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

“Two guys who investigate politicians,” Stone said in a quiet voice. “Apparently they were on to some property issue going down here, and they were slowly building a case, but nobody realized just how much it had escalated and needed attention.”

“Well, it sure as hell does,” she snapped. “I don’t want any of these guys in my town.”

“No, I get it,” he said. “By the way, Denver matched your bullet to the rifle and to fingerprints thereon for the uncle, who I hear is in the hospital.”

“Good news, more evidence,” Angela said, nodding at Bonaparte.

“And me?” Stone said, “I’m here as your reinforcement.”

“Glad to have you too,” she murmured. “Of course I’m glad to have you anytime. But today? Absolutely.”

He crossed his arms, matching their posture, and stared out at the others. “Are these techs here harmless?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “They’re just caught in the middle.” She looked over at them and said, “This should all be settled soon.”

They looked at each other, some shrugging. Two of them had sat down on the ground by now and were stretched out with a cup of coffee from nearby thermoses.

She smiled at them. “I guess you get overtime either way, don’t you?”

They just nodded. “Take as long as you want,” said one of them. “Our base hours will be up soon, and we’re more than happy to start into time and a half.”

She chuckled. “At least something good will come out of today.”

At that, the two men who came with Stone turned and whistled. Stone lifted a hand, and the three suits—the two good guys and the one bad guy—loaded the pushy man into his vehicle. She looked over at Stone. “What was that about?”

“Oh, that was just about prioritizing and realigning power,” he said smoothly.

“So what resistance do we have now?”

“None.”

One suit walked over and took a look at the three of them. “Angela?”

“If you mean, Sheriff Angela Zimmerman,” she said in a cool voice, “yes, that’s me.”

He winced. “My apologies,” he said. “I meant no disrespect.”

“Good,” she said, “then I don’t have to brace you on it. Accidents can happen,” she said generously.

He smiled at her. “That’s very generous of you, considering the scenario. Thank you.”

“You want to tell me what’s going on here?” she asked.

“Let’s just say somebody overplayed his hand, and he’ll now be coming in with us to answer some questions.”

“Excellent. I also have a jail full in town,” she said, “and I’d really like to get those prisoners off my plate as well.”

“Do you have both Ronnie and Johnny in custody?” he asked in surprise.

“I sure do, as well as Henry, one of their lackeys, and two women involved in this mess, though not necessarily by choice,” she added. “Ronnie’s uncle Hector is at the hospital. We’re still looking for Frank though.”

“We did get a phone call from the prosecutor,” he said, “and their cases are interesting.”

“They are,” she said, looking at her watch. “I don’t know if anybody has come to deal with Mama yet, but, she’s going through chemo and radiation, and she can’t be left alone much longer.”

“Right,” he said. “We’ll head over to your station and pick up your prisoners. Hopefully we’ve got more of a team on the way.”

“Good enough,” she said, then frowned. “I’ll need to come with you.”

“We would appreciate it if this team is allowed to enter to collect all the evidence, and then it will all come back to Denver with us.”

She frowned at that, studying him carefully.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” he said, “but we are the good guys.”

She pulled out her phone and spoke as soon as Levi answered. “They came in with Stone, but nobody has identified themselves.”

“Oh.” The man immediately winced. Pulling out his wallet, he offered her his card and badge. She looked at it, not understanding the government tag on it.

She took a photo of the ID, sent it to Levi, then said, “Photo matches the person. His name is Robert Wagner.”

“Yes, got the ID. That’s one of the good guys,” Levi said.

“Okay,” she replied, “I’m holding you to it.”

“No problem.”

She put her phone away and faced Robert. “Levi says you’re okay.”

He nodded. “I’m grateful for Levi saying that,” he said. “He’s been very helpful to our team over the years.”

“Yeah, that’s Levi,” she said. She looked at Stone and said, “Can you vouch for these two?”

“Hey, you just said Levi vouched for us,” Robert replied.

“For you yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m not against asking somebody else,” she said, her voice low and hard. “I trust Stone too.”

He looked over at the two men, then grinned and said, “Yeah, they’re clear.”

“Good enough,” she said, addressing Robert again. “Then you can let your team come in and take the materials they need,” she said, “but I want copies of everything found.”

As Robert shook his head, she held up a hand and said, “Look. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. We have an awful lot of crap going on in town right now and a lot of secondary cases that are related to yours. You decide, gentlemen, right now, before anyone else enters this residence.” She looked from Robert to Stone.

Stone stared at Robert. It didn’t take long.

“Agreed,” Robert said.

And, with that, she stepped aside and let the forensics team enter. They all smiled at her as they headed in, and the last one whispered, “Now that was a class act.”

“Hey, I didn’t get to pull a gun at all,” Bonaparte said. “Not my style.”

“Not a problem,” she said in a low voice. “I want to get back to the station.”

“Problems?” Stone looked at her with a frown.

“Yeah, definitely.”

Chapter 12

Angela looked at Bonaparte, nudged him, and said, “So?”

“It’s all good,” he said.

She turned to Stone and asked, “So do you want to join us for ribs after all this?”

“Well, I’ll stay here and