Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(2)

Though, looking at Everly as she impatiently stared at him, he couldn’t deny she was beautiful.

Her red hair fell past her shoulders in disarray, which made him want to smooth it down. Her green eyes were currently shooting sparks at him in irritation. She was tall—he estimated about five-ten— but was still half a foot shorter than he was. Everly was also muscular but managed to rock her curves. He had a feeling in her CSPD uniform, she’d make quite a stunning figure.

“Ball?” she asked. “Are you listening to me?”

That got him moving. His former partner in the Coast Guard, Riley Foster, used to ask him that same thing all the time. He’d found it amusing before the accident. Now, it annoyed him.

“Do I have a choice?” he asked a bit harsher than he’d intended.

He pretended he didn’t see her scowl before she turned away. He wasn’t here to make friends.

He had to work with Everly on this case, but once they’d found her sister, he hoped their paths wouldn’t cross again.

“Right,” Everly said as she picked up a duffel bag sitting on the floor of the kitchen. Without another word, she headed for the front door, not looking back to see if Ball was following.

Knowing he was fucking things up with her already, Ball sighed. It wasn’t that he didn’t respect her for being a cop and for wanting to find her sister. He just wished he wasn’t the one who had to go to Los Angeles to help her.

She waited until he’d exited her apartment, then locked the door behind him. They walked without a word toward his black Ford Mustang. Ball loved his car. It drove like a dream, and it looked cool as hell to boot. Everly didn’t seem fazed or overly impressed. Ball pushed the button on his key fob to open the trunk and debated reaching for her bag, but decided she probably wouldn’t appreciate him trying to help.

She slammed the trunk after putting her bag inside and headed for the passenger side. Both seated, Ball pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the small Colorado Springs airport. They were flying from there to Denver, and then on to Los Angeles.

“Have you heard from your grandparents today?” he asked once they were on their way.

“Yeah, but they still haven’t heard from Elise.”

Elise was Everly’s missing fifteen-year-old half sister. The whole reason they were in his car heading to the airport. “Do your contacts at LAPD have any new information?”

Everly sighed and rubbed her forehead. “No. They’re doing their best, but I think some suspect she’s merely another runaway and will show up at some point. They’re overworked, of course, and while they’re doing their best to help, nothing is really happening. We’re all stressed, but Me-Maw and Pop are taking this especially hard, since Elise was living with them.”

Ball thought it was cute that she called her grandparents by the silly names, but he’d never tell her that. “Have they taken her computer in for analysis yet?”

“Not that I know of. The detective who was assigned the case has ordered her phone records, but they’re taking a while to come back from the phone company. Me-Maw said the detective came out to their house yesterday, but all he did was look around a bit. He’d tried to trace her phone already, but didn’t have any luck, probably because if it’s off, it won’t be pinging on the towers.”

“What do you think happened?” Ball asked. They’d been over and over the facts of the case in their meetings with the other Mountain Mercenaries, but there wasn’t any one scenario that had stuck out as being what likely had happened to the teenager.

She’d left for school as normal, but never returned home. After asking her friends and talking to her teachers, they found out that she’d been at school and everything seemed okay with her that day.

But once she’d left the building to walk home, like she did every day, no one saw her again.

“I think she met up with the wrong person and was snatched. Elise isn’t like me,” Everly said.

“Because she’s deaf, she’s always taken everything much more to heart than I ever did. She’s sensitive, and it’s hard for her to make friends, which is one of the reasons she’s still living in LA. I didn’t want to take her away from the few she has, and frankly, Elise didn’t want to leave either. The littlest things stress her out, and she can be in a funk for weeks as a result.”

“And you’re not like that?” Ball asked.

“Not really. I’ve seen too much at work to get stressed out about little things, and I definitely don’t get in bad moods that can last weeks. Part of that is because of her age. She’s a teenager, I get it.

But sometimes it drives me crazy. I also can’t stand drama, and if someone can’t take me as I am— super blunt and to the point—then I’m done with them.”

Ball sensed there was a story there, but didn’t press. “So did something happen recently that would stress out Elise?”

“I’m honestly just not sure. Elise used to tell me everything, but in the last year or so, she hasn’t kept in touch as much, and when she does, she just claims everything’s fine.”

“What about your mom?”

“What about my mom?” Everly asked.

“Could she be a part of this?”

“I don’t think so. My mom’s a bitch, and after I moved in with Me-Maw and Pop, I didn’t have a lot to do with her. I don’t think Elise has either. But her scenario is different. She’s always taken everything Mom does personally.”