One of the men looked like he wanted to be sick when he realized that Johnny was dead, but he and the other man returned to their post on shaky legs.
June had vomited in reaction to Tanner’s kick, and was bent over at the waist, but he gripped her one-handed around the neck and jerked her head up.
“Who do you work for?”
June spat up blood.
“I think you broke something inside me.”
“You think I broke something? Let’s leave no doubts.”
Tanner gripped June’s right arm with one hand behind her elbow, while the other grabbed her wrist and then he brought her arm down hard atop his knee. The bones in her forearm made a dry, cracking sound as they splintered, and June let out a scream as her wide eyes took in the bone jutting from her torn and bloody flesh.
For long seconds, the only sound in the bar was that of weeping, the pain-filled whimpering of June, along with the agonizing sobs of grief coming from Pullo.
After June had swallowed several big gulps of air, Tanner questioned her again.
“Who do you work for?”
“I... I was, I was hired by a man named Duke and he works for someone else, I don’t know who.”
“I do,” Tanner said.
He looked along the bar, where Pullo sat on the floor, cradling Johnny’s body in his arms, and Tanner knew that Rossetti’s death was caused by Sara.
Tanner grabbed June by the hair, flipped her over onto her stomach, and with one smooth move, he reached around and sliced open her throat with the top half of the jagged beer bottle.
June had spotted the shard of brown glass in Tanner’s hand and cried out for mercy by shouting the word, “Don’t!”
There was no mercy, for however improbable and nascent the friendship between himself and Rossetti had been, it had been forming, and Tanner had grown to like the man.
After slitting her throat, Tanner left June to die in agony, as she gagged and thrashed like a fish without water, while her lifeblood spread into a puddle around her.
Afterwards, Tanner knelt beside Pullo with a hand on his shoulder. When he heard Sara’s tinny voice come from Johnny’s phone, he picked it up and informed her of Johnny’s death, while insinuating that she would soon join him in the afterlife.
Pullo took a deep breath and managed to gasp out words from a face covered in tears.
“Sara did this? She sent that woman to kill you?”
“I don’t know if she was sent by Blake, but she worked for her, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s broken our truce.”
“Oh God, Tanner, look at him, he must have been hit six times.” Pullo gazed over at June, who had died and lay in her own blood. “Oh, you, fucking, bitch!”
Tanner squeezed Pullo’s shoulder, stood, and took out his phone.
When Sophia answered, he asked her to take a taxi to the club.
“What’s going on?”
“Johnny Rossetti is dead; I’m sorry, Sophia.”
“What? How?”
“Sara Blake, someone working for her, but it was an accident. The woman was gunning for me.”
Tanner heard Sophia sobbing and he let her cry until she was able to talk again.
“I loved him, Tanner, you know? I wasn’t in love with him anymore, but I still loved him and he was a hell of a friend.”
“I know, but please come, Joe needs someone and I have to go soon.”
“Are you all right?”
“I will be once Blake is dead. This was her doing and this shit ends today.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Sophia said, and then the call ended.
Tanner sat on a barstool, looked about the club, then, back down at Rossetti’s lifeless form, and realized that the man had been killed because of the actions of the woman he loved, actions spawned from the woman’s loss of a previous lover, whose death she sought to avenge.
If it weren’t so tragic, the irony would almost be humorous.
CHAPTER 39 - Confession
Thanks to the tracking device hidden on the bottom of Tanner’s boot, Sara was able to stay one step ahead of him and knew that he had already been to both hers and Johnny Rossetti’s apartment while looking for her.
Oh, Johnny,
Sara was devastated by Rossetti’s death and realized that she was to blame for it. Tanner had been telling the truth when he gave his word that he wouldn’t kill her, and had she not sought to trap him in a lie, Johnny would still be living.
At one point in the day, she called the club and spoke to Joe Pullo while crying.
Pullo listened as she told him everything, even revealing that she had planted a tracking device on Tanner. As Johnny had earlier, Pullo realized that she had more knowledge than she should about Tanner’s movements over the last few days, and so she admitted the offense.
“Johnny is dead because of you, Sara.”
“I know, Joe.”
“I think he loved you, and because of that, I won’t harm you, but I can’t say the same for Tanner and I won’t stand in his way.”
“I fucked up, Joe, plain and simple. I gave my word and I broke it, but I just could not imagine that Tanner would keep his word.”
“You know, you see Tanner as this great evil, but he’s not. He just kills people for a living because it’s what he’s good at, like a military sniper, and believe it or not, he’s about the best man I know.”
There was silence on the line after that, but Pullo ended it.
“Goodbye Sara, I don’t think I’ll be seeing you again.”
“Goodbye Joe, and I’m so, so, sorry.”
Just minutes later, the tracker went dead.
Sara had called from the passenger seat of a van driven by Duke, who assumed that he too was on Tanner’s kill list.
However, they had a plan, one devised by Sara.
Tanner had to die, but first, Tanner had to be survived.
And as she spent the day hiding from Tanner, a plan had formed on just how to accomplish that, a bold plan and perhaps a foolish one, because for her plan to work, Tanner would have to be capable of love, and that love, that caring for another human being would prove to be his Achilles’ heel.
Is it possible for the Devil to love? Sara asked herself.
If it wasn’t, she knew that she might be living her last hours on earth.
CHAPTER 40 - It ends!
Laurel had learned of Johnny’s death from Joe, but had been unable to leave the clinic because she had patients that needed treatment, and due to her nurse’s treachery, she was working alone.
She had liked Johnny a great deal, as had most of those who knew him, and his death saddened her.
Merle and Earl had been with her earlier in the day, but after Johnny’s death, Pullo had asked them to come back to the club, because they would be needed to perform various chores, and also fulfill their duties as chauffeurs.
As darkness fell, Laurel had just finished with her last patient. He was a leg breaker from the docks who had met up with a late payer who fought back.
The deadbeat had broken three fingers on the collection man’s left hand, but the leg breaker had stayed true to his name and had broken his adversary’s kneecaps in retaliation.
Pullo had left a man to guard Laurel, although he didn’t believe that she was in any real danger, as she had not been the target of Heinz’s would-be assassin, but only a bystander who needed to be dealt with by necessity.
The guard escorted the last patient out, and after watching the gate close behind the departing vehicle, he stayed out front for a smoke.
There was a van parked across from the fence with no one in it, and the guard, named J.T., idly wondered who had left it there, as he puffed away.
But, his mind was occupied by thoughts of the coming days, because with Johnny Rossetti gone and war on the horizon, the Giacconi Family were looking at dark times ahead.
As he was about to go back inside, he spotted the woman walking towards him from the right.
/> She was beautiful, had long dark hair, and was unbuttoning her blouse as she drew closer.
With his eyes riveted to the ever-increasing exposure of soft flesh, J.T. never noticed Duke coming up on him from the left.
Duke pressed a gun against the J.T.’s head and issued instructions.
“Open the gate with your remote and then punch in the access code for the door, or so help me, I’ll blow your head off.”
J.T. was a practical sort, and was much wiser than his brutish appearance might lead one to believe. He opened the gate and punched in the code without blustering or hesitation, in the hopes that all the pair wanted was to rob the clinic and not harm anyone.
Sara had her blouse refastened, and she retrieved the van and drove it into the parking lot. Once they were inside the clinic, Duke smashed the gun against the side of J.T.’s head, and the big man fell to the floor, stunned.
Laurel appeared and ran to the guard’s side to help him.
“Oh God, what are you doing?”
“He’ll be fine,” Duke said, and he flipped the guard over and used zip ties to bind the man’s hands behind his back, before placing larger ties around his ankles.
Laurel had been down on the floor beside J.T., checking the cut on his scalp, but Sara pulled her to a standing position and pointed a gun at her.
“I want you to get Tanner here. Call him!”
Laurel looked down at the gun and then up at Sara.
“Wasn’t killing Johnny enough? Does Tanner have to die as well?”
“It’s kill or be killed when it comes to Tanner, and I don’t intend to die.”
After saying this, Sara’s expression softened and she sniffled and took a deep breath.
“I’m so sorry that Johnny had to pay for my mistakes and I’m sorry that I have to use you too.”
“Use me?” Laurel said.
“Yes, you’re the bait that will place Tanner in my trap, and if I’m right, he’ll snap it shut on himself.”
“You want to kill Tanner, but it won’t turn out that way, he’ll kill you instead.”
“You’d better hope not.”
“Why?”
“Because if I die, then so do you.”
***
Tanner arrived within minutes of receiving Laurel’s call, and he came alone.
He and Duke kept their guns pointed at each other as Duke let him inside, and he stepped past the now fully aware, but bound and gagged, J.T.
However, as soon as Tanner spotted Laurel and Sara, all else faded into the background.
Sara was standing with her left forearm locked around Laurel’s throat, while with her right hand, she pressed her gun firmly against the side of Laurel’s head.
The situation was nearly identical to one Tanner faced days earlier when the assassin Gerda held Sophia hostage.
Tanner had ended that standoff with a well-placed shot to Gerda’s throat, and luckily, the woman had not fired in reflex and killed Sophia.
Such an act now seemed not only dangerous to Tanner, but cavalier as well, and he could not imagine risking Laurel’s life in a similar fashion.
“I tried not to underestimate you, Blake, and I wound up overestimating you. I really believed that you would keep your word, but you’re just a lying little bitch, aren’t you?”
“I had every intention of keeping my word, it’s just that the situation... I... what does it matter? This is where we are now.”
Tanner looked at Laurel and searched her for signs of abuse.
“Has she hurt you, Laurel?”
“No, but I believe her when she says that she’ll kill me.”
“Let her go, Blake. This is between you and me.”
“No Tanner, this, is between you, me, and Brian Ames, the man you killed, the man I loved.”
“The way you loved Rossetti? Johnny is dead because of you, Blake, because you couldn’t keep your word and let the past be.”
“I know I’m to blame, but it was only because I believed, no, because I knew that you wouldn’t keep your word and that you couldn’t be trusted.”
“You were wrong. My word is about all I have in this world. When I say I’m going to do a thing, I do it.”
“I see that now, and as amazing as it is to me, I believe that you would have let me live.”
“It’s too late for that now,” Tanner said, and he raised his gun and pointed it at Sara’s head.
Duke moved towards him, and the guard, who was seated on the floor with his back against the wall, thrust out his bound feet and tripped Duke, who stumbled, but kept his balance.
Tanner spun on Duke in an instant and caught the man across the bridge of his crooked nose with the barrel of his gun, which broke the nose once more, and then he wrenched Duke’s gun out of his hand.
Duke cried out in pain from the blow, as he leaned against the wall, while Tanner, after using his knife to free J.T.’s hands, gave the big man Duke’s gun.
Sara saw that her plan was falling apart and she issued an ultimatum.
“Stop Tanner, or I swear I’ll blow Laurel’s brains out.”
With the guard keeping an eye on Duke, Tanner walked back over to Sara, and once again pointed his gun at her.
“Let her go. She’s an innocent, and I can understand you breaking your word while in the grip of paranoia, but Blake, I don’t think that you would kill an innocent.”
Sara let out a laugh that teetered on the edge of hysteria.
“She may be an innocent, but she’s also karma.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“An eye for an eye, Tanner, you killed someone that I loved and now I’ll kill someone that you care about. I’ll still die, but I’ll have a little payback as I go.”
Tanner lowered his arm after hearing those words, as a chill ran down his spine.
Laurel spoke as tears fell from her eyes.
“I don’t think this is going to work out well for me, is it Tanner?”
Tanner grimaced after hearing the tone of desolation in Laurel’s words, and with his left hand, he reached up and brushed her tears away.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Laurel smiled, opened her mouth, and bit down hard on Sara’s forearm.
Sara yelped in pain, but she tightened her grip and then jammed her weapon sideways into Laurel’s mouth.
“No!” Tanner screamed, even as he thrust his gun against Sara’s head.
“Do you love this woman, Tanner?” Sara asked. “Because if you do, the only way to save her is to give yourself up.”
Tanner pressed his gun into the side of Sara’s head as he spoke through gritted teeth.
“Let her go, Blake!”
“The only way that happens is if you surrender. She might live if you pull that trigger, but given where my gun is located, I doubt that outcome.”
Tanner looked at Laurel. She was gagging on the gun and her eyes were filled with the fear of death.
Tanner removed his gun from Sara’s head, took a step back, and spoke to Laurel.
“You asked me if I loved you and I didn’t answer... but I’m answering you now.”
Tanner’s arm lowered, and he let his gun drop to the floor.
Sara sighed with relief and removed her gun from Laurel’s mouth.
“Duke?” Sara said, and Duke held out his hand towards the bodyguard.
“Give him back his gun,” Tanner said, and J.T. reluctantly complied.
Sara still held her gun on Laurel and she kept it there until Duke had Tanner’s hands cuffed behind his back. Still, when Laurel moved towards Tanner, Sara held her back with a hand on her arm.
Tanner glared at her.
“Are you going to keep your word and let Laurel live, or are you going to break it like you did last time?”
The question stung Sara, who always thought of herself as a person of honor, and she considered her severing of their truce as an anomaly, one that was spawned by desperation and fear.
She released Laurel and lowered her weapon.
“I won’t hurt her, ever.”
As Duke was herding Tanner towards the door with a gun pressed against the back of his head, Laurel called to him.
“I love you, Tanner!”
He turned, ignored the gun now pointed at his face, and spoke words that hurt every bit as much as they healed.
“I love you too, Laurel, and I always have.”
And then he walked out into the night, a captive not only of love, but also of a woman who wanted him dead.
***
Tanner was propped up against the right wall in the rear of Duke’s van, with his shackled hands behind his back and chained to a ring in the floor.
His ankles were bound together as well and a second chain was around his neck and connected to the wall behind him.
Tanner felt not only defeated, but broken.
He had long believed that love was for fools and he had never counted himself among their ilk. Now, he knew that he was not only one of them, but possibly their king.
He handed himself over to an enemy he knew would kill him, and he did so out of love, while placing another’s welfare in front of his own survival.
In his eyes, that made him just another fool, no different from his father, whose love for a woman brought about not only his own destruction, but that of his family as well.
Tanner thought of Laurel, knew that he’d never see her again, and that thought was bitter and more grievous to him than the knowledge that his death was imminent.
***
Sara, her arm bloody from Laurel’s bite, sat across from Tanner with a gun pointed his way, and with her long sought victory now a reality. However, her triumph was a pyrrhic one, costing her not only her honor, but also the life of Johnny Rossetti, a man she had come to love.
“Tanner?”
He didn’t answer her. He saw no point in talking, but she called his name once more and he pulled his gaze from the floor and stared at her.
“What is it, Blake?”
“I won’t torture you.”
Tanner gazed at her, as a bittersweet smile played at the corners of his mouth.
The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2) Page 39
