Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(11)

“That’s not going to work,” Everly said.

Slightly annoyed that she was already questioning him, Ball asked, “Why?”

“Because you don’t know sign language. You can’t talk to the people at Elise’s school.”

Duh. Ball had forgotten all about the fact that Elise was deaf. Rather, he hadn’t actually forgotten; being around Everly had made him temporarily lose track of that small detail. “Right. Of course. So we’ll both go to her school, then head to the police department.”

She was staring at him with a weird look on her face.

“What?”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that what?” he asked, confused.

“Change of plans, just like that?” she asked.

“Yes, Everly. What the hell?”

“I figured you’d say you’ll find a way to talk to them, or that you’d be able to handle it, or that you’d stay up all night and learn sign language or something. I’m sure it bothers you to rely on me for anything, since you don’t want to work with me.”

Her constant reminders about his previous attitude were starting to piss him off a little, but Ball tried to hold his temper. “It’s not you, specifically, I don’t want to work with.”

“Right.”

“The last woman I partnered with almost got me killed,” Ball blurted.

Everly didn’t back down. “I’m not her.”

Sighing, Ball ran a hand through his hair. “I know.”

“Do you? Because from where I’m standing, since we met, it’s seemed an awful lot like I’m being punished for someone else’s crime. I don’t know what happened, and it sucks that it happened to you at all, but did it actually happen because she was female? Or is gender, in your mind, just the easiest thing to blame for what happened?”

Standing in the middle of a teenager’s bedroom, Ball felt his world shift on its axis at her words.

Had he been unfair to Riley? He hadn’t thought so before now, but Everly’s words made him wonder. She was definitely right about one thing—he was letting his personal prejudice get in the way of his mission. He wasn’t going to immediately start jumping up and down with joy that he had to work with Everly, but at the moment, he did need her.

“I’m sorry my past experiences have made me difficult to work with. I’ll do my best to put them behind me so we can find your sister.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m assuming you don’t want to get a good night’s sleep before we tackle this?” he asked, gesturing to the poster once more.

“Absolutely not. I haven’t been sleeping well anyway. If I’m up, I might as well be doing something to find Elise.”

Ball didn’t like hearing that she wasn’t sleeping, but it wasn’t exactly a surprise. The dark circles under her eyes were more than enough evidence that she wasn’t taking care of herself. He wanted to tell her that if she got sick, she wouldn’t be helping her sister, but figured that might be taking things a bit too far. He let it go. “You grab the poster, and I’ll go ask your grandparents for the computer she used.”

Everly nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Ball headed out of the room.

Working with Everly was turning out to be harder than he’d already thought it would be . . . but

not for the reasons he’d thought even just a day ago.

He did like her.

Admired her strength.

Admired the way she stuck up for herself and didn’t put up with his shit.

She wasn’t anything like his old partner in the Coast Guard. Riley Foster had been eager to do a good job, but she hadn’t been terribly confident. She’d only been driving on that fateful day because it had been less intimidating than manning the gun at the bow of the small boat.

Ball suspected Everly would’ve relished the chance to be the gunner on that boat. She wouldn’t have hesitated to volunteer for the position—and would’ve had the time of her life while doing it.

Not wanting to think about Riley any longer, Ball headed for the kitchen. He needed that computer so he could contact Meat and get him working on trying to figure out where the hell Elise Adams had disappeared to.

Elise Adams sat on the cold floor in the basement where she’d been stashed. Her lips were dry, and she hadn’t eaten more than a few bites of the food her captor had brought her in the last couple of days. She didn’t trust him not to drug and attack her when she was vulnerable. The room was dark, and no matter how many times she blinked or squinted, the darkness didn’t dissipate, not that she really expected it to.

The man who’d brought her to the house had talked to her, but she’d only been able to catch snippets of his words by reading his lips because he was always looking around, as if he was worried someone would see them.

She had no idea where she was, but she was scared and miserable and wished she could go back and change the decision she’d made at the end of that fateful school day. She’d never imagined that agreeing to meet the boy she’d been talking to for months could result in being chained to a pole in the basement of some rundown house.

A light flicked on at the top of the stairs, and Elise blinked. Her eyes refused to adjust to the light after being in the dark for so long, and she had to look away. By the time she looked back, there was a man standing in front of her.