Finding Forgiveness

“I’m guessing by your face that that gun is still in your glove box?” Ella asked.

“Yes,” I said although checking my pockets just in case.

She rolled her eyes and sent me a look of frustration and despair.

“Fuck,” she said as the marching men neared us.

She then quickly grabbed a knife off the table and turned to them. But there was little a butter knife could do in a gun fight and there wasn’t even an escape route either. They were blocking the way to the only exit and neither of us were about to risk getting shot.

“Hands up,” one of them barked pointing the gun directly at Ella as the other two pointed at me.

We had no choice but to oblige and watch helplessly as one plucked the knife out of Ella’s hand.

I looked around the diner, it was fairly busy and this was Texas. Surely someone would have a gun on them? But no one was coming to our aid, they were all just sat terrified and watching.

“Come with us or we will shoot your cousin,” one told Ella as he and another grabbed her arm.

I lurched forward but I was stopped by a gun, dangerously close to me, held by the third man.

“Don’t move, gringo,” he growled.

I put my hands up and slowly stepped back.

Initially, Ella was fighting against the men trying to drag her out the diner but then the meaning of his words seemed to sink in and she saw the gun pointed at me and let them.

I gave her a helpless look as I watched. There was nothing I could do and that made me angry.

The third man stayed pointing the gun at me as Ella was dragged away from the diner. I could just about make out the license plate of a white van that they were taking her to before the man with me thrust a piece of paper in my direction.

“From Guillermo,” he said.

I reached forward to simply take the paper but the adrenaline rushing through my veins made me grab his wrist and pull him towards me. He fired the gun but I’d twisted him so that it missed and hit a window. The glass shattered over some people but that was the least of my worries right now.

I was much taller and stronger than him and was able to get him so that my arm was around his neck and my other hand was holding his gun against his head. With the freehand I unfolded the piece of paper and read the few words written on it.

They read:Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

We got to him first.

“Where are they taking her?!” I growled at the man upon looking out the window to see the white van gone.

He struggled in my grip and whimpered. From a few mumbled some Spanish words, it dawned on me that he may not speak English beyond what he had been instructed to say. “A el jefe,” he replied instantly.

… To the boss.

Luca’s POV

“Alpha, I’ve screwed up big time,” I said to Leo after he finally picked up his phone.

I was in the process of dragging the man that had been pointing his gun at me to my car by the scruff of his collar. The more he resisted the more time he was wasting and the further away that white van was getting. This could be Ella’s life in danger and I wasn’t messing around.

“Get in my fucking car,” I growled at him, pausing to hold the gun to his head.

After that, he went easily.

“Who are you talking to? Are you with Ella?” Leo asked.

“That’s the thing,” I said opening the door to the passenger seat of my car and bundling the man in. “I was but now I’m not. Someone’s taking her.”

“Someone?” he asked. “Where are you?”

“It’s where we were,” I told him as I got into the driver’s seat and immediately started the engine and began driving the same direction as the white van did.

“For God’s sake, Luca. Just spit it out. Who has taken my mate!?” he growled.

“Andrea Martinez,” I said, uttering the name of the man otherwise known as ‘the boss’.

There was a pause on Leo’s end of the line for over five seconds.

“How the fuck did Andrea Martinez get a hold on my mate?” he said slowly and deeply.

“I had to collect this month’s shipment and things went tits up from then on,” I said. “You don’t want the details. What’s important is that Ella is in danger.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong Luca but didn’t I tell you not to even mention a word of what you do in Mexico to her? And then you take her with you?!” he replied.

“Yes, I know. I am sorry and you can kill me later but for now, can we just focus on getting her back?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything which I took as a yes.

“I’ve captured one of the men that ambushed us but apart from that nothing. All he has told me is that they are taking her to Martinez but I have no idea where he is based or where to even begin looking.”

“Then get the information out of him,” Leo growled.

“He doesn’t speak English and my Spanish is limited to say the very least,” I replied.

“Put me on speaker,” he ordered.

Leo proceeded to speak to the man in Spanish. Not only did he sound perfectly fluent but as he spoke, the man became more and more sweaty and anxious.

It wasn’t long until he was replying to everything Leo asked immediately without any sort of reluctance.

“Drive to Mexico and find a man named Pedro Hernandez. He’s Martinez’s driver and the only one other than himself that knows where he is located. I’ll meet you there and that man with you can tell you nothing more. He’s just a pawn,” Leo told me before hanging up.

I brought the car to a halt and leant over the poor guy to open the door. I then ushered him out and drove away leaving him on the side of the road in a hot, quivering mess with nothing more than an adios. I could have taken my anger out on him but as Leo said, he’s just a pawn and seemed to have got what he deserved from just having to face speaking to Alpha Loren himself.

Ella’s POV

“Mommy!” I heard a voice cry. “Mama! Higher!”

I was in a green, misty field with a singular swing and on it sat Lili. I’d always thought Lili was the most similar to me. Although only four years old, she was already fiercely opinionated and was never afraid for her voice to be heard. Physically too. Leo and I were fairly similar in appearance, male and female aside, but she seemed to have still managed to adopt my traits more. A lighter tan unlike Leo’s honey brown and light, close to white with blonde hair.

“Any higher and you’ll fly!” I replied.

“I want to fly, Mama!” She said and for some reason, I began pushing her harder. I couldn’t stop myself. She was going to fall and hurt herself but I couldn’t stop. It was an impulse that I couldn’t resist.