“Just before you got up,” Hector replied. “Let them sleep. They’re locked in a cage so there’s nothing to worry about. Anyhow, Lomas will be here soon enough so we’ll get them out then.”
“I guess you’re right,” Gomez muttered. “Give me that phone. Felipe will be calling soon so I might as well turn it on.”
* * * *
Isla Saona, Dominican Republic, 3:00 p.m.
“I trust you have good news for me,” Gomez said into the mobile. “I’m tired of waiting.”
“You should work on your patience, amigo,” Felipe replied. “I am tired of your constant whining.”
“One day, you may regret such words,” Gomez snapped back. “When will you be here?”
“I will be dropping anchor in a couple of minutes,” Felipe replied. “Your guest will be ashore in ten.”
* * * *
Isla Saona, Dominican Republic, 3:09 p.m.
“I think it may get ugly when we bring this guy back to camp,” Vasco warned his partner, actually his younger cousin, Julio, as they approached the beach and saw the catamaran anchored offshore ahead of them.
“Yeah, I figure the guy is going to get hurt,” the cousin replied with a shrug. “I’m not an idiot. I know Gomez is big time.”
“Gomez is going to kill him,” Vasco spelled it out. “The wife and the kid too.”
Julio stopped in his tracks. “Fuck off. Kill them? Even the little girl? That’s sick, man.”
“I’m not kidding,” Vasco insisted. “You said it yourself. This is Gomez. He’s paying me five hundred American dollars for two days of work.”
“Five hundred dollars?” Julio gasped, astounded by the extravagant number. “Did he give you this money already? He may kill us too instead of pay—”
The young hood’s discourse was interrupted as he and his cousin were knocked to the ground, disarmed of the paltry handguns they carried in their jeans pockets and handcuffed by a half-dozen Navy Commandos.
“Take them away,” ordered Quesada as he joined the group with Ortega and Oliver close behind. “The time has come to deal with Gomez, the source of this whole mess.”
“With respect, Almirante,” said Adolfo, the lieutenant commander and Quesada’s chauffeur since Los Melones. “Let us go get Gomez.”
Quesada eyed the officer and said, “You and Emberto will accompany us, but you will not forget who is in charge at any time, yes?”
* * * *
Isla Saona, Dominican Republic, 3:17 p.m.
“They are coming,” said Gomez, grinning broadly.
At his insistence, he and Hector had repositioned their chairs directly before the natural path which led from the beach to the clearing where they had established camp. When Oliver arrived, escorted once again by men under his control, Gomez wished to demonstrate his rule regardless of the circumstances.
The slight incline, the curve of the path and the position of all which grew in this natural habitat was such that what initially appeared from Gomez’s vantage point was the feet and lower legs of those approaching. Oliver came fully into view first, by choice as a show of courage or by order from the young wannabe hires, Gomez did not know or care. Here was the man who had put an end to Gomez’s lucrative future, out of sheer selfishness, more concerned about a few whores trying to earn a living from rich, horny tourists than with minding his own business and thinking of his family’s well-being – and now he would have to pay for his errors.
The next figures appeared and a couple of seconds were required, possibly due to recent rum consumption on an empty stomach, for Gomez to realize they were not the hired men he had sent to collect Lomas.
“Is this a joke?” he bellowed as he jumped from his chair, knocking it down behind him in his fury.
“It’s not a joke,” Ortega replied as the threesome approached, coming to a halt some ten feet from him.
Gomez grinned at Oliver with angst in his eyes. “You were stupid enough to bring these imbeciles with you when the lives of your wife and child are in my control?”
“Nothing is in your control,” said Quesada.
“You are wrong!” Gomez cried in anger. Turning to Hector, he screamed, “Get me the child!”
“The child is gone,” Hector quietly replied. “The mother is gone too.”
Gomez stared at him in shock. “What are you saying? What the hell are you telling me?”
“He’s telling you you’re screwed, asshole,” said Chris as he, Leslie and Jonathan approached from behind with weapons drawn.
Flabbergasted, Gomez looked about, taking in everyone surrounding him as he tried to comprehend what was going on.
His eyes settled on Hector and he asked, “They’re gone?”
Hector nodded and replied, “They did not deserve to die, jefe. I had to let them go.”
“You let them go?” Gomez repeated, incredulous.
Again Hector nodded. “They were innocent, Pedro. You pushed it too far. I told you we should leave… I told you.”
“Don’t, Gomez,” Jonathan barked, pointing his gun at the mobster’s head as Gomez pulled a handgun from under his shirt and aimed it at Hector. “You’ll be dead before you think of pulling the trigger.”
Gomez turned to Jonathan then eyed the others and noted all but Hector and Oliver had guns trained on him.
Tossing his revolver to the ground, he raised his hands in the air and said, “You may think you have won, motherfuckers, but, mark my words… I shall make each one of you pay someday, with your lives.”
A shot rang out and Gomez crumpled to the ground, half of his head gone.
Hector tossed his large handgun to the ground and, as he raised his hands, said, “He meant what he said about making you pay. You will all be safer now and I am going to prison anyhow.”
Books by Claude Bouchard
Available for your Kindle at
Amazon.com ~ Amazon.co.uk
Vigilante
Book 1 of the Vigilante Series
Montreal . . . the long, hot summer of 1996. . . and in the dark of night, moving like a shadowy wraith, a vigilante prowls the city's streets. The targets of his bloody rampage: the worst of the worst. . . Murderers. Gangbangers. Rapists. Six months. Sixteen murders. The harried police are still without a clue . . . until the day they receive an email from the assassin himself. Lieutenant Dave McCall, head of Montreal's Special Homicide Task Force, needs help to crack the secrets of the killer's taunting message. He calls on an expert, Chris Barry, who runs a security firm specializing in computer communications. Together, McCall and Barry launch a grim quest to track down a man who preys on predators - an urgent quest to bring this remorseless killer to justice. But whose justice will prevail: theirs--or the vigilante's?
The Consultant
Book 2 of the Vigilante Series
The friendly takeover of CSS Inc. leaves computer executive Chris Barry unemployed, very wealthy and pleased with the situation. But the hiatus is short-lived. . . As a result of his involvement in the recent ‘Vigilante’ investigation, Barry is approached by Jonathan Addley and invited to join ‘Discreet Activities’, a government agency of the clandestine variety. Accepting, he promptly takes on his first assignment under the guise of an IT consultant, to investigate possible links between a local import business and the murder of its MIS director. As he discovers the firm is being used to import narcotics, his cover is blown and things get personal, spurring him to show that murderers, drug lords, biker gangs and kidnappers are no match for. . . The Consultant. . .
Mind Games
Book 3 of the Vigilante Series
Montreal is plagued by a string of vicious sex slayings. . . Captain Dave McCall and his Special Homicide Task Force are in a frustrated frenzy as they try to bring an end to the savage butchery. . . Assisting officially is noted psychiatrist, Doctor Samuel Bowman and unofficially, computer genius and multi-millionaire, Chris Barry. . . With each passing day, McCall works his way closer to the truth. . . Unaware that they are
heading deep into the deadly core of. . . Mind Games. . .
The Homeless Killer
Book 4 of the Vigilante Series
The homeless of Montreal are dying at the hand of 'Allan', a serial killer set on ridding the city of street people. . . As the killer taunts the police about the increasing body count, Captain Dave McCall calls on the services Jonathan Addley and Chris Barry, both operatives with the government's clandestine 'Discreet Activities' team. . . All while fighting the city's proposed by-law banning the homeless from downtown parks, philanthropist and activist, William Enright, joins the law-enforcement crusade to capture the assassin. . . But will the combined efforts of the law and old money be sufficient to stop the Homeless Killer?
6 Hours 42 Minutes
Book 5 of the Vigilante Series
Though most of them dabbled in a variety of criminal activities, they weren't experienced in this particular field and had never been involved in a job like this before. However, with proper planning, careful organization and the inside information available to them, they were certain that this bank heist would be a piece of cake. Ten minutes, in and out, was all it would take and they'd be sharing 2.5 million dollars. Nothing could go wrong as they had thought of everything. . . How could they possibly know that a new member of the board was visiting the bank that morning? How could they know that the new board member was Chris Barry?
Discreet Activities
Book 6 of the Vigilante Series
As a result of information gathered via electronic surveillance by intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Canada, a budding terrorist organization, the Army for Islam or AFI, is suspected of planning an attack, its target possibly NYC, Burlington, Vermont or even Canada's famed Montreal. . . When four foreign students from Pakistan with known ties to the AFI's Montreal cell arrive in the area on New Year's Eve, Discreet Activities' head, Jonathan Addley, along with Chris Barry and other DA consultants are more than willing to take on the additional workload. . . After two of the DA team members die violently in an AFI related suicide-bombing, the job becomes getting revenge on those responsible for this Holy War...
Femme Fatale
Book 7 of the Vigilante Series
Less than two years earlier, Leslie Robb, an accountant in her late twenties working for the Imperial National Bank, had seen her life-partner and co-worker, Gina, shot to death during a bank heist subsequently foiled in part by Chris Barry, millionaire and clandestine operative of the government's 'Discreet Activities'. Taken as a hostage along with Chris by the remaining robbers onto a helicopter secretly piloted by two 'DA' operatives, including 'DA' head, Jonathan Addley, Leslie had played an integral role in helping bring the offenders down. As a result, thanks to her sang-froid, sense of moral justice and martial arts affinities, Leslie left the world of finance to fight crime as a member of the 'DA' team. Now, Leslie has a new partner in life, Dominique Petit, a Canadian/French dual citizen who suggests Leslie visit Paris with her while she is in the City of Lights on business. Less than twenty-four hours after Leslie arrives, Dominique and her sister, Corinne, disappear, turning Leslie's vacation into her own business trip of justice and revenge...
Thirteen to None
Book 8 of the Vigilante Series
When Butch Kincaid and his dozen thugs go off on their summer road trips, nothing gets their adrenaline pumping like a good old home invasion. What better way to party hearty than by drinking other people's booze, chowing down their food and trashing their property all while causing them terror and pain? Their first stop, the home of a retired couple in Brighton, Ontario, is a resounding success as per their standards and leaves the rowdy crew wanting for more. Several hundred miles later in Knowlton, Quebec, Butch selects their next target, the home of an attractive and obviously affluent couple, Sandy and Chris Barry... Hey, we all make mistakes...
The First Sixteen – The Prequel
Book 9 of the Vigilante Series
Once upon a time, there was Vigilante, the first volume of the Vigilante Series… but from its beginning, it was said that sixteen victims had already fallen prey to this self-appointed judge, jury and executioner… Who were these wrong-doers? What crimes had they committed to deserve to be chosen? What led this killer to deliver his own form of justice upon them to begin with? Join the Vigilante himself in this prequel novella as he tells you firsthand about…The First Sixteen…
See You in Saigon
Book 10 of the Vigilante Series
Seventeen years earlier, Dennis ‘Scorpion’ Roy of the Devil’s Delight was assassinated by the infamous serial killer known as the Vigilante. Shortly after, the notorious biker gang allegedly went defunct though rumours amongst law enforcement officials suggested the organization continued to operate and thrive in stealth mode. When the Devil’s Delight’s sustained existence is confirmed, the Discreet Activities team is shocked to learn the gang’s leader is none other than Scorpion, alive and well and currently in Vietnam on ‘business’. Asked to assist in the dismantling of the Devil’s Delight, the D.A. team heads Vietnam to hunt down Scorpion, the only criminal who managed to survive the Vigilante…
Sins in the Sun
Book 11 of the Vigilante Series
For most, "Caribbean vacation" invokes visions of sun, sand and fun, which is precisely what millionaire and government operative Chris Barry has in mind when he and his wife, Sandy, arrive in Puerto Plata... until they learn their good friend and resort manager, Ollie Lomas, has been severely beaten, the victim of intimidation by mobster, Pedro Gomez. Assisted by his ‘Discreet Activities’ colleagues, the Policía Nacional's Deputy Director and the head of the Navy, Chris embarks on an elaborate scheme, sparing no expense to teach Gomez that messing with the wrong crowd can and will result in dire consequences.
Getting Even
Book 12 of the Vigilante Series
Born of old money, attractive and well educated, philanthropist, William Enright had been the picture of the perfect socialite until his arrest and conviction as Montreal's 'Homeless Killer'. After spending nine years in British Columbia's maximum security Kent Institution, William succeeds in executing a masterful escape with only one purpose in mind... Finding Captain Dave McCall and the others who sent him to hell and, getting even.
ASYLUM
As Managing Director of the “Montreal Hospital for the Criminally Insane”, Doctor Matthew Russell has always put his professional responsibilities ahead of all else. That is, until he one day realizes he is losing his wife, Cassidy, and his two children, Stuart and Jennifer. . . With only his family in mind, Russell takes an adventure-filled, impromptu vacation of indefinite duration, leaving all else behind and stopping at nothing to show how much he cares for his loved ones in an effort to win them back. But, will he succeed . . Or, will it prove to be all too late in the end?
Learn more about Claude Bouchard’s books
Visit http://www.claudebouchardbooks.com
Questions or comments?
Email at [email protected]
Sins in the Sun: A Vigilante Series crime thriller Page 18