“Kill that guard he’s talking to,” Alexa said. “I’ll claim his weapon and go after Alvarado while you and Spenser secure the gates.”
Alexa only had one of the small blades as a weapon, but she had planned all along to seize the gun of the next guard they killed.
When Tanner fired and killed the man walking away from Alvarado, she rushed from concealment and went to claim the man’s weapon.
Tanner watched her sprint towards the golf cart as Martinez put the machine in motion, and then he and Spenser ran towards the inside gate.
***
The dead guard wore a clip-on holster, and Alexa ripped it off his belt and began running after the golf cart, as behind her, she heard the screams of two more dying guards.
A flash of metal caught her attention from above and she brought the gun up and fired. Her hurried shot nearly missed the guard in the watch tower, but she hit him on the side of his head, just above the ear, and after dropping his rifle, the man stumbled forward, flipped over the waist high railing, and plummeted to the ground.
On the night she had infiltrated the compound, Alvarado’s late brother-in-law, Carlos Ayala, had told her that Alvarado had a safe room in his office, and that it was hidden behind the bathroom wall.
Alexa ran as fast as she was able. Alvarado could not be allowed to find shelter, even temporary shelter.
She had waited most of her life to kill him and she would not be delayed in enjoying that pleasure, not when she was so close to delivering retribution.
Alexa ran on, and the golf cart being driven by Martinez grew ever closer to the house.
***
Tanner was about to shoot a guard who was trying to unlock the inner gate, when he saw the man go down from a head wound.
The fatal shot had come from above, and when he looked up, he saw Joaquin waving at him. The body of a dead guard was slumped over the railing beside Joaquin, and there was a knife sticking from its back.
Joaquin pointed at his head, and Tanner saw that he was wearing a makeshift headband. It was a strip torn from a white sheet and tied around his head.
When Joaquin held up three fingers, Tanner understood that Joaquin was telling him that there were three of them working against Alvarado inside the compound, and that they could be identified by the white headbands.
Tanner signaled that he understood and then shouted the knowledge to Spenser, who was hunkered down behind a jeep and having a firefight with a guard in another tower. That guard soon left the fight, as one of Joaquin’s fellow bandana wearers climbed up into the tower and shot him.
Spenser called over to Tanner.
“Go help Alexa!”
When Tanner didn’t move, Spenser saw the conflict in his eyes.
“I’ll be fine.”
Tanner headed for the house. Behind him, Spenser checked his weapon and saw that he was down to only one bullet.
Two guards rounded the corner of the garage with their weapons up. When they spotted Spenser, they took aim at him.
Spenser fired first. He had aimed for one of the propane tanks that were lined up against the wall. The tank punctured at eye level and sent out a spray of cold gas that temporarily blinded the men.
Spenser dropped flat and scrambled beneath the jeep, and then kept going until he reached the body of a fallen guard. The man’s gun held eight rounds, and Spenser was back in the fight.
***
Martinez brought the golf cart to a hard stop at the front steps of the house.
Malena had placed a foot on the ground when she spotted Alexa running towards them. Alexa was still far away, but she was coming on fast.
“That bitch escaped, Alonso, and so has one of the old men. He’s running up behind her and... I’ve never seen an old man move so fast.”
“He’s wearing a disguise, they all were, and like an idiot I brought them inside the gates.”
Malena gasped.
“You mean that old man is actually Tanner... oh my God.”
Alvarado grabbed Martinez’ arm as the man tried to leave the golf cart.
“Drive around to the side of the house where my office is; we’ll enter through the patio doors. I have a safe room there.”
Malena turned around on her seat to stare at Alexa, and shouted a warning.
“She’s getting closer and so is Tanner!”
Alvarado kept a small gun in his pocket, a .32 Seecamp. He took it out and aimed at Alexa. He had only a slim chance of hitting her, given how far away she was, but he hoped to slow her down. He fired all five shots that the small pistol held.
Three of them fell short, the fourth went wide, and the final round struck Alexa.
It hit her on the left, just below the ribs and caused the white T-shirt to blossom red.
To Alvarado’s dismay, Alexa merely slowed for a moment as a look of pain crossed her disguised features, but she never stopped running. He dropped the gun and slammed his palm against Martinez’s back.
“Go, go!”
The cart took off, and once again, they put distance between themselves and Alexa. When they reached the patio, Martinez had to help Malena get Alvarado to the sliding door.
The door was constructed with bullet-resistant glass and would only open once Alvarado’s thumbprint was verified.
They practically carried Alvarado to the door and held him up; there was no time for him to hobble along on his crutches.
The biometric lock recognized his thumbprint and clicked open. Malena slid the heavy door aside with her left hand as she struggled to hold her husband up with her right.
When Malena looked back, she saw Alexa, and then Tanner, rounding the corner of the house, and she cried out in fear.
Malena, her husband, and Martinez, all tried to squeeze through the opening at the same time, and it was a tight fit, but they finally forced their way inside, where Martinez stumbled, taking Alvarado and Malena with him down to the floor.
The door was designed to slide shut on its own, and once closed, it would lock automatically.
Alvarado, Malena, and Martinez, laid atop the floor and stared back at the patio door as it slid to the right along its track, and to each of them it felt as if it were barely moving.
Beyond the glass, Alexa could be seen, and she was running and firing her gun at the same time as she drew closer.
Her rounds missed the narrowing gap of open space between the door and its frame, and instead, they ricocheted off the bullet-resistant glass. When her gun was empty, Alexa collapsed on the ground against the golf cart, while both exhausted and bloody from the chase.
Then, Tanner appeared, still in his guise of an old and gray-haired man, but moving with the grace of a panther.
When he was still more than thirty feet from the door, Tanner launched himself into the air. He landed hard atop the outer edge of the patio, slid across its white tiled floor, and jammed his gun hand between the patio door and its frame, which kept the door from closing.
Alvarado stared down the barrel of the gun pointed at his face, then, he locked eyes with Tanner, saw the intense glare of hatred within them, and understood that he would soon be dead.
CHAPTER 33 – The end of the beginning
Joaquin signaled Dante by raising a sheet up the flagpole, and the white linen billowed in the hot desert air, where it could be seen for miles.
With that done, Joaquin climbed up into one of the guard towers, where he used a loudhailer to talk to the men gathered outside the walls.
“The Alvarado cartel is over,” Joaquin began, and although he was young, he was well liked, and the men listened.
***
Tanner turned from the patio door and walked back to stand beside Spenser, who was standing next to Alexa. They had all removed their make-up, but Tanner’s hair was still dyed with streaks of gray, while Spenser’s hair and beard were white.
Alexa’s gunshot wound, although bloody, was not serious. Alvarado’s bullet had sliced open her skin, but hadn’t hit muscle or b
one. Tanner had bandaged the horizontal wound with layers of gauze to stop the bleeding, and although she felt the effects of the blood loss, Alexa was well.
As she stared at Alvarado, Alexa held a long carving knife she’d taken from the kitchen, and there was a look of triumph on her face.
Alvarado was seated several feet in front of his desk with his wrists handcuffed to his special chair. Seated beside him was Malena, while Martinez was in another room, where he sat alone in a corner.
Tanner told Martinez to sit there until he said otherwise, and Martinez wisely obeyed.
“My name is Alexa Cazares,” Alexa said as she glared down at Alvarado. “And I was there when you killed my family.”
Alvarado’s eyes grew large with amazement, but then he nodded in understanding.
“You are the one who made the screams I heard coming from the house.”
“Yes, I was seven-years-old, and I watched as you and your men destroyed my world.”
Alvarado cocked his head, as curiosity overrode the trepidation he was feeling.
“How did you survive?”
“I was saved by a man who is a thousand times better than you are, and after saving me, he raised me as his daughter.”
Alvarado looked at Tanner as a sneer twisted his face.
“And you, Cody Parker, how did you survive?”
Tanner placed a hand on Spenser’s shoulder.
“He saved me, and we’re here now because of his plan.”
“I knew you couldn’t resist using innocents as pawns,” Spenser said, “I also realized that you would consider a young woman and two old men no threat to you.”
Alvarado went to reach for his wife’s hand, but was stopped by the handcuff on his wrist.
“Let my wife live. She has harmed no one.”
Alexa laughed without a trace of humor.
“Do you think we don’t know what this bitch is, the things she’s done? She also threatened to torture me earlier. How did she put it? ‘Just for the hell of it.’ No Alvarado, you will find no mercy here.”
Malena sprang from her chair while screaming and lunged at Alexa, with hands that were bent like claws.
Alexa stood her ground and made an arc with the knife.
Malena stumbled backwards, missed the chair, and fell to the floor with her hands to her throat. Blood began seeping between her fingers and Alvarado fought against the cuffs while shouting his wife’s name.
In a voice that sounded as cold as the grave, Alexa spoke to him.
“Now you know what it feels like to see a loved one die.”
Alvarado’s face was twisted in a rictus of pain and helplessness as he watched his wife die. Malena’s final act was to reach a bloody hand towards Alvarado, but then her arm fell to the carpet, and after a wheeze escaped her, she lay still.
Alvarado turned his eyes from his wife’s body and cursed Alexa as he thrashed about in the chair. When he finally wound down, his wrists were bleeding from the cuffs.
Alvarado slumped in his seat from both exhaustion and resignation of his fate.
Alexa walked over and stood before Alvarado with the knife aimed at his heart, and then she looked back at Tanner.
“Come here and place your hand atop mine, Cody.”
Tanner did so, and realized that Alexa had never used his true name before.
They held the knife together and stared down at the man who had altered their lives, and who, in many ways, was responsible for what they were and who they had become.
“This is for my family,” Alexa said, “and especially my sweet abuela, my grandmother.”
“And for my family as well,” Tanner said.
Alexa locked eyes with Tanner, and then they plunged the knife deep into Alvarado’s chest.
Alonso Alvarado straightened in his chair as he raised his head and stared at them with a look of defiance, and then he seemed to wilt, as his punctured heart stopped beating. Tanner saw the light leave his eyes, before they closed forever.
Alexa released the blade that was still embedded deep in Alvarado, and then she fell into Tanner’s arms, while crying.
Spenser drifted from the room, leaving the two of them alone, and went in search of a phone to call Amy.
CHAPTER 34 – A new day
Joaquin’s speech won over the hearts of some men, but a group formed to attempt to breach the gates.
They failed miserably, and two men were injured when they rammed a small cargo truck against the stout outer gate.
When several other men managed to secure a rope to one of the rear guard towers, they actually made it over the wall. They had been seen by the cameras as they worked, and Tanner greeted their arrival with death.
Tanner was beginning to wonder if Damián Sandoval had become aware that Dante was planning to take Alvarado’s place and had killed him, because six hours passed after Joaquin had raised the sheet aloft on the flagpole, and Dante had yet to show.
But then Dante arrived an hour before sunset, and as he said he would, he had an army of townspeople with him.
They arrived in a parade of old vehicles, most of which were used on the local ranches.
The townspeople weren’t bearing arms, but rather cases of bottled water. The wise Dante, an ex-resident of the compound, knew that there was no source of water beyond the walls.
He had delayed his arrival to let their water supply run out, and then waited even longer while the hot sun did its work on Alvarado’s men.
Once Dante had satisfied their thirst, he went about fulfilling their equally innate need to be led.
In a commanding tone, Dante shouted for Joaquin to open the gates.
Joaquin obeyed, let the men in, and they all got their first look at Alvarado’s corpse.
Tanner had propped the body up near the inner gate, in Alvarado’s special chair, with the knife still protruding from its chest.
Dante strode up to the chair and gave the corpse a hard kick, which sent it falling to the dirt.
A great silence ensued, followed by a loud cheer that came from the men and the townspeople, and the Alvarado cartel was no more.
***
It was nearing midnight, as Tanner, Spenser, and Alexa stood by a Mercedes that had belonged to Malena Alvarado.
The vehicle was a marvel of technology and style, a Mercedes S600 Maybach, and there were less than a thousand miles on it.
Martinez was already in the rear of the car with his wrists cuffed and his ankles bound. Tanner made contact with Burke and was told that a man would meet him in Mexico City to take Martinez off his hands.
Tanner had learned of Dan Matthews’ treachery from Martinez, and had relayed the news to Burke. Burke assured him that someone would see to the matter.
“What’s that mean? Have you hired another hitter?”
“No. In fact, I’ll hand the job over to the person that recommended you be contacted in the first place.”
“And who would that be? Matthews wouldn’t say.”
“Neither will I, just know that you have an advocate in my corporation.”
When Burke brought up the subject of Tanner taking a contract, Tanner told him that he was interested, but needed to decompress.
“I’ll be in touch, Burke.”
The truck driver, Julio, was going with them as well, to be reunited with his wife in Mexico City. Dante had even given the young man a bundle of cash for his trouble, while telling him that he could come to work for him as a courier.
Julio declined, but when Dante told him how much he would be making, Julio changed his mind and told him yes.
He had forgotten all about the promise he had made to himself to never again let greed cloud his judgement, but he was young, and some lessons had to be learned more than once.
Dante offered his hand and Tanner shook it, as he asked a question.
“You will do that last favor for me, correct?”
“Absolutely, but then we are even.”
“Fine by me,” Tanner sa
id. “I’m just glad that the bounty is off my head, although it may take time for the word to get out.”
Dante laughed.
“You forget, this is the computer age, and what happened here today is the stuff of legends. No one will be more surprised than Damián Sandoval that you were successful, and I warn you, he may hold you partly responsible for my rise to power.”
“I’ll handle Sandoval if it becomes a problem,” Tanner said. “But after seeing what happened to Alvarado, I’ve a feeling he’ll behave.”
Dante turned to Alexa and smiled.
“Stay here with me and become my queen.”
Alexa laughed.
“You’ll do fine without me. Not only are you in charge, but the locals love you.”
“Alvarado ruled with fear, I won’t, because I don’t want to rule anything. I just want to make money.”
Spenser opened the rear door on the Mercedes to climb in beside Martinez.
“So long, Dante, and take care of that kid, Joaquin.”
“Joaquin is no kid. He proved that today,” Dante said.
“That’s true,” Spenser said, and got in the car.
They were three miles from the compound when Alexa saw by the round clock set in the dashboard that it was midnight. She was seated up front with Tanner, who was driving.
Alexa pointed out the time to Tanner. She then leaned across the center console, while being careful not to press against her wound, and kissed him gently on the lips.
“It’s a new day.”
“At last,” Tanner said, and they put Alonso Alvarado behind them forever.
AFTERMATH
CHAPTER 35 – Tanner
THREE DAYS LATER, NEW YORK CITY
Bosco looked with suspicion at the swarthy Mexican man holding the white box with the red ribbon wrapped around it.
Bosco was standing in the doorway of an office building that The Giacconi Family used as temporary headquarters.
On paper, the building was owned by a law firm in Texas, but in truth, the property had belonged to the late Alonso Alvarado.
Joe Pullo, the leader of The Giacconi Family, made a deal with the devil in order to have peace and keep his loved ones safe. The deal made Rico Nazario Joe’s partner, but that was when Alvarado, Rico’s boss, still lived.
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