by Dale Mayer
“If they ask for your property?”
She walked into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee.
“You want more coffee?” he asked curiously, leaning against the kitchen doorjamb.
She smiled and nodded. “Yes, I do.” And then she shrugged and walked to the back and opened up a double set of French doors.
He and her dogs followed her through. Bonaparte whistled as he saw her backyard. “Wow,” he said, “this is pretty fancy. So I noticed that you’re ignoring my question about them wanting to purchase the land.”
“Let me just say they’ve tried,” she said.
“And I presume you declined.”
“Yeah, because, in case you didn’t notice,” she said, “I’m one of the next properties in line here.”
“So, the bottom line is, they need your land.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s probably what this is all about then, right?”
“A lot of it, yes. I’m not sure if that’s all of it though.”
“It’s quite enough,” he said. “How much do you own?”
She sighed. “I have 160 acres.” He just stared at her, dumbfounded. She shrugged. “There was a lot of family at one time, and it’s pretty well all down to just me now.”
“That’s a lot of land,” he said quietly.
She crossed her arms, leaned against one of the porch posts, and nodded. “It is.”
“So, of course, you’ll never sell.”
“I’ll never sell,” she said, “and therefore—”
“Therefore, they need you to die in order to get this property.” And he started to swear.
She watched him with interest. He was a huge man and generally very well controlled and contained, but right now this whole scenario was getting to him. “I see now that you understand why Levi sent you.”
“He knows about this?”
“Yes, and they’ve hooked up security for me,” she said, “but you and I both know, if Ronnie and Johnny want to take me out, they’ll take me out.”
“Goddammit,” he said, staring at her. “It’s got nothing to do with the town. It has everything to do with property, and you’re in the prime place. It’s got nothing to do with you being the sheriff even. It’s all about you owning what they want.”
“Yep, but you also can see that there’s absolutely no way I can sell.”
“Of course not,” he said. “This is your heritage.”
“It is.”
“No other family?” he asked, as he watched the dogs playing in the yard.
“We’ve been a family of one child every time it got handed down,” she said. “I was hoping to break the pattern. My mother actually had another sibling who died, and my grandfather had four kids, but only one made it to adulthood.”
“With all this land around here, do you have any horses?”
“No, not now,” she said, with a smile. “My grandfather used to train them here. A lot of the property is currently in farmland, which I have several local people operate for me,” she murmured. “We’ve got orchards off to the left.” She pointed with her arm. “If I wanted to, I could make it a pretty self-sufficient area.”
“Which is probably what your grandfather thought about.”
“He did, absolutely. We’ve got forty acres in hay,” she said. “And I’ve got a good twelve acres in agriculture at this point, and I’m looking at putting more in. We’ve got twenty-plus acres in woods, and we’ve another twenty acres protecting a large stream and a small lake,” she murmured. “I get it stocked with trout every once in a while, but I think I’m just feeding the wildlife around there more than actually providing for fishing.”
“Fishing would be fun,” he said. “Nobody told me that you were wealthy, wealthy.”
“Not too many people know. They know about the land, but I don’t think they necessarily equate that with money. I’ve got the house, but it’s not like it’s a multimillion-dollar home, like some places of this size have.”
“No, your value is in the land.”
“Exactly. And, to be honest, Ronnie’s offer was generous,” she said. “It’s just that they don’t like being turned down.”
“And you have no intention of changing that.”
“Nope, I don’t, and they know that. There’s only one way to get it away from me.”
“But it’s only you now,” he said, shaking his head. “That makes me even more leery.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I think that’s also why they were checking out the new deputy and why they were so quick to run off my other deputies.”
“And what’s happening now? Surely you’re getting new ones.”
“Yep, I’m trying to find somebody who will watch my back. I’ve told the town that more are coming because, of course, there is still crime happening in town, and the people all want to know they’re safe too.” Out of the blue she said, “The pool was something my father added,” more to change the line of conversation than anything. “And then it was redone not too many years before he and my mom passed away,” she murmured.
He looked at her sideways, picking up on a change in her. “When was that?”
Her lips pinched together. “Three years ago,” she said and shrugged. “I expected them to have quite a few more years, but sometimes life isn’t quite so kind.”
“Anything in particular?”
She looked at him in surprise, then shrugged and said, “My mother was a Type 1 diabetic. She died from complications of that, and my father, he ended up with a bad bout of pneumonia and passed away not too long after her. He’d always had a compromised airway.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That must have been really tough.”
“It was tough for me because I was the only one left behind, but the fact that they both passed so close together was better for them in the end because they didn’t have to live without the other. They were really very close.”
“Yeah, death is always harder for those left behind.”
“Well, I hope so,” she said, with a smile. “Otherwise, I’ll have to start rethinking my view of hell.”
He burst out laughing. “Now don’t start doing that,” he said. He looked at the huge yard. “This is a beautiful place to raise a family.”
“It was a great place to grow up. I always planned to have a big family too,” she said. “But here I am, thirty-two and still single. One of my mother’s greatest frustrations. If I could have found somebody before she died, it would have made them both very happy.”
“Life doesn’t happen on demand,” he said. “I’ve got two kids, and, well, it’s not quite the way I expected my life to end up either.”
“Of course not, but we adapt, and we move on, and we hope that life changes in a good way,” she said. “Since we already had that great dinner, I’ll leave you to go for a swim, take a walk, or whatever you want to do. Please, just make yourself at home.”
“I want to check out the property,” he said.
“Levi was actually here a year ago or so. He talked me into some security,” she said, “but he’s been bugging me to do more.”
“Hell, yes, you should be doing more!” he said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bark at you. But seriously, with all the problems happening right now, you really should beef it up all you can.”
“Yeah, I get that, but then there’s the money issue. I’m land rich and cash poor.”
“Oh, damn. Are you broke?”
“No,” she said, “I’m not broke by any means, but it’s not like I have a ton to spare just now.”
“Right,” he said, “and there is definitely a difference.”
She watched in amazement as he moved about and studied the area, the dogs trailing behind him. He really had that look down pat. As if nothing escaped his gaze. She’d often asked Levi if any single guys were in his corner. It had been a bit of a running joke, but he always said he just hadn’t found the perfect guy for her yet. She could imagine how Levi must hav
e teased poor Bonaparte in advance of him getting here. It’s not that she was desperate by any means because she wasn’t, and she had enjoyed a really good brother-sister-type relationship with Levi that had continued to prosper over the years.
But she had to wonder if he hadn’t been a little serious about Bonaparte. There was just something really appealing about a guy who was bigger than you. Particularly as tall as she was and with the history throughout her life of fending off the various jokes about being on stilts or towering over potential boyfriends. It didn’t help that her mother was quite horrified when she continued to grow to the height she had, but thankfully she had eventually filled out a bit and got a few curves.
Her father on the other hand had always been damn proud of her height, size, and build. He had always wanted a son, and she’d done her best to fill his dreams for him. Now they were her dreams too, and one of them was never moving off this land. This was her home, and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She had told the overeager buyers as much, through the agents they had sent, not that she’d ever been approached by the actual would-be buyers. She told the agents quite clearly that she had no intention of selling ever. They had come back again and again and had increased the offer each time, but she just wasn’t interested.
So, she was land rich and cash poor, like she’d said, but this was home. It had been home to her people for generations, and it wasn’t changing anytime soon. But, because of all that had happened, she had had a will drawn up. And her Last Will and Testament did not allow for the property to be sold. It would be a charity in trust that would keep it as a private reserve. She also put in a bunch of other stipulations, just to make sure that, even if something did happen to her, it wouldn’t benefit these guys who had caused such havoc in her county.
She hadn’t told Bonaparte that. As he wandered the backyard, studying the pool, the layout, the trees, and the lines of sight, she could damn near see the way his thoughts were going, and she realized she didn’t want to give up on that dream of having a family either. Not now, not ever. If nothing else, she felt she owed it to her lineage to keep it going one way or another. The fact that Bonaparte was here and was so damn attractive, made that much more of a prominent goal.
*
Bonaparte loved the land here. There were very few places in the world that he didn’t like but this? This had a special pull. He wandered the area, taking great delight in the groves of trees that gave a lot of shade but kept the view open and gave the homesite the ability to look across acres and acres of land. The backyard was done beautifully, with stamped concrete around a huge pool and lots of space for dogs, for people partying, or for just having that whole family-barbecue thing. He could envision scenes filled with children and friends. He loved it and felt absolutely everything about it was first-rate. She was a very lucky woman.
But he also understood how close she was to losing it all. He would have to ask her about a will and what she had in place if she died because there was no way to take it with you, even though people have tried time and time again. Meanwhile, he would do anything he could to help her keep it. This was stunningly gorgeous and was her family history. No one on earth deserved to own this land more than her. It was her birthright, and nobody should force it away from her. She’d lost everything else and didn’t deserve to lose this too.
He studied the area, looking for any security weaknesses, and of course there were plenty. When you had space like this, that meant anybody could come from any side. Even if she did have security around the house, it didn’t stop anybody from coming cross-country and getting into the spaces you didn’t want them to. He also needed to see if she had rifles or firepower of any kind beyond the standard-issue guns she carried on the job.
As he walked back, he studied the access from the gates around the side and definitely saw a few loopholes. Even though Levi had been here, more needed to be done. Of course it looked totally different now through the lens of an imminent threat. As he walked up to the long veranda, she sat there, a big pitcher beside her. He looked at it and smiled. “Lemonade?”
“Well, yes, with a bit of a twist,” she said. “It’s got gin in it. Would you like a glass?”
“Hell yes, that sounds great,” he said, with a smile, as she poured him a cup and handed it to him. “Well, I walked around a bit. This is really a beautiful place.”
“It is,” she said, “and I really don’t want to lose it.”
“No, I don’t think you should lose it at all.” He studied the surroundings. “This is awkward and insensitive maybe, but, well, … have you made any arrangements?”
Angela immediately knew what he meant. She didn’t evade the question and answered honestly. “Yes. It’s not to be sold,” she said. “It’s to go to a charity in a trust for gardens, agriculture use, and that sort of thing. It’s never to be used for development.”
He smiled and nodded. “That’s perfect and will just piss off Ronnie and Johnny even more.”
“Maybe, but, if they’ve done something to me, thinking they’ll get their hands on my property, you can sure as hell bet I’ll do everything I can to make sure they don’t. Even from the grave.”
“Well, they won’t get their hands on it,” he said.
“I like your optimism,” she said, “but I’m little more pragmatic than you are.”
“I can see that,” he said, “and I get it. I really do. That doesn’t mean it’s not doable though.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe not.” With a weary smile, she said, “Come on. I’ll show you where your room is.”
He followed her up the stairs, loving the huge wide staircase and seeing the years of footprints going up and down. It was stunning. Not so much that it was a high-end house but that it was the heritage and the soul of the home. There was spirit to it, revealing the decades of love and dedication that had lived within. It was really hard to even imagine how anybody could abuse such a beautiful place, and the idea of someone leveling it was a horrible thought.
She opened the door to a room at the top of the stairs.
He walked in and smiled. “This is huge.”
“This is the spare room,” she said. “Mine is twice this size.”
There was a dry note to her tone, and he looked at her and laughed. “Your grandpa or dad or somebody really liked to have some space.”
“Mom and Dad both liked their space,” she said. She nodded at a door on the far side of the room and said, “There’s a small en suite for you over there too.”
“Perfect,” he said. “I’ll go to my truck and grab my bag.”
“Awesome,” she said, then pointed down the hallway to the other end and said, “That’s the master.”
He could see double doors that were open. “I presume you have a big en suite in there.”
“I do,” she said, with a smile. “It’s kind of ridiculous really.” She hesitated and then said, “Listen. You do need to know that we’ve had a few random shootings into the house itself.” He stopped and stared. She nodded. “And I’ve got nobody to report it to.”
“Except another sheriff, the district attorney, or somebody.”
“True, but I haven’t been able to find a damn bullet.”
“That would be frustrating,” he said. “Any chance they came back later and got it?”
“If they knew where they shot it, maybe,” she said. “The siding isn’t exactly conducive to finding a small hole, so I haven’t found it, which doesn’t give me any evidence to use against whoever it is when I finally catch them.”
“No,” he said, “but I’ll keep an open mind on that.”
She nodded. “Just a friendly warning.”
“Hey, this place is just full of joy,” he said, with a laugh.
“That it is,” she said.
They walked back downstairs, and he headed out the front door, where he opened up his truck, grabbed his bag, and hauled it inside. The dogs followed him out and back in again.
&nbs
p; She smiled and said, “Looks like they’ve made another friend.”
“Most dogs feel that way,” he said, “as long as you’re no threat to them and those they love.”
“You’re no threat to me,” she said easily.
“Did you even check with Levi to make sure I really work there?”
“As soon as you walked in the Sheriff’s Department,” she said.
He burst out laughing. “I’m sure he appreciated that.”
“You both would have had my hide if I hadn’t.” She grinned. “I might be under the gun on a few things, but I’m not stupid.”
“Never that,” he said. “No need to worry. We’ll get behind this.”
“Nothing to get behind,” she said. “But we’ll have to get ahead, stop some of their attacks, and find a way to put them behind bars. Or at least pick them up so that they’re not threatening people.”
“But nobody has even caught on to the fact that they’ve been threatened, have they?”
“Not directly, no,” she said. “My girlfriend today was the first one.”
“And that’s not even so much of a threat, since it would be easy to put that off to her being paranoid or just high-strung.”
“Exactly,” she said, “and that doesn’t help anybody.”
He wondered about her words a long time later, as he lay in his bed, listening to the sounds of nature cackling and howling around him. He loved it. He loved everything about it. But, then again, he was all about open spaces and freedom, and that’s what this place offered. It was stunning, and he could see why someone would want to take it from her. But the fact that those same people might want to level, raze the whole thing, and put up something like multilevel condos just made him sick to his stomach. He pulled out his phone and updated Levi, with the little bit Bonaparte knew so far.
Rather than text back, Levi phoned him. “She’s a good person,” he said. “Do all you can for her.”
“I hear you,” he said. “She’s pretty special. I’ll give you that. But the scenario is damn strange.”
“I know,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons she needs help. There’s a lot of pressure from a lot of areas because these guys have significant influence. They have money, and they’re getting people who wouldn’t normally cause her trouble to cause her trouble.”