Bonaparte's Belle Read online

  “I really didn’t know what to do,” she said. “And, when you don’t have a way forward, you flail around, standing in place.”

  “Or you stand your ground,” he said gently, “until you figure it out.”

  “Sure, until suddenly you don’t have enough time to figure it out because they’ve already come after you.”

  “In that case,” he said, “if you think an attack is imminent, how prepared are you to defend this location?”

  “They won’t come in a frontal attack,” she said, leaning back in her big office chair. She picked up a pen and flipped it through her fingers. “The deputies were each contacted at home. By somebody who doesn’t live here, offering money to stay quiet or punishment if they didn’t. But the punishment wasn’t to be done to them directly, it was directed to family members with a promise of more, forcing the deputies to understand just what would be done.”

  “Of course, attack where it hurts the most. Target the loved ones.”

  She said, “Doing it that way makes people far more malleable than if they were roughed up themselves.”

  “And do you have the same weakness?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Weakness?”

  “Is there somebody you love—they can manipulate, kidnap, or torture—in order to force you into doing what they want?”

  “No,” she said shortly. “There isn’t, and that’s causing them some trouble.”

  “Well then, the really simple answer for them is just to remove you from the issue altogether.”

  “Indeed,” she said, with a hard smile. “And, as long as I’m in the sheriff’s office, that’s a little hard to do.” He looked around and saw the bedroll on the floor in the corner and a small bag on top of it. “You’re sleeping here?”

  “My vehicle had a brake issue,” she said shortly. “It’s taking a while to get fixed. And I’m not sure I’ll trust it then.”

  “Shit,” he said. “What about your house? Where is it, and what does it look like?”

  “It’s a rancher on some acreage about ten miles from here,” she said.

  “Nice,” he said. “No parents living with you, no children, no siblings?”

  She shook her head. “No, no, and no.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to defend your own home?”

  “Maybe, but the brakes didn’t get me home,” she said. “They only got me to here.”

  “I didn’t see a vehicle out front, did I?”

  “It’s in the shop.”

  “Right. When’s it due to be ready?”

  “Supposedly this afternoon.”

  “Plan of action?”

  “I’m working on it,” she said. Then she shook her head and tossed down the pen. “But I’m not getting very far.”

  “Sounds to me like we have some work to do,” he said and pulled his chair closer, dropping the file on her desk from his side and reaching across for an empty pad of paper sitting off to her side. Snagging it, he said, “Now let’s get some of this shit figured out.”

  He couldn’t even believe what he had heard so far, and a slow burn had started in his belly. “What threats have you had?”

  “Notes left under the door, here at work, at my home, and in my vehicle,” she said. Opening a drawer to the left of her, she pulled out an envelope and quickly upended it.

  He grabbed a pencil, and, using the eraser end, he quickly shuffled them back and forth. “Did you get them checked for fingerprints?”

  “I did,” she said. “Nothing.”

  He read them slowly. “Get out of town, bitch. Being a sheriff isn’t a woman’s position! So … threats, but not too-too bad.”

  “No,” she said. “Just bad enough.”

  “Exactly.” He frowned. “Anything else?”

  “A couple of dead rats on the front step.”

  He raised an eyebrow at that. “So that could be related or maybe not.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But nobody’s tossed any dead pets at you or anything else like that?”

  “No,” she said, settling back. “I have three dogs at home though, and that’s a concern.”

  “Watchdogs?”

  “One, the other two are wannabes,” she said, with a crooked smile.

  “Good. And what about your receptionist out there?”

  “Lana? She’s been here for over a decade, and she doesn’t believe there’s any threat at all.”

  “Is that credible?”

  “Not in my book,” she said, “but nobody really believes me, and the other deputies won’t even admit to it.”

  “Anything else?” he asked, looking at her.

  She shrugged. “No. I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t think so?” he said, with emphasis. “What about on your phone? Anything there?”

  She shrugged. “Yeah, definitely had a few odd calls.”

  “Anybody you know?”

  “No. Most people in town know me, and I know most of them,” she said. “I was born and raised here, so most of them are … most have been reasonable.”

  “But some of them haven’t been,” he pounced.

  “Some of them haven’t been,” she said, with a nod.

  “I’ll need the names of everybody who hasn’t been.”

  “What will you do?” she asked. “Threaten them?”

  “Of course not,” he said, giving her a bland stare. “Obviously we need to do something. And they need to know that you’re not alone.”

  “What? Will you pull that big macho man thing on me?”

  “You want me to?” he asked instantly.

  She burst out laughing. “No, I sure don’t,” she said. “I’m pretty used to handling things myself.”

  “We all need help sometimes,” he said, “even Levi and me.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Do you now?”

  “Of course.”

  “In what way?”

  He instantly said, “Well, I’ve got two kids coming for the summer, and they’ll be at my place in about three weeks. I haven’t got a clue what to do with them.” He studied her for a long moment, but her gaze was steady, right back at him. He really liked that. As a matter of fact, he was liking a whole lot about her. Damn Levi for even bringing up that angle.

  “Kids can be fun,” she said quietly. “Are they yours?”

  He nodded. “A boy and a girl.” And he mentioned their ages. “But that’s not today’s issue.”

  “Maybe it is,” she said suddenly. “I don’t want any innocent children brought into this.”

  “Well, we’ll have it well handled before that time,” he said, “and I have a place close to Levi, where I would take them to anyway.”

  “Good enough.” she said. “But if anybody knows about them, chances are they could still be used as pawns.”

  He had to respect that she was concerned about his children—or any children caught up in this nightmare for that matter. “Thank you for thinking of them,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll be safe enough. We just need to get this dealt with and fast.”

  “Nothing’s ever fast,” she said. “These two have tentacles that seem to be really far-reaching.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean, when something happens to them, and they’re made an example of, the rest of the family won’t cut their losses. They’re only popular while they’re making money for the family.”

  “That’s true enough,” she muttered. “They also don’t have any children of their own.”

  “That’s a good thing,” he said. “Then we won’t be leaving any children fatherless.” His hard tone left absolutely nothing for her to misunderstand.

  “Are you really planning on killing them?”

  He gave her a flat stare. “No,” he said, frowning. “Absolutely not. I’m not planning anything. Yet. But, believe me, if they’re looking to pressure me, threaten me, or take out any more old folks who happen to own property, that’s something they’ll have to go through me for.”
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  “I don’t imagine very much gets through you,” she said, with a laugh.

  “Not in a very long time,” he said, with a smile. “But then my size can be a bit of a deterrent.”

  “You think?” she said. “I’m six foot. How tall are you?”

  “Six-seven,” he said, with a broad smile.

  She smiled. “Not too many guys your height around here.”

  “Nope,” he said, “you could even wear heels, and I’d still tower over you.”

  She laughed at that. “I love to wear heels on a date,” she said. “But my dates don’t usually like it because it puts me over their heads.”

  “Just guys who are insecure,” he said comfortably.

  She smiled. “And that’s not you, is it?”

  “Nope,” he said. “I had one marriage that was great, until it wasn’t, and it took me a long time to work off the anger and frustration I was left with. I don’t necessarily consider myself a prize, just a good person who, as Levi would say, always tries to land on the side of right.”

  “And that’s pretty hard to argue with,” she said, as she smiled. “But back to this. I’m not exactly sure what you can do for a week or two. I was just hoping for a bit of backup to see how we can get through this.”

  “But do you have some deadline here?” he asked.

  She looked at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you said for a week or two.”

  “Right, and of course you have other things you need to do too, right?”

  He frowned. “That’s not why I’m asking,” he said. “I won’t leave to go off and do something else without taking care of your problem here. I’m just trying to see if some deadline is involved, from the bad guys’ perspective or yours. Do you have any reason to think you’ll see an end to this in the next week or two?” He watched as she frowned, looked down at her papers, and shuffled them around aimlessly.

  “No,” she said, finally looking up. “I don’t have an end plan because I don’t really have a game plan at all.”

  “Well, first let’s gather information.”

  “Okay, what information would you like?” she asked, with a ghost of a smile.

  “Have you done any tracking on their bank accounts?”

  One eyebrow twitched, and she smiled. “A little,” she said. “I’m not as tech-savvy as a lot of Levi’s crew, but I haven’t been in this job without learning something.”

  “Can I?”

  “Can you what?”

  “Take that part over?”

  “If you know how, then please, yes, jump right in.”

  “Let’s track down the bank accounts first,” he said, “and tax records, although legally we’d need something to drive that investigation—although it might be better to get Levi to look into that. We’ll take a peek at what we might be looking at and do a full run on their banking. If we can get the feds involved,” he said, “that’ll change things entirely.”

  She settled back and said, “What do you need to do in order to dig out that information?”

  He gave her a ghost of a smile. “Well, if I don’t have to tell you, then you can’t be held liable later.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Is it legal? Will it stand up in court?”

  “If Levi or I find something,” he said, “then we can track down proof that will stand up in court.”

  She nodded slowly. “I guess I don’t have much choice really, do I?”

  “Not a lot, no,” he said. “But, first, I want you to take a ride with me and show me where these properties are. I’ll have a better feel of the area, once I actually see it.”

  She looked at him in surprise but willingly stood up. “Okay. Most of them are scattered about. But the two deaths that hold the most promise for pinning this on these brothers involves three tracts that connect. Still, I don’t know what that’ll show you,” she said slowly.

  “It’ll tell me a lot about who they are,” he said. “Come on. It will do you some good to get out of here.”

  “That’s true,” she said, with a wistful smile. She walked out to the front and said, “Lana, we’re heading out for a drive. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

  The friendly receptionist looked up, smiled, and nodded.

  As they walked out, he said, “Does Lana do much to lighten your load?”

  Immediately Angela shook her head. “Nope, she doesn’t. But she’s almost as iconic at the place as I am.”

  “In other words, she’s part of the status quo, and you don’t mess with it.”

  “Yep,” she said. “She greets the people, handles the routine administrative tasks, the phones, the mail, some filing, simple stuff like that.”

  “Well, we all need that too,” he said. He unlocked the truck and opened up the passenger door for her, then walked around to the driver’s side. When she still hadn’t gotten in, he looked over the roof at her and asked, “What’s wrong? What’s the matter?”

  She gave a headshake, hopped in, and slammed the door shut.

  He got in himself and looked at her. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No,” she said, but a puzzled note was in her voice.

  “That no sounded an awful lot like a yes.”

  “I just wasn’t expecting the southern courtesy.”

  “The door, you mean?” She nodded. He shrugged. “You still have to be who you are, even in the midst of adversity,” he said. “I will always open a door for a lady.”

  She burst out laughing. “It’s been a hell of a long time since anybody saw me as a lady.”

  “It doesn’t matter what shield you wear on your shoulders,” he said. “You’re still female at heart.”

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  He turned on the engine, backed out of the parking lot, and asked, “Which way?”

  “Take a left,” she said and watched as he expertly maneuvered the big truck onto the road.

  “Well, for better or for worse,” he said, “here we go.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean by that, but it doesn’t sound exactly how I expect this to go.”

  “Not to worry,” he said, with a laugh. “We’ve got this.”

  Chapter 2

  Angela watched as Bonaparte followed her directions to the location of the first property. As they drove slowly past the huge wrought iron gates, she looked at it and frowned.

  “What’s the frown about?”

  “Wondering what the heavy security is for,” she countered. She studied the gate and realized that it had been boosted since she had seen it last. “That fencing and gate wasn’t quite this substantial before,” she said.

  “They’re gaining enemies,” he said, “and they’re aware of it.”

  “Doesn’t make a lot of difference,” she said. “Enemies come and go, but these guys seem to keep winning.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” he said. He drove past, hoping to go around the block but realized that they had quite a large acreage. “Do you have any details on what they own?”

  “Just basic data,” she said. “It’s a twenty-acre parcel.”

  “What are they doing with the twenty acres?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t have any right to pry. All I have here is public information.”

  He snorted at that. “When people are after you,” he said, “you have the right to do anything you need to do in order to make sure you’re safe.”

  “Well, I wasn’t really thinking of it in that way,” she said.

  “That’s because you were being defensive and not offensive,” he said. “It’s well past time to get offensive.”

  She frowned but had to agree that he was correct. She just hadn’t seen it. She had been so busy trying to protect her staff and everybody else, while figuring out what she could do, that she hadn’t actually decided to step ahead and do it. “I get that,” she said, “but what difference does it make what they have for property?”

  “It depends on if they’re
doing something illegal with it,” he said. “Remember. We want to get as much intel as we can. We don’t want to take them down for something minor. We want to take them down for something major.”

  “Is murder not major enough?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” he said, “that’s as big as it gets. But you also know that sentences and proof can vary a lot.”

  “Too much,” she said. “I’d just as soon have them disappear forever, but I don’t want us to put that out there.”

  “No, but, if we can get the brothers for money laundering, which is likely if their father is part of the crime family,” he said, “that’s a whole different story.”

  “And how will we find evidence of that?” she said.

  “Well, let’s figure out what their income is, let’s figure out what they spend their money on, and put a case together.”

  “I was focused on the properties they bought. I wasn’t thinking of the whole money angle.”

  “It’s always about money,” he said quietly.

  “Unless it’s about power,” she said.

  He laughed. “And that’s usually about money too.”

  “And what about jealousy and rage?”

  “I’ll give you that one,” he said. “When it comes to love gone wrong, it becomes something else entirely. It’s still a power trip, taking control away from somebody though.”

  “I guess. It’s hard to look at our fellow man that way. I went into law enforcement because I wanted to help.”

  “You still want to help,” he said, with a smile. “But don’t worry about it too much. People are still just people.”

  “Always, it’s just that now we’ve got a couple really ugly assholes in town.”

  “That happens to be my specialty,” he said cheerfully.

  She laughed and genuinely relaxed a moment. “In that case, I’m glad Levi sent you.”

  He looked over at her, smiled, and said, “You don’t know the half of it.”

  She grinned. “Now, if you carry on,” she said, “in another mile, you’ll see the second property.”

  “Are they that close together?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Do the two guys actually live in the residences?”