Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

February 6 th

6:17 P.M.

Right now, Ella didn't even care that the pressure point thing Miguel had done to her arm still had arrows of pain shooting up and down her forearm, or that he was holding her pinned against the wall, or that she was going to have bruises come morning.

Relief.

That was all she felt.

Miguel was there.

She was safe.

There was no way to properly explain the sense of security that seemed to seep down into her until it reached her very soul, but that’s how she felt. With Miguel there, it didn't seem to matter that she was still trapped inside the home of a dangerous criminal, she believed that everything was going to be okay.

“Start talking, Ella,” Miguel commanded, increasing the pressure around her wrists until she winced and chewed on her bottom lip to hold in a moan of pain.

She had to make a choice.

Keep her secrets until she knew for sure the bomb was no longer an issue or trust that she was in way over her head and that she needed Miguel.

Considering everything she’d risked so far, it was an easy decision to make.

Trust Miguel.

He was there, he was trained, and she knew he had the skills to keep them both alive. Besides, she was exhausted from carrying around the heavy weight of the lives of her family resting squarely on her shoulders.

“I’ll tell you everything,” she agreed, more than ready to share her burden.

“I’ll know if you lie,” Miguel warned, only it was unnecessary, she had no intention of not telling the whole truth.

When he stepped away from her and indicated that she should take a seat on the bed, Ella immediately missed the proximity. She’d hidden the pillows in the bed and drawn the curtains as soon as being locked in there, then grabbed the only weapon she could find and hidden in case she needed to defend herself from an attack. Which she thought she did when the door to her room opened. Once she knew it was Miguel she’d relaxed, allowed herself to feel safe, to know she wasn’t going to have to kill to protect herself because Miguel would take care of her.

“Start from the beginning,” he ordered as he stood between her and the door with his arms crossed over his broad chest. She wasn’t really sure if he was standing there to stop her from making a run for it, or in case one of Raul’s guards came into her room. Either way, she wasn’t complaining because he was a layer of protection for her regardless of his motivations.

The beginning.

Right.

A good idea, only words seemed to stick in her throat.

You can do this.

You have to do this .

If she didn't, this might all have been for nothing, and her family might die anyway.

Drawing in a deep breath, Ella did her best to settle her nerves. Nothing she could say would make her situation better so she may as well just tell Miguel everything and get it over with.

“I'm not the mole,” she whispered, hanging her head.

“Eyes on me, Ella,” Miguel commanded, but there was no anger in his voice, and she drew strength from that and lifted her head again to meet his gaze.

“I didn't write any emails to Raul Castillo offering him the Reactivator. I would never do that to my friends. I didn't have anything to do with Scarlett getting kidnapped, or the plane crash that almost killed Lucy and Zander, or the bombs.” With each word she spoke her confidence grew. It felt so good to say all of this out loud.

“When were you contacted?” Miguel asked, and the fact that he was asking as though he believed her gave her even more confidence.

“The same day that Cassie disarmed the bomb on the cruise ship. I was ambushed at home. Four men. They shoved me into a chair and showed me a video of someone setting a bomb under my parents’ house. My sister and her family live there, Miguel. Her youngest is only five months old,” her voice hitched, and Miguel grew blurry as tears filled her eyes.

He didn't say anything, just stood there watching her, and she knew he was assessing every word she said, trying to determine if she was telling the truth.

What she really needed now was a little comfort. Someone to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. Reassure her that the mess the mole had thrown her into wasn’t going to keep dragging her down like quicksand.

But she didn't get that.

All she got was a SEAL staring at her, not unkindly, but not with the gentleness she needed right now either.

Dragging in another breath Ella continued, “I was scared, and I fought them, but I was outnumbered and outmatched, and it was hopeless. They held me down and … and … burned the soles of my feet with cigarettes while they gave me instructions. I was told that I had twenty-four hours to be on a plane to Mexico with the vial of the Reactivator or the bomb would be set off, killing my parents, my sister, her husband, and three children. I didn't have a choice,” she whispered.

“We always have a choice, Ella.”

Anger sparked inside her at the calm way he said that. How dare he belittle her fear for her family and act like she had options when the facts were she hadn't.

“Yeah?” she challenged, shoving to her feet, consequences of disobeying him be damned. “What other choice did I have? The bomb could be set off remotely, which means as soon as the mole got word that I’d told someone, my family would be dead. The mole works at Prey so they have access to our communications. We know Scarlett’s phone was bugged which means the mole had the skills to listen in on other devices. Even if they weren't, they were likely watching my parents’ house, and as soon as they saw my family being evacuated they would have known I'd talked and set the bomb off anyway, killing not just my family but whoever went there to transport them someplace safe. So tell me, Miguel, what other choice did I have?”

When he said nothing, her anger only grew.

How could he judge her when he would have done the same exact thing she did?

“Are you telling me if it was your family who had been threatened you would have risked their lives?” she asked, cocking a brow, knowing he had no choice but to confirm she was right.

“If it was my family, I would have done whatever it took to protect them, consequences be damned,” he acknowledged. “But you took the drug, Ella. You brought it here.”

“I didn't,” she informed him.

“You're on camera stealing it.”

“I took it from the lab, yes. I had to. The mole was likely watching the security footage, so I didn't have a choice, I couldn’t risk faking it. But I did not bring it to Mexico.”

Arching a brow like he didn't believe he asked, “Then what did I see you hand over to Raul a couple of hours ago?”

“A fake. Something I threw together from whatever we had on hand at the lab. I would never risk a man like Raul Castillo getting his hands on the real drug. I rented a storage locker at the airport, the real vial of the drug is there, safe and sound.”

Surprise flickered through his dark eyes. “So how did you think this was going to play out? You had to know that once Raul’s scientists discovered the drug you brought was a fake he’d torture you for the information.”

“I had a plan. The fake vial was just to buy time. I thought I could use it as a bargaining tool to get him to have the mole remove the bomb. Then, once I knew my family was safe, I was going activate a tracker I brought with me so Prey would know where I was. I didn't use a disguise, so I thought you’d already be in Mexico and close by. All I had to do was give him a formula close enough to the real thing to keep the scientists from getting suspicious and buy enough time for Prey to show up.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best plan ever, but Ella felt it was a solid one, especially given this wasn’t what she usually did, and she’d had limited time to come up with it.

“It worked, too. The real drug is safe. I sent a time-delayed email to my team to let them know where it was in case I didn't make it out of this alive. Raul said he’s going to get the mole to remove the bomb. And you're here, which means there’s a whole team of SEALs nearby, and this time, Raul isn’t going to slip through our fingers.”

“One little problem with your plan, Ella. You're a wanted fugitive and your parents’ house is being watched in case you try to make contact with them. There’s no way the mole will risk going in and removing the bomb because there’s no chance they can do it without getting caught.”

With those words, the bottom fell out of her world.

Everything she’d done had been for nothing.

Her family was going to die anyway.

February 6 th

6:31 P.M.

He caught her as her knees buckled.

Miguel knew he’d been cruel to deliver the blow the way he had, but he needed to make sure Ella was telling him the truth.

Her reaction pretty much proved that she had.

No way could she possibly fake that kind of terror.

Feeling like a jerk for pushing her when she was clearly teetering on the edge of exhaustion after a two-day-long ordeal, Miguel gathered her into his arms and carried her back to the bed.

Despite her earlier show of spirit, it seemed like all the fight had now drained right out of her.

He didn't like that.

While maybe she could have found a way to alert someone to the fact that she’d been threatened, he could see how she would have felt like she had no other option but to do what she did. And given that she had stashed the drug somewhere in the country, she was one of the people who created it, so it was at least a quarter hers, she hadn't even really committed any crime.

Her plan was insane given her lack of field experience, but he didn't think it could in any way be considered treason.

Setting her on the bed, Miguel kept an arm around her shoulders while he pulled the pillows out from under the covers and propped them against the headboard, leaning Ella back to rest against them. Her eyes were wide and vacant and so very full of fear that he wanted to do whatever it took to soothe it away.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t.

Just because he had deliberately delivered the news that her parents’ house was being watched in a way he could get her true reaction didn't mean that it wasn’t true. Because it was. With people watching the house, there was no way the mole would risk going in and removing it even if Raul did have enough sway over them to get them to do it, and Miguel wasn’t sure that he did.

The mole was rogue.

Whatever the initial plan had been, the mole was off on their own tangent now, doing their own thing.

Wanting to snap Ella out of her shock-induced haze, he slid his hands down her calves to her feet and removed her sneakers and socks.

When the shoes hit the floor with a thud, Ella startled. For a moment, her gaze was blank when she looked at him but then anger and hurt shone through.

“Checking to see if I was lying about them burning me?” she asked, not quite enough heat to her tone, but enough to know she was doing her best to push through her fear and function.

He could lie, tell her he was, but the truth was, he’d always felt like there was more going on than they’d realized. While the others might have believed that she was the mole and had betrayed them all, he’d just known in his gut that it wasn’t true. Just because her family didn't know they had been threatened didn't mean they hadn't, and as it turned out, they had in fact been threatened.

Miguel didn't want any more lies between them though. He believed she’d told him the truth, and while there were no guarantees in life, he was going to move forward under the assumption that Ella was no traitor and work with her as a team.

“No, honey, I don’t need proof that you weren't lying. I do need to see if your feet are healing,” he told her gently as he lifted one of her feet. If she’d been in a panic ever since being attacked in her home, trying to come up with a way to protect both her family and the drug, then he very much doubted she’d given herself any first aid.

Add in the fact that she’d been running through the jungle for hours and he shouldn’t have been surprised to see the red blistered welts on the soles of her feet.

Sucking in a breath, he looked up to find her watching him with a confused expression. “Honey, how did you walk so far on these?”

Ella shrugged. “Honestly, I wasn’t even thinking about them. They stopped hurting almost immediately after they burned me because I was too worried about my family.”

That right there told him everything he needed to know.

“Miguel … is my parents’ house really being watched?” she asked, chewing on her bottom lip, from the looks of it trying to hold in her emotions. “You … you weren't just tricking me? To see if I slipped up?”

Bursting her bubble of denial wasn’t fun, but he wasn’t going to lie, that wasn’t who he was. “I wasn’t trying to trick you, Ella. Prey has people watching their house, and yours, and your other siblings, in case you turned up at any one of them.”

Her throat moved as she swallowed. “They really believed I was the mole?” she asked in a small voice.

Answering that made his gut churn because he could see the stark pain in her big green eyes. “Things looked bad when you were right there on the security footage taking the drug and then you went right to the airport and got on a plane to Mexico.”

Lifting a shaking hand, she brushed at her eyes, catching the couple of stray tears that escaped. “I thought they would give me the benefit of the doubt,” she whispered, more to herself it seemed than to him.

“Hey.” Setting her feet down, he moved up the bed and nudged her chin with his knuckle so he had her attention. “Everyone is stressed, and your sudden disappearance threw everyone. But deep down, I’m sure they knew you would never betray them like that. Now we’ll have proof. The drug where you said it was, the email you scheduled, the bomb under your parents’ house. Everything will work out.”

“Not if the bomb goes off, I’ll have risked everything for nothing.”

“I have a plan, Ella. We’ll keep your family safe.” It was on the tip of his tongue to issue a promise, but he held back. Right now, he couldn’t make promises.

“A plan?” she asked, looking at him with such hope, such trust, that it made something shift inside him. When was the last time a woman had looked at him like that? Usually, women saw his body and not much else. They wanted him for sex because he worked hard for his physique, and they loved the whole mysterious SEAL vibe.

Ella seemed to look past that.

Yes, she needed his protection and his help right now, but it was that she looked at him like he held the key to solving all her problems. She had every reason not to trust him since he’d come to Mexico to bring her into custody, and yet it was clear that she did.

“My team is with me. When you did the whole hide in the tree thing I decided to follow you.” He winked at her when her cheeks heated to let her know he was teasing. “They were going to wait until I let them know I was ready for them, then we were going to take down you and Raul. But I have a different idea now. I’m going to contact them and tell them to pretend they have you in custody and are bringing you home. That way, the mole should get wind of it, and with you set up to take the fall for them, setting the bomb off would no longer be advantageous for them. In fact, it would be counterproductive.”

The plan wasn’t foolproof, but it was better than nothing.

It should buy them enough time to keep Ella’s family safe while another team came in and they finally caught Raul.

“That could work,” Ella said hopefully, some of the fear receding and he felt he could take a full breath again. For some reason, this woman’s emotions seemed to be able to leech out of her, into the atmosphere, and then inside him. It was weird and … not completely unpleasant, just nothing like he had ever experienced before.

“It means you staying here and playing this out with Raul until another team comes to help get us out,” he cautioned. This plan came with plenty of risks and Ella would be taking the brunt of them.

“You're going to be here, too, right?” she asked anxiously. “You're not leaving me?”

“No, honey, I won't leave you. I’ll be here, but I won't be able to make contact with you again. You’re going to have to do what you came here to do, pretend you're going to hand over the formula. Pretend you believe him when he gives you what is going to be false information regarding the bomb being disarmed. Go to dinner with him tonight.”

Ella gulped when he mentioned that but nodded.

“It also means going ahead knowing the mole will make contact with him at some point to report that you’ve been caught and taken into custody. Right now, I'm banking on the fact that Raul never bothered contacting the mole about the bomb, but I could be wrong. As soon as they talk it will come out that there are reports you’ve been captured. Since you can't be in two places at the same time, and Raul knows you’re here, he’s going to suspect that you're somehow playing him. This plan puts you in more danger than you were already in,” he warned.

“But my family will be in a safer position.”

“They should be.”

“Then I can take whatever the risks to me,” Ella said with a determination that would make any SEAL proud.

The problem was, he was starting to wonder if he could handle knowing Ella was in such a precarious position.