“They finished the building yesterday. They were paving the parking lot when I left to come here.”
“It’s taken me longer than I thought it would to get that up and running, but it will be worth it. That training academy will turn out people who can work as guards anywhere. It will also give us a ready force to call on if there’s ever trouble at the ranch.”
“Which is why you built it.”
“Mostly. It’s also a good business and a growing field. If the weather turns bad and it becomes difficult to ranch, we’ll still have a source of income. It pays to be diversified.”
“Along with the money you make as Tanner.”
“That will end someday, and sooner than I’d like. But that’s where you come in, Tanner Eight.”
Henry grinned. “I like when you call me that. But I still have to pass the tests given to Tanners.”
“I don’t doubt that you will.”
Tanner spoke with Henry for a little longer and thanked him before sending him back home to Stark. Tanner took the elevator up to his floor and entered his room. He was about to call Taran to show him the equipment Henry delivered when the Japanese assassin knocked on his door.
Tanner saw the serious look on his friend’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“There has been a tragedy.”
Kate sat on a love seat inside her room. She was crying. Michael sat beside her with an arm around her to comfort her.
Tanner, along with Taran, Maxwell, Bo, and Ali, stood nearby. Kate had received news that her elderly mother had passed away. The police told Kate that her mother had fallen down the stairs in her home.
Given all the fatal “accidents” that had occurred to their old friends, Kate and Michael were assuming that her mother had been murdered. Their prime suspect was a man named Vincent Lasser.
“Why would Lasser want to hurt you this way?” Tanner asked.
Kate blew her nose into a tissue, then wiped at her eyes. “I think he wants to kill us, but he can’t find us because he doesn’t know us by the names we’re using now. When he knew us, we were going by our own names—Dennis and Cynthia Polanski.”
“And so, he’s going after your friends, and now your mother?” Bo asked. “Why does he hate you so much?”
Michael answered that. “He blames us for being convicted of murder.”
“Did you frame him?” Tanner asked.
“No! Vince was a friend and a partner of ours back then. The three of us worked as corporate spies. The way it was, let’s say one company asked us to steal the secrets of their competitor. Kate and I went to work inside the competitor while Vince spent his time wooing personal assistants or finding a higher up in the company who he could bribe. Sometimes Vince would seduce a secretary or assistant and sometimes he’d bribe someone. At other times, I would steal something from a file, or Kate could break into their computer system. This was some time back, when computers were still gaining a foothold in the business world. But the three of us made a great team, and we never failed.”
“You said this man, Lasser, killed someone,” Maxwell said. “Who was it?”
Michael and Kate sighed together.
“It was an elderly security guard,” Michael said. “Kate and I were breaking into a company’s research and development department to steal a revolutionary new product for the people who hired us. Kate had managed to disable the alarm system and cameras, then went to work on the door’s electronic lock. Everything went well at first. We got in, grabbed the files and the prototype of the new product, and we’re headed out a rear door on the loading dock. That was when one of the armed night guards, Ivan, yelled for us to stop and put our hands up.”
“Were you armed too?” Ali asked.
“No. I was a sneak, a thief, and not into violence at all. Besides, I liked Ivan. The few times I worked evenings at that company, he was always friendly and telling jokes. He was serious then though. He recognized me and Kate too. I still remember the look of disappointment in his eyes. It was like I had insulted him personally by being a corporate spy. Anyway, Ivan was marching us toward the lobby at gunpoint when we heard footsteps running up behind us. We turned to see Vince with a tire iron raised over his head. Vince hit Ivan’s gun hand and made him drop his weapon. The two of them struggled for a moment, but old Ivan was no match for Vince. Vince… he hit Ivan in the head with the tire iron, and Ivan fell to the floor. Vince’s job that night was to be our driver. He had spotted Ivan catching us as we were leaving and entered through the door that we had left unlocked.”
“The guard was dead?” Tanner asked.
Michael sighed again. “Vince said that he wasn’t trying to kill him, and I wanted to believe him, but Ivan was in his eighties. Who hits an old man on the head with a tire iron and doesn’t expect it to kill him? The three of us got out of there and went home. I didn’t sleep at all. I kept seeing Ivan lying on that concrete floor of the warehouse.”
“How did Lasser get caught?” Ali asked. “Did you or Kate turn him in?”
“We didn’t,” Kate said. “When Vince struggled with Ivan briefly, he’d left his thumbprint on this copper bracelet that Ivan wore. Vince had a record for an assault he’d committed years earlier and his fingerprints were on record. When the police brought him in, someone noticed a spot of blood on the side of his shoe. That blood matched Ivan.”
“He was convicted on that evidence?” Tanner asked.
“Yes,” Kate said. “And he never mentioned our involvement. In the meantime, Michael and I still had the prototype and the research files. We told the company that hired us to steal them that we would only hand them over if they agreed to supply us with airtight alibis for the time of the robbery. We were afraid that Vince would mention our involvement to the police to get a lighter sentence, but he never did.”
“In the end,” Michael said. “Vince was sentenced to forty years. Ivan was well-liked; he had also been an ex-cop and the father-in-law of an assistant district attorney. Vince was lucky he didn’t get life.”
“Okay,” Ali said. “I see why he went to prison and might be jealous that you didn’t, but why is he angry enough to be killing people you know? He can’t blame you for the fact that he got caught. That was his own fault.”
“We haven’t spoken to him since that night,” Kate said. “We couldn’t. If we had visited him in jail or prison it might have made the police wonder if we were involved somehow. We did hear from Vince’s lawyer after he was convicted. The man delivered a letter that Vince had written to us. In it, he said that he knew about the deal we cut with the company to supply us with alibis. Vince couldn’t understand why we didn’t make the same deal for him. Michael and I were shocked that he would consider that could have helped him. Vince had left a fingerprint on a dead man and had that same man’s blood on his clothing. No alibi in the world would have changed that.”
“We got other letters from time to time,” Michael said. “They were full of threats about telling the DA about us and our involvement, but nothing ever came of it. We were still living in Detroit back then. After we moved, we never heard from Vince again. Since these deaths started happening, Kate checked, and we found out that Vince was released on parole four months ago.”
“He wants to kill us,” Kate said. “And because he can’t find us, he’s killing people that he knows matter to us… like my mom.” Kate broke down in tears again, and Michael hugged her.
“Maxwell, I’m sorry, but Kate and I need to leave here. She wants to be with her mother.”
“I understand, Michael. And Kate, you have my sympathy for your loss.”
“Michael, Kate,” Tanner said, and they both looked up at him.
Kate wiped at tears. “Yes?”
“I don’t want to alarm you, but I think there’s something you haven’t considered.”
“What?” Michael asked.
“Lasser might want to keep killing. Who else from back then does he know was close to you at that time?”
> “We thought about that, Tanner. And there’s no one else. The son of a bitch has killed everyone we were friends with back then… and Kate’s poor mother.”
A pained expression came over Tanner, as he was reluctant to say what was on his mind, knowing how it might affect Kate, who was already reeling from a loss of a loved one. But he knew it had to be said, and that they needed to be warned.
“Lasser, did he ever meet your children?”
“Oh my God,” Kate said. “Not my babies.”
Michael and Kate whipped out their phones.
“I’ll call Ira and you call Celeste,” Michael said.
The room seemed too quiet as everyone waited to see if the calls would be answered.
Kate’s smile revealed that she had reached her daughter before she spoke. “Celeste, hi baby, it’s Mom.”
Then a look of relief washed over Michael, as his son answered. “Ira, it’s Dad.”
Maxwell tossed his head toward the door. “Let’s give them some privacy.”
In the hallway, Ali took Maxwell by the hand. “Michael and Kate are leaving and won’t be able to help tonight. Let me go through with my plan.”
“Do you know what you’re asking me to let you do? You’re like a daughter to me, Ali. It would kill me if anything happened to you.”
“I’ll be all right, Maxwell. But I’m either a full member of our team or I’m not. Don’t baby me. I’m a grown woman and I know what I’m doing.”
Maxwell stared at her, then turned to Tanner. “Will you accompany her when she tries to blend in with the abducted women?”
“Taran and I will both go with her.”
“If you even suspect that someone is wise to the fact that she doesn’t belong there, do whatever you have to do to get her out of there.”
“We will,” Taran said.
“Good luck with your plan, Ali,” Maxwell said. “And for the record, it wasn’t your fault that Vicky drugged you. She could have just as easily drugged me or Bo. You don’t need to make amends for that.”
“Ali,” Bo said.
“Yes.”
“I still don’t like you risking yourself. But go give them hell, honey. Show them that not every young woman is helpless.”
Ali stretched up on her toes as high as she could and gave Bo a kiss on the cheek.
“I plan to do just that.”
13
One Girl Too Many
When Nancie failed to call again, Arthur Collins assumed that it was because she couldn’t. He stood out on the veranda of his home and smoked a cigar while he thought things over.
He hoped Nancie wasn’t dead but feared the worst. He also had to assume that she’d been tortured into revealing their change in plans. If so, it was too late to make alterations to them at this point. It was bad enough that he’d already had to inconvenience the people coming to bid on the women by changing the auction’s location once.
Given that Nancie had been in Mexico, it would take the people who had her time to gather their resources and travel to the United States. Then again, the sniper who killed Nick might still be in America. If so, his employers might send him to Texas. In order to counter that possibility, Arthur would send three men with rifles beyond the gates to walk a wide perimeter. If the sniper approached, it would be the job of those men to kill him.
Arthur’s nieces, Emily and Karen left the house and walked up to him with worried expressions. He knew what they were going to say before they even opened their mouths.
“Uncle Arthur, why isn’t Nancie here yet?” Emily asked.
“I don’t know. I would guess that she’s either in hiding somewhere or someone has her.”
“What’s going on, Arthur?” Karen said.
Arthur frowned at Karen. He hated that she never called him uncle.
“What’s going on is plain to see. Someone has targeted us. I don’t know if they’re after revenge or want to take over our business, but I’ll find out and they’ll wish that they had never started this war.”
“What war?” Karen said. “In a war, people on both sides die. So far, we’re the only ones getting killed. Are you sure it’s safe to stay here?”
“Have you seen the guards, Karen? They’ll kill anyone who comes near us.” Arthur checked his watch. “The ship will be in port within hours. I want both of you to get the girls at the pick-up point later. You’ll need two vans and take two pairs of guards along to drive and act as security.”
“I want a gun for myself,” Karen said. “I don’t want to wind up like Regina.”
Arthur started to object but reconsidered. He knew that Karen could shoot and if he didn’t fight her on it, maybe she would be less bitchy.
“Check the bottom drawer of the desk in the office. There’s a loaded gun there.”
“I want one too,” Emily said.
“Have you ever used a gun?”
“No.”
“So why would I give you one now?”
Emily pouted and Karen laughed at her.
“Remember you two, you need to threaten the girls once you have them. Normally, you would have a day with them before they were auctioned off, but we don’t have that luxury right now. They still have to be made to realize that they can’t fight back or even speak unless they’re told to. Make them understand that if they cause us trouble that someone in their family will die.”
“We know the spiel, Arthur,” Karen said. “We’ll show them that video. The one where Nancie carved that redheaded bitch’s face to pieces. That shit should be on the internet; it would get millions of views.”
“It also keeps the girls in check. It’s one thing to threaten their families, quite another to promise that they’ll suffer deformity. Now go get ready. And when you do leave, call me along every step of the way.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Karen said, as she went back inside to get the gun from the office.
Arthur sighed. He wished that whoever had killed Regina had murdered Karen instead.
Kate and Michael had traveled with Tanner and the others to Houston before finding out about the death of Kate’s mother. With their change in plans, their new destination was over two hundred miles away in Lafayette, Louisiana, where their children lived.
Their son, Ira, and their daughter, Celeste, reported that they hadn’t had any trouble or seen anyone suspicious hanging around. Despite that, they asked their children to leave their apartments and to check into a hotel room downtown. They promised that they would explain when they joined them.
The children were less than thrilled by the requests. They were aware of their parents devious and often illegal activities and disapproved. Eli and Celeste were both lawyers, and as straightlaced as you could get.
Michael and Kate’s disregard for the law was the reason the children had, in effect, disowned their parents. It pained Michael and Kate to admit to their children that they might be in danger because of an event from their shady past.
Before parting ways in Houston, everyone wished Michael and Kate luck, and told them to stay in touch. Tanner pulled Kate aside to speak to her in private for a moment while Michael was apologizing to Maxwell for not being able to see things through to the end.
Michael joined Kate just as Tanner was walking away. “What did he say to you?”
“He said that he would help us as soon as he was done here.”
“I’ll take him up on that.”
“I already did,” Kate said.
Michael took her hand. “Let’s go see the kids.”
The rendezvous location where Emily and Karen were to meet the men from the ship was along a back road near a cemetery. There was stagnant water nearby that was giving off a pungent odor. Night had fallen only minutes earlier.
Tanner, Taran, and Ali had arrived over an hour earlier and were beginning to wonder if Nancie had lied about the location. She’d stated that it had been used by her father in the past as a place to receive cash payments or pass along drugs.
When th
ey saw the lights of a van approach slowly, they took cover behind trees and waited. It was unlikely that anyone had wandered down the road by accident, since it led nowhere and ended near the water’s edge.
Other than the glow given off by the vehicle’s headlights, there was little light. A storm was moving into the area, and thick dark clouds were blocking the influence of a full moon.
Tanner and Taran were dressed all in black with ski mask and gloves. Ali wore the white coveralls that Inga remembered being given before leaving the ship when she’d been abducted.
The coveralls were new, but Ali had done her best to make them look weathered by visiting a laundromat near the hotel and washing the garment with a gray pair of slacks. The color of the pants bled into the white fabric of the coveralls and gave them a faint gray tint that made them appeared more worn than they were. She had also neglected to comb her hair or bathe and had gone with only a two-hour nap. The garment would help her to blend in, but she couldn’t look groomed, cleaned, or well-rested. The women had been transported on a ship in horrid and humiliating conditions and were likely faint from hunger and possibly thirst. To say that they were not at their best would be an understatement.
The van stopped moving at a position that was about forty feet away from them. There were two men in the front. The driver killed the headlights but left the parking lights on. After stepping out of the vehicle, the men ordered their passengers to climb out.
Six women stepped from the rear of the van. They were all good-looking and obviously scared. And yes, they were barefoot and dressed in white coveralls like the one Ali was wearing. One of them was crying and the woman beside her placed an arm around her to give comfort. Tanner had plastic handcuffs, real handcuffs, duct tape, and a length of rope along with him in case the women had their wrists bound behind them. If they had, he would have restrained Ali in a similar fashion so that she would fit in. He was glad to see that it wouldn’t be necessary.
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