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

“No,” he said, “they never seem to, do they?”

“Apparently I’m not anywhere near as approachable as I thought I was, and that is something I’ll just have to live with.”

“It takes something like this to figure out what the culture is around you,” he said. “Don’t take it personally.”

She looked up at him in surprise. “How the hell else can I take it?” she cried out. “Look at this place? I mean, it’s like rats deserting a ship.”

“It’s more like rats finding their own level because a bigger rat came into town. They figured that rat would take over, so, instead of standing with you to fight him, they were gutless and bet against you, siding with him.”

“Right. Eight years,” she said. “Eight years I’ve been here in this position.”

“And you’ve done a good job,” he said. “You’ve got very little crime, and everybody has been happy, until the two guys with money moved in. And, by the way, Levi found out there is a move for a major highway to go through here.”

She stared at him in shock. “What? A highway? We haven’t heard anything about it. There’s been no public meetings or announcements. Not even rumors.”

“No, it’s being pushed through at the state level,” he said. “And, yes, it looks like your property is likely to be affected.”

She stood up slowly. “What?”

He nodded. “Which also affects the other properties that you’ve been talking about, which is why the brothers were trying to buy up everything. Because, once that highway goes through, a ton of commercialism is about to happen here, and they want in on the action.”

She just stared at him, her stomach twisting. “And what about my place?”

“Well, that’s part of the question, isn’t it?” he said. “Obviously you didn’t know anything about this.”

“Nope, I didn’t,” she said, reaching for the phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“A council member,” she said. “Let’s see what he has to say for himself.”

“Chances are good he may not even know very much about this.”

“Well, if he doesn’t, it’s high time he does,” she said shortly. “Because somebody needs to put a stop to this.”

“You know it won’t be that easy.”

“No,” she said, “it won’t be. But it doesn’t have to be that hard either. Who the hell is driving this? This is literally the first I’ve heard of it,” she said, sitting back down and staring at him in shock.

“Which is why I’m telling you, and Levi told me, so he knows more about it than I do.”

She nodded and said, “You know what? That’s a good point. I’ll call Levi first.” She disconnected her call.

He smiled. “Good idea. If anybody can give you a hand with this, it’s him.”

She immediately dialed and connected with Ice. As soon as Angela identified herself, Ice’s warm tone broke over her, like the soothing hug of a friend.

“Hey, sweetie. Sounds like you got yourself a spot of trouble up there.”

“I sure do,” she said. “Thanks so much for sending Bonaparte. He’s been a huge help already.”

“Nothing like finding out nobody’s got your back,” Ice said quietly. “Just remember. We always have yours.”

“That’s actually another reason I’m calling,” she said. “I’m wondering if I could ask a favor.”

“Anything,” Ice said. “Ask away.”

Then she brought up what Levi had told Bonaparte. “He mentioned that to me,” Ice said thoughtfully. “I don’t think they can push stuff like that through, but it seems like somebody is trying. Let me think on this for a bit.”

Almost immediately after hanging up from Ice’s call and after getting everybody set up into their jail cells, her new borrowed deputy arrived. With relief, she asked him to watch the cells and warned him about what had happened earlier.

He nodded. “That’s fine. I don’t know any of the people in this town,” he said, checking out the four in the cells, “but, looking at this bunch, apparently I don’t want to either.”

They all just glared back at him.

He shrugged and locked the doors to the basement itself. “I’ve got this. Go pick up your next prisoner.”

Angela and Bonaparte smiled and headed out. As they walked outside, Bonaparte looked at her and said, “This has been one hell of a weekend.”

She nodded. “Yeah, especially if we can pick up Ronnie.” They both climbed in Bonaparte’s truck.

“What will you do to keep them here?”

“That’ll be the trouble.”

“And what about their lawyers?”

“Not my problem,” she said. “The prisoners are here in jail now and hopefully they’ll stay there until Monday morning, when the circuit judge comes.”

“That should be fun.”

“Not so much. The prosecutor is working on it as well. I did update him by a text that we had our prisoners back and that we’re headed to pick up another couple.”

“I’m sure he loved that too.”

“Everybody loves to get called about work on weekends,” she said, with a smile.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “At least I know that I’m doing what I need to do.”

“Exactly,” she said. “I get that a Monday-through-Friday eight-to-four schedule works for a lot of jobs, but it doesn’t necessarily work for law enforcement. It seems like the criminals have more time for crossing that line on the weekends than any other time.”

“How does that work?” he said. “You’d think they’d want a day off too.”

She burst out laughing. “A lot of times these guys are working Monday to Friday at some low-level day job but also spend their weekends either getting into trouble or trying to make more money on the side. It’s just that they haven’t found a way or don’t have the patience to do it legally.”

“You’re right about the lack of the patience. I think it’s too slow of a process when it’s legal,” he said. “Everybody wants a shortcut.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” she said, with a shake of her head. “I never really found that to work so well for me.”

“Me either,” he said.

She grinned. “But you