Page 6 of Fighting for Ella

That would be one thing if she knew where she was going, but she didn't. She had no idea where she’d made a wrong turn and wasn’t even sure she knew how to backtrack and find her way to one of the bigger roads where she might be able to find someone.

Even if she could manage to do that, she’d have to hope that the driver she found knew where Raul was and was willing to take her there.

This was a dangerous part of the world. Aside from the fact that the weapons dealer had a house somewhere close by there were cartels, who would do only one thing to her if they found her wandering around in their territory.

Images of her being held down and raped flashed through her mind along with a series of images of what her three friends had been through. Raul had in his possession an arousal drug that was said to keep a woman in a painful state of arousal for hours. According to her friends, all three of them who had fallen victim to the drug’s influence while Raul’s prisoner, had said it felt like there was something inside of you clawing to get out and that you would do almost anything to find relief.

That’s what they had suffered at the hands of the man she was now going to meet.

If anyone ever deserved to burn in Hell for all eternity for their sins, it was her.

She was the lowest form of low. The worst of the worst. And yet, with a weary sigh, she unsnapped her seatbelt, grabbed her purse from the passenger seat, shoved open her door, and climbed out of the vehicle.

Despite the risks, she was going to have to figure this out on foot.

The only other option was to sit in her car and just wait there until she died of dehydration. Even with the muggy heat that would take days, and she wasn’t brave enough to sit there and wait for death to come for her.

Still, she eyed the car once before starting to walk. Maybe that would be the better option. It was certainly what she deserved. Maybe even more than she deserved.

But she couldn’t do it.

Instead, she turned and trudged off into the jungle. Ella still had no idea where she was going. Obviously, somewhere along the way, she’d taken a wrong turn, but she had no idea where.

If she kept going forward, there was a chance she might be able to still find Raul’s property. She couldn’t have gotten so far off track that she wasn’t even in the vicinity. At least that’s what she assured herself as she climbed over a fallen tree trunk.

Even if she made it through the jungle and by some miracle got to his place, he wasn’t going to believe her when she said she’d just gotten lost. There would be some punishment she’d be forced to endure, and she had already decided she would take it without complaint.

It was the least she owed her friends.

Being lost aside, there was every chance she wouldn't even make it through the jungle. There were so many predators out there, both animal and human. Plus, she had zero supplies and wasn’t even dressed to be traipsing through the jungle. At least she’d swapped out her usual dresses and heels for a sensible pair of jeans and sneakers.

Despite the early morning, it was already hot and humid. Hot enough that she shrugged out of her hoodie and tied it around her waist. Tonight, when the temperature dropped, she’d need it again, but right now it was too warm to keep it on.

After only several minutes of walking, Ella was already thirsty, but she’d finished the bottle of water from the plane in the car before she realized she was lost and had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way.

The outdoors was not her thing, she was an inside girl. When she wasn’t working or hanging out with her friends, she was either reading or practicing. Coming from a family of classical musicians, it had always been assumed that she would follow in their footsteps. It wasn’t that she wasn’t talented enough, she’d been a child prodigy, playing multiple instruments before she could even read and write. Cello was her favorite, and even though she’d chosen a different path for her life, she still occasionally performed in front of large audiences, her fame as a child meaning she got plenty of invites.

Music was her happy place. Not that she had ever once second-guessed her decision not to make music her career. She’d made the right choices, the best ones for her, and she’d done a lot of good work at Prey.

Too bad it was all tainted now.

All anyone would ever remember of her was that she had taken a drug she’d designed with her friends and sold it to a weapons dealer. Nobody would care to dig deeper and find out the whys.

That hurt.

Maybe more than it should given that Ella was aware that she was the bad guy in this situation. If her friends didn't believe in her then that was her own fault.

Things didn’t have to go this way. She could have made a different choice, but she hadn't. She’d made this choice and now had no other option but to follow it through to the end.

Whatever the end looked like.

Whether she wound up getting killed by an animal, dehydration, exposure, a cartel, Raul, or one of his men, it didn't really make much difference.

Whatever she got she would deserve.

February 6th

11:37 A.M.

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