Page 82 of Fighting for Ella

“My head,” she murmured, sinking down to rest against the wall.

“Ambulance is already on its way. We’ll get you out of here, get you to the hospital, and make you all better. All I need you to do is hold on for me a couple more minutes. Can you do that, honey?”

“Yes.” At least she hoped so. Darkness was encroaching on the edges of her vision, ready to steal her sight with unconsciousness all over again.

Ella fought against it.

Clung to the knowledge that Miguel was just on the other side of the rubble and that any moment now he would be there, holding her in his arms, and everything would be okay.

Just as she almost lost her fight with the darkness, a sudden shaft of light had her head snapping in that direction and the most beautiful sight met her eyes.

Miguel’s face.

Peeking at her through a hole in the wall of debris.

“Hey, beautiful, you’ve never looked better,” Miguel teased, even as concern danced in his dark eyes.

Ella huffed a small chuckle and went to move closer. She needed to touch him, needed to feel that he was real and not a figment of her scrambled mind.

Only she sensed something behind her.

Movement.

But she was the only one in there.

No one should be moving.

Then looking more dead than alive, Dora Hibbert appeared, a huge chunk of concrete in her hand that she was swinging directly toward Ella’s head.

February 14th

10:51 P.M.

Like a zombie raisedfrom the dead, Dora Hibbert appeared behind Ella.

In slow motion, Miguel was forced to watch as the woman raised a huge chunk of concrete and swung it toward Ella’s head.

Another blow after the one she’d already taken could easily be enough to end the life of the woman who had so tenderly reached into his chest and taken hold of his heart.

There was no way he could stop this from happening.

Ella was between him and Dora, there was no way he could get his weapon in his hand and line up a shot where he wasn't going to hit his woman before Dora could take Ella out.

It was her intention.

He could see that in the manic eyes that seemed to glow in the light filtering into the cavern where Ella and Dora were trapped.

“Dora, don’t!” he screamed, knowing the woman wasn't going to listen.

Ella whimpered and he was sure the sound would stay with him for the rest of his life. The last sound he would ever hear her make.

There was nowhere for Ella to go.

She was trapped.

Even with a dozen men digging through the rubble, they couldn’t get to her in time.

No moment in his life had ever been this horrific. Miguel would take being nine years old and getting shot every single time over this.

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