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

“No doubt,” he said. “Now go to bed. Tomorrow’s a whole new day.” She smiled, and, with the dogs traipsing upstairs beside her, she headed to bed. Quickly she switched out of the clothes she’d thrown on and lay down on the bed. The little dogs came up beside her, and Max lay down at her feet.

“It’s okay, Max,” she murmured. He rarely slept anymore. The potshots in the dark made him a little more edgy, a little more disgruntled throughout the day, but he was always listening for those intruders that they both knew were out there, just waiting for a chance to pounce.

“We made it through another night, buddy, and, with Bonaparte here, we should at least get some sleep.” Maybe for the first time in a very long time, she thought to herself. At least since all this shit came down. How the hell had her life gotten so warped? She’d been the sheriff for eight years, one of the youngest ever hired in the area. In all that time, she’d been doing a damn good job, as far as she was concerned; and, so far, the town had agreed. But somewhere along the line it had turned into a mess, and she knew exactly who to blame. She wanted her town cleaned up, and she wanted back again the confidence and the respect she’d worked so hard to earn from the townsfolk. But getting there looked like it would be a little more difficult than she had anticipated.

Maybe with Bonaparte giving her a hand, she could pull this off. She damn well hoped so. But, like he’d said, everybody needs a little help sometimes. Because, along with being the sheriff and having her property here, this is where she wanted to stay, … for the rest of her life. She wasn’t sure if she would still have a way to make a living wage after the next election, but she’d figure out something. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to seek alternate employment because it would be awfully hard to tackle anything different when her heart and soul were committed to this work. Right along with this property that was her heritage and maybe going the self-sustaining route. With that thought uppermost in her mind, she fell asleep.

*

Bonaparte woke up the next morning, rested and raring to go. He jumped out of bed, pulled on a change of clothes, and went downstairs. Even as he got there, he found her up and sitting outside, with a cup of coffee. He stared at her in disgruntlement. “You know what? I used to be the first person up,” he said. “I don’t know too many people who are up before me.”

“Well then, you’ve never been here before, have you?” she said, getting up, heading inside with a smile.

“I guess not. Why are you up so early?”

“I’m always up early,” she murmured, refilling her coffee mug. “It goes along with the dogs. And the life.”

“Well, the life maybe,” he said. “I can see that. Anything happen while I slept?”

“Nope. Everything is calm,” she said, reaching for another cup, “deceptively so.”

“The calm before the storm?” he asked.

“Yeah. What will you do today?” she asked, as she poured him a coffee, then headed back outside.

Bonaparte followed her to the patio table and sat beside her. “I’ve ordered a metal detector. It’s supposed to come in today,” he said. “I’ll go to town pick it up.”

“I’ll come with you,” she said.

“You don’t think I can handle it?”

“No, I just want to see people’s reactions,” she said, leaning back in her chair.

“You don’t want to stay here alone and enjoy some downtime?”

“Not sure that’s even possible,” she said. “When they start taking potshots in the middle of the night,” she noted, “you know they’ll be up for most anything.”

“Yeah,” he said. “They could also burn down your house.”

“I’ve thought of that,” she said. “I raised my homeowner’s coverage just in case.”

“Right. Because it’s still just a house, isn’t it?”

“I could rebuild if I had to,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to, but I could.”

“You know what? I think it’s a better idea if you do come with me,” he said. “Maybe we’ll take the dogs along too.”

“Why is that?”

“Because then I can keep an eye on all of you,” he said, with a bright smile.

“No, they are fine here. This is their home.” She laughed. “I checked out the freezer, and we don’t have enough ribs.”

He groaned in mock despair. “In that case, we’ll definitely go to town.”

“What do you want first? The ribs or your package?”

“The longer we have the ribs marinating, the better,” he said. “So we can go now, or we can wait a little bit and see if that parcel is in.”

“It’ll take a miracle to get a parcel in that fast,” she said. “But I’d rather do only one trip.”

“Miracles happen,” he said. “This is Levi. Remember?”

“And that’s true. If anybody can get this stuff done fast, it would be Levi and Ice.”

“Levi and Ice are a hell of a pair, aren’t they? And Ice makes things happen. Stuff that you wouldn’t believe even possible.”

Angela nodded. “Ice and I have become good friends,” she said, “but we’re just far enough away that we don’t get to visit.”

“Not sure any visiting happens anytime,” he said, “unless you live in the compound.”

“Must be a few dozen people living there now, at least, isn’t there?”

“Oh, yes, every bit of that,” he said and laughed. “But it’s a fun environment.”

“For a lot of people,” she said, “unless you’re the kind who wants space.” She motioned to the area around her.

“Not many people have this option,” he said, as he surveyed all that surrounded them. He checked his watch. “What time does anything open in town?”

“Not for hours,” she said. “We’re early.”

“Damn,” he said. “I was hoping to go grab the stuff we needed and get home.”

“We will, but we might as well have breakfast first.”

“Oh.” He looked at her with interest. “What do