Page 2 of Fighting for Ella

That had been impressed upon her in the most painful of ways. In fact, each step she took reminded her of how important it was that she made it out of there without anyone stopping her. Then all she had to do was take a cab to the airport, hop on the flight to Mexico, and disappear for good.

And it would be for good.

This wasn’t something she would be able to come back from.

Didn't even want to, not really. Because coming back from it would mean facing the people she had betrayed, and she was too much of a coward to do that.

So instead, she walked through the halls of Prey’s West Coast offices for the last time. As she did so she tried to commit everything to memory. The crisp white walls, the heavy oak doors to each room. All the fun times she’d had there, giggling and laughing with her friends, and all the good work she’d done examining evidence that helped Prey catch and eliminate dangerous targets.

Here she’d done a lot of good, and Ella hated that it was ending the way it was.

But she’d made her choice and had no option but to stick with it. What was done was done and now she had to live with the consequences.

At this hour the building was quiet. The six former SEALs who ran this branch of Prey were all at home with their wives and kids. Scarlett, Lucy, and Cassie were all home with the men they had fallen in love with. All three of them were still healing from the injuries they had received at the hand of Raul, and she hated that they had been hurt. She wished there was something she could do to change what had happened and what happened next.

“You can't,” she whispered aloud.

It was true.

It sucked, but it was true.

Rounding the corner, she stifled a scream when she walked headlong into someone. Panic thudded through her body.

No.

She couldn’t get caught.

Not yet.

She’d been sure that she would have enough time to make it to the airport and get on that plane before anybody realized that she’d taken the vial of the Reactivator and disappeared.

Someone would figure it out. She knew that. There were cameras everywhere inside the building, even more had been installed after Scarlett had been abducted at the beginning of the year.

Almost exactly a month ago.

How had so much changed in one month?

“Ella? Is everything okay?”

Relief washed over her at the sound of the voice. It was one she recognized but didn't belong to one of her teammates, one of the guys, or any of the SEAL teams working with Prey on this mess.

“Dora,” she said, pressing a hand to her chest to try to calm her racing heart. “You scared me. I thought you went home already.”

“Catching up on some paperwork,” Prey’s receptionist replied. “With everything going on, we’ve gotten behind on some other things, and I've been trying to get us caught back up.”

“Oh, umm, that’s good, a good idea,” she mumbled. Dora was a nice enough woman, but right now, Ella just wanted to get out of there. Her nerves couldn’t take any more of this, it was too stressful, and she wasn’t cut out for this kind of life.

Why hadn't she listened to her parents?

Why hadn't she followed the rest of her family into music?

If she had, she never would have gotten herself into this.

So many people hurt, so many lives still hanging in the balance. She just wanted this to all be over, even if that meant losing everything.

“I was just doing a little research myself, but I'm heading home now,” she said, trying to infuse as much normalcy into her tone as she could but pretty sure she failed. Failed abysmally.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Dora said with a warm smile and Ella’s confidence rose a little. If she’d fooled the receptionist, then maybe she could pull this off.