Defending Bridget - P.J. Fiala Page 0,23

to how long we'll be here, Gavin. Thank you."

He ushered past Gavin and could feel Josh on his heels as they quickly walked to the rental SUV Gaige had waiting for them.

A man stood alongside the vehicle, nodded at them as they approached and held his hand out with keys in them.

"Good afternoon, sir. I have the keys..."

Axel nabbed the keys quickly and nodded. "Thank you so much. In a hurry."

The man stepped aside, bewilderment on his face. Axel climbed in the driver's seat, Josh jumped in the passenger seat and called Gaige on the comm unit.

"We've landed and are enroute."

"Okay. I'm on this end and so is Ford."

"Roger."

Axel did his comm check. "Testing."

"Got it. Don't go in hot."

He hated being chastised but he needed to hear that.

"Roger. Not hot."

Exiting the road in front of the hangar, Josh pulled up his phone and turned the GPS on to get them to Bridget's range. He followed the directions, it was gratefully only a ten-mile trek, so they'd be there in no time. But even ten minutes felt like an eternity.

"So, I know you don't want to talk about this, but you spent one night with her, like what five-ish years ago. But yet you're acting like you've been with her this whole time. So, what gives?"

Rotating his head on his shoulders, Axel prayed the stiffness would subside. No luck.

"I don't know what to say. I've been asking myself that same question since I saw her at the shower. There was something about her. Something new. A look or a feeling, I don't fucking know. It pisses me off as much as it surprises me."

To his credit, Josh nodded and turned to watch the scenery go by. Under better circumstances he'd say this part of the state was beautiful. Lush and green and the farms they passed seemed profitable and kept in decent shape. So, it didn't seem to be an area that had fallen on hard times. More likely this was an area where three missing women would scare the shit out of every person miles around. That was good, maybe someone saw something, and they can find some leads.

Turning down County PP, Axel again looked around the area, though this time with the operative’s mind. The road was curvy, the grasses along the road a bit longer. Lush farm fields with corn, full grown this time of year would easily hide a car or a human. As they came upon the driveway for the range, he smiled when he saw the name of the range, Armed and Dangerous.

Slowly pulling into the lot, he saw two black and whites and four cops milling about gathering evidence. Putting the vehicle in park, he looked over at Josh who nodded then tapped his comm unit.

"Gaige, local PD here. Are we going to have an issue?"

"You shouldn't. I called their chief earlier and he said they'd welcome any assistance we could offer. If you do, give me a call. I'll see who I can talk to and get you some clearance."

"Roger."

Exiting their SUV, they walked to the perimeter of the police tape and waited as one of the officers approached.

"This area is secured for an investigation."

"Yes, sir. We're Axel Dunbar and Josh Masters. Our boss, Gaige Vickers called your Chief earlier to get us clearance."

The young cop, likely around twenty-nine years old, name badge said "Anders", pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped twice.

"Chief, this is Anders. I have two guys here say Gaige Vickers called you and got them clearance."

Axel tried not to fidget, but he wanted to inspect the area and his patience, little that he had, was threadbare at the moment.

"Thank you, Chief."

"Chief says go on in. We're sharing information here, so anything you find we need to know, and we'll share our information with you in return."

Axel nodded and ducked easily under the police tape. Walking toward the lone vehicle in the parking lot, his heart beat wildly in his chest. His eyes scanned the area around the SUV looking for anything out of place. Anything laying on the pavement that hadn't been picked up. The driver's door was open, but nothing seemed disturbed.

A female officer, who stood next to the vehicle and was dusting it for prints moved to walk back to her kit. The shadow her body created moved away and something glinted under the vehicle.

Axel lay down next to the pavement and saw something shiny under the car. Looking back up at the officer he asked,