The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set) Page 17

  He was a Tanner, and although he hoped to someday pass on the name of Tanner to someone else, that day was far in the future. He loved what he did because of the challenges it presented, and what greater stakes were there than life and death?

  Alexa had needed Tanner to help her defeat Alvarado, but it was Cody Parker she wanted to share her life with. Tanner understood that they were heading towards a turning point in their relationship. One of them would have to give up something if they were to continue to stay together.

  He had no intention of walking away from his life as Tanner, and certainly didn’t expect Alexa to sacrifice her happiness and needs to appease him. He had hoped that by agreeing to settle down in Killburry that they had come to a compromise that they could both live with. Instead, it only served to highlight the differences and attitudes that were tearing them apart.

  Tanner sighed inwardly. He had always believed that love was a trap for fools, and still believed it, but had come to see that it was also as inevitable a fate as death. All that lived, died, and all that lived, loved, even if that love was only love of self.

  He came to the realization that he had fallen in love with Alexa only to have it followed by the conclusion that they likely wouldn’t last.

  Tanner was not a man much influenced by emotion, but the thought of having to part from Alexa hurt him deeply, and in the recesses of his mind, he felt a depression gathering that reminded him of the darkness he had lived in after his family had died.

  “Tom?”

  Tanner snapped out of his rumination and sent Anna Vitale a smile.

  “I’m sorry, I guess I was daydreaming. Did you ask me a question, Anna?”

  “I just commented on how good Alexa looked holding a baby, hint hint,” Anna said. She was a tall woman with long dark hair and a runner’s slim body.

  Tanner forced a smile.

  “I know that Alexa will make a great mother someday.”

  “She will, and don’t wait too long. I know I wish I had started having children sooner. They’re such a blessing.”

  Bill Vitale came out of his house, which sat to the right of Tanner’s home. He was carrying his two-year-old son, Billy Jr.

  Vitale was hairy, dark, and thickly built. He said hello and sent a wave, as he headed towards his wife’s car, which contained the children’s car seats. Bill drove a pickup truck that had the name of his construction company painted on the side of it. He was in business with another neighbor on Tanner’s right, George Tucker.

  Anna took the baby from Alexa and smiled.

  “We’ll see you two later, and don’t forget to get busy making those babies. We can use more children in this neighborhood.”

  Tanner and Alexa said their goodbyes and then waved after Bill tooted his horn at them, as he drove away.

  “Cody... I mean Tanner, I want to say that I’m sorry for pressuring you earlier. I really don’t want to be one of those women who get together with a man and then spend all their time trying to get him to change.”

  “Apology accepted, and I’m sorry if I ever led you to believe that I wasn’t who I am. I’m a Tanner, Alexa, and there’s a lot that comes with that.”

  “I understand, really, I do, and I know that buying this house and moving here with me was a huge adjustment for you.”

  “Yes, but why did you ask for this when what you really wanted was to move back home to Mexico?”

  Alexa grinned shyly.

  “I thought that it would be too much to ask.”

  “I don’t have to work with the Burke Corporation. I could develop contacts in Mexico.”

  “But you would still be a Tanner, still living a dangerous life?”

  “Yes.”

  “And if I asked you to give up that life, would I be asking too much?”

  “Yes Alexa, you would be.”

  They were quiet, but when Tanner looked over at her a few moments later, he saw that Alexa was wiping away tears.

  She stood and moved quickly towards the front door.

  “I need to make dinner.”

  Tanner watched her go, knowing that she was coming to the same conclusion that he had.

  They were not going to last, despite the fact that they loved each other.

  And again he felt it, that depressive darkness.

  “Fuck love,” Tanner hissed, and then he drained the rest of his beer.

  CHAPTER 8 – Hankey-pankey?

  Sara entered the bedroom where her grandmother was propped up in bed and watching TV. The old woman had been asleep earlier, and so this was Sara’s first chance to visit with her.

  Her Aunt Grace escorted her into the room and spoke to Sara’s grandmother.

  “Mom, look who’s come to visit, it’s Sara, she’s one of Lily’s girls. You remember her, right?”

  The old woman looked at Sara for just a moment and then turned back towards the television.

  “That’s not Lily, but she does favor her.”

  Aunt Grace sighed, then whispered to Sara.

  “She is a bit foggy at times, but try to have a nice visit. Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes.”

  Sara took a seat by the bed as her Aunt Grace left the room. The game show her grandmother was watching seemed inane, and Sara wondered if being exposed to such banality on a daily basis wasn’t a contributing factor to her grandmother’s dementia.

  In any event, it was nice to see the old woman again, and Sara had fond memories of visiting her in the days when she and her sister Jenny were just little girls.

  Sara took out her phone and thought about sending Tanner a text to warn him about the possibility that Scallato could be someone he already knew. Despite what Durand said, and regardless of her past association with Tanner, they had built up a degree of mutual trust, and she saw no benefit to destroying it.

  She wondered what she would feel if Scallato killed Tanner. Would it make her happy?

  No, it wouldn’t. Despite what she told Durand, she had come to like Tanner, and at times, she felt that he liked her as well.

  “Don’t fall in love with a bad man.”

  Those words were spoken by Sara’s grandmother, and they startled her. She looked up from her phone to find her grandmother staring at her.

  “Hi Grandma, it’s me, Sara.”

  “Little Sara? You’ve really grown up.”

  “Yes, um, what was that you said before, something about a bad man?”

  Her grandmother’s blue eyes were the only thing about her that still looked young, and they sparkled with mischief.

  “I fell in love with a bad man once. I couldn’t help it, and oh how I hated him when we first met.”

  Sara put her phone away and sat back in her seat. Her late grandfather had been a Los Angeles police detective. He had joined the force after returning home from World War II as a decorated hero. That meant that her grandmother had a life that Sara had never heard about, and she wanted to hear more about the “bad man.”

  “You must have been very young when you met this bad man. If I recall, you were only nineteen when you married Grandpa.”

  “Yes, I was young, and a minister’s daughter too, but I couldn’t resist the bad man, and do you know something else?”

  “What Grandma?”

  The old lady blushed, looked around the room, leaned in, and whispered.

  “Bad men make the best lovers, and the badder they are, the better they are.”

  Sara’s grandmother tittered, and then she went back to watching her television as if she had forgotten that Sara was there.

  “What was the name of this bad man, Grandma?” Sara asked, but she received no answer, and her grandmother was once more in her own world.

  Bad men make the best lovers, and the badder they are, the better they are.

  Sara considered those words and smiled.

  Alexa must be one very happy woman.

  ***

  On the contrary, Alexa was not a happy woman, and she and Tanner had eaten their dinner
in near silence, as the weight of their earlier conversations had darkened the mood of both of them.

  After eating, they had gone for a walk in the park, where they strolled along hand in hand, but rarely spoke.

  Hoping to make conversation, Tanner asked Alexa who she was talking to on the phone earlier, and when she hesitated in answering, he wondered why.

  “Is it a secret?”

  “No, I was talking to Deke. I just didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

  “I don’t have a wrong idea about Deke. He wants you, Alexa, but he’s also not asshole enough to try to break us up.”

  “Deke and I are just friends, Tanner.”

  “Yes, you’re friends, but he still wants you.”

  Alexa shrugged.

  “He’s attracted to me, but he’s never acted on it. You don’t have to worry; you know?”

  “I do know that, because I know what kind of woman you are. You would never sleep around behind my back or keep secrets from me and—”

  Tanner stopped talking in mid-sentence, because he had seen something flash across Alexa’s face, even as her hand tightened on his. He stopped walking, causing Alexa to do the same.

  “Why are you staring at me?” she asked.

  “I think you do have a secret. Does it involve Deke?”

  Alexa broke eye contact and looked down.

  “Yes.”

  Tanner led her over to an empty bench, and once they were seated, he spoke.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  Alexa looked up and shook her head.

  “It’s nothing like that, no...what’s the phrase, hankey-pankey? But, I did lie to you, and I’m sorry.”

  “What did you lie about?”

  Alexa went on to tell Tanner about the trouble she and Deke faced while they were traveling to and from the museum they had visited together several weeks earlier.

  When she reached the part where Deke had admitted to killing nine men, Tanner told her to go over it again, and in greater detail. Alexa did so, although her information was secondhand, because she had been unconscious at the time Deke was killing the men that had attacked her.

  “Why did you keep this from me?” Tanner asked.

  “I don’t really know, but I feel better now that I’ve told you. You’re right, there shouldn’t be any secrets between us.”

  “I agree, and I want you to tell me something else. Are you attracted to Deke?”

  Alexa hesitated for just a moment before saying, “Yes, just as you’re attracted to Sara.”

  Tanner smiled.

  “Blake is a beauty, yeah, but no, I’m not attracted to her, not in an emotional way. Can you say the same about you and Deke?”

  “I like him, Tanner, yes, but I love you, and so nothing will ever happen between me and Deke.”

  “Hmm, I guess I owe him now. It sounds like he saved your life in Pennsylvania.”

  “Are you going to mention it to him, that I told you what happened?”

  “I’ll have to think about that,” Tanner said.

  ***

  When they returned home, Alexa reminded him that she was spending time with the neighborhood women that evening. She was speaking of the wives of the four men who made up the watch group. While their husbands did their thing, the wives took their own time out each week.

  There were three teenage sisters who lived at the last house on the left and they were excellent babysitters. Using their services to have their children looked after allowed the wives to have a little time for themselves whenever necessary.

  The four women, Anna, Louise, Tina, and Josie, had asked Alexa to join them for a friendly game of cards.

  Tanner had been sitting on the front porch and drinking wine when Alexa left the house to go to the home of Darren and Louise Garston, which was two doors down on the left.

  “Watch out for yourself over there. Those women may be card sharks,” Tanner said.

  Alexa grinned.

  “They might be, there’s something going on between them, I sense it whenever they all get together.”

  “Maybe they’re actually witches.”

  “That Josie is, and the witch wants you.”

  “Try not to knife her tonight, okay?”

  “I told you earlier that I wouldn’t lie again, so I can’t make that promise.”

  Tanner kissed her, and then he watched as she walked over to the Garstons’ house, and was soon let in.

  Tanner sat on the porch in the quiet neighborhood and sipped his wine. As he drank, he thought about Deke. When he came to a conclusion about the man, he hoped that he was wrong, because if what he believed was actually true, he would have to kill Deke.

  He had just taken out his phone when he saw the headlights of a car moving down the street. He assumed that the car was driven by someone coming to see one of his neighbors, but no, after the ugly man behind the wheel scrutinized the house numbers, he pulled the car up in front of Tanner’s home, #6 Gentry Court.

  The ugly man was also big, and his scarred face betrayed the fact that he had lived through a fire. The man from the passenger seat was average, but he had the aura of a cheap hood, and Tanner understood that he was looking at Burt Hodges and one of his pet goons.

  Tanner walked down the steps and stood before the men.

  They both looked him over with surprise registering on their faces.

  They were reading him as well as he had read them, and he wasn’t at all what they’d been expecting.

  The ugly man spoke to his boss without taking his eyes off Tanner.

  “I was wrong. This ain’t no do-gooder.”

  Burt Hodges chuckled.

  “Yeah Choa, I can see that.”

  Tanner let out a great sigh.

  “You’re Burt Hodges, the local tough guy. This other man works for you and you thought that you would come and give me some grief about how I roughed up your kid, right? Here’s a piece of advice, don’t even think about it.”

  Hodges opened his mouth to speak and Tanner held up a hand.

  “Listen, normally I’d be happy to play this out to its natural conclusion, but not here. Do yourself a favor, Hodges, return home and give New York City a call.”

  “What?” Hodges said.

  “This is Connecticut, that means you’re connected to Joe Pullo. Call Pullo and ask him if it’s a good idea to annoy a man named Tom Myers.”

  Hodges cocked his head.

  “You’re a made man?”

  “Just go make that call. Believe me, it will save you a world of grief.”

  Hodges and Choa stared at Tanner, and then they looked at each other. Without saying another word, Hodges turned and got back in the car. Choa followed and climbed behind the wheel. After they each gave Tanner another look, they drove off and out of sight.

  From two doors down, Alexa called to Tanner. She had come out onto the Garstons’ porch with the rest of the women she was there to play cards with.

  “Tom, is anything wrong?”

  Tanner smiled.

  “Not a thing, that man and his friend just needed directions. I told them what they needed to know.”

  “All right, and I’ll see you later.”

  “Have fun,” Tanner said.

  He walked back up the stairs to enter his house. As he opened his front door, he took out his phone to call Sara Blake, but to his surprise, it rang. After checking the caller ID, he smiled and answered the phone.

  “Hello, Blake.”

  CHAPTER 9 – The pause that refreshes

  Burt Hodges was sitting in his office, inside his home, and was slowly placing the receiver back on his landline phone.

  He had the look of a man who had just been told that the soccer ball he’d been about to kick was actually a bomb.

  He had been speaking to Joe Pullo, a man he knew slightly and who was the leader of the New York area mobs. The drugs Hodges sold came through New York, and it was only with their permission that he was allowed to sell at all.

>   Pullo didn’t elaborate, but he told Hodges that he had dodged a bullet, and that if he had pushed Tom Myers around he would be dead.

  “You must have caught him in a good mood; either that, or he didn’t want to make trouble in that town.”

  “Is he a made man, Mr. Pullo?”

  “No, but he’s my friend, understand?”

  “Yes, sir, I understand. Thank you for your time.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Choa and another man, a young Black man named Tony, were in the office with Burt. Tony was a pimp, and it was his job to keep Hodges stable of call girls in line and productive.

  After Hodges hung up the phone, Choa raised an eyebrow.

  “Myers has juice with New York?”

  “He’s a personal friend of Joe Pullo.”

  “Shit, what are you gonna to do? He still broke Dexter’s wrist.”

  “I’m not stupid, Choa. I’m gonna let it go. That damn kid of mine, he nearly screwed me up good. And why isn’t he here yet? The lawyer should have bailed him out by now.”

  “Dexter is out,” Tony said. “He’s been here and gone. He was picked up by those two brothers he’s always hanging out with, Pete and Rocco.”

  “Damn it, he’s probably out getting shit-faced with those two dumb bastards.”

  “Do you want us to go find him and drag him back here?” Tony asked.

  “No, let him have his fun, but I’ll tell you something, it will be the last good time he sees for a while. As soon as his wrist heals, I’m gonna put him to work on cutting the grass on all my houses, and I’ll make him do it all summer.”

  Choa nodded his approval of the idea.

  “A little hard work will be good for the kid.”

  Tony frowned at him.

  “What would you know about it? You never worked an honest day in your life.”

  Choa grinned.

  “I said it would be good for Dexter, as for me, I’ll stick with breaking bones for a living.”

  Tony laughed. He arranged the dates for the call girls via the Internet and made sure the head whore did her job by keeping the girls clean and healthy. But Choa was called in on the rare occasion a customer got out of line. Tony had seen the Salvadoran in action, and knew that Choa literally made his living by breaking bones.