Defending Bridget - P.J. Fiala Page 0,51

her composure, barely existent.

Axel sat next to her and lay his forearms on the table, folding his hands together then tucking them under his chin. Gaige tapped some of the keys on his laptop and then turned to face her.

"I'm sorry to have to share this news with you, Bridget."

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He watched her process her nervous energy while waiting to hear what Gaige had to say. She was impressive.

Gaige said, "We've received a call from Stueben PD. We got the call because I've been in contact with the Chief there and told him you were staying with us here. That said, I'm sorry to tell you that your house and range, Armed and Dangerous, were burned to the ground today. They are still working on the forensics in both locations, and they will let us know when there is more information. Between us, we believe the Ukrainians came back to find you and when you weren't around, they decided to teach you a lesson. No one was harmed. Property damage only. So, before you say anything, please know you, Aidyn and your mom are welcome to stay here as long as you need to, so as to where you'll live, you've got options."

Her lips quivered but she straightened her shoulders, sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"So, it's time to pull up my big girl pants and face this head on. I have insurance on both my house and my business. I can rebuild, change course or do nothing. Nothing isn't an option, so I'll figure the rest out. I have my business laptop, so I can contact my clients to keep them up to date and there is no doubt as soon as I'm open again, I'll have my business back."

Leaning forward she said, "Okay. Now that I've talked all that out, where do we begin to find these assholes?"

Gaige looked around the room at everyone and grinned. They were no doubt worried she'd burst out crying and there wasn't a man in the room, including himself, that could handle a woman crying. Even Josh, though he pretended he was immune to it.

"Well, Bridget, this is our problem. For some reason they are targeting women close to our group. We're working on it."

"Well, while they've done that, they've made it my business."

She turned her head toward Axel and locked eyes with him. "I'm not going to stop until I know my family is safe. I will not live in fear. I've done incredibly hard things in my life. I'm trained in weaponry, I'm capable and I'm smart. They've messed with the wrong person this time."

"Okay, but, Bridget, we can't go off half-cocked, we have to devise a plan. We're still gathering information on these guys and until we have that, we have to play with our brains not our brawn."

She nodded. "I get it. But, I plan to be in on this. I want my revenge."

He looked up at Gaige and waited for some signal that he'd allow her to do something in this mess to help her feel as though she got her revenge. It was hard living the rest of your life feeling like you were unable to get closure. He wanted that for her. For them, because like it or not, they had a common goal in life for the rest of their lives and that was to make sure Aidyn was safe, healthy and secure.

Gaige nodded slightly and he relaxed a bit. Gaige's phone rang and he answered promptly. He looked around the table and held up his hand silently asking them to hold tight, he was getting some intel.

Leaning close to Bridget he tried not smelling her perfume but couldn't. He whispered, "We're getting some intel now, but we can't do anything until we work it up through Gaige and we are all on the same page. That way, no one gets hurt."

"Okay."

Gaige's call ended. "Okay, here's what we have right now. The Ukrainian at the cabin was Fedir Bulikov. He's part of the resistance movement in the Ukraine called, VNSK which stands for control Vzyaty Na Sebe Kontrol or Assume Control. They are kidnapping and selling women on the black market to make enough money to fund their resistance operation. The other man in the cabin that was working with him is Victor Boyko. He's still in the wind though PD did find identifying information for him in the cabin. They had been using that as their home base here in