Chapter 45: Gotcha II

**BACK TO THE STORY...**

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Addicus and his men arrived at the seaport of San Jose, Costa Rica. They went to the best and fanciest hotel to settle in before they searched for their prize. After they settled in, Addicus informed his men that first thing tomorrow, they would look for Sharon. The next day, Addicus sent some of his men to go out to the location Señor Diego had provided for them, to make sure that Sharon was there. He ordered them to be stealthy and not let her see them unless it would take away the element of surprise, and she might escape him once again.

Meanwhile, back at home, Sharon was inside the house making sandwiches to take to Victoria and Hector, who were in the shop attending to customers; Addicus' men. 

He decided to send some of his newest recruits, so Sharon wouldn't recognize them. He had shown them images of Sharon and they had memorized her face. The men went in and walked around the shop, pretending to be admiring the art and browsing through them. They kept an eye out for Sharon, but she wasn't there. 

One of the goons signalled to the other that they should leave since she wasn't there, but the other man wasn't so quick to give up.

"Sir, may I have a word?" The goon said, calling Hector over to him.

"Yes, Sir, how may I be of assistance?" Hector asked politely.

"My name is Tom and this is my brother, Liam. We want to paint a special portrait of our grandmother and give it to her for her eightieth birthday. I brought an image of her to give to the artist because we were informed that she takes requests," Tom said.

"Indeed she does! Just leave the picture with me, and we'll record your name and order into our ledger. You're to leave a down payment and in a week or two, your painting will be ready for you to give to your grandmother," Hector told them.

"That's truly wonderful. Thank you so much," Tom said and was led to the reception area by Victoria.

"What about the artist? We've heard so many nice things about her, and we were recommended to her. It would indeed be wonderful if we could meet her," Tom said nicely to Victoria.

"She's busy at the moment, but she'll be out soon if you really want to meet her," Victoria replied.

"I'm afraid we can't stay long. We still have a lot of preparations to make for our grandmother's birthday. If we could just speak to her for just a minute, it would mean so much. Our grandma has taught us to appreciate good art and the people who make it," Tom said, trying harder but very subtly to get Victoria to bring out Sharon so they could confirm that she was there.

Victoria decided to get Sharon to come out and meet the men. She had no idea what their true intentions were and mistook them as harmless, art-loving grandsons who wanted to meet a quite popular artist.

"Ok, I'll go get her. Finish filling out the form while I get her out," she said.

"Of course. Thank you!" Tom said with a bow of gratitude.

Victoria went in and found Sharon in the kitchen preparing the sandwiches. She told her that some of her fans were outside and wanted to meet her.

"I'm almost done. I'll be out soon," Sharon said, but Victoria was insistent that she come now because the men had to leave.

Sharon finally agreed and left the snacks she was preparing to go talk to the men. She came out and approached them until she stood before them. As soon as they saw her face, it was all the confirmation they needed. 

They were satisfied and eager to inform Addicus.

"Gentlemen, I'm Sharon, the artist. How may I help you?" She said to them.

"It is truly a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sharon. I'm Tom and this is my brother, Leonard. We just wanted to meet you and ask you personally to make our grandmother's portrait as beautiful as she is and to tell you that we're big fans of your work," Tom said with a smile.

"I thought you said your brother's name was Liam?" Victoria asked, noticing that a different name had been mentioned.

Tom wasn't sure what to say and was stammering until "Liam" came to his rescue.

"Liam's my first name, but my brother usually calls me by my middle name, Leonard," he lied.

They weren't suspicious, so they dismissed it. The two men finally left and went straight to inform Addicus that they had found his prize.