Bonaparte's Belle: A SEALs of Honor World Novel (Heroes for Hire Book 24), Dale Mayer [read an ebook week .TXT] 📗

As the shooter stopped and stretched, he rotated his shoulders and neck, then placed the rifle on the ground beside him and just stood there for a long moment. A dog came out of the house and raced toward him. He gave it a big long cuddle, as if he had been waiting for the dog to come. When he started to get up, he reached for the gun, stopped, looked around, and looked again. The rifle was gone. Then he started to swear. The dog at his side started to bark and bark.

Somebody from inside the house stepped out. “Honey, is that you?”

“Go back to bed. I told you not to wait up for me,” the man yelled.

“When you go out of the house in the middle of the night, what do you expect me to do?” The woman’s voice had a plaintive tone.

Angela studied the woman but didn’t recognize her, although that wasn’t surprising, since women came and went with a scary regularity. The man just swore at her and said, “Get the fuck in the house. Somebody’s out here.”

“No, there isn’t,” she said. “It was just you. Come on in. You can have a drink and relax.”

“No!” he said. “Just do as I say and go inside.”

“Don’t be so grouchy. Come on. I know you’re just going out there and taking potshots at coyotes,” she said, “and I presume the hunting didn’t go all that well, or you’d be in a better mood.”

“Do I have a gun with me?” he snapped, as he walked closer.

“Well, you did when you left,” she said, with a very clear don’t speak to me in that tone of voice attitude behind her words.

He glared. “Just pack up and get the hell out of my house,” he said.

“Well, it’s not my fault the hunting didn’t go well,” she snapped. “You don’t have to blame me.”

“Hell,” he said, “you better go pack up and get out of here, before I decide that you become the next hunt.”

She gasped at that. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way. Are you calling me an animal?”

He just looked at her, and Angela could see from the light of the kitchen door that he was still struggling with what his latest bimbo was thinking. Angela wanted to laugh out loud, yet it was hardly a laughing matter if he ended up turning the gun on the woman. Except for the fact that there was no gun because it had disappeared. Even now, as he was yelling at her to get into the house, he was looking around for the rifle, but there was no sign of it.

Meanwhile, the dog was tripping him up, thinking this was a new game. He was barking and jumping into the whole mess. Angela stood here, her dogs on alert but staying silent on her orders, watching in amazement, as this calm and organized-looking killer just lost it. Before she had a chance to consider that further, Bonaparte was at her side.

“Well, I’ve got the rifle,” he said. “Did you want to stay and watch the show?”

“Nope,” she said. “I’ve seen enough. It was great, but now I want to go home.”

So together they slid into the darkness, this time retracing their steps with a silence that she appreciated. When they got back to her house, she looked at the rifle and realized that he wore gloves. “Where’d you get those?” she asked.

“Oh, I keep an emergency pair or two in my pocket all the time,” he said. “You never know when you’ll come across some evidence, or you don’t want to leave any,” he said, with a smirk. “Now we’ll find out where the bullets are.”

“Yeah, I haven’t figured that part out yet,” she said.

“We’ll find them tomorrow,” he promised.

She looked at him in surprise. “You’re awfully confident. How do you propose to do that?”

He grinned broadly. “Metal detector.”

She was both astonished and gratified because that could work. “If you could do that, it would give me the first bit of proof. As long as we can match the bullet to this barrel, of course.”

“I presume you can get that done at work?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I sure can.”

“Good enough,” he said. “Tomorrow it is. Now, go get some rest,” he said. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“We do?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “There’s a pool to dive into, and I’d love to explore the area.”

She smiled. “That would be good,” she said. “Generally it’s just me out there.”

“I can see how that’s probably been lonely as hell for you. But I’m here now, so we can liven things up a little bit,” he said. “You’ve got a nice barbecue pit out there. Can I cook on it?”

“Sure,” she said. “What do you want to make?”

“Got any ribs?” he asked, as he waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Oh, stop,” she said, laughing.

“I love, love, love barbecue. So, if we get the ribs,” he said, “I’ll take over cooking dinner tomorrow night.”

“You’re on,” she said. “It’s the weekend anyway, but I should warn you. Since I have no deputies, you can count on the fact that I’ll get called out.”

“Well, where you get called, I’m going as well,” he said. “We are not to be apart. Do you hear me?”

She nodded. “Is that your dictate, or is it Levi’s?”

“Both of us.”

“He does realize that I can take care of myself, right?”

“Of course he does,” he said, “and so do I. But remember. We all need help occasionally. Sometimes shit goes the wrong way, and it doesn’t matter who we are or what capabilities we have. Bullets really aren’t discerning. They’ll take us all out, one way or another.”

“Good enough, as long as you don’t believe I can’t handle this.”

“I believe it,” he said. “I do. You have nothing to prove, and we all need help sometimes. In this case Levi knows just how bad things are, and he sent me to give you a hand.”

She nodded, with a smile. “And it’s appreciated,” she said.