Soulless and Gwen took the bedroom on the ground floor. Elliot assumed he’d be sleeping in his own bed upstairs but was mistaken.
“You want me to sleep on the sofa in your room?”
“I don’t trust you,” Soulless told him. “That means that one of us will be watching you at all times.”
“But my bed has a special mattress. I don’t sleep well on a sofa.”
“I don’t care,” Soulless said. “We’ll also tape your ankles together, so you can’t run off.”
“You can trust me. Haven’t I been taking care of your injuries?”
“At the threat of a gun. If I didn’t have the gun, you wouldn’t have helped me.”
“I’m a fan of yours, remember?” Elliot said, lying. If Soulless knew he was actually a fan of Tanner’s, he might have killed him already.
Soulless pointed at his leg. “I’ll let you treat my injuries, fan. But don’t expect me to trust you.”
“I trust you,” Gwen told Elliot, “But Soulless is right. We should stay together. No offense, Elliot, but we can’t take any chances.”
“Okay,” Elliot said, as if he had a choice in the matter. He laid awake on the sofa for much of the night and studied Gwen as she slept, hoping to someday share a bed with her.
Dana returned home to her apartment after midnight. She’d been out on two separate dates, something she rarely did anymore. The first one had been with an older client who liked to talk to her before and after sex. She indulged him for the proper fee and arrived at a hotel around ten p.m. to meet her next client.
He was a married man in his forties who’d said that he and his wife never had sex anymore. His wife was a businesswoman who traveled a lot. When she was out of town, he would take care of his needs with call girls.
Dana wondered about the wife, who was also in her forties. Was she really avoiding sex, or just sex with her husband? Maybe she had a lover he didn’t know about. Whatever the case may be, she wondered why the couple stayed together, since they had no children, and they both made good money.
The married man talked little. He wanted sex, paid for two hours, and got his money’s worth. Along with the money for the sex, he supplied drinks, and Dana often indulged in several glasses because the man had excellent and expensive taste in wine.
She arrived home by cab still feeling a little tipsy. As she was about to open her door, a voice spoke from behind her.
“Hello.”
Dana turned and saw one of her neighbors, Mr. Kinsey. He was an old man dressed in a green robe and gray slippers. He was the quiet type and had never leered at her or asked her why she often came home late at night. Once, when she’d been down with the flu, the man had volunteered to do her shopping, and had even made her chicken soup. Kinsey was a widower and had three daughters who never visited him. As kind as the man was, Dana was sure it was neglect on their part, and not reluctance to visit because of their father’s treatment of them as they were growing up.
“Hello, Mr. Kinsey. Are you having trouble sleeping again?”
“I wasn’t until some fool began ringing doorbells a minute ago. Did you see anyone downstairs when you came in?”
“No, and I’m sorry they woke you.”
“I’ll guess I’ll drift off to sleep again, goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Dana’s plan was to take a nice hot bath before falling into bed and sleeping late. Those plans changed. After opening the door to her apartment, she hit the light switch and turned to close and lock the door, then set the alarm.
Her apartment had a small foyer at its entrance. Dana left her keys there on a table, paused to slip off the spiked heels she was wearing, then walked into her living room. To her great surprise, Tom Curry was seated in a chair by the window.
“How the hell did you find me?”
Curry didn’t answer. He wasn’t even looking at her. His eyes were on something to her left. When Dana turned her head, she gasped. There was another man, and what eyes he had. It struck Dana that she had seen those eyes before, or rather, a drawing meant to represent them. The drawing had been on the forum of that assassins website, and the eyes belonged to the killer named Tanner.
Dana dropped her shoes and handbag and turned to run back to the door. Tanner’s hand shot out and gripped her arm. Dana, a woman who spent her life in hotel rooms with strange men, had taken self-defense courses and knew karate. She made a move that broke Tanner’s grip, and he adjusted and grabbed her other arm. A knee to the groin was blocked, as was the attempt to kick a leg and knock him off-balance. Frustrated, Dana opened her mouth to scream, and Tanner clamped a hand over it.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Tanner told her. “I want information.”
Dana shook her head. Her eyes were darting wildly, expressing the fear she felt.
“I’m going to remove my hand. Do not scream.”
Tanner did as he said, while maintaining a grip on her arm, and Dana was able to speak again. She choked out three words from a throat tight with terror.
“You’ll kill me.”
“Not if you help me and tell me what you know.”
Tom Curry spoke up. “It’s true, Megan, or Dana, or whatever your real name is. He’s made me the same deal. Once we lead him to the person behind this, he’ll let us go.”
Dana looked into Tanner’s intense eyes. “You really won’t kill me?”
Tanner released her from his grip. “I won’t. But you need to give me something that I can use.”
“I don’t know much. I met with a woman who called herself Jane Smith and she hired me to contact Tom Curry and another man, Elliot Lipson. I was to convince them to hire you and that other assassin, Soulless, to, to… kill each other.”
“What does the woman look like?”
“She was tall, had angular features, dark hair, brown eyes, and she seemed aloof, cold.”
“Where did you meet her?”
“At a restaurant. I don’t remember the name, but I could find it again.”
“Put your shoes back on; we’re leaving.”
“To go where?”
“To the restaurant. And on the way there, I want you to recall every detail of the meeting you had with her.”
Dana put on her shoes, disabled the alarm, and opened her door to leave. Before shutting the door, she looked back into her apartment, wondering if she’d ever see it again.
Downstairs in the apartment house’s lobby, Curry’s man, Sean Sordillo, was waiting for Curry and Tanner to come back downstairs. He’d been out front waiting for Dana to come home when he saw his boss and Tanner enter the apartment building. Sordillo knew Curry well. He could see the tension in the man’s face and tell he was acting under duress.
Sordillo had waited for them to come out, then saw Dana enter the building later on. He was the one who had woken up Dana’s neighbor, as he rang random doorbells until someone buzzed him inside.
Whatever was going on, he figured that Curry was in trouble. Sordillo didn’t have a gun, but he had a long, sharp knife. He planned to use it on the man he’d seen with Curry and free his boss.
He was standing by a wall of mailboxes pretending to be a tenant when the elevator doors opened, and Curry stepped off with Tanner and Dana. As they drew closer, Curry spotted him, looked startled, and said his name.
“Sean?”
Sordillo had already turned with the knife. As he thrust it at Tanner, Tanner grabbed Curry and pulled him in front of him. Sordillo’s blade sank deep into Curry’s chest and severed an artery leading to his heart. Curry made a croaking sound and collapse to the floor, as he did so, the blade made a horrid sucking sound as it slipped from his body.
“No! Shit no,” Sordillo cried, as Dana screamed. Tanner took out a gun and shot Sordillo in the head, then grabbed Dana by the arm and lead her out of the apartment house.
Henry pulled up at the curb in the van they had rented. They had switched the out of state license plates for a van with Illinois p
lates that matched its description. If anyone recorded the license plate number, it would lead them to the owner of that van, and not theirs. Tanner hustled Dana into the rear of the vehicle as he followed her in.
Henry looked back at Tanner. “I heard a shot. Did Curry try something stupid?”
“He had a friend waiting for us. Probably the same man who was following Dana here. They’re both dead.”
Henry took off, and asked Tanner where they were headed.
“That’s up to the lady. She’s taking us to a restaurant.”
Dana was trembling. “You killed Tom Curry, and that other man.”
“Wrong,” Tanner said. “I used Curry as a shield when his friend tried to stab me, then I killed the friend. If I hadn’t been attacked, Curry would still be alive. Help me as much as you can, Dana, and I promise I won’t hurt you. Hiring Soulless to kill me wasn’t personal for you, but it was for the woman who hired you. She went to a lot of trouble to set this up. I need to find her and end this.”
Dana composed herself and gave Henry directions. Tanner told her to tell him about her meeting with the mystery woman, and that no detail was too small to mention, including what they ordered or drank. Dana proved to have a good memory once she’d concentrated, and she recalled the name of the restaurant before they reached it.
It was still open, but at such a late hour, only the bar was active and was serving a limited menu. When Tanner said they were going inside, Dana wondered why.
“You don’t expect her to be in there, do you?”
“It’s possible you’ll spot her, but the main reason is because my friend and I are hungry.”
“Oh,” Dana said. “By the way, what should I call your friend?”
“Call him Eight,” Tanner said, and Henry grinned.
They went inside, with both Tanner and Henry wearing caps with long bills. There were likely cameras over the bar. The hats would help to keep their faces hidden.
Tanner and Henry ordered cheeseburgers and French fries. Dana was too nervous to eat but ordered a drink to sooth her nerves. She took out her wallet to pay and Tanner waved her off and tossed money on the bar.
“Thank you for the drink,” Dana said.
Tanner nodded, then told her to look over her right shoulder. “There’s a man staring at you. Do you know him?”
Dana looked and the man smiled at her. He was a young guy in designer jeans wearing a tight shirt that showed off his muscular body. He was seated at a table with two more like him and one of the servers who was still in uniform. Dana didn’t know the man, but there was something familiar about him, then it hit her.
“He works here. He was our waiter that night. He was leering at me then too, which is unprofessional.”
“Wave for him to join us.”
“What? Why?”
“The woman might be a regular here. If she is, maybe he’ll know her name.”
“Oh,” Dana said. She turned in her seat again, caught the man’s eye, and smiled. That was all it took. After saying something to his friends that made them laugh, the man rose from his seat and sauntered over to the bar.
“Hi, I remember you. You were in a private booth the last time I saw you.”
“Right,” Dana said. “Do you remember the woman I was with?”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t hot like you.”
“What was the woman’s name?” Tanner asked. “Do you know?”
The man looked over at him. He’d been leaning on the bar casually as he talked to Dana. He straightened up after taking in Tanner’s gaze.
“I don’t know her name, but she comes in once in a while. Why do you ask?”
Tanner held up five one-hundred-dollar bills. “This is yours if you can give us that name. And don’t think you can make up a name. If that happened, I’d find you and get my money back.”
The guy was staring at the money. “You’re serious? Five hundred for a name?”
“That’s right.”
The guy held up a finger. “Hold on. One of my friends might know her.”
Before he could move off to ask his friends, Dana told him the date of when she was there with Lorraine. “If she paid with a credit card, you might have it on record somewhere.”
“Yeah,” the guy said, “and only so many people use those private booths more than once. Don’t worry. I’ll get you that name.”
He returned to his friends and they began talking. When the woman in the server’s uniform said something, one of the other men at the table nodded in agreement. The guy came back over.
“Cindy says her name is Lorraine Monk. Cindy’s brother used to work as a security guard for her, until the bitch fired him.”
Tanner nodded and handed over the money. He knew of Lorraine Monk, and that she was Gavin Monk’s sister. He’d had no indication she had desired to avenge her brother’s death, but it made sense.
The truth was that Romeo had been the one to kill her brother, Tanner had made that possible by killing the men Gavin Monk had hired to protect him. Tanner left the restaurant with a full stomach and the name of his true enemy. Once he found her, Lorraine Monk would be reunited with her brother, in death.
20
Arrivederci
Lorraine Monk had been drifting off to sleep the night before when a thought occurred to her. While she was unknown to Tom Curry and Elliot Lipson, and Dana had no way of knowing her name, Paul Mills had known everything. It was possible that Tanner had tortured the man and made him talk before killing him.
Unable to sleep, Lorraine had gotten up and paced around her apartment. If Tanner knew about her, he could be on her doorstep at any minute. She dressed and left the apartment, then drove aimlessly as she thought about what to do.
When an idea came to her, she pulled the car over and went through the contacts on her phone. The man who answered sounded groggy.
“It’s 1:38 a.m. This better be good.”
“Mr. Wilkinson, this is Lorraine Monk. I apologize for waking you at such an hour, but I have an urgent request and I’m willing to compensate you handsomely for your trouble.”
Wilkinson could be heard clearing his throat. “Miss Monk. Is something wrong?”
“An acquaintance of mine died earlier today, or I suppose it was yesterday. I need to know how that man died, and if he suffered.”
Wilkinson owned a large private detective agency that had offices in six states, including Ohio. Lorraine’s security company did business with Wilkinson on a regular basis, and in an amount of over two million dollars a year. Lorraine figured he could find out how Mills died. If the man was tortured, there would be evidence of it on his body.
Lorraine gave Wilkinson the pertinent information and he promised to call her back as soon as he had the info she needed.
Nearly four hours later, Lorraine was watching the sun rise over Lake Michigan at a secluded spot off a highway. Wilkinson called her back.
“I’m sorry to report that your friend experienced a rather gruesome death.”
“He was tortured?”
“No. They think he came into contact with the blades of a helicopter… the top of his head was missing, sheared right off. You can take solace in the fact that he died quickly.”
Lorraine took more than solace from the news. She felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her. Paul Mills had been the only one who could have told Tanner about her, but there was no possibility he’d done so, given his swift demise.
“Thank you, Mr. Wilkinson. I’ll expect a hefty invoice for inconveniencing you and costing you sleep.”
“Nonsense, ma’am. This one was on the house. And I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I appreciate that, and I’ll be calling you soon. Monk Security has just signed on with a Fortune 500 tech firm, and they’ll need someone reliable to run background checks on their new hires. I’ll make certain that your company is the subcontractor on the account.”
“Thank you, ma’am. And have a good day.”
“I will,” Lorraine said. And it was true. Despite the devastating loss she’d suffered in her failure to kill Tanner, she felt grateful she wasn’t at risk of losing her life.
She left the shoreline and walked to the parking area to get back into her car, a Cadillac XT5. After starting the engine, she tuned the radio to an oldies station that played music from the seventies. When she looked up after adjusting the radio, she saw a man and woman walking toward her. She guessed they were a pair of early risers coming to the lake to welcome the new day. They were less than forty feet away and moving at a swift pace. The man was doing something with his hands, and Lorraine saw that he was screwing a cylindrical object onto something else. She gasped when she realized that something was a gun.
The woman pointed at her. She was familiar. She was Dana Roberts. When Lorraine studied the man and saw his penetrating eyes, she knew it was Tanner.
“No! God no,” Lorraine said. She shifted the car into drive and crushed the gas pedal with her foot. The vehicle lurched forward and picked up speed until the engine was revving wildly.
Lorraine released a manic laugh. She was going to do what so many others had failed to do. She was going to kill Tanner.
Tanner saw Lorraine’s intent, waited until the last instant, then shoved Dana to one side while leaping the other way. The car missed them, but just barely. Lorraine brought the car to a hard stop, jammed it into reverse, and went after Tanner. Tanner had transitioned into a shoulder roll after his leap. He was standing up when Lorraine’s car hurtled at him again. Once more, he leapt aside at the last instant, then rolled and came up into a shooting position while on one knee.
Soulless (A Tanner Novel Book 43) Page 20
