He lowered his gun. “Alive, but not pretty.” My hands were still above my head, and my stomach was unprotected; he punched me first in the stomach, and then as my head dropped down, he kneed me in the face. I felt the rush of blood come from my nose.
“SHIT! UGH!” I fell to the floor in agony. My face felt like it was on fire. I couldn’t breathe. Every breath I sucked in through my mouth made my ribs burn, and I couldn’t feel half my face. Just pain, so much pain.
“Now, tell me again why I won’t shoot you.”
“Because I'm going to shoot you first.” I heard Hudson's voice behind me, and footsteps come in the door that I was trying to get out through. There was a lot more feet that just Hudson’s.
“You brought friends.”
The man with the gun put his hands up as I saw SWAT teams surround us. The two men behind me moved away, and the asshole that I had kicked in the balls was lying on the ground. I heard the yelling before Hudson got to me. “Get on the ground now! Put the gun down or we'll shoot!”
I turned around, tears streaming down my face, as Hudson had a gun pointed in my direction. I put my hands above my head, and I waited for the SWAT members to get all of my kidnappers on the ground. The SWAT team had bulletproof vests on, and so did Hudson. I could hear one of the guys yelling, “He ratted us!” Then he looked at Hudson with disgust. “You'll die for this.”
Hudson walked over to him and spit in his face. “And you'll rot in a cell. Touch my girl again, and see what happens.”
The SWAT team began to cuff all of the men, and other members started walking around and took in a view of all the prescription drugs. A woman with a SWAT vest approached me. “You’re okay, you’re going to be okay.”
She put a blanket around my shoulders. “Let’s get you out of here.”
I shook my head. “I want Hudson. Please.” I was in the middle of chaos until Hudson came over to me. He gave his gun to the woman, and I was a hot mess on the floor, trembling with fear. I had almost just died. But he had saved me.
I fell into his arms shaking. He wrapped his arms around me, and held me up, putting his hand on the back of my head, and pulling me into him. I was finally safe. After a few minutes of me wiping my tears on his bulletproof vest, I pulled away. “You didn't tell me. How long have you been working with the feds?”
“For years. I’m undercover FBI Calla. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”
“So this whole thing, the drugs, everything… it wasn’t real?”
“No, it’s not. The money is, but not the job.”
“This is why you wanted to protect me.”
“It’s in my nature. I am the son of a pharmaceutical millionaire, everything about my family is true. But I joined law enforcement to end the cycle. To help people.”
“So what about these guys, how many did you catch?”
He nodded. “Just the ones I knew of. These idiots didn’t know that Rudolph was never going to show up here today. He's in the wind.”
This all sounded like more secrets, like the job wasn’t done yet. And I didn't think we could handle any more of those. “What about me? What about us?” I asked through my blubbering.
I could hear the sirens outside, cars taking my captors away. But there had to be at least thi
rty agents inside the building. The woman stood by, and kept others away from us. I noticed an EMT near the door.
“You need to be looked at. There's an ambulance outside.”
“No! I want a straight answer. What happens to you and me?”
“I imagine you’ll be debriefed and released. If you testify, you’ll also be put in witness protection.”
“And then what? Where do I go?”
He placed his hands on either side of my arms to steady me, pulling me off the ground. He knew I was losing control, he always made me do that. “I hear France is beautiful this time of year. And I should probably get out of the country for a little while. They’re going to be looking for me. I'm sure I could sway the US attorney to let you have part of your witness protection there.”
He had it all planned. Once again, Hudson James had proven to me that he really was protecting me the whole time. Somehow, our lives were both completely real, and all a fabrication. He was the only one who could do that.
“France? I think I could do France.” He took his hand, caressed my skin along my jawbone, lifting my lips up to his. His soft lips breaching mine. That was just us, sharing a savory moment in all the chaos.
“You need to get your head and face looked at. But I'm sure there's some agents that need to talk to you. Can you handle that?” He held my face in his hands. “Baby, I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. I can’t tell you how worried I was.”