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

“Not hardly,” Bonaparte said. “We were pulling you over to ask you about the taillight not working.”

He glared at him. “It was working this morning.”

“Well, it isn’t working now,” Bonaparte said. “And then there’s that tailgating earlier.”

“I wasn’t doing nothing. You were driving too slow, and I was trying to get home.”

She looked at him with half a smile. “Really? Do you think that’ll work in a court of law?”

He sneered at her. “You don’t have anything on me, and I’ll have your badge for putting me in the ditch.”

“Not happening. In the meantime, you should take some driving lessons.” She wrote him up a ticket for his taillight and said, “Get that fixed within forty-eight hours.” He just glared at her, as she slapped it in his hand, and then she walked back over to the truck.

Bonaparte hopped in, and they turned around and drove to her property. “Did you know that guy? Ever seen him before?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“He seems to own the Hummer, not renting it. So will he get it fixed?”

“It’s a simple-enough thing, and he certainly should, but will he? I don’t know,” she said. “A citation for something like that is hardly a big step in any direction.”

“No, but it still shows that he can get pinned by something as negligible as that,” he said.

She shrugged. “But it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference in the end. He’ll be back doing some other shit before long anyway,” she said, sounding frustrated.

“Hold steady,” Bonaparte replied. “We’ll find a way.”

She looked over at him and said, “Sorry. I’m just out of patience and have no clue how we’re supposed to make any of this happen.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Maybe,” she said, “but you haven’t come up with any ideas yet either.”

He winced. “Hey, since I’ve been here, we pushed Ronnie’s buttons and flushed out a shooter. I’ll now go hunt for the bullet,” he said, as he drove up the long driveway to her home. “We’ve found some of the local teens who do Ronnie’s and Johnny’s bidding, plus the Hummer guy who’s already pissed off that I’m here, enough that he’s chasing us down the road. As a matter of fact, I happen to think we’ve chased quite a few bad guys out of the shadows.”

“Maybe,” she said, “but all of it is the same old shit.”

“Well, I’m here now,” he said, “so I won’t deal with the same old shit. We’ll find some bright shiny new shit.”

At that, she burst out laughing and said, “This is a ridiculous conversation.”

He looked over, grinned, and said, “I know, but you’re smiling again.”

She shook her head, feeling the same gloominess take over again. “I’ve got no business smiling,” she said. “This is just a crap deal all around.”

“But it’s what we do,” he said, “so we’ll fix it.”

She smiled, loving his positive attitude. And knowing that he was one of Levi’s guys, she was willing to give him a little bit of rope. She didn’t want it to be enough to hang him because she really, really wanted him to have some great ideas of what they could actually do here. Otherwise, she was afraid that, one night, she just wouldn’t wake up.

As soon as they were home, greeted by all the dogs, and everything was unloaded, and he’d fussed with the ribs and the steaks, he grabbed the package that had been sent overnight from Levi. Bonaparte unpacked a metal detector, a small handheld unit without the long bar, but something useful for vertical applications. He systematically went over the relevant side of the house, thankful for the access Levi had to a unit that had a broad range and could even discern between different metals.

Because her home had old wood siding, clad with shingles, it was easy for a bullet to get missed by a visual check. He was into it about an hour, when he heard a distinctly different ding than it produced when he went over the nailing line. He stopped, refocused, studied the spot, marked it, and then went into the kitchen and asked if she had any tools. She quickly walked over to a large toolbox she kept in the pantry.

He dug around to find a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, then headed back out. She followed. Outside, he pointed where the machine had signaled. Gently they removed the shingle, and underneath they found the bullet. Carefully he pulled it out, looked at her, grinned, and said, “Now we need to check this against the rifle.”

She nodded. “I’ll take that in this afternoon and get it sent out.”

“You’re not going alone,” he said. She looked at him in surprise. He shook his head. “You can’t. Your vehicle is still in the shop,” he said. “Besides it’s not safe. There’s just too much going on right now.”

She shrugged. “In that case, I guess we’re going back to town.”

“Yep,” he said cheerfully, “and that’s okay too. The ribs are all settled in. I’ve got the steaks marinating for tomorrow night. I’m not sure where you’re at for vegetables, but, if there happens to be any corn on the cob, that would be good,” and he waggled his eyebrows.

She shook her head, smirking. “I didn’t realize you were such a foodie.”

“Of course I’m a foodie,” he said. “I love food.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, we all love food,” she said, with a chuckle.

“Yeah, but I really, really love food.” He smiled and said, “So, is there any corn locally?”

“There might be,” she said. “If not, we can head over to one of the farms where I often buy veggies.”

“Good,” he said, “we could just shop there instead of town.”

“We’ll see,” she said. “Let’s head to the station first and get this taken care of.” They hopped into the truck and headed there. When they arrived, she unlocked the door and quickly took care of what she needed to do, then got out the materials to ship the