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

him the clipped papers from the top. “Here’s a copy of the notes I have so far,” she said. “These are cases involving people I can connect to them, … in theory at least. Two are my best bets. This operation has been going on locally for over a year.”

“But no proof?”

“Not enough,” she corrected. “This has to be a locked-down airtight case.”

“And these are all …” He looked at the photos and said, “They’re all old people.”

“They are, indeed, and, in all cases, these are people who stood in the way in some fashion.”

“These guys wanted their properties?”

“I don’t know whether they are after the properties, the businesses, or the land. It’s not as if they’re talking. But they’ve done this before. They’ve gone into various towns, bought up a lot of land, razed a lot of old homesteads, and put in modern facilities.”

“And is your town against that?”

“Not at all,” she said, “except that most of the people involved weren’t interested in selling. One was and he’s alive still, in a nursing home.” She nodded at the faces in photos he held. “None of the others wanted to. Not a one.”

He frowned, as he continued to look at the photos. “Money usually talks, and, if these assholes have money, why wouldn’t they have tried that?”

“All of the deceased were born here,” she said, “and spent their whole lives in those homes.”

“So couldn’t these guys just have outwaited them?”

“Did I tell you that they were young? Like, I mean, they’re young. As in, they have absolutely no intention on waiting for anybody to die of natural causes before they can implement their plans.”

“And I suppose young and wealthy goes along with cocky and arrogant?”

“Absolutely,” she said, and she laughed. “Sounds like you understand the problem already.”

“Oh, hell yeah,” he said. “We’ve seen guys like this before. Generally they’re not as well organized though, and don’t move from town to town.”

“I think they work on a premise of fear and intimidation,” she said. “What I haven’t figured out yet is what they want to do with these properties. Because, so far, nothing’s happening, other than a direct geographical connection to three parcels.”

“Same thing in the previous towns?”

“I don’t know that the previous properties were geographically connected. Need to check that out. Their MO has been to buy up all the properties they could, and, some of which they’re just sitting on. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, except that it’s all really prime real estate. Some are off the highway just out of town, like a place you’d see a large diesel gas station or something like that. But that takes money too.”

“But you said they have money?”

“Sure. They certainly seem to, but I don’t know whether they have millions, billions, or trillions at this point in time,” she said, with a wave of her hand.

“I’ll look into their portfolio and see just where they’re at,” he said, pulling out the sheet with the list of the names. “Brothers?”

“Yes,” she said. “And their father was Marcus Gapone.” At that, Bonaparte lifted his gaze and stared at her in shock. She nodded. “Yeah, one of the notorious crime bosses. These two cut their teeth on that shit, and now they’re here in my town.”

“Wow,” he said, settling back. “When you bite into trouble, you really take a big bite, don’t you?”

“I’ve never been one to walk a fine line of niceties,” she said, “but I’ve always been fair. These people make my skin crawl. And make me pissed off and angry.”

“You know that they won’t go down easy, right?”

“Of course I do. And I also know that they’ll do everything possible to slide their way out of it. So we either get that evidence we need, or it’s a lost cause.”

“Even with the evidence,” he said, “don’t count on any witnesses because they’ll pressure them into not testifying.”

“I know,” she said. “I have my suspicions that they have experience with witness intimidation in the past. Potentially with deaths occurring.”

He whistled. “Are you working with anybody else on this?”

She shook her head. “I’ve kept it very close to the vest, up to this point.”

“Is that because you don’t want anybody else to know because you’re afraid somebody will do something to you or because you don’t know who to trust?”

She laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “All of the above.”

*

Angela studied the man in front of her. The photo Levi had sent her one year ago didn’t do him justice. He was a monster of a man—but with a sense of purpose, a sense of assurance that he could handle whatever went wrong in his world. A part of her wished she had the same sense. But something about being targeted and having her entire staff walk out definitely left her sitting here, realizing just how vulnerable she really was. But instead of making her even more afraid, it just pissed her off so much more.

When she had finally broken down and told Levi what the hell was going on here, he had suggested that Bonaparte come and give her a hand. She wasn’t sure why he had been chosen, but, as she saw the mountain of a man in front of her, she wasn’t at all unhappy with Levi’s choice. She should have let Levi introduce them a long time ago, when he’d first brought it up, but she’d put it down to Levi’s matchmaking.

Now she needed this man for a whole different purpose. The man looked like he hated all kinds of injustice and would go to bat for any underdog. If she needed one thing right now, it was somebody strong at her side. A set of brains to give her a hand to figure this out was nice too.

“I really didn’t know what to do,” she said. “And, when you don’t have a way forward, you flail around, standing in place.”

“Or you stand your ground,” he said gently, “until you figure it out.”

“Sure, until suddenly you don’t