The TANNER Series - Books 10 -12 (Tanner Box Set Book 4)

by Remington Kane

  When the man who had first spotted him took out a knife and headed for the stall the kid was in, Tanner made his move.

  He was holding a metal baton. The type that telescoped out to its full length once you flicked your wrist to open it.

  The men’s eyes were glued to the stall where the kid sat, and although they stiffened with surprise as they heard the baton snap into its full length, they were too late to do anything about it.

  Tanner caught two of them on the back of their skulls with his first swing. That stunned one man, while knocking the other unconscious. When the third man turned around, the man holding the knife, Tanner landed a blow on his face and broke his jaw.

  The man bellowed from the pain and attempted to stab Tanner in the leg, but a third swing silenced him, while a backhanded movement with the baton knocked out the man who had only been stunned.

  They were all out cold, but they would live. Spenser had convinced Tanner that if possible they shouldn’t kill unless they had no choice.

  They were headed to Spenser’s home in Wyoming, and they didn’t need to leave a trail of bodies for the cops or anyone else to follow them there.

  The violent activity made Tanner’s injured ribs ache. He leaned against the wall, after retrieving the knife the first man had dropped. It was a very good blade, with razor sharp steel and a G-10 grip. Alexa would love it.

  When the kid peeked his head out of the stall, Tanner told him to come out and walk over to him.

  The boy’s eyes were wide with wonder as he stared down at the three injured men. Tanner wiggled out of the jersey and handed it back to the kid along with the cap.

  “Hey, were those guys after you?” the kid asked.

  “Yeah,” Tanner said.

  The kid grinned.

  “You sure taught them a lesson.”

  Tanner took out his wallet, counted out three-hundred dollars, and handed it to the kid.

  “Sorry about the gun in your face. Take your girl to a game on me.”

  The kid laughed.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes,” Tanner said, and then he heard Alexa call his name through the door.

  When he opened the bathroom door, Alexa saw the three men sprawled out atop the tile floor.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “I’m good.”

  The kid looked Alexa up and down and his eyes widened with desire.

  “Hi.”

  Alexa smiled.

  “Hello. Did you help my friend?”

  “No, but I let him wear my football jersey so he could fool those guys.”

  “That sounds like help, and don’t tell anyone you saw us, okay?”

  “I won’t,” the kid said, but his eyes were locked on Alexa’s breasts.

  A man walked towards them, and he had the look of someone who needed a bathroom and needed it now. As he moved past Alexa, he stopped short when he saw the three men on the bathroom floor.

  The kid pointed at the men.

  “They were like that when we got here; I guess they had a fight.”

  The man hesitated for a second and then went inside.

  “I don’t care. I have to go now.”

  As the man headed into a stall, Tanner and Alexa walked towards the exit with the kid tagging along beside them.

  Tanner thought that the boy must have entered the bathroom to pee, but with all the excitement the urge had apparently left him, or been forgotten.

  Once they were outside, the kid pointed to a red Jeep with a blonde girl sitting in the passenger seat. Like the boy, she was dressed in Denver Bronco attire.

  She called to him, as she looked Alexa over.

  “Who are they, Billy?”

  Billy held up the money and tossed a thumb at Tanner.

  “I made a new friend, Cindy.”

  Tanner twitched slightly upon hearing their names, and Alexa took notice.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No, just a memory surfacing; I once knew another Billy and Cindy, and they were about their age.”

  Tanner and Alexa told the kids goodbye and began walking towards her van.

  The boy drove past them and he and the girl blew the horn, smiled, and waved.

  Alexa decided to drive, and they were back on the road and headed towards Spenser Hawke’s home in Wyoming.

  Tanner needed time to heal, and although Spenser had a plan to kill Alonso Alvarado, certain preparations had to be made in advance to carry it out.

  Alexa looked over at Tanner.

  “You hurt your ribs?”

  “A little, but it’ll pass.”

  “How far ahead do you think Spenser and Amy are?”

  “No more than an hour, and we’ll be at his place before nightfall.”

  Spenser knew that Tanner might find trouble like the three men left behind in the bathroom, and he wanted to keep Amy away from any harm by driving on ahead.

  Although Spenser was wanted by Alvarado, his eye patch helped him to avoid detection by anyone looking at the wanted poster with his face on it, a face that showed a man with two good eyes.

  Alvarado had been looking for him for well over a decade, and it seemed unlikely that he would be identified now.

  However, that assumption was a mistake, because the Tin Horsemen were headed to Spenser’s house, and they would be there to greet his arrival.

  Alexa sped the van along.

  “I want to get closer to Spenser and Amy.”

  “Why?”

  Alexa turned her head and looked at Tanner.

  “I just feel like we should.”

  “You sense something?”

  “Yes... something, but I’m not sure what.”

  “All right, we’ll get closer, but don’t speed. We don’t need to attract a cop.”

  “What is Spenser’s home like?”

  “Very nice, and I helped him build it, along with Romeo.”

  “You’re handy with tools?”

  “Yeah, basic carpentry, some plumbing and electrical,”

  “I hope he has a tub. I want to soak in sudsy water and relax.”

  “There’s a huge tub in each room... and it’s big enough for two.”

  Alexa grinned.

  “That sounds like heaven.”

  Tanner looked at her as she drove. Alexa had come into his life at a time when he thought the last thing he wanted was a relationship, but after only spending a few days with her, he knew he wanted more of her.

  Alexa felt his gaze.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” he said.

  She sent him a smile.

  “I feel it too.”

  “Feel what?”

  “Good, I feel good when I’m near you.”

  “Yes,” Tanner said, and then they grew silent as they rolled along the highway.

  CHAPTER 2 – Seeds of betrayal

  The former Tin Horsemen, who had taken the place of the Hexalcorp Strike Team, were closing in on Spenser Hawke’s home in Cody, Wyoming.

  They were following a tip that Spenser was the man who had nearly killed Alonso Alvarado years ago, but didn’t expect it to amount to anything, because they had learned that Spenser had only one eye.

  Bruise, who was pretending to be Simms, drove, while Scar sat in the passenger seat beside him, and Wound and Abrasion rode in the rear.

  The trip to Wyoming had taken a day longer than it should have, because Martinez had called and told them to gather their passports in case he needed them to leave the country in pursuit of Tanner.

  Scar had called his mother and asked her to go out to their garage apartment where the boys lived, and to gather their passports. They all had valid passports, because of a previous trip they had taken to Canada the year before.

  Once the passports arrived by overnight mail, they were back on the road.

  Scar kept staring at the drawing of Spenser, and was more certain than ever that he knew the man depicted in the sketch.

  “I can�
�t remember where and when it happened, but I’ve seen this guy before.”

  Abrasion leaned forward to look over Scar’s shoulder.

  “Try to remember where you saw him, because the guy is worth a lot of money.”

  “I am trying, but I keep drawing a blank.”

  There was a GPS unit built into the truck that had taken them to the general vicinity of Spenser’s home, but they had to rely on directions from the source of the tip as to where the house was actually located.

  Scar had written the final directions on the back of the drawing of Spenser’s face, and he instructed Bruise to make a left down a private driveway.

  Once they had made the turn, they ran along for about a thousand yards and could see Spenser’s home growing nearer.

  Wound spoke up from the back seat.

  “That’s a nice place, and it’s all out here on its own.”

  “We should be careful,” Abrasion said. “If this is the home of the guy that Martinez wants us to find, that means he’s dangerous.”

  Scar told Bruise to approach the house slowly. Bruise did so, and soon they were parked in front of the home.

  “I don’t see any cars,” Wound said.

  Scar opened his door and stepped out.

  “I’ll go ring the bell.”

  “What if the guy in the drawing is inside?” Bruise said.

  “Then we drive off and let Martinez know about it,” Scar said, as he closed his door and headed for the front porch.

  ***

  In Mexico, at the compound belonging to Alonso Alvarado, Martinez paced back and forth near the inner gate.

  With Tanner still on the loose, Alvarado had decided that he needed even more men sent out to patrol the desert, and Martinez watched the men leave as several men returned from an earlier patrol.

  When his phone rang, Martinez jumped slightly. He knew without looking that it was Alvarado calling him for news, and he had none to give.

  “Yes sir, how may I help you?”

  “I see you there by the gate watching the men enter and leave, tell me, should we begin using passwords?”

  “Passwords?”

  “Yes. What if Tanner entered while pretending to be one of the guards? If he didn’t know the password, he would be found out.”

  “We could do that, but I have the men working in groups of two or three. If a single man attempted to enter the compound he would be stopped.”

  “Ah, that’s good, but begin using passwords as well. We have to keep Tanner from entering the compound.”

  “I’ll get right on that,” Martinez said, as he hoped that was all Alvarado wanted to discuss. It wasn’t, and Alvarado asked him another question.

  “Tell me, have you heard any news from your strike team?”

  “No sir, but I am expecting some soon. With Tanner laying low, I’ve instructed them to follow another lead. It concerns the man who attacked you years ago.”

  “That bastard, I think I still want him more than I want Tanner. Deliver that man to me, Martinez, and I’ll give you anything you want.”

  “I hope to do so, along with Tanner and the woman.”

  “The woman, is she really working with Tanner?”

  “It appears so.”

  “Find them, Martinez, my patience is growing short.”

  “Yes sir.”

  When the call ended, Martinez pulled up the sketch of Alexa on his phone.

  Tanner had no one who could be threatened to make him come forth, but what about the woman? If they could find out who she was, they could then find her family and use them to draw her out, and possibly force her to choose between her loved ones and Tanner.

  Tanner trusted the woman or he wouldn’t be working with her, and that trust made him vulnerable. If they could find out who she was, they might have a way to control her, to make her betray Tanner.

  Martinez headed towards the house to talk to Alvarado in person. He had just thought of a way to kill two birds with one stone.

  CHAPTER 3 – Break-in

  Once they were certain that no one was at home, Scar, Bruise, Wound, and Abrasion went around Spenser’s house looking for an unlocked door or window.

  They found that everything was locked tight, but while walking along the roof that sat over the wraparound porch, Scar gazed through a bedroom window and saw a picture on a nightstand that caught his attention.

  It was a photo of Spenser and Amy, and when Scar compared it to the drawing he had, he realized that Spenser was a good match. He also remembered where and when he had seen Spenser before.

  Knowing that he had to be sure he was right, Scar climbed down from the roof, walked to the rear door that led into the kitchen, and smashed a pane of glass by using his elbow.

  As he reached in through the hole to undo the lock on the door, Bruise, Abrasion, and Wound gawked at him.

  “Dude, what are you doing?” Bruise said.

  Scar ignored him, opened the door, and moved through the house.

  The others followed him upstairs to the bedroom, where he lifted up the picture of Spenser and Amy and studied it.

  “It’s him,” Scar said. “It’s really him.”

  ***

  Miles away, Spenser pulled his truck over to the side of the road as his phone emitted a strange tone.

  “What’s that noise?” Amy asked.

  “It’s the burglar alarm for my house. I think someone may have broken in.”

  “Your alarm sends a signal to your phone?”

  “Yeah, and it’s new. Roger Trask installed the alarm system just a week ago.”

  “Trask? He was a client, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes, and he installed new alarms as a way of saying thank you, and now I wish I had let him install cameras as well. For all I know a tree branch could have broken a window.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  Spenser put his truck in gear and pulled back into traffic.

  “We’re almost there, so I’ll check it out.”

  “But if someone has broken in, they’ll hear the truck before we reach the house. You know how well sound carries out there.”

  “I do, which is why you’ll stay with the truck while I go in on foot.”

  “Maybe we should call Tanner and Alexa and wait for them to catch up to us.”

  “They’re probably too far back, and I can handle anything I find.”

  Amy let out a worried sigh.

  “It’s times like this that I feel useless.”

  “You’re far from useless, and when we get to Mexico we’ll be counting on you.”

  “You really think that plan of yours will work?”

  “I do, honey, and then Cody and Alexa will be safe.”

  “You’re wanted by that man Alvarado too. Do you think this break-in could have something to do with that?”

  “I don’t know,” Spenser said, as he pressed down harder on the truck’s gas pedal.

  ***

  At the house, Scar and his men had moved down to the living room, where he took a seat on a leather sofa with Bruise, as Abrasion and Wound sat across from them on a matching love seat.

  Scar held up the picture of Spenser and Amy, and looked at each of the others in turn.

  “This guy in the picture, he’s the one that saved my mom and me after my dad was killed.”

  “Seriously?” Wound said.

  “No shit,” Scar said. “And I know he’s worth a lot of money if we tell Martinez where he is, but I ain’t gonna do it.”

  “Dude, he’s worth a lot of money,” Abrasion said.

  Scar looked over at him with an uncharacteristic steely gaze and then stood to walk over and glare down at him.

  “This dude is off-limits. Do you hear me?”

  Abrasion nodded in agreement.

  “I get it. You owe him; I was just sayin’ that’s all.”

  Bruise raised a hand in the air as if he were in school and trying to get a teacher’s attention. When Scar looked at him, he spoke
.

  “You didn’t tell us much back when all that shit went down, but dude, if we’re gonna pass up the kind of money this guy is worth, I want to know why.”

  When both Abrasion and Wound echoed Bruise’s request, Scar began pacing in front of the fireplace.

  “I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else.”

  The boys agreed, and Scar began telling them about Spenser Hawke.

  ***

  Spenser left the truck a short time later and grabbed a rifle from the rear.

  He was parked along the side of the road about a mile from his house. Before leaving, he spoke to Amy.

  “I’ll call you when I know it’s safe to come up. If you don’t get that call, do not come near the house.”

  “Maybe I should come with you.”

  “No, honey, it may be dangerous.”

  “But how long should I wait?”

  “Let’s say an hour, and then you drive into town, and call Cody and Alexa too.”

  Amy kissed Spenser.

  “Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  Spenser cut through the trees and began jogging towards his home in a direction that would let him come upon it from the right side. The house sat in the open with only a few trees strategically planted to give shade, and so there was no way to approach it without the risk of being spotted.

  While still some distance away, Spenser moved forward in a crouch, but soon dropped down and lay flat, as he brought up the rifle and peered through the scope.

  From a living room window, he could see Scar as he stood by the fireplace talking, but he couldn’t get a clear view of his face.

  Spenser stayed like that for several minutes and wondered just how many men were in the house. Unless Scar was prone to talking to himself, he knew it had to be at least two, but given how Scar’s gaze swiveled right, then left, he thought it a safer bet to assume that there were three or four people inside.

  Having only one eye, Spenser had developed the habit of checking any reflective surface in his immediate area that could reveal movement on his blind side, his left side.

  That’s why he spotted the shapes coming up behind him. They were reflected on the surface of the wide silver band he wore on his wrist.

  Spenser released the unwieldy rifle, rolled to his right, and reached for the gun beneath his jacket.