The TANNER Series - Books 7-9 (Tanner Box Set Book 3)

by Remington Kane

  They were out in the desert somewhere; he was sure of it, because once the engine shut off, the silence was unnerving.

  Alvarado removed the blindfold and Krupin blinked against the stark daylight, but as his eyes adjusted, he saw that he was in a courtyard covered in flagstones, with a large fountain at its center. The entire compound was surrounded by a twenty-foot high wall and there were actual guard towers spaced along it.

  Several structures were visible. Nearby was a huge house, a beautiful home that was two-stories high, and he could see a barn and a garage as well.

  All the buildings were done in the same Pueblo style architecture, with rounded corners and projecting roof beams. The beams were called vigas, Krupin recalled, a fact remembered from the architectural engineering classes he took in college.

  There were times that Krupin wished he had toughed out the trigonometry classes, acquired his degree, and told his father to find another successor.

  However, it was too late for that now, and the time had come to forge new alliances.

  Alvarado’s father came out of the home with great difficulty, as the man balanced his thick, hairy body on dual crutches.

  There were braces on both knees, and one of his arms, although useful, was set crooked, as if the bones of the elbow were malformed.

  The crutches gave him the aura of old age, but a closer look and Krupin guessed that the man was likely in his mid-fifties. He wore his black hair long, and there were streaks of white running through it, but the eyes, the dark eyes were young, like the eyes of a baby shark.

  “Mr. Mikhail Krupin Jr., you’ve come a long way to see me. Does that mean you are desperate?”

  After hearing the son talk English, the elder Alvarado’s fluent use didn’t throw Krupin off, and he answered right away.

  “Not at all, Mr. Alvarado; I’m simply looking for a partner to help me with a problem.”

  “You’re saying that you can defeat this Joe Pullo on your own?”

  “Given time, yes,”

  “And does the name, Tanner, mean anything to you?”

  “Tanner? What about him?”

  “Certain friends of mine have contacts in your city, and they tell me that it was Tanner who killed your men.”

  “I thought he was dead.”

  “He is very much alive, and if he is as good as his reputation, then I would say that you need help.”

  Krupin sighed wearily.

  “How much?”

  “Fifty percent of all profit,”

  Krupin’s mouth dropped open in shock before he said, “Are you crazy?” and took a step towards Alvarado.

  Five guns came out, including the one belonging to Alvarado’s son, and Krupin backed up with his hands held in the air.

  “I meant no disrespect, but really, fifty percent?”

  A woman stepped out onto the porch. She was beautiful, and regal, the way only a mature woman can be, and her long flowing black hair billowed about her in the breeze. A man wearing glasses followed behind her, and looked enough like her to be a brother, but he bore none of her grace, and appeared to be older.

  “Alonso, why are you conducting business out here in the heat? Bring that man inside and feed him.”

  The elder Alvarado smiled at the woman, and then spoke to Krupin.

  “As you can see, my wife is determined to civilize me. Come inside, Krupin, and we’ll talk over a meal.”

  Krupin nodded in agreement and thanked Alvarado’s wife, a woman who was more than twice his age. And as he walked by her, he saw the woman look him over, and in her eyes was the glint of sexual interest.

  Yes, he definitely should have become an architect.

  CHAPTER 12 – Endings and beginnings

  Inside a deli in Midtown Manhattan, FBI Agent Tamir Ivanov was standing at a tall round table, as he watched his partner, Justina Moretti, fend off the attentions of a handsome young man.

  Ivanov smiled at the sight.

  He was in love with Justina, and had been ever since he first laid eyes on his young partner. She was a mature-minded woman, even at twenty-seven. However, Ivanov was forty-two, and he felt the age difference to be too much.

  He assumed that Justina would look upon him as a middle-age fool if she knew of his longing for her.

  And so he never said a word about his feelings to her, or made a move that could be considered flirtatious. He believed that it would result in rejection, and that he would lose her as a partner as well.

  When they first met, Justina was dating a young doctor, but the idiot spent more time on the golf course than with Justina, and she had broken up with him months ago. Why she still didn’t have a boyfriend, Ivanov couldn’t imagine, but then, perhaps she had a lover that she never mentioned to him.

  Justina saw Ivanov’s smile as she rejoined him at their table, and sent him a smile of her own.

  “You were watching me, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, you’re my partner and I look out for you.”

  “Is that the only reason?”

  “Joe Pullo said that you were easy on the eyes; I agree with him.”

  Justina moved closer to Ivanov. She then looked around the busy deli and frowned.

  “This isn’t exactly the right time or place to have this conversation, but I want you to tell me something.”

  Ivanov was staring into her eyes, while thinking that she never looked more beautiful.

  “What is it you want to know?”

  “Do you like me, that way, the way a man likes a woman?”

  “Justina, I’m much older than... and I... I mean, you’re very... um,”

  She laughed.

  “Oh my God, Tamir Ivanov is tongue-tied, that’s a first.”

  Ivanov laughed along with her and then he laid a hand against her cheek.

  “Of course I like you that way. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and you’re smart to boot.”

  To Ivanov’s shock, Justina leaned in and kissed him. When the kiss ended, Justina smiled.

  “I knew you’d be a good kisser, and I have feelings for you too, Tamir. To hell with our age difference.”

  Ivanov stroked her hair.

  “I’ll be good to you, count on it.”

  “You’d better, don’t forget, I carry a gun.”

  Ivanov laughed, and then he kissed her again.

  ***

  After shaking Tim’s hand, Tanner was surprised when Madison gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek.

  He had called Tim to arrange the phony ID’s, and discovered that they were in the city.

  They met in Central Park, near the Central Park Carousel, and the happy sounds of children filled the air to the accompaniment of music.

  “Despite all that talk about disowning me, Daddy didn’t even have a will. Can you believe that?” Madison said.

  Tanner could, and quite easily. He had killed Madison’s father, Frank Richards, and even while wounded and lying in a puddle of blood, the man had denied his fate, telling Tanner that he couldn’t kill him. A man like that would be too arrogant to consider his own death a reality.

  “What’s that mean? You get everything?”

  “Not all, the corporation was a separate entity and the IRS took a good chunk, but I will inherit money, along with several properties, including the estate in Katonah.”

  Tim handed him an envelope.

  “There are your ID’s.”

  Tanner opened the envelope and found two sets of fake ID’s, including credit cards and various other things that people carry in their wallets, such as a card for a road service plan.

  “How did you get a picture of Sammy Giacconi?”

  “Easy, I hacked into the computers for the New York State Motor Vehicle Agency.”

  “And people say I’m scary. This is good work, Tim. What do I owe you?”

  “We’ve had this discussion before, Tanner. You don’t owe me a thing. You not only saved my life, but because of you, I also met Madison.”


  “All right, but if you ever need me, call that number I gave you.”

  Madison stared at him, while cocking her head.

  “Tanner, is something wrong?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know; you just look a little sad.”

  Tanner smiled at her perceptiveness.

  “It’s nothing.”

  ***

  Sammy stepped off the elevator in his apartment building and found Sophia sitting in front of his door.

  “Sophia?”

  She jumped to her feet and ran a hand through her hair nervously.

  “Hi.”

  “Why are you here? Is something wrong?”

  “Tanner and I broke up.”

  Sammy let out a yell of joy and Sophia giggled.

  “I see that makes you happy.”

  Sammy took her in his arms and kissed her. When their lips parted, he searched her face.

  “How bad was it?”

  “There was no scene. Tanner isn’t stupid, and he could see that I had feelings for you.”

  Sammy stared into her eyes.

  “Is this for real?”

  Sophia smiled.

  “I want to be with you, Sammy. You’re so goddamn young but I still want to be with you.”

  Sammy unlocked the door to his apartment, and the two of them disappeared inside.

  CHAPTER 13 – What’s in a name?

  The Americana Sports Bar on Sixth Avenue was doing a lively business when Tanner walked in, and to his surprise, there was a familiar face among the bartenders.

  “Hello, Carl; I see you’ve found a new job.”

  “Yeah, Tanner; thanks to Joe, and he’s waiting for you in the back room there, down that hallway on the left.”

  “Has that kid Sammy arrived yet?”

  “No, I haven’t seen him.”

  “Send him back when you do.”

  “You got it.”

  The back room was at the end of a short corridor. When Tanner approached two of Joe’s men, Mike and Bosco, Bosco knocked on the door.

  “Tanner is here, Boss.”

  Joe opened the door and gestured for Tanner to enter.

  The room was large, and appeared to be set-up for private parties. There was a bar on the right side of the room, and a giant flat screen television took up most of the rear wall. The Americana Sports Bar catered to affluent sports fans, and everything had to be first-class.

  Joe sat at the bar and Tanner took a seat beside him, but facing the door.

  “You own this place?”

  “Just five percent of it, I loaned a high school buddy a few grand twenty years ago to buy a neighborhood bar. He turned it into this.”

  “Impressive.”

  “Sammy called me this morning.”

  “So you know.”

  “Yeah, and I have to ask again, is it going to be a problem?”

  “No, Joe. I’ll keep the kid safe. I swear it.”

  “You want a drink?”

  “No.”

  “I’ve had news about Krupin. He’s in Mexico.”

  Tanner raised an eyebrow.

  “That’s not good; he could be looking for a partner.”

  “Yeah, so listen, take care of this Bobby Volks thing and get back here. I’m going to need you, buddy.”

  “If Krupin comes back with a load of cartel muscle then this war will be red hot.”

  Joe nodded, and then smiled.

  “Why the smile?”

  “This trip you’re taking with Sammy, it’s reminded me of the one we took to Delaware to hunt down Carlo Conti.”

  “I was thinking that myself.”

  “We learned a lot about each other on that trip, and it’s why I trust you to look out for Sammy, and I wouldn’t say that about anybody else.”

  There came a knock on the door, and when Joe opened it, Sammy walked in. He looked over at Tanner, opened his mouth, closed it, and then shook his head in confusion.

  “I... have absolutely no idea what to say to you, Tanner.”

  “Try saying hello, kid, and come take a seat, we’ve business to discuss.”

  Sammy walked around the bar and then leaned atop it. Tanner removed the phony ID’s from the envelope Tim had handed him the day before, and separated them.

  He would be going under the name of Tom Myers, and his driver’s license declared him a citizen of Florida. He slid across the fake ID that he had Tim make for Sammy, and watched as Sammy studied it.

  “An Ohio driver’s license for... Jack Koff? Seriously, Tanner, Jack Koff?”

  Joe grabbed the license from Sammy, read it, and then broke out in laughter.

  Tanner shrugged.

  “I couldn’t resist.”

  CHAPTER 14 - Curious

  WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, TEN YEARS EARLIER

  Tanner and Joe had searched the bars, nightclubs, gambling dens, and strip clubs within a five-mile radius of where Carlo Conti had last been spotted, and they came up empty.

  By the third day, they were running out of places to look, and decided to return to the motel and think things over.

  Again, there were men at the door to the room being guarded across the way, Room 16, and Tanner admitted to himself that he was curious.

  Joe laughed.

  “It’s probably another Carol.”

  “I don’t know. There’s something strange there.”

  “Hellman said that it was private business; maybe it has something to do with drugs, or they’re filming a porn movie.”

  Tanner rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, as he gazed out the window of Joe’s room at the man guarding the door of Room 16.

  “It’s still curious.”

  “No, I’ll tell you what’s curious, Tanner, Carlo Conti. How could a guy as big as he is stay hidden?”

  “Could he know that we’re looking for him?”

  “I don’t see how, of course, there’s always the chance that he was just passing through here.”

  “Maybe we’re going about this all wrong. Instead of looking for places where Conti would party, why don’t we look for places where he would work? He was an enforcer, right?”

  “Yeah, a button man,” Joe said.

  “All right, but he’s a little old for that now. So what was he before that?”

  “I don’t know. Let me give Sam a call. I’ll use the payphone by the office.”

  On the way to the phone, they passed a room where two women were snorting coke. One of them was Carol. When she saw Joe, she slammed the door in his face, and Tanner chuckled.

  “I think you lost your chance with Carol, that is, unless you pay her.”

  “I’d rather screw a goat.”

  A door opened behind them, and Tanner saw Hellman leave another room.

  “Here’s the zookeeper of this place.”

  Hellman was with a teenage boy who was no more than nineteen. The boy was stuffing money in his pocket, and Hellman was fastening his belt.

  “It looks like his gate swings both ways,” Joe told Tanner.

  When Hellman reached them, he smiled his big phony grin.

  Tanner pointed at the room across the way.

  “How much do you charge for the girls in that room?”

  Hellman’s smile faltered.

  “Who told you there were girls in that room?”

  “You did, just now,” Tanner said.

  Hellman smiled the phony smile again.

  “You’re a tricky one, but those girls are very special; I promise you, you’ve never seen two more beautiful girls. However, I would need someone to vouch for you.”

  Joe had picked up the phone to make his call, but he placed it back in the receiver, as curiosity took a hold of him as well.

  “What do you mean, ‘vouch?’”

  Hellman smiled again.

  “It’s one of those things where you either know or you don’t. But forget about those girls, I can hook you up with whatever you want.”

  Joe pi
cked the phone up again.

  “No thanks.”

  Hellman looked at Tanner.

  “What about you, young man?”

  “I’ll pass.”

  “Well, if you change your minds, you know where I’ll be.”

  ***

  When Joe finished his call with Sam, he told Tanner what he had learned.

  “Carlo Conti started as a leg breaker for a loan shark, but for a while he was also a pimp.”

  “And maybe he’s gone back into his old line of work?”

  “Could be, but I don’t see a guy like that still hustling girls on street corners.”

  “No,” Tanner said. “But if Conti is in the trade, we’ll find him running one of the local whorehouses.”

  Joe headed for the car.

  “We’ll grab dinner, and plan our next move.”

  They walked to the car and Tanner opened the door to get in, but then he paused and stared over at the door to Room 16, while feeling a strange sense of unease. After a long moment passed, he climbed into the car and Joe drove away.

  CHAPTER 15 – El Diablo o La Diabla?

  Krupin had locked the door to his guestroom, but he woke from a fitful sleep, when he heard a key turning in the lock.

  He was at Alvarado’s desert fortress, after the man’s wife, Maria, insisted that he stay the night and not travel in the desert after dark.

  Krupin had called his men and told them of his change in plans, and that they were to arrange to leave Mexico on the following day.

  Getting rid of Bruce the schoolyard bully had only cost Krupin fifty dollars, but getting rid of Joe Pullo would cost him fifty percent of all profits.

  Krupin had made a deal with the devil, but fifty percent of New York City was better than what he had now. Had he gone back without Alvarado as a partner and the backing of the man’s cartel, he likely would have been gunned downed by Joe Pullo.

  With the cartel, he felt that his fortunes could only rise.

  The lithe form slipped into the room as quiet as a shadow, and its silhouette read female.

  It was Alvarado’s wife, Maria, and Krupin shivered just from the thought of what would happen if he were caught with her.

  “You would be tortured,” she said, as she slipped out of her robe and slid her naked body beneath the blanket.

  “What?”