“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?”
“Well, I thought so, but I haven’t seen them around in quite a while.”
“Besides,” he said, “what is here for them? That’s what I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know that either. They said they just needed a place to get away from it all.”
“Sure, and I can see that to a certain extent, but I just wonder if they were seeking something in particular about the location here.”
“Well, it’s five to ten minutes out of town, so, in a way, it’s perfect for a lot of people.” He nodded, giving her that point. She smiled. “Even though this isn’t necessarily where a lot of people would like to live, it is a perfect choice for others.”
“What are property prices doing?”
“They’re shooting up.”
“So, if they did nothing but buy up all the properties and wait for the prices to go up, they’d still make a killing.”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“So another reason for doing what they’re doing.”
“But it’s hardly fair,” she said.
“These guys don’t care about fair.”
“No, that’s true.” He just kept on driving. Finally she said, “Up ahead is the next property.” It was on the same side of the road, and, as he got up there, another large gate was here, almost identical to the one they had seen already on the other property.
“Do they keep animals?”
“Again, I don’t know,” she said. “We have no registry, unless it’s a large commercial operation.”
“Right,” he said. He drove around for a little bit,
