Page 3 of Fighting for Ella

Maybe.

A huge, gigantic maybe.

After waving goodbye to Dora, she did her best to keep her steps even and slow. If she went running out of there, she’d only tip her hand and give away what was tucked inside her purse. If she wanted any chance at pulling this off, she had to play it cool, not alert anyone who might be watching the security cameras that anything was wrong.

Thankfully, no one on Athena Team was a suspect. That was the only thing she had working in her favor, and that was only going to last a little longer. As soon as one of her teammates checked on the safe and found the drug gone, they’d know. Know it was her. Know she was a traitor.

Betrayal was bitter on her tongue as she stepped out into the cold night. Since the whole subterfuge thing wasn’t her strong suit, she already had a cab waiting. The quicker she got out of the country the better.

The ride to the airport felt far too long. Even though she tried her best to fight against the urge, Ella kept failing and glancing out the windows, constantly expecting the shrill wail of sirens and flashing lights as police cars converged on the cab. Unless she could get out of the country, she was looking at spending the rest of her life locked up in a tiny cell.

If she was lucky.

If she wasn’t, she’d be shipped off to some CIA black site that hardly anybody knew about. There she’d have no rights, no way out. Her life would just be surviving torture after torture until, eventually, her heart gave out and she died.

She’d be praying for death if that was her future even though it was one she would deserve.

Because she deserved whatever she got, she wasn’t so far down the path she had chosen that she wasn’t painfully aware of that fact.

But even though she knew she was doing the wrong thing, she paid the cab driver, entered the airport, and checked in. Right or wrong, nothing was stopping her from getting on that plane and fleeing the country.

Nothing.

February 5th

11:52 P.M.

Of all theways Miguel Aguilar thought this whole mole at Prey mess would play out this was absolutely at the bottom of the barrel.

The only person at Prey who was less likely to betray their country than Ella Whitlock was possibly Cassie, and that was only because the woman was so young and so innocent it was impossible to believe that she had a single bad thought in her head. Ever.

But Ella was a close second.

Long blonde hair, dark lashes framing wide green eyes, the prettiest smile he’d ever seen. Ella was gorgeous, sweet, and smart, exactly the kind of woman he usually loved sweet talking into his bed. Not to hurt them, he was always clear that he wasn’t looking for a relationship, nothing serious or permanent. He was a playboy and lived up to that reputation, but he also liked a challenge. Putting in the work to woo a sweet woman into his bed was always harder than going after the ones who wore their sexuality confidently.

If things were different, if his brother hadn't fallen head over heels for one of Ella’s teammates, then maybe he would have tried his luck with her. See if he could have convinced her to give him one night, where he’d make her feel things she’d never experienced before.

Call him arrogant, but he was good in bed, knew his way around a woman’s body, and knew every button to press to make them lose their minds to bliss-filled pleasure. He would have done the same for Ella, only now things had changed.

Drastically.

“Are we sure about this?” he asked, looking around the conference room at Prey where no less than three SEAL teams were crammed around a table, along with six former SEALs who now ran Prey’s West Coast office. There was a lot of testosterone in the room and a lot of anger, too.

All of it was directed at a woman who wasn’t even there.

Who had fled the country supposedly with the only vial of the Reactivator in her possession.

Her plane ticket said she was bound for Mexico, and they all knew that Mexico was where the weapons trafficker who had bought the Reactivator from a mole at Prey was based.

It all looked so simple on paper. Ella had taken the drug and left the country. She worked for Prey, had been in the know from the beginning, and had the opportunity to alert Raul Castillo every time he was about to be raided, which was the only explanation of how the man constantly managed to evade capture.

He’d seen the empty safe with his own two eyes. All three other Athena Team members claimed that was where they kept the drug, the only other person aware of its location was the great Eagle Oswald himself. CEO and founder of Prey Security, the man had been a SEAL until an injury forced him into retirement. A billionaire, he’d decided to use his money to create a security firm that was the best of the best. There was no way a man with more money than he could ever use would need to sell a drug his company owned anyway for a measly five million dollars.

Five people knew where the drug was. One had been on the other side of the country when it was taken, the other three were at their homes with their boyfriends, so that only left one person who could have taken it.

One person who was here in the building.

Who was seen in the lab slipping it into her purse.

---