Young Guns Box Set - Books 1-4: A Tanner Series (Young Gun Box Sets)

by Remington Kane

  And was it ever a hot sun. Andrea had been given a bottle of water hours earlier, but the heat surrounding her made her sweat while dehydrating her. After walking along for ten minutes she was excited to see what looked like a road. Andrea rushed over to it, then realized that the old concrete surface hadn’t seen traffic in decades.

  In any event, the cracked and sand-coated road was better than trudging through the deeper sand that surrounded it, so she stayed on it. When she saw the two bottles of water sitting in the shade of a bush, Andrea wondered if they were a mirage. They weren’t, and although warm, the water felt wonderful going down. After drinking one bottle, Andrea carried the other one away with her, and wondered if she had a guardian angel looking out for her.

  61

  Nor Any Drop To Drink

  DEATH VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 2012

  Tanner was drenched in sweat and aching for a drink when he found the empty water bottle Andrea had left behind.

  Nearby were three sets of tracks. They were faint impressions in the sand that coated the surface of the old road, but discernable as shoe prints. Tanner wondered for a moment if the man with the gun and his two safari-clad companions had somehow made it in front of him, but then he dismissed the idea as he assumed he would have heard their jeep’s approach.

  No, someone else had discovered his water. After studying the tracks, Tanner surmised that the smaller tracks were made by a child or a female wearing sneakers, while the other two sets of tracks belonged to men wearing boots. Although he’d been trained as a tracker many years earlier, he could still discern that the three weren’t walking together. The men were following the person who’d made the smaller tracks, and they were moving faster than their quarry.

  Taking out his compact binoculars, Tanner unfolded them and gazed in all directions. He spotted the jeep following along in his tracks and knew he was running low on options. If they found him, they would kill him, while the sand made it a thing of ease to follow him.

  Looking back at the other tracks, a plan formed in Tanner’s mind. He began following the tracks made by Andrea, just as Rudy and Cord had done minutes earlier.

  Andrea drained the second bottle of water as she walked along and still felt like she needed a gallon more. The temperature was high and the sun so brutal that she knew she would be sunburned in no time. As she walked past a bush, a snake hissed, then skittered away. Andrea let out a scream of fright and stayed on alert for snakes.

  Not far away from Andrea, Rudy and Cord stopped running and cocked their heads.

  “Did you hear that? She must be close now,” Cord said.

  “I wonder why she screamed like that,” Rudy said.

  “Who knows, but it won’t be the last scream she makes today.”

  As Tanner had done before him, Phelps was holding the first of the empty water bottles Andrea had left behind, and there was a confused expression on his face. They had tracked Tanner for miles. Now, it looked like the hit man may have found help… but maybe not.

  “Hand me that radio,” Phelps said, and the taller of the two safari twins gave it to him. Moments later and he was talking to Mr. Smith.

  “Those boys you hired to watch over Barker’s daughter. Can you contact them?”

  “I can, but why do you ask?”

  “Someone else is out here and Tanner might have met up with them. I’m wondering if it’s those boys.”

  “They’re in the area, but they’d have no reason to leave their RV. Standby, I’ll have Mr. Jones contact them.”

  Rudy flinched when the two-way radio indicated they had a call, because the only one who would be calling was Mr. Smith. It wasn’t Mr. Smith, but rather Mr. Jones. That was just as bad.

  Cord answered, listened, then glared at Rudy.

  “Yes, we’re out here because the girl yanked Rudy’s gun off his belt when he went to play grab-ass with her. Tell Mr. Smith I’ll do my best to fix Rudy’s screw up.”

  Rudy mouthed the words, “You son of a bitch,” at Cord, as Jones replied. When the call ended, Cord was all smiles.

  “What did Jones say? I couldn’t make it out.”

  “He said if the girl gets away that it would be on you. If I had to guess, that means either she dies, or you do.”

  “We’ll get her back.”

  “You’d better hope so, and Jones had some news of his own. That hit man who Barker was out here to meet is on the loose and in our area. We’re to call in if we spot him.”

  “Is the guy armed?”

  “They assume so.”

  “Great.”

  “Let’s catch up with this bitch and get our guns back. After that, maybe we can track down the hit man. If we do that, Smith will forget that you let the girl get away.”

  “I still want to nail her.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Cord said, as he began jogging along in the wake of Andrea’s tracks.

  When Phelps was told that the tracks belonged to Cord and Rudy, he relaxed, then he got an idea.

  “You two. Out of the jeep.”

  The safari twins blinked at him in surprise, but neither man moved.

  “I said get over here.”

  The men joined Phelps, then looked down at the jumble of tracks.

  “One set of these tracks belongs to Tanner. I want you to follow them. Those boys Smith hired are in front of Tanner. With you two at his rear, he’ll head back into the brush, and that’s where I’ll be waiting for him.”

  “We’re not killers,” the shorter man said.

  “I get that, but all you have to do is herd him my way. You do have guns, don’t you?”

  The men reached beneath their safari shirts and brought out weapons. They were both carrying snub-nosed revolvers.

  “I guess they’ll do,” Phelps said. “When you see Tanner, fire in his direction. In fact, fire off two shots. That will tell me he’s headed my way.”

  The men began walking along while following the tracks. Behind them, Phelps shook his head in wonder at their stupidity.

  They wouldn’t herd a man like Tanner anywhere. If Tanner was as good as Herb Barker had claimed, he would kill both of them. However, they would keep the man preoccupied and rounds would be fired off, which would allow him to pinpoint their location.

  Phelps got back in the jeep. After removing his cap, he wiped his brow, then sipped the last of the water from his canteen. He was waiting for the fireworks to begin. At the sound of the first shot he would drive to within rifle range and pick Tanner off.

  The safari twins plodded along as they followed the tracks left by Andrea, Cord, and Rudy. There had been a fourth set of tracks mixed in, but they had ended near a small dune. The safari twins never noticed the discrepancy, nor the fact that they were being spied on.

  Standing at the edge of the other side of the sand dune, Tanner watched as the men in the safari suits passed by him. He considered attacking them, if for no other reason than to take the canteens that were strapped to their belts. Tanner thought better of it. They could wait, as could his need for water. It was the man in the jeep he wanted, along with his rifle.

  Tanner wiped sweat from his eyes and moved his tongue around inside a mouth gone dry. He needed water, and he needed it soon, but understood that he could last without it. He knew his limits better than most men. He had been taken to them years earlier and had pushed beyond them while he was training to become the man he was.

  These men who wanted to kill him had no idea who they were up against, but they would learn the hard way. He was a Tanner, and he would deliver death to every last one of them. Pushing his discomfort from his mind, Tanner began circling back to where Phelps sat in the jeep. It was time to go on the offensive.

  62

  Letter From A Friend

  BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO, JULY 1998

  By nine in the morning the temperature was already at 106-degrees and Cody felt as if he were afoot inside a blacksmith’s forge. When he came across the latest stash of water that Spenser had left
for him, he was ecstatic to find that it was still cool. Better yet, Spenser had left him a gallon jug.

  Cody moved behind a narrow band of shade offered by a cactus and sat, to drink in the water. Rather than reviving him, the cool liquid seemed to enhance his fatigue and make him want to lie on the ground.

  He’d made little progress since four a.m., covering less than twelve miles. With three hours to go, he still had to traverse sixteen miles.

  “I’m not going to make it,” he muttered. When he checked his watch, he was shocked to see that he’d already been stopped for ten minutes. He needed to eat. If he ate something it would give him energy to go on. Reaching inside the backpack, Cody saw Spenser’s letter. Spenser said it was to be read only after the sun rose, which it had hours earlier. Cody read the note as he chewed on a protein bar.

  Cody,

  If you’re reading this, then I know how tired you must be feeling and what you’ve endured to get to this point. I hope you’re close to the finish line, if not, then know that there is no shame in losing this race. Few men could travel a hundred miles on foot in the desert and it won’t make you less of a man if you don’t finish.

  I know what becoming a Tanner would mean to you and that you want it so much because of what happened to your family. I understand that motivation more than you know, but nothing will bring them back, son.

  You have to live your life, Cody, whether a Tanner or not, and while your loved ones were taken from you, I want you to know something.

  I love you, boy, and I’ll be proud of you forever despite how things work out. If you don’t finish the race you won’t be a Tanner, but you’ll always be my friend.

  —Spenser

  Cody wiped at his eyes before placing the letter back in its envelope. After placing the backpack on again, he took off at a jog. On his face was a look of determination.

  Romeo was doing worse than Cody after wandering off his route in the dark. When the sun rose, he realized that he had drifted off course, and worse yet, he had missed hitting one of the water stops. Consequently, he was suffering from the heat while having walked two extra miles to get back on the right track. He had no idea what time it was, but he guessed that it was around nine in the morning.

  When he finally reached the next designated stop, Romeo gulped at the water too quickly and felt his stomach cramp. The pain was harsh, but nothing compared to the agony in his back.

  After forcing himself to drink more slowly, Romeo finished the water and checked his pedometer. It told him he had fifteen miles to go. He tacked two miles onto that because of the distance he’d travelled while lost.

  “Seventeen more miles,” Romeo muttered, and it seemed like an impossibility to him. Despite that, he placed one foot in front of the other, and was soon running for all he was worth.

  63

  A Pain In The Neck

  DEATH VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 2012

  Andrea laughed aloud when she found more of Tanner’s water. She had been feeling the effects of the heat and feared that she might soon pass out. As she was drinking with her head tilted back, she heard the sound of something moving off in the brush. Lowering her head, she saw Cord standing thirty feet away. He was smiling at her.

  “You’re gonna die, bitch.”

  Andrea was reaching for one of the guns tucked into her waistband when an arm snaked around her neck. It was Rudy, and he was cutting off her air. Even as she gagged, Andrea’s fingers found the trigger of one of the guns. She brought it out, pressed it against Rudy’s stomach and fired.

  Rudy screamed in her ear, then collapsed to the ground while dragging Andrea along with him. She rolled away with the gun in her grip and heard the sound of footfalls growing near behind her.

  It was Cord, and he was close.

  Without bothering to look, Andrea spun onto her back and fired off a shot. The round hit Cord on the right side of his face and opened up his cheek. He stopped four yards away from Andrea and felt his bloody face.

  Andrea fired again until the weapon was empty. The shots missed, but they sent Cord running back the other way. After freeing the second gun, Andrea fired three more shots at the fleeing punk, but not one of them hit their mark, and Cord skittered down a hill to disappear from sight.

  Phelps sat up straight inside the jeep after hearing the shots and assumed that Tanner and the safari twins had been behind the gunfire. Phelps stood up in the jeep with the rifle raised to his shoulder and gazed through the scope. He could see nothing due to the undulations of the sandy terrain.

  He slid back down into the seat, took out his two-way radio, and called the safari twins.

  “What was that shooting? Did you come across Tanner?”

  “That wasn’t us,” said a voice that Phelps recognized as belonging to the tall safari twin.

  Phelps thought that over and assumed that Tanner had traveled farther than he’d thought.

  “Tanner must have come across those two boys Smith hired. I’ll have Jones call them and see what’s going on.”

  “Okay, but come pick us up. It’s hot as blazes out here.”

  Phelps had been holding the unit to his ear with his right hand, which had blocked his peripheral vision on that side. As he lowered the hand-held radio he saw Tanner standing beside the jeep. Tanner reared back a hand that was holding a knife and tossed the blade at Phelps. The knife sank inches into Phelps neck and he began to gag.

  When he went to pull the knife free, Tanner gave him some advice while lifting the rifles out of the jeep. His own rifle, and Phelps’ weapon, which were the same model.

  “I wouldn’t yank on that knife, you might nick an artery.”

  Phelps sat with his head back while breathing heavily through his mouth. Blood had run down his side from the blade in his neck and his beige shirt began turning red. Tanner reached into the jeep and removed the keys, then grabbed a canteen off the seat. The canteen was empty of all but four drops of water, and even that tease of refreshment tasted like heaven. After opening the door on the jeep, Tanner laid the rifles on the rear seat, then sat beside Phelps.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Carl Phelps.”

  “Who wants me dead?”

  “Fuck you! You’re going to kill me anyway.”

  “I’ll leave you alive if you tell me what I want to know.”

  Phelps gave Tanner a disbelieving look, soon after, he realized he had nothing to lose by talking.

  “I don’t know his real name, but he’s calling himself Mr. Smith, while his assistant goes by the name of Jones.”

  “Describe them,” Tanner said.

  Phelps spoke between gasps of pain and gave descriptions of Smith and Jones. While listening, Tanner was also checking out Phelps’ rifle, which was a Remington 700. The rifle’s range was about a thousand yards in the right hands and appeared to have been cared for.

  “Who hired Herb Barker?”

  “I don’t know, but Smith found out about it and decided to make an example out of you and Barker, so that no one else would dare accept a contract on him.”

  “Where can I find him?”

  “He’s around here somewhere in another jeep.”

  “What part of the country is he from, and does he have an accent?”

  “He’s not from around here, neither is Jones. Jones sounds like a Connecticut yuppie, while Smith is an Englishman.”

  “Barker’s daughter, is she still alive?”

  Phelps raised his shoulders in an attempt to shrug and the blade in his neck moved, causing him to groan.

  “Shit, but that hurt. I think it’s touching a nerve.”

  “Tell me about the girl.”

  “I don’t know if the girl is still alive, but she escaped and is being hunted down right now. Maybe that’s what that shooting was all about.”

  “Besides you and the fools in the safari outfits, how many more men are there?”

  “Just two. They’re the teenagers looking for the girl.”

&nb
sp; Tanner asked Phelps several more questions, took away his phone and radio, then told him to get out of the jeep. Maybe the knife hadn’t hit an artery, but Phelps was losing blood at a steady rate. There was a small red puddle in the seat; Tanner covered it with a pair of floor mats and climbed behind the wheel.

  Phelps, with his head tilted at an odd angle, stared at Tanner.

  “You’re not going to kill me?”

  “No, but you’ll die out here anyway.”

  “Take me with you, Tanner. I’ll help you find… help you find…”

  Phelps’ knees gave out and he collapsed to the sand. Tanner started the jeep and drove away from the dying man.

  Rudy bled out right before Andrea’s eyes. One moment he was there, staring up at her with those brilliant green eyes of his, and an instant later those eyes turned dull and lifeless.

  Andrea hadn’t meant to kill him. She was just defending herself. If anything, she was sorry that she hadn’t killed Cord as well, because as long as he was loose she wouldn’t be safe.

  Fearing that Cord would stay near the old road and pounce on her somewhere, Andrea decided to cut across the desert. If she kept going east diagonally she should still meet up with the main road. She had walked among the cactus for only a hundred yards when she heard someone shouting to her.

  Andrea spun around and saw two men waving at her. They were smiling and in a shout one of the men asked her if she were lost. She rushed toward them with relief flooding through her, then thought of Cord. Looking around, she saw no sight of him and figured he was back at the motor home seeing to his wound.