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

“Oh, is that all you want?” Isabel asked sarcastically.

“Well, it’s a hell of a good place to start,” Angela said. “We can’t afford to let these guys go wild on the streets, creating all kinds of chaos.”

“What about your other deputies?” she asked suddenly.

“You know what happened to them. They were warned to stay away from me.”

“And they listened.”

“Well, wouldn’t you? You already kept all this stuff from me.”

“I couldn’t tell you,” she said, “because I’d already done wrong myself.”

“And, once you start down that path, you alienate so many people,” Angela said, “and that makes life a hell of a lot more difficult for you. And everybody else.”

“Yeah, well, I had no way of knowing that ahead of time. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“And that is something that will go in your favor too,” she said quietly. Angela sagged, as they walked through the station. She motioned at a chair that sat by a small empty table and brought over a pad of paper and a pen. “Go ahead and write it out.”

“You know that, if I had a laptop or a computer, I could do it a lot faster.”

“Well, you don’t,” she said, “and I’m not giving you access to anything connected to the internet, and everything here is connected.”

Isabel just stared at her. “That’s hardly fair.”

“No way, you already tried to run once. I can’t have you contacting anybody,” she said. “So sit and make your statement. Then I’ll figure out what I’m doing next, but the statement has to get done first.”

Angela stared at her friend, as Isabel bowed her head to the page in front of her, because Angela really didn’t know what she would do with this mess. This was the first time she’d ever been put in this spot. Even after all the years she’d been the sheriff here, and knowing all the problems associated with policing her friends and neighbors in a small area, but this one seemed like the worst.

Angela understood exactly why Isabel did what she did, but she’d also put herself in a position where she could get in trouble and be leveraged to help these other assholes. And they were bad news for everybody. So Isabel didn’t just do something for herself, she did something against everyone else, and that would be hard to forgive.

With a shake of her head, Angela walked to the jail area to check on her two prisoners and stood there in shock, when she realized the jail was empty.

Both men were gone.

*

Bonaparte walked around the area, trying to flush out whoever was watching him. He hadn’t seen who it was, it was just that feeling, that nagging sensation in the back of his mind and at the back of his neck. When his phone rang, he looked down to see it was Angela. “You miss me already?”

“Both men are gone from the jail cells,” she said.

He froze. “Shit,” he murmured.

“Yeah, that’s one word for it. I’ve definitely got a problem now.”

“Well, we have two escaped convicts,” he said, turning to look around. “I wonder if that’s why I’ve still got that feeling of being watched.”

“Well, now you really need to watch your back,” she said, “because both are dangerous. Henry, because he’s just so young and stupid, and Johnny, because he’ll want to get back at you.”

“Yeah, I got it,” he said. “I’m headed your way. Can you determine how they got out?”

“Afraid so,” she said bitterly. “It looks like a key.” And, with that, she hung up.

He looked down at the phone in his hand and shook his head. She really was dealing with a regular shitstorm. As he walked, his phone rang, and he checked it, glad to see it was Levi. Bonaparte quickly filled him in on all the events of the day so far. Even as Levi started swearing, Bonaparte said, “I’m headed back to the station right now. I’m about ten minutes out.”

“I’d get there a little faster, if you can, because there’s no guarantee that she wasn’t being set up for somebody still in that station.”

He winced at that. “Well, she is armed.”

“Which won’t make a damn bit of difference if they take her by surprise.”

And Bonaparte knew that was true. “Well, we’ve also got Isabel in there too.”

“Yeah, and I know that’s her friend, but we don’t know what kind of a friend she’ll be when push comes to shove.”

“Especially now,” Bonaparte said and explained what had happened with her.

“Wow, these guys are good. They find victims all over the place, apply pressure, and individually they all crumble. And, next thing you know, there is a willing army, available to do whatever is needed to keep themselves out of jail.”

“Well, if you think about it, it’s not all that stupid of an idea. And it seems to be effective.”

“Yep. I also checked in with the planning committee. Apparently they’re in the process of approving a major highway change that will go right through her town.”

“Aah,” he said, with a smile. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

“You think that’s why they’re doing this?”

“Absolutely. A lot of money to be made. Malls, gas stations, etcetera. Whatever else the government is looking to appropriate for the highway.”

“Well, there’s your motive then, at least for now,” Levi said. “And, of course, they’re on hand.”

“Yep, because,” Bonaparte said, “and you probably don’t know this, but the town has an ordinance, where you sell to the townsfolk first. Before you sell to a stranger.”

“So, by being in place, they’re actually getting a chance to purchase properties ahead of anybody else.”

“Yes,” Bonaparte said. “And then, because it hasn’t been approved yet, developers have been sniffing around, but nothing’s really sold. So the brothers are getting set up to earn a quick buck by flipping the properties.”

“Every damn one of them,” Levi said. “Now hustle over there.”

As Bonaparte loped through town, heading for the