Page 14 of Fighting for Ella

She knew they would follow her,wantedthem to follow her, she’d just thought she’d have a little more time before they got there. She had to get the fake drug to Raul and have him disarm the bomb before she could let her people know to come in for her.

Patting her bag as she watched Miguel disappear into the jungle, she reassured herself that the fake Reactivator was still tucked safely inside.

There was no way she would risk bringing the real drug with her to Mexico.

The real vial of the drug she’d taken from the lab at Prey was sitting inside a storage locker at the airport, waiting for her to be able to activate the tracker she’d bought with her, have her people come in, and then go back and retrieve it. As soon as the bomb was gone and her family was no longer in danger, she fully intended to tell Prey everything and watch with satisfaction as the threats to her team were taken into custody.

Ella was desperate but not stupid. She’d thought through every scenario she could in the twenty-four hours she’d been given to get on a plane and done her best with what she had to work with.

But going it alone was exhausting. She wanted her team back. Wanted her Prey people around her. Heck, she even wished Miguel would come back just so she wasn’t alone.

“Soon,” she assured herself as she tentatively began to climb back down the tree. “Soon this will all be over. You’ll trick Raul into thinking he has the real vial of the Reactivator. Your family will be safe. Prey will come. Raul will be caught. He’ll give up the mole’s name and she’ll be caught, too. Then life can go back to normal, the way it was before this whole mess started.”

Only as her feet touched the ground, Ella got the feeling that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

She was playing a dangerous game, she knew that, and she was banking on the fact that Prey would have faith in her, that they’d listen to her when she explained everything and understand that she had been in a no-win situation and had done the only thing she could to keep everyone alive and safe.

But what if she was wrong?

What if she was wrong about everything?

What if things were only going to get worse and not better?

February 6th

1:11 P.M.

She thoughtshe was so smart.

Miguel couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he slunk through the trees following his little runaway blonde.

When he’d caught sight of her trying to climb up the tree—something she definitely needed pointers on since it took her far too long as she almost fell at least half a dozen times—he’d known exactly how to handle this. It was obvious that Ella was not cut out for the life of a fugitive. She’d just assumed that she’d made it up the tree without getting caught, then when he’d snuck right past her, making sure she got a good look at him before moving out of her sight again, she had assumed she’d gotten what she wanted.

But this was his job, and he was good at it.

No way was he going to get trumped by some lab girl turned traitor or whatever the hell Ella was.

Because despite everything he knew as fact, and that she’d run from him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something hadn't added up.

It was her eyes.

In them was no calculation, no attempts to play him, nothing sinister or evil. In a decade as a SEAL, he’d seen plenty of evil people, looked into their eyes as they maimed and killed, looked into their eyes as they lay dying, and saw no remorse.

Ella wasn’t like them.

When he looked into her eyes he saw desperation.

Whatever had led to her agreeing to give the Reactivator to Raul Castillo, it wasn’t greed or power. She wasn’t doing this for the money, that much he would bet his life on. What he didn't know was how much good her motivation would do in saving her from her fate. Even if she’d been blackmailed or threatened, she’d still brought the drug to the enemy and that was going to get her a prison sentence.

For now, though, he wasn’t going to let on that he was following her. He hoped she would wind up leading him right to Raul, although from the looks of things she was completely and utterly lost.

Still, those had been Raul’s men who had tried to rape her. He’d seen their tattoos, so Raul’s place was around here somewhere, and once he found it, he was going to make sure the weapons dealer didn't slip through their fingers once again. He’d already been in contact with his team, told them to hang back, that he was on Ella’s trail, and once he had confirmation that she was with Raul, he’d let them know and they could raid the place and bring the trafficker into custody.

Maybe he could even spin it somehow that Ella had helped.

Miguel had no idea why, but for some reason, he didn't want to see the woman spend the rest of her life in prison for something it was clear she didn't want to be doing. If he couldtry to make it look like she’d worked with him to bring down one of the world’s most wanted men then that could go a long way toward reducing her sentence.

When Ella stopped up ahead of him, he stopped, too, although there was no need to make much of an attempt to hide himself. The woman spun in a slow circle but didn't do a thorough search of her environment to ensure she wasn’t being followed. She was too trusting, too innocent, too inexperienced, which was why he knew she had no nefarious purpose for being out there.

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