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

did I,” she said. “So give me a hand and help me figure it out. Let me know when you can.” With that, she hung up. She walked closer to the two women, with her fresh cup of coffee, and saw that Isabel had several pages written down, but Lana had barely started. “What’s the matter, Lana?”

“Well, I just can’t stop thinking about Mama.”

“Yeah, and I just got off the phone with the prosecutor.” Both women looked up hopefully. She shook her head. “He’s looking into what the options are, but we can always get somebody from town to come collect your mother and get her settled into a care facility.”

Both women cried out in horror.

Angela stared at them with a flat look and said, “Remember that part about not thinking about the consequences of your actions?”

“But you know Mama,” Lana said. “You’ve had many a meal at our table.”

“Yeah, and it breaks my heart to even think that her daughters would do this to her,” she said, neatly turning the tables.

Both women flushed. They looked at each other and sagged in place.

“And I know we’re not allowed to offer bribes or anything,” Lana said, “but is there something we can do to make this better?”

“Yes, Lana,” she said. “You two give us the information we need, and you cooperate fully. I can’t guarantee that you will get off though. Walking into a jail and letting the prisoners out is hard to overlook. I can’t guarantee that anybody’ll give you a lenient sentence or will let you do time at home,” she said, “but I can tell you that, if you don’t cooperate, it’ll be way worse.”

The two women sat sniffling together and bent their heads to work on their statements.

Angela stared at these women she had known since they were all children. And it just shocked her. Lana was a little older and had always been a bit of an irresponsible flake, but apparently neither sister had really gotten on with a responsible life, and that just blew Angela away. She was reminded of the way Isabel had acted when Bonaparte had inquired about her identification, and she wondered what that was about. Although being forced to hand over her ID did make things seem more real, more official. And likely made Isabel realize what a mess she was in.

There were all kinds of lessons in life, but these two had each gone down a rabbit hole of sorts and apparently didn’t see any way to get back out, making it worse instead of better. As Angela watched the two women weep over their statements, she felt like a heel, but too many things needed to be kept on course. She couldn’t be a friend right now.

If it had been anybody else as the sheriff, Angela would have been here, with the sisters, advocating for them, but Angela couldn’t do that now—and frankly wasn’t so inclined. She was especially disappointed that Isabel hadn’t told her that Lana was involved. That would have been a game-changer, so much so that Angela probably should have thought about it herself.

She pulled out her phone and checked for a text from Bonaparte, but there was nothing. She hated that even more. She knew it was too soon for him to have found, accosted, or even picked up one or the other of her escapees. And now that she actually needed four men to be picked up, she wondered if she should go grab Ronnie and former Deputy Johnson herself. She frowned at that idea, tossing it back and forth. If she locked the two women in the jail and put a padlock on it, that was possible. But if somebody came along and tried to cut that, she’d have nobody in the station to prevent it. And then she remembered her lack of a truck. She swore at that. Picking up the phone, she contacted the sheriff in the neighboring county. “Any chance you’ve got a deputy who can come over and sit in the jail to make sure nobody else gets out?”

“Yep,” he said, “we can cover that. I’ll have somebody there in about forty minutes.”

“Good enough,” she said. “I really appreciate it.” And, with that, she hung up. The two women looked at her in surprise. “What?” she asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re getting help from another sheriff?” Isabel asked.

“Well, it depends on if the sheriff’ turns out to be on my side or not,” she said bluntly. “Apparently all my deputies have run for the hills and quit.”

At that, Lana flushed again. “He didn’t want you to know.”

“Maybe, but he didn’t come to me either, did he? Just like you two should have just talked to me,” she stated. “I’ve been the sheriff here for eight years. I’ve been your friend forever. I’ve lived here since birth.”

They both winced. “I know,” Lana said. “I told him that he should talk to you, but he didn’t think you’d understand.”

“Want to know what’s hard for me to understand? It’s deserting a sinking ship and leaving the captain here to handle everything,” she said. “Johnson wanted a job, so I took him on and trained him, and I gave him that opportunity. Not only did he bail on me with the others but he allowed those keys to be used in a crime. You can bet I won’t be doing that again.”

“But that’s all he wants, you know?” Lana said quietly. “He just wants to come back to work.”

“Yeah, and he should have thought about that before allowing his keys to be used to release prisoners from the jail,” she said. “That won’t get him invited back. Nor you for that matter.” And, with that note of finality, she motioned at the statements and said, “Keep writing.”

The two women frowned and looked at each other but bent their heads obediently and kept on writing out their statements.

Angela crossed her arms and waited. Then she grabbed a pad of paper and started writing down