Page 68 of Fighting for Ella

Chuckling, he grabbed the syrup and set it on the table as she scooped the bread out of the frying pan and divided it up between the two plates. There was already coffee and juice on the table, and she’d cut up some fruit to go on the French toast as well.

Before she could pick up the plates, Miguel nudged her out of the way, shooing her toward the table, then grabbed both of their plates and set them on the placemats. While she’d been cooking, he’d somehow managed to find a couple of candles and set them up on the table and her heart melted at the sight.

Her guy might be unsure about reaching out and taking what he wanted, but he was so sweet and he did the nicest things for her. Ella understood where he was coming from, why he would have the fears he did, and she would do her best not to add any more pressure to him in addition to the pressure he was heaping on himself.

If this is going to work out then it will.

Those were the words she kept whispering to herself. They were true and she was doing her best to believe in them. Just because she wanted Miguel, and just because he wanted her in return, didn't mean they were supposed to be together. There were no guarantees in life, she knew that, had said it to Miguel just a little while ago, and you couldn’t fight against fate.

She just hoped with everything she had that this time fate was on her side.

“What are your plans for the day?” she asked as she took a bite of the fluffy toast, letting it melt on her tongue.

“What are your plans for the day?” Miguel shot back, catching her by surprise.

“Umm, well, I guess going into Prey for a while this morning. I promised to give things an honest try and I intend to do that. I guess we’ll go through files again, see if we can match up the description you gave of the woman you saw yesterday with oneof our current or former employees. Then I'm seeing Piper again at two. After that, I’ll probably just come home and hang out. Why?”

“Because you can consider me your shadow until the mole is in custody.”

Even as his words warmed her there was an ominous ending to the sentence. The words he hadn't said affected her just as deeply as the ones he had.

Once the mole was found, Miguel could vanish from her life as quickly as he entered it.

It hurt to think about that, so Ella quickly shoved the thoughts away. They didn't fit in with her live life in the moment plan.

“My shadow, huh?”

“Yep. If the mole is following you around, then they’re not getting to you. If they try they’ll have to get through me.”

“You know I've been thinking,” she said slowly. “It seems like this isn’t just business. At least on the mole’s part. It was for Raul Castillo. He just wanted the drug and didn't want to give up on getting it, he didn't want to be bested by a bunch of girls he couldn’t coerce into doing what he wanted. But it feels different with the mole.”

“How so?”

“Well, they didn't have to get Scarlett kidnapped and tortured. They couldn’t get to the vial without us, and we were careful to protect the formula. The mole sold the drug to Raul, or at least sold the ability to get the drug, but they took it so much further than that. I mean, someone sold out Zander because he and Lucy were kidnapped by his enemies, not Raul and the mole. Someone knew about him and used it almost as a way to punish Lucy. Then with Cassie, they used her fingerprints to program into the bomb on the ship. The only way for it to be disarmed was with her, which meant she had no choice but to head rightinto danger. That wasn't really productive in terms of getting the formula. In fact, none of the bombs were. Sure the email said it was as motivation, but it really seemed like it was more punishment.”

But why would someone who worked for Prey want to punish them?

Athena Team wasn't a field team, they were lab workers, scientists.

Someone seemed to have a grudge against them specifically, and she was starting to wonder if maybe the Reactivator was just a secondary motivator. Like maybe the idea of selling it to a notorious weapons dealer wasn't so much about the money as it was just a way to make her and her team suffer.

If that was the case, then it changed things. Definitely changed how they should look at the files. All along they’d been looking for someone who might have a need for money as the primary motivator. What if they swapped that around? What if the money was just an extra benefit but the real goal was to destroy Athena Team?

“Whoever it was really doubled down after you guys started falling in love,” Miguel said slowly.

“That’s true,” she agreed. Things had continued to escalate after Scarlett had fallen for Tate, then Lucy for Zander, Cassie for Luis, and now her for Miguel. Just because of all four of them she was the only one whose future with the man she wanted was up in the air didn't change the fact that she had fallen.

What did that mean?

It had to mean something.

Didn't it?

Or was she just clutching at straws here?

A month of living on edge had made them all desperate for any kind of answers, but looking for things where there was nothing wasn't going to help.

Somehow, she had to cling to a little logic.

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