The TANNER Series - Books 1-3 (Tanner Box Set)

by Remington Kane

  Could she possibly like the old perv?

  “Hey, um, Drew, why don’t we meet at break time and talk?”

  Reese glared at him.

  “She’ll be busy and who says you get a break?”

  Tim ignored him. He and Madison hadn’t talked much because they were rushed after taking the time to phony up her ID badge. Tim still had no idea why the girl was going undercover in a building her father owned, and he had taken a chance on revealing his own deception to her.

  Each one knew that the other was there for some secret, if not nefarious, purpose, but Tim doubted that Madison would be killed if her real identity were known. The same couldn’t be said for himself.

  “We need to talk more, you know?”

  Madison nodded just a bit.

  “I’m sure we’ll run into each other sometime, just like we did in front of the building tonight.”

  Tim smiled. She was telling him that she’d meet him in front of the building when their shift ended.

  Reese placed an arm across Madison’s shoulders and guided her out of the storage room.

  “Come on, Drew, New Guy there needs to get busy cleaning the toilets.”

  Tim watched Madison disappear with Reese and said a prayer that she’d keep quiet, then he pushed a cartload of cleaning supplies out into the hall and headed for the nearest toilet.

  CHAPTER 16 - It’s not nice to lie

  Merle and Earl had told Rafe Green everything they knew about Tanner, as they drank beer and ate Buffalo wings in a bar near Central Park.

  Rafe had made it clear that he had a grudge against both Joe Pullo and Johnny R for what was done to his brother, and Merle and Earl understood where he was coming from.

  They weren’t big on revenge, but they could sympathize with a man seeking vengeance for a brother, since the two of them were as close as brothers could be.

  After parting company with Rafe, they headed for their room, which was located in a motel that catered more to the hooker trade than actual overnight patrons. But, the place was cheap and a quick subway ride from Midtown.

  They had just climbed the stairs and were three doors from their room when a man came up behind them. For the second time that night, they were looking down the barrel of a gun.

  “We ain’t got no money,” Merle said.

  The man chuckled.

  “I can believe that, you look like a couple of losers.”

  A car came around the corner of the building and stopped at the stairs, it was a black limo, and Johnny R’s driver, Mario, got out and opened the rear door.

  The man with the gun tossed his head towards the car. He had the face of a weasel with little beady eyes to match.

  “Get in the car, Johnny wants to see you.”

  Merle was still staring at the gun. It was a big gun, a Desert Eagle.

  “Who?”

  “Johnny R, he wants to know what you know about Tanner.”

  “But we don’t know—”

  The man pointed the gun at Earl’s face and Merle stopped talking in mid-sentence.

  “Maybe he only needs one of you,” the man said.

  “Shit, don’t shoot or anything, we’ll go, no problem,” Merle said.

  The man lowered the gun and grinned.

  “A couple of pussies, go on, get in the limo.”

  Merle and Earl did as they were told, and once again rued the day they met Tanner.

  ***

  Sara watched from the rear of the parking lot as the brothers were taken away at gunpoint. The sight caused her to smile, because she was certain it meant that they had gained the attention of Johnny R.

  She turned the ignition key and her car purred to life.

  They would lead her to Johnny R and eventually Tanner would show, as he tried to kill the man. The Carter brothers had served their purpose. Sara wished them no harm, but cared little if harm came to them.

  She cared little for anything other than finding Tanner and making him pay. She put her car in gear and followed, motivated by an obsession that would likely end with her death.

  ***

  Johnny R stared down at the bodies of Richie Sullivan and his crew. He was looking at them from the open fifth story doorway that at one time led to a fire escape. The fire escape had rusted and fallen away after the building was condemned, and Johnny R had to admit that the drop made for a clever trap.

  That is, if you were stupid.

  The dumbasses, there must not have been a brain between them.

  He stepped back and walked down the filthy stairs, scattering rats, until he was outside, where he stood just yards away from the corpses, and beside Joe Pullo.

  Pullo asked his boss a question.

  “How did you find them?”

  “Eddie’s girl called and said he got a call from Richie about Tanner. Someone saw him buying smokes at a bar and followed him here.”

  “It looks like Tanner found him. It was a trap from the word go. Hell, Tanner doesn’t even smoke.”

  A limo parked at the curb, Mario the driver emerged and from the rear seats followed Merle and Earl. They were led over across the debris-filled lot and stood before Johnny R, shaking noticeably in their fear, while looking sick as they stared at the bodies.

  Joe Pullo smiled at them.

  “Hello boys, it’s good to see you again.”

  Johnny R sighed.

  “You two aren’t much to look at, but Joe tells me that you would know Tanner on sight, is that right?”

  “Yes sir,” Merle said, as Earl nodded in agreement.

  “Joe here knows Tanner, but he won’t be at my side most of the time and from what I hear, Tanner doesn’t stand out in a crowd.”

  “Eyes,” Earl said.

  Johnny R cocked his head.

  “What was that?”

  “Tanner’s got... different eyes, intense and kinda scary, but yeah, he looks normal other than that.”

  “All right, you boys will hang with me at my club; you’ll be like an early warning system in case Tanner walks through the door.”

  Merle pointed at the pile of bodies.

  “Did Tanner do that?”

  “Yeah,”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah,”

  A cry rang out from down the street.

  “Get out of the car!”

  Johnny R said, “Check that out,” to Joe Pullo, but Pullo was already on the move, gun in hand.

  The man who had grabbed Merle and Earl at their motel was shouting, and his words were directed at Sara. He had snuck up on her as she watched the gathering through binoculars, and he was aiming his gun directly at her head.

  “I said get out of the damn car.”

  Joe Pullo aimed at her from the other side and from his vantage point, he could see the gun resting atop the dash, beside her phone.

  “Touch that gun, lady, and I’ll kill you.”

  Sara cursed, knowing she could never shoot both of them or drive away before she’d be shot.

  The other man pulled on the door.

  “Unlock it, bitch!”

  Tense seconds passed and then a clicking sound came. The man ripped the door open and yanked Sara onto the pavement.

  “Easy, Vince,” Pullo said, as he grabbed her purse off the passenger seat. “Bring her over to Johnny and we’ll see what’s what.”

  Merle and Earl exchanged nervous glances when they spotted Sara, but she wasn’t looking at them, she was looking at Johnny R, who stared back at her with an admiring gaze.

  “She’s a looker, hmm boys? But unless Tanner had a sex change it isn’t him, so who are you, lady?”

  The man that had caught her, the weasel-faced one named Vince, read the name off the driver’s license he found in her purse.

  “Sara Blake and she was carrying too, Johnny, a Glock.”

  “I’m a reporter,” Sara said. “I work for Street View.”

  Johnny R wagged a finger in front of her.

  “It’s not nice to lie. I don’
t know what you are, but you’re no reporter. You took in that pile of bodies like it was just another day at the office. Are you a cop? Maybe a Fed?”

  Sara said nothing and Johnny R sighed.

  “We’ll take her to the club and see if anybody comes looking for her, and in the meantime, we’ll give her time to think things over.”

  They went back to their vehicles and drove off; unaware that they had been watched the entire time they were there.

  ***

  Tanner stepped out from behind the burnt carcass of an old Chevy van that sat atop cinder blocks.

  He had recognized Sara and had no doubt that her presence there meant that she was still hunting him.

  Merle and Earl’s appearance surprised him, and he wondered what the brothers were up to.

  Joe Pullo had been no surprise. Pullo had worked for the Giacconi Crime Family practically since birth and he would do so until the day he died.

  He thought about Johnny R and wished that he had brought a sniper rifle along, but maybe that was for the best, with any luck, Johnny R would kill Sara Blake and save him the trouble. If so, he’d better do it soon, because Tanner planned to kill him, but first, first he would deal with Joe Pullo.

  Tanner walked past the bodies of Richie Sullivan and his crew and slipped away like a shadow at dawn.

  CHAPTER 17 - A hell of a way to start the day

  Rafe Green sent a friendly wave towards the desk clerk at his hotel, before heading out into the last of the night, to run and clear his head.

  After stretching, Rafe took off at a steady pace down West 53rd, Street. It was still dark, but dawn was lighting the eastern horizon with just the touch of a glow.

  It would be a warm day, but there was a pleasant breeze and the humidity was low.

  As he ran, Rafe thought about the previous day.

  He had gathered good Intel from talking with Merle and Earl Carter and he was almost certain that Joe Pullo and his crew were the men who had hurt his brother.

  When he returned to Johnny R’s strip club, he saw that Pullo had left, and he decided that he would return the next day and stake the place out, then, follow Pullo until he led him to the rest of his crew.

  And after that?

  He didn’t know.

  What he would like to do is kill the men for damn near killing his brother, who at last report was still in a coma.

  However, Pullo was connected to The Conglomerate, an organization that Rafe had assumed was an urban legend. But the Carter brothers said that Frank Richards was a member of The Conglomerate, Frank Richards, who was a key executive and large stockholder of MegaZenith, the corporation that owned the lumber mill his brother worked for, Reynolds Lumber.

  And then there was Tanner, reportedly a hit man who had done work for The Conglomerate, but was now at war with them.

  Tanner would be an excellent ally to have, but he might make a better patsy. If Rafe killed Pullo and his men, their deaths would be attributed to Tanner and no repercussions would befall Rafe and his family.

  He could get vengeance for what was done to his brother and head back home without having to look over his shoulder.

  Rafe was so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed the two figures moving in until they were almost upon him.

  Pullo? His mind said, but no, he could see that the men were just a couple of young punks.

  The man in front of him was black, while the one behind was white. Both men were around twenty, scruffy-looking, and carrying cheap guns.

  The black man held his weapon at his side, pressed against his thigh, his finger just outside the trigger guard.

  Dawn was still minutes away, but this was New York City and even at an early hour, there were hordes of traffic passing by, as well as the occasional pedestrian or bike rider, and pointing a gun at someone could draw the attention of an off-duty cop.

  The white man at the rear had kept his gun tucked in his waistband, but it was he and not the other man who said why they were there.

  “Give us your wallet and phone, bitch.”

  The words had just left the man’s mouth when Rafe shot his hands out, gripped the front of the black man’s shirt, and pivoting, tossed the man into his partner.

  The two fell to the pavement in a tangle of arms and legs and before they could recover, Rafe brought a foot down on the black man’s wrist, causing him to scream and release the gun.

  Meanwhile, the white man was struggling to free the gun from his waistband, but his partner had landed on top of him and trapped his arm.

  When he saw that Rafe had picked up his partner’s weapon, he panicked and caused his own gun to discharge while still in his waistband.

  “Oh God nooooo....” the man cried and a red puddle formed beneath him.

  His partner leapt up, his pants and shirt wet with the white man’s blood and after making an incoherent noise in his throat, he darted into the passing traffic, causing a cab to swerve wildly. Five seconds later, he was gone from sight as he ran down a side street.

  Rafe looked back at the man on the ground and saw blank eyes staring up at him. The man was dead just that quick.

  Dying is a hell of a way to start your day, Rafe thought.

  He took a step back to avoid the spreading puddle of blood, wiped his prints off the gun he had taken from the black man and dropped it atop the white man’s body.

  He then ran towards the glow in the east and thanked God for another day.

  CHAPTER 18 - Tasty

  Tim Jackson smiled at Madison as she came out of the MegaZenith building, while behind him, the sun rose above the East River.

  Madison returned his smile with one of her own, but Tim thought that it looked forced.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, but that Carl Reese gives me the creeps,”

  “He didn’t try anything, did he?”

  “He... touched me... one of my breasts, and after that I made sure that I was never alone with him.”

  Tim’s face darkened as his hands balled into fists.

  “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  Madison grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him, then, she gave Tim a bright smile.

  “Reese doesn’t matter, but it’s very manly of you to want to protect me, especially when he’s twice your size.”

  Tim thought about that, calmed down, and grinned back at her.

  “He probably would have broken me in half, huh?”

  Madison pulled him along.

  “I’m hungry, let’s go have breakfast.”

  Tim stopped short, causing Madison to stumble. Once she caught her balance, she stared back at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I... there are people after me and if they caught me when we were together they might hurt you too.”

  Madison moved closer and looked into his eyes.

  “Does this have something to do with my father?”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  She took him by the hand.

  “Let’s go talk. I have a feeling we can help each other and you’ve already helped me.”

  “All right, but I have a partner in this, a man named Tanner.”

  “Where is he, in hiding?”

  Tim laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “It’s just the thought of Tanner cowering somewhere.”

  “So you’re saying he’s brave?”

  “I don’t think Tanner feels fear, but then I’m not sure he feels anything.”

  ***

  In the Chelsea section of Manhattan, Joe Pullo walked towards his townhouse after parking his Hummer in the lot on the corner.

  He’d been awake all night and it was catching up to him. Johnny R told him to get a few hours of sleep, but he had to be back at the club by noon.

  By the time he realized that Tanner was sitting on his front steps, he was only ten paces from them. Tanner’s hands were empty and so Joe stifled the reflex to reach for his weapon.

  “I take
it you want to talk; otherwise we’d be trading bullets.”

  Tanner gestured at two cups of coffee sitting in a Styrofoam holder.

  “Black with two sugars, just the way you like it.”

  Pullo climbed the steps and sat beside Tanner. As Tanner picked up one of the cups, Pullo grabbed the other one, took a sip and sighed with pleasure.

  “That’s good. You got it from the diner on the corner, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, and the waitress remembered me too.”

  “So what’s up? I doubt you came here to surrender.”

  Tanner turned his head and stared at him.

  “I don’t want to kill you, Joe.”

  Pullo stared back for a moment, but then broke eye contact to take another sip of coffee.

  “I don’t want to kill you either, Tanner, but things are what they are.”

  Tanner nodded.

  “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

  They sat drinking their coffee as the neighborhood stirred to life. When a blonde jogged past them with minuscule running shorts and bouncing breasts, they both followed her with their eyes.

  “Tasty,” Tanner said.

  Joe pointed across the street.

  “That one lives over there, second floor, and she likes to walk around nude with the blinds up.”

  “Lucky you,”

  “Yeah, I check her out now and then. I must have seen over a thousand girls dance at the club over the years, but I still take a peek at that one sometimes.”

  “It’s human nature,” Tanner said. “Just like the will to survive. Take a vacation, Joe, or I’ll have to give you a permanent one.”

  Pullo tossed the remainder of his coffee into the gutter and stood, to glare down at Tanner.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? You could have made a fortune with The Conglomerate, but instead you’re going to war with them. Kill me, kill Johnny and Frank Richards too, and you know what? They’ll just keep coming, they’re national, Tanner, hell, they’re international and they’ll just keep coming until you’re dead.”

  Tanner stared up at Pullo, whose face was red with anger, but there was concern in those eyes too.

  “They wanted to own me, Joe, and no one owns me but me.”

  Pullo let out a huff and went to his front door.

  “Leave the city, Tanner. I don’t want to kill you either, but I will, goddamn it I will.”