A slight smile curved Pullo’s lips, as he shook his head.
“No, Johnny, you don’t get it. When Sam started getting sick with the Alzheimer’s he told me he was putting you in charge. He said that I was to think of you as if you were him, and that if anyone threatened you, that I was to take them out.”
“What are you saying?”
Pullo got down on one knee and bowed his head. “I don’t care what Richards or anyone else wants. I work for Sam Giacconi, which means I work for you. You are my Don, my loyalty and my life, they’re yours.”
Johnny gazed down at Pullo with awe showing on his face. He reached down and gripped Pullo beneath his good arm.
“Stand up.”
Pullo rose and the two men stood silently before each other, until Johnny embraced him with a hug.
“You’re an even better man than I knew.”
When Johnny released him, Pullo asked a question.
“So, what’s our next move?”
Johnny smiled. “You and I are going for a ride. There’s something I need to show you.”
“I take it by that smile that it’s good news?”
“The best, buddy, but listen, for now, we need to make Richards think that he’s in control, so when we’re not alone, you’re the boss and I’m just your adviser.”
“I get it, but this Conglomerate thing has gotten out of hand when they’re the ones picking who runs the family.”
“That’s what we’re going to talk about when we get where we’re going.”
“Talk about it with who?”
“You’ll see when we get there, but just know this, things are about to change.”
“Are we going to war?”
“Maybe, but there’s a chance we won’t have to, but c’mon, we’ll take your Hummer.”
“No limo? So even Mario doesn’t know where you’re taking me?”
“No and you’re the only one I would trust with this.”
Joe stopped Johnny as he put his hand on the doorknob to leave. “What’s going on?”
Johnny took Pullo’s face between his hands and grinned.
“He’s back, Joe, the old man is back.”
“What? Sam? How?”
“An experimental drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, and damn if it didn’t work. Sam is back.”
Pullo’s grin matched Johnny’s as he opened the door. “Take me to him,” Pullo said and both men rushed from the club.
111
You Can’t Trust A Weasel
Merle and Earl Carter stood together inside their hotel room and gazed in at the contents of their room safe.
They were looking at the hundred grand in cash that the Conglomerate had paid them as a reward for killing Tanner. There was just one problem—Tanner wasn’t dead.
“We can’t spend it,” Merle said.
“I know,” Earl agreed.
They had moved out of the hooker-infested motel they had been staying in and now shared a room in a downtown hotel that catered to the tourist trade.
The money to do so came from Sara, who had paid the boys a handsome sum for not only killing Tanner, but also as a reward for earlier having saved her from being raped and possibly killed.
Sara’s money they spent freely, because although she would be furious with them for tricking her if Tanner showed up, they didn’t fear that she would kill them. Well, they didn’t fear it very much. The Conglomerate would kill them, so they didn’t dare spend a penny of the reward money.
“Think of all the things we could buy with that,” Merle said.
“I am, and it makes me sick that we can’t touch it,” Earl said.
“Maybe Tanner will stay dead.”
“Maybe, but what if he don’t? He could show up years from now and we’d still be screwed.”
“Earl.”
“Yeah?”
“I hate Tanner.”
“Me too.”
At the farmhouse in Pennsylvania, Tanner halted his run as he spotted Tim and Madison out for a walk.
As the three of them traveled along together, Tim explained to Madison the deal he wanted to make with Al Trent.
Madison had listened without commenting, but when Tim finished, she looked over at Tanner.
“What do you think about this?”
“As I told Tim, it’s your decision, but I’d rather not do it.”
“Why?”
“Trent sounds like a weasel, and you can’t trust a weasel.”
They walked on in silence, loosely following a stream that ran through the property.
When they came to the spot where the stream flowed downward from a steep incline, they crested the small hill, walked through a narrow band of trees, and stepped into a clearing, where a building stood, and which had only been half completed.
The structure was three stories high with a steel frame. The concrete floors were laid in, along with the walls and roof, but it had no doors or windows. Pipes were visible that would have been the plumbing system, but the aborted building had never been connected to the well water on the property.
The structure was one reason that the land had been inexpensive. In 2008, the farm had been sold to a developer who had inside information that the surrounding area would be part of a new East-West highway that would stretch from southern New Jersey to Ohio.
The developer reasoned that the value of the land would skyrocket and managed to get a vast portion of the farmland rezoned for commercial use.
If all had gone as expected, millions would have been made, but as is often the case, things changed for the worse.
The economy tanked as they broke ground for what was to be the first of four office buildings; unfortunate, but easily handled by delaying completion of the other buildings. However, when the word came out of Washington, D.C. that the highway project had been cancelled, the developer found himself the owner of a half-completed office building, even as his existing buildings lost tenants at an alarming rate, due to the downturn in the economy.
The project was abandoned, the property put up for sale, and after spending years as an eyesore on the developer’s balance sheet, it was sold to Tim for pennies on the dollar.
In the years the farm sat abandoned, the locals gave the place a name. They called it Forgotten Farm.
The office building saw use at night as a make-out spot for local teens, who used its third floor as a sort of lookout point, to view the nearby stream and dormant fields.
Tanner investigated the building when they first arrived and discovered food wrappers, used condoms, and remnants of marijuana cigarettes, along with a stack of beer cans in one corner that was three feet high.
It also appeared as if the teens were using the different sized, empty wooden wire reels left behind as tables and chairs.
The kids never came near the farmhouse, so Tanner left them alone to have their fun, and Tim and Madison agreed with the decision.
Madison reached down and picked up a piece of rusted rebar, one of the many pieces of scrap left behind when the project ended.
“I don’t want to do it. I want Al to go to prison. It’s what he deserves for murdering my mom.”
Tim sighed. “Then that’s it, we won’t do it. And I guess we’ll go back to Tanner’s plan, infiltrating the upcoming meeting of the Conglomerate’s big shots. But Tanner, how are you going to do it?”
“I’m not sure yet, which is why ‘Romeo’ needs to go back and gather more info.”
Madison stared at him with a concerned expression. “Everyone thinks you’re dead, why not just walk away and let things be?”
“I can’t. There are loose ends that need tying up, and this was never about running; this was about winning. The men who control the Conglomerate think they can either own me or kill me, but I’m going to make them see that they can’t do either one, and that I’m nobody’s puppet.”
Madison kissed Tanner on the cheek. “Please be careful.”
A sound came from their right an
d Tim pointed at a group of trees.
“Your friend is back, Madison.”
It was a dog, a female, with some German shepherd in her. She was so skinny her ribs showed. Madison had been leaving food for the dog recently, by the rear porch steps at night, and had watched her eat from the window. The dog would follow them, but she never came near, and Tanner suspected she had made a home inside the incomplete structure.
Madison called to the dog. The hound moved closer, then sat.
“She still doesn’t trust me.”
“It’s a hard thing to earn,” Tanner said.
They began the trek back toward the farmhouse and Tanner asked them about their plans.
“What about you two? Where do you go from here?”
“We’re thinking of heading south,” Tim said. “Madison and I like the farm and we’ll either keep it as a safe house or put it up for sale, but it’s too rural for my tastes in the long run, and we’ll probably head to Atlanta, or maybe Miami.”
“One way or another, things will change at this meeting on Sunday,” Tanner said. “And your theft of Conglomerate funds will be at the bottom of their things to worry about. With your new IDs, you should be safe.”
Madison looked past Tim to speak to Tanner. “If you’re going to play Romeo, we’ll have to dye your hair again and apply the tattoos.”
Tanner nodded. “Romeo needs to head back to Manhattan.”
“And back into the lion’s den?” Tim said.
Tanner smiled. “I’ll feel right at home there.”
112
The Ghost And The Wicked Witch
“What are you gawking at, Joey? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Those words were spoken by eighty-six-year-old Sam Giacconi. Giacconi had never been a large man and age had shrunken him. He was lined with wrinkles and his flesh was mottled by age, but his eyes held a fierceness that could rival the fire in Tanner’s gaze.
Johnny had given Joe directions to a long-term care facility, and as they drove, he filled him in on Sam Giacconi’s condition.
Giacconi had been part of an experimental treatment to cure Alzheimer’s, and of the fifty-six patients receiving the treatment, Giacconi was one of the forty-seven patients who responded to the protocol, which included drugs, memory drills, and physical exercise. Giacconi’s memory wasn’t perfect, but it was better than many his age, and the researchers were hopeful that it was a permanent cure.
Sam Giacconi was in a wheelchair. He had a bad hip before succumbing to Alzheimer’s and the subsequent inactivity only aggravated the condition.
Pullo grabbed Giacconi’s offered hand, then leaned down and embraced him gently about the shoulders. When he released the old man, he shook his head in wonder.
“It’s a miracle.”
“You’re telling me. Until two weeks ago, I was lost in the past, locked away inside my own head. Hell, Joey, when the docs asked what year it was, I said it was 2012, because that was the last year I remembered.”
Pullo shook his head again. “It’s a goddamn miracle. The last time I visited you, you thought I was my grandfather.”
Giacconi looked over at Johnny. “Does he know?”
“Yeah, Sam, Richards told Joe that he’s in charge, and when I told Joe, he pledged to keep following me, because it’s what you wanted. That’s why I brought him here.”
Giacconi looked at Pullo with pride shining in his eyes.
“I knew you were a stand-up guy, Joey, but to just give up your power that way, that’s above and beyond.”
“I take orders from you, Sam. The last thing you said to me was to protect Johnny and to treat him as if he were you, and that’s all I did. What I want to know is, what are we going to do about this Conglomerate thing? It’s getting out of hand.”
Giacconi rolled his wheelchair over to a table, which was in the kitchen area of his spacious private room.
“You two sit and I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do.”
“You’ve got a plan?” Johnny asked.
“I’ve got a plan,” Giacconi said. “And it’s gonna put us back in charge like we should be.”
Mario arrived at Starbucks early and found his daughter sitting with a man and a woman, and the two of them had Fed written all over them.
It was Jake Garner, along with his new partner, Special Agent Michelle Geary, a woman in her early forties with blonde hair and a shapely figure.
Maria looked up at her father with wet eyes. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.”
Mario sat beside her and took her hand. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll straighten this out.”
“Mr. Petrocelli, I’m Special Agent Michelle Geary and this is my partner, Special Agent Jake Garner. We have evidence that your daughter was trafficking in drugs and we will arrest her for it… if necessary.”
Mario was sweating even though his hands felt like ice. He was scared to death for his daughter, whose dream was to become a lawyer. Something that wouldn’t happen if she were convicted of trafficking in drugs.
“What evidence do you have?”
Geary opened a laptop, hit a few buttons, and spun the machine around so that Mario could see the screen. It took a second for the video to load, but when it did, it showed his daughter in a setting that appeared to be a park.
A hidden camera and microphone followed Maria as she walked to a bench and handed the lone man sitting there a shopping bag. The man thanked her and passed her a white envelope. Within seconds after the exchange, several men and women in suits and uniforms were yelling at Maria to get on the ground. The video ended with a confused and terrified Maria being knocked off her feet and shoved face-first into the grass.
Maria grabbed her father’s arm. She was a cute girl of nineteen with dark hair and dark eyes.
“I’m not selling drugs. A friend of mine from school, Kimberly, she handed me that bag and asked me to take it to her brother, the man on the bench. I didn’t know there were drugs in the bag, and I don’t know where the marijuana came from either.”
“What marijuana?”
Maria wiped tears away as she talked. “They found marijuana in my purse and they say there was cocaine in that bag. Daddy, I swear on Mama’s memory that I’m innocent. Kimberly must have set me up.”
“I believe you, baby,” Mario said, as he stared across at the two FBI agents.
The woman had an evil little smirk on her face, while the man looked confused. Mario briefly wondered if he hadn’t been in on the set up. If not, it didn’t matter. Cops were all the same, and he’d back up his partner’s play even if he didn’t agree with her tactics. They only hunted lawbreakers who didn’t wear badges.
Mario wasn’t the brightest man, but he knew a frame when he saw one and he also knew his daughter. Maria was innocent.
After taking a deep breath to calm himself, he spoke to the woman.
“My daughter leaves here now, never sees you again, and we have a deal.”
“You understand what we’re asking?”
“Yeah, and we have a deal, but my daughter goes free.”
Geary smiled. “Evidence goes missing all the time.”
“No evidence, no trial, not even an arrest. She leaves here and goes back to her life.”
“Agreed, but you’ll have to deliver.”
Maria was looking back and forth at them. “What’s going on?”
Mario smiled at her. “Everything’s good, you just go home, and I’ll be there later.”
“What do they want you to do?”
“We’re just going to talk. Now leave and I’ll see you later.”
“Daddy?”
Mario kissed her on the forehead. “Go baby, and don’t worry about a thing.”
Maria rose from the table hesitantly, and after another assurance by her father, she drifted out onto the street and disappeared among the crowd.
Mario glared at the two FBI agents. “You bastards play hardball; I’ll give you that.”
Geary leaned across the tab
le. “I’ll tell you what you’re going to give us; you’re going to give us Johnny Rossetti and the rest of your scumbag friends on a platter, because if you don’t, I’ll personally see to it that your daughter does hard time.”
Mario swallowed a cold lump down his throat as he looked into Geary’s eyes, and knew he was in a world of shit.
113
Romeo Returns
Tanner, in the guise of Romeo, returned to New York City and was standing on the corner of East 38th and looking across the street at Laurel Ivy’s townhouse.
He knew that she must believe him to be dead, but he also knew that when he revealed to her that he was alive, that she would keep his secret for as long as he asked her to.
He was about to cross the street when he recognized a man coming from the other way, and he moved back beneath the shadows of the tree he had been standing under.
The man was Joe Pullo.
Pullo climbed the steps of Laurel’s townhouse and rang the doorbell. When Laurel appeared in the doorway, Tanner felt his heart beat faster, and for the thousandth time he wondered what it was about her that affected him like no one else.
Laurel greeted Pullo with a bright smile and a kiss on the cheek.
When Tanner saw that Pullo only rated the cheek and not the lips, he smiled without knowing it. Still, it appeared that Pullo and Laurel were friends, and possibly dating. That meant that more than kissing could soon follow.
Tanner turned away, perplexed to no end by the emotions frothing inside him, and as he had done for years, he struggled to push Laurel Ivy from his mind.
He arrived at the strip club a short time later, knowing that he need not be concerned about running into Pullo.
He had traveled by subway and walked to the club. When he neared the entrance, he saw four masked men rushing toward the door with their guns drawn.
One of the men shot the bouncer who was standing outside smoking, while another man caught sight of Tanner, who was dressed in Romeo’s signature leather vest, bolo tie, and tight black jeans.
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 33
