Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

February 7 th

12:53 A.M.

Someone was shooting at her.

Someone was shooting at Miguel.

They were being shot at.

Panic had her muscles freezing and Ella stopped right at the top of the fence, one leg on either side, unsure what she was supposed to do. She had no weapon, even if she did, she was barely proficient at using it. Scarlett was the expert on their team and Lucy was good, too. Cassie was good only because she was good at everything and not because she particularly liked shooting.

She was the worst.

She hated guns.

Hated the loud bang they made when fired.

It always hurt her ears.

Now there was so much shooting that the bangs all joined together in one loud explosion of sound, and she cowered, curling in on herself, her panic growing by the second.

What were they going to do?

They were trapped. She was useless. It was Miguel against all of Raul’s guards. It was hopeless.

Now that they’d tried escaping, Raul was going to know that she’d gone there with ulterior motives. That meant as soon as his men got their hands on her, she was going to be tortured.

“Ella, come on, honey, you’ve been so brave, but I need you to hang on a little longer. Can you do that for me?”

Miguel’s calm, soothing voice cut through a little of her panic and she forced herself to latch onto it. Just like she’d placed a hand on his chest earlier and used it to mimic his breathing, calming herself and somehow pulling her back from the brink of hysteria, now she allowed his quiet tone to wash over her, cooling the worst of her panic. She had no idea how he was able to still be calm given their near insurmountable odds, but she admired it. If not for him, she’d have been raped several times over already, and now he was the only thing standing between her and death.

“I … I'm okay,” she forced the words out because the last thing she wanted to do was risk the life of the man who was trying to save her. If he needed her to be in control, then she would somehow scrounge up some control.

“I know you are. I know you’ve got this, you just have to know it, too.”

Again, the confidence in his tone managed to infuse just a teeny bit into her. But a teeny bit was all she needed to work with right now.

“I want you to jump down and run,” he ordered. “Don’t stop. I’ll come find you, just get yourself someplace where you can hide. As soon as you get off the fence activate the tracker.”

“But what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. Just run and hide. And, Ella.” In the dark, she could see the circle of his face peering up at her even if she couldn’t make out his eyes. “If you get caught, tell them who I am. That I'm a SEAL, that I was sent here to capture you because you're a wanted traitor. Tell them I took you against your will. That the guard in the bathroom was trying to save you and I killed him and kidnapped you.”

Ella gasped and shook her head vehemently against his words. “If I tell them that they’ll kill you.”

“If you don’t they’ll torture and kill you. Go. Now.”

As badly as she wanted to stay and argue against his words, protest that there was no way she could willingly sign his death warrant, Ella knew that the longer she stayed, the more she was distracting Miguel. The more she distracted him the less chance he had of getting away alive.

With tears tumbling down her cheeks, she dragged her other leg over the fence and avoided looking down. Heights were not her thing, and if she allowed herself to look at the distance between the top of the fence and the ground, and worry about all the injuries she could cause herself landing, then she was never going to be able to jump.

Miguel believes in you.

He needs you.

Don’t let him down.

Somehow knowing that their lives were tied together at the moment helped her find the courage to let go.

The fall felt like it went in slow motion, lasting several minutes, but really, she knew it was barely a couple of seconds before her feet hit the ground.

Because she was wearing the world’s most impractical pair of escaping shoes, her ankles both gave way beneath her as pain speared up through her feet and into her legs, hips, and torso, and she tumbled sideways.

There was no time to dwell on the pain. Gunshots were still firing at the fence, and she knew without needing to turn her head and look over her shoulder that Miguel was firing back.

Buying her time to get away.

Even at the expense of his own life.

Tears continued to fall down her cheeks as she took off into the jungle. The shoes were utterly useless, doing more harm than good, so she paused just long enough to kick them off before she kept running. The blisters littering her soles protested, but in reality, her feet weren't any worse off without the shoes. They’d cause their own blisters and do little to protect her from the sticks, roots, rocks, and other debris that littered the ground. Besides, wearing them while running through the jungle would almost guarantee a broken ankle.

Gunshots began to fade. The jungle was relatively quiet at this time of night, and for a second, she wished for the too-loud bangs of the guns being fired because at least that meant she wasn’t alone.

Now she was.

The silence was too loud.

Too terrifying.

She felt trapped all over again, only this time in a different way than being locked in Raul’s house.

“The tracker, activate the tracker,” she told herself aloud just to break the crushing silence.

Her fingers fumbled as she found the tracker she’d hidden in a cute tiara ring she always wore. It looked too small to fit a tracker, and since it was a simple piece of jewelry, she’d hoped that Raul’s men wouldn't remove it if they decided to search her.

With the tracker activated, she spun in a slow circle.

What should she do now?

Keep running?

Wait for Miguel?

What if he never came?

What if he was already dead?

Don’t be dead.

Please, don’t be dead .

“Told you to hide, honey.”

The voice startled a squawk out of her, and she spun around to see Miguel standing right behind her. How had he done that? How had he snuck right up behind her without her even realizing it? Probably the same way he’d tricked her when she thought she lost him by hiding in the tree and never noticed that he was following her the entire time.

Ignoring the reprimand in his voice, Ella just threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and clinging to him. He was alive. The relief at knowing he’d escaped, too, was almost overwhelming, and not just because she needed him to get her out of there alive.

Because he’d been kind to her when he hadn't had to. He’d killed for her on two occasions. He’d been willing to sacrifice his life to give her a chance.

“You're alive,” she whispered, burying her face against his neck.

Slowly, his arms came up to hold her, and he gave her a tight squeeze. “Course. Wasn’t going to leave you alone out here,” he said, tone light-hearted, but she could feel the tension in his body.

That wasn’t all she could feel.

This position was more intimate than she’d realized when she threw herself at him. In the moment, all she cared about was holding onto the man who would have made the ultimate sacrifice for her without giving it a second thought. Now that she was in his arms, she could feel the hardening ridge of an erection nestled right against the part of her that had been violated earlier.

A wave of panic at the thought of anyone touching her there ever again was chased away by a wave of desire for this man and this man only. Another wave of panic followed in its wake as she remembered the feel of the guard’s finger forcing its way inside her, and she quickly pushed at Miguel’s shoulders, needing to not be touched right now.

Like he seemed so good at reading her, he set her on her feet and even took a step back to give her space.

“Sorry,” she murmured, completely mortified. Ella wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for. For almost getting him killed? For implying he was like the man who would have raped her? For throwing herself at him? For reacting to his touch?

“Hey, you don’t have anything to be sorry about, you’ve had a hell of a last couple of days,” Miguel spoke in that soothing tone that actually seemed to work at calming her nerves.

Just as she was about to thank him for what he’d done in the bathroom and just now at the fence, he stiffened and spun around.

A second too late.

Another bang.

Another gunshot.

This one must have hit its target if the grunt of pain from Miguel was anything to go by.

Something dark and deadly stirred inside her.

Someone had hurt Miguel.

The man who had risked so much for her, who had believed in her even when the people who knew her best hadn't.

A growl that kind of sounded more like a baby lion than the king of the jungle rumbled out of her, and she threw herself at the man emerging from the trees.

Caught by surprise, she managed to knock him down, and the next thing she knew they were rolling down a decline in a tangle of limbs.

Ella lost count of how many times her body slammed into things, and by the time she and the man landed with a splash in a river, she was dangerously close to losing consciousness.

February 7 th

1:13 A.M.

Pain radiated down from his shoulder.

Damn it.

He’d allowed himself a moment of distraction and it had gotten him shot.

Miguel cursed his own stupidity. It was his feelings for Ella that had done it. When she’d thrown herself into his arms, everything other than the feel of her against his body had fled from his mind.

Like the open book that she was, he’d felt the myriad of emotions flash through her. Desire had warred with fear, and with it had come rising panic. Even though she’d been the one to initiate contact, she’d quickly needed distance and he’d given it to her. While he would have loved to hold her, soothe her fears, reassure her that she was safe and that he’d never hurt her, he’d given her what she needed and set her down.

The mumbled apology almost had him rethinking that decision.

He would never disrespect a woman by touching her when she indicated she wanted space, but the urge to hold her and make her take the apology back, force her to accept she had nothing to be sorry for, was almost more than he could stand.

Soothing her was a need.

When she was upset, he felt unsettled in the strangest of ways.

Now knowing that Ella was in trouble again had panic settling in his gut.

Because he’d been more focused on soothing Ella, he hadn't noticed someone sneaking up behind them until it was too late to do anything about it.

Ignoring the burn in his shoulder, he flexed his fingers. They all moved on command, and while it hurt, he was pretty sure the wound was nothing more than a flesh one. Nothing that would inhibit him from doing what he needed to do.

His little lioness had thrown herself at the man who had shot him with the most adorable roar he’d ever heard. Even as he wanted to spank her cute little butt for doing something as crazy as tackling an armed man, Miguel couldn’t deny that he also felt a whole lot of pride.

As scared as she was, as rough as the last couple of days had been for her, she hadn't hesitated to put herself in the line of fire to protect him.

Protect him .

The only person other than his team who had ever done that for him was his brother.

Now, a woman who stirred up feelings he was determined to do his best to ignore was in danger, and his chest felt so tight he had to actually rub at it to try to alleviate the sensation.

Unprepared for the tiny warrior to attack, the man who’d shot him had lost his balance when Ella’s body collided with his own and they’d both gone down a small hill. Scooping up the guard’s weapon, which he must have dropped before he fell, Miguel started down the decline.

It was fairly sharp, and it was easy to make out the trail the two bodies had taken even in the dark. There were enough obstacles along the way that by the time he reached the bottom and found a fast-flowing river, he was genuinely concerned about whether or not Ella had been conscious when she’d gone in the water.

Scanning the river, searching for signs of Ella, when he saw none, he started jogging along the bank in the direction the current would have taken her.

Aside from whatever injuries she may have sustained in the fall, she was also there with a man who wouldn't hesitate to kill her, or at least incapacitate her and take her back to Raul.

Even if she survived this dip in the river, Raul now knew something was wrong. Luckily, Miguel had been able to kill the guards shooting at them, but that was only because there were just a few of them. Even with the four he’d killed before jumping the fence and going after Ella, there were still at least twenty men on the estate.

Enough to outnumber them.

Enough that if they were surrounded, he might not be able to protect Ella.

Shoving away those fears for the moment he stopped when he spotted something that looked like it could be a body.

While he wasn’t yet allowing himself to consider the possibility that Ella could have drowned, if she had her body would still float to the surface. The river was wide, and he was too far away from the body to see if it was a man or a woman, but he wasn’t going to risk not checking it out because there was a fifty-fifty chance that if it was a person that it was Ella.

Wading into the cold water, Miguel had never been more thankful in his life that he’d decided to become a SEAL. In high school, he’d warred with himself about whether he wanted to be a SEAL like his big brother or try for Delta Force. In the end, following in the footsteps of the brother he adored had won out.

Because of that decision, the water had become like a second home to him.

The fast-moving current was no match for his skills, and he made quick work of closing the distance between him and the body shape he’d seen. The closer he got, the more he realized it was indeed a person, and from the way they were thrashing about they were alive.

They were also too small to be the guard.

“Ella,” he called out.

Struggling in the water, she managed to turn until she was looking at him. “Miguel!” she said with a sob, and he could hear the stark relief in her voice.

“Hold on,” he urged as he quickened his strokes to get to her faster.

“I … I can't … I'm not … I can swim but … never in a river … not even the ocean … always in a pool,” Ella babbled as her clumsy movements barely kept her afloat.

“I'm almost to you,” he assured her, trying to shove as much confidence into his tone as he could manage so he could soothe her.

She was drowning, just because her head was currently above the water didn't change that fact, and drowning people panicked. Totally understandable, but the calmer he could keep her the better chance she’d have of keeping her head up until he got to her.

Ella let out a startled squawk and then she was gone.

Disappeared beneath the surface.

Unsure whether her own fear had taken her under, if a predator had latched onto her, or if the guard she had attacked had gotten a hold of her, Miguel didn't hesitate to draw his weapon.

Whatever it was it wasn’t going to take Ella from him.

Diving under the water, he aimed right for the spot Ella had gone under and swam with everything he had to give.

When his hand connected with something, he grabbed onto it. It was too dark down there to see anything, but from the way it grabbed onto him, he assumed it was Ella. Pulling her up to the surface with him, he held onto her with one hand while searching her body for whatever had almost stolen her from him.

It wasn’t a predator.

Wasn’t the guard.

The offender was nothing more than a branch that had bumped into her leg and gotten caught up in her too-long pants.

“Calm down, honey,” he soothed as she scrambled to wrap her body around his. As much as he liked the feel of her in his arms, he needed those arms and his legs to swim them back out of the water.

“I thought I was going to drown,” she whimpered, pressing closer, her movements growing sluggish.

Concerned about her growing lack of strength, Miguel disentangled her arms from around his neck and eased her onto her back. Then he wrapped one arm around her chest, and allowed the current to do half the work as he angled himself for the bank and swam them back to land.

It didn't take long, and as soon as his feet hit the ground, he swung her up into his arms and quickly got them out of the water. Finding a fairly clear patch of grass, he quickly laid Ella out and began to run his hands up and down her body.

From the small gasps as he went, he knew she had to be covered in bumps and bruises, but other than the small flinches, she didn't scream or try to pull away from him, so he determined there were likely no broken bones. Wishing he had more gear on him so he could properly check her out, his fingers cradled her head as he ran his thumbs over her face checking for injuries that could account for her sudden lack of energy.

There was a bump on her forehead, and she winced as his thumbs brushed over it.

“Miguel?” she asked, voice slurring, “I … I think I'm going to pass out.”

No sooner had she said the words than she did just that.