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

“So, like a highway?”

“That would be my thought.”

“I’ll get on it,” Levi said, “and see what our underground network can come up with. Also the tax man is already looking at Ronnie’s and Johnny’s IRS returns. The brothers own multiple real estate holdings under various holding companies. We’re still on it, but it’ll take a pro to get to the bottom of this, shifting through all the layers, trying to hide the ultimate owner.”

Finished on the phone, Bonaparte walked back to where the two guys sat. He smiled at them. “Comfortable?”

The young kid looked at him and said, “I have to go the bathroom.”

“I can do that,” he said. He went to lift him up, but the guy hopped to his feet.

“Get your hands off me.”

“Okay,” he said, “guess you’re not going to the bathroom.”

“I have to go,” he said.

“Well then, you need to walk to the bathroom,” he said. “I’m not carrying you.”

“You would touch me.”

“I would help you get on your feet,” he said. “But, hey, if you’re one of those guys, then whatever.”

At that, Henry stopped and stared at him. “What do you mean, one of those guys?”

Bonaparte gave him a blank look. “The washroom’s down here. You have to go or not?”

“But you have to untie my hands first.”

“I’ll untie your hands when you get into the washroom,” he said. “And, if you’re going to pull something, you might as well talk yourself out of that right now.”

“Why? Because you’re such a big tough guy? You’re just big,” he said. “You’re nothing beyond that.”

Bonaparte smiled and said, “So, bathroom or not?” He used a deliberately bored voice to let the kid know that he was about to get all the time he wanted because Bonaparte would walk away and no way would he walk back to the kid anytime soon.

“Fine, bathroom,” the kid said resentfully.

Bonaparte walked him to the bathroom, opened up the door, and checked inside to be sure it was safe and secure. Unclipping the handcuffs, he put the kid inside. Then Bonaparte just stood at the open door.

“Close the door!” Henry griped.

“Too bad, kid. When you’re in jail, you’ll be in full view of everybody,” he said. “So you might as well get down to business.”

The kid just looked at him, glanced at the door, then turned and walked over to the urinal. “You just want to watch.”

“Yeah, that’s probably your deal, not mine.”

“Jesus, what an asshole,” Henry muttered. Bonaparte heard him urinating and waited for the kid to finish washing his hands, before stepping back to the doorway. The kid came back out toward the doorway, but it was obvious he was looking for anywhere to run. Bonaparte immediately grabbed him by the shoulder and got him handcuffed again.

“You don’t have to handcuff me, you know?” Henry whined.

“You were checking out your exits,” he said, “so you earned no trust on my part.” The kid just glared at him. Bonaparte walked him over and sat him on the other side of the room from where Johnny was.

“Why can’t I sit over there?” he asked.

“I don’t want you two talking, getting your stories straight.”

“You don’t know anything about it,” he muttered.

“Yeah? Well, you might be surprised.”

As soon as Angela came back out, she looked at Johnny and said, “Your lawyer’s on the way.”

He nodded. “Of course. That’s what I pay him for.”

He spoke in that bored and entitled rich man’s tone that made Bonaparte just want to punch him in the face. He walked over to Angela, stepped into her office, and said, “Do we have anything?”

“Well, we’ve got a few things,” she said. “But nothing that’ll hold them.”

“Can’t we hold them long enough so he at least has to see the judge?”

“Yep, I can do that,” she said, “and that’ll be Monday.”

“Will we have the ballistics results back by then?”

Chapter 8

Angela looked up at Bonaparte in shock. “Yeah, no,” she said, with a headshake. “And that’s a hard no.”

“Right,” he said, then shook his head. “I keep forgetting we have to play by the standard law enforcement rules, regulations, and departments.”

“We sure do,” she said cheerfully. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Johnny’ll get to walk.”

“It sure sounds like it to me.”

“What I need,” she said, “is to talk to Isabel.”

He thought about that and nodded. “Right. Any chance of getting her to testify?”

“I’m not sure,” Angela said. “It depends how afraid she is about what she’s done.”

“You think they’ll still hold that over her?”

“Well, if you had good leverage like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Yep,” he said, “definitely.”

“Then you know what her answer is.” Angela smiled and said, “But I definitely need to talk to her. Who knows what all these guys have said and done, but they’ve clearly put the fear of God in her.”

“If not, somebody else will be there soon.” He looked at her and said, “Shall we go pick her up?”

“I just called her to come in, and she refused.”

“Then we need to have another in-person talk.”

“Yep. I was thinking we could just lock up these two and drive right back over again.”

“Sounds good.” He marched the two men into the jail cells and watched with quiet satisfaction as the sheriff locked them up.

When she tucked away the key, she said, “Come on. Let’s go.”

“What about my lawyer?” Johnny called out.

“Office hours are closed,” Angela said. “You’ll talk to him Monday.” And, with that, she closed the basement door with a definitive click.

Bonaparte stared at her, with a look of absolute delight. “Oh, I do like that.”

She winked at him. “I will have to come back and feed them later,” she said, “and they do have a urinal in there. But, other than that, they’re good to go until Monday morning.” In the distance she could hear them hollering. “It’s a trick we’ve often pulled,” she said, with a chuckle. “It all depends on what problems we have with people on whether