Chapter 31 Saving them Again

Tuesday May 25 09:50

My ringing phone brought me out of a deep sleep and I wondered briefly why it wasn't on vibrate.

"Talk" I ordered when I saw it was Marc and it was only 9:50.

"We're under heavy gunfire. Send armed men from the ship." He demanded.

Over the phone I could hear screaming and crying over the sound of machine gun fire and I panicked.

"Where are you?" I was already up and pulling on my recently discarded clothes.

"A few blocks away, on the corner of Nahale and Pua Ave." I could hear Oshanna yelling that they were all going to die over the rapid staccato of a machine gun in the background. "There is somebody in the third floor window shooting at us. We are pinned down behind parked cars, but there are only three of them and we can't get further up the street away from the gunfire." I had my boots on, three guns and I was moving out the door. Zip and Zero were standing guard in the hallway.

"Get dressed, live ammo, they are taking heavy fire and we have to get to them. They only got a few blocks away." I told them as I went running off the ship texting the night crew 'Get up and armed and report to Nahale and Pua Ave. Group taking live fire.'

I call an Uber on my phone as I held my ID to get checked out to leave the ship, knowing there had been several waiting by the port for people getting off the ship. I ran down the gangplank feeling the sun beat down on me urging me on. As soon as I was assigned a driver, I found the car and wrenched the white door open to the dodge minivan as Zip, Zero and Ryan were running down the gangplank. All of us loaded into the car and the very polite driver said he couldn't take us all. I opened my wallet, dumped a hundred dollar bill into his lap and said "Drive."

I directed him to take a back alleyway between two buildings for several blocks and come out on the other side of the gunfire. I watched the maps app on my phone and told him to stop half a block away. We could hear the rapid gunfire in the distance, sounding like a war zone in the middle of the city. The report of the gun echoing off the buildings around us, made it hard to determine which direction it was coming from and I once again checked the maps app.

"Zip come with me. Zero and Ryan drive in the car to the other side. Box him in." I ordered.

As I made my way up the street I could see the large group of almost thirty people hidden behind three bullet ridden vehicles. One was a blue four door sedan but fortunately two were large SUVs. I couldn't see the shooter, just the tip of the gun barrel pointing out of the pink trimmed window on the white office building.

We ran across the street to be under the gunman and were hauling ass towards the gunfire, guns drawn. I saw Lester and Ram cross the street in a crouched run. I heard a bunch of shots and yelling and another shot and all gunfire ceased.

We entered the glass doors of the building moments behind them and raced up the stairs. We ran down the hall trying doorknobs to find Lester in a tax office holding a gun on Santiago "The Saint" Martinez. I was guessing he had run out of men to do the dirty work for him and with Sergio dead it had just become a quick kill mission. Santiago was sitting in a wheeled black office chair with plastic arms by the open window. His right arm shot and bleeding, hanging limply at his side, his leg bleeding from another shot and the floor pooling with blood around his right foot. Ram collected his weapons including a rocket launcher that was leaned precariously next to him against the wall.

"You were paid ten million dollars for your time and the hits were canceled." I said as I confronted him.

"The ten million was to fulfill the last part of the contract that said if Sergio was killed, I was to kill as many women as I could and then you."

"You should have taken the money and run. You signed your death warrant the minute you came after my family, but if you had run I wouldn't have chased you." I explained.

"I always fulfill my contracts." He insisted.

"Why? It was free money that you could have taken and no one would have been the wiser."

"I have my honor to uphold. I couldn't take the money and not kill the targets especially since I knew your men would not be armed."

"How did you know my men wouldn't be armed?"

"I knew Hawaii was a permit only carry state and if you were coming here you would be applying for permits for your men."

"So you tried to track approved permits?' I questioned.

"No, I called every sheriff's office on every island multiple times to complain about men in black walking around armed. I got assurance back from the island of Hawai'i that they knew it would be a problem Tuesday and Wednesday this week. They guaranteed me that would send men to take care of it and stop your men from leaving the port armed. That's how I knew you would be here and that you wouldn't be armed."

"How did you even know we were in Hawai'i?"

"I watched the cruise ship in Alaska and there was no large group of women and kids surrounded by men in black. I backtracked to LA and started trying to find out where your plane went. When you left Florida you went west, so I took a chance you went west again. I started calling around up and down the coast and all the islands of Hawaii to find a large group with a lot of men in black."

"So how did you find us?"

"I hit gold with a Honolulu airport employee who saw the plane and the large group getting ushered onto hotel busses late Friday night."

"But we weren't at the hotel."

"I figured you would hide your women somewhere on one of the other islands. That's when I started calling the sheriff's departments and found out you would be here Tuesday and Wednesday. At that point I knew you had put them on a cruise ship and I researched all the cruises that left Honolulu on Saturday. There were several so I couldn't narrow down which ship you were on but I knew your men would be here Tuesday and Wednesday so I planned to get you then. Really a few phone calls and some good guessing is all it took."

"Why are you here shooting at them out the window?"

"I suspected since the police said you were at the port that you were on a cruise ship I just didn't know which one. This is the main road in and out of the port. Getting off, getting on or driving by from this location I would see you and be able to take you out."

"Why were you shooting at the women when I was nowhere around?" I wondered.

"I knew you would show up. I shot over their heads to get them running, knowing they would call you and you would show up."

"That was your first mistake. You had to know if I showed up I would be armed."

"It is a risk I had to take. I was certain that I would see you come running up the street and then I was going to blow up the whole group in front of your eyes with the rocket launcher. But I didn't see you coming up the road by car or on foot. You killed Sergio on Sunday so I had assumed you would be back by now."

"We drove in a car in the alley behind the buildings most of the way here. Then stopped half a block from here and ran under cover of the buildings."

"And I missed you, too busy watching these two yahoo's cross the street. My problem was the way I had my gun propped up I was aiming above the cars and when they dipped down below my line of fire I couldn't correct fast enough."

"You were a fool to think my men were not going to come attack. Weapons or not."

"I had my 9 mil ready for them, but the wooden door took the bullet I shot at them and then they were shooting at me, by the time I turned around and re-aimed he had hit me in my arm and I couldn't hold it up to shoot anymore."

"How many men do you have with you?" I demanded.

He didn't answer but the look to the ground he gave looked embarrassed like he had gotten in a rush and hadn't hired any more men.

"How many more men are going to come after my women?" I asked again.

"Ten," He said hesitantly. "There are a bunch more men hired to finish the job." He bluffed.

"Where are all these men if you are here all alone. Who is making sure they do their job?" I questioned.

"They are all over the island and all over the world. They will come when you least expect it."

"I know you are bluffing. It's your last hurrah to make me worry but it won't work. I know if you had hired any guys they would be here shooting at the women not you." I insisted.

"It's true I like to hire men to do the dirty work. But this time I needed men to get done what I couldn't do."

"What couldn't you do?"

"Finish the contract and take you out." He was sounding weaker now.

"Well now I am going to finish you." I said as I drug him out of his chair.

"Hold him down." I ordered and I pressed my boot down in the middle of his chest while he tried to fight.

Zip grabbed his left arm, Ram grabbed his right. Santiago struggled, kicking out at nothing as I put most of my weight on his chest hoping we would have enough time to kill him and make it look natural. He kept struggling and I was glad as it would burn up his oxygen quicker. After a minute he went limp as several more of my men arrived to check out the situation. I could hear the sirens coming our way.

"Keep the police out of here. Keep them checking out the family and the scene." I told them. They quickly disappeared out the door.

Another minute went by and my men had let go and were now standing and watching. I couldn't put my full weight on him as a cracked sternum and ribs would be a dead giveaway that his death was not natural. Finally I took my foot off his chest. I searched his pockets and came up with a hotel key card, a fake ID, matching credit card and cell phone.

"Help me get him back in the chair." I directed.

I grabbed him under his right arm and Zip grabbed under his left arm and hoisted him up, dragging him back to the chair. Ram grabbed the chair to hold it still and we none too carefully sat him up, leaning his back against the backrest putting both arms in his lap. The body began leaning forward and I grabbed his hips pulling them away from the back causing his shoulders to rest heavily against the back of the chair. I rolled the chair so that his foot was back in the pool of blood it had started in. Finally situated we laid out his guns, a nine-millimeter, two Russian AEK-999 machine guns with extra mags, and the rocket launcher on a nearby desk.

I looked over at Lester who had blood running down his arm.

"You were shot?" I questioned as I got closer to see the hole in his shirt. I lifted his sleeve to find a gouge in his shoulder.

"Flesh wound, it's just bleeding." He said quickly. Then he looked at it. "Maybe it took a chunk out. Nothing a few stitches won't fix."

"Report" I said as I went to the bathroom that was in the back of the office and got a hand full of paper towels and handed them to him. He began mopping up the blood running down his arm and applying pressure to his wound. I grabbed another stack and a bottle of Lysol bleach spray. Lester followed and we talked, as Ram and I cleaned the blood off the green and white linoleum floor where we had held him down.

"We were ambushed by five police officers as soon as we got off the boat this morning. They threatened to arrest us for weapons violations. Everyone had a stun gun, several of us Marc and me included had our Glocks. We argued that we couldn't protect without weapons and they said that an armed police officer would escort us around for the day. Well there was five of them and Marc agreed. Everyone got back on the boat and we undressed."

"No one had any weapons?" I interrupted getting the last of the blood and walking back to the bathroom to flush the paper towels down the toilet.

"We still had our batons and knives."

"Continue."

"We headed out. We had seven targets, eleven family members and sixteen men but when we got off the boat there was only one armed officer. The other four had left. Marc argued that wasn't enough and talked to the police chief who said that's all he could spare. He gave Marc some names of men he could privately hire and Marc called several. He decided we would head out and the other protection would catch up to us in the next hour. Honestly he wanted to drag everyone back on the boat but Oshanna was whining and giving him grief and Stephanie joined in that we would be okay for an hour shopping with sixteen men."

"Marc gave in to whining women?" I clarified.

"Well Steph was pretty clear that she had posted about us getting on a cruise ship in Alaska and nobody was looking for us here in Hawaii."

"Nobody but the killer." I breathed in frustration.

"We came down this main boulevard. It is really the main road leading away from the docks. The women wanted to walk around and see the sights and shop so we were walking when machine gunfire started. I don't think he was expecting us to hide so fast. As far as I saw no one was hit. We plastered the women against the cars and covered them with our bodies. Marc called you and we kept waiting for Officer Kohana to do something, but he just froze up and Bobby had to grab him and drag him down behind a car so he didn't get shot. I got fed up. I took his gun right out of his hand. Ram was ready on the other side. We both took off across the road at the same time hoping he couldn't take us both out. We made it across safely and ran up the stairs. We knew he was in the forth window over but we weren't sure which office that would be so we listened at the door and heard the gun fire coming from this office. We kicked the door in and then slammed it back closed so his first shot hit the door. Then we both charged in, me shooting as soon as we cracked the door open again. I shot him in the arm so he couldn't shoot any more, the leg so he couldn't get up and just for the fun of it the foot. Ram was collecting his weapons, then you showed up."

"Stay here with the body." I told him. "I'm going to see what is going on out there. I'll send Bobby up to check your arm."

As I went down the stairs several cops were coming up and I turned around and followed them back to the little tropical office. I looked around trying to see what they were seeing. I saw the three desks, the peach and green décor and the plants everywhere. There were leafy green plants and pretty, multi-colored flowery displays hanging from the ceiling and sitting on the desks. On top of the large potted palms that were eight feet high.

"What happened up here?" Officer Bradley, the first officer through the door, asked.

"This guy was shooting at the group outside through the window. Two of us made it across the street and ambushed him. He was shot three times, one in the arm, one in the leg, one in the foot. When I got here he was sitting in the chair talking but then he clutched his chest and slumped down in the chair and hasn't moved since." I concisely explained. Not making it obvious that I was not here when it happened.

"You didn't give him CPR?" Officer Mauwa asked, concerned.

"He was shooting people and still had a gun when we came in. We took all his weapons once he was no longer moving and put them on the desk over there." I pointed.

"Where did you get the gun?" Officer Bradley asked Lester.

"It is Officer Kohana's gun. He was just sitting, holding it and wouldn't shoot back so I borrowed it and came after the gunman." Lester clarified.

"He's under arrest." A new younger officer that just came through the door demanded. "He stole my gun and discharged it in public." He insisted and the other two officers grabbed Lester and put him in cuffs.

"He is the hero that faced down the madman with the machine gun and you want to arrest him for it?" I questioned, shocked that they would be so bold.

"He snatched my gun right out of my hand. He needs to go to jail. All of your men had been told they were not authorized to have weapons and he took my weapon." Officer Kohana insisted, his voice raising in volume as he spoke.

"What were you doing when he took your gun? Were you racing across the street to face the gunman? Were you returning fire to protect the women? Were you calling on your radio for back-up?"

"I was holding my gun getting ready to shoot the gunman. I'm not on duty today so I didn't have my radio on me." He said defensively.

"And you have done this often? Fired your gun in the line of duty? Shot at people that were shooting at you?"

"No I've never had to discharge my gun in the line of duty till today."

"Oh so you were shooting at the gunman?" I pursued.

"No I never shot my gun."

"Let me understand this clearly." Giving him my 'don't fuck with me' face and he looked scared. "You were hiding behind the cars, holding your gun, not taking any action to protect the women and you want to press charges against the man who raced across the street under heavy fire and stopped the armed gunman?"

"He stole my gun out of my hand." He insisted turning red. At that declaration two officers began shuffling Lester out of the room.

"You made him leave his gun behind and you were not stopping the gunman, what did you expect my men to do?" I contended.

"I expected him to wait until backup arrived."

"You didn't call any backup." I pointed out.

"No but certainly other people heard the gunfire and called the police."

"Yet when I got here several minutes later no police had arrived."

"He can't take my gun and shoot another civilian with it." He insisted.

"First of all, a man with two assault rifles and a rocket launcher, shooting at innocent people on a public street cannot be called a civilian. Secondly, you can't expect my trained men, ex-Army Rangers to sit around and wait while under heavy fire. They are going to do something before the guy got a lucky shot in and took someone out. Stay here with the dead body." I told him as I walked out the door.

When I got outside, Lester had already been loaded up in the back of a car and I knew I needed help to fight his case. I looked around and was pleased that Marc had all the women around the corner sitting or standing along the sidewalk surrounded by twenty six of my men, who were now mostly armed. Third shift had showed up with multiple weapons and shared them with the unarmed men. Now there were four police officers surrounding my men menacingly and another four were roping off the area.

Marc came over to me. "Report." I said.

"They won't let the women leave. They are insisting that they need to interview each one but they won't start with all the armed men around. They want all our men to go back to the ship and undress." Marc told me.

"Who is here, who came on today's outing?" I asked unable to see through the crowd of men.

"Stephanie, Julie, Rachel, Leyla, Becky, Maggie, your mother, father, grandma Sanja, Oshanna and Julio." He listed.

"Call an Uber and have ten more men call Ubers. Take all the women back to the ship. They can interview them on the ship after they have interviewed the sixteen men who were onsite during the altercation."

I left Marc and waded through the crowd to the women who were loitering along the brick wall. Stephanie was standing there talking to Oshanna who was crying, Julio, who looked upset and Mama, who looked angry. I took Stephanie into my arms and molded her to me. Part of me had been aching to see her since I arrived on scene, to know for certain that she was whole and undamaged, but another part of me needed to be distant and in control to kill that maniac and deal rationally with the police.

"Babe"

"Took you long enough to get here." She said shaking in my arms.

"I pulled up when Lester and Ram crossed the street. I've just been dealing with the shooter and the police. The guys are calling Ubers. Are you okay enough to go back to the ship?'

"Yeah, shaken but dealing." She stated. I held her away from myself and looked her over carefully for any scrapes, cuts or unknown wounds. Seeing her whole and undamaged I grasped her tightly in my arms again.

"I was so worried when I heard the gunfire over the phone. I'm glad the guys were on their game and you are all safe."

"Yeah, they pinned us to the cars and blocked us in with their bodies. I felt like a squashed pancake. But I'm thankful. They did their jobs well and were willing to take a bullet for any of us."

I was proud of my men. It's when they can handle things in an unsuspected crisis, as all my men are trained to do, that you know the training works.

A few minutes later the first of the Ubers started pulling up and I walked Stephanie, Tiger and Ram over and loaded them in the car. The police officers just watched for a moment until I walked Julie and Rachel to an Uber with Junior and Eddie. I was having to pay each driver extra, but I had unexpectantly left Trenton with the thousands of dollars I had taken out to bribe the man captured, when he returned for the gun, outside my parent's home in Newark. I was finally having some good use for all that cash.

One of the officer's stepped forward, "I'm sorry sir the women can't leave."

I ignored him till the Uber was pulling away. "Did they commit a crime?" I asked him.

"No"

"Are they under arrest?" I pushed.

"No"

"Then they can leave." I assured him as I got Mama, Papa, Abuela Sanja and Vince loaded up and leaving. He disappeared around the corner and I got Leyla, Becky, Maggie and Hal loaded up. The car was just pulling away when Detective Finau came over.

"I'm sorry but these women have not been interviewed, they can't leave yet." He announced.

"Detective these women have been shot at and traumatized this morning. They are in shock and still in danger. They need to return to the safety of the ship. You've had over thirty minutes to interview them and instead your officers are standing around giving my men a hard time."

"Well your men are illegally carrying weapons."

"My men are protecting women who have been attacked by armed men four times in the last two weeks. Women whose lives are in imminent danger and who we are working hard to keep alive. Keeping them exposed, sitting on a sidewalk endlessly while no one talks to them, is not keeping them safe. You can interview all sixteen of my men that were here and then if you need more information about the incident we will discuss you talking to some of the women."

They already had everyone's names, why they hadn't interviewed them while they kept them standing there was a mystery to me. I got Oshanna, Julio and Sport in the next Uber and sent my night men to take Ubers back to the ship.

I called aside Erik, Ian and Tony. Gave them the ID, credit card and key card I pulled from the body and sent them to the hotel to get what information they could. I sent the rest of my men back to the ship to continue guarding the women. I took the last Uber to the airport, rented myself a black SUV and called Skylar. I cranked up the A/C as the heat of the day was becoming sweltering in my black shirt and cargo's. I had dressed fast not remembering that we were back in Hawai'i where the temperatures were in the mid-80's.

"My bountiful, beauteous woman I need something that is far off your radar but you are the best person to help me immediately with this request."

"Just name it Ranger. If I can do it, know that I will."

"I need the name of the best defense attorney here in Hilo, Hawai'i, please. The very best."

"You got yourself arrested?"

"Santos got arrested."

"What? Why?"

"A group of the women went shopping today. They just walked off the ship and three blocks later they sustained heavy machine gunfire. The long story is that we requested permits for my men to carry guns while on the island and the chief, instead of granting them, sent men to the docks to make sure my men were not carrying. They ditched all their weapons onboard. The only one armed was one pissant officer who froze and did nothing when the shooting started. Santos grabbed the gun out of his hand, crossed the street under heavy fire and took the gunman out. I'm not sure what the actual charges are going to be but they were saying felony charges for stealing a cop's weapon and illegally discharging a firearm in public."

"Under those circumstances you should be able to get the charges dropped."

"That's why I need the best. I want him released asap and I want to bring a lawsuit against the police department here for intentionally endangering my women."

"Ok I have a partnership. Lua Palu and Kealoha Defense Attorneys LLP. I'm texting you their number. They are the best in the area."

"Thanks most wonderous one. You are a lifesaver as always."

"Anything for you, Ranger. Goodbye."

"Goodbye"

I called the law office and offered the receptionist ten thousand dollars to talk to one of the law partners immediately. She responded by asking for my credit card. As soon as she had charged it she transferred me.

"Akamu Lua Palu, how can I help you?"

"I need to hire your law firm today. I need to see if we can't get some ridiculous charges dropped and I need to bring a couple of lawsuits against the Chief of Police, the police department and the officer in charge." I explained the situation to him and that my man had been taken to the hospital but was probably at the jail by now. He said he would meet me at the local station once he got the preliminary paperwork drawn up.

On my way there Ian called and said they got into Santiago's hotel room. They didn't find anything that showed he was working with anyone else. They had gone through what little paperwork was there and only found his private plane information to Hawaii. The chartered plane last night from Oahu to the big island of Hawai'i. Pictures of me, Stephanie and Julie, his laptop and another handgun with ammunition.

He reported that the clerk said he checked in alone at 19:00 last night and paid for only one night. They had bagged his computer and luggage and were bringing it all back to the ship.

Once at the police station they refused to let me see Lester only allowing his attorney to talk to him. They were holding him and refusing to charge him with anything. Akamu suspected that since we were on a cruise ship they wanted to hold him overnight without charging him and make him miss the ship leaving. I insisted on seeing the captain.

After arguing with the desk clerk who finally waved me onto his receptionist I finally got a work-in appointment. Half an hour later I was let into Captain Kwock's office. I put on my most menacing face and addressed him with as much respect as I could muster.

"I would like to know the meaning of putting eleven of my family's lives in danger as well as sixteen of my men?"

"If you are talking about not allowing armed civilians to run amuck in my city there is a standard fourteen day waiting period for all gun licenses, but since none of your men live here they would be denied anyway."

"We only asked for special permission to carry the two days we were on your island not long term carry permits. It should have been an easy decision. Instead you sent five men to the docks to harass my highly trained and decorated men, stopping them from doing their jobs of protecting the women."

"We received multiple complaints from the public about men in black carrying weapons on the island."

"We didn't arrive on your island till eight o'clock this morning. What you received were multiple feeler calls from the killer who was trying to locate my family using my men as an excuse and your office fell into his trap letting him know you were aware of the problem. Your office let a trained killer play you."

"We would never give out information like that." He insisted.

"Not you personally but after several calls someone in your office told him you were sending men to the port to take care of it. It is how he knew what island we were on and that we would be coming from the port."

"Not from my office."

"Yes from your office. When I asked the killer how he knew where we were he said he complained about men in black walking around armed and your office said they knew it was going to be a problem Tuesday and Wednesday. So your office not only confirmed our location but the dates we would be here as well. You gave him the information to find us and told him where to set up his guns to catch us leaving the port."

"I will have to have someone review the call logs. All incoming calls like that would have been recorded."

"Please do, and after you are done explaining the leaks in your office you can explain why you wouldn't allow my men to remain armed but didn't provide any protection yourself."

"I sent an armed man with your group."

"You sent an unprepared man, who has never been in a firefight and never discharged his weapon in the line of duty. When someone started shooting at them, he froze up and my men had to drag his ass to safety. While my experienced, battle hardened ex-Ranger had to grab his weapon, cross the road under heavy gunfire and take out the man that was shooting. Your officer didn't even have a radio on him and when the shooting started he was so scared he didn't even pull out his phone and call 911."

"He is a highly qualified officer."

"Based on what?"

"He passes his annual testing with higher than average results every year."

"How does that help protect anyone when in real life he freezes up and puts everyone in danger and my man had to grab his gun and take down the bad guy?"

"Your man is being held on possible multiple felony charges."

"Well you either drop the charges now, charge him and have him out of here in an hour, or I am going to bring so many lawsuits against you, the officer you sent and this department that I will bury you in fees and paperwork."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I don't threaten. I take action." I told him. "Each one of my family's lives is worth over a million dollars and each one of my highly trained men is worth half a million. That is a nineteen million dollar lawsuit against this department to start. I will sue you personally for ten million dollars for reckless endangerment and I will sue Officer Kohana till he has nothing left for failing to act and for bringing charges against my man who had the balls to take action and remove the gunman."

"Mr. Manoso, when we have all the evidence we will bring charges and not a minute before."

"What evidence don't you have that you are waiting on?"

"The officers are still waiting to interview all the women."

"I had sixteen highly trained men onsite whose eyewitness reports will be much more accurate than the women. You do not need to traumatize and brutalize, shell-shocked women by putting them through reliving the attack. They don't need to be stressed out more or endure any more than they have already endured today. Besides, you had over half an hour at the incident site to interview them and your men stood around doing nothing. Half an hour and eight men and they barely had crime scene tape up."

Finally the attorney spoke up. "Sir I respect the law and the officers that uphold it, but your motto is protect and serve and your office did neither today. Your office was the source of the leaks that let the gunman know not only which island the Manoso family was on but where on the island they would be. You could have easily given a pass for his men to remain armed and save yourself the trouble of worrying about protecting the women but you didn't for no good reasons. His men are all highly skilled and decorated men who are more experienced with firearms than most of your force but you chose to ignore that. If they had been armed the incident this morning would have been over in minutes instead of lasting over 10 minutes endangering his family and men as well as any public that happened to be in the area."

"You could have sent a proper amount of guards for the women," Lau Pula continued, "since you sent five officers down to the pier to harass his men, but you didn't. Your men could have locked down the scene and interviewed all sixteen men and eleven family members onsite, but they didn't. You could have easily charged Lester Santos by now so he could go before a judge, but you haven't. No jury is going to find him guilty of any of the false charges you say you are going to charge him with. They are going to want to pin a medal on him for bravery. Gun or no gun it takes very large kahunas to run through gunfire to take down the enemy and he got shot doing it. No jury is going to side with the police when you have obviously failed to protect and serve these women, when you knew in advance of their arrival and you knew the danger to them. That is sixteen counts of police harassment and eleven counts of negligence."

He walked forward and started piling paperwork on the chief's desk. "This is the lawsuit against the department for harassment and negligence. This is the lawsuit against you personally for reckless endangerment and negligence. This is the lawsuit against Officer Kohana for reckless endangerment, negligence and false charges. Mr. Manoso is a very rich man who will gladly keep you and this office buried in lawsuits for years. It is my recommendation that you release Mr. Santos, forget bringing charges against him and allow Mr. Manoso's men to remain armed the rest of the time they are protecting the women on this island."

"I can't just let armed civilians loose to run around my island, drink, get into bar fights and shoot the citizens I am supposed to be protecting."

"You have all of their service records in front of you. They are all highly decorated and experienced men. Half of them were special forces. All of them have seen real battle, and been in real firefights, compared to most of your men who have not. They are much better trained than your men. We can reach a compromise. Anytime they are guarding the women they can be armed. Anytime they are just roaming the island alone or out having a few drinks they won't carry weapons with them."

The captains face puckered like he had just been sucking on a very bitter lemon and finally he heaved out a big breath.

"Fine, they can be armed when they are protecting the women and I will talk to Officer Kohana about dropping the charges."

"Thank you" I said as I dipped my head in deference to him and turned to leave.

"Honestly Mr. Manoso, I would like to ban your women from my island. Being in as much danger as they are, you should have them locked away, not out in public where other people can get hurt."

"The men targeting the women are professional killers. They won't hurt random people unless you pay them to. They are very careful with their bullets."

"Did you know the man that attacked them today?"

"His name is Santiago Martinez also known as "The Saint". He is a killer for hire that was paid ten million dollars to take out as many women as he could and then kill me. I don't know why he would resort to shooting at them on the street except that we have had them so well guarded he hasn't been able to get to them."

"Well the ME said he died of a stressed induced heart attack from all the bullet wounds he sustained."

"It's a shame because now we can't question him and find out what other men he has hired or has with him here on the island." I told him.

"Wait out front while I talk to Officer Kohana and get Mr. Santos released." He told us as he ushered us out of his office.

Ten minutes later a red-faced Officer Kohana stormed out of the Chief's office and headed to the back. Fifteen minutes later Lester appeared, tucking his phone and wallet back into his pockets.

"Thanks Boss." He told me.

"Thank your attorney Akamu Lua Palu"

He turned to the attorney and stuck out his hand. "Lester Santos. Nice to meet you and thank you for getting me released."

"It was my pleasure." Akamu said as they shook hands.

"Let's get out of here." Lester said. "I've spent as much time in a police station as I can handle today."

"Thank you." I said to Akamu and shook hands with him. "Send me any remaining bill for your work today."

"You already paid me in full for this. Ten thousand dollars for a few hours of my time is more than worth it."

"I have one more favor to ask. When the police report is complete, contact the owners of the vehicles that were shot up and tell them you will have checks for them. I want them to get the checks and sign over any liability for the damage done. I don't want any future lawsuits from this."

"Of course I will contact you with their information."

We walked out of the police station into the steamy heat and it felt like we had just stepped into the jungles of Columbia. Fortunately a cooling breeze blew and helped swick away the sweat that was forming on us in just the few feet we had to walk to get to the car. Lester and I got into my SUV.

"I'm sorry cuz," he started, "but I need to go offline for a couple of hours and have a couple of drinks. I expect you have all the women back onboard the ship."

"Yes everyone is back on the ship."

"Can Zip or Zero handle Oshanna for a few hours? Because if I try to watch her after all of this I'm liable to strangle her."

"Sure. Sport can handle her on the ship, take the rest of the day off. Lester, you did good today. Thank you."

"Anytime. I don't get to run through a shower of bullets very often anymore." He smirked.

When we got back to the ship Marc updated me that all the adults caught in the shooting were in the Spa, getting massages, facials and relaxing in the sauna. I thought that was good thinking to destress and unwind after a morning like that. All the kids ten and under were in the kids rooms with their parents, the teens had massages and were now playing in the teen room.

I didn't know it for a fact, but my gut was telling me that with Sergio and Santiago dead, the threat was over and the women were now safe.

To be continued….

A/N: For anyone that doesn't know "getting dressed" and "undressed" in this chapter refers to the men getting armed. Thank you all for your reviews you don't know how much they mean to me! Posting one day early because I had a pleading review from a guest reviewer to do so and I was able to get it ready sooner. Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint, Thanks for all your support!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.