The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set) Page 28

  Tanner made a grunt of dissatisfaction.

  “So the son of a bitch is still out there, all right, now, what about today? What’s the story at Burke? There’s very little on the Internet about it.”

  Sara smiled.

  “You can thank Thomas Lawson for that. Burke called him after you left. A short time later, there was a platoon of federal agents on the scene. They were from Homeland Security.”

  “I take it that certain things are being swept under the rug?” Tanner said.

  “Absolutely, and local law-enforcement and the Press aren’t happy, but Burke’s wet works program will stay a secret, at least for now. And... Jake Vincento’s body was found in New Jersey. He had been tortured.”

  “He must have found himself in over his head with whatever contract he’d been sent to fulfill. Amateur assassins don’t last very long.”

  ***

  When they walked over to the jeep, they found Alexa asleep in the passenger seat, with moonlight illuminating her face.

  Sara whispered. “She had a rough day; Deke being injured was very upsetting to her.”

  “Yes, I noticed that,” Tanner said.

  Sara made a face of apology.

  “I wasn’t trying to insinuate anything; it was just an observation.”

  “I understand, and it is what it is.”

  “One more thing, Mr. Burke asked me to tell you that he was in your debt, and that he would show his appreciation.”

  “What’s that mean, he’ll shoot Sloane Lennox?”

  Sara laughed, and then covered her mouth, as Alexa stirred in her sleep. When she looked back at Tanner, she saw that he had moved close enough to embrace.

  Sara gazed up into his eyes.

  “Yes?”

  “You saved Alexa’s life. That places me in your debt... Sara.”

  “Sara?”

  “Yes, unless you prefer that I keep calling you Blake?”

  “No, Sara will do fine, and perhaps someday you’ll tell me your real name?”

  Tanner stared back at her.

  “Maybe someday.”

  FIRE WITH FIRE

  By

  REMINGTON KANE

  CHAPTER 1 – There goes the neighborhood

  Tanner opened the front door of his home in Killburry and stepped out onto the porch with Alexa at his side.

  The new neighbors were going at it again, or rather, the new neighbor, as it seemed that the husband did all the yelling.

  They were the McGurns, Bart and June. Bart McGurn was a big man with heavy jowls and a perpetual cigar in his mouth. His wife, June, was a petite woman with delicate features. Since the McGurns moved into the neighborhood a week earlier, Tanner had seen those delicate features with more than one bruise marring them.

  The bruises always appeared after Bart had one of his yelling fits.

  The McGurns were getting into their car. The driveway was three houses down and to the left of Tanner’s. Bart McGurn was towering over his wife and going on and on about how she should have had the cable TV hooked up by now. He kept asking her how she expected him to watch the Yankees play when the damn cable still wasn’t installed.

  Tanner liked baseball as much as the next man, but didn’t think that missing a game or two was a reason to act as if the world was ending. He looked around and saw that more neighbors were coming outside to watch the show, and, Tanner suspected that a show is exactly what it was.

  He couldn’t say why he believed that, since McGurn’s anger seemed real enough. But there was just something about the way he ranted, combined with the meek way his wife, June, cowered before him.

  Both husband and wife would take surreptitious glances around, as if they were gauging the effect that they were having on their neighbors.

  “That man is an asshole,” Alexa said.

  “Yes,” Tanner said. “He certainly seems to be, doesn’t he?”

  The four men that formed the neighborhood watch group began gathering near the front of Tanner’s house. Two of the men lived to the right of Tanner, while the other two had homes on his left.

  The four huddled together as their leader, George Tucker, pointed at the bellowing Bart McGurn. They came to a decision and marched towards McGurn as one.

  Being just past the dinner hour, it was too early in the day for the fearsome foursome to have donned their official neighborhood watch outfits. However, being a force of four against McGurn’s one gave them a sense of courage.

  Tucker disturbed McGurn in the middle of a tirade about how the dry cleaner didn’t get the stain out of one of his shirts. How that could possibly be the fault of his wife, McGurn didn’t elaborate on.

  When McGurn spun around and saw his four neighbors, he scowled at them, then, he charged at Tucker while waving his arms and screaming at the top of his lungs.

  “You four faggots better stay the hell away from me if you know what’s good for you.”

  The neighborhood watch members retreated while making threats to call the police, and spoke about McGurn disturbing the peace.

  McGurn had moved closer to Tanner’s home during his charge. When he saw Tanner and Alexa looking at him, he pointed at Tanner.

  “What are you staring at, Myers?”

  Tanner smiled.

  “My guess, a bit of bait perhaps?”

  McGurn’s look of anger receded for a moment to be replaced by a look of worry. Then, the rage came back as he gritted his teeth around his cigar and rushed towards Tanner. If he had expected Tanner to retreat like his other neighbors, he was disappointed, and soon they were standing face to face atop Tanner’s porch.

  “Are you trying to be smart, Myers?”

  “How do you know my name?”

  “What?”

  “I never introduced myself to you and I doubt you sit around and gossip with the other neighbors. You spend all your time yelling at your wife.”

  Again, the look of worry entered McGurn’s eyes. He pointed a finger at Tanner.

  “Just mind your own goddamn business and we won’t have a problem.”

  McGurn sped back down the steps and towards his car. In his absence, his wife had gotten into the passenger seat. McGurn climbed behind the wheel, started the engine, and gunned his vehicle into reverse to back out of his driveway.

  As they watched their newest neighbors leave the cul-de-sac along the tree-lined road, Alexa took Tanner’s hand.

  “What was that you were saying before about bait? Do you think that McGurn is up to something?”

  Tanner looked around again, his confrontation with McGurn had drawn attention to him, something he didn’t need.

  Josie Anderson was looking at him from her porch on his left, and she sent him a wink.

  “The way you stood up to that loudmouth was hot, Tom. I guess we know whose is bigger, hmm? The thing I want to know is, how big?”

  Tanner felt Alexa’s grip on his hand grow tighter. He said, “Ignore her,” to Alexa, then turned to go back into the house. After shutting the door, he smiled.

  “I’m not sure our new neighbor is what he seems to be.”

  “What do you mean?” Alexa said.

  “I smell a whiff of cop scent every time I see him, and that scene in the driveway, it’s just too loud, too public.”

  “You think he’s a cop?”

  “Maybe, maybe a private cop, but I also know that Chief Ellison would like to find the vigilantes operating in town. He thinks that they’re the neighborhood watch group.”

  Alexa laughed.

  “Maybe the chief is right and the watch group wears ninja costumes under their bright yellow shirts.”

  Tanner laughed along with her. He then stepped closer and touched Alexa on the cheek.

  “It’s good to see you laugh. You’ve been down since that attack on the Burke Corporate Campus. You’re worried about Deke too, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I’m concerned about the infection he’s developed in his lungs. He survived being shot three times, and now m
ay die from a germ.”

  “You care about him. I knew that, but I think your feelings run deeper than you realized.”

  Alexa hugged Tanner.

  “I do care for Deke. He also saved my life before Sara saved it. If he hadn’t thrown that meat cleaver, I’d be dead.”

  Tanner broke free of Alexa and searched her eyes.

  “Are you happy?”

  Alexa looked confused for a moment as she seriously considered Tanner’s question.

  “Yes, and no. I’m happy when we’re here together like this, but it fills me with dread to think that you’ll be going off somewhere soon where you’ll be risking your life. I do not look forward to waiting for you to return and I doubt I’ll sleep well while you’re gone.”

  “Nothing is in the works right now. Conrad Burke has enough on his hands trying to get the main building of the campus up and running again. Those neo-Nazis nearly wiped out his security force.”

  “Are you still going there tomorrow?”

  “Yes, would you like to come along?”

  “No, Tanner, that building holds bad memories for me. I thought that I was done with killing, but I was pulled right back into it.”

  “I did ask you to wait in the jeep, and I wished that you had. Thank God Blake arrived in time to help.”

  “Don’t you mean, Sara? I heard you call her that for the first time the other day. Have things changed between you two?”

  “She saved you, Alexa. She knows what you mean to me and it would have been a fitting revenge against me to let you die.”

  “Oh God, I never thought of that. Was she ever that hateful towards you?”

  “Possibly, in the past. But now I see that she really has moved on, and so I’ll trust her and we can start over fresh.”

  “Will Sara be at Burke tomorrow?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Invite her here and we’ll all go out for dinner. We owe her at least that much and it would be nice to look at someone who isn’t a neighbor.”

  “Yeah, living on a cul-de-sac is a little stifling. The only traffic we seem to get are people making a wrong turn as they head for the park.”

  “Why don’t we go to the park? I feel like walking,” Alexa said.

  “All right, we’ll do a bit of people watching too.”

  “Just don’t watch that Josie Anderson.”

  “She’s a little hard to miss, and, our next door neighbor.”

  “If she keeps coming on to you, I won’t miss, I can promise you that.”

  Tanner and Alexa headed towards the rear of their house, where they could pass through a gate in their yard and enter the park.

  CHAPTER 2 – Uncle Mike

  Not everyone had such easy access to a park as Tanner and Alexa.

  Burt Hodges had driven to Riverside Park in Hartford from his home in Killburry. He was there to talk to his Uncle Mike. Mike Hodges had been partners with Hodges’ father back when they ran a small, but highly profitable criminal empire in Killburry.

  Mike Hodges had gone away for twenty years on a murder charge stemming from an incident in a bar fight. Mike had left prison an older and wiser man and had vowed to his daughter that he would stay clean.

  Because of that, Burt Hodges had lost touch with his uncle, but he remembered the man his uncle was, and knew that his Uncle Mike was a killer at heart. Burt thought that he might have need of a killer since he was risking all to gain much more.

  Choa’s cousin, Adán, had called and said that a member of The Brotherhood’s ruling council would come to Killburry to see the properties that Hodges owned. If they were acceptable, they would hammer out a deal.

  Hodges reminded Adán that the only deal he wanted would include giving him a seat on The Brotherhood’s council. Adán said that he understood and had relayed that. Everything would depend on what the council member, a Mr. Chang, said at the meeting.

  If things went well, and Hodges forged an alliance with The Brotherhood, there would be no worries, but if they double-crossed him, he would want revenge. His Uncle Mike would dish out that revenge, or so he hoped.

  He had arrived in Hartford later than he thought he would and found that his uncle had taken the grandkids to the park. Burt’s cousin, Sheila, had a boy and a girl. The boy was twelve, while the girl was nine.

  Hodges spotted the kids running around near the lake and looking up at the sky. He only recognized them because he had just seen pictures of the two. Sheila had spoken to him for a few minutes while he was at the house and there had been photos of the kids in the room.

  The children were gazing up at the sky. An old man sitting on a nearby bench was using a controller to direct a toy drone.

  Hodges followed the children’s gaze and was surprised by how high the drone was. The old man had a deft touch, and he was making the drone do maneuvers and zoom around. Then, the drone dived and came straight at Hodges. It lost altitude at such a fast rate that Hodges had little time to react. He soon found himself looking at the buzzing toy that hovered only a few feet away from him.

  Hodges turned his head to speak to the old man and ask him what was up, and that was when he realized that the old man sitting on the bench was his Uncle Mike.

  Fuck, he got old, Hodges thought, as his Uncle Mike gave him a wink.

  Mike sent the drone soaring up high and then handed the remote control to the boy.

  “You got it, Jack?” Mike asked.

  The little boy grinned.

  “Yeah, I know how to do it. I just still have trouble landing it.”

  “Well, you keep it up there while I go talk to your cousin.”

  The little girl pointed at Burt Hodges.

  “He can’t be our cousin, Grandpa; he’s too old.”

  Mike laughed.

  “He’s still your cousin, sweetie. Now stay close to your brother; Grandpa will be right over here on the other bench.”

  Hodges greeted his Uncle Mike with a handshake followed by a hug. The hug was shocking, as it revealed how thin and fragile the old man felt. Hodges figured that his uncle couldn’t be more than sixty-five or so, but he looked ten years older. His wrinkled face brought to Hodges’ mind memories of his grandfather, who died while Hodges was still a kid.

  “How’s Dexter doing, Burt? I haven’t seen that boy since he was about the same age that Jack over there is now.”

  “He’s okay, but I have to keep him in line.”

  “He sounds like you when you were a kid,” Mike said, and then he studied his nephew. “So what’s with the visit?”

  Hodges was going to lie and say that he just got to thinking about the family and decided to touch base. He scratched that idea as he looked into his Uncle’s eyes and saw that Uncle Mike was still there, he was just covered in old.

  “It’s about this group calling themselves The Brotherhood, Uncle Mike. They’re up and comers and I’m thinking of joining them.”

  “I take it that this group is not a Christian organization, despite what the name might suggest,” Mike said.

  Hodges grinned.

  “Ah, not exactly, no.”

  “Burt, I don’t know why you came to see me, but I’m going to give you some advice. Stay away from this Brotherhood gang and keep your nose clean. Believe me, boy, you do not want to spend your life rotting away in a cell like I did. You sure as hell don’t want that for Dexter.”

  Hodges leaned in and whispered.

  “If this works out, I’ll be somebody, the way my dad was. Uncle Mike, I’m so damn sick of being nobody. That’s what I don’t want for Dexter.”

  Mike sighed.

  “I gave you my opinion, but why did you come to see—” Mike stopped talking as he noticed that Jack was attempting to land the drone. The red and white miniature aircraft had four propellers, as well as an onboard camera that allowed its operator to have an aerial view of their surroundings.

  Young Jack had crashed the drone once before while attempting to land it, which was why Mike had told him to just k
eep it in the air. But, instead of yelling at the boy for disobeying, Mike just observed. When the drone landed in the grass smoothly, he began clapping.

  “That a boy, Jack. See, you got the hang of it, now take her back up.”

  The drone rose smoothly and Hodges and his uncle watched it ascend skyward.

  “Those things are cool,” Hodges said. “I would buy Dexter one, but I’m trying to get him to grow up and learn to run things, not play with toys.”

  “Is that why you’re here, Burt, to tell me what a big shot you’re going to be?”

  “No, that’s not why I’m here. I came here to see my Uncle Mike; the toughest man I ever knew.”

  “Hah! Oh Burt, that dude is dead. He had the toughness beaten out of him by prison guards and the other inmates. All I want now is to be Grandpa to those two kids over there.”

  “Yeah, I can see that, but I thought I could use you as a last resort.”

  “A last resort? I don’t get it.”

  “The Brotherhood might play rough with me and... I might not make it. There’s also a guy named Tom Myers who’s connected to New York and Joe Pullo. He and I might tangle too.”

  Mike smiled.

  “Joe Pullo? Wow, there’s a name I haven’t heard in years. Is he running things now?”

  “Hell yeah, he runs New York, at least he does until The Brotherhood heads his way.”

  “I’m not surprised that Pullo is top dog. Back when your father and I had that dust-up with Sam Giacconi, we had a meet with him and a couple of his men. It shocked the crap out of me when I saw Pullo. He was just a kid, no older than Dexter, but you could tell that he was no boy, you know? Anyway, Giacconi and your father don’t get along see, and it looks like the shit is gonna hit the fan.”

  “What happened? I never heard this story.”

  “Giacconi had a fat guy with him, um Rossi? No, Rossetti, Al Rossetti. He and I were eyeing each other, and then I see him go for his gun. All of a sudden, Joe Pullo grabbed Rossetti’s wrist and shook his head, telling Rossetti to cool it. Then, Pullo started talking to your father, you know, to calm things down. Twenty minutes later, we had a deal in place and everybody got to go home in one piece. If not for Pullo, I don’t know what would have happened. So yeah, I’m not surprised that he’s sitting at the top of the heap.”