Sirens could now be heard racing toward them and he nodded his head. They were going to be alright.
Bridget stood staring at him, unsure what to do and he held his right arm out to her. She raced the couple of steps to him and flung herself into his body, her arms around his waist and squeezed him tightly to her.
He wrapped his arms around her tightly, inhaling the scent of her hair and enjoying the feeling of her body pressed to his. They stood this way for a while, though not long enough, but local PD drove up to each end of the building and barricaded any entry or exit of any other vehicles.
"We have to deal with police now, babe."
She nodded her head, squeezed him once more then stepped back. He looked into her eyes. "You good?"
A faint smile appeared on her lips. "Yeah."
"You did good."
"Thanks. So, did you."
Groaning could be heard from under the caved in wooden barriers and Bridget jumped back and reached for her gun. Axel shook his head no.
"They'll take this. Show them your hands."
Axel turned to face the officers walking toward them, hands in the air. Bridget and Josh did the same.
An officer heard the groaning from under the wooden barriers and Axel filled him in.
"Victor Boyko. He's the man who was involved in the kidnapping and sale of multiple women in the Indianapolis area just a couple of days or so ago and arson among a host of other charges. I'm Axel Dunbar, this is Bridget Barnes and my colleague Josh Masters. We're with GHOST and Gaige Vickers has been in contact with your chief."
The officer called over his radio, "We have a man here believed to be Victor Boyko, injured."
While he waited for a response he looked at Axel, "How many weapons do you have on you, sir?"
They were about to enter into a very long afternoon of questioning and investigation. But it was worth it because they at least had this asshole. Now to get Mikheil Ustymovych. They'd likely not get a lot of information out of Bulikov, he'd likely die before giving anything up. He'd likely die if he did, so he'd be dead either way.
43
There were a few things Bridget knew for certain. She was no shrinking violet by any stretch of the imagination. She served her time in the military, she trained with weapons, hand to hand combat, any number of military machines, including MRAPs and tanks. She excelled and wrapped her arms around any new training and looked for more. She trained other women on the safe, effective handling of firearms and shot them daily. She'd even encountered attacks while deployed in a province outside of Kandahar where she was stationed in Afghanistan. All that, however, was different from what she'd gone through recently. In a matter of a few days, in her own country, she'd been kidnapped and she’d just encountered a shootout to which she'd responded by running a man over with a truck.
All that made her mind spin. But, seeing Axel with a weapon pointed at him and Josh with a gun pointed at his head, that shit was scary.
When she got back to the compound, she hoped Sophie would be up for some girl talk, because she'd like to sit and chat about this stuff with someone who'd been right where she was now. Maybe Yvette would join the conversation, too.
Sitting at the police station for the second time in a week and going over the events that had brought her here today made her weary. She also wondered how these guys did this. All the time.
The officer who'd questioned her earlier entered the interrogation room.
"You're free to go, Ms. Barnes. Your friends are waiting for you in the lobby. Thank you for cooperating with us today."
"You're welcome. Please tell me you have Victor Boyko and you won't let him go anytime soon."
"Yes, we have him in custody and the DA has said he's a flight risk, so they'll likely object to any bail request and the judge likely won’t grant it."
"Okay. Thank you."
She stood and the officer opened the door for her and followed her down a hallway. A weird thought occurred to her that all police buildings were mostly similar. Bland in color and decor and unstimulating. She wondered if it were on purpose or due to lack of funding.
Opening the door to the lobby area, she felt relieved when she saw Axel and Josh sitting in the waiting area.
They