Kuper adjusted the scope just a fraction and aimed at an area dead center and an inch higher than the spot between Harvey’s eyes.

  * * *

  Tonya heard Kayla talking on the phone then caught sight of Zoe looking at a computer tablet. She smiled. They would be dead before they knew what had happened. To be certain she would have a good angle of fire, Tonya inched a little closer. That’s when her ankle struck a line of fishing wire and caused two empty beer cans to clank together.

  “Shit!” Tonya said, as she began firing.

  * * *

  Tanner heard Kayla say, “Someone’s here,” in a hushed voice a moment before the sound of gunfire came over the phone and through the air. One shot was louder and closer than the others. It had come from a rifle. A hole appeared in an exterior wall of the abandoned model home and Tanner watched Harvey dive to the ground.

  “Kayla?”

  There was no answer, only the sound of a scream and more gunshots. When Tanner looked in the direction the rifle shot must have come from, he saw the glint of sunlight off a scope. The man holding the rifle was wearing some sort of home-made ghillie suit. He had blended in well with the land around him. The man fired another round, then another, while moving closer and keeping them pinned down behind the concrete sewer pipes.

  “Shoot back!” Harvey yelled.

  “There’s no point,” Tanner said. “He’s out of range of my gun.”

  “Then we have to make a run for the car.”

  “That would be suicide,” Tanner said, as he wondered if Kayla and Zoe were still alive.

  * * *

  Tonya laughed as she sprinted back to her vehicle. She had shot one of the women standing by the van. Judging by the blood that flowed from the neck wound, there was only one left. As she had told Russell, she’d pick them off one by one.

  Fishing wire was tangled about her ankle and she was trailing along empty beer cans that were attached to it. Tonya used a knife to free herself from the crude but effective early warning system the women had used.

  Tonya cursed the luck. If she had avoided the wire, she would have easily killed both women. And yet, good fortune had been with her as well. Several shots had been fired at her, with one even passing through her hair, but she remained unwounded. That is, if you didn’t count the cat bite.

  Tonya was about to drive away when an idea struck her. Why not do the unexpected? Instead of heading toward the road she placed her car in gear and headed back toward the van. Tonya had her window down and her gun arm extended as she drove.

  * * *

  “Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Kayla said, as she applied pressure to the wound in her sister’s neck. The round hadn’t struck an artery, at least, Kayla didn’t think so, but Lord, there was a lot of blood.

  “Am I going to die?” Zoe asked.

  “No, damn it no, you’re going to be all right, honey. The bullet missed your artery.”

  “I hear more shots.”

  “That’s coming from over by the house.”

  “I hope Xavier is okay.”

  “He is; he’s like Granddad, remember?”

  Through her pain, Zoe smiled. “Granddad’s old trick with the cans worked too, we heard her coming.”

  “The old man is still helping us.”

  “Kayla?”

  “What?”

  “Someone’s coming.”

  Kayla heard it too. It was a car approaching fast. When she looked up, she saw Tonya skidding to a stop while aiming a gun their way. Kayla’s weapon was back in its holster, while her hands were pressing down on her sister’s neck. There was no way she would return fire in time to save them.

  * * *

  Tanner had started the rolls of hay burning by using a lighter. The wind was carrying the smoke in the direction of where the car was parked.

  Harvey was giddy as he watched the plume grow thicker.

  “Smart, man, that was smart, Tanner. We can use the smoke for cover while we run for the car.”

  “No, Harvey. We’d be shot down before we could reach the car or killed inside it if we made it. I only started the fire to cause a diversion. While the sniper is preoccupied looking for us in the smoke, we’ll go the other way by crawling through the sewer pipes.”

  “What? No, man. Tanner, the car is right there.”

  “The smoke isn’t thick enough or low enough to conceal us, Harvey. Follow me through the pipes and I’ll keep you alive.”

  Tanner ducked into a pipe and began crawling through spider webs and the debris that had been blown inside it. A glance back over his shoulder showed him that Harvey had ignored his advice. He caught a glimpse of Harvey through a gap in the smoke before losing sight of him. Then, there came a masculine scream as the sniper’s rifle barked twice.

  “Fool,” Tanner said, and kept crawling.

  There were narrow spaces between the pipes. Each time Tanner reached one he wondered if he could be spotted through the weeds that grew around them.

  The sound of more gunfire came from over where the van was parked. Tanner ignored it, as he could do nothing for Kayla and Zoe until he took care of the sniper.

  The rifle sounded off three more times before Tanner emerged from the other end of the line of concrete pipes that had been staged for insertion into the ground. It placed him a hundred feet to the south of the shooter and about twice that distance on his right.

  Tanner kept crawling, now among weeds and scrub brush. He was barely in shooting distance of the sniper, but he could move no closer without the risk of being seen. Tanner steadied his gun in a two-handed grip and took aim.

  * * *

  Out in the field, Kuper stared through his scope but saw no movement. The only place to take cover was behind the sewer pipe. His initial shot had gone high, after he was startled by the shots he’d heard coming from Tonya’s gun.

  He had an idea who was shooting at the women left with the van, as Russell had told him that Tonya still wanted to kill Harvey. Tonya was too late to claim Harvey and going up against the women alone wasn’t very bright. Kuper had warned Russell that Tonya might wind up dead.

  “Don’t blame me if she doesn’t come back,” Kuper told Russell.

  “That might not be the worst thing that could happen,” Russell said.

  Kuper had smiled at those words and assumed Tonya was getting on Russell’s nerves. When he was done killing the men, Kuper figured he’d head over to the dirt lane and murder the women. If Tonya survived her firefight, he’d put her down too, just for the hell of it.

  Returning his attention to the task at hand, Kuper sought to bring the dark-haired man out of hiding.

  “Hey over there!” Kuper called out. “I shot Harvey, and I know you’re cowering behind that pipe. Throw out your gun and I’ll let you—”

  Shots came from Kuper’s right. One of them struck his rifle and splintered its wooden stock, while another nicked the watch on his wrist and shattered it.

  “Fuck!”

  Kuper abandoned the rifle, hit the ground, and began crawling toward the motorcycle he’d covered with a brown tarp. The gun barked again, and Kuper felt a searing pain in his left shoulder as a bullet sliced a crease across the top of it. If any more shots came, Kuper never heard them over the roar of the bike as he started the engine and rode away. With his ghillie suit still on, he was a bizarre sight.

  * * *

  Tanner sprinted toward his car, where he found Harvey lying face
down in the dirt with an entry wound in his back.

  “Harvey?”

  There was no answer. When Tanner eased him over, he saw that Harvey had died. There was a large exit wound in his chest. Then, Tanner was in the car, headed toward Kayla and Zoe, and calling for an ambulance.

  * * *

  Tonya thought she had the two women dead to rights until the wounded redhead brought up a gun and fired at her. One round passed through the opposite door and embedded itself in the dashboard, while another whizzed past the tip of Tonya’s nose and out the open window.

  As she struggled to shift into reverse with her left hand, Tonya fired a shot that went so high it even missed the van. Another round from the redhead’s gun pinged! into a rear panel, then Tonya was speeding backwards along the dirt road.

  * * *

  Kayla laughed with relief as Tonya sped away.

  “You saved us, Zoe. I never would have gotten my gun out in time.”

  “Am I really going to be all right?”

  “Yes, honey, but we have to get you to a hospital before you lose too much blood.”

  “I smell smoke.”

  “Me too, and I hear a car nearby.”

  A voice cried out, it was Tanner’s voice. “Kayla! Zoe!”

  “We’re over here!” Kayla called.

  Tanner’s voice had come from their left, but he arrived on their right, after circling around. When he saw the blood Zoe had lost, he winced.

  “She’ll be all right, but we have to get her to a hospital,” Kayla said.

  “I called for an ambulance and someone will investigate the smoke from the hay fire I started.”