Chang stood.
“I will relay your offer to the rest of The Brotherhood Council and we will give you an answer soon.”
Hodges stood as well, along with Dexter.
“Good, and thanks for coming.”
Chang sent Hodges a nod, and then stared at Dexter until the young man looked away. Chang left town without delay, but Adán said that he was going to stay around and catch up with Choa.
“Great,” Hodges said. “And Choa, take the rest of the day off. If there’s a problem, I’ll handle it.”
“Thanks boss,” Choa said.
After everyone left, Hodges slapped Dexter lightly on the cheek and smiled.
“You say, ‘Fuck you’ to a man like Chang? You’ve got stones, Dexter.”
Dexter grinned.
“Thanks Dad, but his deal is bullshit.”
“It’s just business hardball, but it’s a good deal and The Brotherhood will take it. Once they do, we have it made. As a member of The Brotherhood Council, I’ll be raking in a percentage of everything The Brotherhood takes in. We’ll also make money off their men.”
“How do we make money off the men?”
“Think about it, son. Once the men are here, we’ll run some poker games, sell them drugs, booze... and women. The two of us will make money coming and going.”
“Dad.”
“Yeah?”
“Let me handle the women.”
Hodges laughed.
“Tony will handle the women, that’s his job, but I guess he might need some help.”
Dexter was smiling, but then grew serious.
“Is this really going to happen?”
“Yeah, Dexter, I think the Hodges are getting back on top in Killburry, but listen, I need you to do me a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Go to Hartford and see your Uncle Mike. Do you remember him?”
“A little, but I haven’t seen him in years.”
“I’ll call ahead and tell him that you’re coming. He’ll give you a package that I need.”
Dexter looked down at himself.
“I like wearing a suit.”
Hodges smiled at his son.
“Most men do.”
CHAPTER 9 – Blood trumps everything
Burke had told Sara to follow along behind the limo in her own car when they were headed to the lake property. She realized why, as she examined her new RV. Burke had known that she would want to stay behind and explore her new toy.
When a knock came at the door, it startled her. Since they were the only ones on the property, Sara assumed it was Tanner, but she called out anyway.
“Who’s there?”
“Who do you think it is, Bigfoot?”
After inviting him in, they sat together in her kitchen nook.
“Do you believe this?” Sara asked as she looked around.
“I do, but it’s a hell of a surprise.”
“I’ve never driven one of these, have you?”
“Yes, and the last time was in Las Vegas, it was on the day we met.”
Sara’s eyes widened as she remembered the RV that Tanner had rigged to blow up at Al Rossetti’s desert home.
She gave him a playful punch on the arm.
“I remember now, and a flaming chunk of that damn thing nearly hit me.”
Tanner rubbed his arm as if she’d hurt him.
“It wasn’t intentional.”
They grinned at each other as they locked eyes. The silence seemed to last too long, and Sara broke it with a question.
“So neighbor, why did you stop by?”
“I’m here to issue you an invitation. Alexa wants you to come for dinner tomorrow in Killburry. Can you make it?”
Sara smiled.
“Yes, and thanks, I’m curious to see where you live.”
“It’s just a house, Blake, I mean, Sara. It’s nothing too fancy.”
“Still, it’s the thought of you living in a neighborhood, cutting the grass, waving to a passerby as you stoop to pick up the morning paper. It’s too normal for you, Tanner.”
“It’s not as normal as you might think, and neither are my neighbors.”
“What’s so odd about your neighbors?”
Tanner went on to tell Sara about his night, about Bart McGurn, and also about being summoned to the police station. When he was done, Sara was laughing.
“I should have known that nothing about you would be normal. You move into an area with a low crime rate and live next door to the town’s most wanted.”
“Oh there are a few real tough guys. The main one is named Burt Hodges. His son is a punk, and the two of us had a run-in.”
Sara looked around.
“Damn, I wish I had some coffee to go with these stories.”
“There’s some back at the shack.”
“Really? Okay, let’s go there. But since when is there a coffeemaker at the shack?”
“I’ve been fixing the place up. It’s livable now, and Burke even had the town run a power line in. Of course, who needs it with the RV’s?”
They had stepped outside and were walking to Sara’s car. She turned, looked at the RV, and sighed.
“I still have trouble believing that belongs to me. If Mr. Burke had been more patient, he might have built us homes.”
As they drove to the shack, Tanner began telling Sara about his run-in with Dexter, and Hodges’ late-night visit to his house to save his son.
“But your neighbors had already knocked the boy out?”
“They had him bound and ready to ship back home when his father showed up.”
“Hodges sounds like trouble.”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
Once they were at the shack, Sara made coffee and they sat outside at the picnic table. When Sara brought up the subject of Deke, Tanner told her that Alexa planned to visit Deke the next day.
“That’s good. She’ll lift his spirits.”
“I’m just glad that he’s healing. I owe him too. He saved Alexa before you did.”
“Why were you two headed to Burke that day?”
“Alexa was going there to tell Deke goodbye.”
Sara looked surprised.
“Was something going on between them?”
“No, but Deke wants her.”
“And now?”
“And now they’ll remain friends.”
“His feelings won’t change. I actually think he might love her, at least a little.”
“A little?” Tanner said. “Is love something that can be done in half measures?”
“No, but it can creep up on you... or so I’ve been told.”
“It sounds like a staph infection,” Tanner said, and Sara laughed.
***
At the hospital, the sole surviving neo-Nazi, Sean, was sitting in the lobby. He was pretending to read a newspaper as he listened to the conversations around him.
When an elderly Black couple asked for a visitor’s pass for their grandson, Sean heard the man clearly enunciate the grandson’s name. Then, the man and his wife discussed how horrible it was that the young man had been injured in an accident at work, which apparently was a fall.
Once the couple left the desk and entered an elevator, Sean stood and walked outside, where he sat on a bench and waited.
The elderly couple left the hospital about an hour later. Sean gave it another ten minutes, and then he walked inside and asked for a visitor’s pass by using the name of the couple’s grandson.
The pass was granted, and Sean walked by the security guard while barely receiving a look.
He found the grandson on the sixth floor. The man was in his early twenties. His head was bandaged and there was a cast on his right leg. He also had two IV’s attached to an arm. Sean surmised that the man would still be there tomorrow and that there was no fear of him being discharged.
That was good, that meant that he could enter the hospital the next day, use the man’s name to acquire a visitor�
�s pass, and then be free to roam the halls.
He had been standing in the doorway and staring in at the elderly couple’s grandson while thinking, and the man had taken note.
“Hey guy, can I help you?”
“You already have, Midnight.”
“Midnight? What the hell do you mean by that?”
Sean ignored him, returned to the visitor’s desk and handed in his pass. He had plans to return the next day, find Deke Mercer, and kill him.
Sean smiled as he fingered the knife in his pocket.
People die in the hospital all the time.
***
Back in Killburry, Choa was being asked by his Cousin Adán to make a decision.
He was at his house in Killburry, his free house, which Hodges had given him to live in. Choa and Adán were sitting in the living room. There was a baseball game on, but the sound had been turned down while the two men discussed business.
Choa shook his head and sighed.
“Does it really have to go down that way, Adán?”
“Hodges is in the way. Chang gave him the chance to give us what we want, but he said no.”
“He didn’t say no; he just doesn’t want to be pushed out. If he signs over everything, then he knows he won’t be needed.”
“He’s not needed, Choa. Don’t you see that? He was a fool to come to us when he’s got no way to protect himself. Chang wasn’t lying. He will take Hodges’ offer to the council, but they’re hard men, practical men, and they’ll just take what they want.”
“So he’s fucked either way?”
“Yeah, man, he was fucked the second he called me. He should have just kept his head down and stayed out of the way, but no, he wants to be a player. He ain’t no player.”
“What do you want me to do, kill him?”
“No, Chang’s people will handle that, but you will have to prove your loyalty to join The Brotherhood. The thing is, Hodges told me that he’s got someone who will go to Pullo in New York and the Irish mob in Boston if anything happens to him. I need to know who that is. We have to take care of that man before we make our move. If Joe Pullo learned what we were planning, we’d lose the element of surprise, you know?”
“Yeah, so you want me to rat on my friends?”
“No, I want you to show loyalty to me, your cousin, your blood. I’ll look out for you, Choa, you know that. You can join my crew and make twice the cash Hodges is paying you. So tell me, do you know who Hodges picked to warn Pullo?”
Choa said nothing, and Adán got a worried look on his face.
“Oh shit, please tell me that it’s not you.”
“No, it ain’t me, but yeah, I know who it is. It’s a Black dude named Tony, a pimp. He runs a few girls for Hodges.”
Adán took out his phone.
“Where can this Tony be found?”
Choa hesitated again. He and Tony were friends, and he even liked his boss, Hodges. Then he looked at Adán, and he remembered all the times they saved each other’s asses as they were growing up.
Blood trumps everything.
“I know where to find Tony,” Choa said, and so began his betrayal of Burt Hodges.
CHAPTER 10 – It’s just business
Dexter spun his Cousin Anna around in the air by holding her under her arms and then sat the giggling girl back on the ground. His broken wrist ached some from the effort, but Dexter liked making his little cousin happy. When he offered the same ride to his other cousin, Jack, the boy shook his head.
“I’m too old to be spun around like a kid.”
Dexter tousled the boy’s hair.
“Don’t be in a hurry to grow up; it’s not as cool as it looks.”
As his father requested, Dexter had gone to see his Uncle Mike. He had stayed for dinner, at his Cousin Sheila’s insistence, and had the best meal he’d eaten since his mother had passed away years earlier.
As the kids moved inside to go to their rooms, Uncle Mike and Dexter settled on the front porch. Mike had already handed back the money that Hodges had given him to hold, but wanted to ask Dexter about Killburry.
“Your dad told me about this Brotherhood thing, what do you think of it?”
Dexter shrugged.
“They got juice and Dad wants to get plugged in. I think it will be good if they take the deal.”
“What exactly is the deal?” Mike asked.
Dexter explained about his father’s offer to trade the houses for a place on The Brotherhood’s council, the more he talked, the more concerned Mike became.
“They won’t make that deal. They’ll just take what they want.”
“How are they gonna do that?”
“I can think of a way, and your father wouldn’t like it one bit.”
“No, Uncle Mike, Dad knows what he’s doing, you’ll see.”
Mike stared at his nephew, a boy who looked so much like his late brother.
“Dexter, listen to me. If things go sideways, you get the hell out of Killburry and come straight here. You can always come here, boy, you know?”
“Thanks, Uncle Mike; I’ll remember that.”
Mike pointed to the cast on Dexter’s wrist.
“Your father told me that a man named Myers gave you that. Have you had any more run-ins with him?”
“Nah, but Dad says we’ll settle up with Tom Myers once we have The Brotherhood behind us.”
Mike was lighting a cigar, and he spoke around it as the flame ignited the tobacco.
“Where does this Myers live?”
“He’s on the other side of that new park they built, on a dead end street, but why do you want to know?”
Mike smiled, as he tried his best to look like a harmless old man. It was easier than he would have liked to admit.
“No reason, you just get curious when you’re my age, that’s all.”
Dexter and Mike talked a little longer, and then Dexter went back to Killburry.
Uncle Mike also planned to visit Killburry.
He was going to pay a visit to Tom Myers.
***
Tony Washington was sitting in his car and listening to a jazz station out of New York City that he liked.
He had dropped a girl off at a house in Farmington that was near a lake and was waiting for her to come out. It was a peaceful night and the station was playing a tribute to Miles Davis, whose music Tony loved.
He was feeling all mellow when the front door of the house flew open and the girl came running out and towards the car. She had only been inside for a short time, and from the look on her face, Tony knew that there was trouble.
He stepped out of the car just as the girl reached it. The girl’s name was Trina, and Trina was a natural blonde with hair down to her ass. Tony took her by the shoulders and asked her what was wrong.
“The guy paid, we fucked, and then the asshole took my purse and wouldn’t give it back,” Trina said.
Tony cursed. Normally, he would call Choa to come and handle the problem, but Hodges had given Choa the night off. That meant that either Tony handled it himself or he had to call Hodges.
Tony was still considering things when the man came out of the house carrying Trina’s purse. He was a White guy, no bigger than Tony, and so Tony figured he’d handle it.
The man walked over, ignored him, and grabbed Trina by the arm.
“C’mon, sweet thing, we need to talk. For one thing, I’m your new boss.”
Tony laughed as he took out his gun.
“What the fuck are you smokin’? Now let the bitch go and give her back her purse before I shoot your crazy ass.”
The man sent Tony a smile, and then he looked over Tony’s shoulder.
“You got this, right?”
Tony was turning his head to see who the man was speaking to, and felt a fist slam into his right temple. Tony tumbled to the ground, dropping the gun as he fell. By the time he regained his senses, he realized that he was back behind the wheel of his car.
“What the hell...?
” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry dude, it’s just business,” said a familiar voice from the passenger seat.
Tony turned his head and saw Choa.
“What the fuck, man? Did you hit me?”
“Goodbye, Tony,” Choa said. He placed the gun against the very spot he had landed the earlier punch, and shot Tony in the head. Blood splattered the windshield as the side window shattered.
Choa had used Tony’s own gun to kill him. Choa wiped the weapon off, made sure that Tony’s prints would be found on it, and dropped the gun onto the floor between Tony’s feet.
On the radio, Miles Davis’ Seven Steps to Heaven was playing.
Choa headed back to Killburry. He was now a member of The Brotherhood.
***
Anna, Louise, Tina, and Josie waved to their husbands from Tanner’s porch, as the men made their rounds while patrolling the neighborhood. Their children were being babysat, but Anna had her daughter with her. The child was asleep in her arms, after having just consumed a bottle of formula.
Tanner and Alexa were acting as hosts, and had brought out cheese, crackers, and wine.
Alexa pointed at the ladies’ husbands.
“Have they ever caught a burglar?”
The women all laughed.
“If that ever happened we’d have to buy them capes,” Anna said.
After realizing that no one had seen Bart or June McGurn all day, Josie told everyone that she had her husband, Ted, check out the McGurn’s home. Ted was a real estate agent, and he discovered that the home was owned by Silicon City.
Louise nodded knowingly.
“That’s not too surprising. In the past, Silicon City would use the house for executives and their families. It was for people who were moving here but had yet to buy a home or were waiting a day or two for their furniture to arrive. I just assumed that the McGurns had bought the house from Silicon City.”
“Why would Silicon City care about trapping a group of vigilantes?” Tina asked.
“Face it, that corporation owns Killburry.” Anna said. “I guess they want to protect the town’s image as a low crime paradise.”
Tanner told the ladies about his meeting with Chief Ellison, and they said that they would cool things for a while. When he mentioned the chief’s daughter, Olivia, Tanner learned something about the young lady.
The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set) Page 32
