Tanner- Year Two Read online

  “Oh, that’s too bad,” Carla said. “I really want to spend time with a man, and you’re so cute.”

  “I could come back later.”

  “I don’t think I can last that long. I’m really lonely, if you know what I mean.” As Carla spoke those last words, her hand strayed between her legs, and she rubbed herself.

  Trevor felt saliva fill his mouth as his arousal heightened. He took a seat while never taking his eyes off Carla’s moving hand.

  Carla stood, walked over to Trevor, and stared down at him. “Will you stay with me?”

  Trevor nodded. As he did so, he brought up his hands and placed them on Carla’s hips.

  “You’re so beautiful.”

  She smiled down at him. “You’re going to have a lot of fun.”

  Carla hadn’t lied. By the time the pizzas in his car had grown cold, Carla had made Trevor very happy that he had stayed with her. When the pizza shop owner called and asked him where the hell he was, Trevor laughed at him, said, “I quit,” and went back to enjoying what Carla was doing to him.

  The owner of the pizza parlor had been furious when he hung up the phone. His name was Gary, and when one of his employees knocked on the office door, he snapped at the pimply kid.

  “What do you want?”

  “There’s a guy out front looking for a job as a delivery driver; I told him we weren’t hiring right now, but he keeps saying he wants to talk to the owner.”

  Gary left his office and went out front. It was a busy night for a Tuesday and that damn Trevor was screwing him over by quitting in the middle of a shift.

  The guy at the counter who was looking for work was young, but he had a set of intense eyes that made him seem older. Gary motioned him to come behind the counter, then he had the man follow him back into the office.

  He said his name was Steve Gordon and that he could start work as soon as Gary wanted him to.

  “How well do you know the area?”

  “I have a GPS in my car, so I can get anywhere fast.”

  “My last guy just quit, and I have three pissed off customers and have to tell people I can’t get their pies to them as quickly as usual. My other guy is trying to fill in while doing his own area, but it slows things down. I sent one of the counter workers out with a few nearby orders, but I still need a guy. Could you start tomorrow?”

  “Why not tonight?”

  “Tonight?”

  “Yeah?”

  Gary looked at Steve Gordon for a moment as he considered, then he passed over an employment application.

  “Fill that out and we’ll see how you do, Steve.”

  An hour later, Steve Gordon, who was also known as Tanner, was out delivering pizzas. The next time the guards at Eli Ippolito’s compound ordered from Gary’s Pizzeria, Tanner would be the one making the delivery.

  3

  Suspicion

  Eli Ippolito’s compound was located within the Mojave Desert, near an old cinder mine. The home was over five thousand square feet and surrounded by a twelve-foot-high stone wall. The only visible entrance was the front gate. It was made of thick iron bars and could be opened by hand and rolled aside on a trio of wheels.

  Someone guarded the gate night and day as another armed man walked the perimeter of the wall at irregular intervals and kept watch on the cameras. They worked in pairs, with each of the three teams doing 12-hour shifts, while the head of security, Brandt, oversaw everyone. That had the men working days during one shift and nights during another but also gave them a full day off between shifts. It was a tough schedule. However, considering there was no heavy lifting involved, it was far from taxing work. In fact, the men had to fight a sense of boredom at times, particularly during night shifts.

  Tanner read the notes made by his predecessor and was impressed by the detail in them. Whoever the man had been, he’d been a professional. Tanner wondered what plan he had come up with to gain entry inside the compound. Whatever it was, it had failed, and the creator of the plan was buried somewhere in the desert.

  Tanner had been working at the pizza parlor for two weeks and Ippolito’s guards had yet to order pizza. That likely meant that Brandt hadn’t left the compound during that time.

  Tanner was impressed by Brandt as well. The man had taken a group of inherently lazy gang members and turned them into an elite group of guards. At least, they behaved that way when he was present. When the man wasn’t around, they relaxed the protocols he had in place and did something that they were certain was a harmless act—they ordered some pizza.

  According to the notes, the guy delivering the pizza, the lucky Trevor, was never allowed inside the gate and another guard was summoned from the house to come get the pizzas.

  Once the second guard arrived, Trevor was patted down and had his vehicle searched for weapons. The guards were thorough, and Trevor also had to flip open each pizza box to display the contents. Both guards were armed and there was a possible third guard watching it all take place on a video monitor. For Tanner’s plan to work, he would have to wait until the gate was opened and then take out the two guards.

  Tanner hoped that the second guard was the man watching the cameras. That seemed likely, as two men worked each 12-hour shift. Why involve a third man who was off duty just to take a delivery?

  Still, he couldn’t count on that being the case and had to be prepared to face off against all six guards once he engaged the two at the gate. Anyone watching his attack on camera would trigger an alarm and alert the other guards.

  Once the two men at the gate were disabled or dead, Tanner could use one of their weapons to kill the others. This would all have to be done swiftly. Too much time would allow Eli Ippolito an opportunity to escape.

  Tanner had no proof that the meth kingpin had another way out of his desert fortress other than passing through the front gate. But common sense told him that a man as wily and shrewd as Ippolito wouldn’t back himself into a corner with no way out.

  Tanner had to reach the man before he had a chance to flee. To do that, he figured he needed to kill the six guards in less than three minutes. And in less than two minutes if an alarm went off.

  The call came in from the compound during the third week of Tanner’s stint as a pizza delivery guy. Three pizzas, four bottles of soda, and an order of onion rings.

  Tanner stopped on a quiet stretch of road near the compound and changed his clothes. Instead of his usual black slacks and dark long-sleeve shirt, he put on a pair of cut-off blue jeans and a tie-dyed T-shirt. A cap went on his head that had a drawing of a cannabis plant, and sunglasses hid his eyes. When he pulled up to the gate, he’d have heavy metal music playing loud on the radio.

  He was hoping to give the impression that he was laid back and not the least bit threatening. Just a stoner working as little as he could to get by. With his costume on, Tanner drove the rest of the way to the compound.

  As Russo told Tanner, the compound’s head of security was a man named Brandt. He was a former Army MP who started his own security consulting business and wasn’t particular about whom he worked for, as long as he was paid well.

  Since taking the position with Eli Ippolito, the training and discipline Brandt had installed in Ippolito’s crew had proven to be priceless. Several assassination attempts had been thwarted and the compound was gaining the reputation of being an impregnable fortress.

  What Russo didn’t know, and Tanner was unaware of, is that Brandt had four aces up his sleeve. They were friends and old army buddies of Brandt’s that were a sort of reserve unit. They had been called on seldom and were responsible for doing random checks on the terrain surrounding the compound. The last such check had uncovered the assassin who had been hired prior to Tanner.

  The man had planned meticulously but was done in by the unexpected. On the night he had chosen to invade the compound by slipping over the wall, Brandt’s friends had been out in the desert watching him. That man had died from a bullet to the back of the head.

&nbs
p; The four reserve guards were Brandt’s trusted friends – Sal, Julio, Henry, and Conleth. They were in their late thirties, except for Conleth, who was only twenty-eight.

  Brandt housed the group in a home on the other side of the desert. Given how seldom they had to go into action, the job was the easiest any of them had ever worked and paid well.

  Henry wasn’t crazy about guarding a drug dealer, but he needed the money and also had something to prove to himself. He’d frozen on his last assignment in the army and was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had taken the job guarding Ippolito so that he’d be forced into conflict. He figured his condition could be cured by facing it, like someone getting back on a horse after being thrown from the saddle.

  In the one skirmish he’d been in, he had frozen and cowered behind a wall. The others hadn’t noticed, and Henry had recovered and joined them after the shooting and death-dealing had ended. He vowed to himself that he would do better next time, while praying there wouldn’t be a next time.

  Brandt pulled up in front of the house and Sal came out to greet him. Sal had dark hair, was newly divorced, and glad to be out of the army. He had joined at eighteen with the goal of being able to retire with a pension after putting in twenty years. Once he’d done it, he returned home and drove himself and his wife crazy. Having nothing to do was boring and he and his wife agreed that they no longer had anything in common. His wife remained in Texas and Sal headed to California after Brandt called and asked for his help. He still did little, but he was doing it with his old army buddies and having a good time.

  Brandt stepped out of his car. After shaking hands, Sal asked Brandt how things were back at the compound.

  “It’s been quiet ever since you took out that guy who tried going over the wall at night.”

  “Yeah, but we’re talking about the mob; they’ll send someone else out to kill Ippolito sooner or later.”

  “We’ll be ready for them,” Brandt said.

  Henry was taking a nap in his room, while Julio and Conleth were playing checkers in the living room, where a baseball game was on TV. They both grinned when they saw Brandt, and Conleth glanced behind him.

  “Damn, I was hoping you’d bring that blonde girl Daisy around to visit.”

  “She’s a cook and housekeeper, not an escort,” Brandt said.

  “She’s one hot piece is what she is, and that southern accent drives me wild,” Conleth said.

  “Daisy is spoken for; she’s hooked up with one of the guys back at the compound.”

  “Lucky bastard,” Conleth said, as he pushed back a length of his long hair. He’d let it grow since leaving the army. That was not a concern for Julio, who was going bald.

  “How is that ragtag bunch of misfits doing, Brandt?” Julio asked.

  “I haven’t had any disciplinary problems lately, although I doubt they’re keeping all my rules.”

  “They’re a bunch of punks,” Sal said. “It’s amazing you were able to organize them at all.”

  Brandt shook his head in disagreement. “If they screw up, it’s their asses on the line. Once they understood that truth, they were willing to listen to me.”

  Conleth laughed. “Yeah, but you’re not there now. I bet they ordered in a bunch of call girls and cocaine.”

  “I don’t doubt they relax things a bit while I’m gone; that’s just human nature, but they’ll still be on their guard.”

  At the compound, no one had requested hookers and blow be delivered, but many had a craving for pizza. The man guarding the gate was in his twenties, with a beard and a shaved head. When he spoke to Tanner, he revealed a Mexican accent.

  “What happened to Trevor, the old pizza delivery guy?”

  Tanner shrugged. He had been allowed to get out of the car then instructed to turn around while lifting up his shirt. The guard, Tony, wanted to make sure there were no weapons tucked in Tanner’s waistband.

  “I never met Trevor, man,” Tanner said in a spot-on imitation of his friend, Romeo’s surfer dude voice. “I’ve only been doing this gig for about three weeks.”

  The guard picked up a walkie-talkie and spoke to someone in a low voice that Tanner couldn’t make out. When not one guard, but three emerged from the house, Tanner wondered if he had done something to trigger concern in the gate guard.

  The gate was opened and two of the men walked toward him. One was the gate guard, while the other was a guy in his thirties with a stocky build and a red face.

  The red-faced man stayed back a few feet with his hand resting on his gun. The two men at the gate stared at Tanner; one of them was holding a shotgun and held it pointed at the ground. The gate guard, Tony, checked out the car, then opened the pizza boxes.

  When he returned holding the pizzas, he was smiling. “He’s cool, Franco; pay him.”

  The stocky man, Franco, reached into a side pocket and brought out money. It was enough to cover the food along with a good tip.

  Tanner made a show of looking at them with a lop-sided grin, then pointed at the house. “Who lives here, a celebrity?”

  “Something like that,” Franco said. “What’s your name, kid?”

  “I’m Stevie, and you guys tip good, thanks.”

  “See you around, Stevie.”

  Tanner nodded and returned to the car. Now was not the time to hit Ippolito. They had been expecting the usual pizza delivery guy. When Trevor hadn’t shown, their radar went off and they prepared for an attack. No, let them get used to seeing ol’ laid-back Stevie. A little patience on Tanner’s part could mean the difference between success and failure. That translated to life or death.

  If Tanner attempted to kill the four at the gate he might succeed, but better odds would be his in time. He drove away from the compound resigned to having to wait for his chance. He still had faith in his plan and was determined to make it work.

  At Tanner’s request, he and Russo met at the bowling alley again. Tanner wanted to let Russo know that the hit was taking longer than planned, and why.

  “You got balls driving up to the gate that way, and even if there’s only two guys next time, you’ll still be outgunned and have no weapon.”

  “I can handle two of them with ease, four would have been pushing it, especially considering that they were on alert. I’m thinking I might have a play next time, or it could take another two tries, but they’ll consider me harmless soon and drop their guard. Once that happens, I make my move.”

  “My boss isn’t happy with how long this is taking, but I’ll explain it to him. I don’t know why, but I think you’ll pull it off.”

  “Ippolito will die; it’s just a matter of time,” Tanner said.

  4

  Monica

  When he wasn’t delivering pizzas in the evening, Tanner was preparing for the aftermath of the hit. There was a chance he would need to flee across the desert on foot. If that happened, he wanted to make certain he would be ready for the long hot trek.

  He hadn’t trained under desert conditions since his early years as an apprentice. Thinking back on those days brought on a smile. They had been some of the most grueling days he’d ever spent, but they had shown him what he was made of and revealed he was far more capable than he’d imagined.

  His current training wasn’t as arduous, and he already possessed the mental toughness needed. Another attribute bestowed upon him by his early training was wisdom. Tanner understood that he needed to prepare for contingencies in case his attack on the compound failed.

  He was in fantastic condition and didn’t doubt he could outrun and outlast any of the guards if he were forced to flee across the desert. Despite that, he knew how debilitating desert conditions could be.

  In the weeks leading up to his encounter at the gate, he had traveled out into the desert at night. Tanner had stayed beyond the point where a guard with a scope might spot him yet had still gotten close enough to see the compound’s security lights.

  He buried sealed containers of water, food, and
medical supplies in three locations. He hoped to never need them, but due diligence could be the difference between life and death.

  When he wasn’t delivering pizzas or preparing for an attack, Tanner often spent time with a woman he’d met at a restaurant. She was a waitress named Monica. Monica was twenty-one, widowed, and had a two-year-old son. Her husband had died while in the army.

  While Monica worked long hours at the restaurant, her only family, a grandmother, stayed with the baby. Tanner liked Monica and found her wise beyond her years. They both knew their relationship wasn’t going to turn into a romance. Tanner thought romance was the last thing Monica wanted. She had been widowed and celibate for over a year until Tanner came along. The dark-haired beauty was lonely, and Tanner had come into her life at the right moment.

  While they spent most of their time inside Tanner’s motel room, they did visit a local club and caught a movie twice. Tanner had made it clear that he would be moving on before long and Monica had looked relieved.

  “You don’t want to be tied down with anyone, do you?” he’d asked her.

  “I had that kind of closeness with my husband; losing him hurt so much that I never want to risk that again.”

  Tanner understood that sentiment. He had lost the woman he loved and couldn’t imagine ever falling in love again. The pain of losing loved ones was a familiar agony, one he’d had to experience too often during his short life.

  Monica’s son was named after his father, Thomas. Tanner thought the kid was big for a two-year-old. Little Tommy had come along with them on an outing to a fast food restaurant and seemed happy when his mother gave him the toy that came with his kid’s meal. The toy soon had to be taken away as Tommy insisted on trying to eat it along with his food.