Manhattan Hit Man (A Tanner Novel Book 18) Page 3

  “You caught me off-guard by being with a mobster, although, I shouldn’t have been, you always did like the bad boys.”

  “Is that a yes? Will you meet with me and Tanner over drinks?”

  “I’ll go you one better and invite you two to dinner, but it will have to wait a week or so. Jake’s in DC for several days, then he has to attend a training seminar in San Diego. I’ll be going with him to San Diego.”

  Sara grinned.

  “Dinner it is, and thank you, Jenny. It means a lot to me that you’re willing to accept Tanner.”

  “The man saved my life. I can at least be polite to him.”

  Sara leaned back in her seat and sighed.

  “Breaking this news to you went better than I thought.”

  “There’s a reason for that.”

  “What reason?”

  Jennifer reached across the table and took Sara’s hand.

  “You look as happy as I’ve ever seen you.”

  Sara gave a little shrug.

  “I’m in love.”

  “With Tanner,” Jennifer said, and the words were laced with astonishment.

  5

  Meanwhile, Back In Killburry

  Sammy entered an apartment in the East Village that was a few blocks away from Tompkins Square Park.

  The apartment belonged to Ricky Valente. After knocking several times, Sammy tried the doorknob and it turned. The door had been left unlocked.

  Sammy reached inside and flicked the lights on, as his other hand took out his gun. The apartment looked normal. There was a matching sofa and love seat, a coffee table, and a large TV bolted to a wall. In the bedroom, Sammy came across evidence that Ricky had fled.

  The closet door sat open and there were gaps along the rod that held Ricky’s clothing. In the bathroom, toiletries were missing, such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant. The apartment’s tiny kitchen had a sink filled with dirty dishes and cups, while the garbage can overflowed with trash.

  Perhaps Ricky always lived like a slob. Then again, maybe he saw no point in cleaning dishes and emptying the garbage since he knew that he was leaving and never coming back.

  Sammy checked the building’s underground parking garage and found Ricky’s car, a small green Ford he used to make collections. That meant he was smart enough to leave the city in something different, a vehicle that the Giacconi Family wouldn’t be able to track.

  Before leaving, Sammy broke into Ricky’s mailbox in the lobby. The mailbox was one among thirty-six brass rectangular slots and had Ricky’s last name adhered to it on a red label. The building didn’t have a doorman, but it did have a camera in a corner of the ceiling. Sammy severed the wire that powered the camera and used a screwdriver he’d taken from Ricky’s car to pop open the mailbox.

  After emptying the contents of the mail slot, Sammy walked out of the building and returned to his car. He drove until he found a parking space, pulled over, and began going through Ricky’s mail.

  It consisted mainly of bills, but there were two notes from the building management. Ricky hadn’t been paying his rent and was on the verge of facing legal action.

  Ricky had stopped paying his bills because he knew he wouldn’t be around to face any flack that came from being a deadbeat. This told Sammy that Valente’s decision to steal from them hadn’t been made on the spur of the moment, but had been planned far in advance. Chase Rawlins’ huge payment just made the timing more advantageous.

  Sammy grabbed his phone and checked the file that held the list of payments Valente would have collected during the day. The list was encrypted and the names were indecipherable without a code key, but the amounts they owed could be figured out by moving each digit two spaces to the left and multiplying by seven. Sammy wrote down the numbers on the back of one of Valente’s unpaid bills and came up with a total.

  $348,800.00

  That was how much Ricky Valente had run off with. It was also the amount of money he would die over. Sammy planned to track Valente down, and once he did, Ricky Valente would learn that you don’t steal from the Giacconis.

  Sammy lowered the passenger window on his car, leaned across the seat, and dropped Valente’s mail in a trashcan. After putting the car in gear, he headed toward Johnny R’s, to give the news of Ricky’s betrayal to Joe Pullo.

  At that very moment inside Johnny R’s, Joe was telling Tanner about another thief.

  The crime syndicate calling themselves The Brotherhood had entered the town of Killburry, Connecticut, and killed Burt Hodges. Hodges had been the Giacconi’s man in Killburry. Tanner, who’d been living in Killburry at the time, destroyed The Brotherhood, but before Joe could send a new man there to replace Hodges, the Boston mob made a move on the town.

  “That sounds like an act of war,” Tanner said.

  “It is, and I’m wondering if Boston is following it up with these heists we’ve had.”

  “Who runs things up there?”

  “A guy named Moss Murphy. He’s a little older than me and has a son about Sammy’s age. The son, Liam Murphy, he’s the one that moved into Killburry.”

  “Ah, I see. If you had sent a crew up to take back Killburry you’d have been killing one of Murphy’s family. Is that why you haven’t retaliated?”

  “That’s it, but, we both know that I can’t let things stand either. For now, I’m just watching and waiting.”

  “Waiting for what?”

  “These heists, I need to know if they’re connected to Boston or something else altogether. Once I know that, I’ll make a move.”

  “You don’t want to fight a war on two fronts if you can avoid it?”

  “Exactly.”

  “What’s the Boston mob like?”

  “Moss Murphy is a weasel, but he’s a smart weasel. His number two man is a guy named Finn Kelly. Kelly doesn’t look like much, but I’ve heard he’s as good as they come. Now Liam, the son, he’s nothing but a punk. Moss tried to keep him out of the business by sending him off to college, same as Sam tried to keep Sammy out, but hey, once they’re men, they’re men.”

  “It sounds like Liam Murphy may not live long enough to become an old man.”

  “I’d have whacked him already if he wasn’t Moss’s boy, and Moss knows that the kid did wrong. Killburry hardly made any money for us and it sure as hell isn’t worth starting a war over.”

  “But that’s what it will come to, it’s just a matter of when.”

  “First, we stop this heist crew, then I’ll take Killburry back. I’ll do it in such a way that leaves Liam Murphy in one piece.”

  Tanner sat his beer bottle on the coffee table and stood.

  “Let me know if you need help. Until then, I’ll just be waiting around for my arm to heal.”

  Joe stood and took Tanner by the shoulders.

  “I meant what I said earlier, you’ve become a damn legend on the streets. Taking out a drug cartel leader was badass enough, but killing Maurice Scallato cinched it. Watch your back, Tanner. There are punks out there that will take a crack at you in the hope of gaining a rep.”

  “There’s a name for people like that.”

  “What is it?”

  “Dead.”

  Joe laughed.

  “Welcome back, buddy. It’s good to have you home.”

  6

  A Four-Letter Word

  Two days later, Tanner, with Sara beside him, drove his car onto the driveway that led to their lake property. They were both pleased to see that everything looked the same.

  Their two massive RV’s gleamed in the sun. Tanner’s was blue and white, while Sara’s, which sat across the lake, was green and white. Other than their color, they were identical.

  As Tanner parked near the shack on the property, the caretakers emerged. They were Pete and Rocco, two brothers that Tanner had met when he lived in Killburry. Pete and Rocco would never score high on an IQ test, but the boys were all heart and loyal.

  Tanner had endeared himself to the boys when he save
d them from a pair of punks that were out to kill them. They were then left in charge of the lakefront property while Tanner and Sara were off hunting down Maurice Scallato. They knew Sara by her real name, but called Tanner by his alias, Tom Myers.

  Rocco raced from the shack with a huge grin on his face and charged at Tanner. He stopped short, with a mouth forming an O, when he saw that Tanner’s left arm was in a splint.

  “What happened, Tom Myers? Did you break your arm?”

  “Sort of, but it will heal.”

  Rocco pointed at Sara’s knee brace.

  “Did you break your knee?”

  Sara grinned at him.

  “Not exactly.”

  Rocco smiled at them.

  “Welcome home, Tom Myers and Sara Blake.”

  Sara kissed Rocco on the cheek, then watched him blush, as his brother, Pete, joined them.

  “We took good care of the RV’s Mr. Myers. We even cleaned the snow off them last week.”

  “That’s good, Pete, how have you two been doing?”

  “We’re good. We like it here, but we’ll be happy when spring comes and we can use the lake again.”

  “It’s too cold now,” Rocco said.

  “How’s the heat in that shack?” Sara asked.

  Pete made a face.

  “It’s chilly in there at night.”

  “Use my RV. I’ll be moving in with Mr. Myers.”

  Rocco’s eyes grew large.

  “Are you serious, Sara Blake? We can live in the green RV?”

  “Move in whenever you’re ready, but take good care of it.”

  “We will,” Pete and Rocco answered at the same time.

  Sara stopped by the green motorhome to gather her things. There wasn’t much, as she kept an apartment in Connecticut that she planned to leave. She had only owned the RV for a few weeks before they left the lake and hadn’t many belongings there.

  Tanner was never the talkative sort, but it seemed to Sara that he had grown quieter than usual. As he opened the trunk to carry her things inside his RV, Sara placed a hand on his arm.

  “Was this presumptuous of me?”

  “What do you mean? Your moving in here?”

  “I realize now that we never talked about it and that I simply assumed it was what you wanted too.”

  “You weren’t wrong,” Tanner said.

  They carried her things inside. When Sara opened the closet in the bedroom, there were several items of women’s clothing already there, a dress, two blouses, and a pair of shoes.

  “Those belonged to Alexa,” Tanner said. “She didn’t have room for them when she left.”

  He was sitting on the bed. Sara sat beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  “Do you miss her?”

  “I did, before you, but no, not anymore.”

  “Tell me if I’m moving too fast for you. I know you, Tanner. You’ve spent most of your life living alone.”

  “That changed with Alexa, but even before that, Laurel made me realize that I needed someone.”

  “Then why didn’t you stay with Laurel?”

  Tanner sighed.

  “Fear. Loving her scared me, because I didn’t want to need her. I didn’t want to need anyone.”

  “Because of what happened to your family?”

  “You understand that?”

  “I do, but we all need someone, and Alexa broke through your defenses.”

  “And then she left me alone.”

  Sara pushed gently on Tanner’s chest until they were both lying back on the bed with their feet still touching the floor. She turned her head and looked at him.

  “I love you.”

  “I…I…love you.”

  Sara laughed.

  “Did that hurt coming out?”

  “It is a word filled with pain.”

  “And promise, the word love is filled with promise too.”

  Tanner stared at her.

  “How did we ever get here?”

  “We survived each other.”

  “You despised me, now you say you love me. How does that work?”

  Sara kissed him.

  “It’s called a miracle, baby.”

  Tanner caressed her face.

  “Where do we go from here?”

  “We take it one day at a time and see what happens.”

  “It’s been my experience that love only brings pain.”

  “That’s the end of love, not love itself.”

  “Maybe.”

  Sara smiled.

  “We make quite a pair. Every man I’ve ever loved has died and your relationships always end.”

  Tanner made a sour face.

  “That doesn’t inspire confidence.”

  “It does if you think about it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know that when I set my mind to something I don’t stop until I get it, regardless of the risks or the odds.”

  “Like my head on a chopping block?”

  “Yes. I’m not proud of the way I used Laurel against you, but it did finally place you at my mercy. Meanwhile, there’s no one harder to kill than yourself. So, think about it. I know you won’t die on me and you can trust me not to give up on us.”

  Tanner looked thoughtful, then, he let out a long laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Us, this, I’ll be damned if we aren’t perfect for each other.”

  “I love you, Tanner.”

  “Come here,” Tanner said, and kissed her.

  When the kiss ended, Sara stood and grabbed Alexa’s clothing.

  “Do you think Alexa will want these things sent to her?”

  “No, she said they were too worn to wear anymore.”

  “In that case, I’ll toss them out.”

  “Along with our past?”

  Sara pretended to hold a wine glass aloft.

  “To new beginnings.”

  7

  Too Stupid To Live

  Sammy was settled in a chair across from Joe’s desk at the strip club, Johnny R’s.

  They were discussing Ricky Valente. Sammy had spent the last two days looking for Ricky and was certain that Ricky Valente had left the area.

  “I talked to his girl, Seneca, the one that used to work at the old club. She said that she and Ricky broke up weeks ago.”

  “What’s Seneca doing these days?”

  “She owns a beauty parlor in Queens.”

  “Good for her, she’s one of the smart ones who saved her money. Did she have any idea where we could find Ricky?”

  “No, but she wasn’t entirely surprised by Ricky’s running off with the money. Seneca said he used to kid about it, but she never thought he was serious.”

  “Did you believe her, or is she maybe going to meet up with Ricky somewhere?”

  Sammy waved that off.

  “I believed her. She and Ricky broke up because Ricky made a drunken pass at her little sister. She had no idea where Ricky went, but she said that he might have gotten plastic surgery, you know, changed his face.”

  “Hmm, that will make him harder to find, but he can’t go to a legitimate surgeon either, because he’d have to use his own name. Ricky will have to head underground for a cutter. I’ll put out the word to our contacts in that world. There’s only a handful of guys that do that sort of work.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. Seneca also said that Ricky has a triangle-shaped burn mark.”

  “Where is the mark, on an arm?”

  Sammy sighed.

  “The mark is on his damn butt, the left ass cheek. As you can guess, I’m hoping I won’t need to look for it.”

  Joe laughed.

  “Maybe we’ll find Ricky before he gets his face fixed.”

  “I want this one, Uncle Joe. I want to put Ricky down as a lesson to others. Stealing from us like that, the man is too stupid to live.”

  “He’s all yours, but first, we have to find him.”

  In New Orleans, Ricky
Valente was looking at his face in a mirror and imagining it looking different. He didn’t want to go overboard and have a whole new face, but make just enough changes to alter his appearance. He’d ask a surgeon to make his nose smaller, the lips fuller, and smooth the wrinkles around his eyes.

  In the new life to come, Ricky wanted to look younger than his age, forty-one. He had already dyed his curly brown hair blond, and had taken up running.

  Between the alterations to his face, the lighter hair, and a trimmer body, no one would recognize him when he came out into the open.

  But that would wait, because the smart way to do things was to be patient. Other guys had stolen money from the mob over the years, and nine times out of ten they were tracked down and put down.

  Many of those failed attempts had ended when the thief contacted a plastic surgeon or an ID forger within days of running off.

  That was too soon, much too soon, because it was the time when the people you’d stolen the money from were still fuming and eager to grab you. The word would go out that a reward was available. Anyone who resembled the thief would be eyed by the face doctors and the document forgers they were running to for help.

  Six months. That was the way to go about it. Wait six months and then make your moves. The reward would be forgotten, the hot pursuit cooled down, and likely, there would be a new thief to chase after.

  Despite popular belief, people steal from the various mobs all the time. Employee theft is always one of the biggest drains on a business’s profit margin in the straight-laced world. It’s no different in the crooked world.

  But you had to be smart about it, and Ricky had thought things through. He had stolen a lot of money from the Giacconi Family, but it wasn’t so much that Joe Pullo would be up nights worrying about it.

  They’d look for him, oh yes they would, but in time, other problems would push the name Ricky Valente into the background. However, you had to be patient and you had to find a good place to wait things out.

  Ricky was staying in a rented trailer. The trailer park itself was crowded with motorhomes, but the section where Ricky was only had two old wrecks, and overgrown hedges blocked the view of them from the nearby highway.