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

He walked him back up into the front of the house, parked him just inside the door, then walked over, grabbed Johnny, and pulled the two of them out together, both swearing up a blue streak. Bonaparte ignored them and walked them around to the back of the house and over to his truck. He shoved them up into the back seat and slammed the door behind them.

“We can’t even buckle our seat belts,” Henry whined.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Bonaparte said. “That’s really not on my radar.”

“We’ll get you for this,” Johnny said, his voice low and ugly.

“Yeah? How’s that working out for you so far?” he said. “You guys are nothing but punks. Punks with nothing behind you. You think money will fix everything for you.”

“It will,” Johnny said. “Money always does.”

With their hands behind their backs like that, they were no danger to him. But he studied them carefully, as he backed out of the alley and headed toward the station. He put his phone on Speaker and called Angela.

She answered immediately. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m bringing your two prisoners back.”

“Now that is good news,” she said. “What about Ronnie?”

“No sign of him yet.”

“We also have to pick up Frank, my ex-deputy.”

“Oh.” Bonaparte thought about it and then nodded. “I gather he’s the reason they got loose in the first place.”

“Well, him and Lana, yes,” she said.

“Okay, let’s get these two back in first,” he said. “Then I’ll go round up Ronnie. Let me know where to find Frank.”

As soon as Bonaparte hung up, Henry spoke up from behind him. “You’ll never get him. You know that, right?”

“Why is that?” Bonaparte asked.

“Well, he’s a deputy too, and you can’t arrest a deputy.”

“Well, he’s not a deputy anymore,” Bonaparte said, “and pretty soon he’ll join you in jail.”

Henry snorted at that. “That’s not normal.”

Bonaparte looked at the kid and shook his head. “You really are out of touch, aren’t you?”

“I’m more in touch than you are, old man.”

The old man comment stung a bit, but, considering Henry’s age, it probably fit from his perspective. Then again, it didn’t appear he had learned anything much so far or had been doing his learning in the wrong places. He certainly seemed to have a twisted view of how the law worked. But Bonaparte also noticed that Johnny didn’t say anything. Punching in a speed dial number into his phone on the console of the truck, he called Angela. “Johnny will need medical attention when we get there.”

“Did you shoot him?” she asked in a dry tone.

“Winged him in the top of the shoulder, as he was going for a weapon.”

“Jesus,” she said. “Too bad,” she whispered.

“I hear you,” he said.

“What about Henry?”

“He’s got a bloody nose that he earned trying to escape.”

“Of course he did,” she said. “He’s never been known to be all that bright.”

With that, Bonaparte hung up, laughing.

Henry started swearing at him. “That’s a lie,” he said. “That’s a damn lie. How dare she say that. She’s nothing! Nothing but a piece of ass.”

Bonaparte shook his head and said, “Wow, kid, you’ve really got some problems, don’t you?”

When they finally pulled into the station, Angela came out and took possession of Henry, while Bonaparte escorted Johnny, and the four of them walked back into the jail cell. While there, she separated the two of them and brought in a nurse to look at Johnny’s shoulder.

The nurse shrugged, then cleaned the wound. “It’ll be fine,” she said, then put a bandage on it and walked out. Johnny never said a word. She put Johnny back in with Henry in the same cell. In the other cell were the two sisters, sitting there, looking morose and lost.

Bonaparte stared at them and shook his head. “Wow,” he said, “you two are a pair, aren’t you?”

“We didn’t have any choice,” Lana said, glaring at him.

“You didn’t have any choice but to let prisoners out of jail?”

She flushed at that. “I didn’t think that one through,” she said.

“You think?” he said. “Aiding and abetting criminals to escape? Does that ring a bell anywhere along the line? Have you heard any news media commentary on that? You know? How cops and sheriff’s clerks go to jail for the same crimes as other people do?”

Lana just stared at him, all the color leaving her face. “I can’t go to jail,” she said. “I just can’t. There’s poor Mama to look after.”

“And yet you didn’t think about her before you walked in here and let criminals go free,” he said in a dry tone. “Not to mention what they were doing to your sister when we arrested them.”

“I can’t go to jail.” Lana hopped up and started shaking the bars. “Don’t you hear me? I can’t go to jail.”

He stepped forward, shoved his face into hers, and, without any sympathy, said, “News flash, you’re already in jail.”

And, with that, he turned and walked out.

Chapter 10

Angela reached up and rubbed her forehead.

“You okay?” Bonaparte asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. My counterpart in a neighboring county is sending over a deputy to give me a hand.”

“Good,” he said. “Are you trying to get rid of me already?”

She shook her head. “No, but obviously we can’t leave here, while that key is still missing.”

“Right, that key,” he said. “I can take care of that if you’ll tell me where it’s likely to be.”

She handed him a piece of paper and said, “That’s Frank’s address.”

He looked at it, nodded, and said, “I can almost walk from here.”

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to walk him back over in handcuffs either,” she said sadly. “It’s too bad. He was a very promising deputy.”

“Well, looks like they got to him one way or another.”

“And Lana now says he doesn’t know she took the keys.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Nope,” she said, “I don’t. Earlier she said he was trying to get copies made. I expect the brothers have something on him too.