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

She pointed at a plume of dust down the road. “From the speed that vehicle is traveling,” she said, “what do you want to bet that’s Stone?”

“Moving that fast, it’s got to either be Stone or a helicopter,” he said. “Hey, maybe Levi flew in a team.”

“Nope, not a helicopter. Too bad,” she said. “I’m due for a visit with all those guys.”

“Hey, you could always come back with me afterward.”

“That might be a good deal too,” she said. “But when exactly is afterward?”

“When we get out of here,” he said, smiling.

“Not sure that’ll ever happen,” she said.

“For you, you mean? Don’t you get vacations?”

“Sure, I do. If I can take them,” she said. “But, right now, I don’t have anybody I can trust.”

“What about your hospital security guard?” he asked.

“Well, he’ll come on board as a deputy maybe,” she said. “I was just doing a security check on him and getting some details, before I stepped ahead with that one, before all hell broke loose around here. Clearly he wouldn’t be working as a security guard if he didn’t have a decent background behind him, but I just hadn’t quite gone that far.”

“Any hesitation?” he asked.

She thought about it and shook her head. “No,” she said, “he’s a good person.”

“And he’s not involved in any of this mess?”

“Well, not to my knowledge,” she said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” he said, happy that the plume of dust approached at an even faster clip.

She smiled and said, “I’ll bet that’s Stone, and he just caught sight of people being here, and he’s trying to get here in time to lead the charge.”

Bonaparte laughed. “He does like being out front.”

“It’s not often that he goes in the field now,” she said. “Especially with his beautiful partner.”

“Yeah, that’s true enough too. Most of the guys are starting to be lazy asses, preferring to stay at home with their ladyloves.”

“I bet they’re not really lazy though,” she said, looking at him in mock horror.

“No, that doesn’t go down too well at the compound.”

“Of course not,” she said. “I know enough about Ice to understand there’s no room for lazy on any ship she is running.”

“That’s true, though things are very different now that she has a baby,” he said, but then he stopped and shook his head. “No, you know what? They’re really not different at all. She’s just as organized and on top of things as she always was. But there’s a certain softness to her that wasn’t there before.”

“I’m guessing there’s a lot more laughter for both of them,” she murmured.

He nodded. “Exactly. For all of us actually.”

“So, now that they’ve led the way, how many more babies are happening?”

Chuckling, Bonaparte said, “I suspect at least four or five in this next year or so.” She looked at him in surprise. He shrugged. “What can I say? Anna and Flynn are pregnant.”

“Wow,” she said. “They’re the ones with the rescue, aren’t they?”

“Yep, they sure are,” he said. “And a couple others, I hear.”

Just then a vehicle came toward them. She watched as it approached. “What about Stone?”

“Not yet,” he murmured. “But there was talk of it.”

“But his wife is highfalutin, right?”

“It doesn’t matter. She’s actually pretty down to earth, when it comes to life in reality.”

“That’s good,” Angela said. “Nothing worse than people with their head in the clouds, who just don’t get it.”

“No,” he said, “and that’s definitely not her problem.”

When the large SUV blew through the gate, then took the corner superfast, she chuckled. “That is absolutely Stone.”

The still-livid man in the suit on the phone watched as the vehicle screeched toward him. He turned and looked at her. “Now who the hell is that?”

“Oh, somebody who you probably need to meet,” she said.

He glared at her. “And why the hell do I have to meet anybody?”

“Well, you’re the one who’s stepping on toes here,” she said. He glared at her, not liking the expression on her face, she presumed. But she just smiled at him, as the vehicle slid to a stop, right in front of them. Immediately the crowd on the ground was covered in dust. “He always did like to make an entrance,” she said affectionately.

Stone hopped out and strode forward. Taking one look at the two of them, he grinned. “Am I in time?”

One of the techs spoke up. “In time for what?”

“To bust a few heads,” he said in a flat voice, as he turned to look at them. Bonaparte was huge and wide, and Stone, although shorter, was definitely no slouch when it came to size, so the techs immediately shrank back.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” the lead tech said. “We’re not even sure what the hell’s going on.”

“That’s good,” Stone said. “Just watch and learn.” Walking over to Angela, he wrapped his arms around her, picked her up, and swung her around in a great big hug, like she was a two-year-old.

She shrieked with laughter, as he put her down again, and she gave him a big hug and a smoochy kiss on the cheek. “God, it’s good to see you,” she said.

“Way too long a time,” Stone said. Then he reached over and smacked Bonaparte hard on the shoulder. “I see you’ve not missed any meals while you’ve been here.”

She snorted. “Are you kidding? He’s been holding ribs over my head all day,” she complained in a mocking voice, knowing that the rest of the group gathered on the front lawn was staring at the three of them in amazement.

“That’s not good,” Stone said. “But I got to tell you, he does make the meanest ribs of anybody I’ve ever met.”

She stared at him, then turned to look at Bonaparte. “Now that doesn’t help matters at all,” she snapped. “I really want to go home and get ribs.”

“Hey, I’m all for it,” Bonaparte said, “but we better deal with these guys first.”

Angela turned, surveyed the crew, and realized that the two men who had come