Week 485 – Is everyone after me due to the mysterious package I received?

Not convinced that Brad, his brother Beckett, or the other guy Bronx weren’t in fact going to kill her, Bridget waited expectantly.

“Bronx is our cousin,” Brad explained from beside her, because where else could he be given they were cuffed together. “He had a fiancee, but she was taken from him. Kidnapped. Trafficked. She was rescued but it was already too late for her. What she’d been through wasn’t something she could come back from.”

“She’s dead?” Bridget asked casting a glance at Bronx, who just glared back at her. Or maybe glaring was the only facial expression he had left.

“Yes,” Brad explained. “This happened about three years ago. Bronx is a cop, he’s undercover. We found out who took her, they’re a gang who make their money in selling women and girls. He’s working to get the information we need but we haven’t been able to figure out how they’re targeting the women. They’re not grabbing them at random, but until we figure out how they choose them we can’t bring them down. There’s at least four different groups we’ve identified so far working together, but we need that intel to link them altogether.”

“What does that have to do with me?” she asked, totally overwhelmed and confused.

“Because they went after you, that means they’ve tagged you as theirs already. They won’t back off. They probably thought you went home after, that’s why they went and trashed your place, thought you’d be there and they could take you, but you weren’t and they threw a little tantrum.” Brad explained.

“You’re really a cop?” she asked Bronx, who nodded. “You are too? she asked Beckett.

“Yep. And if you’re wondering so is Brad. This is an official investigation, but … we’re not sure if there’s a leak at the precinct,” Beckett told her. “That’s why we couldn’t bring you here. Why we had to bring you here. Why we can’t just let you leave. You leave, they get you, and we lose our only shot at shutting them down for good.”

“So you’re going to use me?” Bridget asked, and Brad took her hand, squeezed her fingers gently.

“We’re using you, but we’re offering you our protection as well,” he told her. “We need you to think of anything unusual that’s happened to you lately. Anything at all, even if it seems small or silly. That could be the key we need to end this.”

Bridget opened her mouth to say there was nothing even remotely strange that had happened to her recently, but then she stopped. There had been something weird. “Is everyone after me due to the mysterious package I received?”