Page 34 of Fighting for Ella

Like take her to bed.

Like sleep beside her.

Like cook her breakfast in the morning and ask her for a repeat.

Something he never did.

Something he’d never wanted to do.

“Come on now, where’s that lioness who launched herself at an armed man?” he teased.

“She disappears when she’s forced to confront her fear of heights,” Ella replied.

“You can do it. You’ve already been up and down this tree three times now,” he reminded her. They’d taken a couple of bathroom breaks, but other than that he’d wanted to keep her up and out of the way because they both knew that Raul’s men would still be hunting them. The guard who had shot him had gotten away. Sure, there was a chance he’d drowned, but there was also a chance that he’d made his way back to the house and told everyone that Ella had attacked him.

His plan to make Ella seem like she was still on Raul’s side if she was captured again, that he’d taken her against her will, was useless now.

She’d tried to save his life, there was no way she would have done that if he’d kidnapped her.

That meant he couldn’t allow her to fall into Raul’s hands. The man was already more obsessed with her than he wouldhave liked, and the last thing he wanted was to allow Ella to be kept as some sort of perverted sex toy for a weapon’s dealer who would wind up killing her when he got bored.

“You’d think it would get easier each time,” Ella complained as she started to climb down after him.

Doing this in the dark made it harder on her, but he hadn't wanted them to move while it was light out. This made it easier for them to move without being spotted and he was going to play this as safe as he could because Ella was his priority.

The other team coming in to extract them and hopefully bring Raul into custody would be there, somewhere close by. All he needed to do was get Ella to the exfil spot and then it would be as good as over. Although he doubted that Raul was still close by, the man usually fled when it looked like he might get caught, which meant the threat to Ella and her team wouldn't be completely gone, but at least she’d be back home where someone could keep her safe.

Not him.

The longer he spent around her the more he was tempted to give in to the need to touch, taste, and risk everything to have her, even just for one night.

“I don’t think I'm ever going up in a tree again for as long as I live,” Ella said when their feet finally touched the ground.

There was relief in her tone.

Relief he hated he was about to wipe away.

“Go back up the tree, Ella,” he said, voice low so it didn't carry. They weren't alone anymore. Someone was coming. Not whichever team was coming to extract them, because they would know he was there and have let him know it was them.

That meant it had to be Raul’s men.

“Is someone there?” Ella asked in a scared whisper.

“Yes. Now, go. Get up there. Don’t come down unless I tell you to. I mean it, Ella,” he added. “No more heroics. I'm here to rescue you, not the other way around.”

“You were here to arrest me,” she muttered under her breath, but she began to climb the tree she’d only just gotten out of.

With Ella out of the way, Miguel faded into the trees, moving so he was behind the man he had sensed approaching their hiding spot.

Thankfully the man was alone and didn't appear to know he wasn’t alone.

Palming the handle of the knife he’d taken from the guard in the bathroom, he pounced on the man, burying the blade in his neck.

A panicked gurgle was all the man gave as he tried desperately to slow the flood of blood as he sank to the ground.

Just as Miguel was going to return to Ella, tell her to hurry back down so they could get away from there and to the exfil location, he spotted another man. Once again, he circled around until he was behind the other man, before striking. Another well placed blade to the neck left another body bleeding out on the jungle floor.

Two dead but there would be more.

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