Sin And Vengeance
Page 37
“What about my mother? Her life’s totally ripped apart. She’s not even sixty, for God’s sake. She’s going to live the next twenty years missing my father.”
“He got what he deserved.”
“So he speaks. What about Henri, and Monique, and the detective? Did they deserve to die, too? What do you deserve, Oliver? Are you any better than them? Do I shoot you now or spend the next fifteen years waiting for you to come back? Maybe that’s too good for you? Maybe I should cut off your fingers one by one like you did to that detective. Was he alive when you did that?”
Oliver dropped the cushion back on the couch. It would do nothing to stop the bullet he sensed coming. He felt himself quiver. He’d felt hope for the first time since he was a boy and now he was afraid to die. A week ago he welcomed death as a release from his tortured life, but the moment Charlie dropped the gun it had all changed. Charles Marston was gone; the purpose that had driven him, emptied his soul, didn’t matter anymore. Suddenly, a next date with the blonde in the red Honda seemed all-encompassing. There was a life beyond Marston Vineyards. A life Oliver could have lived to see if he hadn’t come back. He should have been satisfied with the million he’d taken from Deirdre, but it was too late.
Charlie raised the gun and leveled it somewhere in his direction.
A silent instant passed. Oliver eyed the doorway to the kitchen. Four steps and gone out the back. Four steps he’d never finish.
Charlie relaxed and eased the gun down.
“You know, Oliver. Insurance is a great thing. You burned down the damned winery and two million dollars worth of wine. And my car, I loved that car. Sand in the crankcase, not nice, definitely not nice. Did you see my new one outside?”
Oliver turned toward Charlie and the front door.
“They’re paying to rebuild the winery. I’m going to update the equipment and lay out everything the way I want it. Oh, and that wine I had shipped here to get myself out of Piolenc, they’re going to buy it along with the rest, lousy as it was. I’m going to start over. I’ll probably have to sell the grapes this year and I’ve got a whole crew to rebuild, thanks to you and Sebastian. But next year, next year might be a great vintage.”
Charlie backed toward the kitchen and gestured Oliver forward.
A faint smile crossed Oliver’s lips and he took two hesitant steps.
“Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait onto the Lord, and he shall save thee. Proverbs twenty, twenty-two.”
Oliver passed two feet in front of Charlie and out onto the steps. He backed slowly down the stairs and onto the grass, facing Charlie as he stepped into the doorway and followed him down.
“Remember one thing, Oliver.”
Oliver stopped in the darkness, feeling suddenly exposed in spite of being freed from the tiny corner in the living room. He could run into the darkness, run for the money and disappear.
“Show up here again and I won’t wait for the Lord.”
Something rustled the hedge.
Clamshells crunched behind the Volvo.
Oliver wheeled around in the dark.
The first man he saw was a stout figure closing in from his right.
Oliver flashed a betrayed look to Charlie, who waved a telephone in his left hand, the gun still in his right. The police had heard every word of their conversation. Charlie had kept him distracted while they were rushing to get into position.
Four men blocked his path to the trees.
Before he could decide to run or surrender, Pinto’s nightstick crashed down into his collarbone.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed this story about the Marstons, the Joyets, and the Deudons.
For your added entertainment (and possibly frustration) there are two messages hidden within the text of this book. If you want to try your hand at decoding them, go to www.22wb.com and read about the Hidden Code Contest. There you can find the official rules, clues to help you along your way, and the prizes you’ll win if you are the first to decode both messages. Good Luck.
Don’t miss A Demon Awaits, the next Randy Black book, and the latest, Gretchen Greene.
A Demon Awaits picks up the action on the very last page of this book and takes you in an entirely new direction. A Demon Awaits will challenge you to see the world through Randy’s eyes and to follow him on another fast-moving adventure that will feel like the second half of Sin and Vengeance. I hope you’ll give it a try.
Gretchen Greene is Randy's first adventure as a man on the run. Follow him as he tries to save a militant environmentalist that has stolen a revolutionary solar technology.
Thanks for reading!