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20
“Law enforcement!” came in a distorted voice through a megaphone as the main door to the factory was battered off his hinges, and a stream of uniformed men poured in, fanning out to swarm the building.
They had powerful lights with them too, bathing everything in a strong white glare, and Sofia shaded her eyes, wishing she could block out all the noise and confusion as well as the brightness. Her body was going through an adrenaline crash, and she didn’t know how much more she could take.
Then, when a line of police officers converged on her and the former SEALs, their weapons drawn, yelling at them to get on the ground, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands over her ears.
“It’s okay. I promise,” Ian said, close to her ear.
“Hernandez?” Charlie said. “It’s Charles Bronte, Bronte Security Services.”
“Got the gang for you,” Eric added. “Rounded ’em up. Literally—they’re all in one heap for ease of collection.”
Sofia peeped and saw one officer stepping forward. He signaled to the others.
“We spoke on the phone,” Ian said, taking a step forward to him.
The next second, the two men were shaking hands, and that seemed to be a signal for general hand shaking and shoulder slapping all round, with both the police and the DEA. Sofia had to admit she was a little lost with the latter, but she was still glad they were there.
After ascertaining Sofia and BSS were okay, the officers began searching the factory.
“I thought there’d be more questions and answers?” she asked Hernandez.
“You’ll get that pleasure to come ASAP,” Hernandez said with a grim-looking smile before joining his men.
When the SWAT teams weren’t quite so busy, she supposed. She caught Ian glancing at her out of the corners of his eyes, then looking quickly away. “I’m fine,” she told him again.
“Sofia—” he started, to be cut off by the shouts from law enforcement.
“Back here!” someone called from the processing area. “Danton, the product.”
“Get it tagged and bagged, and I want every step of the process recorded, visual and audio,” ordered someone. Probably Danton. “Chain of custody, people. We—”
“—preserve the chain,” came in a chorus.
“I want to—” Ian began, his words to Sofia ending in a muffled curse when another officer came over and handed her a bottle of water, which she took gratefully.
“Do you think you have enough evidence to put the cartel away?” she asked the man.
“There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars of drugs in this place, so I’d say so,” he told her with a short laugh. “Yep. More than enough, ma’am.”
Good.Relief flooded her that the tainted product would be off the streets, and especially out of her high school. The teams moved around the factory with swift efficiency, clearing it of cartel members and the marijuana they were processing. Meanwhile, a medic came to check Sofia over. Sofia remained as calm as she could, breathing slowly and steadily when the woman felt her skin and checked her pulse. She was grateful for Ian’s solid presence at her shoulder.
“So you sustained no injury, head or otherwise, and didn’t lose consciousness. Good. Any nausea?” the woman asked in a low, soothing voice, and Sofia shook her head, trying not to flinch at the pen light the medic shone in her eyes to assess her pupil response. “And any feeling of faintness?”
“As much as being unconscious might sound tempting, no,” Sofia replied.
Smiling at her response, the medic examined the marks on her wrists left by the rope. She smeared an antiseptic on just to be safe, although the skin wasn’t broken. “They’ll be ready to take your statement soon. After that, I’d recommend going home and getting some rest,” she said, packing away her equipment and walking away.
With that, she and Ian were finally alone—at least for the moment. He pulled over an upended packing case to use as a seat and slid it as close to Sofia’s chair as it would go. The intensity and seriousness in his eyes had her heart thumping.
“We have a lot to talk about,” he started, and Sofia nodded.
“And I want to start by saying the one thing that’s the most important. It’s this.” Ian took her hand. “I love you, Sofia, and I want to be with you. Period.”
“W-what?” Sofia blinked, unable to believe her ears. “You love me?”
“Please.” His imploring look stopped her words. “Let me get it all out. That fight we had…I’ve been turning it all over in my head nonstop.”
