Red walked around the bar to get a refill of soda, but ducked out of sight when Gina Rossetti walked off the elevator. When Gina spotted Tanner, she went over and sat beside him.
“Hello, Mr. Tanner, it’s nice to see you again.”
“Same here.”
Gina smiled.
“If even half the things I’ve heard about you are true, you’re an interesting man.”
“It’s all lies,” Tanner said, as he wondered if the girl was flirting with him.
Gina placed a hand on his arm.
“You have unusual eyes. Are there any other parts of you that are unique?”
“Yes, but it’s not as easy to see as my eyes.”
Gina’s own eyes drifted downward, to stare at his crotch. Tanner realized that Gina Rossetti was no innocent when it came to men.
“Hmm, maybe I’ll get a look at this other body part someday.”
“Why not now?” Tanner said.
Gina’s smile became lopsided.
“Right here?”
“Sure.” Tanner opened his mouth and pointed at a back tooth. “See that, I have an extra molar on that side.”
Behind the bar, Ivanov was smiling, but Gina stared at Tanner with an odd look.
“Are you making fun of me?”
“No.”
“I was just being nice to you.”
“I know.”
“I heard something else about you, that you’re dating my brother’s old girlfriend.”
“Correct.”
“I never met her. What’s she like?”
“She’s as beautiful as you are, and smart too.”
“Mrs. Pullo doesn’t like her.”
“I know.”
Gina smiled again.
“Laurel likes you… maybe too much.”
“We’re friends.”
“Um-hmm,” Gina said while standing. She held up a key fob for a luxury car. “Look, Joe gave me this. Can you believe he gave me a car?”
“He and your brother were close. Joe thinks of you like a niece.”
“I know. It’s sweet. See you, Tanner.”
Gina walked out. As soon as the door closed, Red peeked over the bar.
“She’s gone?”
“What was that about?” Ivanov asked. “I thought you and Gina were dating?”
Red grew sullen.
“I caught her cheating on me, but I haven’t talked to her about it yet.”
“Oh,” Ivanov said, while sharing a look with Tanner. Both men knew that a boy like Red could never keep a girl like Gina.
“I saw them kissing in front of a club as I sat in traffic last night. I was driving my mom’s car, not the limo, so Gina didn’t notice me.”
“Did you know the guy she was with?” Ivanov asked, as he leafed through a ledger.
“No, maybe you know him. I got it on my phone… and I can’t stop looking at it. I really thought she liked me.”
Red showed Ivanov a video of Gina kissing a man on the street, beneath a green neon sign. The man was about her age and handsome.
“I’ve never seen him before,” Ivanov said.
Red placed the phone on the bar and sighed.
Right before the video ended, Tanner glanced at it. He was holding the phone an instant later.
“Play that again, Red.”
“You know the guy, Mr. Tanner?”
“Just do it.”
Red said, “Yes sir,” and brought the video up again.
“What’s wrong, Tanner?” Ivanov said.
Tanner stared at the phone, and yeah, he knew the man in the video. It was Liam Murphy.
Gina ran up to the first car in a line of three that were parked inside a building that had once been a paint store.
The front area was empty and waiting for a new tenant to come along. In the rear, atop the concrete floor of the storeroom were parked three bland cars that wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention. However, under each hood was a powerful engine. The men in the warehouse had driven the cars up a ramp at the loading dock before sending in their spy.
Liam Murphy was leaning back against the first car with over a dozen men around him.
“Are they both in there?”
Gina kissed him, then spoke.
“Joe Pullo is up in his office, but Tanner is sitting at the bar on the left, near the stage.”
“Who else is in there?”
“I saw the one they call Bosco, and that Mexican man, Rico, oh, and the manager and some kitchen workers are there too.”
Liam smiled.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, Sammy Giacconi is out of town.”
“Hear that, boys? It’s our sixteen to their four and some civilians. This shit won’t take a minute.”
Gina smiled as she held up the key fob she had shown Tanner.
“Look, Pullo gave me a car I could use. Do you believe that? That’s how clueless he is.”
Liam smiled.
“What did you have to do to earn that, crawl under his desk?”
Gina laughed.
“He doesn’t think of me that way. He thinks I’m still the girl he knew when I lived here.”
“Another old-school fucker, just like my father, but his day ends today. Listen up, boys! It’s time to lock and load, and remember, that asshole Tanner is mine.”
Gina kissed Liam as she pressed herself against him.
“Go get this city for me.”
Liam winked.
“We’ll rule the bitch mother like a king and a queen.”
19
Chirp! Chirp!
Joe watched the video of Gina Rossetti kissing Liam Murphy, and felt like throwing Red’s phone across the room. Tanner, Ivanov, and Red were in Joe’s office along with Bosco and Rico.
“The bastard is using her,” Joe said.
“Maybe,” Tanner said, “But she was using Red.”
Joe looked up from the phone.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Gina was seeing Red in secret. I think she was pumping him for information, so that she could pass it on to Liam Murphy.”
Joe looked over at Red, and the kid seemed close to tears.
“You and Gina were dating?”
“Kissing, only kissing, Mr. Pullo. She wouldn’t let me, I mean… we only kissed.”
Tanner clamped a hand on Red’s shoulder and spun him around to face him.
“Did she know that I would be driving the white van the other night?”
Red had trouble getting the words out as Tanner pinned him with a stare, but he managed a stuttering reply.
“I… I, yes, we talked about things, and I, I mean, she’s okay, right? She’s like one of us?”
Tanner released Red and pointed down at the club.
“Liam Murphy could come through that door at any moment with a small army. Thanks to Gina, he knows how many of us are here.”
Joe looked back down at the phone. The video was playing on a repeating loop. The short film was proof that Johnny Rossetti’s sister was involved with Moss Murphy’s son.
“They must have met in college. They both went to school in California.”
Rico took out a cell phone from his pocket.
“I can have my crew here in no time.”
Joe tossed Red’s phone back at him, and the kid fumbled it.
Tanner was thinking things through as Rico talked to one of his men and told him to call others and rush to the club. When Tanner spotted a sales brochure laying beneath a key fob that matched the one Gina had shown him, he plucked it from the desk and held it up.
“Joe, is this for Gina’s car?”
“Yeah.”
“I have an idea.”
Sammy arrived in New Orleans. He was surprised by how much warmer the weather was there than it had been in New York City.
He picked up a car in the airport parking lot that had been left for him by members of the New Orleans mob. It was not a favor, but an arrangement that cost money
. The vehicle came with a silenced gun that had been stored away in the trunk. The gun and the car were untraceable.
If Sammy needed to do so, he could abandon the car, if not, he would return it to the airport.
He was wearing a set of gloves, to not leave fingerprints. The gloves were translucent and thin, allowing the wearer to maintain their dexterity. They were almost invisible, as the wearer’s skin tone could be seen beneath them.
Using a throwaway phone, Sammy called the old woman who had snitched on Ricky Valente. The woman answered on the third ring in a tone that gave away her wariness.
“Hello?”
“I’m calling to confirm that the man from New York City is still your neighbor.”
“What? Oh, wait, I know what you mean. Yeah, he’s still here.”
“You’re certain?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good, you’ll be contacted again soon.”
“And the money?”
“You’ll get paid.”
“Finally, some good luck.”
Sammy ended the call. Snitches were helpful from time to time. That didn’t mean he had to like them. The next thing you knew, they’d be snitching on you.
Before leaving the airport, Sammy input the address of the trailer park into the car’s GPS. Ricky was living in a nearby community named Metairie. Once Sammy had the directions for the short trip, he placed the car in gear and headed for I-10, determined to make the day Ricky Valente’s last.
Miles away, Victor Fenner winced as the lock he was picking opened with an audible click. The lock was on the door of Ricky Valente’s rented motorhome.
Ricky was asleep in a recliner, after having dozed off while watching sports and drinking beer.
Fenner crept inside and closed the door behind him, but kept a gun pointed at Ricky. A pair of shoes hung by their laces around Fenner’s neck. While on Fenner’s feet were women’s sneakers, unlaced, so that Fenner could squeeze into them. The sneakers were white and clean, but would soon be soiled by blood.
Ricky slept on. He was oblivious of Fenner’s presence, and as he dreamt, Ricky dreamed of being free on a South American beach, while surrounded by hordes of beautiful women.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to die.
Back in Manhattan, Liam Murphy strutted in front of his men like a general addressing troops. The men were all muscular and many looked as cocky as Liam. Each man wore a bulletproof vest and had a handgun in a hip holster.
Their main weapons, consisting of shotguns and rifles, were in the cars they would use, along with a ski mask for each of them. Their young eyes were filled with a lust for violence and their pockets bulged with ammo.
“Listen up! We’re going to make history today by pulling some bold shit. These old-school Mafia assholes have gotten lazy and fat. Unless somebody with some balls takes over, the street gangs will roll over us and we’ll have nothing. I ain’t going to let that happen. Uh-uh, I’m keeping what I got. But I want more, hell yeah, a shitload more, and we’re all gonna run this whole damn country before I get through. Are you with me?”
There was a unanimous shout of agreement.
Liam punched the air with a fist.
“We kill everything in sight, but remember, that fucker Tanner is mine.”
Gina grabbed Liam and kissed him for luck. In return, he patted her on the ass.
“Get going and I’ll meet you back at my apartment.”
“Be careful.”
Liam laughed.
“Baby, I’m the future. You don’t ever have to worry about me.”
One of the men was pulling hand over hand on the chain that would manually raise the loading dock door on the left side of the building, as the others opened the doors of their vehicles to climb in.
When a car alarm sounded from the rear of the building, everyone turned to look that way.
“That’s my car,” Gina said. “Is someone breaking into my car?”
The alarm stopped abruptly, to be followed by something that sounded like, Chirp! Chirp! Next, they could hear an engine start up.
“Someone is stealing my car!”
Liam drew the gun from his holster and strode towards the metal door at the rear of the building.
“Somebody’s got bad timing.”
The men who had been ready to get in the cars drifted behind Liam, thinking they would see a show as their boss shot a would-be car thief.
When they filed through the door in the rear, they were disappointed, because no one was in Gina’s car.
Gina pressed a button on her key fob and the engine cut off.
“Damn. The automatic start must be defective.”
Chirp! Chirp!
The vehicle’s brake lights flashed, followed by the car starting again.
Gina stamped her foot.
“What the hell! It’s a new car.”
Gina hit the button again, and again the engine cut off.
Liam waved a hand at the car.
“You’ll get it fixed in Boston, right now, we got a city to take.”
The men returned inside and walked toward the cars. The first man who saw Tanner standing in the open doorway of the loading dock bay came to a dead stop, causing the man behind to bump into him.
“Shit,” the first man said.
Tanner was holding one of their rifles and pointing it at the group. As several of the men reached for the guns on their hips, they heard shotguns racking. Joe Pullo and Bosco were on their left side, with shotguns propped up atop a short concrete block wall that separated the warehouse section from the restrooms. To the right, Rico Nazario and Tamir Ivanov knelt at the rear of a similar wall, behind which, lay an office area.
The men were caught in a crossfire with Tanner at their front. The bulletproof vests they wore would do nothing against shotgun blasts to the face.
Liam was the last one inside, after leaving Gina at her car. He had failed to see Tanner, as the bodies of his men blocked his view, nor had he noticed that his men had stopped walking. After locking the back door by sliding a metal bolt in place, Liam turned and was dismayed by what he saw.
“Why are you all just standing around?”
“Because they want to stay alive,” Tanner said.
Liam had reached his men. He leaned around them to look at Tanner. When Joe cleared his throat, Liam jumped, as his head jerked left. After seeing Pullo with a shotgun, one of his own shotguns, pointed at his face, Liam hung his head, then peeked to his right and saw Rico and Ivanov.
“Don’t be stupid, Liam,” Joe said. “Or we’ll kill every one of you.”
Liam raised his head, sighed, then laughed, as he moved toward Tanner.
“The thing with Gina’s car, that was you bastards?”
“There’s an App that helps you locate your vehicle if you forget where you parked it. I’d say it was worth every penny Joe paid for it,” Tanner said.
Liam laughed again, took a deep breath, and dived into a car whose passenger-side door was sitting open. One of his men moved to join him, but had the back of his head blown apart by a blast from Rico’s shotgun. Meanwhile, Liam’s other men kept shouting, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” with their hands thrust in the air.
The engine of Liam’s car roared to life as Tanner sent a shot into the windshield.
“You won’t make it out of the loading dock, Liam.”
The front tires were blown to pieces as Liam put the car in gear.
Bosco blew out a rear tire of Liam’s car, as Ivanov did the same to the other rear tire. A horrible squelching sound came as Liam turned the steering wheel, and the car lurched backwards, while drifting to the right. Despite riding on two rims, the vehicle’s powerful engine caused the damaged car to pick up speed.
Joe sent a blast into the side of the car as it went by him in reverse, while headed for the front of the building. Shotgun pellets blew out the side window and punctured the door, but none of them hit Liam, who was down low and mashing a hand onto the
gas pedal.
The car smashed into the wall that separated the warehouse from the front counter area, plowing through the gypsum panel and aluminum frame while bucking and bouncing. It kept on going, and even picked up speed, as it blasted through the glass display window at the front and smashed into a parked car.
Liam was out of the wreck in a flash, gun in hand, and headed toward the nearest car in a line of vehicles that were stopped at a traffic light. The gray-haired woman inside was gawking at Liam, as was everyone in sight. Liam sent a shot through the window. It missed the woman, but shattered the glass, and Liam unlocked the door.
In her fright, the older woman had taken her foot off the brake, and her car bumped the one in front of it. Liam yanked her out of the car by the hair and got behind the wheel. The cars in front sped off as the light changed, and Liam followed them, but at the first cross street he headed left.
Tanner stood inside the ruined display window of the defunct paint store and watched the car drive out of sight. The rifle he held was powerful, too powerful to risk taking shots at a fleeing car in a crowded city.
Even if he’d hit Liam, the round might have kept going and killed someone else.
Tanner went back inside the warehouse, where Liam’s soldiers were all looking rather worried. Joe had ordered them to drop their weapons on the ground and back up against a wall. They were fifteen in all, and not one of them was older than twenty-two.
“Whatever we do with these guys, we’d better do it soon,” Tanner said. “The cops will be here any minute.”
Bosco laughed at them.
“Any of you punks ever see those pictures of the St. Valentine Day’s Massacre? The Tommy guns they used really made a mess of those guys.”
One of the men gasped, while another shut his eyes and mouthed a prayer.
Pullo was looking at them with murderous intent as he spoke to Rico.
“Lay your shotgun down there beside the guns, Rico, but wipe your prints off first.”
Rico raised an eyebrow as he pondered the reason for the order, but did as Joe said.
Afterward, Joe spoke to the Irish thugs.
“Any of you dumb enough to be carrying a wallet on a hit?”
As it turned out, they all had wallets. They held them out to Joe.
Manhattan Hit Man (A Tanner Novel Book 18) Page 11
