Delta Force Rescue - Elle James Page 0,1
reached out her hand. “Come. You can stay at my apartment.”
“No.” Alejandra shrank against the wall, drawing the baby closer to her. “It’s too dangerous for you.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Briana reassured her.
“No. I won’t do that to you. He will kill anyone who interferes with his attempt to take my daughter.”
“Is he the father?” Briana asked.
Alejandra choked on a sob. “Yes. He is. But he’s a very bad man.”
“How so?”
“He is El Chefe Diablo,” Alejandra whispered. “The head of the Tejas Cartel from El Salvador.”
Though the word cartel sent a shiver of apprehension across Briana’s skin, she couldn’t ignore the woman and child’s immediate needs. “I don’t care if he’s the head of the CIA or the Russian mafia, you and Bella can’t stay out here in the rain. If not for yourself, you need to find real shelter for the baby.” Again, she held out her hand. “Come with me. If you won’t stay with me, we’ll find a safe, anonymous place for you to stay.”
Alejandra shook her head. “Anyone who helps me puts themselves in danger.”
Briana firmed her jaw. “Again, I’ll take my chances. And I know of a place where you won’t be found. It’s a privately run women’s shelter where they don’t take names and they don’t ask too many questions.”
Alejandra looked up, blinking as rain fell into her eyes. “I won’t have to tell them who I am?”
“You won’t,” Briana assured her. She reached out again. “Come on. I’ll take you there.”
The woman clutched her baby closer. “You…you…aren’t working for him, are you?”
“What?” Briana frowned. “No. Of course not. My job is to help children. Your baby needs protection from the rain. You need protection from the weather. If you don’t come with me, I can’t leave you. I’d have to stay here with you.” She gave her a twisted smile. “Then we’d all be cold and wet.”
“He always finds me. No matter where I go.” Alejandra took Briana’s hand and let her pull her to her feet. “I can’t get away from him.”
“We’ll get you to the shelter. No one else has to know where you are. Just you, me and baby Bella.”
“The people at the shelter?” she asked.
“Won’t know who you are. You can tell them your name is Jane Smith.”
Her eyebrows rose. “They won’t require identification?”
“No. They’ve even helped immigrants who had nowhere else to turn.” Briana slipped an arm around the woman and helped her to her car. “Come on. Get into my car. I can crank up the heater. You two will be warm in no time.”
Briana helped Alejandra and the baby into the back seat of the car. “Hold on. I have a blanket I keep in my trunk.” She rounded to the rear of the vehicle, popped the trunk lid and reached into the back where she kept a blanket, a teddy bear and bottles of water. She grabbed what she needed and closed the trunk.
Alejandra had buckled herself in and raised her shirt to allow the baby to breast feed.
Briana draped the blanket around the two, handed the woman the plastic bottle of water and laid the teddy bear beside her. “The shelter is about thirty minutes outside of Chicago. You might as well settle in for the ride.”
Alejandra nodded and leaned her head back against the headrest. “Thank you.” She closed her eyes, her arm firmly tucked around the baby nursing at her breast.
Briana climbed into the driver’s seat, shifted into gear and drove out of Chicago to the shelter she knew that didn’t require government assistance, therefore wasn’t run with all the background checks or identification requirements. Alejandra and Bella would be safe there. Once she had them settled in, she could go home to her apartment, knowing the two were safe from harm and out of the weather, at least for the night.
Traffic was heavy getting out of the city. Eventually, she turned off the main highway onto a secondary highway, and then onto a rural Illinois county road.
A glance in her rearview mirror made Briana smile.
Alejandra, Bella lying in her arms, slept, her tired face at peace except for the frown tugging at her brow.
The wife or girlfriend of the leader of a drug cartel… Briana had run into women who had been on the run from drug dealers, mafia or gang members. Each had been terrified of being found, of their children being taken from them, or murdered. Their fears were founded in truth. Briana had witnessed the aftermath of a