“In that case, she’s on her own. If she stays hidden she may survive,” White said, and then he took off to the left, and ran among the pines. “Good luck, Tanner.”
Tanner watched him go for a moment and then ran off to the right. He was following Emmy’s tracks through the snow. When he was a few hundred yards from the house, he heard the rumble of the snowmobiles’ engines. The sound made him quicken his pace, as the tracks led deeper into the woods.
***
Brick sent Ariana off with the two remaining mercs as he separated from them at the shed and followed the tracks that led off towards the left.
He had no idea whether it was Tanner or Mr. White he was following, but when he spotted White in the distance, he sped up and headed towards him.
He’d been hoping it was White and not Tanner. Ariana hated Tanner, and while Brick had no love for the man, he held a personal, if irrational, dislike for Mr. White.
That animosity had been there ever since Brick had been forced to drop out of the Premium Fighter Championship matches, and White went on to win it all. And on top of that, he lost a grand betting against White.
“I could take him easy,” Brick muttered, and his words were lost in the rumbling of the machine he rode on.
Up ahead, the trees thinned and there were several boulders scattered about in a clearing. Brick saw White duck behind one of them that was nearly five feet high and almost as wide. He pulled the snowmobile behind a boulder that was almost as big, cut the engine, and called out.
“Why don’t you give up? If you come out now I may be able to stop that Randall dude from raping your wife.”
In answer, White fired at Brick, and the slug caught the sleeve of his down jacket and sent feathers flying.
“Shit!” Brick cried, and after returning fire, he ducked down lower and tucked his arms closer to his sides.
White darted out and hustled through the snow to another boulder. It was smaller than the one he’d left, but gave him a better angle on Brick’s location.
Brick dived off the snowmobile and dropped to lie at the base of the boulder, just as two bullets passed the spot where his left arm had been.
He returned fire, but the bullets just ricocheted off the rock that White was hunkered down behind. When Brick checked his gun, he saw that he had only three rounds left.
“Hey! If we keep this up, we’ll both freeze to death. Why don’t we settle this like men?”
There was a pause, and then White answered.
“What are you saying?”
“A fight, just you and me for the championship, like it should have been in the first place,”
“Those bouts were nearly twenty years ago. Give up now, help me free my wife, and I’ll let you live.”
Brick laughed.
“You’re afraid, aren’t you?”
White’s only answer was a sigh that was loud enough to carry.
Brick called to him, and then he reached a hand up and placed his gun atop the boulder he was hiding behind.
“There, I’m unarmed, and I’m coming out.”
Brick stood slowly and saw that White was watching him. He removed his jacket and tossed it atop the snowmobile. While keeping his eyes on White and being prepared to dive for cover, Brick turned completely around to show that there were no guns tucked in his waistband.
“If you’re man enough, come face me,” Brick said.
Another sigh could be heard, but it was followed by the sound of metal touching stone, as Mr. White laid his gun atop the boulder and stood, then, removed his coat.
Brick grinned at him.
“This is gonna be fun.”
And then he and White strode towards each other while knowing that only one of them would be walking away.
CHAPTER 32 – Ice man
Tanner had covered over a mile when he came upon Emmy Lee.
She hadn’t been hard to find since she must have left several pints of blood in her wake.
Emmy was dead. Ariana’s shot had hit Emmy in the side and exited out of her left breast.
Tanner knelt beside her in a copse of leafless trees when he realized that the sound of the snowmobiles’ engines were getting louder. Like himself, they were following the foot tracks and blood trail to Emmy’s location.
Tanner stood and looked around. There was nowhere to hide, and the trees grew thinner farther out. He looked down at Emmy lying in the deep snow, and then took off at a sprint to the crest of a small hill, but then stopped, and went back the way he had just come.
He had one chance at turning things around so that they would be in his favor, and if it worked, Ariana would soon be dead.
***
Ariana rode behind one of her mercenaries and hung on to the man’s waist as their snowmobile bounced over the white terrain.
Ahead of them, the other merc followed the trail left by Tanner and Emmy, and Ariana saw him raise his hand while slowing his snowmobile.
Once they were stopped, she saw the body lying in the snow, and the bright pink parka let her know that it was Emmy Lee. Ariana smiled. It served the bitch right as far as she was concerned. If not for Emmy’s interference, Tanner might already be dead.
As she climbed off the snowmobile, it seemed clear to Ariana that the body lying atop the snow was Emmy, but the two mercs told her to stay back while they checked it out.
When one of the men yanked down the hood on the parka while keeping his gun trained on the form at his feet, Emmy’s blond hair stirred in the wind.
The man then pointed towards the crest of a nearby hill.
“The tracks go that way and they’re fresh. Wait here Ms. O’Grady and Frank and I will check it out.”
As the men lumbered towards the hill, Ariana walked over and stared at Emmy. She was reaching down to flip the woman over when the body moved towards her, as if Emmy were doing a pushup.
Ariana shrieked, which caused the mercs to turn around. At that same moment, Tanner fired four shots at the men from where he lay beneath Emmy’s corpse, and the two men went down with chest and head wounds.
Tanner pulled himself out from under Emmy’s body, and although he looked like a living snowman with all the frost covering him, his eyes were colder still, as he gazed down at Ariana O’Grady.
“Alone at last,” Tanner said, and then he caught the scent of fresh urine, as Ariana wet herself.
CHAPTER 33 – Not a finger!
Randall Mason held a gun pressed against Jessica’s forehead while his left hand was inside her coat and fondling her breasts.
Jessica had locked eyes with Randall, but when she noticed that Randall’s finger wasn’t on the gun’s trigger, but rather, his forefinger was resting on the weapon’s trigger guard, she knew she had a chance to not only escape, but to triumph.
Randall must have been instructed in the use of firearms in the same manner that she was trained by her husband. Mr. White had taught her never to place her finger on the trigger unless she was ready to fire.
That instruction was hard-wired into her brain, as it evidently was in Randall’s demented mind.
The gun was a snub-nosed .38, which placed Randall’s hand close to her face. Jessica stood in a rush, which jammed Randall’s left arm deeper into her coat, and at the same moment, she wrapped her mouth around the finger on the trigger guard and clamped down on it with her teeth.
Randall let out a yelp of pain and tried to back away from her, but Jessica had wrapped her arms around Randall and clasped her hands together. Randall tried in vain to bring up one of the fingers that were wrapped around the gun’s grip, but Jessica’s chin was in the way.
Her teeth were clamped on Randall’s right forefinger, his left arm was trapped inside her jacket, and they were locked together in an embrace by her arms.
Randall’s face was a mask of pain from the damage Jessica was inflicting on his finger. And even as his blood began filling her mouth, grossing her out and making her want to vomit, she held on. The grip her teeth had on
Randall’s finger was the only thing keeping him from firing the gun.
Then, Jessica got them moving, and they stumbled across the kitchen’s green tile floor like a pair of drunken ballroom dancers. Randall had been so concerned with trying to wrench his finger free from her mouth that he hadn’t realized where she was taking him.
When they bumped into the counter near the sink while moving sideways, Randall’s eyes shifted to the right, and he saw the block of knives.
Jessica reached out with her left hand to free a knife, as her right gripped a fistful of Randall’s shirt, in order to keep him close.
As her hand wrapped around the handle of a carving knife, Jessica saw utter terror enter Randall’s eyes. She knew it was the same look of fear he had placed in the eyes of his victims, and it gave her pleasure to know that she had instilled it in their tormentor.
Randall reared his head back just as Jessica was about to plunge the blade into his side.
When he brought his head down hard, he caught her on the right temple. That caused Jessica to release her grip on Randall’s finger, as her vision blurred and she leaned on the counter for support.
Randall’s arm withdrew from inside her coat and he gripped her throat with his left hand.
When the loud bang came, Jessica was still fighting to stay conscious, but a part of her mind wondered just where it was that Randall had shot her.
***
Brick had been expecting to fight Mr. White when he offered his challenge.
Unfortunately, for Brick, White only wanted to kill him as quickly as possible so that he could return to the house and aid Jessica.
White moved towards Brick with increasing speed, leapt up, and slammed his feet into Brick’s right shoulder. That spun the huge man around, causing one foot to slip out beneath him, and Brick wound up on one knee with his back turned towards White.
Brick spun around just in time to see White rushing towards him, and he sprang to his feet and caught White on the chin with an elbow.
White stumbled back a few steps and shook his head as if to clear it. Brick moved in to press his advantage while sensing that victory was near.
White had been pretending. While Brick’s blow had caused him pain, it hadn’t stunned him. When Brick grabbed him by the collar and reared back a fist to deliver another blow, White punched him in the throat.
Brick released him, gagged, and took his own steps backwards. White followed, delivered another blow to Brick’s throat and then kicked the huge man’s feet out from under him.
A moment later and White was straddling Brick’s prostrate form and pressing a forearm across his throat.
Brick squirmed beneath him and the snow aided in keeping White from applying a steady killing pressure.
That’s when White began raining down blows on Brick’s face. The thick winter gloves he wore were crimson by the time he landed the final punch and Brick’s face was a mangled mess of blood and broken bones.
A wheeze passed Brick’s lips and blood accompanied it. White stood, just as Brick arched his back and released a long breath. Brick’s massive chest stopped moving and White snatched up the man’s weapon and straddled the snowmobile.
He didn’t even take the time to put on Brick’s coat, but just took off for the house, where Jessica was fighting for her life.
CHAPTER 34 – Triumphant trio
“I’m rich!” Ariana shouted up at Tanner while cowering in the snow, even as her eyes never left the gun pointed at her head.
“Let me guess,” Tanner said. “You’ll give me millions if I let you live.”
“Yes! I’ll give you anything you want, money, women, young girls... young boys?”
“There is something I would like,” Tanner said.
“Anything! Just name it.”
“Die,” Tanner said as he pulled the trigger. The bullet caught Ariana between the eyes.
He didn’t even keep his attention on her long enough to watch her body slump over on its side. He had turned to check on the two mercs. Both were dead from head wounds. He took the weapon from one of the men and then walked over to Emmy’s body and dropped his gun beside her.
The weapon was so wet that there was no need to wipe away prints or fabricate new ones by pressing the gun into Emmy’s hand. The snow was coming down hard and Ariana’s body already had a thin layer of frost building on it.
Tanner straddled a snowmobile and headed for the house, while hoping that he would arrive in time to help Jessica.
***
The loud bang that Jessica heard was the sound of Randall’s gun dropping into a stainless steel sink.
The finger she had bitten down on was mangled, and she could see the bone that held it to his hand, while the hand was gripping the handle of the carving knife Jessica had thrust into his side.
She had jammed the blade in an instant before being stunned by Randall’s head-butt, and the pain of the impact to her skull had made her twist the knife before losing her grip on it.
Randall had dropped the gun and instinctually reached for the blade in his side. Had he wanted to fire the weapon, it would have been awkward, as his forefinger had been rendered useless by Jessica’s bite.
Randall’s left hand was around her throat, but he hadn’t placed it there with the intention of strangling her, rather, it had been an attempt to hold on to something to keep from falling.
He fell to his knees as a moan escaped his lips, the wound to his side having done malicious things to his organs, including his liver.
Jessica watched him fall even as she began to retch from the taste of Randall’s blood in her mouth, and she snatched his fallen gun from the sink right before she vomited into it.
When she was done, she peered over her shoulder and saw that Randall’s breath was coming in short rasps, and he lay in an ever-widening pool of blood.
After rinsing her mouth with water, Jessica headed for the door with the gun in her hand, as the sound of snowmobiles grew closer.
***
Tanner arrived back at the house at the same time as White, and they greeted each other with a nod.
White was hopping off his snowmobile as Jessica opened the door, and when she spotted him, she rushed towards him.
When White saw Tanner raise his weapon in Jessica’s direction, he nearly shot the man, but then he spotted the figure coming out the door behind Jessica with an assault rifle aimed at her back.
It was one of the mercs. White had blinded the man in one eye and he was out to get revenge. Tanner sent two slugs into the man’s chest, and the mercenary collapsed and slid down the stairs to land face up.
White looked down at the body and then over at Tanner.
“Thank you, Tanner.”
Tanner told him that he was welcome, while using his name.
“Just call me White. It keeps things simple,” Mr. White said.
Jessica reached them and hugged her husband while sending Tanner a smile.
“What happened to the man that grabbed you?” Tanner asked.
“He’s dead, or soon will be. I jammed a carving knife in his side.”
“And Brick?” Tanner asked White.
“He wanted to fight and so I beat him until he stopped breathing.”
Tanner laughed.
“I like you two.”
CHAPTER 35 – Thicker than water
Tanner left the ranch in Ariana’s Lexus.
The jeep he’d been using was rented under a fake identity and he marked it as burned. He had been going through phony ID’s in the last few months at an alarming rate, but fortunately, he acquired them free through a hacker friend named Tim Jackson.
Jessica and her husband stayed behind to await the arrival of the authorities. They didn’t get free of the chaotic mess until they had given statements to several officials from a number of authorities. In the end, they were being credited with stopping the Mason brothers killing of young women, along with Jim Horrigan.
Shauna Roberts said in a sta
tement that Horrigan had risked his life to save her, although authorities believed that Horrigan was the middleman between the hit man Styles and the Mason brothers. They had no proof, since Carter Mason refused to say a word about anything, and so the DA decided not to charge Horrigan.
That would prove fortuitous for Horrigan, as in time, it would allow him to gain sole custody of his daughter, while his ex-wife served her sentence of twenty years in prison.
As Tanner hoped, Emmy and Ariana were blamed for each other’s deaths. The authorities weren’t convinced that there was no third party involvement, but it simplified things to credit Emmy with self-defense in the slaying of Ariana and the two mercenaries, and the local DA had gone along with it.
Jessica and her husband gave matching, yet inaccurate descriptions of Tanner, who they said was an unknown guardian angel.
When they finally returned to their hotel late that evening, they were given a new suite. The two of them slept the night away, but woke early and drove to a pre-arranged meeting spot.
***
Tanner stood in the parking lot of the shooting range that he had followed Styles to days earlier. The place was closed, and his was the only car in the lot.
Mr. White pulled in and parked beside him. When he stepped out of his car, he offered Tanner his hand. Tanner shook it, and then Jessica gave him a rundown on what had transpired after he left the ranch.
“There is one bit of bad news,” White said. “Brick escaped. Apparently, either he held his breath or had begun breathing again on his own after I left him. If I had the time, I would have made certain he was dead, but I had to get to Jessica.”
“He carjacked a young couple a mile from the ranch,” Jessica said. “By the description they gave, it could only be Brick.”
“He’ll turn up someday,” Tanner said. “Or if he’s smart he’ll hide under a rock and stay there.”
They gave Tanner more news about the aftermath, including Horrigan’s role in saving Shauna Roberts. Afterwards, Tanner climbed back into his car, as he prepared to drive to Los Angeles.
The Contract: Kill Jessica White Page 12
