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

She nodded, escorted Isabel into the front seat of his truck. Looking at Bonaparte, she asked, “Hey, would you mind moving her car back?”

He looked back at the vehicle and said, “Sure, I can do that.”

She watched for a moment, then hopped in.

“Who is that guy?” Isabel asked quietly.

“You met him before. He’s my new deputy,” she said.

“Well, he’s not like any of the others, and he doesn’t act the same.”

“Nope,” she said. “He’s an entirely different animal. But I needed backup. Too much crap going on here right now, and, like you said, these guys are something else.”

“You don’t even know all of it,” she said. “They threatened to kill Mom.”

“And they probably went to her and threatened to kill you too,” she said. “Did you even talk to your mom about it?”

“I didn’t want her to know that we could be in deep trouble.”

“The deep trouble you’re talking about is probably one that these guys created,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“They bought the property, didn’t they?”

“Well sure, and they put us into that position of having to hurry, or we’d lose the deal. They kept dropping the offer. We waited for the lawyer to get the power of attorney, but—”

“But your grandfather wasn’t cognizant enough to do that either, was he?”

She slowly shook her head. “No, and it was their idea,” she whispered.

“And now they’ve got you, don’t they? You didn’t tell me that. You just said maybe they had someone there who overheard.”

“Well, they weren’t there at the time,” she said, “but, yeah, they put the idea in our heads, and then they just stuck around and mentioned a couple things that just kept our minds going in that direction,” she said in frustration. “How could we be so gullible?”

“Because it’s what you wanted, so you were looking for a way to make it happen,” she said.

Isabel fell silent, as they drove toward the station. “What’ll happen to me?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll talk to the prosecutor and see what we have for a case.”

“A case?” she said bitterly. “You could just let me go.”

“I could, but then I wouldn’t be upholding the law. And you’d be the first one to slam me for it, if you weren’t sitting there on the opposite side of the law.”

“But it is me. I am sitting right here. I can’t go to jail.”

“I hear you, and I understand that, and I get that you wish you’d thought about that early on. But, in the meantime, we have to discuss it and see what’s going on and see if you’ll help with this problem or not. Although you’ve lied to me so many times, I’m not sure if you would help or hurt the case at this point.”

“If I help, I’ll get an easier sentence?”

“I can’t promise that,” she said carefully. “Jail may or may not be a part of it. I can’t tell you anything with certainty at this point. I know that it’s a dubious area. Everybody knew the property was for sale for a while and that your family was under some pressure. But that won’t necessarily let you off the hook completely.”

“Community service sounds nice,” she said, with a heavy sigh.

“And I will mention that,” she said, looking over at her friend of many, many years. “I just can’t let you walk.”

“Of course not, you’re much too moral.”

“And why did you elect me?” Angela asked.

“Because I knew you couldn’t be bribed,” she said in frustration. “But I wasn’t expecting to be the one needing to bribe you.”

At that, Angela burst out laughing. “That’s a good thing then,” she said. “Because you didn’t see yourself heading down this life of crime.”

“God, no,” she murmured. “I was never heading in this direction. I was always the Goody Two-Shoes.”

“Maybe. So what did those two say to you at your house?” she said, abruptly changing the subject.

“They told me to smarten up and to not talk.”

“Or?”

“Or my mother would have an accident,” she said bitterly.

“And do you think they went to your mother and told her the same thing?”

“Probably,” she said.

“Call her.”

Isabel looked at her hesitantly. “I didn’t want to open that can of worms.”

“Really? And who would you call when you went to jail?”

“Well, that’s harsh,” she said.

“Sure it is,” Angela said, with a heavy sigh, not knowing what her friend would have to face. She didn’t think it would be a hard sentence, but sometimes, you know, in this very conservative area, things got a little more difficult than anybody expected. She pulled into the station, hopped out, and said, “Come on inside.”

“What if I don’t?” her friend Isabel said, with a moment of bravado.

“Then you run, and I come after you, and then you really get thrown in jail for evading arrest,” she said. “If you do manage to get out of the town and out of the state,” she said, “then we go across country, looking for you. Then you spend your life looking over your shoulder, while you wait to see how long it takes me to catch you.”

“Wow,” Isabel muttered, as she walked toward the station. “You didn’t put it very nicely.”

“You were already caught leaving your garage in your car. What did you think would happen?”

“I guess I’m not really built for a life of crime, am I?”

“Nope, it takes a certain kind of person to make it happen. Somebody who’s willing to pay the price of their conscience and their soul in order to make it do what they want it to do,” she said. “That’s never been you.”

“Well, remember that when the judge, … well, when you’re in a position to put in a good word for me.”

“Oh, I’ll remember,” she said. “I won’t willfully throw you away and lose the key, without even trying to get you a better resolution. But first things first, and that means you have to fess up to what you did, why you did it, what the factors were